COMMENTARY: By Maher Nazzal
The Epstein Files were never just about one man.
Jeffrey Epstein didn’t operate in a vacuum. His crimes were grotesque, systematic, and, crucially, protected for decades. That alone should unsettle anyone who believes power is held accountable.
What’s disturbing isn’t only what he did, but what didn’t happen afterwards.
- READ MORE: Struggling to navigate the Epstein files? Here is a visual guide
- Other Epstein Files reports
How does a trafficker move across borders, fly politicians and royalty, launder wealth, avoid serious prosecution for years, and then conveniently die in a high-security facility with cameras malfunctioning and guards “asleep”?
That’s not a coincidence. That’s institutional failure at best, complicity at worst.
The real scandal is the silence.
Names were known. Networks were hinted at. Evidence existed. Yet accountability stopped at Epstein himself, the perfect firewall.
How power protects itself
Once he was gone, so was the urgency. Files sealed. Investigations stalled. Media interest redirected.
This is how power protects itself.
Whether you call it the Deep State, the ruling class, elite immunity, or simply entrenched systems of power, the pattern is familiar:
The powerful are insulated, the truth is managed, and justice is selective.
Epstein wasn’t an anomaly. He was a symptom.
And until transparency replaces secrecy, and accountability reaches upward instead of downward, the question will remain:
Who was Epstein really working for?
And who benefited most from him never speaking?
Maher Khalil Nazzal is a Muslim Palestinian refugee living in Auckland and co-chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA).
