The Infrastructure of Jeffrey Epstein’s Power

At the end of January, Trump’s Justice Department released what it said was the last tranche of the Epstein files: millions of pages of emails and texts, F.B.I. documents and court records. Much was redacted and millions more pages have been withheld. There is a lot we want to know that remains unclear. But what has come into clear view is the role Epstein played as a broker of information, connections, wealth and women and girls for a slice of the global elite. This was the infrastructure of Epstein’s power — and it reveals much about the infrastructure of elite networks more generally. Anand Giridharadas is something of a sociologist of American elites. He’s the author of, among other books, “ Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World ” and the forthcoming “ Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle and Belonging in an American City .” He also publishes the great newsletter The.Ink . Back in November, after the release of an earlier batch of Epstein files, Giridharadas wrote a great Times Opinion guest essay , taking a sociologist’s lens to the messages Epstein exchanged with his elite friends. So after the government released this latest, enormous tranche of materials, I…