Epstein's Inner Ring
I know and have met some of the people named in the enormous Epstein data dump. My name is not in the files.
However.
Before the news and extent of Epstein’s crimes became well known, I’d probably have accepted an invitation to attend a dinner with people like Bill Gates or Elon Musk at Epstein’s townhouse. I’m not immune to the thrill of meeting celebrities. And being asked to be included in an inner ring of wealth and power for an evening can be heady stuff, leaving you wanting more.
If I’d done a google search on Epstein, circa 2014, it would have revealed that he was a convicted and registered sex offender who’d served 13 months (with extensive work-release privileges) for a single count of soliciting sex with a minor. I’d have also discovered that despite that conviction Epstein moved within elite and inner rings of power, influence, and wealth.
As well I’d have thought about then what I don’t think about now. Meeting people of significant wealth could have helped my career as an investment manager. So, yes, I might have gone.
The phenomenon and danger of the appeal of exclusive networks, or Inner Rings, was the subject of a famous speech called The Inner Ring given by C.S. Lewis to students soon before the end of World War Two. His speech has lessons for all of us because it explains how Epstein lured so many otherwise seemingly sensible people into his network despite evidence of Epstein’s monstrous crimes. 1
One of those people is Peter Attia, a celebrity doctor who has been rightfully disparaged for his close friendship with Epstein and some related disgraceful emails and behavior. I met Attia at a conference in Florida for wealthy investors in 2015 and was impressed with his presentation on healthy exercise. Attia’s star was then on the rise. Now his reputation has been destroyed.
Unlike Attia, I think I’d have soon determined that Epstein’s scene was not where I belonged or felt comfortable.
There were clear signs of his corroded and corrosive character. The décor alone…
I’m not excusing anyone who was aware of Epstein’s heinous lifestyle and monstrous crimes and continued to consort with him in any meaningful way.
In fact, I’m not even excusing my hypothetical self for possibly accepting that hypothetical invitation. I can hope that I would have declined. But it’s important to be honest about one’s vulnerabilities, even in the abstract. To learn lessons from the mistakes of others such as Peter Attia.
A quick word on the DOJ data release
I think the Justice Department release is a good thing. We deserve to know the full story and to hold all the malefactors to account.
In a release of this magnitude, however, it’s inevitable that some of the people named will be the subject of false rumors or will be unfairly stigmatized out of proportion to their actual dealings with Epstein.
It would be awful if the data dump turns into such a widespread witch hunt that the backlash dilutes the severity of the crimes and moral failings of those who are truly guilty and thereby interferes with the severe and necessary punishment they deserve.
Once inside the Inner Ring you never want to leave
C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series and Christian intellectual, delivered his Inner Ring speech to students of King’s College in London in December 1944. His purpose was to warn the students about the seductive nature of belonging to the exclusive cliques that exist everywhere but have no charters or by-laws or membership lists. If you belong, you know.
In addressing students, Lewis was confident that they had already been exposed in the course of their schooldays to many hierarchies of who’s in and who’s out of this ring or that.
We all have memories from school when being included or excluded from a clique was all that mattered. In fifth grade I was “Vice-President” of a club whose sole activity was giving and taking away membership and titles. In seventh grade, at a new school, I was outside of every ring. An outcast. The memories of being “out” outweigh the memories of briefly being “in” and are still fresh and painful.
Cliques and rings will ceaselessly shift, but at any moment in time, when you are an outcast, your situation can seem permanent, relentless, agonizing.
Lewis is realistic about human nature. All of us will desire to be inside many rings over the course of a lifetime, some aimed at good, some at evil. An Inner Ring by its nature will be exclusive. It is always an “us” or a “we.”
A ring could be the same six volunteers working every week as a well-practiced squad at their children’s school packing food into bags for their fellow parents. A ring could be a group of six pedophiles connected by their criminal sickness and their trust in each other to keep their crimes hidden. 2
“Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.” 3
In the neat summation above, C.S. Lewis wants us to recognize that a desire to be inside a ring can be strong enough to cloud moral judgment. Below, Lewis captures the moment when you are given a subtle invitation, a solicitation, to join a morally corrupt Inner Ring.
“And you will be drawn in because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world. It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face––[‘a good-looking man, resembling Ralph Lauren, with thick gray-white hair and a weathered face’] —turn suddenly cold and contemptuous.” 4
In the brackets, I substituted a description of Epstein from a Vanity Fair article. 5
Peter Attia’s failed apology
The celebrity doctor Peter Attia says he did not engage in any criminal activity, and there is no proof that he did. However, his email correspondence with Epstein shows that he knew about Epstein’s criminal predilection and despite that knowledge he was obsequious to Epstein and used language that condoned and cheered on Epstein’s criminal behavior. 6
In his press release, Attia explains his motivations to be part of Epstein’s world.
“Everything about [Epstein] seemed excessive and exclusive, including the fact that he lived in the largest home in all of Manhattan, owned a Boeing 727, and hosted parties with the most powerful and prominent leaders in business and politics.” 7
I bolded the word “exclusive.”
As C.S. Lewis said of any Ring,
“Exclusion is no accident; it is the essence.” 8
And of course Epstein’s possessions have nothing to do with excusing Attia, a doctor, for writing the below email to Epstein.
“Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.” 9
Nor does the size of Epstein’s plane or mansion have anything to do with Attia staying in New York after his infant son suffered a cardiac arrest. He ignored his wife’s pleas to come home The timing of Attia’s emails combined with his self-reporting in a book reveals that he stayed to meet with Epstein. “Doing a very bad thing,” indeed. 10
In another email exchange, this time with Epstein’s assistant, Attia thanks the assistant for the loan of an apartment from Epstein and is embarrassingly obsequious.
“No...thank YOU so much. See you next time, hopefully JE in town when I’m back in 2 weeks. I go into JE withdrawal when I don’t see him...” 11
In reading Attia’s correspondence with Epstein, it seems probable that Attia was not in the inner sanctum of Epstein’s rings but rather in one of the satellite, outer rings. Attia later wrote that he wanted to visit Epstein’s Island. Perhaps Attia hoped that his flattery would gain him access to an even more exclusive ring within Epstein’s circles.
In his speech C.S. Lewis notes that once inside one ring, there’s always another, even more exclusive ring to penetrate. Lewis compares this search for more and more exclusive rings to peeling an endless onion or
“the torture allotted to the Danaids in the classical underworld, that of attempting to fill sieves with water…” 12
A supposed code of silence
In another email to Epstein, Attia writes:
“You the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…” 13
In his attempted apology, Attia spins that email as having nothing to do with his knowledge of Epstein’s sexual predilections. Instead, Attia claims this:
“I treated that access as something to be quiet about rather than discussed freely with others…What I was referring to, poorly and flippantly, was the discretion commanded by those social and professional circles–the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings.” 14
I’ve bolded certain Inner Ring words: “access,” “discretion,” and “circles.”
In my experience, very few people can resist talking about the famous people they’ve met. Name dropping is very tempting. It can form a good part of the motivation to spend time with people of power and influence. Attia seems like someone who, when it comes to name dropping, is no slouch.
I do not credit Attia’s apology with sincerity, and I think it did him more harm than good. It makes the typical general mistake of poorly designed apologies. A rote sentence that there is no excuses for his behavior followed and surrounded by a torrent of words filled precisely with excuses, misdirections, and equivocations.
Justice and judgment
This is a moment in American life when bad behavior among the privileged and powerful seems prevalent, if not ubiquitous. Many of us, privileged or not, are trying hard to be virtuous. But virtue is quiet and generally unremarkable while vice is noisy and newsworthy.
My only suggestion is a modest one. To understand and be on guard against our own moral weaknesses in order to be as virtuous as possible.
When I shared an earlier draft of this essay with my adult children, my daughter Lauren had a strong reaction. Her comment, pinned to the top of the comments section, is powerful and should spark conversation.
Motivated by Lauren’s comment, I am linking to this recent post, Understanding Epstein’s Crimes, by Julie k Brown, whose heroic reporting for the Miami Herald in 2017-18 ensured that Epstein would not get away with his crimes.
The Inner Ring by C.S. Lewis from the C.S. Lewis Society of California.
“C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. ‘The Inner Ring’ was the Memorial Lecture at King’s College, University of London, in 1944.”
The example of the school volunteers is something I’m personally familiar with. The parent volunteers have told me they want to keep their squad intact and not add to it because more people sorting and packing would slow them down.
From “The Inner Ring.”
From “The Inner Ring.”
In the original text, Lewis’s imagined man had a face that is “genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated.”
The VF description of Epstein is from a March 2003 article called The Talented Mr. Epstein.
Peter Attia press release from February 2nd, 2026 was posted on X.
Attia press release.
From “The Inner Ring.”
Email from the DOJ database.
Numerous news outlets have noted the timeline of the critical medical emergency of Attia’s s son. Attia chose to stay in New York at least in part to see Epstein. The sources are Attia’s own book plus the recently released DOJ emails.
Email from the DOJ database.
From “The Inner Ring.”
Email from the DOJ database.
Attia press release.
My daughter Lauren's comment
Recently, during a hair salon visit, the man cutting my hair told me, in reference to my hair color changing, that pregnancy can affect your hormones, which can affect your appearance. I was outraged. Who was this man? What gave him any right to explain or teach me something about my own body? He didn’t know anything!
I would have said something biting in response, but he was holding my hair in one hand and scissors in the other.
I had a similar, but more serious reaction to a draft of my dad’s weekly post. My father is just, he is kind, and he is the reason I knew what kind of man I deserved to marry. But I was angry reading his words. I felt like he was being wishy-washy and sympathetic; like he was trying to give an explanation or a justification when there is none.
How can there be anything but condemnation for the men in the Epstein Files? There isn’t room for explanation. Even if there are degrees of guilt and involvement, I don’t really care. When I think about the women, the children, and the situations they were put in, nuance becomes irrelevant.
Hypothetical situations and hindsight also become irrelevant.
I know what it’s like to be leered at, to be touched inappropriately because I am a woman in a crowded bar. I know what it’s like to feel a little unsafe because I am alone with a man and I’m unsure what to do.
I don’t expect my dad to write from this sort of lens because that would be weird and inauthentic, not to mention pandering and performative. I do, however, expect my dad to “take himself out of himself” and understand that his lens may be triggering for others.
I am so proud of my daughter Lauren and her comment. It says what I would say if I could write as well as she does. I am on team Lauren!!