The Ink's Anand Giridharadas says in a new piece 'When Jeffrey Epstein, a financier turned convicted sex offender, needed friends to rehabilitate him, he knew where to turn: a power elite practiced at disregarding pain.' Giridharadas joins Morning Joe to discuss.
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#epstein...
5:36As I was reading about the emails, I was thinking, how did all these different people—different ideologies, different professions, different backgrounds, different ages—gravitate to this one guy?
So also, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in the House Oversight Committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, just days before a planned House vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress. They're expected to answer questions related to Epstein as shocking headlines continue to emerge from the roughly three million pages of documents released by the Justice Department on Friday. MSNBC reporter Nick McCool has the latest.
This morning, the stunning development in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Bill and Hillary Clinton, after months of aggressively defying subpoenas, now agreeing to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee. Just days before a House vote to hold them in contempt, a vote backed by some Democrats.
We've maintained from the very beginning that no matter who it is, we want to ensure that there is accountability, whether that person is a Democrat or a Republican or a prince or president.
In a statement, a Clinton spokesperson blasted Oversight Chairman James Comer after he denied a request to limit the scope of their testimony. 'They negotiated in good faith about testifying,' he says. 'You did not.' Former President Clinton has appeared in the Epstein files, pictured swimming with convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and a person whose face is redacted. But the Clintons have never faced criminal charges related to Epstein and deny any wrongdoing.
President Clinton has now put the burden on others who are named to come forward, and perhaps their wives as well. So this certainly ratchets up the pressure on everyone who's credibly named in these files to testify.
The Clintons' announcement comes as outrage grows among Epstein's victims. The New York Times reporting dozens of nude images of young women with faces visible were published by the Justice Department. It's unclear if anyone in the pictures were minors.
They really failed all of the survivors on this, after so many months of saying we're being so meticulous about this and we care so deeply about this. So I think that's where the slap in the face really hurts.
A Justice Department spokesperson told The Times the DOJ was working around the clock to address any victim concerns and add redactions. The paper says those images have now largely been removed or redacted.
I think every woman, every girl who sees what happened in this case will think long and hard before they come forward. That means less accountability for perpetrators, less justice for us as a society.
No, that would probably mean I would be too self-aware. I'm not saying depressed. I'm saying a moment of awareness of how could I get myself into this situation. No, I would just say how strange that this happens. Just, it's strange. It's strange. I'm wearing a jumpsuit.
Giridharadas, A. (2026, February 3). Anand Giridharadas: Epstein turned to 'a power elite practiced at disregarding pain' [Interview transcript]. MS NOW. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3019668/
MLA
Anand Giridharadas. "Anand Giridharadas: Epstein turned to 'a power elite practiced at disregarding pain'." MS NOW, 3 Feb. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3019668/.
BibTeX
@misc{giridharadas2026_3019668,
author = {Anand Giridharadas},
title = {Anand Giridharadas: Epstein turned to 'a power elite practiced at disregarding pain'},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, MS NOW. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {feb},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3019668/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
