The Epstein files are a sledgehammer for the US midterms | Katie Phang

Welcome back to How We Win, a Guardian opinion series with leading thinkers, offering bold ideas for America’s political future. Last week, Guardian US columnist Rebecca Solnit wrote about the GOP’s alignment with the tech overlords. Today’s edition was written by Katie Phang, an independent journalist, trial lawyer and political analyst. Sign up for future editions here.When Americans go to the polls a week from now, accountability will be front and center.The Jeffrey Epstein files are emblematic of a corrupt system. And the fish rots from the head down. Beyond the grifter-in-chief and his spawn are billionaires profiting from pay-to-play relationships and predatory corporations rewarded for choosing profits over people, machines over humanity.As many as 88% of Americans who plan to vote in the midterms prioritize candidates who have promised to hold powerful people to account, including by releasing the full Epstein files, according to a September GBAO poll, which also found that what the files represent – sexual exploitation of children; government corruption; abuse of power and powerful people escaping accountability – was a bigger concern than many of the everyday issues the pollsters tested. The finding echoed a poll from Reuters/Ipsos earlier this summer which found 69% of Americans believe the Epstein files show that “powerful people in the U.S. are rarely held accountable for their actions”.Before he was elected president, Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’s Rachel Campos-Duffy, who, during yet another softball interview typical of that network, posed the following question: “Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Trump answered: “Yeah, yeah I would.”Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, JD Vance and the president’s son, Donald Jr, all sang in the chorus that demanded the files be released. But as soon as Trump became president, and Patel took over at the FBI, the tune changed dramatically. Now that Trump was in a position to actually do something about it, suddenly there was nothing to see. The FBI, under the direction of Patel and joined by Pam Bondi, the then US attorney general, even released a memo stating there was no client list, no evidence to pursue investigations against third parties and that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”Trump went on to declare the Epstein files a “Democrat Hoax” and tried his damnedest to distract the public from demanding justice. As is well known, Congress eventually passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), requiring the attorney general to release the files with very limited grounds for redactions and withholdings.We all saw the botched rollout of the 3.5m pages of materials and how egregiously it reviolated Epstein survivors by releasing confidential personal information. The EFTA was supposed to protect those survivors, but Trump’s Department of Justice blacked out the names of those with money, means and influence but exposed victims and survivors. If you think that was an accident, I’ve got some swampland in Florida to sell you.Then in January of this year, Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, declared that Trump’s Department of Justice was done. Just done. In my long career as a trial lawyer and journalist, I’ve been reading documents for what they say and what they leave out, and have personally reviewed tens of thousands of the released Epstein files. I never thought I would see our Department of Justice conceal the crimes of a small, moneyed elite.So, I sued for the transparency the law required. On 27 April, I filed Katie Phang v Attorney General Todd Blanche in federal court in Washington DC, arguing that Blanche violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he illegally redacted and withheld documents pursuant to the EFTA. Blanche’s illegal conduct was making it impossible for journalists to do their jobs; to bring the truth and transparency that the American people demanded and deserved.On 25 June, the presiding judge in my case, Emmet Sullivan, found that Blanche had failed to respond substantively to my arguments and that therefore “the Attorney General has conceded that he is in violation” of EFTA. Judge Sullivan also ordered Trump’s justice department to begin producing specific unredacted documents. Since then, Blanche has violated court orders, refused to comply with the law and rules of procedure, blown deadlines and made cheap, insincere excuses. Instead of enforcing the law, the attorney general of the United States has been busy subverting it. double quotation markInstead of enforcing the law, the attorney general of the United States has been busy subverting it Here’s the thing, though: voters have noticed. They’re angry and candidates are seizing the day. More than 160 unique Epstein-related campaign ads worth more than $35m in airtime have aired leading up to the midterms. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown has been hammering the incumbent Republican senator Jon Husted over his acceptance of donations from the billionaire Les Wexner. (Epstein was Wexner’s financial adviser and Wexner has denied knowing about or participating in any of Epstein’s crimes.) In Georgia, Jon Ossoff has positioned himself as someone fighting Washington corruption and the “Epstein class”. In Texas, James Talarico has stood in solidarity with Epstein survivors and called on his opponent, Ken Paxton, to do the same. (So far, he hasn’t.) Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim who died by suicide last year, and Giuffre’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, appeared in an ad backing Colorado Democrat Jessica Killin in a House race against Republican Jeff Crank, who refused to meet with Sky and Amanda and declined to sign the bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on the EFTA.Just this week, a new staff report from Democrats on the House judiciary committee alleged that a “growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s” and that the DoJ and the FBI “are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it”. (Trump denies any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.) Although the report mostly cites previously reported allegations against Trump, it reflects the outsized importance of the Epstein files in the election.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionFor decades, some version of “just the way it is” has protected corrupt actors such as Epstein, his friends and associates. Epstein got a sweetheart plea deal while his elite circle was spared investigations or the ignominy of publicity, allowing them to continue to perpetrate their offenses and live their rarefied lives. And the people who were supposed to protect the survivors and hold the bad actors accountable turned a blind eye in what appears to be an exchange for access and privilege.But survivors refuse to be silenced. A federal judge has told the top cop to stop breaking the law. And voters across party lines are rebelling. “Just the way it is” won’t cut it any more.The Epstein files have become a sledgehammer to break America’s two-tiered standard of justice. That, to me, is the beginning of accountability. That is how we win, and how we build a better future.Want to hear more from our contributors?Follow them on Substack: Stacey Abrams, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Naomi Klein, Mehdi Hasan, Bernie Sanders, Rebecca Solnit, Katie Phang, Judd Legum, Margaret Sullivan, and Wajahat Ali.