Author and journalist Anand Giridharadas identified Sunday what he called the single thing that has allowed the wealthy and powerful figures in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit to escape accountability for decades — and it's something most Americans have lost.

Speaking on The Daily Beast podcast with host Joanna Coles, Giridharadas argued the so-called "Epstein class" — a shadowy network of billionaires, financiers, professors, royals, and political operators — operates by a code of mutual protection that overrides any ideological divide.

"They just understand something fundamental that is the heart of this chapter which is that their shared interests with each other are more important to them than any ideas or principles they hold," Giridharadas told Coles, describing the conclusion of his five-part Substack series on the Epstein files.

He said the network's members "joust each other for your and my entertainment" on cable television, but "when the cameras are off… they have each other's backs." That mutual loyalty, he argued, is the secret weapon that has shielded the network from prosecution.

Giridharadas also floated that President Donald Trump may have launched the Iran war in part to change the subject from the Epstein files, which he called "the heart of the corruption and impunity of which [Trump] is, of course, one of our greatest living embodiments."

The author argued ordinary Americans, by contrast, "snipe at each other" and "assume the worst" — leaving elites free to operate with impunity.

"We've lived in an age of impunity in which people in this group, this network, can get away with anything," he said.

A former senior White House official is spilling the tea on Stephen and Katie Miller, describing the union of Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff and his right-wing podcaster wife as less of a romance and more of a corporate transaction.

"It's more like a merger than a marriage," the former official told the Financial Times in a sprawling profile published Saturday. "They’re very close as a couple, but they’re two very odd ducks."

The piece, by columnist Jemima Kelly, paints the Millers as a "formidable political partnership" — Stephen the "geeky introvert" ideologue and Katie the "self-assured extrovert" attack dog whose "contrasting though congruous personas perfectly complement one another."

Stephen Miller, 40, is "surely the most powerful unelected person in America," Kelly wrote, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon recently dubbed him "Trump's prime minister." Katie Miller, 34, has been building her own brand as host of "The Katie Miller Podcast."

"Like her husband she lacks charisma, albeit not quite to the same extent. But she is feisty and sometimes gives people quite a grilling, and despite having been panned as 'dreary', 'boring' and 'excruciating' by the press, the podcast does also offer, for me at least, a quite fascinating insight into not just the Millers’ marriage but the wider administration, a kind of secret window into the Trumpworld psyche."

The former White House official didn't pull punches on Stephen's demeanor in meetings either, telling Kelly his belligerent persona is no act.

"What you see when he comes on Fox and he starts shouting and goes totally into Himmler mode — that’s him in meetings,” the official said. “If you talk to him, he starts going on these tirades, and you realise — you go, ‘F---, this guy really believes this.’ Very few people in this town believe anything. Stephen’s a true believer.”

Katie, currently pregnant with the couple's fourth child, has built her own reputation for combative outbursts and viral social media meltdowns in defense of her husband.

The Millers did not respond to the columnist's requests for comment.

A Virginia church group's Sunday discussion turned into a raw debate over whether President Donald Trump deserves forgiveness — with one parishioner flatly declaring it isn't his job to grant it.

About a dozen members of Annandale United Methodist Church gathered in a chapel beside the sanctuary to wrestle with faith, the U.S. war in Iran, and Trump's recent feud with Pope Leo XIV, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The conversation came in the wake of Trump's AI-generated image appearing to depict himself as a Christ-like figure, which the president later deleted.

Jon Zimmermann, a 62-year-old financial-services professional who joined the church months ago, told the group Trump doesn't deserve forgiveness for dividing the country because the president hasn't sought it. Images of destruction in Iran and Gaza have left him furious, he said.

"It's not my job to forgive somebody," Zimmermann told the class, according to the Journal.

Other parishioners disagreed.

Meily Grigg, a 53-year-old special-education teacher, said it was their Christian duty to forgive the president and that she has prayed for him throughout his second term. “I’ve got my own problems. I’m not perfect,” Grigg said.

Pastor Jason Micheli, who counsels Trump administration officials and supporters, urged Christians not to be "naive or sentimental" and said leaders should be called out when they take the Lord's name in vain.

Zimmermann said while he hopes to forgive Trump someday, he simply isn't there yet.

Open political debate is rare inside American sanctuaries, with many churches either avoiding politics altogether or aligning squarely with one side, according to the Journal. Micheli, a father of two sons who recently joined the military, told the group he vehemently opposes the war in Iran but believes the Iranian government poses a real threat to global security.