For me, it's the crime(s) at the core; Watergate was political dirty tricks and a break-in, and really notable because A) they got caught, and B) it's wasn't necessary (Nixon was going to win, but he was so fucking paranoid that he insisted on doing the dirty tricks to be sure).
For Epstein, the big issue is how much of this happened after he was known as a pedophile and had literally already gone to jail for the crime (and this was very much public information). Regardless of whether everyone in the files is also a rapist (and let's be blunt -- the three biggest names, Trump, Clinton, and Prince Andrew, almost certainly are, but a lot of the other names are people who simply thought he could help them with business or political connections), it shows incredible bad judgement by a greater number of people.
For me, it's the crime(s) at the core; Watergate was political dirty tricks and a break-in, and really notable because A) they got caught, and B) it's wasn't necessary (Nixon was going to win, but he was so fucking paranoid that he insisted on doing the dirty tricks to be sure).
For Epstein, the big issue is how much of this happened after he was known as a pedophile and had literally already gone to jail for the crime (and this was very much public information). Regardless of whether everyone in the files is also a rapist (and let's be blunt -- the three biggest names, Trump, Clinton, and Prince Andrew, almost certainly are, but a lot of the other names are people who simply thought he could help them with business or political connections), it shows incredible bad judgement by a greater number of people.