Epstein Files Expose Two-Tier Justice: Time for Real Reform
The wealthy and powerful escape accountability in the U.S. legal system. The systemic, two tier application of law challenges the fundamental concepts of democracy and erodes public trust.
No member of the Sackler family, which owned and controlled Purdue Pharma, has been criminally prosecuted for promoting OxyContin, the opioid that contributed to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades..
Contrast this with street level dealers, who are routinely prosecuted and serve years in prison.
Before that, no major banker was criminally prosecuted for precipitating the financial collapse in 2007-10. They issued high-risk loans to borrowers with poor credit, bundled them into securities, and sold them. The system collapsed when borrowers defaulted en masse, costing millions of Americans their homes, savings and livelihoods.
Contrast this treatment with that accorded to a bank teller or bookkeeper who steals.
The Jeffrey Epstein saga is just the latest example of the U.S. justice system’s failure to hold the power elite accountable.
Epstein was allowed to abuse hundreds of minors after the first complaint was filed against him in 1996. He used his billions and his connection in politics, academia, and the media as a shield. He also hired teams of lawyers to manipulate judges and prosecutors.
Corruption
Then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta (for the Southern District of Florida) signed a scandalous plea deal in 2008 that spared Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges while silencing dozens of minor victims. Acosta agreed to a federal non-prosecution agreement that offered immunity to Epstein and unnamed co-conspirators going forward.
A state court sentenced Epstein to 18 months in a county jail, for abusing a lone 14-year-old girl, and the sentence provided for work release — up to 12 hours a day, six days a week. He was freed after serving only 13 months.
Meanwhile, as NPR has reported, there was an appalling lack of media interest in — or outright refusal to cover — Epstein’s activities for many years. Finally, in 2018, the Miami Herald, published a groundbreaking investigation revealing the contents of the plea agreement granted to Epstein by Acosta 12 years earlier, a deal whose terms had been kept confidential.
The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that there are more than a thousand victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a Manhattan jail one month after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
No Secret
America’s justice system has been troubled for decades, but there appears to be little recognition of this problem in the U.S. judicial branch and the U.S. Congress.
Yet it is increasingly obvious to others around the world.
The French newspaper, Le Monde, recently featured the headline: “The Epstein case: Thirty years of judicial negligence, at the expense of victims.”
Le Monde added: “The first complaints against the millionaire date back to 1996. Yet between his initial conviction in 2008 and his arrest in the summer of 2019, he was never troubled by the justice system.”
China’s People’s Daily, the country’s largest newspaper, has run numerous Epstein stories with headlines like “Epstein files cast doubt over justice system’s credibility in U.S., the West.”
Fallout from the Epstein files is reverberating around the world, with business executives and politicians whose names appear in the Epstein files resigning across Europe, North America and the Middle East.
The only criminal conviction stemming from Epstein’s decades of abuse to date is that of his longtime assistant, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2022 of recruiting underage minors for sexual abuse. The Trump administration recently moved Maxwell from a federal penitentiary to a minimum security prison. She is seeking a pardon from President Trump.
Crime of the Century?
What about the Sackler family? The opioid epidemic could be considered the crime of the century, due to its depth and extent of the harm.
Three Purdue executives pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of misbranding and fraudulently marketing OxyContin as a less addictive, safer opioid. A federal judge accepted their plea agreement that included three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and fines. There was no jail time.
Meanwhile, Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and a federal bankruptcy court judge initially approved a settlement that included immunity for the Sackler family from future civil lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that provision in 2024, and the deal was renegotiated — upward to a $7.4 billion civil settlement. States must sign a release of further liability to opt into the settlement.
U.S. Rep. Max Rose, D-NY, argued in 2019 that the “Sackler family does not belong in bankruptcy court. They belong in handcuffs and should be charged as the criminal drug dealers that they are. And just like criminal drug dealers, we should take every cent that they have.”