Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for reading today.
I woke up yesterday morning to the news that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (fka “Prince Andrew”), once second in line to the English throne, had been arrested for “suspicion of misconduct in public office.” I guess that’s a politer way of saying “repeatedly raping underage girls.” I also learned that Andrew and I share a birthday, which is…subpotimal for me. I spent part of my morning reading an excerpt from Virginia Guiffre’s book, Nobody’s Girl, which I’ve avoided up until now, due to my own history with SA. It’s not a fun read, but I think it’s important.
Guiffre goes into excruciating detail about how Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, especially Maxwell, methodically groomed and threatened her into keeping her mouth shut about the ongoing abuse. I won’t share anything upsetting, but it’s clear that Maxwell was no innocent bystander.
Only later would I see how, step by practised step, the two of them were breaking down my defences. Every time I felt a twinge of discomfort, one glance at Maxwell told me I was overreacting. And so it went for about half an hour: a seemingly legitimate massage lesson.
***
So many young women, myself included, have been criticised for returning to Epstein’s lair even after we knew what he wanted from us. How can you complain about being abused, some have asked, when you could so easily have stayed away? But that stance discounts what many of us had been through before we encountered Epstein, as well as how good he was at spotting girls whose wounds made them vulnerable. Several of us had been molested or raped as children; many of us were poor or even homeless. We were girls who no one cared about, and Epstein pretended to care. A master manipulator, he threw what looked like a lifeline to girls who were drowning. If they wanted to be dancers, he offered dance lessons. If they aspired to be actors, he said he’d help them get roles. And then, he did his worst to them.
Aside from the shame Guiffre felt for her abuse at the hands of Epstein and other men, Epstein also explicitly threatened to harm her family members if she spoke out.
I’d never held that much money in my hand before. I thanked him, even as a twinge of worry crept into my head. By this point, I had seen dozens of girls coming and going from his house. Many came once and never returned. If he got rid of them so quickly, would Epstein eventually throw me away, too? Epstein must’ve sensed my qualms, because he walked around his desk, picked up a grainy photograph, and handed it to me. The image had been taken from some distance, but it was unmistakably my little brother. I felt a stab of fear.
***
“We know where your brother goes to school,” Epstein said. He let that sink in for a moment, then got to the point: “You must never tell a soul what goes on in this house.” He was smiling, but his threat was clear. “And I own the Palm Beach police department,” he said, “so they won’t do anything about it.”
The excerpt I linked to above also goes into detail about Guiffre’s abuse by Andrew, and reading it made this picture of the disgraced former Prince, slinking down in the backseat of his car while being driven away from the police station following his arrest, all the more enjoyable.
For his part, the King, who could have probably pressured local officials to stop this, or at least make it less public, issued a statement saying, “The law must take its course” and then promptly went to a fashion show. Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s ex, who stayed by his side even after their divorce in 1996, and who herself had a relationship with Epstein, has apparently fled for the hills.
A royal as high-ranking as Andrew hasn’t been arrested for 400 years, since Charles I was executed for high treason in 1649. To put it in perspective, that’s only 100 years after Ann Boleyn was beheaded.
Andrew’s neighbors apparently aren’t huge fans of his, either.
Love that for him.
Interesting that a former Prince of the Realm can be held accountable for his abuse of young girls, but we can’t even get rid of Howard Lutnick, much less Donald Trump.
Anyway, if you’d like to enjoy even more shadenfruede at Andrew’s expense, I recommend watching Scoop on Netflix.
While we’re still on the subject of Epstein, it appears that the DOJ has scrubbed allegations that Trump raped a young woman from the Epstein files dump.
The Department of Justice spoke four separate times to a woman who credibly accused Donald Trump of having sex with a minor he met through Jeffrey Epstein—but most accusations against the president appear to have been removed from the government’s documents on the alleged sex trafficker.
A 21-page slideshow buried in the massive trove of Epstein-related documents included allegations that sometime between 1983 and 1985, Trump forced a woman to give him oral sex when she was in her early teens. When the woman bit down on Trump’s exposed penis, he allegedly punched her in the head and kicked her out. That same woman told the DOJ that Epstein had introduced her to Trump in 1984.
If you’ll remember, AG Pam Bondi has claimed, repeatedly, that there is no evidence that Trump was involved in any wrongdoing. That’s blatantly false — a victim’s testimony is evidence. A jury can decide whether or not to find that evidence credible, but claiming that no such evidence exists is just another in Bondi’s long list of falsehoods, and it lessens the word of every crime victim out there. As a former prosecutor, she knows better.
And finally, if there’s one thing I admire about the Trump administration, it’s their commitment to the bit.
The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times.
The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said.
All sex offenders, all the time.
In other news: The NYT tells the truth about Iran; A MN judge holds a DOJ lawyer in contempt; The US Women are the best hockey team in Milan; and The High Note.
Here we go.
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NYT with a banger of a headline
I’m critical of the NYT often, and for good reason. But I also give credit where credit is due, and this is a great headline.
I know everything is the hottest of messes right now, but we’re reportedly on the verge of attacking Iran, and no one seems to be able to say why. This would be a great time for us to actually have a functioning Congress, who are supposed to be voting on this kind of thing.
With two carrier groups and dozens of fighter jets, bombers and refueling aircraft now massing within striking distance of Iran, Mr. Trump is threatening another attack. He is doing so without providing assessments about the urgency of the threat or any explanation of why he needs to strike again after claiming the nuclear sites he targeted had been “obliterated.”
Though Mr. Trump is largely fixated on the nuclear weapons program, at various moments he and his aides have cited a range of other rationales for military action: protecting the protesters that Iranian forces killed by the thousands last month, wiping out the arsenal of missiles that Iran can use to strike Israel, and ending Tehran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
Then there is the question of whether military force, the hammer Mr. Trump reaches for so quickly, can even accomplish those ends. Most of Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium is already buried from the last strike, in June. And it is not clear how airstrikes would immediately aid protesters around the country or persuade Iran to stop funding terror.
Uh, does anyone remember Venezuela? Are we still “in charge” of it?
The truth of it is, Trump is most likely going to bomb Iran in order to distract us from his name being in the Epstein files, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-NY), over a million times, and everyone knows it. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were screaming bloody murder about Bill Clinton bombing Bosnia in the middle of a genocide to distract from his own sexual harassment scandal.
The fact that no one is stopping it is a testament to how much power this Congress has abdicated to an illegitimate president.
A DOJ lawyer finally gets in trouble
I had a judge threaten to hold me in contempt of court once. It was because he did not want me to ask for an Order of Protection in a divorce case, where I represented a domestic violence victim, as he felt it would “ramp up the conflict.” I did it anyway. And while he berated me from the bench (in his defense, he was old and senile), I started taking off my jewelry and pushing it towards a colleague. In the end, the judge backed down.
Being held in contempt of court for something righteous, like standing up for a client or refusing to name a source, is badass. Being held in contempt for helping the federal government brutalize immigrants, not so much.
A federal judge held a lawyer from President Donald Trump's Department of Justice in contempt on Wednesday for failing to return a detainee's identification paperwork after the detainee was released from immigration custody, according to a report.
***
Judge Laura Provinzino of the District Court of Minnesota held Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Isihara in civil contempt for failing to return the documents. Beginning on Friday, Isihara will be responsible for paying a $500 for every day the plaintiff is not in receipt of his ID documents, according to the order.
The only way this could have been better is if the judge had held Deputy AG Todd Blanche in contempt. It’ll be funny to see how quickly the DOJ complies with this order now, because you know Pam Bondi doesn’t care at all about the personal finances of one of her attorneys.
All hail US Women’s Hockey
I read somewhere that every single member of the US and Canada’s Women’s hockey teams played hockey for a US college or university, thanks to Title IX. As a rule, and in the spirit of being a good neighbor, I am always on Canada’s side — unless we are playing them in hockey or, now, their men’s curling team is involved. Hell, the presence of the Tkachuk brothers might have me rooting for their men’s team over the US.
When we hit the final three minutes of the third period, I really thought it was over for the US Women, who had walked over every team in the tournament. But damn if Hillary Knight didn’t pull a rabbit out of her hat with a late goal to send the game to OT, where Megan Keller clinched the gold. Here’s the golden goal:
I’ll have you all know I picked all the gel polish off my nails during the 3rd period and OT. Now my nails are trashed (IYKYK).
It’s been a great few days for the US women, with Mikaela Shiffrin, Alyssa Liu, and the hockey team all taking gold. And the women’s curling team made it through to the semifinals.
Oh, and one last thing. Kash Patel felt left out and took the FBI's private jet to Milan to watch the men’s hockey semifinals. The cost to US taxpayers? About $75,000.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
If you haven’t been following hockey player Hayley Winn’s brothers as they took Milan by storm to support their little sister, check out this video.
They’ve been one of the best parts of the Games.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
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