Anyone who writes a newsletter and hosts a broadcast in defense of Epstein's child sex trafficking ring probably should be under some kind of enhanced scrutiny.

Please keep in mind that the Epstein case was argued in open federal court, where he was found guilty and was sentenced. When he died, there were further criminal proceedings pending in two countries.

Hanania's habit of seeing everything in the binary of "woke" vs "not woke" leads him to some incredibly questionable places, as evidenced here. It's "woke" to believe that a convicted child sex trafficker resumed his crimes when released from prison, so Hanania is ideologically forced to take the opposite view that the kerfuffle is mostly hysterics. I honestly don't know why people read him, the quality of thinking and analysis is simply not there. There are much better conservative writers out there who are not currently apologizing for child rapists.

Epstein was definitely guilty of prostituting, at least for himself, girls between 14 and 17 years old. I personally think young women of that age should know better than to be prostitutes for rich guys, and there's no evidence he ever coerced them to do anything. He lured them purely with money and promises of status. There is plenty of testimony of the girls refusing to touch him and they leave, often with money still in-hand and an offer to come back with more girls. They should know they are themselves "child sex traffickers" if they come back with their underaged friends, and they themselves should have been prosecuted along with Epstein and Maxwell.