For far too long, the Jeffrey Epstein affair has been reduced to a succession of sexual scandals, name lists and media fantasies: in short, the excesses and horrors of one man. All of this served as a convenient smokescreen compared to the darker, sometimes almost kabbalistic revelations suggested by the latest documents released by the US Department of Justice. That reading was comfortable, but profoundly insufficient. Early on, attention focused on a few prominent names, but access to nearly 300,000 newly released documents may either clarify certain issues or, on the contrary, drown the truth in an overwhelming flood of information. Names of individuals who knew Epstein directly or indirectly are now emerging in rapid succession.
What is taking shape as the declassified Department of Justice documents are made public is not merely the portrait of a sexual predator protected by networks of influence, but that of an individual positioned at the heart of a global web of political, economic, financial and diplomatic relationships whose overall coherence still largely escapes conventional judicial analysis.
What strikes today is not only the international scale of the Epstein network, but the near total absence of legal proceedings against the figures named in these documents. Ministers, former heads of state, billionaires, academics, intelligence officials, princes, bankers, financial intermediaries: the names circulate, the archives exist, testimonies accumulate, yet the judicial system appears paralyzed. This situation inevitably fuels what are often dismissed as conspiracy theories. This asymmetry raises a central, disturbing but unavoidable question: was Epstein simply a protected criminal, or an influence operator operating in a grey zone between sex, money, information and power?
Epstein: a system rather than a scandal
The more documents from the US Department of Justice are released, the more the Jeffrey Epstein affair ceases to be a criminal case and instead appears as a major symptom of the excesses of globalized power. What these archives reveal is not merely the trajectory of a predatory individual, but the existence of an opaque international ecosystem where political leaders, economic decision-makers, leading scientists, financial intermediaries and diplomatic figures intersect, without any collective responsibility ever being engaged.
At the core, the problem is not only moral or criminal, but clearly geopolitical. Epstein did not thrive on the margins of the system, but at the very center of the major transnational networks of power. And despite the scale of the revelations, no comprehensive judicial investigation has been launched against the personalities appearing in these files. This explains the constant insistence on the presumption of innocence for all those mentioned in documents that are now publicly accessible, even though many passages were redacted before publication. This total inertia raises a heavy question: what exactly is being protected by refusing to fully judicialize this affair?
Epstein: an influence agent in a borderless world
Jeffrey Epstein was neither an industrial billionaire, nor a head of state, nor an official diplomat. Yet, having reportedly built his fortune through speculation, he moved freely among global decision-making centers. In the history of international relations, individuals without official status but endowed with universal access are rarely innocuous. They are often facilitators or intermediaries, what English-language literature calls “go-betweens.” They act as transmission belts between spheres that prefer not to appear publicly connected.
Epstein offered far more than private parties. He offered a space beyond sovereignty, a place where legal, moral and sometimes even diplomatic rules appeared suspended. In such spaces, sex becomes a strategic instrument and a point of vulnerability for many powerful individuals. Not merely to satisfy impulses, but to create exposure, generate dependency, establish asymmetric relationships and provide leverage for future pressure. In the world of intelligence and influence operations, this mechanism is well known. These are the so-called “kompromat,” compromising materials long favored by Russian services and still actively used by Chinese ones to bring someone down.
The real question, therefore, is not whether Epstein engaged in explicit blackmail, but whether he organized implicit dependency. A dependency in which everyone knew they had crossed a line, and that this transgression could one day be used against them. In this logic, Epstein did not even need to act directly. His mere existence, his possession of information, his control over access were enough to make him a power broker. Otherwise, why would so many individuals be involved, why would there be so many documents and such an abundance of available information?
Sex, money, information: the winning trio of discreet empires
This is nothing new. Global power no longer primarily functions through institutions, which increasingly struggle to operate, but through parallel networks where money, information and compromise circulate freely. In this context, sex is not an excess; it is the cherry on top. Today, it is one of the most effective ways to eliminate someone who has become useless to the system. It is a political currency. It buys silence, loyalty and sometimes access to decisions or closed circles.
What is now shocking global public opinion, and more timidly the media, particularly in France, is not only the list of names, but the disappearance of the principle of accountability. No major systemic trial. No investigation into the networks. No apparent willingness to understand the real functions of this system. This absence is not neutral. It fuels the idea that certain global elites operate in a zone of structural impunity, protected by the very complexity of the system they embody. This is precisely what seems to be happening in the case of Jack Lang, who for decades has managed to slip through every scandal and persistent rumor.
In an unstable world marked by strategic competition among powers, information warfare and the weakening of democracies, this affair represents a symbolic breaking point. We have long known that we are living in an era of hybrid warfare, but the Epstein affair should reinforce the idea that such dynamics have existed far longer than we imagined and on a global scale. An already weakened West has long been undermining the very moral values it endlessly seeks to promote internationally. The Epstein affair may well be another nail in the coffin of Western dominance built on variable-geometry values, given the sheer number of European and American figures implicated.
A political bomb for the international order
This affair further weakens the Western discourse on governance, the rule of law and elite accountability. It feeds societal distrust toward leaders and provides endless fuel for anti-system narratives, whether populist, conspiratorial or authoritarian. Our adversaries are already taking pleasure in our weaknesses.
At the global level, the message sent is disastrous: certain private networks appear able to bypass the rules indefinitely without ever being held to account. This further weakens international institutions, reinforces strategic cynicism and accelerates the fragmentation of the world order. In a context where authoritarian powers already denounce Western hypocrisy, Epstein becomes a geopolitical argument against the liberal model itself.
As long as this affair is treated as a series of isolated sexual scandals, it will continue to produce corrosive effects. Because Epstein was not an accident. He was a revealer. A revealer of how real power circulates, protects itself and conceals itself in a globalized world. Refusing to see this means accepting that sex, money and influence will continue to structure the international order in the shadows, without democratic oversight.
