The money and good buddy deals and connections were what kept this whole Epstein enterprise going and funded. As horrendous as abusing underage school girls was, I think for Epstein it was just him able to indulge in his sick perversions because of his great wealth and influence.
The kept referring to Epstein as a 'Financier' but never directly talk about what he financed. It looks like from several reports, his real financial 'talent' was hiding money and making it disappear in offshore accounts. This made him valuable to both rich billionaires, Private Banks, and intelligence agencies.
Him dropping the occasional tidbit of intelligence to an agency just ingratiated him further with them and made him valuable to them. Part of why such a good deal in 08/09. I think he would sometimes use the young girls he recruited for himself as a 'party favor' when he found one of his associates would be into that. Kind of like offering a shot of $1000 a glass port to impress someone. I don't think Epstein and Maxwell looked at the girls as humans but as just things, toys to play with or share when it benefited them.
I think the blackmail was more subtle than overt. First, you can't tell on me without telling on yourself now that you are in the club. Second was the 'I want you to do me a favor though' aspect of being in the old boys network. Of course there is always the it would be a shame if those pictures got out.
One of the real challenges of this Epstein thing is did someone just go to a TED talk, or one of his gatherings of intelligent people, or were they involved in some level of hiding or dirty money or were they taking part in the debauchery with young girls.
So yes the debauchery and exploitation of children is deplorable, but there is a huge money and power component too. The money and power is probably why none of this information was ever released.
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