By Rich Lowry
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know — even if you
may have committed terrible crimes.
That’s the Jeffrey Epstein version of the famous line
about success.
The massive tranche of Epstein emails released by the
House Oversight Committee didn’t reveal any smoking guns about Donald Trump,
but it did highlight a vast conspiracy to help the disgraced financier thrive
despite his guilty plea to sex charges involving a minor in 2008.
This conspiracy wasn’t the work of the Deep State, or
Israel, or the Jews. No, it was more pedestrian and damning than that. An
element of the American elite embraced Epstein as one of its own, thanks to his
wealth and his connections.
The conservative thinker Russell Kirk once quipped about
conspiracy theories concerning Dwight Eisenhower that Ike wasn’t a communist;
he was a golfer. In a similar vein, Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t a Mossad agent; he
was a networker.
The implausible populist narrative about the Epstein case
is that the government — at all levels and up to today — has protected him and
others who participated in his crimes because too many powerful people have too
much at stake, or because it’s too dangerous to reveal Israel’s role in the
scandal, or both.
Perhaps these interpretations will gain factual support
as more is revealed, but it seems unlikely.
Regardless, populists have a different narrative at hand
that is consistent with the known record. Namely, that some of the most
privileged members of our society — at the very top of the financial, academic,
political, media, and social worlds — had no standards or ethics, and embraced
Epstein as a friend and consigliere.
Epstein knew influential people, so influential people
felt that they should know him. They considered him fun, and useful — for
advice, for banter, for introductions, for information, and for donations.
The emails suggest that Epstein missed his calling as a
high-level, seamy advice columnist to the rich and powerful.
Want to know more about the reputation of the woman you
are having an affair with? Seeking advice on how to gain political influence in
Europe? Wondering how you’re handling your interactions with a potential
mistress? Looking for insights about Donald Trump? Trying to survive sexual
harassment allegations? Need a reference for a gastroenterologist?
Well, then, ask Jeffrey Epstein.
He emailed with former Harvard president Larry Summers,
the linguist Noam Chomsky, venture capitalist Boris Nikolic, Emirati
businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Trump activist Steve Bannon, the
journalist Michael Wolff, the artist Andres Serrano, the department store scion
Jonathan Farkas, and former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, among others.
It’s not as though Epstein was particularly insightful,
but if he knew so many important people, he must know something, right?
As for his scrape with the law, clearly all had been
forgiven and forgotten. If he was in the good graces of the social wrangler
Peggy Siegal, whose job was to get bold-faced names to accept invitations, he
must be okay.
For some of Epstein’s correspondents, it was part of his
appeal that he was disreputable. Larry Summers, who leaned on Epstein for
romantic advice, asked him at one point, “How is life among the lucrative and
louche?”
Epstein’s social currency is one reason that he got off
so easily the first time he was prosecuted — he hired the best, most connected
defense attorneys, who outclassed and intimidated his prosecutors.
As for Trump, he is guilty of enjoying Epstein’s company
a couple of decades ago, presumably for the same reason so many others did. But
he had a falling out with Epstein long ago. Trump didn’t have anything to do
with him at the time when so many others in these emails were socializing with
Epstein, confiding in him, and asking him for insight on Trump.
That’s a disgrace, and it’s always been in plain sight.
In the Epstein story, it’s not so much follow the money —
although that’s important and still mysterious — as follow the social network.
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