The arrest of Andrew Manhattan-Windsor in England is the highest-profile instance of one of Europe's elites facing consequences for their association with Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender who cultivated a vast network of some the world's richest and most famous people.
The stunning development has left Britain's Royal Family facing its biggest crisis in modern times. Yet the fact remains that King Charles's younger brother may ultimately be prosecuted by the Crown, showing the UK can still walk the walk when it says no one is above the law.
Embarrassingly for the US Department of Justice, the same cannot be said of America.
On this side of the pond, powerful Americans are not being held to account to anything like the degree they are in Europe. Investigators in Britain, Norway, France, Poland and elsewhere are combing documents to see who was doing what, and when, with the financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution, and died in prison in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.
Meanwhile, here in Washington, the department appears to be sitting on its hands and has shown little willingness to investigate any Americans named in the files. The reason might seem obvious: President Donald Trump is referred to thousands of times, and several of his associates awkwardly appear too, including his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
It is important to stress that being named in the files doesn't necessarily imply any wrongdoing. Mr Trump has said the case has been politicised by Democrats as a “deflection”. And with the exception of Ghislaine Maxwell, no one has been charged in the US with any wrongdoing stemming from their association with Epstein.
In the UK, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. His arrest was made on suspicion of misconduct in public office after police assessed claims in the Epstein files.
Still, the split-screen of how Europe and America are handling the biggest political scandal of the century was on full display last week, when Attorney General Pam Bondi was called to testify in front of the House judiciary committee.
The day-long hearing was supposed to focus on her running of the Department of Justice, but she was soon assailed with questions over her handling of the Epstein scandal.
In testy and sometimes shouted exchanges with Democrats and at least one Republican, Ms Bondi was accused of hiding the names of powerful associates of Epstein.
“We are currently the laughing stock of the world, partially because of the failed leadership within the DOJ, as we see kings and queens falling everywhere around the world, but we don't know the basics of right and wrong in this country,” Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett told Ms Bondi.
Her response to such attacks was to accuse members of Congress of ignoring crime in their own districts and, bizarrely, to talk about how well the stock market is doing. She also said Democrats are guilty of a double standard for failing to mention liberals such as Bill Clinton's appearances in the Epstein files.
In one memorable moment, Ms Bondi was photographed appearing to ignore survivors of Epstein's abuse who had come to witness the hearing.
Several Trump loyalists, including FBI director Kash Patel and his former deputy Dan Bongino, rose in prominence thanks in part to their tireless devotion to calling for the release of the Epstein files. But once they took office, they went quiet on the topic, as did Ms Bondi, who has sought to play down the scandal.
“The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been,” Mr Patel said in July, before the DOJ was forced to release the files by an act of Congress.
Many in Mr Trump's Make America Great Again movement are sickened by it all. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a former Maga stalwart who this year resigned from the House of Representatives, on Thursday bemoaned America's “zero Epstein-related arrest[s] and investigations since release of the files".
Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman and frequent critic of Mr Trump, called for the Department of Justice to act after Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest.
The department is part of the executive branch, meaning US presidents are the ultimate boss. But it is ostensibly meant to act with independence and base investigations on facts, not political influence.
Mr Trump accused it of “lawfare” when Joe Biden was in office, as prosecutors attacked him on several fronts including his role in the January 6, 2021 mob attack on the Capitol and his handling of classified documents.
Today, the shoe is firmly on the other foot. Mr Trump has openly called for the prosecution of his political rivals, including former FBI director James Comey, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In a telling sign of how far Mr Trump has asserted his control over the department, workers on Thursday unfurled his portrait on a banner outside the agency's Washington headquarters.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week said the Trump administration is “moving on” from the Epstein scandal. But that is just wishful thinking on her part.
This scandal isn't going anywhere and the Epstein case is likely to continue to dog the Trump administration for a long time to come, whether the department likes it or not.
