by Byron York at Washington Examiner
THEY KNEW EPSTEIN WAS GUILTY OF TRAFFICKING UNDERAGE GIRLS. THEY STUCK WITH HIM ANYWAY. EXCEPT TRUMP. In 2014, the journalist-turned-adviser Michael Wolff wrote an unpublished profile of Jeffrey Epstein. This was a few years after Epstein served a prison sentence for sex trafficking a minor girl. Epstein gave Wolff, who had once hoped to go into business with the financier, access to his “absurdly vast house” in Manhattan and his life in it. We have the profile Wolff wrote because he emailed it to Epstein — not the sort of thing most journalists would do — and it was made public in the 20,000-plus documents House Republicans released last week.
The theme of the profile is that many prominent and accomplished people decided to maintain their friendships with Epstein even after an investigation showed he lured a number of underage girls to his house for sex. He then pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of procuring a minor for prostitution. In an infamous sweetheart deal, Epstein received an 18-month sentence that allowed him to come and go freely while spending nights in “jail.”
“He got out of jail in 2009, serving 13 months, and moved seamlessly back into his life, to the shock-shock of tabloids whenever they are reminded of his existence,” Wolff wrote. “Some things changed. While surprisingly few others dropped him, the Clintons did, an irony of the present tabloid interest in Epstein’s old address book with its many Clinton contacts. And his sex offender status has transformed him from libertine playboy to pedophile in tabloid parlance.”
The article is a long list of people who hung around with post-prison Epstein. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, “for whom Epstein has become a key adviser,” was helping Epstein deal with his image problems. Mort Zuckerman, “the real estate billionaire and owner of the Daily News.” PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard University. Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel. Then-Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim. The lawyer Reid Weingarten. Thorbjørn Jagland, then-head of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister of Australia. Nathan Myhrvold, a former top executive at Microsoft. Harvard professor Martin Nowak. Richard Axel, a Nobel Prize winner. Investment fund manager Ron Baron. Josh Harris, owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils. And then: “A high ranking official from the Obama White House, whose name I am asked not to use.”
They all came to Epstein’s house in New York. “These meetings, and this lifestyle,…
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