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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
J Oliver Conroy

The Epstein files reveal that a vast global conspiracy actually exists – sort of

black and white film of a handshake
‘The files are an unflattering glimpse into the real ways that wealth is accumulated and power is brokered.’ Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty Images/United States Department of Justice

The millions of Jeffrey Epstein files dumped last Friday by the US Department of Justice will provide journalists, conspiracy theorists and interested members of the public with months of reading. And what they will read is enraging.

What makes these files so infuriating, however, is not just Epstein’s horrific predatory behavior, which is well-known, but the more mundane examples of elite conduct that the documents continue to expose. They vividly illustrate a world whose existence many everyday people, whether fevered with visions of the Illuminati or just jaundiced by banal anti-establishment cynicism, already suspected exists: an informal global club of powerful, ultra-rich people who all seemingly know each other, help one another out, and protect each other from the consequences of their depravity.

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