By Robyn McBurny
The elite are not sorry. They are not embarrassed. And they are certainly not interested in justice. The recent cascade of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein archives—specifically the millions of files dumped by the Justice Department in December and January—was meant to be a pressure valve. Throw the public a few redacted names, let them gawk at the depravity of a dead pedophile, and declare the matter closed. But for those of us willing to read between the redacted lines, the documents tell a different story: a story of how the ruling class circled the wagons and how liberal institutions built to manage “benevolent” capitalism continue to harbor the enablers of a monster.
Nowhere is this contradiction more obscene than in the mountains of rural Colorado, where the prestigious Aspen Institute—a citadel of liberal philanthropy and global governance—maintains ties to the Epstein network that should sicken every working-class person in this country. While at least one alleged victim of his trafficking ring was found living in a tent nearby, the parasitic millionaire and billionaire classes who facilitated Epstein’s ascent kept their trustee titles and full access to power.
According to a recent review of the files by The Denver Post, at least two of Epstein’s victims had direct ties to Colorado. One woman was identified by the FBI while living in a tent near Durango, unable to access housing because she refused to abandon her dog. While Epstein paid for ski lessons in Aspen, this survivor—one of the countless throwaway lives the system preys upon—was left to freeze in a tent, the real face of Epstein’s role in Colorado.
But while victims struggled for survival, the elite protectors of the Aspen aesthetic faced no such hardship. The documents reaffirm the deep Colorado roots of the Epstein enterprise. Court records cited in the Denver Post article confirm Epstein traveled to Aspen frequently; a July 2004 flight from Aspen to Palm Beach is listed as evidence in a grand jury indictment regarding the abuse of 13 girls. The names on that flight? Redacted, of course. The powerful must be shielded from scrutiny.
Most critically, the files drag the Aspen Institute back into the light—and the picture is damning. Robert Hurst, a former board member of the Aspen Music Festival and a member of the executive committee of The Aspen Institute, is listed in Epstein’s infamous black book. While the corporate media is quick to add the caveat that “connection doesn’t imply criminality,” we must ask: What does it imply? It implies a social and professional network so tight that the line between philanthropist and felon evaporates.
The Aspen estate where Epstein laid his head was not just a building — it was a home belonging to Stephen Susman, a legendary Texas trial lawyer, and his wife, Ellen Susman. Court records and witness testimony have long pointed to this sprawling mountain retreat as a regular landing pad for Epstein, and newly examined documents confirm that as recently as 2011 — three years after Epstein’s initial conviction for soliciting a minor — he was still a guest at the Susman residence. Steve Susman has since passed, but his wife, Ellen, remains very much active in the exact same social circuits that provided Epstein with legitimacy.
When Epstein flew into Aspen in August 2016, he was entering a town swimming with Aspen Strategy Group members (such as Condoleezza Rice, Richard Burt, and Michael Morell) attending conferences, private dinners, and fundraisers. The question is not who didn’t know Epstein but why an entire class of power brokers colluded to look the other way for decades.
Recent document drops have now clarified what many suspected: The close confidant of Epstein identified by initials TJP is Tom Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and a man whose family literally runs the Aspen Institute. Pritzker, 75, maintained “regular contact” with Jeffrey Epstein for many years — including the period after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes. In a statement released as recently as February 16, 2026 — just days ago — Pritzker was forced to admit to exercising “terrible judgment” in maintaining his association with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. “There is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” he groveled, expressing “deep sorrow” for the pain inflicted on the victims.
But here’s the kicker: While Pritzker was meeting with a convicted sex trafficker in Aspen, his wife, Margot Pritzker, served — and continues to serve — as the chair of the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees. Tom Pritzker himself is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the elite foreign policy forum whose members shape U.S. imperial policy from the comfort of Colorado ski resorts. The Pritzker name is not just attached to the Institute; it runs the Institute. The same Institute that kept Leslie Wexner as a lifetime trustee. The same Institute whose members hosted Epstein at the Susman house. The same Institute whose leadership now claims to be shocked — shocked! — to find gambling going on in this establishment.
Pritzker’s resignation as Hyatt chairman came only after the latest document release exposed him, not as a matter of principle. He kept his titles. He kept his access. And he kept his wife’s chairmanship of the very institution that provided Epstein’s social legitimacy. This is not a failure of judgment; it is a feature of class solidarity.
And then there’s Mark Hoplamazian. The current CEO and newly appointed Chairman of Hyatt—who assumed Pritzker’s role the very same day Pritzker stepped down—met with Epstein at least once, in what the files suggest was likely an introduction facilitated by Tom Pritzker himself. File EFTA02133761.pdf documents this meeting, placing Hoplamazian within Epstein’s orbit through his mentor. Hoplamazian now runs the company Pritzker built, inheriting not just a hotel empire but the ethical questions that come with it. We cannot prove the exact nature of their introduction, but we can be certain that Tom Pritzker led Hoplamazian into a room with Jeffrey Epstein. Was it a brief handshake, or something more? The files offer no further detail, but the silence from Hyatt’s new chairman is deafening.
Another glaring example is Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands (Victoria‘s Secret) and the man who essentially created Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein served as Wexner’s money manager, held his power of attorney, and lived in his homes. Wexner has claimed he was “embarrassed” and cut ties in 2007. Wexner was formerly listed as a “lifetime trustee,” though that page is now gone from the Aspen Institute’s Website, and no official statement distancing AI from Wexner could be found.
Let that sink in. A man whose “protege” was a convicted sex trafficker, a man named in multiple lawsuits regarding the enabling of abuse, was still afforded the honorific “lifetime trustee” by an organization that claims to foster “inclusive, nonpartisan” dialogue. Another since-scrubbed name on the lifetime trustee list? Henry Kissinger, whose policies historian Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, estimated may have led to the deaths of up to 4 million people.
The message is clear: In Aspen, if you have enough money, you can survive any scandal.
The Aspen Institute is not an anomaly; it is the rule. It represents the merger of corporate power, intelligence agencies, and “philanthropy” that manages the empire. Its boardrooms are where the policies that create homelessness are workshopped, while the actual homeless — like Epstein’s victim in Durango — are ignored.
We should be full of rage. The documents show that the system worked exactly as designed. It protected the wealthy patrons of Aspen and abandoned the poor women they exploited. It is time to name these institutions as accessories. It is time to demand that the Aspen Institute strip abusers of their titles and access immediately — not quietly but publicly, as a repudiation of the elite pedophile network. And if they refuse, we must understand them for what they are: a country club for the ruling class, built on the bones of the working class.
There is no justice in their courts. There is no morality in their institutes. There is only power. And it is ours to take.
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