The rolling release of the Epstein Files is nothing short of a seismic event, throwing open the very ground we walk on and opening staggering new vistas into the ways in which our world actually works. Though much of work on the files so far has focused on Epstein’s trafficking of women and girls, for good reason given the horrors his victims endured and their inability to obtain justice thus far, the files illuminate far more about our fallen world. A kind of Forrest Gump of our hideously venal and corrupt elite, Epstein’s dealings are a skeleton key for an almost impossible number of terrible yet difficult-to-explain phenomena at the highest levels of wealth and power.

My little corner of that world centers on Elon Musk, whose empire of deception and greed has become something of a fascination for a decade now, starting as a simple automotive story. With the benefit of so much context, I’ve found a lot of material in the most recent releases of the Epstein files that make sense to me, but which might not mean anything to people who have managed to live their lives free of such sordid obsessions. With the first rounds of media and congressional reporting managing to avoid a lot of the Musk connections, I feel called to share what I’ve learned in my digging.

First, though, an important caveat: what follows is a limited first look at a massive corpus of evidence, which itself only offers a limited glimpse of events, and which has obviously been compromised by agenda-driven redaction. This is my best effort at putting elements from the Epstein Files into order and context, but should not be viewed as a comprehensive or final accounting of all the facts. I offer it here to help the public make the most of this unique moment of transparency, without malice toward anyone referenced within it. Though I personally believe that Jeffery Epstein and Elon Musk are among the worst individuals humanity has recently produced, they have the same right to the truth as everyone else. If anything, my time with the Epstein Files have only further convinced me that the worst of us deserve the truth most of all.

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The origins of the Musk-Epstein relationship are one of the most important ways to understand who Jeffery Epstein was and how he operated. Though widely depicted as a sub-literate lecher, and certainly not the kind of intellectual he liked to court, Jeffery Epstein was not stupid. His casual, text-y (probably dyslexia-inflected) email style makes him easy to dismiss at first glance, but after reading enough of his email it eventually becomes clear that Epstein was in fact a remarkably sophisticated operator. Learning to appreciate Epstein’s actual abilities–the ability to spot opportunity, insinuate, flatter, hype, build intimacy, and connect–leads to a far more important lesson: these, and not any actual intellectual abilities, are the tools that our elite run on.

Elon Musk’s name first appears in Epstein’s inbox years before they met, in emails that reflect Musk’s growing stardom. A 2009 email [PDF] from former Hyatt Chairman and CEO Nick Pritzker is one of the earliest hints at the elite’s infatuation with Musk, and a prototype for Tesla’s early investors: “I’m interested in renewable energy technology (following my love affair with my Tesla for the past 18 months and investment in the company),” Pritzker writes. He goes on to suggest that he and Epstein might meet up at Art Basel.

When the Musks next reappear in the Epstein files it’s the autumn of 2012 and with the Model S already on the market it’s clear how in-demand Elon is. “Hi J, Wondering… do you know Elon Musk?” a redacted emailer wrote Epstein in early September 2012 [PDF]. “If so, can you make an intro? :))))” We don’t have any more of the correspondence, but before that September was out it would be clear that Epstein did indeed have a relationship with Musk. Though context clues, we also get a pretty good sense of both how Epstein built that relationship, and why.

On September 18, Boris Nikolic (a medical doctor who worked with the Gates Foundation at the time) formally made the first connection between the Musks and Epstein in the files, in one of the more disturbing emails I’ve personally read. Nikolic’s entire email [PDF] reads as follows:

The overall image of Epstein that emerges in the files is of a man who understands connections in a world that runs on them, and already we have a good picture of how he operated. His connections allowed him to understand the preoccupations of his fellow elites, understand who they wanted to meet, work his own relationships to get into a room with them, and then use women as currency to win them over. In the very first reference to Epstein’s path crossing Musk’s we see him leveraging Nikolic’s relationship with Kimbal to reach Elon, and “preparing” a woman as the bait for his hook. In the meantime he had already informed [PDF] Jes Staley, head of private wealth management at Deutsche Bank, who Epstein appears to have served as a client funnel for, of the Musk’s presence in New York.

Kimbal, it seems, was easily hooked. A recent Guardian piece fills out the story: the woman was in fact a victim, who has said through a lawyer that she was trapped, coerced, and abused by Epstein. As the email makes clear Kimbal was both aware that Epstein wanted to meet him, and willing to “ditch his ex/or current to be” for a woman to be provided by the man who had been convicted of procuring a child for prostitution four years earlier. That initial hangout appears to have been jovial enough for Kimbal to email Nikolic on the 21st: “Fun time last night! Let Jeffrey and his friends know they are invited tomorrow night.”

When Nikolic forwarded this to Epstein, the latter asked “can we organize elon and kimball [sic] at the house?” to which Nikolic replies [PDF] that there have been “complications.” “Kimbal really like [victim redacted;-),” he wrote. “We will need to distract the ex (any spare ambien) ;-).” A flurry of emails from this point onward, between the 21st and 25th, point to furious efforts on Epstein’s part to get the Musks to his home, leveraging Nikolic and Pritzker [PDF], and inviting Barnaby Marsh on the 23rd [PDF] with the claim “I have elon musk at 130 you are welcome to join.” “Talked to kimbal,” Nikolic wrote the same day, “He told me that you are meeting elon tmr for lunch. He told him great stuff about you.”

The email record is suspiciously free of an unambiguous first meeting between Musk and Epstein, just as there is ambiguity later in the record about when exactly Musk may have visited Epstein’s infamous Little St James island. What is clear is that everyone is chummy with everyone else: Kimbal has been impressed by the woman proffered by Epstein, and reciprocated by talking up the financier to his famous brother, presumably smoothing the way for a meeting. There’s an email from Kimbal on the 26th [PDF] saying he missed Epstein at “the party,” and a later email from Musk [PDF] saying he wouldn’t be able to make an early October gathering at Epstein’s house with Kimbal and Nikolic, but by October it’s clear that everyone’s on chummy terms. Kimbal discusses Halloween costumes with Epstein and Nicolic [PDF], makes lunch plans [PDF] with the infamous sex offender at his home, and even appears to make travel plans based on his whims [PDF]. The parties involved may not look directly at the camera and spell out exactly what is happening in explicit terms, but they hardly need to.

All this rapid chumminess was heading somewhere: Epstein’s infamous Little St James island. On October 11, Epstein sent an email [PDF] to a redacted recipient with a single url linking to a BusinessInsider story based on a quote from Elon Musk’s first big Ashlee Vance profile in Bloomberg Businessweek in which he said “I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. How much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours?” The very same day Epstein emailed Musk [PDF], writing “saw your brother , he seems very happy„ do you know your europe plans yet?” Musk replied saying he’d “love to come to Europe” but said he was too busy for work, at which point Epstein suggested a visit to the island in November. “Late Nov is a possibility, Musk replied, saying he had to complete the Dragon mission, get Tesla to cash flow positive, and help execute the SolarCity IPO. “Could definitely use a break after that.”

By early November Musk was “looking forward to” visiting Epstein’s island [PDF], by the end of the month he was infamously asking [PDF] about “the wildest party on your island,” and by December it was just a matter of discussing logistics [PDF]. It appears that Musk may not have actually made it to Little St James that winter, despite Epstein’s urging to clear customs in St Thomas [PDF], but it didn’t prevent Epstein from bragging to the Norwegian Crown Princess [PDF] that he would in fact be having lunch with Musk. One of the major impressions one gets of Epstein from his emails is that, like Musk himself, the gap between perception and reality is irrelevant. What seemed to matter to him was that people believed he was close to Musk, whether they were actually meeting or not.

Clearly Musk and Epstein were getting closer, as just months later the two mens staffs were coordinating a visit by Epstein to SpaceX, with three of “his girls” in tow. In the meantime, a series of puzzling emails [PDF] hint at a possible motivation on Epstein’s part for pursuing Musk, beyond a generically valuable social connection and/or a promising lead for Deutsche Bank’s wealth management department. This exchange, between Epstein and a redacted party that has been widely identified through redaction errors as Svetlana (“Lana”) Pozhidaeava, is one of many in the files fitting a pattern of women complaining to Epstein about his treatment of them. “I thought you went to califomia and want to be with elon now,” Epstein seems to tell her. “You have told me as much. So you confuse me.”

This cryptic exchange is made more compelling by an email from roughly three months earlier [PDF], in which Pozhidaeva recounts a long exchange between herself and one Joshua Fink, who “asked 6 times if Elon has given me anything? and what did elon give me?” Public photos of Joshua Fink, son of Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, with Svetlana Pozhidaeva at a 2011 gala provide a very real context for one of the more surreal references to Musk in the files. Reporting linking Pozhidaeva and other young Russian women in Epstein’s orbit with Putinist organizations and potentially Russian intelligence, provides yet another layer of context for a woman who the files suggests became close with Elon Musk as well as the son of one of Wall Street’s largest financial institutions.

On February 19, 2013 Epstein’s assistant reached out to Musk [PDF], writing “Hello Elon. Jeffrey would like to meet you at Space X as you suggested.” Epstein tried to lure Musk to his ranch in New Mexico [PDF], but eventually plans landed on a late lunch at SpaceX headquarters on February 27, following Musk’s interview at TED. Epstein attempted [PDF] to rent a Tesla while he was visiting Los Angeles, in order to sample the much-hyped Model S, and sent passports [PDF] to SpaceX for three of his “girls,” likely to comply with SpaceX’s obligations under national security laws. Days before the meeting was to take place, Epstein emailed [PDF] Activision CEO Bobby Kotick saying he would be “taking the girls after to bel air,” where coincidentally Elon Musk just so happened to live next door to Joe Francis of “Girls Gone Wild” infamy.

The day after the SpaceX tour Epstein emailed Musk [PDF], writing “thanks for the tour , you would have had fun at xmas,” to which Musk replied “I see [smiley emoji]”. In the weeks that followed, a pattern would emerge in the two mens relationship, with Epstein gently but persistently insinuating himself into Musk’s good graces, and Musk responding in a brief but friendly manner, always referencing his workload. One particularly solicitous March 2013 exchange [PDF] even sees Epstein suggesting “nuvigil” (Armodafinil, a relative to Modafinil, a potent non-stimulant eugeroic) as a way to offset his lack of sleep, a rare exception to Epstein’s horror of drug use.

On April 16 [PDF], Epstein invited Musk to dinner at his house with Woody Allen, an invite that Musk once again batted away, though an unruffled Epstein simply replied that he’d see Musk at the “Milken [sic] conference.” Later that month Epstein was back in Los Angeles, when he appears to [PDF] order someone “rent a car, pick us up, drive to bel air,” while asking the all-important question: “what is elon and [redacted] doing sun night?” The reply raises more questions than answers: “Not sure… read other email. Might not see [redacted] again.” In May another redacted correspondent informs Epstein that Musk is dating Cameron Diaz, citing an “Antoine” as their source.

The first documented instance of Epstein attempting to leverage his intense interest in Musk into a business opportunity came in July of 2013, when Epstein reached out on behalf of former Israeli politician Ehud Barak to ask about bringing Tesla to Israel. The former prime minister “is very clever about many things that you have in the past shown interest in,” Epstein wrote, without specifying these things. “When you are next on my coast let me know.”

Musk responded bluntly.“Not a week passes without a request from someone important in Israel (and other countries) wanting to bring Tesla there,” he wrote. “What they don’t appreciate is that Tesla is production constrained, not demand constrained. When production has increased to the point of addressing the major markets, then we will start shipping to tiny markets.” When Epstein forwarded Musk’s reply to Barak, the Israeli tersely replied “OK. Let’s start with CyberSec.”

As the first year of Epstein’s documented relationship with the Musks wound toward its close in September of 2013, he once again reached out to Elon in an exchange [PDF] that epitomized the dynamic their relationship was taking on. Opening with his usual question about when Musk would next be in New York, Epstein noted that “the opening of the genereal assembly has many interesting people coming to the house.” This time, Musk’s stress and frustration with Epstein’s constant invitations to frivolity boiled over: “I run and lead product design/engincering for two complicated companies,” he wrote in a huff. “Moreover, SpaccX is about to launch what is arguably the most advanced rocket in history. Flying to NY to see UN diplomats do nothing would be an unwise use of time.”

Clearly sensing he had finally overstepped in his efforts to build rapport over the past year, Epstein reset to the foundation of their relationship: “do you think i am retarded, . ?” he asked. “Just kidding , there is no one over 25 and all very cute.” If Musk replied to this, it hasn’t survived redaction.

A couple of months later, Epstein attempted to reconnect [PDF] with Musk on the same level, asking “will you come to caribean [sic] this xmas? woody allen with me, you might enjoy.” “Yes,” Musk replied. By mid-December the strategy had worked, and now, at long last, Musk was the one emailing Jeffery Epstein [PDF]. “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays,” he wrote the convicted sex offender. “Is there a good time to visit?”

As much of a picture as the emails in the Epstein Files can paint at times, the thing that’s always missing is the intention behind the email. Where causality ends and coincidence begins is all but impossible to discern out of emails alone, no matter how tempting it is to leap to hard conclusions from the clues. We can make out broad contours in the trove of correspondence, but anything more than impressionism risks getting things badly wrong.

So when Jeffrey Epstein canceled on Elon Musk on December 30 [PDF], rebuffing Musk for the first time and making him wait another year for a full visit to Little St James, we can’t say if it was just a scheduling issue or if this was really the financier (and who knows what else) taking the upper hand to push the relationship forward. Maybe his schedule really did keep in New York, but maybe he had realized that Musk’s interest in the island and its attractions were the source of his strength in the relationship. Maybe dangling “spending some time together with just fun as the agenda” would get him farther than plaintively solicitous emails.

All we really know for sure is that this was just the end of the beginning of the relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein.