<\/p>\n
This photograph taken in Le-Perreux-sur-Marne, outside Paris on February 9, 2026 shows undated pictures provided by the US Department of Justice on January 30, 2026 as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files.<\/p>\n
MARTIN BUREAU<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the winter of 2018, Jeffrey Epstein was afraid his world was crashing down.<\/p>\n
The disgraced financier had spent millions of dollars over the previous decade rehabilitating his image after pleading guilty to solicitation charges in a Florida state court in 2008.<\/p>\n
But a 2018 Miami Herald investigation<\/a> documenting his crimes \u2014 and how he and his high-powered legal team evaded more serious charges \u2014 had led to renewed public outcry and political pressure to re-investigate him.<\/p>\n Epstein turned to a group of some of his closest confidants to help him counter the public narrative that was forming against him.<\/p>\n The advisors included former Obama White House deputy counsel Kathyrn Ruemmler; far-right provocateur Steve Bannon; former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr; journalist Michael Wolff; and left-wing academic Noam Chomsky.<\/p>\n The goal, from Bannon\u2019s perspective<\/a>, was to: \u201c[C]rush the pedo\/trafficking narrative; then rebuild your image as philanthropist.\u201d<\/p>\n In the weeks and months leading up to Epstein\u2019s arrest on July 6, 2019, the team brainstormed public relations strategies, gave Epstein media training, checked in on his well-being and offered him words of support.<\/p>\n In at least some of their eyes, it was Epstein \u2014 and not the women and girls he had exploited \u2060\u2014 who was the real victim and the press was unfairly targeting him.<\/p>\n \u201cReality has been rewritten,\u201d wrote Wolff in a missive<\/a> to the financier on Dec. 1, 2018.<\/p>\n Epstein and his associates\u2019 efforts failed.<\/p>\n But they highlight how some of the most influential figures in American society closed ranks and attempted to protect him from social consequences a second time.<\/p>\n The Herald\u2019s reporting is based on the millions of pages of records released by the U.S. Justice Department last month to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed last year.<\/p>\n Wolff told the Herald in a statement that he believed the Herald\u2019s series \u201clargely reflected the views of the attorneys for the Epstein plaintiffs, and that Epstein, if he believed that view was wrong, should make his own case to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ruemmler said she knew Epstein through her work as a criminal defense attorney and was \u201cfriendly in that professional context.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Ruemmler has deep sympathy for those harmed by Epstein and if she knew then what she knows now, she never would have dealt with him at all,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was not his defender. She never advocated on his behalf with any third party \u2013 not the press, not a court, not a government official.\u201d<\/p>\n After publication, the spokesperson also specified that Ruemmler didn\u2019t see Epstein as the victim in this matter.<\/p>\n Chomsky\u2019s wife, Val\u00e9ria, also sent statement to the Herald<\/a> after publication saying that Epstein had claimed to Chomsky that he [Epstein] was being unfairly persecuted and Chomsky \u201cspoke from his own experience in political controversies with the media.\u201d<\/p>\n She said that their relationship with Epstein was a \u201cgrave mistake\u201d and a \u201clapse in judgment\u201d and that they should have realized that Epstein was manipulative and using them to repair his reputation.<\/p>\n Bannon didn\u2019t respond to the Herald\u2019s request for comment. Starr passed away in 2022.<\/p>\n \u2018Humanizing the image of a monster\u2019<\/p>\n Wolff emailed Jeffrey Epstein on the evening of Nov. 28, 2018 \u2060\u2014 the day the Herald published its investigation \u2060\u2014 asking if he was receiving a lot of questions or criticism about the revelations.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me know if there\u2019s anything I can do,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. He followed up the next day with the draft of a short statement Epstein could use.<\/p>\n Starr emailed Epstein the same day asking if he should grant the Herald\u2019s request for an interview. Epstein connected<\/a> Starr with Ruemmler \u2060\u2014 to whom he had already complained<\/a> about the story \u2060\u2014 and asked him to \u201cagree [on] some bullet points\u201d with her before speaking to any reporter.<\/p>\n Epstein thought<\/a> laying low was the best option but was being pressured to comment by some of his associates who were facing questions.<\/p>\n \u201cI keep receiving phone calls from friends asking that I say something so that they [can] use it to defend themselves,\u201d he wrote<\/a> to Ruemmler.<\/p>\n Epstein was adamant<\/a> that he had received an appropriate penalty and said he believed the women the Herald\u2019s story highlighted were not victims but sex workers, email exchanges show. In one message, Epstein even compared<\/a> them to Jussie Smollett, an actor who claimed to have been a victim of a hate crime in 2019 that police later determined he had staged.<\/p>\n Both Ruemmler<\/a> and Wolff<\/a> warned that the age of the women \u2060\u2014 they were young and some minors \u2060\u2014 meant that public outrage wouldn\u2019t be quelled by any legal argument. Ruemmler also warned<\/a> Epstein about the legal ramifications of any response from him: \u201c[N]othing short of a full and complete mea culpa is worth doing, and legally you can\u2019t do that \u2014 at least not now.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolff suggested<\/a> bringing Bannon onboard on Dec. 1. The two men<\/a> and Ruemmler<\/a> agreed that they needed an overall strategy and to \u201cgame out everything\u201d instead of a \u201cpiecemeal response.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou need someone to coordinate the decision matrix,\u201d Wolff wrote<\/a> to Epstein two days later. \u201cIt\u2019s a running analysis, a war room.\u201d<\/p>\n A few days later Epstein also asked Chomsky for his advice.<\/p>\n \u201cThese things have a half-life,\u201d Chomsky wrote<\/a> back. \u201cJust stay above the furor, wait it out, go on with what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n In subsequent weeks and months, Epstein discussed several options with his band of confidants \u2014 asking<\/a> Starr to write an editorial piece defending him; getting an independent group or judge to investigate the accusations to \u201cseparate truth from fiction<\/a>\u201d; and having<\/a> a Federalist Society member author an article in his favor.<\/p>\n The records show he also considered<\/a> taking what he said was his friend filmmaker Woody Allen\u2019s advice<\/a> to do an interview with Wolff which Allen would edit; offering<\/a> Julie K. Brown, the author of the Herald series, an interview and releasing an \u201capology alongside clearly setting the facts straight\u201d; establishing a \u201cmental health center for sex workers\u201d and sending<\/a> a delegation of Starr, Ruemmler and attorney Alan Dershowitz to meet then-Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, who had been a vocal critic of Epstein\u2019s South Florida plea deal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to humanize the image of a monster,\u201d Epstein wrote<\/a> to Ruemmler in February 2019.<\/p>\n He finally settled on two avenues: financing a documentary made by Bannon that would tell his side of the story and publishing an opinion piece in a major newspaper.<\/p>\n Bannon\u2019s film would highlight, in Epstein\u2019s words<\/a>, the \u201chypocrisy of the liberal left.\u201d It would feature interviews<\/a> with scientists and academics whose work had benefited from his donations. Epstein thought he could even get some of \u201cthe girls\u201d to go on record in his favor.<\/p>\n In late-December 2018 Epstein shared the draft of an op-ed with Ruemmler, Wolff and Chomsky. His plan was to potentially submit it to the Washington Post with one or more of his attorneys listed as an author, the records show.<\/p>\n Ruemmler and Wolff offered<\/a> some edits. Chomsky suggested<\/a> he should \u201cdevelop a thick skin\u201d and just ignore the press and the public outrage.<\/p>\n The article never saw the light of day.<\/p>\n But the New York Times did publish a letter<\/a> defending Epstein\u2019s plea deal signed by his attorneys Starr, Martin Weinberg, Jack Goldberger and Lilly Ann Sanchez in March 2019.<\/p>\n Epstein shared the article with numerous people on his contacts list, the records show.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Bannon\u2019s documentary was ever finished.<\/p>\n Epstein never met with Brown or anyone else at the Herald.<\/p>\n With friends like these<\/p>\n The records show that Epstein corresponded with many of his friends about the Herald\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n Some offered support.<\/p>\n \u201cThis cannot be fun. My heart goes out to you,\u201d evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers wrote<\/a> in an email the day after the first Herald story published.<\/p>\n The same day, Landon Thomas Jr., then a financial reporter at the New York Times, asked Epstein how he was \u201cholding up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone alerted me to the Miami herald [sic.] hit piece,\u201d Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist, wrote<\/a> in a text message a few days later. \u201cWe are hoping that it is mostly bluster and that you are holding up well.\u201d<\/p>\n Krauss, a Canadian-American, is a long-time Epstein associate who himself has been accused<\/a> of sexual misconduct at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n Krauss told the Herald that he only knew Epstein through events like \u201csalons with interesting speakers or scientific meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNone of the communications with Epstein relate in any way to the horrendous crimes he was accused of in 2019,\u201d he said. \u201cI was as shocked as the rest of the world when he was arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n Krauss did not respond when the Herald sent him a follow-up request to review the record of his message to Epstein just days after the 2018 series and months before his arrest.<\/p>\n The Herald was not able to immediately reach Thomas Jr. and Trivers.<\/p>\n Epstein also turned to others for additional advice.<\/p>\n In February 2019, Epstein asked<\/a> former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers for his thoughts on responding to the reporting. Summers, who was also formerly the president of Harvard University, advised Epstein against saying anything publicly.<\/p>\n Summers did not respond to questions the Herald sent to his spokesperson.<\/p>\n But Epstein\u2019s associates and well-wishers, the records show, did not always agree with each other.<\/p>\n Wolff, for instance<\/a>, did not think a video of him interviewing Epstein \u2060\u2014 an idea that Epstein claimed was Woody Allen\u2019s \u2060\u2014 was going to work.<\/p>\n Ruemmler had apprehensions about Epstein employing crisis management experts suggested by Bannon.<\/p>\n \u201cSteve\u2019s people are, shall we say, kind of out there,\u201d Ruemmler wrote<\/a> in a missive to Epstein.<\/p>\n Epstein himself had a non-disclosure agreement drafted for Bannon\u2019s crew before they could film anything.<\/p>\n Epstein also initially raised doubts about the optics of having Starr be the face of his defense, the records show. He pointed out to Ruemmler that Starr had been accused<\/a> of failing to properly investigate sexual assault allegations while he was President of Baylor University in Texas.<\/p>\n But despite their misgivings, Epstein\u2019s friends still banded together to help shield him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will get you through this storm,\u201d wrote<\/a> Ruemmler in a late-February 2019 email.<\/p>\n Epstein was arrested on July 6 that year. Roughly a month later, he was found dead in his cell at a federal detention facility in Lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: This story has been updated to reflect comments received after publication.<\/p>\n This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 11:46 AM.<\/p>\n Michael Wolff attends Michael Wolff With Alec Baldwin On Donald Trump: All or Nothing at 92NY on March 14, 2025 in New York City. Theo Wargo Getty Images <\/p>\n
Steve Bannon, media personality and political strategist, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Alex Wong Getty Images <\/p>\n
Prosecutors Sean Berkowitz and Kathryn Ruemmler arrive at the Bob Casey U.S. Courthouse for the fraud and conspiracy trial of former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling May 2, 2006 in Houston, Texas. Dave Einsel Getty Images <\/p>\n
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