24 pointsby benwen14 hours ago2 comments
  • smithocan hour ago
    I worry the narrative here is going off the rails.

    A huge part of the Epstein saga was that he had connections to everyone, everywhere across finance, academia, entertainment, non-profits, etc and that he was constantly cultivating relationships, making and requesting introductions, giving and asking favors, etc.

    Only a tiny percent of the connections ever had any interaction with sex workers or exploited girls. In many cases, Epstein was clearly using the girls as bait, to later blackmail or otherwise have leverage over men in positions of power.

    The mere fact that someone interacted with Epstein shouldn't be treated as a smoking gun, if the emails are just related to regular business, fundraising, networking, etc, the odds are the person had no clue about Epstein's criminal activities and that they were in fact just 'marks' Epstein was using to grow his network of influence.

    Obviously we all want the criminals to face judgement and the victims to feel justice has been done, but we can't accomplish that by just declaring the thousands of people who met Epstein to all be guilty by association.