he would then tell lies to every group he cultivated about how his power came from other groups whose dynamics the others did not understand. he sold the idea of being involved in intelligence to billionaires. he sold the idea that he was the center of a billionaire conspiracy to intelligence. so on
A Ponzi scheme of influence
Makes sense he would end up the popular target of conspiracies. Just for this alone
His understanding of the frailties of the powerful man's ego is pretty astounding.
PRECISELY. And, at the same time, he was a child rapist.
And sometimes his cronies were themselves sex pests like Lawrence Krauss. Maybe by design, maybe just because there are so many sex pests that he was bound to find a few by random chance. I dunno.
Like check-kiting, but for clout.
Bill Gates' defense of his Epstein quality time, that Epstein had a unique ability to calls returned in powerful places, lines up with this. (Whether Bill Gates really didn't think he could get his own calls returned is another story.)