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Why the rich and powerful couldn't say no to Epstein
6 hours ago
Nada Tawfik and Madeline Halpert
New York
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Watch: The Epstein connections that lasted beyond the scandal
It was one of the big set-pieces in Washington in 2019.
All eyes were on Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was testifying to a House committee about his former boss.
A Democratic member of the committee, Stacey Plaskett, was preparing to question Cohen and was seen on camera texting someone on her phone.
This week, the public found out the identity of the other person in that exchange - convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to emails made public by his estate under a subpoena, he was encouraging her to ask about a Trump Organization employee. After Ms Plaskett did so, Epstein texted her back: "Good Work".
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The extent of his influence
In hindsight, this incident has struck a chord with many, who say it highlights the extent of his influence on America's elite.
Plaskett has denied she was seeking Epstein's advice, saying she was texting with many people that day, including Epstein, who was one of her constituents. She says as a former lawyer, she had learned to seek information from all sources - even people she didn't like.
"I am disgusted by Epstein's deviant behavior. I strongly support his victims and admire their courage. I have long believed and supported that the entire Epstein files be released," she said in a statement, sent to the BBC.
His private island in the US territory had also been mentioned in a damning investigation by the Miami Herald just a year before as being one of the places he sexually abused several underage girls.
Just six months after her exchange with Epstein, the disgraced financier would be dead in his prison cell - a result of suicide, according to a medical examiner. His death, and the conspiracies that swirled around it, would trigger a reckoning that has caused ripple effects in Washington and Wall Street, and has taken down some of his former friends.
Jemal Countess/Stringer/Getty Rep. Stacey Plaskett speaks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference National Town Hall on September 21, 2023 in Washington, DCJemal Countess/Stringer/Getty
House Delegate Stacey Plaskett was one of many high-profile figures who kept in touch with Epstein despite the conviction
Their exchange was just one of many in the latest trove of over 20,000 pages of personal documents, which revealed Epstein's ability to maintain elite social circles even after his criminal conviction and the Herald expose.
How and why these relationships survived while other friends cut him off tells us as much about the dynamics of social circles at the very top of US society as they do about Epstein's influence.
"He was a diabolical monster, but at the same time he was brilliant in a sense that he was able to maintain this incredible network of some of the world's most powerful individuals," said Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
"He had a certain charisma attached to himself that put him in a position where people turned to him."
'He would use information that he gained'
Epstein considered himself a "people collector" who made connections for transactional purposes, Mr Levine said.
"He would use information that he gained… with the intention at the end of the day that he was going to bank either favours from them, finances from them, or in a darker sense, I think, blackmail from some of these individuals."
The relationship between Epstein and Labour's Lord Peter Mandelson has come under particular scrutiny in the UK, with Lord Mandelson ultimately being sacked in September from his role as the UK's ambassador to the US.
Mandelson still in contact with Epstein in 2016, emails show
Documents released by Congress show he maintained contact with the paedophile until late 2016, which was before the Herald expose but after his conviction.
In one email from November 2015, Epstein tells him after his birthday: "63 years old. You made it."
Lord Mandelson replies less than 90 minutes later, saying: "Just. I have decided to extend my life by spending more of it in the US."
He has strenuously denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes, any wrongdoing, and has expressed regret over their continued communications with him.
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