I Wasn't Interested in the Epstein Story. Until Now.

Some questions that need to be answered.

I'll be honest — the Jeffrey Epstein story never really hooked me. I knew enough of the details to get the general idea: rich guy, private island, underage girls, and a Rolodex full of powerful friends. It had all the ingredients of a made-for-TV scandal, but for a while, it felt more tabloid than news. If there really was a so-called “list” — you know, of rich and powerful men who did more than just sip champagne on Epstein’s jet — where was it? Does it even exist?

“Wake me up,” I figured, “if the list ever materializes — and if it has names on it that I, and most Americans, would actually recognize.”

Well, I’m not hitting the snooze button anymore. Because now comes a piece by Ross Douthat in The New York Times and he’s raising the kind of questions that make you lean in a little closer.

Douthat starts with a seemingly obvious, factual observation: Donald Trump keeps waving off the Epstein case as “fake news,” says it’s overblown, that there’s nothing to see here, folks.

But if that’s all it is — a sad, closed chapter about a lone predator — then why all the nervous energy coming from Trump’s camp? Why the lawsuits? Why the defensiveness? Why the sudden allergy to transparency?