When powerful people needed counsel, they turned to Jeffrey Epstein

The more than 20,000 pages of documents released by House lawmakers this week contain a voluminous record of Jeffrey Epstein's emails with boldfaced names.

Thorbjørn Jagland, the former prime minister of Norway, needed insight into President Donald Trump’s thinking. Mohamed Waheed Hassan, the former president of the Maldives, wanted guidance on high-level government finances. Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary, sought advice on his relationship with a woman. Michael Wolff, the journalist and bestselling author, seemed to be looking for a medical referral — a “colonoscopy man,” to be precise.

When some of the world’s most influential people required outside input, they went to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who cultivated an elite social circle that at one time included Trump, former President Bill Clinton and the British royal formerly known as Prince Andrew.

The more than 20,000 pages of documents released by House lawmakers this week contain a voluminous record of Epstein’s email exchanges with boldface names in the overlapping worlds of government, finance and media. The emails, which were reviewed by NBC News reporters, illustrate Epstein’s vast social network and paint a portrait of him as a go-to for counsel on all manner of subjects, from big-picture political strategy in the Trump era to more trivial concerns.

The messages are sure to add to the intrigue around Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He has become a fixture of American politics owing to his ties to Trump, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and says he ended their friendship sometime in the 2000s. The documents are also likely to renew questions about why so many powerful people continued to associate with Epstein even after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to two prostitution charges in Florida state court.

Epstein appears to have embraced his reputation as a font of wisdom. In the typo-strewn, sometimes jarringly informal emails, he presents himself to his interlocutors as an authority on Trump’s mindset and negotiating tactics. (NBC News is quoting from the messages verbatim, typos included.)