Jeffrey Epstein Excuses
By James Freeman May 5, 2023 1:59 pm ET This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: /New York State Sex Offender Regi/Associated Press Say what you will about the people who sit atop America’s elite institutions but many of them sure seem to believe in giving second chances to convicts—or at least to one convict. Even after officially becoming a sex offender who preyed on a child, Jeffrey Epstein seems to have been welcomed into the company of some of the world’s most powerful people. Perhaps they can now describe other convicts they welcomed into their business and social scene. And if they can’t, it seems additional explanation is in order to clarify what exactly they found special ab
This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein.
Photo: /New York State Sex Offender Regi/Associated Press
Say what you will about the people who sit atop America’s elite institutions but many of them sure seem to believe in giving second chances to convicts—or at least to one convict. Even after officially becoming a sex offender who preyed on a child, Jeffrey Epstein seems to have been welcomed into the company of some of the world’s most powerful people. Perhaps they can now describe other convicts they welcomed into their business and social scene. And if they can’t, it seems additional explanation is in order to clarify what exactly they found special about Epstein.
The Journal’s Khadeeja Safdar, David Benoit and Kara Dapena report:
On Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, Jeffrey Epstein had a full calendar. He was scheduled to meet that day with Bill Gates, Thomas Pritzker, Leon Black and Mortimer Zuckerman, four of the richest men in the country, according to schedules and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Epstein also planned meetings that day with a former top White House lawyer, a college president and a philanthropic adviser, three of the dozens of meetings the Journal reported he had with each of them.
It’s hard to think of people who had more options when it comes to financial expertise or philanthropic support. They are surely some of the most well-connected people in the country. Did they need to do business with Epstein? In describing the various meetings, the Journal reporters note:
The Four Seasons, a luxury-hotel chain in which Mr. Gates’s investment firm holds a stake, was the next scheduled stop. There, Epstein introduced Mr. Gates to Kathryn Ruemmler, who until earlier that year had served as President Obama’s top White House lawyer.
Over the next few years, Epstein often had appointments with Ms. Ruemmler, who was a partner at Latham & Watkins at the time and is now general counsel at .
Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein and many of their meetings were about a mutual client, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ms. Ruemmler said... A spokeswoman for Latham & Watkins said Epstein wasn’t a client of the firm.
In a separate Journal report, Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit report:
Lawrence Summers wanted $1 million to fund an online poetry project his wife was developing. The former Treasury secretary and onetime Harvard University president turned to Jeffrey Epstein...
Mr. Summers continued to meet with Epstein and seek his help years after Harvard decided it would no longer accept his donations.
Reid Hoffman, a billionaire venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder, visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean and was scheduled to stay over at his Manhattan townhouse in 2014...
Mr. Hoffman said he met with Epstein to raise funds for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and that he regrets interacting with Epstein after his conviction.
Surely a former Treasury secretary, a billionaire and MIT could have found plenty of non-Epstein avenues to fund education, whether related to poetry or physics.
Perhaps the Epstein circle was composed of trusting and forgiving people who wanted to give him a second chance. Are there other convicts with whom they developed similar relationships?
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The Right Man at the Right Time in California
Ronald Reagan used to say that there are heroes all over this country—you just need to know where to look.
CBS
television station KCAL in Los Angeles reports:
Our hero happened to be there to perform his indispensable service only because of a series of horrible experiences. KCAL reports:
Nessman, a former truck driver trying to piece his life back together, only recently moved to Hesperia to reconnect with his family, after a sudden and tragic heartbreak sent him spiraling to homelessness.
“My girlfriend passed away in 2018,” he said. “It was sudden and I didn’t want to do anything.”
Since doing something wonderful this week, Mr. Nessman has been offered a number of jobs but KCAL reports that he may have trouble accepting:
“I don’t have transportation at this time,” said Nessman. “So, I don’t want to seem ungrateful but I just can’t get to work. If it’s something within bus distance I can get there.”
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Who Watches the Watchmen?
This week brings news of federal overseers conducting an independent investigation of a federal overseer who has been investigating an independent agency. Alexander Osipovich and Paul Kiernan report for the Journal:
A federal regulator has voted to suspend its inspector general after an oversight body found that he engaged in “substantial misconduct,” including wasting government funds, outing whistleblowers and disparaging employees, people familiar with the matter said.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives markets, voted 3-0 to place its inspector general, A. Roy Lavik, on “non-duty status” while it considered what further action to take, the people said... Mr. Lavik couldn’t be reached for comment. In a letter made public alongside a report from the oversight group, he disputed the allegations against him...
The CFTC’s move to suspend Mr. Lavik came in response to a critical report from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, or CIGIE, the body that oversees the various inspectors general offices across the government.
The body’s website states that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “was statutorily established as an independent entity within the executive branch by “The Inspector General Reform Act of 2008.”
This naturally raises the question of who oversees the independent council of inspectors who oversee inspectors who oversee independent agencies. Fortunately for the residents of Washington, D.C., there seems to be no limit to how many independent bodies can be tasked with overseeing other independent bodies.
Perhaps the president, who is accountable to voters, should simply retain all the executive authority granted to him in the Constitution.
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Super Sleuths
“Dozens of people infected with COVID-19 at CDC’s annual conference of ‘disease detectives’,” Fox News, May 4.
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James Freeman is the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi” and also the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”
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(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Monty Krieger.)
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