The public’s fate as camera fodder was cast in the 1990s, when news met entertainment, never to part, and the infotainment complex of cable media and reality TV was born.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight

When there wasn’t crime, cruelty would suffice. Abusive relationships were packaged as entertainment…
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight

You could turn away from the ritualized humiliation, or you could look at it straight on and say, “I would never let that happen to me.” …you could repeat this refrain with a fervency to mask your fear. You would know on a gut level that your story would never be viewed with sympathy… Sympathy was reserved for only the most virtuous victims—and even then, they always implied, it must have been the victim’s fault.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight
#crime #cruelty

In the 1990s, to guest star in someone else’s tragedy was regarded as a worthy pursuit, amusing and potentially profitable. You could offer yourself up to the cameras, you could be the prize in a new kind of human game show—…as long as the monetary payoff outweighed the moral loss… As long as you could adopt the ethos, perfected in 1980s tabloid culture, of Donald Trump.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight

Where was Donald Trump in the summer of 1994? … In June 2016, an anonymous plaintiff, using the pseudonym Katie Johnson and later Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit accusing Trump of raping her when she was thirteen years old… Jane Doe’s claim was consistent with verifiable facts from the court case against…Jeffrey Epstein, for whom Jane Doe was forced to work. In 2002, Trump told New York magazine that he had known Epstein…and thought he was a “terrific guy.”
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight

Epstein’s life in the underworld of the global elite begins and ends with the family of William Barr, Trump’s attorney general. …Barr initially recused himself from the case when Epstein was arrested. But after Epstein’s death, he announced that he was launching an extensive federal investigation. …it is worth noting that an investigation conducted with integrity seems unlikely.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight
#trump #epstein #barr

…none of the stories on Epstein specified how he made his fortune… In 2019, it was revealed that the main bank Epstein used was Deutsche Bank—the only bank that would lend to Trump after his bankruptcies…
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight
#epstein #trump #deutschebank

By the 1990s, Epstein had become a multimillionaire…, resting on the prestige of his networks to launder his reputation. … The question becomes when “prestige” is no longer an illusion but instead a euphemism for a cover-up. The Epstein case previewed the tactics of the Trump administration: strike a dirty deal, seal the documents, and control the only court left, that of public opinion.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight

In 2008, Epstein received a mere eighteen-month sentence for soliciting, molesting, and raping underage girls. The sentence was the result of a strange and disturbing plea deal between Mueller’s FBI…and Alexander Acosta, who was then the US Attorney for South Florida and who became Trump’s secretary of labor.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight
#epstein #mueller #acosta #trump

For reasons that remain unclear, the US government agreed to grant Epstein immunity from all federal criminal charges, along with four co-conspirators and any unnamed “potential co-conspirators.
—Sarah Kendzior, Hiding in Plain Sight