The Epstein files toppled a prince and a lord in the UK. How has the US elite escaped?

On behalf of the 11 Jeffrey Epstein survivors I represent, we applaud the UK’s principled, dignified stand for the rule of law in the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew. The arrest is for the alleged disclosure of trade secrets to his friend, Jeffrey Epstein. Trade secrets matter. What matters even more? Women’s lives.

It should be said that Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest this week is unrelated to the claims of Epstein’s victims. He has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. But the thing that strikes me from across the pond is this. In the UK, disclosures in the Epstein files have brought down a prince and a lord, at the very least costing them their titles. In the US, the Epstein survivors do not expect a reckoning. Not under this administration.

The recent release of millions of pages of the Epstein files revealed what the survivors have said for decades: that Epstein was comfortably embedded within a network of high-profile men (and a few women) who cared more about access to money and connections than about reporting suspicious behaviour. Photos of some of these men adorned Epstein’s residences. He told the girls that if they talked, no one would believe them, and he would be protected by his powerful friends.

The girls, working class and traumatised by him, were mostly terrified into silence. They spent years living with the fallout from sexual assault: devastation to their careers, their sex lives, their personal relationships. Demeaned and devalued, sexual abuse victims often entertain suicidal thoughts. Tragically, we lost Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most outspoken survivors, to this scourge.

The brave few who did go to authorities as early as 1996 quickly learned that Epstein was right: no one cared about them, no one was coming to save them, and the authorities who were supposed to protect them were not going to do their jobs. After his 2008 slap-on-the-wrist sweetheart deal to one count of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution – she was not a sex worker, she was an abuse victim – the ruling class continued as before. We now see it definitively in black and white, wining and dining with Epstein, flying on his plane, visiting his island, bending the knee to Epstein’s wealth and connections. I’m looking at you, Woody Allen, Kenneth Starr, Steve Bannon, Deepak Chopra, Larry Summers, JP Morgan Bank and Jes Staley, and many more.

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, which now operates as his private law firm, seeking retribution against his enemies and protecting his friends, chose to redact the names of other suspicious individuals, such as the Epstein pal who wrote to him in 2014, “Thank you for a fun night . . . your littlest girl was a little naughty.” No legal reason exists to cover up that person’s name. Shame on our DoJ for protecting that person. An Epstein assistant in 2011 emailed him about “sweet young coconuts” just arriving from Thailand. The files refer to nine- and 10-year-old girls.

None of those names should be covered. Each of those people should be investigated, and would be by any decent justice system. And yet Todd Blanche, deputy US attorney general, has said there will be no further investigation, obviously because Trump has said that he wants to “move on”. Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene has said publicly that Trump told her that he was opposed to the release of the Epstein files because “his friends will get hurt”. And surely they would, justly, if the DoJ investigated predators without fear or favour. That is no longer my country, not under Donald Trump.

Which brings us back to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. When the King’s own brother is brought to justice, even on charges that are not related to wrongdoing in relation to the victims, survivors feel a small ray of hope. Yesterday, Virginia Giuffre’s family put out this heartfelt statement: “At last, today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.”

Political figures in France, Norway and Slovakia have also suffered serious consequences for their ties to the odious Epstein. But the former prince is by far the biggest name, known worldwide. The UK’s insistence on the rule of law and that no one is above it is a beacon to the world. We will be watching to see what it illuminates.

Lisa Bloom is a civil rights lawyer in California who specialises in representing victims of sexual misconduct