It’s not what you know, it’s who you know — even if you may have committed terrible crimes.

That’s the Jeffrey Epstein version of the famous line about success.

The massive tranche of Epstein emails released by the House Oversight Committee didn’t reveal any smoking guns about Donald Trump, but it did highlight a vast conspiracy to help the disgraced financier thrive despite his guilty plea to sex charges involving a minor in 2008.

This conspiracy wasn’t the work of the Deep State, or Israel, or the Jews. No, it was more pedestrian and damning than that. An element of the American elite embraced Epstein as one of its own, thanks to his wealth and his connections.

The conservative thinker Russell Kirk once quipped about conspiracy theories concerning Dwight Eisenhower that Ike wasn’t a communist; he was a golfer. In a similar vein, Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t a Mossad agent; he was a networker.

The implausible populist narrative about the Epstein case is that the government — at all levels and up to today — has protected him and others who participated in his crimes because too many powerful people have too much at stake, or because it’s too dangerous to reveal Israel’s role in the scandal, or both.

Perhaps these interpretations will gain factual support as more is revealed, but it seems unlikely.

Regardless, populists have a different narrative at hand that is consistent with the known record. Namely, that some of the most privileged members of our society — at the very top of the financial, academic, political, media, and social worlds — had no standards or ethics, and embraced Epstein as a friend and consigliere.

Epstein knew influential people, so influential people felt that they should know him. They considered him fun, and useful — for advice, for banter, for introductions, for information, and for donations.

The emails suggest that Epstein missed his calling as a high-level, seamy advice columnist to the rich and powerful.

Want to know more about the reputation of the woman you are having an affair with? Seeking advice on how to gain political influence in Europe? Wondering how you’re handling your interactions with a potential mistress? Looking for insights about Donald Trump? Trying to survive sexual harassment allegations? Need a reference for a gastroenterologist?

Well, then, ask Jeffrey Epstein.

He emailed with former Harvard president Larry Summers, the linguist Noam Chomsky, venture capitalist Boris Nikolic, Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Trump activist Steve Bannon, the journalist Michael Wolff, the artist Andres Serrano, the department store scion Jonathan Farkas, and former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, among others.

It’s not as though Epstein was particularly insightful, but if he knew so many important people, he must know something, right?

As for his scrape with the law, clearly all had been forgiven and forgotten. If he was in the good graces of the social wrangler Peggy Siegal, whose job was to get bold-faced names to accept invitations, he must be okay.

For some of Epstein’s correspondents, it was part of his appeal that he was disreputable. Larry Summers, who leaned on Epstein for romantic advice, asked him at one point, “How is life among the lucrative and louche?”

Epstein’s social currency is one reason that he got off so easily the first time he was prosecuted — he hired the best, most connected defense attorneys, who outclassed and intimidated his prosecutors.

As for Trump, he is guilty of enjoying Epstein’s company a couple of decades ago, presumably for the same reason so many others did. But he had a falling out with Epstein long ago. Trump didn’t have anything to do with him at the time when so many others in these emails were socializing with Epstein, confiding in him, and asking him for insight on Trump.

That’s a disgrace, and it’s always been in plain sight.

In the Epstein story, it’s not so much follow the money — although that’s important and still mysterious — as follow the social network.

© 2025 by King Features Syndicate