Inside the circle

The secrets of Jeffrey Epstein's inbox published last week - and potentially more to come-point not to a shadowy cabal, but to a world where immense wealth, privilege and access to power can insulate individuals from accountability and consequences

- David Smith

HE GOT BY WITH A LITTLE HELP from his friends. From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet none appeared to challenge him over his crimes. If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in spoke volumes.

Emails released last week by the House of Representatives' oversight committee revealed how Epstein maintained contact with business executives, reporters, academics and political players despite his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. More may yet come after the US president, Donald Trump, urged Republicans in Congress to vote this week for the release of files related to Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.

Trump's post on Truth Social came after House speaker Mike Johnson said he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents should help put to rest allegations "that he [Trump] has something to do with it". That vote was expected to happen early this week. And it will then go to the Senate.

Epstein's death - he was charged with sex trafficking in 2019 and killed himself in prison a month later - has long been a magnet for conspiracy theories but the documents published last week 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.

Spanning from 2009 to 2019, Epstein's short, choppy emails laden with spelling and grammatical errors do little to implicate his contacts including Donald Trump in any criminal activities. But they do show some acquaintances supporting him during legal troubles while others sought introductions or advice on everything from dating to oil prices.