It’s time we stop pretending that the Pedo-PayPal cartel doesn’t have its minions placed in strategic positions throughout government.

There are clearly corrupt people helping powerful criminals escape accountability from inside the government itself.

Look at what is now being alleged in court.

According to a lawsuit brought by Epstein survivors, former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen told Hugh Hefner in 2005 that Jeffrey Epstein had sexually abused and trafficked her.

She reportedly asked Hefner to contact the FBI because she believed his status would make federal authorities take her allegations seriously.

According to the court filing, Hefner contacted the FBI several times.

And yet, according to the lawsuit, the FBI allegedly did not follow up with Christiansen until 2020—roughly 15 years later.

The lawsuit is part of a case brought by 34 Epstein survivors, who accuse the FBI of failing to investigate credible reports and allowing Epstein’s abuse to continue.

And now the Justice Department is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the survivors waited too long to bring their claims.

Funny how the Justice Department is now doing exactly what we are questioning.

So we have to ask:

Why did it take 15 years for the FBI to follow up?

How many other warnings were ignored?

Who ignored them—and why?

Because Epstein wasn’t operating in some hidden vacuum.

The federal government had already opened an investigation into him in 2006. Federal prosecutors eventually prepared a 53-page indictment in 2007. Instead of federal prosecution, Epstein received a controversial non-prosecution agreement, pleaded guilty to state charges in 2008 and served a limited sentence.

The Justice Department later acknowledged that the victims were not treated with the forthrightness and sensitivity expected by the department and that then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta exercised poor judgment in resolving the federal investigation through that agreement.

But was it simply poor judgment?

Or was Alexander Acosta placed in a position to protect the interests of wealthy and powerful people?

That question deserves to be investigated.

Because Epstein continued living as a wealthy and powerful man until his federal arrest in 2019.

Thirteen years after the federal investigation began.

Why did it take that long?

Who made sure it took that long?

And why?

That is the part Americans should not simply shrug off.

Because it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the that wealthy and politically connected criminals—people like Trump and Epstein—are using people inside government to protect themselves from accountability.

And we shouldn’t only ask that question about Epstein or Trump.

We should ask it about the entire federal government.

Because if wealthy and politically connected criminals have placed people inside the government to protect themselves, then we need to know who they have inside the system.

Who are the officials protecting them?

Who put those officials in their positions?

Who do those officials answer to?

And how many investigations have been quietly delayed, weakened or killed because someone powerful didn’t want them to move forward?

This is exactly what the American people deserve to know.

We need to start looking at the people behind the decisions—not just the decisions themselves.

Because when the same institutions that are supposed to investigate powerful criminals repeatedly fail to hold them accountable, we have to accept that some of those institutions have been compromised.

And if wealthy criminals have managed to place people inside government who will protect them, those people are criminals too.

They just happen to have government titles.

We’ve seen why those questions matter with Donald Trump and Pam Bondi.

Before becoming Trump’s attorney general, Bondi served as Florida’s attorney general.

In 2013, her office was reviewing whether Florida had an interest in allegations involving Trump University. Around that time, Trump’s foundation sent $25,000 to a political organization supporting Bondi’s reelection.

Bondi’s office ultimately did not pursue the matter.

Trump and Bondi denied that the contribution influenced the decision, and Trump’s representatives said the payment was a mistake. But New York later determined that the Trump Foundation’s political contribution violated tax rules.

Now look at where Pam Bondi ended up.

Trump made her the attorney general of the United States.

The very person who had a documented political and financial relationship with Trump became one of the most powerful law-enforcement officials in the country.

Because this demonstrates exactly why Americans should be concerned about political relationships and conflicts of interest involving people who control investigations and prosecutions.

And Bondi is not simply a former Florida attorney general.

She became the person running the Justice Department under Trump.

That means someone with a long political relationship with Trump was occupying one of the most powerful law-enforcement positions in the United States.

How do we make sure the people running our federal law-enforcement agencies are accountable to the American people—and not to corrupt billionaires, political bosses or criminal organizations?

Because this is bigger than Donald Trump.

And it is bigger than Jeffrey Epstein.

It is about wealthy people building networks of corruption that can potentially reach into the very institutions responsible for investigating their crimes.

A criminal organization doesn’t necessarily need to control an entire agency.

It only needs its people in the right places.

Someone who can delay an investigation.

Someone who can bury a complaint.

Someone who can influence a prosecution.

Someone who can provide information.

Someone who can make a problem disappear.

And that is why Americans need to demand a serious investigation into corruption and conflicts of interest inside federal agencies.

Not just investigations of criminals outside government.

Investigate the people inside the institutions currently working and who haven worked in the past.

Investigate the officials who handled major cases involving wealthy and politically connected people.

Investigate unexplained investigative failures—because they cannot simply be dismissed as coincidences anymore.

Investigate cases that were suddenly dropped.

Investigate complaints that went nowhere.

Investigate relationships between government officials and the people their agencies were investigating.

Follow the money.

Follow the appointments.

Follow the political connections.

Follow the revolving door between government and powerful private interests.

And investigate because it extremely obvious that wealthy criminals have deliberately cultivated relationships with people inside government to protect themselves from prosecution.

Because these aren’t just isolated stories anymore.

The alleged 15-year failure to follow up on a report involving Epstein.

The extraordinary leniency Epstein received after a federal investigation.

The political and financial relationships surrounding powerful government officials.

The revolving door between powerful private interests and government.

These are signs that there may be a much larger corruption problem within the institutions of government themselves.

And Americans have a right to know how deep it goes and heads needs to start rolling at every level of the government.

We cannot protect ourselves from organized crime if organized crime has already found ways to penetrate the institutions that are supposed to stop it.

So investigate the criminals.

But just as importantly—

investigate the people inside government who have helped them get away with it.

Because there are more Pam Bondis being placed in strategic positions to protect powerful people from accountability, and we need to find them and throw them in jail.

And if any of them committed crimes or abused their government authority to protect criminals, they shouldn’t get a government job, a political promotion or a comfortable retirement.

They should go to prison.

By Jonathan Marquez and Duck.ai