Why the rich and powerful couldn’t say no to Epstein

This was one of the big set-pieces in Washington in 2019.

All eyes were on Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was testifying before a House committee about his former boss.

Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic member of the committee, was preparing to question Cohen and was seen on camera texting someone on her phone.

This week, the public learned the identity of the second person in that exchange — convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He was encouraging them to ask about the Trump Organization employee, according to emails made public by his estate under a subpoena. After Ms Plaskett did so, Epstein messaged her back: “Good job”.

In retrospect, the incident has infuriated many, who say it exposed the extent of his influence over America’s elite.

Plaskett has denied that she was taking Epstein’s advice, saying that she was messaging several people that day, including Epstein, who was one of her constituents. She says that as a former lawyer, she had learned to seek information from all sources – even those she didn’t like.

“I am disgusted by Epstein’s deviant behavior. I strongly support his victims and admire their courage. I have long believed and supported the release of all of Epstein’s files,” she said in a statement sent to the BBC.

She says their exchange took place before his arrest on sex trafficking charges. But he was cleared in 2008 after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution.

His private island in the US territory was also mentioned in a serious investigation by the Miami Herald just a year earlier, where he sexually abused several underage girls.

Just six months after his exchange with Epstein, the disgraced financier would die in his prison cell — the result of suicide, according to a medical examiner. His death, and the conspiracies swirling around it, have sparked a reckoning that has rippled through Washington and Wall Street, and alienated some of his former friends.

Their exchange was one of the latest in a collection of more than 20,000 pages of personal documents that revealed Epstein’s ability to maintain an exclusive social circle even after his criminal conviction and heralded revelations.

How and why these relationships survived while other friends distanced themselves from him tell us as much about the dynamics of social circles at the top of American society as they do about Epstein’s influence.

“He was a diabolical monster, but he was also a genius in the sense that he was able to maintain this incredible network of some of the most powerful individuals in the world,” said Barry Levin, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

“He had a certain charisma about him that put him in such a position that people turned to him.”

Mr. Levin said Epstein considered himself a “collector of people” who formed relationships for transactional purposes.

“He would use the information that he obtained … with the intention at the end of the day that he was going to either get favors from them, finance from them, or in a deeper sense, I think, blackmail some of these individuals.”

The relationship between Epstein and Labour’s Lord Peter Mandelson has come under particular scrutiny in Britain, with Lord Mandelson ultimately dismissed from his role as Britain’s ambassador to the US in September.

Documents released by Congress show he maintained contact with pedophiles as late as 2016, which was before the Herald revelations but after his conviction.

In a November 2015 email, Epstein told her after her birthday: “63 years old. You made it.”

Lord Mandelson replies less than 90 minutes later, saying: “Enough. I have decided to extend my life by spending more time in America.”

She has vehemently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, any wrongdoing, and expressed regret over her continued communications with him.

Documents released by Epstein’s estate reveal his eclectic social circle of distinguished scholars, business magnates and politicians.

Mr. Levin said it was not a big deal that some of Epstein’s casual acquaintances might not have known about his abuse, or might have been influenced enough by his powerful connections to look into it.

“People forget things,” he said. “His reputation among power brokers was very high, and I think a lot of people probably dismissed the conviction against him.”

Journalists and those who knew him have suggested that others may have been surprised by his wealth.

David Patrick Columbia, founder of New York Social Diary, told The Daily Beast in 2011 after Epstein’s first conviction, “Prison sentences don’t matter anymore.” “The only thing that despises you in New York society is poverty.”

Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary turned Harvard University president, sought romantic advice from Epstein, including an exchange in November 2018 – the same month the Herald investigation was published – where he forwarded an email to Epstein from a woman asking how she should respond.

Epstein replied: “She’s starting to seem needy already 🙂 I see.”

Summers’ interactions with his former confidant began to haunt him last week, after which he announced he was withdrawing from public commitments and quitting teaching at Harvard.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers said.

Epstein also reportedly used his money skills to help renowned linguist Noam Chomsky, with whom he exchanged numerous messages over the years, and invited him to stay in his homes.

Flattery came from both sides. In an undated letter of support included in the trove of emails, Chomsky praised Epstein, saying the two had “many long and often intense discussions”.

The 96-year-old previously told The Wall Street Journal that Epstein helped her move money between their accounts without “a penny from Epstein.”

“I knew him and we met occasionally,” he said.

In the same article, he said: “What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he was convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to American laws and norms, this gives a clean slate.”

He did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Chomsky was one of Epstein’s famous financial clients, many of whom Epstein helped save billions of dollars, Mr. Levin said.

He was able to do this because he “understood the tax code and finance somewhat better than the highest-paid people on Wall Street”, Mr. Levin said.

In the 23,000 pages of Epstein documents, one person’s name appears perhaps more than any other.

Trump neither sent nor received any of the messages contained in the thousands of documents breaking ties with Epstein.

In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “fantastic guy”. Epstein later commented: “I was Donald’s best friend for 10 years.”

But eventually the relationship will turn sour. According to Trump, they separated in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein’s first arrest. By 2008, Trump was saying he was not “a fan of his”.

Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking. The White House has also said that Trump had kicked Epstein out of his club “because of his misconduct with his female staffers decades ago.”

Mr Levin said there were many people whose messages with Epstein after his conviction would embarrass them, although it does not mean they participated in any of his crimes.

“No doubt everyone regrets the day they interacted with or spent time with Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “This is one of the most incredible stories of our times – power, privilege, victimization.”

But there was at least one person who said he knew immediately that Epstein was “serious.”

The President’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, was Epstein’s neighbor for 10 years. She told the New York Post podcast that her first meeting with Epstein was her last.

Shortly after Lutnick moved to his estate on the Upper East Side in 2005, she said Epstein gave Lutnick and his wife a tour of his large residence.

After seeing a massage table surrounded by candles in Epstein’s dining room, Lutnick asked him how often he used it.

“He says, ‘Every day.’ And then he comes awkwardly close to me, and says, ‘And the right kind of massage’.”

Mr. Lutnick said he and his wife exchanged glances, apologized and left.

He said, “I decided that I would never be in the room with that disgusting person again.”