The Pathetic Price of Entry to Epstein’s World

Access, favors, and gifts were enough, apparently, for already-powerful people to continue to associate with a sex trafficker.

The latest batch of Epstein files — over three million documents, only around half of what the Department of Justice reports to have amassed — has unleashed a new cast of characters, a list that includes tech titans, health influencers, litigation rainmakers, university leaders, sports executives, Hollywood moguls, and international royalty. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has championed the release of the files, remarked that these revelations should “shock the conscience of this country.”

Honestly? None of the named men (and women) are individuals I presumed would possess particularly stellar moral character. Call me cynical, but their collective fall from grace stirs no sense of shock on my part. The litany of expressions of regret — I am ashamed, this is not who I am! — reek merely of being the ones who got outed.

A protester holds a sign demanding the release of the Epstein files. (Victor Grigas via Wikimedia Commons)

That said, I have to admit to feeling — stunned? blindsided? nauseated? — by how pathetically small their price of entry was. That includes absurd favors curried (an internship with Woody Allen … really, does anyone still aspire to work with him?), crude jokes traded (“pussy is, indeed, low carb”), dating advice sought (“pro or civilian?”), or, most of all, shared handwringing over the #MeToo movement. For others, that meant giddily accepting gifts — Apple watches, Prada bags, monogrammed sweatshirts — they surely could afford to buy themselves. All in emails littered with typos, as if the rules of punctuation don’t apply, then surely no rules apply. (This might explain a whole lot about President Trump’s ALL CAPS and errant caps approach to posting, a.k.a. the Epstein code?)

Whether anyone who appears in this round of files participated in or bore witness to sexual abuse and trafficking is only a fraction of the story. Rather, the overt, desperate desire to stay in Epstein’s circle — in many instances, well after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from girls — speaks volumes.

Molly Jong Fast’s standout piece for the New York Times drove home the bizarre need for Epstein adjacency among power players: “[T]he plight of the victims often seemed to be an afterthought. That’s most likely because whatever they received from him in the past — access to career-enhancing people, access to young girls and an endless supply of freebies — might still be on offer. This is the nature of the Epstein files: It’s the record of what a global class of very privileged, accomplished and self-important people want to get gifted.”

Objects, even when they were humans, mattered because they kept the connectivity to the source relevant and close.

Even as the Times published Jong Fast’s op-ed, its reporting pages told another story by repeatedly referring to the content of emails as “embarrassing” or instances of “speaking crudely about women.” Seriously New York Times, this sounds more like a review of the American Pie franchise. Those kinds of qualifications dangerously reinforce that the Epstein-adjacent acted in ways that are merely unfortunate or impulsive. Add to the mix the recent tirade from President Donald Trump — whose name allegedly appears in the files more than 1 million times — against CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at a White House press conference, chastising her to smile while she asked questions about justice for Epstein’s victims.

Let’s be blunt. There is no cavalry coming. But that does not mean there is not an opportunity for all of us to be bolder. The Contrarian recently covered the “organized gangs of wine moms” mobilizing on the frontlines and in communities defending against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here are some folks similarly drawing a line in the sand with regard to Epstein (all women I might add):

Chappell Roan announced she dropped her talent agency led by sports and entertainment executive Casey Wasserman, whose emails with Ghislaine Maxwell were part of the latest release. Roan wrote on Instagram: “I hold my teams to the highest standards and have a duty to protect them as well. No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values.”

Doctors with large, loyal followings on social media are refusing to appear as commentators or guests on CBS as long as the network continues to employ Peter Attia — among those Dr. Jen Ashton and Dr. Mary Claire Haver.

Melinda French Gates, whose ex-husband Bill Gates appears in the files, issued a clarion call over at NPR: “I think we’re having a reckoning as a society, right? No girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him. No girl.”

And of course, the survivors themselves, who took to the airwaves during the Super Bowl to slam DOJ’s refusal to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Rachel Foster, who leads World Without Exploitation, wrote so powerfully for The Contrarian this week, “These brave women have been united and fortified throughout this fight. They will not be silenced and intimidated by our government’s failures. We owe them more than betrayal.”

They deserve our protection, they deserve our respect, they deserve accountability. So do we. So does democracy.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.

---