Elon Musk is very insistent that he never visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean. That may very well be true. There is nothing in the millions of Epstein’s emails to suggest that Musk did—or, for that matter, that he ever flew on the “Lolita Express,” the alleged sex trafficker’s infamous jet.

“I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express,’” Musk wrote on his X platform on Friday, not long after emails between him and Epstein were released by the federal government, “but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”

There’s always a “but.” While there’s very little direct correspondence between Musk and Epstein—at least that we know of today, with millions of files still unreleased—it’s easy to see why Musk felt the need to explain himself. In 2012 and 2013, he wrote to Epstein on several occasions asking about visiting his island. In one email, Musk inquired which night would feature the “wildest party.” In another, he initially begged off attending a party Epstein was throwing during the United Nations General Assembly because he thought it meant it would be full of diplomats. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from someone under 18, responded that “there is no one over 25 and all very cute.”

The email chain ends there, and there’s no evidence Musk attended the party or any other event Epstein hosted. For Musk, that’s enough. He has continued his grandstanding about Epstein, demanding the federal government do more to prosecute people in the files—but not him, of course. “When there is at least one arrest, some justice will be done. If not, this is all performative,” he wrote. “Nothing but a distraction.” The distraction he is referring to, it seems, is his relationship with Epstein.

But the emails between Musk and Epstein are far from exculpatory. It’s obvious from Musk’s limited correspondence with Epstein that he was fully........

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