HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022921.jpg

“So?” I ask, one day late in our interviews. “Explain this. It does make it look like you were covering for you-know-who.” “Covering?” He chuckles. “First, by the way, you- know-who was never there. Never came to the island. Not once. Not ever. But you’re right—nobody has ever heard of anything like [this agreement]. But while it was breathtaking, it was also straightforward: you sign this or else we will federally indict you in ways that will threaten your property, the people who work for you, and might put you in jail for ten years. I took the deal.” (Indeed, the deal protected him from federal prosecution, and protected his “co-conspirators,” the employees who supplied him with massage girls, from being charged as accessories to molestation and sex with minors.) Epstein got out of jail in 2009. The experience does not seem to have much dented his general bonhomie. One evening over dinner he and the former director of ports in the semi-rouge state of Djibouti, who had fallen afoul of the regime and found himself in prison, exchanged jail stories—they agreed, not as bad you’d think. Epstein, having done his time, moved mostly seamlessly back into his life, to the shock-shock of tabloids whenever they are reminded of his existence (notably, when Epstein’s payment of Fergie’s debts slipped out, likely leaked by Fergie herself). Some things changed. While surprisingly few others dropped him, the Clinton’s did, an irony of the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022921