In the rarefied air of Davos dinners and private islands, where genius is currency and connections are king, a convicted sex offender found his perfect playground. Journalist Anand Giridharadas pulls no punches in dissecting how Jeffrey Epstein masterfully embedded himself within an elite network that prized raw brilliance—and the “edge” it promised—far above any pesky moral scrutiny. Diving deep into thousands of unsealed emails, Giridharadas exposes a chilling truth: Epstein didn’t infiltrate this world by accident; he chose it deliberately because its members were experts at looking away—from victims’ pain, from ethical red flags, from anything that might disrupt their self-congratulatory circle of power.T

In his penetrating New York Times essay and subsequent interviews, journalist Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, offers a sharp analysis of how Jeffrey Epstein skillfully ingratiated himself into America’s power elite. Drawing from thousands of unsealed Epstein emails, Giridharadas argues that Epstein’s success in embedding within these circles was no accident—he deliberately targeted a social network whose defining trait was a cultivated ability to overlook moral failings in favor of perceived brilliance, connections, and mutual advantage.

Giridharadas flips the common question: not “How could these eminent figures associate with a convicted sex offender?” but rather, “Why wouldn’t they?” Epstein, after his 2008 plea deal, sought rehabilitation among presidents, billionaires, academics, and royals. He found willing allies in a “borderless network” more loyal to one another than to ethical standards or public accountability. This “Epstein class,” as Giridharadas and others term it, prized access, information barter, and “edge”—qualities Epstein provided in abundance through his rolodex and enigmatic financier persona.

Central to Giridharadas’s dissection is the elite’s practiced disregard for pain. Members of this network, he notes, had already honed the skill of ignoring widespread suffering: financial crises they helped engineer, wars they advocated, opioid epidemics they fueled, inequalities they exacerbated. Extending that blindness to Epstein’s crimes was effortless. “Looking away was a superpower in this social network,” Giridharadas told Preet Bharara on the Stay Tuned podcast. Epstein’s poor spelling and casual demeanor may have even been deliberate, positioning him as the inscrutable connector above his fawning correspondents.

The emails reveal a clubby world of deal-making and name-dropping, crossing ideological lines—Steve Bannon dining suggestions alongside Obama-era officials. Epstein orchestrated introductions, dinners, and trips, redeeming his reputation through prestige. Giridharadas sees this as emblematic of broader elite behavior: prioritizing horizontal loyalty among the powerful over downward responsibility to society.

Yet Giridharadas contrasts this with survivors like Virginia Giuffre, whose bravery exposes true leadership. The elite’s moral racketeering, he warns, sustains a system where brilliance—or the illusion of it—trumps scrutiny. Epstein didn’t infiltrate this network; he mastered it, exploiting its indifference. As more files emerge, Giridharadas’s insights remind us that the scandal reveals not just one predator, but a class complicit in protecting its own.