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target of a resentful world. He is that Epstein, according to the Daily Mail— among his most frothing-at-the-mouth antagonists—“‘one of America’s most notorious sex offenders.” And yet the mighty and powerful, apparently evaluating the nature of disgrace on their own terms, beat a path to his door. It’s a fantastic conclave of influence in his dining room: financiers, billionaires, heads of state, economic ministers. He surely represents the kind of insiderism that is mostly just a figment in outsiders’ fantasies. Except for the fact that, straining credulity, Epstein is real. His is an ultimate sort of fantasy of power, wealth, and secrecy. (In 2004, when the then owners of this magazine put it up for sale, I was involved with a group trying to buy it—an effort in which Epstein volunteered to invest $20 million. New York was subsequently sold to another wealthy investor.) Were the International Jewish conspiracy to actually exist, it might be here in his dining room (while not everybody in his circle is Jewish, an obvious “think Yiddish” point of view prevails). Without ever being asked to keep what I have heard here off the record, I’ve willingly done so, least I not be invited back. And, too, to protect him. Who would understand Jeffrey? Who could explain him? Certainly Epstein’s past encounters with the press (and in many ways with the entire outside world) have been about as disastrous as any could be, helping to open a Pandora’s box of lifestyle vulnerabilities that sent him to prison on a prostitution charge in 2008. And yet here he is, in his 50,000 square foot mansion, dispensing advice to world leaders and business titans. Indeed, Epstein has been advising Bill Gates on a new way to increase the already vast clout of the Gates Foundation by adding funds from other wealthy individuals that can use the Gates resources (the Gates Foundation now employs 1,200 people), but which can be directed to separate causes and goals. And it is Gates who at the end of the summer began prodding Epstein to begin a process of public rehabilitation. Hence, as part of an effort to get “out in front” of the unfavorable notice that might greet Gates’ public association with him, Epstein agreed to several on the record conversation with me, in the hope, on his part, that, after five years since his release from prison and relative peace, he might be able to leaven his reputation. And with the hope on my part of learning more about how and if the rich are different than you and me (although we can fairly dispense with the if). HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022748