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The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has again ignited a political firestorm. And now, as Jeannie Suk Gersen explores, Ghislaine Maxwell’s case poses an essential legal question: What exactly is “the United States”? Plus:

• Roman Polanski’s self-centered historical drama

• James Baldwin, neither relic nor saint

• Why Americans fall in love with Paris

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Petition to the Supreme Court

The convicted sex offender is raising an important legal question—about whether an agreement by one federal prosecutor binds his colleagues across the country.

By Jeannie Suk Gersen Illustration by SMLXL Company; So

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