Virginia Giuffre's brother: UK's Epstein probe shames Trump and the US
Virginia Giuffre's brother: UK's Epstein probe shames Trump and the US
July 6 will mark the first anniversary of arguably one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Last year, on that date, a joint FBI and Justice Department memo was released that stated no further people would be charged over their relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite the outrage that followed, which led to the passing of a new law forcing the release of more than three million Epstein-related documents, the memo proved to be correct: no one else has been prosecuted by the US so far over their links to the late paedophile.
This stands in stark contrast to the UK where, in the last year, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson have been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Both have denied the accusations.
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Earlier this week, police in Surrey became the third force to announce an investigation into Epstein’s crimes, a major escalation of the inquiry in the UK.
From a British perspective, the lack of action in the US seems inexplicable. But for Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent victims, the reality is painfully clear.
In a statement to The i Paper, they said: “There has been no true accountability in this country because accountability would force those in power to confront their own complicity.”
The pair added that it would “require a hard reckoning with the failures at the core of our justice system, and too many are unwilling to face it. Instead, they have chosen time and again to protect the powerful over survivors”.
The elephant in the room in the current US administration is that Donald Trump was friendly with Epstein for many years, before they fell out.
Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, and similarly no Trump DOJ is going to launch an investigation into their boss, let alone over the Epstein files.
But the blame stretches back way before Trump took office the first time around in 2017.
George W Bush was president in 2008 when Epstein got his sweetheart plea deal, under which he served just 13 months in prison for having sex with minors. And if you want to go back even further, Maria Farmer was one of the first to report Epstein’s crimes to the FBI, in 1996, and she was given the brush off. Bill Clinton was president back then.
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 18: Epstein abuse survivor Teresa Helm speaks during a news conference with lawmakers on the Epstein Files Transparency Act outside the U.S. Capitol on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. The House is expected to vote today on the legislation, which instructs the U.S. Department of Justice to release all files related to the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Epstein abuse survivor Teresa Helm at a news conference with lawmakers regarding the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025. The law forced the US government to release all material related to Epstein (Photo: Heather Diehl/Getty)
It’s hard not to shake the feeling that nobody wanted to look under the rock, because they didn’t want to see what they might find. When you see just how well-connected Epstein was, the prospect of an FBI investigation would have perhaps felt too close to home for many powerful individuals.
Epstein was so close with Kathryn Ruemmler, a former top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and Obama White House counsel, that she called him “Uncle”. Ruemmler resigned from Goldman Sachs earlier this year after emails came to light showing their correspondence. She has since called him a “monster” and said she regretted ever knowing him.
Meanwhile, according to planning calendars released earlier this year, Epstein had multiple meetings with former CIA director William Burns, and flight logs show he flew Clinton multiple times on his private plane, dubbed the Lolita Express.
With people like that in your address book, you have to wonder whether Epstein was able to pull strings to make any threats of prosecution in the US go away, not just for him but for his friends, too.
While Epstein was close with Andrew, the then-duke of York, for more than a decade, and friendly with others, his reach wasn’t as deep in the UK, a country where, for now at least, public shame still exists and the rule of law stands firmer than in the US.
What we’re left with in America is an exasperating and gross injustice that dates back decades. It feels outrageous to many of the survivors that accountability seems to disappear when it crosses the Atlantic.
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 25: Anouska De Georgiou attends Remembering Virginia Roberts Giuffre: A Butterfly Vigil on April 25, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Women's March)
Epstein survivor Anouska De Georgiou, first left, attends a vigil for Virginia Giuffre in Washington DC, alongside the late Andrew accuser’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, first right (Photo: Leigh Vogel/Getty)
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of Epstein victims, including Giuffre, said in a statement: “People in those countries [the UK and across Europe] have demanded accountability from their governments and a rightful reckoning has begun.
“Ironically and tragically, in the country whose government passed the law that mandated the release of the Epstein documents, not nearly enough has been done,” she added. “The United States was the hub of Epstein’s decades-long sex trafficking criminal enterprise, but the United States government has been stubborn in its reluctance to do its job and fully investigate and charge the individuals who facilitated and participated in the crimes.”
McCawley said it’s a “shocking fact that should fuel the public to urge the United States government into action”.
Lisa Phillips, an Epstein survivor who met the paedophile when she was 21 and was sexually assaulted by him, was recently in the UK, where she called for a public inquiry into his links to the UK. Now in her forties, Phillips said: “The English die by the sword.
“They hold people who harm others accountable because they have more empathy than Americans.”
Phillips suggested that Americans are “desensitised through films and persuaded in the media that celebrities are to be admired and adored – no matter what they do”.
With Trump in the White House, that seems unlikely to change any time soon. But until it does, the US is missing a big chance to give justice to Epstein’s survivors.