In any other era, the shockingly cushy treatment for the convicted sexual offender Ghislaine Maxwell would be a weeks-long scandal.

The longtime associate of the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein sat down with a justice department attorney last month and then, before long, was transferred to a minimum-security prison in Texas known for its arts and crafts programs and inmates’ ability to move around the grounds.

The Maxwell prison transfer – outrageous as it is – is just another element of the many-ringed circus act that is American politics these days.

To Donald Trump, who claimed this week he knew nothing about it in advance, Maxwell’s transfer earned a mere shrug. It was “not a very uncommon thing”, he........

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