Countless podcasts have covered the Epstein files, but for In Bed with the Right – a weekly exploration of right-wing ideas about sex and gender, hosted by academic Adrian Daub and journalist Moira Donegan – the political is personal. Donegan herself is in the files, and the duo’s discussion about why her name is mentioned is a masterclass on the toxicity of post-Me-Too culture.
Cast your mind back to October 2017 as the Harvey Weinstein scandal was just starting to break. Donegan, then a junior editorial assistant, was sick of being harassed by men in her industry. She launched a Google spreadsheet entitled “Shitty Media Men” where women could share experiences – it quickly went viral. Proving the one-way nature of accountability, Donegan was fired. She then found herself being sued for defamation by one of the men on the list. She always suspected a third-party benefactor was funding the plaintiff’s suit. Buried in the files is proof she was right to be suspicious. Another man had forwarded Epstein a “pitch” for assistance in the lawsuit against Donegan, encouraging the paedophile to use it as an “opportunity to make the public argument”, presumably in favour of predators. Epstein replies: “ill help anyway I can. if you like.”
There is no evidence that the plaintiff knew his case had been brought to Epstein’s attention, and we don’t know if the financier followed up. What we do know is that other men under Me Too fire were turning to Epstein for advice and support. He morphed into an “avatar and a mascot for accused men”, according to the hosts; his mansion, private island and Gmail inbox became safe spaces to disparage victims and air grievances about the horrors of being held to account for sexual misconduct.
It did not take long for the wave of post-Weinstein outrage to sour, for contrarians to loudly wonder: has Me Too gone too far? Donegan’s experience shows that it never went far enough. For all the scaremongering about coordinated efforts of woke man-hating feminists to ruin poor defenceless men, it was the men who were coordinating all along. We know. We have their emails.
In Bed with the Right
The Clayman Institute for Gender Research
[Further reading: In Our Time is more cautious without Melvyn Bragg]
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This article appears in the 18 Mar 2026 issue of the New Statesman, The new world war
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