Mega Edition: The Education of Jeffrey Epstein in Secrets and Shadows (7/25/26)

Jeffrey Epstein’s story doesn’t begin with the penthouse, the island, or the mugshot—it begins in the shadows of the Cold War. In the 1980s, he worked as a financial adviser for Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a man entangled in the Iran–Contra scandal and the massive Al-Yamamah arms deal. Through Khashoggi, British defense contractor Douglas Leese, and financier Steven Hoffenberg, Epstein was introduced to a world where money moved invisibly, arms were traded for oil, and intelligence agencies relied on businessmen as covert intermediaries. These early associations taught him the culture of power: secrets were currency, crimes c...