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not as a philanthropist but as a sort of adviser or guru or brain—a rich whisperer—making him, in addition to rich himself, arguably among the most influential people you’ve never heard of. Though, likely, you have heard of him—not for his prowess with high abstraction, but for a scandal of such luridness that he is, for a great many, the poster child for the lawlessness of privilege. He is that Epstein, sent to jail in 2008 in Palm Beach on a prostitution charge, based on the complaints of over a dozen underage girls making him, according to the Daily Mail—among his most fervent antagonists—“one of America’s most notorious sex offenders.” And yet the mighty and powerful, disregarding his notoriety, still beat a path to his door. It’s a fantastic conclave of influence in his dining room: financiers, billionaires, heads of state, economic ministers. This includes, hardly least of all, Bill Gates, for whom Epstein has become a key advisor. Epstein has proposed leveraging the resources of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to accommodate many other fortunes, so that, Epstein explains, “you might join 50 or 60 billionaires on one giving project.” Hence, as part of a Gates-encouraged effort to get “out in front” of the notice that might be expected to greet Gates’ public association with him, Epstein— whom I first met in 2002 as part of a group of TED participants he was ferrying on his plane to the west coast—agreed in early fall to these on-the-record HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022897