One of the advantages of not hobnobbing with the rich and famous, of being an American nobody, is that people like us were not sick with worry last night as court records were finally unsealed to reveal the names of 177 of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s bosom buddies.

We watched with curiosity as the names dribbled out, the way one stares at a car accident through the passenger window. 

This wasn’t the convicted pedophile’s client list., however. Instead, this appeared to be a 950-page document containing the names of associates who canoodled with him. The court papers were part of a civil suit brought by sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, a case that settled several years ago. 

Tireless reporters at The Miami Herald were able to convince a judge to unseal the papers.

Being named in the court papers is not evidence of wrongdoing. Just of horribly bad taste in friends.

So far there are no surprises: Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Michael Jackson all appear in the papers.

Dershowitz was Epstein’s lawyer for a time.

Without checking I knew I  wasn’t on the list. I assume you weren’t concerned about being publicly embarrassed either.

In case you’ve forgotten, Epstein - a financier - treated children like merchandise. He and Maxwell enticed young girls to come to his private island where they were pressured to engage in sex acts with Epstein’s friends who had a taste for underage girls.

Disgusting.

Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He served a short jail sentence for those crimes. He died in August of 2019 in his Manhattan jail cell where he’d been placed after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide but no one actually believes that. Too many people wanted him dead. There are presumably hundreds who never want his client list made public and who are terrified that Epstein might have maintained video evidence of their perversions.

These abusive perverts should worry. In a just world they’d all be where Epstein is now.

Consider this: Authorities in New York’s Metropolitan City Jail were able to keep mob boss Don Gotti safe but they couldn’t protect this pimp for the rich and famous.

The public has a right to know which compromised American politicians were traveling on the so-called Lolita Express to Epstein’s island - the 75-acre Little St. James - where minors were kept like sex slaves to service the world’s power brokers.

This entire episode is sickening. At the heart of it were young girls like Virginia Giuffre who were abused and exploited by morally bankrupt men and women and trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.

It’s unlikely the public will ever get the full sordid story of what went on in the Virgin Islands. But last night’s document dump was a start.