If you watch MSNOW, you would conclude that any news that doesn’t involve Jeffrey Epstein has either vanished from the planet, or is so unimportant that it is hardly worth mentioning. I am trying to understand why this is so.

Is it because of the sensationalism of the case? Is it because of his relationship with Donald Trump? Is it because of the perseverance of so many of the survivors? Is it because support for the investigation is somewhat bipartisan, and some look at it as a way to break up GOP support for the president? Or maybe a combination of all of these and more.

The ambiguity of Trump regarding disclosure and the consequent ambiguity of his DOJ complicates the situation by throwing into question whether all documents required to be disclosed are being disclosed, and the reason for the many redactions on documents without, to date, the required explanations for the redactions.

Redactions are authorized to protect the identity of victims and so as not to compromise ongoing investigations. Maybe there are more reasons for redacting, but I don’t know what they are.

We are talking about events that happened 20 to 30 years ago. Most crimes and most civil claims are subject to statutes of limitations long passed. Crimes involving rape, sex trafficking and related matters are not subject to statutes of limitations and may be brought at any time. That means the events involving Epstein are not dead although he is, because there may be others still alive who may be appropriately charged. But, if there is a determination to charge anyone, an exception to disclosure arises and could cut off public dissemination of documentation.

I think the only other crimes could relate to recent incidents of perjury or obstruction of justice. These would also bring up potential limitations on disclosure.

Both Trump and I have brought up the probability that men, innocent of any crime, but somehow involved with Epstein in their past, would wind up named, blamed and unable to cure their tarred reputations, causing pain and expense to them and their families.

And then there are the survivors. Hard as it is to contemplate, there were apparently between 1000 and 1200 girls and women involved. How many were sexually abused, I don’t know. The number of these women who have outed themselves and gone public is a small proportion of these large numbers. Survivors are supposed to be protected and their names redacted from disclosed documents. But apparently in many cases (all by accident?) they were not, and names previously undisclosed are now public.

I obviously can not put myself in the shoes of a survivor. I can not begin to understand how they might feel. Those who had gone public say they are looking for perpetrators to be punished and for “closure”. But my concern is that they will wind up with the opposite of closure, with continuing entanglement, with loss of time and money, with criticism thrown at them, and so forth. All that in addition to exposing those who were not previously publicly identified.

Attention is also being given to the “ten co-conspirators”, all unidentified, yet many identifiable. One (the one I am most interested in) is 88 year old Les Wexner, the “Ohio businessman” (you can Google him). Businessman, philanthropist, and close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. My guess is that you will hear more about him, and that his final years will not be particularly pleasant. We shall see.

In the mean time, I wish a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate (with one notable exception).