Print Column: When Child Rape Becomes Just Another Political Football

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MINOT, N.D. ⁠— Not quite as horrifying as the most recent news about Jeffrey Epstein, but still entirely nauseating, has been the rush to use the man as a political cudgel.

The secretive financier who may or may not be a billionaire ⁠— his money management firm is based in the U.S. Virgin Islands and generates no public records ⁠— has a lot of bold-faced social connections.

Former President Bill Clinton rode took flights with Epstein dozens of times on a plane later dubbed the “Lolita Express” by some media wags.

Current President Donald Trump, in 2002, called Epstein a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Both deny any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and in 2007 Trump barred the man from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a reaction to the criminal filed against him at the time.

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