theater meant to placate the angry masses

Thousands of years into our civilization and the oldest tricks still work the best. The more things change and all that.

edit: that said, Epstein was almost definitely working as a double-agent between various organizations, maybe a quadruple agent or more, he wasn’t so well-connected and powerful just because he dealt children, he also dealt secrets between superpowers, so just having contact with him as a state official puts a massive spotlight on you as a security risk.

National governments care a lot more about you being a security risk than they do about you hurting kids.