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Epstein might be among the most reviled men of the time, 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 outsider’s fantasies. Except for the fact that, straining credulity, Epstein is real. His is an ultimate sort of fantasy of power, wealth, and secrecy. (Many, in fact, have accused him of making up his own fantasy.) Were the International Jewish conspiracy to actually exist, it might be here in his dining room (while not everybody in his circle is Jewish, it’s a recognizable sort of hamish atmosphere, with an acknowledgement that a generally “think Yiddish” point of view prevails). It often crosses my mind, when | am invited here, that I must have made a Faustian bargain—so Faustian that I am not even aware of it. (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.) 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 sorely, unluckily, and—in the eyes of many, in the eyes of most, rightly—offended time and place and sent him to prison. And yet here he is, in his 50,000 square foot mansion, despite his sex offender status, dispensing advice to world leaders and business titans. It is Bill Gates who for some time has been prodding Epstein to begin a process of public rehabilitation. Epstein has been advising Gates on a vast expansion and restructuring of the Gates foundation. Hence, as part of an effort to get “out in front” of the unfavorable notice that might be expected to greet Gates’ public association with Epstein, I, as a favored journalist, have been given a degree of carte blanche to write about Epstein’s life, with the hope, on Epstein’s part, that the high regard in which he is held by many highly regarded people might 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_022954