Part 2 of __
pt2- Jeffrey Epstein's Private Aviation Network
NJ Criminal Podcast
Premiered Aug 3, 2025 NJ Criminal Podcast
Next episode: • pt5 Jeffrey Epstein : Hiding in Israel - This conversation with #author Christopher Maag digs into the connections between Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and #Teterboro #airport , exploring the implications of #private #aviation in the context of the ongoing trial.
The discussion highlights the lack of regulation in private aviation, the testimonies from pilots, and the potential future of aviation security in light of these revelations.
takeaways
Teterboro Airport served as a hub for Epstein's operations.
Epstein's #wealth allowed him to utilize exclusive private aviation services.
The lack of regulation in private aviation raises concerns about security.
Testimonies from pilots reveal insights into Epstein's flights.
The trial may prompt discussions on aviation regulations.
Private aviation is often perceived as a privilege for the elite.
There is a need for more scrutiny in private aviation practices.
The balance between privacy rights and security is a complex issue.
Investigative journalism plays a crucial role in uncovering these stories.
Future legislation may arise from the findings of this trial.
Transcript
Since Ghislain Maxwell just got transferred and is likely to get either whacked or walk free, please enjoy this episode from December 2021.
Welcome back to New Jersey Criminal Podcast. Today is the end of the first week of the trial of United States of
America versus Galin Maxwell. Opening arguments began on Monday and the first
witness that the government called was pilot for Jeffrey Ebstein, Larry Vasi.
And we've heard testimony throughout the week. The one thing that I found very interesting was the connection to New
Jersey. And here today to talk to me about that connection is Enterprise reporter for the record and USA Today,
Christopher Moog. Christopher, welcome. Hi, Meg. Thanks for having me. Like many of us, um, I have been glued
to the news watching the development of the trial this week. The reporters are
allowed in the courtroom to a to some limited extent, but the trial can't be
recorded or rebroadcast. We are all relying on reading articles about the
reporters who are there and their observations. Uh, and I found it interesting that the first witness was
pilot. Now, the indictment, the superseding indictment against Galin
Maxwell, uh, charges eight counts. uh the first six of which involve
allegations that uh she and others uh trafficked minors or conspired to
traffic minors. Obviously, in order for the government to prove those charges, they have to prove that there was actual
trafficking or traveling. Uh and so one of the uh big topics throughout uh the
initial arrest of Jeffrey Ebstein uh at the Teeterborough airport in New Jersey
uh and a lot of articles since then have focused on uh his travels on his
infamous Boeing 727 commonly known now as the Lolita Express and other uh
aircraft. Um, and uh, you know, I was doing a little bit of research and I
came across your article uh, from 2019,
August of 2019, uh, where you describe the Teeter airport and how it really was the travel
hub of his se sex traffic ring. So, I I appreciate you joining me today to uh
give us a little bit of the background that you learned uh when you first wrote that article back in 2019 and and
anything that you've learned since then. Uh because it really does seem that this international travels by Epstein, uh
there's been uh testimony just this week about uh Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacy, Bill Gates, etc. uh a lot of it, a large
majority of it was uh them flying in and out of this airport in New Jersey. So,
why don't you tell us about it? Sure. Thank you for having me. So, I had uh I was I was similarly drawn to this
case. I'm not in my journalism typically drawn to celebrity cases like this, but
I found the facts of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged abuses and then his uh the way
that he largely escaped consequences for his first uh conviction in Florida on
many multiple charges of sex trafficking. Gripping and dark and awful. Uh, so when he was when Epstein
was arrested at Peterborough airport in the summer of 2019, I was actually out of the country. I was on a writing
fellowship up in Canada, literally on the side of a mountain in the Canadian Rockies. And um, so I was struck by, oh,
this I've read about this guy. He was arrested. He was arrested at Teterboro. the record newspaper where I'm based did
one or two short stories on that but didn't really you know it's a daily newspaper uh with uh people who are
operating under the gun of deadlines and so nobody had really the bandwidth to
think what a remarkable thing this is. Uh what occurred to me immediately is that um Epstein from what little I knew
at the outset liked to be a big deal. He had a lot of money and he liked to show that he has a
lot of money. And for people with those two qualities, Teterboro is an important
place. Uh to hanger a an airplane at Teterboro cost $60,000 a month if you
want to park it inside. And there's a long waiting list. and t and uh Epstein
just through a quick search I did while I was in my little cabin in the in the mountains he had at sometimes four
aircraft parked there some indoors some outdoors that's a lot of
by my math quarter of a million dollars a month and it wasn't all indoors and you know we had a sorski helicopter that was
outdoors and things and one was a small two propeller Gulfream uh plane so but at least one parked indoors I mean he
was he was spending a lot of money he could have parked these planes at Westchester County Airport um just a
little bit farther from his home on the Upper East Side. Uh and he could have paid a little more than half. As
context, I had already covered um I was a transportation reporter at the record before they gave me a column. So I knew
a bit, just barely enough to be dangerous on issues of regional transportation. Cedarboro Airport is
owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. So that's that's why it resonated for me of like
a lot of people look at Tito and they think it's an airport for small planes in a swamp in New Jersey. That's not
untrue. But I knew enough that to know that in in this among uh the
international wealthy Peterborough has a different connotation there when you when you are Queen Latifah. I mean, for
example, Queen Latifah, Justin Bieber have their photos, Polaroids of them,
just inside the door of the subway uh sandwich shop at the end of the
Teeter runway because if you're about to get on a on a cross-country flight on your own plane, you need a sandwich.
One of the places people want to be seen. You want to be able to say that you flew through Teeter.
And for as humble as it looks, it really is a place for the rich and famous. Uh
when I got back from my from Canada, I started looking around and uh there had
been an earlier case in which Ms. Maxwell had been charged in Florida and
uh her many of the documents most of the documents from that case uh had been
sealed by court order and on appeal those those records were unsealed and
open to the public. So, um, I found them online, started going through them, and
I was immediately surprised by the volume of flights. These are all, I
should describe them. It's a PDF of originally handwritten documents. It's like a grid, like a spreadsheet,
uh, written by just one of Jeffrey Epstein's six pilots. This was David.
I found a copy of that online, and you referenced that in your August 2019
article. I had a question. Is that did he complete all of the logs or just the
logs for the flights that he was the pilot? Rogers that is because Epstein, just to be clear, Epstein had more than
one pilot. Uh again, first witness called by the government this week uh
was the Larry Vasi. Um you referenced just a minute ago, I believe the uh logs
written by David Rogers who was one of the other I think six total pilots. Yes.
So, each pilot keeps their own log. Um, so David Rogers, the these 103 pages, I
believe, of of sheets of of log sheets were just kept by one of Epstein's six
pilots. Um, the others didn't keep any logs. The others may or may not have had logs,
but uh they were not subject to the unsealing. Got it. By the Florida court.
Okay. So that indicate that's a hint of how often he was flying Epstein was
flying. Um just this this is presumably a small subset of the total number of
flights. Okay. Right. So then your article referencing like at least 730 flights to and from Teterboro between 95 and 2013.
It could be much much more than that. That's just one pilot of six. Got it. And the other thing that's in
that's maybe interesting to know or maybe important is that these are not FAA
required documents. The pilots don't have to keep these. The reason why uh David Rogers said he kept them is
because uh it is an important piece of information for maintenance of the
airplane and ensuring the airplane. You want to know how many hours the engines are up and running, roughly how many
miles it has flown. So it's it's kind of an internal document for the Epstein business operations to say when does it
need a new engine? The reason why that becomes important is because
the way that David Rogers kept these records changed pretty drastically. So they started in 1995 and Rogers is
writing down in most cases the full names of every person on board with some
important exceptions. A lot of the what appeared to be the younger women that were flying on the Boeing 727
uh were often just the initials. So some of those align with uh people
who say they were victimized by Epstein. Uh some of them don't, but we just have the initials to go on. So after Epstein
was charged in 2007 uh on sex trafficking, uh Rogers changed
the way he wrote his notes. he stopped putting anyone's full name on. It became either just a hashmark for a number of
people on the plane or um people's initials. So, it became a lot more anonymous and we don't have any indication at this
point whether he did that of his own accord or whether he was directed to do that. I'm sure if he's called to testify, we will find out.
I find it interesting that this otherwise humble place is this symbol for the international elite. That's that
is a major reason one would assume why Epstein chose it to be the focus of his
operations. I also should say that there's not a complete ven diagram
overlap here. Well, the same document that you and I have both looked at. Um, Donald Trump flew on at least one
flight. Uh, Bill Clinton flew on, I believe, three flights, but it's been a little while since I looked.
None of them went through Teeter, so I can't I didn't look at them. you were focusing there.
Well, I mean, it seems to me that Teterboro when when Epste was arrested,
he was coming into Teeterborough, right? Son, he was arrested. He was flying in from Paris. So, the flights going in and
out of Teterboro were all over the country and all over the world. It wasn't as though Teeter just traveled to
the Palm Beach residence or the Santa Fe residence. So it was yeah it was his basis for flights to
Paris to Aspen, Colorado to London. Is that the So we're assuming or do we know for sure that the Teeter airport is
the airport that he would always fly along with Maxwell when she flew with him uh anytime they were leaving or
coming into the Manhattan residence. I can't say with 100% certainty. They did occasionally fly to Westchester,
usually when Bill Clinton was on the plane. Okay. uh and a couple of occasions they flew
to Newark. I don't know why, but yeah, it is definitely safe to say that uh for his
new for Epstein's New York home, uh Teter Bro was the was the base.
Since you wrote the article in August of 19, um did you continue
uh your research or um investigation regarding uh the connection to Teeter?
Is there anything that you learned after you wrote the article in in 2019 that
you uh felt was worthy of uh either continued uh analysis or continued
articles? Yes. So we did uh I teamed up with two other reporters from the record uh
Abbott Koloff and Gene Rimbaugh who are amazing investigative journalists and we
we wrote one more story about Teeter and the focus of that story was to talk about this world of it's the world of
private aviation not all of which is for the elite I mean this can be um crop
dusters uh taking off from grass airports uh it can be dentists with a
little plane Um, a small subset of this private aviation world are rich people like
Jeffrey Epstein. And the same rules apply to all of them for the same reason, which is uh you and
I are used to getting onto a United flight at pick a major national international airport and we have to go
through the TSA screening and our bags are checked. Uh, in private aviation, none of that applies. Uh, nobody's
checking your bags. Nobody's checking the people on the plane. Um and the reasoning for that both from the FAA
agrees with uh the private aviation industry on the argument that owning a plane is
like owning a car. We would never suggest that state police should uh
check our bags and our cars before we take our cars out of the garage. Along
that same principle, it's a private plane. You own it. You get to take whatever you want. And if through other
means we find you are fing or trafficking drugs or underage girls, then we have other means to find that
and prosecute that. But that's that private aviation is not the primary lens
through which we do enforcement of those problems. So arguably a privacy interest. Yeah. that that they I think because
people get a little annoyed at the privileges and power of the rich when
you look at what is actually happening at a place like Teterboro or the Palm
Beach airport where he flew where Epstein flew often um these are not the
airport experiences that 99% of Americans have um the focus of
operations at Teter are five what are called fixed base operations and um they
have a long history in in aviation because they actually predated the creation of airports. They predated the
word airport and it just meant here's a place where you can refuel your plane uh and get ready for your flight. They have
evolved into reasonably opulent uh way stations, lounges for the rich as
their planes are fueled and serviced and ready to go and their and their crews assemble. So, uh, I and a photographer
snuck into the one, the fixed base operation that Epstein used. It's a nice corporate airport lounge,
you know, with massaging seats for the PL, you know, pilots. Uh, they have bunks for pilots who need to sleep
there. Not an amazing restaurant, but a little restaurant in there. They have uh leather seats for people to sit in. As
nice as it can be when you're still looking at planes and getting blasted by jet fuel, right? Uh and it's that's part of the
expense of using a place like Tita bro. These flights that were taken uh by
Epstein, Maxwell and others uh began before 9/11 and and extended after 9/11
2001. Are you aware if any uh rules changed from the perspective of the FAA
um post 911 with regard to uh these private planes? You indicated at the
beginning of our conversation that the logs that you reviewed by Rogers, one of
the six pilots, were not required. Um, that that surprises me to to hear that
the FAA still wouldn't require some sort of reporting requirements or knowledge
of, you know, private planes flying all over the country or the world. Yeah. No, I mean, it's really just uh
you need to file a flight plan. That's it. Do you know if any of those flight plans have been reviewed by the
government or have come into uh review? No, I I don't know.
It it will be interesting and I'm I'm I'm not sure if uh either the government
or the um you know defense intend to call any of the other pilots. Um, I did
review an account of the direct testimony of Larry Vasoski on Monday and
Tuesday and the cross-examination. And it sounded to me like the defense
were uh pointing to um what what you said a minute ago about the use of
initials of the folks that were on the plane to suggest that perhaps you know
um for example my initials MH. There could be somebody else with those initials and that doesn't necessarily
mean that I was on that flight. That kind of a thing. Um right. Not that I've ever been on a private plane, but
yeah, one of the interesting things there is that uh MH had her own plane,
right? It wasn't the big 727. It was usually part part of the time it was a Sorski
helicopter and part of the time it was a twin prop plane uh with vanity license
with GM. Yeah, I don't have a private plane as far as I know. It's a uh vanity license plate in the aviation world if you can pay extra to
have your initials as part of your tail number. Right. In fact, didn't the uh the Boeing 727, the Lolita Express, didn't it end
in J? Yes. Uhhuh. Right. And there was a plane, sorry. Was there
was a there was always a plane at Teterboro with GM for Maxwell.
I think so, so she had her own private plane at Tetboro airport. If she owned it or not is unclear, but
it appears that it was named for her. Another thing that I should mention, I maybe I haven't uh nailed this down
specifically, the the real issue when you're looking at this case for
Jeffrey Epstein is because it's private private aviation, there are no rules for
obscurity really. uh if you're coming in from uh as he was on his final plane uh
final flight uh from Paris, if you're flying internationally, the TSA is allowed to meet you at your destination
and and check your bags, you know, to make sure you're not bringing in any illegal goods. Domestic flights, there
are there is no authority. There's no structure for that. But there is an
informal piece to it. Um I believe it was Vanity Fair magazine interviewed people at the
St. Thomas airport, which is close to the island Little St. James that uh
Jeffrey Epstein owned. Uh just a short little boat ride away. They reported to
to again I think it was Vanity Fair seeing Epstein landing and leaving in
the company of many young underage women and getting their noses bent out of
shape, thinking that's not right. You shouldn't be doing that. you're old enough to be their father or their
grandfather. This is not like landing at Teterboro is not landing at a crop tester airport. There are people there.
And if there were people who noticed this strange looking group at St.
Thomas, it stands to reason that there would have been people working at Teterboro
who noticed the same thing. Yeah. And just as an aside, the flight would would fly direct, correct, from
Teterboro to St. Thomas. Yes. Mhm.
That's interesting whether or not there would be any witnesses to um the you know boarding of these folks
on the on the plane. Yeah. And the Port Authority told us that they offer trainings. They they run
trainings for workers. And one part of that training is to instruct workers that if you see anything suspicious uh
uh to indicate drug trafficking or human trafficking, here are the avenues to report that. Um
do we know whether there's any surveillance at Teterboro? I know that there are private security cameras at each of these fixed base
operations. Port Authority uh has its own police force uh and they patrol the
perimeter. Um, police also help with them at the perimeter and then TSA has
authority to come on site and the FBI anytime they want. It's definitely nothing as intensive as you might see at
Newark airport. One of the things that Vasi testified about on uh I think it
was Tuesday was that one of the things that he did was pick up luggage and put
luggage on the on the plane and um do a number of other things around the the
home of Epstein, including hooking up, you know, audio equipment, etc. It
would, you know, it seems odd that a pilot would be carrying luggage onto a plane. But of course, I guess if you're
also transporting underage females that the less people that see and know who's
coming on and off, the better. I interviewed a number of pilots uh who are, you know, among the elite
for this private ed private aviation world. uh you know whose clients own a
Gulfream 5 or Gulfream 7 jet uh 50 million $70 million jet in that world.
What these pilots told me is that the client dictates everything every aspect
of your working life is is determined by the whims and and taste of the client.
Uh some told me that uh they were hired through, you know, a chief of staff to a
rich client, never met or saw the rich client. They were told when to be in the cockpit. They were in the cockpit at
that time. The door was always closed. And the client preferred no contact and
maximal privacy. Other pilots told me, oh, actually, no, I'll take that back. the same pilot told me he had a
different client um who liked to fly to Las Vegas and would ask the pilots and
and a flight, you know, one or two flight attendants to join the client as
they rolled around like big spenders in Las Vegas because he wanted to have a big entourage and would be generally included in the
client's social world, you know, at a kind of a junior level, run the gamut. So
yeah, the the client can save, you know, for whatever reason. Uh
you can load baggage or keep away for the baggage. We have other people to do that. Um yeah, it's up to the client,
right? And I think Vasi also had testified. Again, I'm I'm relying on uh
what I have read by other reporters, but or or listened to by other reporters, but it's my understanding that Vasi had
testified, you know, that the the cockpit door was closed. Uh, of course
on on cross-examination, uh, it was brought out that, um, you know, he was never told he couldn't come
out. Um, on the other hand, he also testified that he was, you know, close
with Ebstein, that Ebstein, I think, paid for his daughter's, uh, both of his daughter's college education,
uh, etc. And then um on redirect the A USA uh Jim Comey's daughter was was
handling him as a witness uh said, "Well, you know, did did your daughters ever give him a massage?" And he said,
"Absolutely not." Right? So, it sounds as though the government was um you
know, attempting to portray Visasi, again, one of six of his pilots um as as
as being someone who was close with Ebstein, who did a lot for him, more than just what a pilot would do, but
went on the plane, stayed in the cockpit, didn't come out. The defense was attempting to um show that he he
certainly wasn't told to stay in the cockpit. and again was close with Ebstein um but but never saw or
witnessed anything uh on on the plane at least when he piloted it. Um I am
interested to see if any other um pilots testified. And it would be interesting to see if specifically if Rogers
testified um because as as we've discussed, we've seen his his logs um
and he may or may not be able to shed light on the individuals who those initials were to him and you know why it
was that he after Epstein was first arrested uh changed his quote unquote
reporting style to not include certain uh initials. Right. Um, so it and and
again at the end of the day it it all centers around the majority uh at least according to Rogers uh flight records,
the majority of the flights came in and out of Teterboro right here in New
Jersey. Yeah. And I think that's uh at first I wasn't necessarily believing testimony
from Rogers from the first trial in Florida. The 727 is a big plane, but a lot of these Gulf Streams are pretty
small. And I was thinking, you have to know who's on the plane if you're the pilot, right? And my uh pilot contact said,
"Sometimes, sometimes not. If you're in in the cockpit, there is often at least
two doors between you and the client." So there you've got obviously the
cockpit door, but then there's kind of there's often a little service area uh where you might have a crew sleeping
station uh big enough for a bed to just barely lie flat, a bathroom, a kitchen
um that is both used by crews during long flights and to prepare meals and drinks for the client. So you've got at
least two doors. On Epstein's 727, there were multiple compartments going back,
including this living room area with this doughnut shaped couch we've learned from uh this trial. So, that makes me
less incredulous. Uh I'm really curious to see how the testimony goes in this
trial because it actually is possible for all of this to be happening and the
pilot to genuinely not know andor to say, "I don't want to know. I'd rather
not know. Right. Do you think that the spotlight that has been put upon uh these private
aircrafts and these airports, you know, such as Teeterborough uh might change a
either the perception of folks that use these airports? Um, you know, you
started by saying this is uh kind of the rich and the famous and people want to be seen there to something that is
nefarious and and or do you think that it could ultimately change federal
rules, FAA rules, rules regarding um security, etc. What do you think? After
we published our story, um, two congressmen from, uh, North Jersey was,
uh, Representative Josh Gottheimr of Wyoff and Bill Pascal of Patterson, um,
introduced legislation to study this issue to say that, you know, there are less stringent security regulations and
staff training at Teterboro and similar facilities. And the TSA,
the legislation authorized a study. It didn't authorize any kind of fix to say
the TSA needs to study this and see if there are security threats or law
enforcement threats because of this private aviation network and report back to Congress on what they find. We were
happy to have any kind of you know official response to in which members of
Congress were agreeing that this seems strange that we have this large network that operates completely on its own with
very limited regulation. Nothing has come of that process. Uh so maybe this
trial and especially the fact that it opens the trial opens with um establishing testimony from one of
Epste's pilots. Maybe this brings more uh people talking about this issue, but
I wouldn't be surprised if nothing happens because I think a lot of people
uh both legislators and regular Americans would agree with industry to say, "Well, do you want cops checking
your trunk every time you go for a drive?" Well, that's my plane. Hands off my plane.
Yeah. Well, that's a pretty good argument. And uh I haven't heard of anybody at le nobody
from TSA or even people who have pointed out that this is an issue. Nobody has really pointed out a way to increase
security at facilities like Teterboro without infringing on that basic
assumption of privacy. Fascinating. Yeah. That that balance between privacy rights and the
government's interest in protecting people. That's going to be I think that's going to be a question that as it
relates to uh private airlines, private airports, uh private jets is we haven't
heard the last of it. I think you're absolutely right. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me, Chris.
Thank you. It'll be interesting. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see uh what else we hear.
if if Teterboro gets named specifically throughout the trial, um if anything
develops, I'd love to have you come back. Um and I'd love to come back. I I thank you for taking your time this
afternoon uh to shed light into uh these details that you uh reported on over two
years ago. Yeah. Thank you, Me. I really appreciate it and let's keep in touch.
Thanks again for tuning in and don't forget to subscribe anywhere you listen.