Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein

It’s very convenient for the American power elite to think about this as a story of one depraved man. But, in fact, what the emails show, if you actually read them, is that [Jeffrey Epstein] had chosen this particular kind of social network, this American power elite, because he could be sure that it would be able to look away at what he did, because it was very gifted at looking away over a generation from so much else . . . so much other abuse and suffering; whether [it be] the economic crises members of that network often helped cause, the wars that members of that network helped push fraudulently, or the pain of technological obsolescence that members of that network pushed on the American public.

So, this was a group of people well chosen by Jeffrey Epstein, because this American power elite, these circles that he moved in, if they have any superpower, it is the ability to hear the cries of people without power and close their ears.

. . . I would respectfully correct something that Virginia Giuffre said. She said she was trafficked to a bunch of leaders. I would say she is a leader who was trafficked to a bunch of cowards. . . . [A]ll these women have proven themselves to be the actual leaders, because leaders are brave, they take risks, they do what’s right even when it’s not convenient. And what has been revealed, ultimately, by this Epstein story is that we are led by a group of people who do not deserve to be called leaders. And these women point to what leadership looks like.

– Anand Giridharadas
Excerpted from “'The Epstein Class’:
The Elite Network Around the Sexual Predator
Democracy Now
November 25, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Epstein's Secret Network Unmasked: Emails Show Deep Ties to Influential Leaders – Sourik Saha (India Today, November 26, 2025).
Emails Reveal Epstein’s Network of the Rich and Powerful Despite Sex Offender Status – Jesse Bedayn (PBS Newshour, November 26, 2025).