(MENAFN- Live Mint) Titans of industry and best-selling authors, world-renowned scientists and banking moguls, top-tier journalists and political power players often turned to the same man for advice, for connections, and to banter and trade gossip about President Donald Trump. That man was Jeffrey Epstein, CNN reported.

According to the report, new emails exposed that many of Epstein's pen-pals looked to him for guidance on avoiding their own sexual scandals. This was even after Epstein was registered as a sex offender after a 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution with a minor – but that did not seem to deter his pen pals.

Those messages were laid bare in extraordinary fashion last week when the House Oversight Committee released more than 23,000 pages of records obtained from the estate of Epstein.

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Those messages were reportedly scrutinised for new revelations about Epstein's relationship with Trump – and indeed, show that Epstein relished talking about their one-time friendship as Trump rose to political power, offering his opinions on everything from the president's sanity –“f***ing crazy” – to who should be in his Cabinet, CNN reported.

However, there were thousands of Epstein emails which also showed another key aspect of his uniquely corrupting role in American society: How he cast himself at the center of a web of power and influence.

CNN's analysis of about 2,200 email threads found that at least 740 were exchanges between Epstein and prominent figures in academia, government, media and business.

Epstein's correspondence with them, which also included numerous text messages, spanned a decade from 2009 to the day before his July 2019 arrest.

Those text messages also showed him communicating with other figures who apparently aren't named in unredacted emails, including messages exchanged with Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett during a 2019 Congressional hearing.

Plaskett told CNN that Epstein was a constituent, and that he was“a reprehensible person, absolutely disgusting.”

In starkly revealing terms, the emails show personal conversations between American luminaries and a man they knew to be a sexual predator – and yet still trusted for access, advice and friendship.

For example...

In November 2018, Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University and US Treasury secretary, forwarded Epstein an email from a woman he was romantically interested in, writing,“Think no response for a while probably appropriate.”

Epstein replied,“she's already beginning to sound needy:) nice.”

In March 2019, in the aftermath of the Miami Herald's investigation revealing Epstein's abuse of underage girls, Summers and Epstein exchanged emails appearing to debate whether Summers should message back a woman.

Epstein argued that a note would be“BAD FORM.”

“Why bad form. Supposed to be face to face?” Summers wrote back.

“you care very much for this person. you might want to demonstrate that. a note does the very opposite,” Epstein replied.

The two shared friendly exchanges, as in another email in which Summers called Epstein a“wall st tough guy w intellectual curiosity.”

And they talked about politics, like in emails from October 2016, in which Epstein wrote about Trump bringing women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of abuse to a debate with Hillary Clinton. "they wilil feature in the hillary says you should give the benefit of the doubt to victims,” wrote Epstein, adding it's“disgraceful.”

Summers replied,“Press is so revolted by trump that I'd expect they will not be for benefit of doubt.”

Epstein also brokered connections, as shown in an email exchange from November 2016 when Summers agreed to meet with Karim Wade, the son of the former president of Senegal, at Epstein's urging. Summers wrote,“Always quiet advice to anybody who can use it. Try always discreet.”

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