In his remarkable article about the “Epstein Class,” as Ro Khanna, quoted in the article, calls this group of people, Anand Giridharadas describes how this tiny gang of billionaires and fellow travelers may have superficial differences, but share a deep imperative to keep their money and power at all costs. Giridharadas calls them “permanent survivors, … shape-shiftingly self-preservational, and most indifferent to the human beings below.”

A prime example is Katheryn Ruemmler, who doesn’t easily fit the profile of the Epstein player. She worked as President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, but migrated smoothly to Goldman Sachs, eventually becoming the firm’s chief lawyer.

In the email exchanges that Giridharadas reviewed from the trove of more than 20,000 pages released from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate in mid-November by the House Oversight Committee, Ruemmler is found in one exchange fretting to Epstein about rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi.

“’I will then stop to pee and get gas at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, will observe all of the people there who are at least 100 pounds overweight, will have a mild panic attack as a result of the observation, and will then decide that I am not eating another bite of food for the rest of my life out of fear that I will end up like one of these people,’ she…