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Then, just before the New Year, Epstein forwarded me a heads-up email that Alan Dershowtiz, one of Epstein’s long time friends—they have a bickering brotherly relationship—and occasional legal advisors, had received from a reporter at Politico and forwarded to Epstein. The Politico reporter had been following Epstein-related court filings (there is a determined contingent of Epstein reporters) and found a new one added to an old law suit with some rather jaw-dropping, if not preposterous, recent allegations. This seemed to me to be merely a desperate, even comic-book, filing—yjust a lawyer trying to revive a dead case. Eight years after the original filing, a Florida lawyer was now seeking to add new plaintiffs to the old case, accompanied by sensational allegations connecting a catch-all of bold-faced names associated with Epstein, including Dershowtiz and Britain’s Prince Andrew, to a “sex slave” ring. I responded to Epstein that I doubted this would be seen as credible by anyone. Epstein, who sometimes seems to have an out-of-body attitude to his own fate and bad press, said he thought it might be “quite a show.” Two days later, the Daily Mail, which has become the effective ground zero in the English language for anti-privilege, and moral opprobrium (the more salacious the better), and whose editor Paul Dacre has a long time feud with Prince Andrew, put the story on its front page. (Epstein also has a long relationship with the family of disgraced press baron, Robert Maxwell, another reliable target of the British press.) Flimsy and far-fetched court filings in the U.S. by settlement-hungry plaintiffs might be discounted by skeptical U.S. reporters, but, the U.K. media, constrained by onerous rules about legal proceedings in the U.K., promptly went into tabloid frenzy (even the normally sniffy Guardian, in full anti- royal and anti- billionaire fever, joined the tabloid show) and effectively exported the story back to the U.S., where Epstein’s connection to Bill Clinton, and, hence as a shadow over Hillary, became the news. “T told you,” said Epstein. There is Epstein in his inner world, trying, quite ostrich like, not to look out. Little beyond his strict realm seems palatable or even in a sense familiar to him. He’s a foreigner out here. Not too long ago, I met him for lunch in the West Village, the first time in more than ten years, he pointed out, he’d been to lunch in a restaurant (a not particularly pleasant experience for him and we were out in 30 minutes). HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022955