A criminal who cultivates relationships with the rich and powerful is treated lightly by the government. Conspiracy theories swirl around his apparent suicide when the law finally catches up with him. After his death, his ties to the country’s political leaders spark public anger and a media firestorm that threaten to bring down an administration.
It is the story of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, of course, but it is also the story of a remarkably similar scandal that engulfed a nation nearly a century ago. And the parallels may help illuminate why the Epstein saga has resonated so deeply and has such staying power.
Alexandre Stavisky was a con man who wormed his way into the highest echelons of French society in the 1920s and 30s. He charmed multiple members of the elite — lawmakers, cabinet secretaries, judges, entertainers — and lived the high life by their side. He also got them to put their money into various “investments” backed by nothing but his vivid imagination. A mayor put Stavisky in charge of a municipal pawn shop and Stavisky sold shares backed by the riches inside — which included what he claimed were a German empress’ emeralds. They were in fact cheap glass.
Remarkably, Stavisky ran many of these schemes after having been arrested for fraud. The government released him and postponed his trial 19 times over six years, during which he continued his fraud under a different name. The public officials involved in his schemes swore they had no idea it was the same man.
When Stavisky’s pawn shop scheme collapsed, and the French government found it was on the hook for hundreds of millions of francs in worthless bonds, Stavisky fled. Police cornered him in a chalet in Chamonix, and as officers moved in, Stavisky shot himself.
At least, that was the official version of events. Speculation swirled that the government had murdered Stavisky to stop him from testifying against French political leaders. Stavisky’s wife told the press she doubted he had killed himself. A police inspector testified that Stavisky had been shot in the right temple, but the gun was in his left hand.
And that wasn’t all, as The New York Times reported:
Then the trouble began in the Chamber of Deputies. It was found that the dossier on Stavisky had disappeared from the Ministry of Justice. There had been 1,200 documents ... they were all gone. This led to demands for the resignation of the Minister of Justice.
The scandal consumed the country. There were daily protests. The New Yorker correspondent Janet Flanner wrote:
To keep up with the Stavisky scandal — i.e., the French government — anyone would have to read the newspapers three hours a day, which is what everybody does. It is curious to be living in a land where the government is busy not governing… Daily, the concocted plot arrives at a peak of ingenuity, complication, villainy, and breathless surprise which simply cannot be beat — until the next day’s new twists beat it all hollow.
The New York Times summed it up in January 1934: “Temporarily the French have forgotten about Adolf Hitler. They now have Alexandre Stavisky on their minds.”
Just like the Epstein scandal, the Stavisky affair was about more than public corruption. It was about a perceived rot at the core of the entire political system: the idea that elected officials were living the high life with a fraudster during a global depression, and that they protected a criminal at the expense of the French people; that they might be going to extreme lengths to cover it all up. It was enough to radicalize even the most equanimous French citizen.
Fascist groups capitalized on the outrage, using the scandal to bolster their case that democracy itself was decadent and corrupt. (It did not hurt that Stavisky, like Epstein, was Jewish, playing into antisemitic tropes of Jews as swindlers and schemers.) Weeks after Stavisky’s death, French fascists led an assault on the French parliament that ultimately toppled the government.
That attack bears eerie resemblance to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — and it similarly reordered national politics for years to come. (For more on that riot and how it still resonates today, check out this episode of Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News.)
We don’t yet know what impact the Epstein saga may have on the Trump administration. But if history is any guide, the outrage and conspiracy theories and combustible politics with which it has engulfed us will have long-term consequences for our democracy.