How Epstein became a scandal. The media displayed a sublime lack of curiosity and still intend to suppress the most important things

There is no historical period as obscure as the recent past.

Prosecutors forged a deal with the obscure hedge fund manager Epstein in 2008 after clear evidence was found in his house of his interfering with minors. 

Alexander Acosta, the then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who handled the 2008 plea deal, reportedly said that he had been instructed to "back off" the Epstein case because Epstein "belonged to intelligence". 

He denies saying this.

Epstein avoided federal charges, which could have seen him face life in prison - and received a light sentence with "work release". 

He was released on probation after 13 months.

A scoop by Sharon Churcher of the Mail on Sunday in 2011 came next. She persuaded Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein and Maxwell of having trafficked her to Prince Andrew, to give her the famous photograph taken by Epstein of her and Prince Andrew. 

This picture excited the British and Australian press and lit a very slow fuse.

Nothing much happened though until 2015 when a journalist who liked conspiracy theories called Ben Swann used the Giuffre story as part of accusations about a paedophile ring of powerful men. 

It sounded absurd to clever people but he had stumbled onto a true story.

This story became popular in corners of the internet but it centred on Bill Clinton. Epstein’s name was pretty unknown.

In 2016 American conservative conspiracy theorists were busy examining the revelation that Hillary Clinton, expected to be President, kept confidential emails on her private server. 

Huge numbers of mails had been leaked. The media pointed fingers at Russia. 

Hillary's egregious opponent Donald Trump said the Russians had done everyone a favour.

On 4chan (a place where anyone can publish anything anonymously) paedophiles and Hillary's emails were conflated and the Pizzagate theory was born and ran wild. 

Democrat paedophiles were using pizza as a code word for under-age girls, according to the theory.

Was Hillary a Satanist child trafficker? Would she be be arrested? 

At every point what was becoming the Epstein story was kept alive and transmitted by right-wingers, conspiracy theorists and the Russians, not the newspapers. 

That is until alt-light figure Mike Cernovich on Twitter made such a noise demanding the papers in the Epstein grand jury trial in Florida in 2006 be released that the Miami Herald finally started reporting it. 

This was the breakthrough. 

As a result Floridan law was eventually amended so that the grand jury papers could be released. It was at last a public scandal. 

In 2019 Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in New York and put in gaol. He died in prison supposedly by suicide but undoubtedly he was murdered. 

By whom and why? 

Cui bono?

Much of the story is told very well here. It explains a lot about where we are, in a crisis of epistemology. 

In simpler words, nobody believes any official story about anything any more. Do listen, gentle reader.