Scott Detrow

Starmer's approval rating was already poor before one of his close political allies showed up in his underwear in photographs released in the latest batch of the U.S.

Department of Justice's Jeffrey Epstein files.

The ensuing scandal has pushed out Keir Starmer's chief of staff and his communications director, and it may yet cost Starmer his premiership as well.

Here in the U.S., the reaction to the Epstein files has been different.

That's President Trump last week.

It is true that nothing released in the documents so far implicates Trump and Epstein's abuse.

And nothing refutes Trump's longstanding claim that he had a falling out with Epstein 20-odd years ago.

But...

Plenty of influential figures in politics, business, and academia do appear in the documents, including some of Trump's allies.

Take his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.

Last year, he told the New York Post that he met Epstein for coffee once in 2005 after they became neighbors.

The new files show that, in fact, the men continued to correspond and even suggest that they met on Epstein's private island.

A Commerce Department spokesperson told USA Today that Lutnick had, quote, limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.

Republican Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky told CNN this weekend that

that Lutnick should take a lesson from across the pond.

Consider this.

In contrast to American politics, the release of the Epstein files has had real consequences in the U.K.

We'll dig into why.

From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow.

It's Consider This from NPR.