MANSFIELD: Kudos to the Daily Beast

The staff of the online news aggregator known by the unusual name of “The Daily Beast” has every right to be extraordinarily proud: The organization stayed the course and went toe to toe with the enormous wealth, power and influence of one of the alleged worst pedophiles the world has ever known — and finally is set to win.

While billionaire Jeffery Epstein hasn’t been convicted yet (as he was over a decade ago when his attorneys somehow got the feds to drop charges against the hedge fund manager of abusing dozens of underage girls so that he could instead plead guilty to minor state charges), he was again arrested over the weekend on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epistein allegedly once boasted that he has had sex with over a thousand underaged girls.

For years Epstein no doubt figured that the case was all behind him once he served 13 months in a private wing of a county jail in Palm Beach, mostly on work release. In other words, he reported back to the lockup at bedtime and left first thing the next morning. You wouldn’t expect him to stay around and eat the pig swill they were feeding to the other prisoners, would you?

While the sweetheart sentence angered many at the time it was handed down, most folks simply said, “Oh well, that’s one of the privileges of extraordinary wealth.” But not the tenacious crew at The Beast; they stayed on the case like a pit bull on a soup bone for over a decade. Since I used to pen an opinion column for The Beast on occasion, back in the day when Tina Brown was the publisher, I’ve never stopped thinking of myself as a “Beastie” at heart.

When the news of Epstein’s arrest ran in the New York Times, The Beast was given its credit and due. While other newsgathering organizations from Miami back to New York have more staff and deeper pockets, evidently no one at these organizations had the sense of outrage over underaged girls being sexually abused, as well as justice being perverted by money, that the staff of The Beast had … no one else stayed the course.

One indicator that this federal indictment in New York will be different is when and how Epstein was arrested. Normally, with someone of his wealth and power, his attorney is given a heads-up that the arrest is imminent and is allowed to walk his client through a side door of the Hall of Justice where bail has already been set and the fingerprinting takes less than 10 minutes. In less than half an hour the alleged perpetrator is on their merry way. Can’t be imposing on the time of a plutocrat, now can we?

But when the FBI waited until Saturday (when they know all of the offices are closed) to arrest Epstein just so would have to spend at least two nights in jail before appearing before a judge and making bail — in the world of high-powered legal circles this is a clue, a clear indication that any and all former bets are off and federal prosecutors are not going to play “Let’s Make a Deal,”

The legal system is going to take a real bite out of his ass, as well as the asses of any co-conspirators who want to play tough and not cooperate with the government. If they don’t roll over for the FBI and prosecutors (and sit up and beg while they’re at it), they’ll end up in a cell adjoining Epstein, who, when he leaves prison can turn out the lights … ’cause there won’t be anyone left on the cellblock. He’s going to be the last person out, tripping over his beard — the no-good motherfucker.

From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.

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One Response to “MANSFIELD: Kudos to the Daily Beast”

  1. Bravo, Mansfield!!! I’ve always enjoyed your columns, but I think (in my humble opinion) this is one of your best. Honest, succinct, to the point, and spot-on. If this ugly creep doesn’t spend the rest of his sorry-ass life in jail, there truly is no justice.

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