Every so once in awhile I realize that Donald Trump is a diversion from the real problem. The latest release of Epstein File documents made me focus again on the bigger issue here — the rich and powerful are misbehaving and getting away with it and have absolutely no interest in changing things.

This is apparent because after 20 years of investigations into Epstein, only two people have been convicted of any crime — Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Pretty strange, don’t you think? If you have sexual trafficking going on, there are sellers (Epstein and Maxwell) of the girls and then there are buyers of the girls. The buyers have managed to skirt the justice system so far. Why?

The government is sitting on reams of evidence naming potential customers. None of them, except ex-Prince Andrew, who, poor thing has been stripped of his title, has had any reckoning with the law. It is more than a little telling and also disappointing that four different presidential administrations have gone by since Epstein’s first crimes were discovered, with more and more evidence accumulating with each year and the Department of Justice does nothing to pursue Epstein’s johns. This will change now that the evidence has been released, right?

Apparently no. Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, says they don’t have any evidence that these gentlemen committed any crimes. Yes, they did socialize with known sex traffickers but that is not a crime. Blanche says this in such a way that suggests if he had some evidence to pursue these men he surely would. Right. They may not have admitted to anything but, Jesus Christ, he has names of people who might have information or, worse still, have committed crimes.

Dragging them into the police station for a few questions seems called for particularly from an administration that has no trouble blowing drug trafficking suspects out of the water without a trial. Hmm. Makes you think doesn’t it. What is the difference between a suspected Venezuelan drug dealer and a suspected Epstein party goer? Let me think.

But these rich powerful men, these best and brightest didn’t know what Epstein is up to. You can’t blame them for not seeing what was going on. They just came for a little R and R. It is possible these men coming to a secluded island with a bevy of adolescent girls didn’t know what was up. It is possible but highly unlikely. One of the more eyebrow raising effects of the released Epstein files is to witness these rich and powerful men squirming awkwardly about their culpability. They just didn’t know what old Jeff was up to.

Does anyone honestly believe that? Given that many of these men have teenage daughters of their own, the idea that they can’t eyeball a girl and gauge her age seems a bit, oh I don’t know, unbelievable. More importantly, if they are too god damn stupid to see what Epstein was doing, should they really be trusted with such important jobs. So to put in bluntly they are either liars and therefore unworthy of their position or stupid which makes them even more unworthy of their position.

The whole Epstein fiasco points to a much bigger problem than just Trump. Biden’s Justice department wasn’t doing anything with the information either and probably for the exact same reason that Trump initially didn’t want to release the files — they were protecting important men from, at the bare minimum, embarrassment and, at the worst, prosecution for sex with minors. This suggests that the system is rotten to the core. Trump going into retirement won’t change that.