The Epstein Emails Show #MeToo Never Stood a Chance

In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Titus Andronicus,” a general’s daughter, Lavinia, is raped by Chiron and Demetrius, two powerful princes. To prevent her from revealing their crime, her assailants carve out her tongue and amputate both her hands.

Lavinia has been on my mind as I’ve combed through countless emails between Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network. In them, tongue-severing swords take the form of threats, settlements and confidentiality agreements. But unlike Chiron and Demetrius, Mr. Epstein seemed to know that even these vows of silence can crack under pressure, that women can still speak out.

The recent release of millions of pages of court filings, correspondence and other records spanning decades show that Mr. Epstein had been developing a playbook on how to silence women since his conviction, in 2008, for soliciting a minor for prostitution (a polite way of describing the crime of paying a teenager in order to sexually assault them). These documents show how he cultivated a climate of skepticism around all women leveling accusations of sexual impropriety, not merely the girls and women he abused.