Just the sheer number of prominent people he had connections with, including who likely saw him doing illegal and/or highly immoral activities. I previously had more the model that a) conspiracies are unlikely (“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead”), especially in the age of modern information technology, and b) the rare conspiracies that are sustained do so through direct and substantial state support (black ops, government threats, etc). And while Epstein clearly had a lot of elite connections, it didn’t seem like the conspiracy was super-legible to the state as an entity, nor one that required a bunch of state interventions to sustain.
“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead”
Three thousand can know about an illegal activity without any of them calling the cops. Which is different from keeping it a well-guarded secret.
They were probably selected for being somewhat morally flexible, and there was a lot of pressure to not rock the boat. I mean, accusing the rest of the elite of participating in an illegal activity pretty much means excluding yourself from the elite, doesn’t it? Even if there are no direct consequences (no one kills you, or sues you for defamation), you will probably never get invited into any private place where important talks happen.
Just the sheer number of prominent people he had connections with, including who likely saw him doing illegal and/or highly immoral activities. I previously had more the model that a) conspiracies are unlikely (“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead”), especially in the age of modern information technology, and b) the rare conspiracies that are sustained do so through direct and substantial state support (black ops, government threats, etc). And while Epstein clearly had a lot of elite connections, it didn’t seem like the conspiracy was super-legible to the state as an entity, nor one that required a bunch of state interventions to sustain.
Three thousand can know about an illegal activity without any of them calling the cops. Which is different from keeping it a well-guarded secret.
They were probably selected for being somewhat morally flexible, and there was a lot of pressure to not rock the boat. I mean, accusing the rest of the elite of participating in an illegal activity pretty much means excluding yourself from the elite, doesn’t it? Even if there are no direct consequences (no one kills you, or sues you for defamation), you will probably never get invited into any private place where important talks happen.