The banality of evil How Epstein's rich, powerful friends normalised him and sought his advice

He got by with a little help from his friends.

- David Smith

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 Epstein over his horrific crimes.

If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in speaks volumes.

Emails released this 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.

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 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 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.

Their bantering, frivolous tone implies that Epstein would have felt still welcome as a member of polite society, receiving no social incentive to change his ways. Far from being ostracised as a sex offender, he was normalised.

In several messages in 2018, he advised longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon on his political tour of Europe that year. Bannon forwarded Epstein a news clip that described the German media as "underestimating" Bannon and saying he was "As Dangerous as Ever". "Luv it," Epstein responded.