Epstein is the key
Exposing the plan
Epstein matters. It’s not just the horrific abuse of children, although that’s at its core. It’s about power, corruption, and the roots of our political crisis.
It is about how we got here, and why democracy is on the brink.
There is an elite cabal of wealthy men, and a few women like Ghislaine. They cross party lines but they are united in their desire to control the world. They believe they are entitled to control the world.
People like Virginia, Lisa, Rachel, and Marijke didn’t matter to them.
People like you and me don’t matter to them.
What unites this cabal is a desire—and desperate need—to maintain power. That’s why, although they cross party lines, they have a common enemy: Democracy.
The power of the people.
The power of ordinary people.
The rule of law is a threat to their existence. They operate outside the law. Above the law. Laws are to be manipulated, not obeyed.
Trump’s name appears 1500 times in the released Epstein emails. Epstein is at the heart of the MAGA movement.
This matters in terms of domestic and global politics; it also matters for those of us who study the capitulation of conservative Christianity to Trump and the MAGA movement. (And, of course, it matters for those affected by this capitulation—which is all of us.)
Nafeez Ahmed at Byline Times provides critical background here:
Epstein…was providing strategic, financial and media support to the very heart of Trump’s MAGA movement, working directly with Steve Bannon on political planning in Europe and US campaign messaging from 2018 to 2019. The payoff would be a movement that neutralised the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace….
Epstein offered potential financial support to Bannon through opaque cryptocurrency schemes designed to evade regulatory scrutiny, along with extensive political networks, strategic planning and routes to European leaders – not to mention advice on pro-Trump video campaign materials.
In return, Bannon offered Epstein something irresistible: to build a right-wing MAGA coalition that would “stave off” the global movement against sexual harassment for more than a decade.
…newly released emails now show Jeffrey Epstein acting as an intimate political fixer for Steve Bannon himself between 2018 and 2019.
Over this period, Epstein arranged access to world leaders for Bannon, proposing opaque crypto-based funding structures, drafting contact lists for the MAGA architect, and even offering the President of the UN General Assembly to guide Bannon’s “EU project.”
In return, Bannon fed Epstein ideological strategy, media plans and internal Republican thinking – at one point spelling out a right-wing coalition to “stave off Time’s Up for next decade plus”…
Ahmed then quotes from an email chain from February 2018 that focuses on how to build an alternative political funding model. But then, it “veers into the architecture of a political movement”:
“should it have a christian component? tithe? if you form a church you may be able to tell mueller you have a confession privelege. :)”
Even allowing for gallows humour, the suggestion is extraordinary: create a religious entity that could invoke clergy-penitent privilege to shield communications from the special counsel criminal investigation into Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 elections, led by then FBI director Robert Mueller.
Bannon’s response outlines the coalition he believes can power the next decade of right-wing politics:
“Populist/Nationalist first.
Conservative Christians (catholic/evangelical) next.
Reverse Alabama.
This coalition staves off ‘Times Up’ for next decade plus.”
Times Up, of course, is the global movement sparked by the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse cases, and part of the larger Me Too movement.
Let’s pause for a moment and think this through.
Here we have Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein in 2018 colluding on how to work through conservative evangelical churches to stave off Times Up/Me Too.
What happened next?