Why the rich and powerful couldn't say no to Epstein

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 US House of Representatives 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 - the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Emails made public by his estate under a subpoena show he was encouraging her to ask about a Trump Organization employee. After Plaskett did so, Epstein texted her back: "Good Work."

Their exchange was just one of many in the latest trove of over 20,000 pages of personal documents, which demonstrated again 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."

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 Lord Peter Mandelson has come under particular scrutiny in the UK, with the latter ultimately being sacked as the UK's ambassador to the US in September.

Documents released by Congress show Lord Mandelson 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 or wrongdoing, and has expressed regret over their continued communication.

The documents released by Epstein's estate reveal his eclectic social circle of distinguished scholars, business titans and politicians.

Mr Levine said it was not a stretch to say that some of Epstein's more casual acquaintances may not have known about his abuse, or were impressed enough by his influential connections to overlook it.

"People forget things," he said. "His credentials among power brokers were extremely high, and I think a lot of individuals probably just dismissed the conviction against him."

Others may have been simply dazzled by his wealth, journalists and those who knew him have suggested.

"A jail sentence doesn't matter anymore," David Patrick Columbia, the founder of New York Social Diary, told the Daily Beast newsite in 2011, after Epstein's first conviction. "The only thing that gets you shunned in New York society is poverty."

A former US treasury secretary turned Harvard University president, Larry Summers, asked Epstein for romantic advice, including in an exchange in November 2018 - the same month the Herald investigation was published - in which he seemed to forward an email from a woman to Epstein to ask about how he should respond.

Epstein replied: "She's already beginning to sound needy :) nice."

Summers' interactions with his former confidant came back to haunt him last week, leading him to announce he was stepping back from public commitments and stopping teaching at Harvard.

"I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused," Summers said.

Throughout the 23,000 pages of Epstein's documents, one man's name appears more than perhaps any other.

Trump did not send or receive any of the messages, having cut ties with Epstein.

In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a "terrific guy". Epstein would later remark: "I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years."

But the relationship soured. Trump has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been "a fan of his".

Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein's sex trafficking. The White House has also said Trump kicked Epstein out of his club "decades ago for being a creep to his female employees".

Mr Levine said there were many people whose messages with Epstein after his convictions will leave them embarrassed, though that did not suggest they participated in any of his crimes.

"Each and every one of course regrets the day they communicated with Jeffrey Epstein or spent time with him," he said. "It is one of the most unbelievable stories of our time - power, privilege, predation."

But there was at least one person who said he immediately understood that Epstein was "gross".

Howard Lutnick, the president's commerce secretary, was a next-door neighbour of Epstein's for 10 years. He told the New York Post's podcast that his first encounter with Epstein was his last.

Shortly after Lutnick moved into his property on the Upper East side in 2005, he says Epstein gave Lutnick and his wife a tour of his large residence.

In Epstein's dining room, after seeing a massage table surrounded by candles, Lutnick asked him how often he used it.

"He says: 'Every day.' And then he gets, like, weirdly close to me, and he says: 'And the right kind of massage'."

Lutnick said he and his wife exchanged glances, excused themselves and left.

"I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again."