Justice will not be served for Epstein survivors under capitalism - Liberation News

In early February, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi took the stand at the House Judiciary Committee hearings. When pressed about her handling of the Epstein files, Bondi routinely lied, refused to answer questions, deflected, or personally smeared her interlocutors.

Several of Epstein’s approximately 1,000 victims were present at the hearing, whom Bondi refused to acknowledge. The version of the files that the Justice Department decided to release publicly revealed victims’ names and identifying information more than 500 times while heavily redacting the names of their perpetrators. She publicly refused to apologize for this as well– an action that has compromised the safety of many survivors– and would not answer whether or not her Justice Department would pursue indictments against the perpetrators. Survivors revealed that the Justice Department has not even returned their calls.

Bondi’s combative tone and failure to answer the most basic questions left lawmakers at a loss. However, Bondi did complete the task set before her by the Trump administration: to act as a fall to deflect attention from Trump and his cohorts. Notably, Donald Trump and his affiliates were referenced more than 38,000 times in the Epstein files.

The federal government and ruling class at large, though torn internally on how to handle this issue, is presenting the release of the files as an act of ostensible good will and transparency. Yet their intentional mishandling of the case has retraumatized and endangered the survivors, on top of assaulting the public with a barrage of horrific details that intentionally lack the information that is crucial to accountability.

Sexual abuse of the vulnerable is endemic to U.S. capitalism

Throughout all of Bondi’s blatant lies and rhetorical maneuvering, she made one point that really did hit home: these Epstein files were available to investigate when Merrick Garland held her position as Attorney General under Biden between 2021 and 2025.

What Bondi is alluding to in her reference to Merrick Garland is that the type of sexual abuse and pedophilia detailed in the Epstein files has long had quiet, bipartisan acceptance. The Biden administration, and subsequently the 2024 Harris campaign, could have scored easy political points by revealing the tens of thousands of times that Trump’s name appeared in the files. Both had the opportunity to slam top Trump officials including Stephen Feinberg, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Alex Acosta, and more, yet they chose not to.

To understand this immoral phenomenon, we must understand that the sexual exploitation of the vulnerable is a historical constant among the elite ruling class who view themselves as above the law, regardless of party affiliation. Top Democrats including Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler were also implicated in the files. The “Me Too” movement of the mid-2010s was evidence that sexual abuse is rampant in the halls of power. Yet still today, the judicial system remains stacked against victims, and rapists sit among the team of justices operating the highest court in the United States.

This is a historical practice of the American elite class dating back to at least the time of chattel slavery. Slave owners traded Black teenagers and children as young as 10 years old– known as “Fancy Girls” or “Fancy Boys”— specifically for purposes of prostitution. These children were considered to be high-end luxury products, often kept separately from other enslaved people and sold or auctioned off for prices several times higher.

Over time this practice evolved, and the elite class that dictates American imperialism found new avenues for exploitation wherever the United States empire decided to tread overseas. The Epstein files repeatedly reference trafficked women from former Soviet states, Central America, and even places within the US with high economic suffering.

Justice will not be served under capitalist rule

To finally see a top Trump administration official be grilled on the House floor was a moment of catharsis for many. But the Democratic party has not made a unified, serious effort to punish those involved, nor pursue the underlying issue beyond the Epstein files. While certain individuals have made impassioned attempts to bring justice, the party as a whole is simply verbally posturing, content to use these crimes as nothing more than a talking point in the run-up to the midterm elections.

Several survivors have noted that they appreciate the condemnation of Epstein and his affiliates, but little attention has been given to the victims themselves or the manners in which our society systematically facilitates and enables this type of abuse. It makes sense given the Democrats’ support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, among other imperialist ventures– a party that evidently does not mind killing children is likely not invested in protecting them from sexual abuse. Neither mainstream political party in the US is seriously challenging the perpetrators nor the system that has given rise to this horrific string of crimes.

And in the background of all this, crimes that target children have seen a rapid increase in America like never before, to no legislative attention. For example, last year alone, the number of reports of generative artificial intelligence being used to create images related to child sexual exploitation hit 440,419, over 64 times more than the year prior. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received more than 113,000 reports of sex trafficking of children between the ages of 11 and 17 last year, which is a vast underestimate according to the center’s chief legal officer.

It is clear that the path to justice in this situation will not be through capitalist institutions. The collective and intentional failure of both parties, the FBI, and the DOJ to name and prosecute prominent sex criminals, and much less treat Epstein’s survivors with basic dignity throughout this process, illustrates the total depravity of the entire ruling class. It is impossible for a capitalist system to enact serious consequences for the ultra wealthy. The only way to secure justice is to unite and organize to build a new socialism system to replace it and to end all exploitation.

Photo: Survivors of child sexual abuse hold photos of themselves when they first met Epstein. Screen shot from video on World Without Exploitation facebook page.