OPINION:
One of the most scurrilous rumors going around these days is that Washington is run by a cabal of pedophiles protected by a cesspool of mutual assured blackmail involving pederasty and thievery that keeps all the perverts in power.
To be fair, there have been over the years some awkward examples involving powerful Washington figures.
President Bill Clinton molested a young intern in the Oval Office. President Biden’s daughter wrote in her diary that as a little girl, her father forced her to take showers with him. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner both went to jail over indecencies that allegedly involved underage boys and girls.
But really, it’s all just a scurrilous rumor — a “conspiracy theory” — that there are all these pedophiles at the highest echelons of power in Washington. If you believe any of this, you are a basically some kind of Nazi or an extreme MAGA fascist.
Which brings us to the endlessly curious case of Jeffrey Epstein. For some reason, this guy enjoyed unfettered access to the most powerful people in Washington and the wealthiest people on Wall Street despite being a registered sex offender.
You know, if you are ever wondering if a guy might be some kind of dirty, sicko pervert, a really good indicator is if he flies around in a private jet called the Lolita Express. Also, if his private island in the Caribbean is called Pedophile Island. Either way, it’s probably safe to say he is a creepy dirtbag.
But in Washington and on Wall Street, the next question is always: OK, but how much money does the “creepy dirtbag” have?
A “creepy dirtbag” is not the same as a “billionaire creepy dirtbag” and certainly not the same thing as a “billionaire creepy dirtbag who has endless reels of evidence against legions of powerful people.”
In Washington, these details matter.
Which brings us to perhaps the biggest bombshell revelation of the whole sick and sordid affair of Epstein. The Wall Street Journal reports this week that among those hobnobbing with the convicted pedophile was none other than William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
According to the Journal, Mr. Burns had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when Mr. Burns was serving as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration. “They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein’s townhouse in Manhattan,” the Journal wrote.
What is particularly interesting about Mr. Burns’ relationship with Epstein is the timing. These meetings occurred well after Epstein had been publicly accused of sexually abusing girls in Florida. It was in 2008 that Epstein reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid federal charges. He pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, registered as a sex offender and served 13 months in a work-release program.
Yet when Mr. Burns held these meetings with Epstein some six years later, Mr. Burns — the future director of the CIA — claims he was entirely in the dark about Epstein’s past, according to agency spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp. (Who sends a poor government spokeswoman out to clean up a disgusting mess like this?)
“The director did not know anything about [Epstein], other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” Ms. Thorp told the Journal. “They had no relationship.”
The creepy dirtbag cuts a deal with prosecutors to avoid federal charges, pleads guilty to pimping out a little girl and registers as a sex offender — but all Mr. Burns knows about Epstein is that he is “an expert in the financial services sector”?
There isn’t a person in America today who doesn’t know how to search the registered sex offender list. And yet somehow the one guy who doesn’t understand how to use the sex registry — and apparently doesn’t read newspapers — gets picked to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency?
By Mr. Biden?
There is no way that Mr. Biden nominated Mr. Burns to be his CIA director without the White House learning about Mr. Burns’ ties to Jeffrey Epstein. There is no way the man went through the confirmation process in the Senate without senators learning about those ties with a convicted pedophile. Yet he gets confirmed as CIA director on a simple voice vote. (Why not a recorded vote?)
Or, perhaps, was Mr. Burns’ association with Epstein a reason for placing him atop the most powerful clandestine operation in America?
I know it sounds crazy, but these are crazy times around here. And the crazier everything gets, the more all these “conspiracy theories” start making sense.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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