Nothing comparable happened in the cases of other high-profile sex criminals. The many famous friends of Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby generally did not issue public apologies. Epstein is different because, under a certain set of assumptions, an individual’s presence in the files is presumptively damning. Epstein is known to have paid or coerced dozens, possibly hundreds, of teen girls, some as young as 14, to perform sexual acts. Beyond what has been proved, the conventional wisdom holds that Epstein built his network by trafficking teen girls to other powerful men, whom he then blackmailed to generate his mysterious wealth; that his private plane and island were essentially brothels; and that even friends who didn’t participate in his crimes were surely aware of them, and chose to consort with him anyway.