From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He had ties with titans of industry and best-selling authors, world-renowned scientists and banking moguls, top-tier journalists and political power players. All of them turned to the same man for advice, for connections, and to banter and trade gossip.
That man, Jeffrey Epstein, was already a registered sex offender after a 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution with a minor – but that did not seem to deter his pen pals, some of whom even looked to him for guidance on avoiding their own sexual scandals.
Emails made public this week show the crime did little to diminish the desire of that network to stay connected to the billionaire financier, according to a report by AP.
Thousands of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday offer a new glimpse into what Epstein's relationships with these influential figures looked like over a decade.
They start with messages he sent and received around the time he finished serving his Florida sentence in 2009 and continue until the months before his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019.
During that time, Epstein's network was eclectic, spanning the globe and political affiliations: from the liberal academic Noam Chomsky to Steve Bannon, the longtime ally of President Donald Trump.
Some reached out to support Epstein amid lawsuits and prosecutions, others sought introductions or advice on everything from dating to oil prices. One consulted him on how to respond to accusations of sexual harassment, according to AP.
Jeffrey Epstein Emails
Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, and killed himself in jail a month later. Epstein's crimes, high-profile connections and jailhouse suicide have made the case a magnet for conspiracy theorists and online sleuths seeking proof of a cover-up.
The emails do not implicate his contacts in those alleged crimes. They instead paint a picture of Epstein's influence and connections over the years he was a registered sex offender.
Epstein emailed current and former political figures on all sides, sending news clips and discussing strategy or gossip often in short, choppy emails laden with spelling and grammatical errors.
In several emails in 2018, Epstein advised Bannon on his political tour of Europe that year after Bannon forwarded Epstein a news clip that the German media underestimated Bannon and that he was "As Dangerous as Ever."
"luv it," Epstein responded, AP reported.
When physicist Lawrence Krauss faced sexual harassment allegations, he emailed Epstein for advice on how to handle a journalist’s inquiry. After asking whether Krauss had had sex with the person in question, Epstein advised him not to reply to the journalist.
Larry Summers, who was treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and later president of Harvard University, discussed his interactions with a woman and Epstein offered coaching on his response, writing: “you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”
In other emails with Ruemmler, Epstein detailed a whirlwind of well-known people he appears to have been meeting, hosting or speaking with that week, including an ambassador, a tech giant, foreign business people, academics and a film director. “you are a welcome guest at any,” he wrote.
The documents expose a reality less about a shadowy cabal and more about a system of power that operates in plain sight, indifferent to conviction or consequence.
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