I'll give you two stories. You tell me which one is the conspiracy theory, and which one is real.

1. A prominent Democrat and a few of her fellow operatives ran a child sex-trafficking ring in the clandestine basement of Washington, D.C., pizza parlor.

2. A con artist-turned-inexplicable billionaire ran a child sex-trafficking ring across the globe, befriending American presidents of both parties as well as princes. He pimped out his slaves to the most powerful attorneys and politicians on the planet, and he got the same media outlets that were busy shutting down stories of other predatory producers and media moguls to keep the whole thing quiet.

The first story is the thoroughly debunked "Pizzagate" conspiracy about Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. The second is the true story of Jeffrey Epstein.

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As with Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer and every other monster finally exposed by the greatest populist revolution of our time, survivors spoke up about Epstein. They risked their physical safety and cut open their hearts to show the world the ugliest parts of their lives, all in order to bring Epstein to justice.

They said something. But every authority figure who was meant to hold power to account, from the U.S. attorney's office to the entire Fourth Estate, did not listen.

It's not that they didn't care. In fact, they cared quite deeply. They cared so much about protecting Epstein that they obliterated whatever sense of legal, journalistic, and ethical standards they could to cover up his crimes.

We already knew that then-U.S. Attorney and former Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta issued Epstein the deal of a lifetime. He agreed not to charge Epstein with the serial rape and trafficking of children but instead issued him a slap on the wrist — a non-prosecution agreement for soliciting a prostitute. The "prostitute" in question, one that Acosta deemed capable of consent, was a 14-year-old child. All potential co-conspirators were protected by this dirty deal.

Given Epstein's famous friends — Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Richard Branson — one had to expect that his reintroduction into high society after that had been enabled by some strange and powerful behind-the-scenes conspiracy. After all, Mohammed bin Salman and Tony Blair were in his black book.

While under house arrest, Epstein hosted Prince Andrew, who bragged about Prince William's upcoming wedding to Kate Middleton. The guests included fellow credibly accused predator Woody Allen, supposed feminist Chelsea Handler, Katie Couric then of CBS News, CBS News's predator-in-chief Charlie Rose, and George Stephanopoulos, formerly of the Clinton White House and then ABC News.

And now, just a few years later, we have cold, hard, rage-inducing evidence that ABC News did, in fact, have all the goods on Epstein. But Stephanopoulos and pals chose to bury the story.

James O'Keefe has erred before, but there's no question that his acquisition of ABC's Amy Robach hot-mic confession that superiors killed her story is a massive bombshell. It's the sort of thing that makes Trump fans explode with glee when he calls the media the enemy of the people. It's the evidence that Bernie Sanders's movement against the DNC establishment won't end with him.

Pizzagate really happened — only it wasn't a small affair in the basement of some pizza parlor. Jeffery Epstein was running a global Pizzagate, assisted by dictators, news directors, presidents, and producers. The world's most powerful people, who all kept the Weinsteins and the Lauers of the world safe, were covering it up.

Until now.