My name appears in the Epstein Files — but it’s not because I was pals with the notorious dead predator.
I’m just a reporter whose work made its way to his inbox.
But even if I had cozied up to the creep, would that mean I was guilty of being part of a child-sex ring?
No, it wouldn’t, and that gets to the real problem with all things Jeffrey Epstein.
Like all the investigative work before it, the Epstein Files were supposed to give us at least a lead into a child-sex ring of the rich and powerful — not whether rich and powerful men befriended Epstein because of his money and connections — including his connections to highly attractive adult women.
Indulgence in the latter isn’t much of a crime. If it were, a major chunk of corporate America’s C-suite would be in jail, along with vast swaths of our political class.
Former New York “Love Gov” Eliot Spitzer, who famously resigned from office for sex with an adult prostitute, would be in the clink instead of managing real estate.
And that’s where The Epstein Files fall short: So far they prove nothing of real substance regarding why they were released in the first place — a supposed roadmap to a child-sex ring involving not just one perv but others among the rich and famous.
I say “so far” because who knows what evidence lurks out there.
But all we have now is lots of sound and fury signifying very little of substance, other than that Epstein was a perv and the rich and powerful were willing to overlook it for various reasons.
And this is why, so far, no one but Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell have been charged.
Remember how the whole thing started.
Epstein’s pleading guilty to just a single count of sex with an underage prostitute meant the government must have had a nefarious reason to cut him a sweetheart deal and set him free after spending barely a year in jail, most of it on work release.
Forget that he hired a dream team of lawyers who promised to go scorched earth on witnesses and other potential victims, or that the government settled for a sure thing of a plea deal that included jail time and sex-offender status.
Soon it became common knowledge that Epstein got off with that slap on the wrist because he was aided by some of the most powerful people who were covering up their own disgusting behavior.
Knew too much
When Epstein was arrested again in 2019 for multiple counts of child rape and was found dead in his jail cell with a blanket around his neck, the smoking gun had supposedly arrived: A hit squad sneaked into the federal lockup and staged a “suicide” to kill the man who knew too much.
So the story went.
Once again, forget how difficult such an operation might be to pull off, or that jails are both overcrowded and underpoliced.
As the conspiracy theory took hold, political gamesmanship wasn’t far behind.
Attorney General Pam Bondi then got into the mess, promising to let the entire world know the gory details.
Thus the Epstein Files were born, but instead of big revelations of guilt, what we got is lots of guilt by association.
Pages upon pages of dumb and creepy correspondence between Epstein and his pals, or wannabe pals seeking to tap into what he was really good at: influence peddling.
Yes, it is worth asking why the names that have emerged — Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, former Prince Andrew, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, top lawyers like Brad Karp, fitness guru Peter Attia — thought so highly of a guy who would admit to sleeping with a minor.
Or, for that matter, why banks like JPMorgan kept doing business with him.
According to the files and my reporting, it has zero to do with any grand conspiracy.
Epstein was a very good money manager with a specialty in tax avoidance, the reason stated by former Apollo chief Leon Black for procuring his services.
I’m sure women also played a role with many of these folks.
People like Larry Summers always need a wingman.
But Epstein’s downfall was over his perversions involving underage girls and so-called private erotic messages.
Some of them like Clinton can credibly claim they didn’t know about his noxious behavior, and when they did in 2008, they cut off ties.
Plus in public, Epstein was seen around New York and in Palm Beach with adult women, many of them models of the Eastern European variety.
World-class BS’er
Epstein also was a world-class bullsh–ter, and once established on Wall Street, it didn’t take him long to talk his way into bigger, more prestigious circles: philanthropy, scientific research, academia, anything that could prove his macher status.
Recall access to research money is Attia’s stated reason for his Epstein ties.
Ditto for Bill Gates.
Yes, lots of smoke when it comes to Epstein’s circle of friends or the terms of his guilty-plea deal for his first arrest, so maybe he had some creepy pals in high places pulling strings.
The problem is, you can’t turn to the Epstein Files for solid proof.
