A prince, an ambassador, senior diplomats, top politicians. All brought down by the Jeffrey Epstein files. And all in Europe, rather than the United States.

The huge trove of Epstein documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice has sent shock waves through Europe’s political, economic and social elites — dominating headlines, ending careers and spurring political and criminal investigations.

Former U.K. Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was fired and could go to prison. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a leadership crisis over the Mandelson appointment. Senior figures have fallen in Norway, Sweden and Slovakia. And, even before the latest batch of files, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, lost his honors, princely title and taxpayer-funded mansion.

  • Soup@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Except that they’re not putting anywhere near the amount of effort I’d hope they would need to influence people. Look at how awful Trump is, how openly disgusting he is, and yet them just saying “no that’s fake actually” is enough.

    People like these awful things and they want to be “influenced” so they can pretend, amongst themselves mostly, that they were fooled.

    • WaxRhetorical@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Yeah, because they’ve been doing so for decades. Most of what’s happening today would likely not have been accepted 30-40 years ago, but people have been desensitized by constant, subtle and not so subtle influencing.