Everyone Is WRONG About This Jeffrey Epstein Theory I Michael Shellenberger

It is understandable why so many libertarians have wanted to release the Epstein files and why the two members of Congress who led the charge have considerable right/left libertarian tendencies: Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.). Libertarians rightly distrust the federal government and reasonably fear that federal authorities may have covered up Jeffrey Epstein's crimes in order to conceal the involvement of political leaders in both major parties. If you're someone who thinks Democrats and Republicans are corrupt and that both the Clintons and President Donald Trump may have something to hide, you are very likely some kind of libertarian.

From this perspective, the release of millions of pages of federal investigative documents, emails, videos, and photos relating to Epstein may seem like a vital act of government transparency and accountability.

The public has a right to know if the government protected Epstein, who killed himself in prison (under suspicious circumstances) after finally being rearrested for sexual misconduct with underage girls. We certainly want to know if Epstein was the ringleader of a cabal of pedophiles and worked to procure underage girls for powerful men to abuse. Other than Ghislaine Maxwell, no one else was charged with the sex trafficking of girls in connection with Epstein, which was a serious failing of the justice system if there's evidence that's been concealed.

But that's a lot of ifs. Massie and Khanna cajoled their colleagues into finally supporting the Epstein Files Transparency Act and shamed Trump into signing it, giving us access to the government's files on Epstein and his associates. These files are interesting and reveal that a number of notable individuals remained friendly with Epstein up until right before his death. But they do not provide any evidence whatsoever that Epstein had a network of elite pedophiles.

Moreover, Khanna's attempt to name names of individuals involved in sex crimes immediately went horribly awry: Four of the people he named on the House floor have nothing to do with Epstein. Succumbing to theatrics, Khanna also brought an alleged Epstein victim to the State of the Union address in order to call attention to the numerous women who have claimed that there are Epstein coconspirators who have eluded justice. But that woman, Haley Robson, has herself confessed to having helped bring girls to Epstein. This makes one wonder: What are we doing here, exactly?

Yet Khanna and Massie keep touting the release of the Epstein files as a major success, not because the files have identified pedophiles who escaped justice, but because friends of Epstein are coming in for deserved humiliation and professional consequences. These include Larry Summers, who resigned yesterday as a professor at Harvard University, and World Economic Forum CEO Borge Brende, who has stepped down. Massie celebrated these outcomes on X, and Khanna asked if Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who also had ties to Epstein, will be next.

It may be perfectly appropriate for these men to lose their jobs due to their bad judgment. Private organizations such as Harvard are within their rights to want to disassociate from Epstein's friends. If an intrepid reporter or Harvard whistleblower had come across this information and shared it publicly, and Summers' reputation suffered as a result, well, that's life.

But we should be careful here to note that this is not what happened. Summers' reputation is suffering because the government collected a bunch of information on Summers—vis-à-vis his emails with Epstein—and has now released it to the public.

I think libertarians ought to be more worried about the precedent this sets!

Subscribe to the @reasonFreeMedia channel for more content like this.

Read Robby Soave's newsletter "Free Media" for more information