There is no shorter route to power than through the genitals of male leaders. This principle guided the Lolita Gambit, played by the Mossad through its "Agent" Jeffrey Epstein
Van Hollen Brings Epstein Bill to Floor for Vote Senator Chris Van Hollen Aug 2, 2025
Transcript
SENATOR FROM RHODE ISLAND. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE SENATOR FROM MARYLAND IS RECOGNIZED. MR. VAN HOLLEN: THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. THEY HAVE WELL DESCRIBED, I THINK, ALL THE INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INCLUDING RECENTLY WITH RESPECT TO THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL WHO HAD BEEN DONALD TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER CONDUCTING THE SECRET INTERVIEW WITH THE EPSTEIN ASSOCIATE MAXWELL. AND THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION TO CONTINUE HERE ON THE SENATE FLOOR. WE WERE HERE EARLIER THIS MORNING WHERE WE DISCUSSED THE VERY, VERY TROUBLING AND DISTURBING CASE OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND THE HORRIFYING ABUSE OF YOUNG WOMEN AND GIRLS. THOSE WHO WERE SO TERRIBLY ABUSED AND TREATED DESERVE TO HAVE THE FULL TRUTH. THEY DESERVE TO HAVE ALL THE FACTS COME OUT, AS DO THEIR LOVED ONES, AS DO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, SO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN HAVE SOME KIND OF CONFIDENCE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IS PRESENTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH THE TRUTH, BECAUSE WE NEED TRANSPARENCY IN ORDER TO ENSURE FULL ACCOUNTABILITY. IT USED TO BE THE CASE THAT DONALD TRUMP AND HIS ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI AND OTHERS IN THIS ADMINISTRATION SAID THEY WANTED TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS. IN FACT, THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES. BUT AS WE GOT CLOSER TO ACTUALLY DOING THAT, THEY SUDDENLY DECIDED THAT THEY DID NOT WANT THE PUBLIC TO KNOW AND THAT THEY DIDN'T WANT EPSTEIN'S VICTIMS TO KNOW. AND SO NOW THEY'VE DECIDED NOT TO BE FORTHCOMING. THE OBVIOUS QUESTION IS WHAT ARE THEY HIDING. AND THAT IS WHY WE TOOK TO THE FLOOR EARLIER TODAY TO SAY RELEASE THE DAMNED EPSTEIN FILES. WE'VE LEARNED JUST IN THE LAST 48 HOURS THAT AT SOME POINT ALONG THE WAY THE FBI REDACTED TRUMP'S NAME FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES. WE HAD LEARNED THAT HIS NAME WAS VERY LIKELY IN THOSE FILES, AND WE ALSO KNOW THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASKED THE FBI TO DO A SEARCH OF HIS NAME IN THE FILES. WE NOW KNOW THAT HIS NAME WAS REDACTED FROM THOSE FILES AT SOME POINT ALONG THE WAY BY THE FBI. AS MY COLLEAGUES FROM RHODE ISLAND AND CALIFORNIA WERE JUST DISCUSSING, WE'VE ALSO WITNESSED IN JUST THE LAST WEEK OR TWO THE HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE ACTION OF THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE TO CONDUCT A SECRET INTERVIEW WITH GHISLAINE MAXWELL, WHO WAS JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S PARTNER IN THESE CRIMES. AND WHEN HE WAS ASKED AT HIS CONFIRMATION HEARING BEFORE THE SENATE ABOUT WHETHER HE HAD A CONTINUING DUTY OF LOYALTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY TO DONALD TRUMP, HIS RESPONSE WAS YES, AS THE FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY OF DONALD TRUMP, HE HAD AN ONGOING DUTY OF LOYALTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY. CLEARLY THAT DUTY OF LOYALTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY TO DONALD TRUMP PUTS HIM IN DIRECT CONFLICT WITH THE INTERESTS OF THE TRUTH AND THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES WHEN IT COMES TO PRESIDENT TRUMP. SO IT WAS HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE THAT HE HELD THAT INTERVIEW. AS THE SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA JUST POINTED OUT, HE EXCLUDED FROM THAT INTERVIEW LAWYERS THAT HAD BEEN WORKING ON THIS CASE FOR A LONG TIME. IT IS ALSO A FACT BY AT LEAST MANY REPORTS THAT HE, TODD BLANCHE, HAS A VERY CLOSE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LAWYER FOR MS. MAXWELL. AND SO THIS THING STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN. AND ONE THING THEY SHOULD DO IS IMMEDIATELY RELEASE THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THIS SECRET INTERVIEW THAT WAS JUST CONDUCTED. RELEASE THE TRANSCRIPTS. ACCORDING TO ALL REPORTS, THEY GAVE GHISLAINE MAXWELL IMMUNITY, PROPER IMMUNITY FOR THE PURPOSE OF HER TESTIMONY. NOTHING SHE SAID IN THAT INTERVIEW COULD BE USED AGAINST HER. SO RELEASE THE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. BECAUSE DONALD TRUMP'S PERSONAL ATTORNEY SHOULD NOT BE THE ONE IN THE ROOM CONDUCTING AN INTERVIEW WITH SOMEBODY WHO MIGHT HAVE TESTIMONY THAT DIRECTLY INCRIMINATES DONALD TRUMP. WE'VE ALSO SEEN JUST IN RECENT DAYS THE QUESTION FLOATED ABOUT WHETHER THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD PARDON GHISLAINE MAXWELL. WHEN PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS ASKED ABOUT THAT POSSIBILITY, HE ACKNOWLEDGED HE HAD THAT POWER. AS I SAID ON THIS FLOOR THIS MORNING, PRESIDENT TRUMP SHOULD IMMEDIATELY TODAY ANNOUNCE THAT HE WILL NOT USE HIS PARDON POWER TO PARDON GHISLAINE MAXWELL, WHO IS SERVING A 20-YEAR SENTENCE FOR BEING A COCONSPIRATOR IN THE ABUSE OF YOUNG WOMEN AND GIRLS. WHAT IS CLEARLY HAPPENING IN PLAIN VIEW IS VERY DANGEROUS TO OUR SYSTEM OF JUSTICE. WHAT IS CLEARLY HAPPENING IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT GHISLAINE MAXWELL AND HER LAWYERS ARE SEEKING A PARDON IN EXCHANGE FOR HER GIVING THE KIND OF TESTIMONY THAT WOULD PLEASE PRESIDENT TRUMP. ONE OF THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIM, ONE OF THE VICTIMS, A FAMILY FROM VIRGINIA, WHO LOST THEIR LOVED ONE TO SUICIDE IN APRIL, HAS SAID, PRESIDENT TRUMP, DO NOT PARDON GHISLAINE MAXWELL. AND MY UNDERSTANDING THAT IS CLEARLY THE SENTIMENT OF THE OTHER VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES. AND SO THE PRESIDENT SHOULD TODAY ANNOUNCE THAT HE WILL NEVER DO THAT. NOW, EARLIER THIS MORNING, SENATOR MERKLEY OFFERED A RESOLUTION AND ASKED UNANIMOUS CONSENT ON IT TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES. AND WE SHOULD DO THAT IMMEDIATELY. THAT SHOULD BE DONE IMMEDIATELY. SENATOR DURBIN AND I WROTE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL LAST WEEK URGING HER TO DO WHAT SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO DO, WHICH WAS RELEASE THE FILES. BUT THAT WAS OBJECTED TO ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE. AND I SEE SENATOR BARASSO ON THE FLOOR, AND WHEN HE OBJECTED TO SENATOR MERKLEY THIS MORNING, THIS IS WHAT HE SAID. HE SAID, SENATE REPUBLICANS INCLUDED A PROVISION TO ADDRESS THIS VERY ISSUE IN AN APPROPRIATIONS BILL THAT DEMOCRATS BLOCKED EARLIER THIS WEEK. THIS ISSUE WOULD HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED HERE ON THE UNITED STATES SENATE FLOOR, YET SENATE DEMOCRATS CAME TO THE FLOOR AND OBJECTED TO WHAT WAS IN THIS BILL. WELL, FIRST OF ALL, MR. PRESIDENT, I SHOULD CLARIFY THE FACT THAT IT WAS NOT SENATE REPUBLICANS WHO INCLUDED THAT PROVISION IN THE APPROPRIATIONS BILL TO REQUIRE THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RETAIN ALL THE RECORDS WITH REGARD TO THE EPSTEIN FILES AND THAT THEY ANSWER CERTAIN QUESTIONS REGARDING THOSE FILES AND PROVIDE THOSE RESPONSES TO CONGRESS. IT WASN'T SENATE REPUBLICANS. IN FACT, IT WAS MY AMENDMENT IN THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ON THAT VERY ISSUE. I'M GLAD IT DID PASS UNANIMOUSLY, AND MOMENTARILY I WILL ASK UNANIMOUS CONSENT ON THE EXACT SAME PROVISION THAT WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE, WORD FOR WORD. NOW, IT IS TRUE THAT THAT BILL DID NOT MOVE FORWARD HERE IN THE SENATE, AND I'M NOT GOING TO GO ON FOR THE HOURS THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO TALK ABOUT THE PROVISIONS IN THE COMMERCE, SCIENCE, JUSTICE BILL. SUFFICE IT TO SAY THERE WAS ANOTHER ISSUE THAT WE DISCUSSED FOR AN HOUR THE OTHER NIGHT REGARDING THE FACT THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DECIDED SEIZE, RESCIND, STEAL, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT, $1.4 BILLION THAT HAD BEEN SET ASIDE FOR A SECURE FBI HEADQUARTERS, AND THEY DECIDED TO SNATCH THAT MONEY AWAY FROM THE SELECTED SITE AND PUT IT TO ANOTHER SITE. AND MY VIEW IS WHENEVER THE FBI BUILDS THE NEW HEADQUARTERS, IT SHOULD BE A SECURE SITE. THAT WAS A DISAGREEMENT TO -- THAT LED TO THE FACT THAT THAT BILL DID NOT PASS AT THAT TIME. WE ALL KNOW, SENATOR BARASSO KNOWS, THAT THE BILLS TAKE A LONG TIME TO WIND THEIR WAY THROUGH THE SENATE, THE HOUSE AND CONFERENCE, SO THERE'S NO REASON TO DELAY THE PROVISION IN THAT BILL WAS WAS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE, WHICH SENATOR BARASSO SAID THIS MORNING, REPUBLICANS INCLUDED. WELL, IF IT WAS INCLUDED IN THAT BILL, WE SHOULD DO IT RIGHT NOW. WE SHOULD GET IT DONE RIGHT NOW. AND I'M JUST GOING TO IN CLOSING READ THIS RESOLUTION BECAUSE IT'S PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD, MR. PRESIDENT. IT SAYS, IN GENERAL, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SHALL RETAIN, PRESERVE, COMPILE ANY RECORDS ROW LATED TO ANY INVESTIGATION, PROSECUTION OR INCARCERATION OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND ANY SERVICE PROVIDED TO VICTIMS IDENTIFIED IN SUCH INVESTIGATION. PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD. RETAIN THE RECORDS. DON'T DESTROY ANY EVIDENCE. IT ALSO CALLED FOR A REPORT NOT LATER THAN 60 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF ENACTMENT OF THIS ACT. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SHALL SUBMIT TO THE COMMITTEE OF SCIENCE, JUSTICE, AND ROW LATED AGENCIES A REPORT THAT CLUFDZ -- INCLUDEDS INFORMS ON THE JEFFREY EPSTEIN, WHICH WILL INCLUDE THE NONPROSECUTION AGREEMENT BETWEEN JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, TWO, INFORMATION OF VICTIMS, INCLUDING NOTIFICATION OF VICTIMS UNDER SECTION 3771 OF TITLE 18 OF THE U.S. CODE, THE CRIME VICTIMS RIGHTS ACT. THREE, INFORMATION ON ANY INVESTIGATION OF A COCON COCONSPIRATOR, FOUR, INFORMATION ON ANY INTERNAL VIEW OF MISCONDUCT FINDINGS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE RELATED TO ANY INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN, ANY INVESTIGATION INTO THE FINANCIAL TRAFFICKING NETWORKS OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN, SIX, THE FINANCIAL TIES OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND ANY CONNECTIONS BETWEEN JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND, SEVEN, INFORMATION ON THE OVERSIGHT FAILURES AT THE METROPOLITAN CORRECTION CENTER IN NEW YORK, NEW YORK. FINALLY, SECTION C, PRIVACY PROTECTIONS. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL MAY REDACT THE NAMES AND PERSONALLY IDENTIFIED INFORMATION OF ANY VICTIM IN THE REPORTED TO CONGRESS UNDER SUBSECTION C. I WANTED TO READ IT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE SO EVERYONE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE VOTING FOR. IT'S STRAIGHTFORWARD. PRESIDENT TRUMP, ATTORNEY GENERAL BONDI, DO NOT DESTROY THE EVIDENCE OF THE EPSTEIN FILES, AND WITHIN 60 DAYS PRESENT THIS SENATE WITH ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE CASE. THAT'S WHAT THIS AMENDMENT DOES. IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE AMENDMENT THAT PASSED UNANIMOUSLY WITH REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT OT OF THE -- OUT OF THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE, THE SAME PROVISION THAT SENATOR BARASSO THIS MORNING SAID WAS A REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL, SO I HOPE ALL THE REPUBLICANS WILL JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THIS MEASURE. AND WITH THAT, MR. PRESIDENT, AS IF IN LEGISLATIVE SESSION AND NOTWITHSTANDING RULE 22, I ASK UNANIMOUS CONSENT THAT THE SENATE PROCEED TO THE IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION OF MY BILL AT THE DESK, FURTHER, THAT THE BILL BE CONSIDERED READ THREE TIMES AND PASSED AND THE MOTION TO RECONSIDER BE CONSIDERED MADE AND LAID UPON THE TABLE. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: IS THERE AN OBJECTION? MR. BARRASSO: MR. PRESIDENT. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE MAJORITY WHIP. MR. BARRASSO: I OBJECT. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: OBJECTION IS HEARD. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE SENATOR FROM OREGON HAS THE FLOOR. THE SENATOR FROM MARYLAND. MR. VAN HOLLEN: THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. AS I MADE CLEAR THIS WAS THE VERY PROVISION THAT SENATOR BARASSO THIS MORNING SAID THAT REPUBLICANS HAD SUPPORTED AND HE INDICATED THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT THEY WANTED TO SEE MOVE FORWARD. WELL, THAT WAS THIS MORNING AND NOW IT'S 6 O'CLOCK THIS EVENING. I DON'T KNOW WHAT CHANGED. BUT THE LANGUAGE IS THE SAME AS WHAT SENATOR BARASSO TALKED ABOUT THIS MORNING. IT'S THE SAME AS WHAT SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE PASSED ON A BIPARTISAN BASIS. ALL OF A SUDDEN WHEN IT COMES TIME TO ACTUALLY GET IT DONE ON THE SENATE FLOOR, NOT JUST PART OF AN APPROPRIATIONS BILL THAT'S GOING TO WIND ITS WAY THROUGH THIS PLACE WEEKS OR MONTHS, WHEN IT'S TIME TO ACTUALLY GET IT DONE, REPUBLICANS ARE OPPOSING THE IDEA OF TRANSPARENCY. I FIND THAT QUITE SHAMEFUL. I UNDERSTAND MY COLLEAGUE FROM OREGON, SENATOR MERKLEY, IS INTERESTED IN MAKING SOME POINTS AND MAYBE ASKING SOME QUESTIONS. I YIELD THE FLOOR. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE SENATOR FROM OREGON. MR. MERKLEY: WOULD MY COLLEAGUE FROM MARYLAND YIELD TO A QUESTION? SO IF I UNDERSTOOD YOUR PRESENTATION RIGHT, THIS IS WORD FOR WORD EXACTLY THE SAME, THIS BILL, AS THE AMENDMENT YOU PROPOSED IN THE APPROPRIATIONS MEETING. MR. VAN HOLLEN: YES, THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT. MR. MERKLEY: I CAN TELL YOU I READ THROUGH IT AND IT LOOKS LIKE MIMI EXACTLY -- TO ME EXACTLY THE SAME AND WE HEARD FROM OUR COLLEAGUE FROM WYOMING THAT THIS WAS A REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL, WHICH YOU CLARIFIED THAT YOU INTRODUCED IT AND ALSO OBSERVED THAT IT PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. SO I'M CONFUSED. IF MY COLLEAGUE FROM WYOMING LIKED IT SO MUCH THAT HE WANTED TO CLAIM AUTHORSHIP AND HE PROCEEDED TO SAY WE LIKED IT SO MUCH WE PASSED IT UNANIMOUSLY, WHY IS HE OBJECTING NOW TO ACTUALLY GETTING IT PASSED? MR. VAN HOLLEN: WELL, SENATOR MERKLEY, I DIDN'T HEAR AN EXPLANATION. I HEARD THE OBJECTION. I HAVE NOT HEARD THE EXPLANATION FOR THE OBJECTION, AND I THINK IT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION GIVEN THE FACT THAT THE SENATOR FROM WYOMING WAS HERE ON THE SENATE OF THE -- ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE EARLIER, AS YOU POINTED OUT, EXTOLLING THE VIRTUES OF THIS AMENDMENT AND IN FACT PARTIALLY TAKING CREDIT FOR IT. SAYING REPUBLICANS SUPPORTED THIS AND WANTED IT. BUT APPARENTLY THAT WAS THIS MORNING AND NOW IS NOW AND I SUSPECT IT'S BECAUSE WHEN IT WAS INCLUDED IN THE APPROPRIATIONS BILL, IT'S INCLUDED IN A VEHICLE THAT, AS WE SAID, WIND ITS WAY THROUGH A LONG ROAD THROUGH THE PROCESS. WHO KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL TRY TO TAKE IT OUT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN CONFERENCE AND THAT'S WHY WE HAD A CHANCE IN THE LIGHT OF DAY HERE IN THE UNITED STATES TO ACTUALLY PASS THIS AND SEND IT OFF TO THE HOUSE IMMEDIATELY AND IF THEY PASSED IT, IT COULD GO TO THE PRESIDENT'S DESK. MR. MERKLEY: AND IF YOU'D YIELD TO ANOTHER QUESTION. MR. VAN HOLLEN: YES. MR. MERKLEY: THIS SEEMS EXTREMELY, WELL, MINIMAL THAT WE'RE PRESERVING THE RECORDS. EARLIER WE ASKED FOR A VOTE ON A BILL THAT WOULD BE COMPLETE DISCLOSURE BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THAT DISCLOSURE IS MERITED GIVEN A SET OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES, EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE PRESIDENT TRUMP DANGLING A POTENTIAL PARDON IN FRONT OF MS. MAXWELL. EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE THE FBI ITSELF REDACTING TRUMP'S NAME FROM DOCUMENTS. EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE GOING AND PERSONALLY INTERVIEWING MS. MAXWELL AND NOT TAKING ALONG THE LAWYERS WHO ARE EXPERTS IN THIS CASE AND THEN JUST SHORTLY AFTER SHE'S TRANSFERRED TO A MINIMUM SECURITY PRISON IN TEXAS, IN OTHER WORDS, REWARDED IN A POWERFUL WAY, A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A REGULAR PRISON AND THIS. SO WE WANTED DISCLOSURE, AND I THINK AMERICA WANTS DISCLOSURE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SEE PEOPLE HELD ACCOUNTABLE WHO PERPETRATED CRIMES, RAPE AGAINST YOUNG GIRLS. AND, YET, ALL YOU'RE ASKING FOR IS TO PRESERVE THE INFORMATION THAT IT NOT BE DELETED OR PUT INTO A SHREDDER OR PUT INTO A WOOD CHIPPER. IS THAT RIGHT? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR? MR. VAN HOLLEN: THAT'S THE HEART OF THE AMENDMENT AND I WILL READ THE FIRST SENTENCE, THE TOESHL -- ATTORNEY GENERAL SHALL RETAIN, COMPILE TO -- TO ANYTHING RELATED TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND ANY SERVICE PROVIDED TO VICTIMS PROVIDED IN SUCH AN INVESTIGATION. IT COULD NOT BE MORE CLEAR. IT DOES ASK FOR A REPORT ON OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION REGARDING THE EPSTEIN CASE, BUT TO YOUR FUNDAMENTAL POINT HERE, THIS IS SIMPLY A DIRECT ACTIVE NOT TO -- DIRECTIVE NOT TO DESTROY EVIDENCE THAT COULD BE IN THE EPSTEIN FILES. WE JUST LEARNED AT LEAST IN THE LAST 48 HOURS THAT SOMEWHERE ALONG THE ROAD, THE FBI HAD REDACTED DONALD TRUMP'S NAME FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES, SO WE KNOW IT'S IN THERE AND WE KNOW THAT AT SOME POINT IN TIME IT WAS REDACTED. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THESE RECORDS ARE NOT DESTROYED. MR. MERKLEY: ANOTHER QUESTION, IF I MIGHT. MR. VAN HOLLEN: YES. MR. MERKLEY: IF I TURN THE CLOCK BACK TO THAT APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING WHERE YOU PRESENTED YOUR AMENDMENT AND I WAS PRESENT, WAS THAT NOT VOTED OUT OF COMMITTEE ON A VOICE VOTE? MR. VAN HOLLEN: YES, IT WAS. IT WAS ADOPTED BY A VOICE VOTE. MR. MERKLEY: SO THE REPUBLICANS IN COMMITTEE SAID WE SUPPORT THE IDEA, BUT LET'S DO IT BY VOICE VOTE BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO HAVE OUR NAMES RECORDED YEA OR NAY, IS THAT SECRET? MR. VAN HOLLEN: AGAIN, I CANNOT, SENATOR, READ THE MIND OF ANY OF OUR COLLEAGUES. IT WAS A VOICE VOTE. BUT OF COURSE, THE OBJECTION WE'RE SEEING HERE ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE TODAY INDICATES THAT A REPUBLICAN -- OUR REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES DO NOT WANT TO GO ON RECORD AND VOTE WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO IT ON THIS PROPOSAL AND MAKING SURE THAT THE RECORDS ARE NOT DESTROYED. MR. MERKLEY: HAD THE SENATOR FROM WYOMING NOT OBJECTED, WE COULD HAVE PASSED THIS BILL TODAY BY VOICE VOTE, NOT NECESSARILY HAVING A RECORDED VOTE. MR. VAN HOLLEN: IT WOULD HAVE PASSED IMMEDIATELY IF HE HAD NOT OBJECTED TO IT. MR. MERKLEY: BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EVEN GET TO -- MR. VAN HOLLEN: THAT'S RIGHT, IT WOULD HAVE GONE DIRECTLY TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, CORRECT. MR. MERKLEY: SO, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE BY VOICE VOTE AND YOU OFFERED A PROPOSAL SIMPLY TO KEEP THE RECORDS INTACT, WHICH I MUST SAY SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO BE ASKED ANYWAY, BUT WHY WOULD ANY MEMBER OF THE SENATE OBJECT TO THE PRINCIPLE OF PROTECTING THE RECORDS? I'M CONFUSED. DON'T ALL OF US BELIEVE THAT WHEN THERE IS EVIDENCE RELATED TO A CRIME IT SHOULD NOT BE PUT INTO A SHREDDER OR A WOOD CHIPPER? MR. VAN HOLLEN: IT'S A VERY FAIR QUESTION, AND AS I INDICATED WE DIDN'T GET AN EXPLANATION FOR THE OBJECTION. WE HAD THE OBJECTION MADE AND NO FURTHER COMMENT FROM OUR COLLEAGUES ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE. AND I DO THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE UNDERSCORE THE FACT FOR OUR COLLEAGUES AND ANYBODY LISTENING THAT THIS AMENDMENT IS VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD, DON'T DESTROY EVIDENCE. IT DOES ALSO REQUIRE IN 60 DAYS THAT A REPORT BE PROVIDED THAT PROVIDES CERTAIN RELEVANT INFORMATION REGARDING THE EPSTEIN CASE. AND I'M NOT SURE WHY ANYBODY WOULD NOT WANT THAT INFORMATION TO BE PRESENTED EITHER. I MEAN, THIS IS LIKE OPPOSE AN EFFORT TO SAVE THE RECORDS, DON'T VOID THE EVIDENCE, AND ALSO VOTING AGAINST THE IDEA OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL PROVIDING THE UNITED STATES SENATE WITH ANSWERS TO SOME FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS. AGAIN, AS WE DISCUSSED THIS MORNING, THE FASTEST AND MOST COMPLETE WAY OF DOING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TO SUPPORT THE SENATOR FROM OREGON'S MOTION THIS MORNING, JUST TO RELEASE ALL THE FILES, RIGHT? THAT'S WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. WE SHOULD RELEASE THE FILES, AND THEY SHOULD DO IT NOW. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE A VOTE IN THE HOUSE TO DO THAT. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CAN DO WHAT SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO DO, RELEASE THEM. THAT'S WHAT MANY OF US CALLED FOR. THAT'S WHAT THE SENATOR'S MOTION THIS MORNING WAS ALL ABOUT. BUT MY GOODNESS, YOU SHOULD BE RELEASING THEM, BUT FOR GOODNESS SAKES WHY NOT AT LEAST SEND A DIRECTIVE SAYING DON'T DESTROY THE EVIDENCE? MR. MERKLEY: I APPRECIATE MY COLLEAGUE FROM MARYLAND BRINGING THIS FORWARD. IT SEEMS LIKE THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM WE SHOULD DO NOW IS PROTECT THE EVIDENCE FOR THE FUTURE. CERTAINLY, IT SHOULD BE RELEASED, AS BOTH OF US HAVE SPOKEN TO. I REALLY APPRECIATE MY COLLEAGUE FROM CALIFORNIA, WHO BROUGHT HIS LEGAL EXPERTISE, ALONG WITH OUR COLLEAGUE FROM RHODE ISLAND, WHO PUT IT OUT HOW EXTRAORDINARY IT IS THAT A DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL WOULD GO AND SIT IN A PRISON SFWUFG A KEY -- INTERVIEWING A KEY WITNESS TO CRIMINAL ACTIVITY, AND THAT MAGICALLY WITHIN HOURS THEREAFTER SHE'S TRANSFERRED TO MINIMUM SECURITY, AND THE PRESIDENT STARTS TALKING ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A PARDON. AMERICANS, THIS IS JUST STINKING TO HIGH HEAVEN. AND I'LL REPEAT THE POINT I MADE EARLIER TODAY IS NO ONE SHOULD BE ABOVE THE LAW. NO POWERFUL MAN SHOULD BE ABLE TO RAPE YOUNG GIRLS AND BE PROTECTED BY FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES OR BY LEGIONS OF LAWYERS OR ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES. LET THE RULE OF LAW COME FORWARD IN FULL FORCE TO HOLD THOSE WHO HAVE COMMITTED EGREGIOUS CRIMES BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. MR. VAN HOLLEN: I COULD NOT AGREE MORE, MR. PRESIDENT. OUR MESSAGE IS SIMPLE -- RELEASE THE DAMN EPSTEIN FILES, AND FOR GOD'S SAKES DON'T TRY TO DESTROY THE FILES
Aug 11, 2025 All the "King's" Men: Trump's lackeys and their disservice to America A New York federal court judge just rejected the motion filed by DOJ/Pam Bondi/Todd Blanche to release the grand jury transcripts in the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
According the ABC News, Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a lengthy opinion, criticizing the "Department of Justice for using 'demonstrably false' reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony." The judge also said release the transcripts would not reveal new information of any consequence, and that it looked like an effort by DOJ to give the illusion of transparency and full disclosure, adding that "there is no there, there."
[Glenn Kirschner] Friends, talk about the mother of all distractions. Today, a federal judge condemned Donald Trump and Pam Bondi's Department of Justice for their conduct in the Epstein litigation, filing those motions to unseal the Epstein and Ghislain Maxwell grand jury transcripts with the judge saying that DOJ was using quote demonstrably false reasoning and was creating a quote diversion and adding that there's no there there. So Donald Trump needs another diversion. What does he do? He sends soldiers into the streets of Washington DC and seizes control of the local city police department, the DC city cops, MPD, the Metropolitan Police Department. They were my partners in local crime fighting for decades when I was a prosecutor in Washington DC. But guess what? we will not be distracted. So, let's talk about that federal judge's condemnation of Donald Trump and Pam Bondi's Department of Justice because justice matters. [Music] Hey all, Glen Kirschner here. So friends, we're about to discuss some of the most scathing remarks imaginable from a federal judge. Remarks condemning the unethical conduct of Pam Bondi and her Department of Justice. conduct intended to deceive the American people regarding the true state of affairs in the Trump Epstein Maxwell scandal. Conduct designed to use the power of the Department of Justice to cover up for Donald Trump. So friends, I want to go slowly and methodically through this new reporting because I don't want it to get lost amidst the latest Trump attempt to distract. So let's turn to today's reporting. This from ABC News. Judge rejects Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury testimony in Ghislain Maxwell case. And that article begins, "A federal judge in New York has denied the Trump administration's motion to unseal grand jury testimony from the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislain Maxwell. The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it announced last month that no additional files would be released. Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein. In his 31-page opinion, US District Judge Paul Engel, Mayor of the Southern District of New York, criticized the Department of Justice for using demonstrably false reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony. The transcripts would not reveal new information of any consequence about Epstein and Maxwell's crimes. According to Judge Angel Mayor, who suggested that the Trump administration's push to release documents might be an intentional diversion. quote, "Its entire premise that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes or the government's DOJ's investigation into them is demonstrably false," the judge wrote. Engel wrote that the transcripts contain material already in the public record and lack any firsthand information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes. The records do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell who had sexual contact with a minor, mention any clients, shed light on their methods, or provide new information about Epstein's death. Angel Mayer wrote, "Judge Engel Mayer also suggested that the only reason that might justify the release of the records would be to expose as disingenuous the government's DOJ's public explanations for moving to unseal." In other words, the judge said, "There is no there there." this further quote from the judge. A member of the public appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge might conclude that the government's motion for their unsealing was aimed not at transparency but at diversion, aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such, the judge wrote. So friends, you might ask, well, in this Epstein Maxwell grand jury litigation, who at the Department of Justice is responsible for making those quote demonstrably false arguments? Pam Bondi, Todd Blanch, and Jay Clayton. Three Donald Trump political appointees. No career DOJ lawyers. no permanent federal prosecutors. The men and women who go into federal court, you know, all across the country every day representing the interests of the American people, none of them were on this court filing. No, just three Trump appointees, two of whom were Donald Trump's personal attorneys previously. And frankly, I think it's fair to say given the way they're conducting themselves, they are still acting like Donald Trump's personal lawyers, Pam Bondi and Todd Blanch. So, if these were just ordinary, run-of-the-mill DOJ lawyers, what would happen to them once a federal judge had said they're making demonstrably false arguments? They are using diversions and distractions. Attorneys who are misusing DOJ's power and the courts as a diversion, misleading the public because there's no there there. What would happen to those attorneys? Those attorneys would be referred to their state bar, the state in which they are licensed to practice law, referred for an ethics investigation and possible sanctions up to and including potentially being disbarred. That's what should happen to attorneys who make demonstrably false arguments to a court. You know why? You know why? Because justice matters. And friends, I also want to talk about Donald Trump's latest attempt to distract the American people from this scathing rebuke, the ongoing cover up of the Trump Epstein Maxwell scandal. And I'll be talking about that in another video either later today or early tomorrow. But right now, I just want to let this story sit because this is what Donald Trump is trying to distract the American people from by, you know, deploying troops to the streets of our nation's capital and claiming he's going to seize control of the local police department and goodness knows what else. But let's remain focused on a scandal that seems to have legs like no other Trump scandal that is the ongoing cover up of the Trump Epstein Maxwell scandal which you know has got his MAGA supporters up in arms which has Republicans in Congress bucking Donald Trump's desire to stop talking about it. Let's just let this one sit for a minute. And as always friends, please stay safe, please stay tuned, and I look forward to talking with you all again tomorrow. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
What Epstein’s Bodyguard Said About CIA Ties by Tara Palmeri Aug 21, 2025 The Tara Palmeri Show
Could Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to the CIA explain why he evaded justice for so long? On the Tara Palmeri Show, Tara, who has investigated Epstein for over two years and hosted two gripping podcast series—Broken: Jeffrey Epstein and Power: The Maxwells—recalls a chilling conversation from her Broken: Jeffrey Epstein podcast with victims’ lawyer Brad Edwards, who revealed a warning from Epstein’s bodyguard about his deep connections to the CIA. She also preludes an upcoming conversation with ex-CIA officer John Sipher, out this Sunday, shedding light on Epstein’s potential intelligence ties. From a mysterious trip to Langley to allegations of a KGB-style honeypot scheme, Tara explores how Epstein’s elite network may have shielded him, leaving survivors ignored.
Transcript
Welcome to the Tara Palmeri Show My focus has always been on the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. They're the constant. They're the ones who suffered, the ones who were ignored. But to understand why, to understand that injustice, you have to understand the shadowy way that Epstein operated, the way that he slipped in and out of justice over and over again. Was it just his powerful connections and money, or was there something more? Did he offer the government something that money can't buy? And that's what's also brought me back to this haunting conversation that I had in 2020 for broken Jeffrey Epstein, a podcast that I hosted and reported. It was with a lawyer for the victims, Brad Edwards. He described a warning that he received from Epstein's bodyguard about how deeply Epstein was protected. You don't know who you're messing with. and you need to be really careful. You are Epstein's CIA protection on Jeffrey's radar and somebody that Jeffrey pays a lot of attention to, which is not good. You don't want to be on Jeffrey's radar. And I said, "Well, give me some examples. I mean, who am I messing with?" And that's when he looked across the table and whispered three letters. C I A. Brad was recalling a conversation with Zinoviev, a Russian-born UFC fighter who was the type of guy who could be a bouncer at a really rough bar. He was hired by Epstein when he was worried that a father for one of his countless victims might kill him. But what Brad described next from Zinoviev about his trip to the CIA headquarters for Epstein may explain how Epstein was playing both sides of the law all along and that's why he was treated as untouchable. He said, "Listen, when he was in Why Epstein was 'untouchable' jail, one of the first things that I had to do was go to Langley to the CIA and sit in these classes for a week with CIA. I was the only private citizen there. At the end, the assistant director or director, I don't remember which, gave me a book with a handwritten note in it that I was told not to read and go deliver it to Jeffrey in jail. Everybody there knew who he was. He's an important person. And I said, "Is he in the CIA?" He said, "I I don't know. I'm a reporter, so I've obviously tried to reach Zenovia many times. I have a cell phone number. I've texted him. I've called him. No luck." Brad Edwards also wrote about this shocking interaction in his own book, Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein. I also reached out to a former colleague from the New York Post, ML Nel, who interviewed Zenov for New York Magazine. I wanted to know if Zenov was a Igor Zinoviev reliable source, and he said he was very reliable. In fact, like a true investigative reporter, has been on the Epstein story since before his 2019 arrest. I also tried the CIA multiple times. I first reached their press office on July 21st. We traded emails, phone calls, but they wouldn't give me a definitive answer on whether Zenovia visited their headquarters in Langley in 2008 while Epstein was serving just 13 months in county jail with work release for two counts of soliciting a minor for prostitution. I even emailed them again on Monday to let them know that I was going to publication on my Substack. The Red Letter, which you can find at tarpalmary.com. You can support my independent journalism there and get all of my exclusives like this straight to your inbox.
[INTERVIEW WITH JOHN CIPHER DELETED, BECAUSE LIBRARIAN CONSIDERED HIM NOT RELIABLE]
Former Epstein Prison Inmate EXPOSES Falsified Report Breaking Points Aug 6, 2025 Breaking Points
Ryan and Emily are joined by a former inmate at Epstein's prison to discuss the errors in the Epstein report.
Transcript
Intro
Joining us back on the program is Martin Goddisfeld, activist uh journalist and a former inmate at Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is the prison uh where Jeffrey Epstein infamously famously uh met his end. Uh Marty, thanks for coming back. Oh, no problem. Thanks for having me. And so we wanted to have you back on uh because you were able to go through the full IG report and some of the subsequent media reporting about uh the IG report that looked into the the layout of MCC and the camera situation which is quite crucial. Like if you talk to anybody who kind of casually follows this story, you know, they're familiar with this the camera the famous camera shot of the Epstein's door and then this also this like little still footage of the of the desk where the officers sit and then this controversy around this, you know, missing three minutes at midnight or whenever they kind of reset the camera. But what you seem to have observed here is that in fact um based on what you know about the layout of the prison uh and comparing it to what they have published here, there were potentially two ways to get directly to Epstein's cell that would not have been covered by any recording cameras. And so the threei donut thing is actually kind of a distraction. Um, is that a fair summary and then we can get into the details?
I mean, I don't know that the three minutes is necessarily a distraction. I think it's potentially a red herring.
That's fair to say, but yeah. All right. So, let's let's start actually with one of the ones you found here.
It's labeled 9th floor south. We'll put this up on the screen. What do you see here in this layout? Sp Epstein cell is at one point and the 9th floor south in yellow is highlighted.
Okay. So this one, actually the IG was just wrong, and CBS ran with this one as if it were correct, published it as if it were correct, and they just took it out of the IG's report and put it out there. That's not actually the ninth floor layout in the lower right portion of --
So how how do we know that? Right?
Because I've been there. That's the 10th floor layout. That's the 10th floor Sam's unit, and you can see the little curved desk there. That's where the monitors for the cameras are. And I used to get walked through here because there's a medical evaluation room in that unit. And I was on a hunger strike in the N-South Shoe. And rather than bring me down to like the fourth floor, fifth floor, wherever the normal medical exam rooms were, they were lazy, and they just brought me up the shoe to the 10th floor medical exam room. So I used to walk by this desk, and I saw the cameras working on this desk. And then you see the four little rooms there stacked in a vertical row just to the left of the yellow area. Those are the attorney visiting rooms for the 10 South unit. And the ninth floor layout does not look like that. And that area in yellow, that's not even elevators in real life, right?
What is that? Do you remember?
It's some kind of staff offices, or it might even be the medical exam room, but I want to say the medical exam room was further down the hall, like it was a longer walk. But the big thing is that if you look at this diagram, and you assume there actually is a camera recording there, and that those are actually elevators, then you're left with an impression that an approach to the Epstein cell through the elevators would be covered by that camera. And the Justice Department has said that it has footage from this camera, but it has not released the footage from this camera. But because this is the 10th floor layout, and the ninth floor layout is materially different, that's a an incorrect impression.
Right. So let's move to Ninth Floor Layout which appears elsewhere in your piece here. We put the image up that has a yellow area that is suggesting where the camera footage would be, with Epstein's cell kind of off to the side of it. What's important to you about that layout?
So the IG provided the original for this diagram, but what they did not do was block out the main elevators versus the visitors elevators. And it's not inherently obvious that underneath, if you look above the main elevators, there's that little red non-recording camera, that's covering a door symbol. That's actually the main entrance to the shoe, or one of the two main entrances to the shoe. Then you go in past the shoe laundry office, and then there's another door actually before you get to the main area of the shoe. And that's where they have written "America's Strongest Shoe." That's where you see it. But you could follow this path, right, and then up the stairs to Epstein's tier. And the way they rendered the staircases here is also really misleading. You would think that the staircase on the left, you see how there's kind of two staircases leading up to like M tier really is be leading down to M tier --
And pause one second for this. Let's put up the one that you labeled here streaming, but not recording camera. And where you've drawn these red lines.
Yeah. So the way they've drawn these staircases is really misleading. I corrected it in one of my diagrams, but it was a good amount of work to figure out the angles and everything. The lefthand staircase there looks like it's the one that leads up. It's actually leading down. That goes to the lower tier, M tier. And it's the right hand staircase that actually leads up to L tier to where they say Epstein was. And so the camera has fairly good coverage of the left staircase that does not lead to Epstein, but it does not have good coverage of the right-hand staircase, which did.
So let's talk about this No Showers discrepancy you point out, and these other two discrepancies you point out that are important. Number four in your article, No showers on shower day. Then number five is incorrect plumbing, which may sound to people like it's a small thing, like they just got a a little minor detail of the physical space incorrect. But you say, "No, these are are hugely significant discrepancies." Tell us why.
So, in terms of the no showers thing, it ties into the so-called orange shape that ascends the stairs, and what we see the shoe workers doing. August 9th, the date of the footage, or the date the footage starts, goes from the 9th into the 10th of August. August 9th was a Friday, okay? If you're in a federal shoe, you only get three showers a week, okay? And in most of those shoes, you get those showers on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And on those shower days, you get a change of clothes, right? That's the only change of clothes you get. So according to IG's report, there were 72 prisoners in the shoe on that day. That's 72 sets of boxers, 72 sets of pants, 72 towels, 72 t-shirts, right? It's a full change of 72 things for 72 guys. So if you look back at one of the other diagrams we were just looking at where I show the shoe laundry office, and you examine the video like I did at a slightly accelerated rate, a shoe worker goes off frame near the beginning of that video. and heads towards that shoe laundry office. And because it was shower day, they've got 72 sets of things to wash and dry. And I don't remember for sure if the washing machines are actually gone this far, if they send the laundry down, but there's presumably also 72 sets of clean laundry coming in that need to be folded and sorted and put on the shelf, right? And so this guy, he leaves the frame early in the night, and it is entirely plausible to me that he would still be doing his job, that he would be out of his cell working, that they would just ghost him during the count. So they would count him as if he was in his cell, even though he's in this laundry area. And that to me seems the most likely explanation for the orange blur.
So it would be an inmate doing the laundry. The inmate doing the laundry goes back to his cell at 10:42. The officer goes up the stairs, which we kind of see, and locks him into his cell at night, and then comes back down the stairs, which we also see. It makes more sense than the IG's explanation that an officer was carrying clothing. I agree with the video expert CBS had. It wouldn't look like that. That's most likely a person walking up there. But there's a very mundane reason for it. And this is something CBS would have known had they bothered to actually interview anyone who's been in federal prison, been in a shoe in federal prison, or you know, better yet, interviewed someone who's actually been in this particular shoe in federal prison who knows where the laundry area is, something that the inspector general, if they were truly interested in an accurate report, would have done. And that's not even in my top five problems with the inspector general.
So then the question becomes, No Cameras. Let's get to the L tier. Since you were on here last, I spoke with a another inmate who who actually served specifically on the L tier, who said that yes, that's the only one that didn't have cameras in the cells.
Yeah, I didn't know that. I mean, I was all over that shoe, but not on L tier. But it jives with the pictures we have of Epstein's cell, because I went looking through those pictures. I know where the camera would be, and it's not there.
Right, right. So that means that they chose to put their most high-profile inmate in a cell without a camera, and also in a cell that could be approached in apparently multiple directions by somebody who would not be recorded, which itself is an interesting question.
And then you also put in your piece the notion of the cameras not recording. They say that they were streaming, but not recording. And they didn't realize that until right before this situation happened. Lay out why that sounds implausible to you that they'd go for this long without realizing the cameras were recording.
Yeah. So, according to the IG, it took NCC 10 days to discover that the the cameras weren't recording. This facility houses at capacity 400 something federal prisoners. And every federal facility, including this one, has a department called the special investigative supervisors, SIS. They're like prison intelligence. It's like twice the oxymoron of military intelligence. But they take their jobs very seriously, and their primary tasks are internal investigations, handling snitches, managing gangs, and interdicting contraband, okay? And in a facility the size of the MCC, they get a steady stream of kites, they're called like flying a kite. It's a term for when an inmate drops a note ratting out a staff member, or ratting out another prisoner, okay? There's going to be a steady stream of them in a facility this size. No self-respecting SIS department could possibly go 8 days, or 10 days, without reviewing recent camera footage, because when they get one of these kites, right, it's going to include like a date, and a time, and a place, for SIS to go check out, so they can build a case, or bust somebody, or whatever it is. So, in a facility that size, it's very, very unlikely SIS would go that long without reviewing footage. And then when they do discover the cameras aren't recording, which is two days I think before the night in question, they did something odd.
You know, I was in eight jails and prisons across my seven and a half years as a quote unquote "political prisoner." It was one bed, right? But I got transferred all over the place, because no one likes a guy who has media connections, and litigates, and all that. So I got sent all over the place. And every time I was in a facility where they had a significant camera issue, not just like one camera out, like a systematic thing, even for maintenance, right, they lock down the whole facility because it's just too much of a liability. They can't have people walking around. We were locked down for two or three days in Teroot, Indiana, when it was like 100 degrees out for camera work. That was planned, right? So, they find out the cameras are down and they don't lock down the prison. And we know the prison's not locked down because we see shoe workers outside their cells just going about their days, right? And that wouldn't happen during a camera lockdown, right?
Okay. Now, news today, this is A7, just yesterday, House Republicans James Comer, subpoenaed Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, but also interestingly Bill Barr, and even Alberto Gonzalez, who was attorney general when the sweetheart deal was struck with Epstein back during the Bush administration, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. So, Martin, do you have questions?
I think Barr would be the big one. Obviously, he was attorney general when everything we're discussing happened and would have been privy to all kinds of information about what happened in the Shu.
So are there questions that you think Bill Barr might have the answer to?
I'm trying to remember if Barr was on record saying that he had personally reviewed the video, and I think that he was. Okay. Um, and assuming that he was on record saying he had personally reviewed the video, um, you know, he went forward with this same narrative that, you know, there was no way anyone could have gotten to Epstein's cell and there's just no way reviewing that video for someone to to stake that kind of a claim. So, I would I would certainly ask him about that. Uh, and then, um, you know, I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with the Dalton School and the connection through Bar's family with the Dalton School, but I think that, you know, bears some scrutiny as well. And just sticking on that point, your point about the video, um, he described it as like a perfect storm of screw-ups that had happened. He said, "I can understand people who immediately whose minds went to the sort of worst case scenario because it was a perfect storm of screw-ups." Those were his uh, comments to the Associated Press back in November of 2019. So I guess you know on the if he's saying that all of this was basically just accidental um that led to Epstein's death. This is all just happen stance. It just was this perfect storm of of screw-ups. Uh what's your perspective as somebody who's been there and sort of knows all of these things would have had to have been like if if that's true what that means like the odds of all of these these screw-ups happening quote unquote screw-ups. the I I think the odds are fairly low. The problem is, you know, Bill Bar's personal knowledge. He can claim that he doesn't have like intimate understanding of the running of these facilities, right? That when he was attorney general that he had a director of the Bureau of Prisons, you know, to whom he entrusted, you know, these matters and and that these things generally don't rise didn't rise to to his level. So, I don't know like what in particular you could ask him except again if you know if he's on the record saying that he watched the video and and you know putting forth that narrative that this video is conclusive then I think he's got a real problem. Yeah. All right. Well, Marty, uh thanks so much. We'll continue to follow your your reporting on this. Appreciate you joining us here. No problem, Ryan. Thanks again for having me. and uh your Substack uh marty.substack.comstack.com. Yep. Yeah. And if you want to study these diagrams closer, go over to martyg.substack.com and we'll put your piece in the the show notes. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people. And if you'd like to get the full show, ad free and in your inbox every morning, you can sign up at breakingpoints.com. That's right. Get the full show. Help support the future of independent media at breakingpoints.com.
Journalist who EXPOSED Epstein TELLS ALL on Trump-Epstein CONNECTION Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz and Julie K. Brown Legal AF Aug 1, 2025
The Court of History’s Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz are joined by investigative journalist Julie K. Brown, who broke the Epstein story and helped bring him to justice. She reveals what Harvey Weinstein may know about the Trump-Epstein connection and the broader pedophile coverup. Brown also exposes how Trump and Epstein exploited the modeling industry to prey on young women, and names Alan Dershowitz—not Ghislaine Maxwell—as the true puppet master behind the scandal. She details how Dershowitz used intimidation tactics to silence victims and even tried to sabotage her Pulitzer Prize.
Transcript
Welcome to the Court of History. I'm Sydney Blumenthal. The court is in session. I am here with Sean Wentz, my colleague, Princeton University. Sean, I have been watching a lot of TV shows about cold cases on Britbox and other sites, and I watched one called Department Q, and some other ones.
Oh, that was a great one. I love that one.
But it turns out that the greatest cold case of them all is Jeffrey Epstein.
Yeah. Well, it goes on and on and on, doesn't it?
I mean, you're getting to the point where the cover up is almost as interesting as anything else in the story. And the coverup's gotten to the point where I think Donald Trump said something for the first time in his entire life, which was to tell a bunch of reporters, "Don't talk about Donald Trump." This tells me that he's under grave distress if nothing else.
Well, the person who broke that cold case is with us today, and she probably knows as much about Jeffrey Epstein, what he did, and the people he did it to as anybody. And, we're eager to speak to her. She is, of course, Julie K. Brown. She's a member of the Miami Herald's investigative team. She's reopened the Jeffrey Epstein sexual abuse case with her reporting, and her probe into Epstein has won many journalism awards, including a George Pulk award, which was her second. She was also a member of the Herald's 2022 Pulitzer Prizewinning team for its coverage of the Surfside condo collapse, and she is the author of Perversion of Justice, the Jeffrey Epstein story. Welcome, Julie, to the Court of History.
Thank you.
So, I'd like to start in the present, and then jump all the way back to the beginning. And in the present, what I'm really interested in, among other things, is you uncovered so many victims, and interviewed them, dozens and dozens and dozens. You must be in touch with them today. And what do they tell you about what's going on? Particularly with Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, running down to Tallahassee to the prison to interview Glenn Maxwell. Do you talk to the victims about this?
Yeah. I mean, there's a range of emotions. Sexual trauma victims, especially those that were victimized when they were children, often feel retraumatized. There's triggers, and this certainly is a trigger with all the chaos surrounding this case, particularly as it concerns one of their predators, Ghislaine Maxwell. In their minds, this is just another attempt at cover up, or attempt at somehow letting the people who were involved in their sexual assaults off the hook. In their eyes, this is a huge mistake. They they don't even care what information she's going to provide. They don't believe that she should ever leave jail. In fact, I've heard some of them say that she's a danger to society because of what she did, and how she did it.
Were any of them interviewed or approached by Mr. Blanche, or any other member of the Department of Justice, involving the interview with Glenn Maxwell?
I can't answer that question. I don't really know, because I've been interviewing them before recent events. I interviewed them a couple of days before Blanche went down to interview her. So as far as I know there were 200 victims, so it's hard to say whether any of them were contacted.
Have they ever voiced to you how they would feel if she were pardoned?
As I said, they just feel betrayed again by the criminal justice system, that the DOJ would even consider doing something like this. And the oddity of sending the second in command of the DOJ in to broker some kind of a deal. In their minds, it seems as though they're trying to broker another deal like they did with Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, which led to his release, and also led to him being able to prey on additional victims. So, in their minds, this is a retraumatization of some of the same things that they felt back in 2008 when Jeffrey Epstein essentially was able to get a slap on the wrist.
Let's go back if we can of the beginning of the case that was opened against Epstein. That happened after a real estate deal between Trump and Epstein went bad over a Palm Beach property, and they broke up over it. And we spoke with Michael Wolff, who says that Epstein believed that Donald Trump was an informant to the authorities against Epstein to try and get even with him and cover up. I don't know if you've heard any of that.
I don't know. I haven't heard that. I haven't even heard that from the lawyers who have worked pretty closely with the victims on the cases. So, I don't really know if that's true or not.
A spat over a $41 million mansion
But public sightings of the two together ended in 2004, when nursing home magnate Abe Gosman's Palm Beach mansion, named the Maison de l'Amitie (The House of Friendship), came on the market in a bankruptcy auction. Both Trump and Epstein wanted the six-acre oceanfront estate for themselves, the Post reported.
Joseph Luzinski, who was the property's trustee, told the paper that both men started lobbying him and would talk behind each other's back.
"It was something like, Donald saying, 'You don't want to do a deal with him, he doesn't have the money,' while Epstein was saying: 'Donald is all talk. He doesn't have the money,' " Luzinski told the Post. "They both really wanted it."
The Maison de l'Amitie estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on May 21, 2013. Sensation White Amsterdam/ Wikimedia Commons
When the home hit the auction block in November 2004, Trump came out victorious, paying $41.35 million for the property (he later sold it, more than doubling his investment).
Fewer than two weeks after the auction, Palm Beach police received a tip about young women seen coming and going from Epstein's home, according to a deposition the Post found from then-Police Chief Michael Reiter.
An investigation into Epstein was launched after police received a second complaint, from a woman who alleged her 15-year-old stepdaughter had been paid $300 by Epstein for a massage.
So tell us about how you got onto this cold case to begin with, because it was cold.
Well, it was cold, but it had been written about over the years. And I always felt that it was a mystery, because how does somebody get away with molesting all those girls, and be able to essentially get a deal where he isn't federally prosecuted, and he's able to just go about his jet setting life again, while these girls were devastated? So I knew about that, but I always thought, how did this happen? Who in Florida, in Washington, who were the people who were supposed to hold him accountable? And then Mr. Trump was running for president in 2016, and there was a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed that when she was younger, she had been raped by both Epstein and Trump. And this was a ongoing civil lawsuit in 2016. And I happened to see a column that was written by a lawyer questioning why the media wasn't examining this. Look at this lawsuit. The media isn't looking at this.
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
5. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges that the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, did willfully and with extreme malice violate her Civil Rights under 18 U.S.C ; 2241 by sexually and physically abusing Plaintiff Johnson by forcing her to engage in various perverted and depraved sex acts by threatening physical harm to Plaintiff Johnson and also her family.
6. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges that the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, also did willfully and with extreme malice violate her Civil Rights under 42 U.S.C.; 1985 by conspiring to deny Plaintiff Johnson her Civil Rights by making her their sex slave.
7. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges she was subject to extreme sexual and physical abuse by the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, including forcible rape during a four month time span covering the months of June-September 1994 when Plaintiff Johnson was still only a minor of age 13.
8. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges she was enticed by promises of money and a modeling career to attend a series of underage sex parties held at the New York City residence of Defendant Jeffrey E. Epstein and attended by Defendant Donald J. Trump.
9. On the first occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to manually stimulate Defendant Trump with the use of her hand upon Defendant Trump's erect penis until he reached sexual orgasm.
10. On the second occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to orally copulate Defendant Trump by placing her mouth upon Defendant Trump's erect penis until he reached sexual orgasm.
11. On the third occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson was forced to engage in an unnatural lesbian sex act with her fellow minor and sex slave, Maria Doe age 12, for the sexual enjoyment of Defendant Trump. After this sex act, both minors were forced to orally copulate Defendant Trump by placing their mouths simultaneously on his erect penis until he achieved sexual orgasm. After zipping up his pants, Defendant Trump physically pushed both minors away while angrily berating them for the "poor" quality of their sexual performance.
12. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was tied to a bed by Defendant Trump who then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff Johnson. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff Johnson loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to "please wear a condom". Defendant Trump responded by violently striking Plaintiff Johnson in the face with his open hand and screaming that "he would do whatever he wanted" as he refused to wear protection. After achieving sexual orgasm, the Defendant, Donald J. Trump put his suit back on and when the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, in tears asked Defendant Trump what would happen if he had impregnated her, Defendant Trump grabbed his wallet and threw some money at her and screamed that she should use the money "to get a fucking abortion".
13. On the first occasion involving the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to disrobe into her bra and panties and to give a full body massage to Defendant Epstein while he was completely naked. During the massage, Defendant Epstein physically forced Plaintiff Johnson to touch his erect penis with her bare hands and to clean up his ejaculated semen after he achieved sexual orgasm.
14. On the second occasion involving the Defendant, Jeffrey Epstein, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson was again forced to disrobe into her bra and panties while giving Defendant Epstein a full body massage while he was completely naked. The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, was also present as he was getting his own massage from another minor, Jane Doe, age 13. Defendant Epstein forced Plaintiff Johnson to touch his erect penis by physically placing her bare hands upon his sex organ and again forced Plaintiff Johnson to clean up his ejaculated semen after he achieved sexual orgasm.
15. Shortly after this sexual assault by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, on the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, Plaintiff Johnson was still present while the two Defendants were arguing over who would be the one to take Plaintiff Johnson's virginity. The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, was clearly heard referring to Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, as a "Jew Bastard" as he yelled at Defendant Epstein, that clearly, he, Defendant Trump, should be the lucky one to "pop the cherry" of Plaintiff Johnson.
16. The third and final sexual assault by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, on the Plaintiff, Kati Johnson, took place after Plaintiff Johnson had been brutally and savagely raped by Defendant Trump. While receiving another full body massage from Plaintiff Johnson, while in the nude, Defendant Epstein became so enraged after finding out that Defendant Trump had been the one to take Plaintiff Johnson's virginity, that Defendant Epstein also violently raped Plaintiff Johnson. After forcing Plaintiff Johnson to disrobe into her bra and panties, while receiving a massage from the Plaintiff, Defendant Epstein attempted to enter Plaintiff Johnson's anal cavity with his erect penis while trying to restrain her. Plaintiff Johnson attempted to push Defendant Epstein away, at which time Defendant Epstein attempted to enter Plaintiff Johnson's vagina with his erect penis. This attempt to brutally sodomize and rape Plaintiff Johnson by Defendant Epstein was finally repelled by Plaintiff Johnson but not before Defendant Epstein was able to achieve sexual orgasm. After perversely sodomizing and raping the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, attempted to strike her about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at Plaintiff Johnson that he, Defendant Epstein, should have been the one who "took her cherry, not Mr. Trump", before she finally managed to break away from Defendant Epstein.
17. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was fully warned on more than one occasion by both Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, that were she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse that she had suffered as a sex slave for Defendant Trump and Defendant Epstein, that Plaintiff Johnson and her family would be in mortal danger. Plaintiff Johnson was warned that this would mean certain death for herself and Plaintiff Johnson's family unless she remained silent forever on the exact details of the depraved and perverted sexual and physical abuse she had been forced to endure from the Defendants.
MATERIAL WITNESSES
18. Tiffany Doe, a former trusted employee of the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, has agreed to provide sworn testimony in this civil case and any other future civil or criminal proceedings, fully verifying the authenticity of the claims of the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson. Witness Tiffany Doe was employed by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, for more than 10 years as a party planner for his underage sex parties. Despite being subject to constant terroristic threats by Defendants Epstein and Trump to never reveal the details of these underage sex parties at which scores of teenagers, and pre-teen girls were used as sex slaves by Defendant Epstein and Defendant Trump, witness Tiffany Doe refuses to be silent any longer. She has agreed to fully reveal the extent of the sexual perversion and physical cruelty that she personally witnessed at these parties by Defendants Epstein and Trump.
19. Material witness Tiffany Doe fully confirms all of Plaintiff Katie Johnson's allegations of physical and sexual abuse by Defendants Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein. Tiffany Doe was physically present at each of the four occasions of sexual abuse by Defendant Trump upon the person of Plaintiff Johnson, as it was her job to witness all of the sexual escapades of Defendant Epstein's guests at these underage sex parties and later reveal all of the sordid details directly to Defendant Epstein. Defendant Epstein also demanded that Tiffany Doe tell him personally everything she had overheard at these parties explaining to her that "knowledge was king" in the financial world. As a result of these underage sex parties, Defendant Epstein was able to accumulate inside business knowledge that he otherwise would never have been privy to in order to amass his huge personal fortune.
20. Material witness Tiffany Doe will testify that she was also present or had direct knowledge of each of the three instances on which Defendant Jeffrey E. Epstein physically and sexually abused the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson. Tiffany Doe will testify to the fact that the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was extremely fortunate to have survived all of the physical and sexual horrors inflicted upon her by Defendants Epstein and Trump.
It was right around the time that Trump was being barraged with allegations from some other women who were claiming that he had committed some kind of sexual harassment or impropriety against them. So I thought, let me take a look at this. I was always curious anyway. So I started requesting the files while working on a million other stories, because as we do in local newspaper journalism, you don't have the luxury of just having one story and that's it. So anyway, I was picking away at it, and in the middle of when I was looking at it, Trump was elected president. And then he nominated Alexander Acosta to be his labor secretary. And that was "boom" for me, because I knew by that time that Alexander Acosta was the prosecutor in Miami who gave Epstein his sweetheart deal.
Yeah, tell us about the sweetheart deal, and the lawyers who made that deal, and how that worked involving Alex Acosta, who was then the US attorney, right?
After the allegations first came to light in 2005-2006, it was investigated by Palm Beach police. They took it to the state attorney in Palm Beach, Barry Krischer. Barry Krischer initially was gung-ho about going after Epstein, because he didn't know initially who Epstein was. So Epstein was trying to keep a lid on the whole thing. Epstein hired Alan Dershowitz, another local attorney, to pressure Krischer not to file charges. And he was on the verge of just letting the case drop, largely because Alan Dershowitz had convinced him that the young girls that Epstein had molested weren't credible, because they drank beer, and were having sex with their boyfriends. He kind of mined all their social media pages.
Yeah, I read in your book that you said that Dershowitz hired private investigators to look into the private lives of the victims, right?
And their families and their parents.
Their families, too. And what would the point of that be?
Intimidation. So, Dershowitz hired PIs to intimidate the victims. Intimidate the victim.
On behalf of his client?
Yeah. And also it did intimidate them. They were scared. You know, when you're being followed like that, and you're young, and there was at least one instance that I know of where a big car was putting its headlights on one girl's house, and her lawyers had to grab her and take her to a hotel, put her in hiding, because she was being pursued so aggressively.
So, please continue.
So, Krischer got cold feet. But the Palm Beach police didn't want to let it go. So they kept trying to get him to do something. Eventually, he relented and opened a grand jury on the case. What we now know is that it was one of those kinds of grand jury sessions where you can indict someone on a ham sandwich. They didn't even call all the victims. They called one victim. And we subsequently have that grand jury testimony, and it's very painful to listen to, because they allowed the grand jurors to sort of ask her questions that were like, "Did you know what you were doing was wrong? Is that how your parents raised you" kind of thing. So they were prepared to give him an indictment on a lesser charge. And the Palm Beach police then took it to the FBI and said, "This is absurd. This is a serious crime. They're going to let this guy walk." And that's when the FBI took over around 2007, and started investigating.
Now, by this time, there were more victims coming forward. So initially there was only maybe five or six, and now there was almost two dozen, because one girl recruited another girl who recruited another girl. So if you interviewed the girl, she would say, "Well I recruited this one, this one, and this one." And then you go to those girls, and they say, "I recruited this one, this one, and this one." It was like a pyramid scheme he had going to get each girl to get more girls for him.
So, Ghislaine Maxwell's in the middle of this? And Ghislaine Maxwell is deeply involved in the recruiting process?
Well, initially she was the one that started this effort to recruit girls around Palm Beach. She would take Epstein's valet, and she would drive to spas in the area and find pretty girls at the spa, give them her business card, tell them, "I have a very wealthy man. He's looking for a personal masseuse. He's going to pay you very well. You'll be able to travel around the world," etc. So she started that, and as I said, once she got her foot in the door at some of these high schools, she was able to use the girls to bring her additional girls. So they were coming like three of them a day, at least, to his home in Palm Beach.
So the FBI took took over the case. But the prosecutor, Maria Villifana, was hitting a wall every step of the way. Epstein was very shrewd in how he handled his case in that each of his lawyers had a tie to one of the prosecutors on the case. Jay Lefkowitz for example, worked at Kirkland and Ellis um, and so did Alex Acosta. And Alex Acosta was very ambitious. He was a rising star in the Republican party at the time. So he was pressured by this lawyer who had enough influence to help appoint the new attorney general in 2007 or eight, Michael Mukasey. So he was ambitious. He didn't want to bend anybody out of shape. Epstein hired Kenneth Starr.
Ken Starr is also from Kirkland and Ellis, isn't he?
Absolutely.
And they're all federalist society people, aren't they?
Right. And Acosta wanted to be a Supreme Court justice. So imagine what would happen if he had prosecuted a client that they would have frowned upon, right? So they hired a woman, a defense attorney who had had a relationship with one of the attorneys, who had dated one of the attorneys. Epstein was shrewd. He hired people that had ties to big law firms and ties in Washington.
Yeah. My understanding is Acosta was a protege of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Right. Right. He was very well connected.
So what I did that no one had really done before, was I was able to figure out a road map on how Epstein and his lawyers managed to pressure the prosecutors to give him a deal. I mean, he tried very hard to get off scot-free, but he wasn't able to do that. But ultimately, the one thing he was able to do was keep the deal secret. Because had the victims or their lawyers found out exactly what they were doing, they would have objected very publicly. So he was able to get the prosecutors to agree to seal the deal so that nobody knew what it was. And so when he appeared in court to plead guilty, nobody was doing this. It was Ken Starr, and he had a whole team of people. Lefkowitz was certainly involved. Dershowitz --
A very well-connected conservative attorney.
Right. So the deal came together and boom, it was done before anybody knew about it. He was serving time in the Palm Beach County Jail, which was not much of a a jail term because he was leaving every day to go to his office, and sometimes even his home in Palm Beach. Epstein completely manipulated the Palm Beach Sheriff's office to allow him to essentially leave all day long, and come back just to sleep there at night. In the meantime, he was at his office, and he hired all these Palm Beach sheriff's deputies, and paid them thousands and thousands of dollars to so-call "monitor him." They were calling him a client because he was paying them so well.
They were basically bribing them?
Yeah. And he was allowed visitors all day long, and some of them were women. And we now know that he was having sex with them in his office while he was supposed to be incarcerated. So he manipulated every aspect of his so-called punishment. By the time the victims filed a a motion with the judge to unseal the deal, by the time it was unsealed, Jeffrey Epstein was walking out of jail, and had already served his short jail term.
Yeah. And then Alex Acosta, what happened to him? Didn't he go on to greater things later on?
He did become labor secretary, and then he had to resign. I think he's on Fox News sometimes now talking about the economy since he was labor secretary, but he had to resign because of the reopening due to my story.
What happened was my story came out in November of 2018, and it just really went viral. And some prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, the DOJ's office in New York, took the story that I wrote, showed it to the prosecutor and said, "We've got to do something about this. What can we do?" So he said, investigate. Find out if there's any victims here in New York, and look into it. So that's how it all started.
Yeah. The attorney general of Florida was Pam Bondi at the time. What was her --
She was not attorney general when the deal was struck, but there was a lot of information that came out subsequent to the deal. In other words, the victims filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal government violated their rights because you're supposed to, under the Crime Victim's Rights Act, inform victims when someone's reached a plea deal, or is appearing in court. And they didn't do any of that. They purposefully, deliberately concealed this from them. Now Bondi was a state official. The federal government concealed it from her. But Bondi certainly over the years knew that Epstein was a sexual predator. There was no arguing that. Even Epstein himself wouldn't call himself that. He didn't deny that he was doing this to young girls. So it wasn't like he was still saying he was innocent. He he always said he was involved with these girls. He just didn't know how young they were.
So as more victims over the years started suing him, there's all this discovery, and there were some stories written over the course of Bondi's tenure as attorney general. And this was a big case. It involved celebrities, former presidents. Bondi had to know about this information.
So as far as we know, she didn't do anything about it? She did nothing during this period?
No, I don't think so. Because the lawyers who represented the victims were begging authorities to look at what they had uncovered as part of the discovery in the civil lawsuits they had filed against Epstein.
One of the most interesting articles that I read of yours from this period was about your investigation of the model industry and Epstein, and overlap with Trump who had a major in interest in the model industry. And they had a mutual interest, right?
That came out as part of the discovery in one of the lawsuits. Brad Edwards, who represented a a number of victims, Epstein had a modeling company, and Brad Edwards deposed the accountant who worked for Epstein's modeling company. And in that deposition, she provided a lot of detail about what he was doing. And it's clear that he was using that modeling company as a cover, in part, for the sex trafficking that he was doing, because she was describing exactly what they would do. They would send the younger girls down to Epstein's place in Palm Beach. And she gave more detail than we had had before, including the fact that when Epstein formed his company, he said to her, I want it to be set up just like Donald Trump's modeling agency.
And that's in the record. She testified under oath that Epstein said that he wanted to model his modeling company that he would invest in on Trump's?
That's right. And so we don't know what that means. We can't say that means that Trump's modeling agency was trafficking, but we do know that in some respects Epstein's modeling company was used in part to recruit young girls from all over the world, and send them to events and parties where ostensibly they would be expected to have sex with some of the partygoers.
There are other parties that are described by other people who organized models with both Trump and Epstein present. There's one that was described where they're the only two guests for 25-some young models, Epstein and Trump. Jean luc brunel from Paris headed Epstein's company, and he was arrested for rape and for sexual assault, and hanged himself after Epstein's death. The two were business partners.
Yeah, they were business partners and close associates. Not only that, but Brunel was one of his top recruiters. And I'm not just talking models. I'm talking about girls and young women for sex. That's what he did. Because they would make these promises to these women when they met them, "we're going to get you into the modeling business. You're going to make lots and lots of money. I have a very wealthy person who has all these contacts, etc." And Epstein also had a lawyer working for him. The bookkeeper told us about this, or told Brad Edwards about this, he had lawyers that were helping the women from overseas get visas.
So it was very common at the time of HB1 visas, Trump's modeling agency depended upon those visas to bring over models mostly from Eastern Europe for --
It what was his specialty.
So it's interesting, given Trump's current views on immigration, to say the least. But you're on the case here. You're exposing this as this is going on, bringing it up all again, reporting, right?
Yeah. Even after Epstein's death, I continue to report the trail of people that helped him, including members of the government of the US Virgin Islands. He employed the governor's wife there. He tossed around a lot of money to a lot of people. Remember, he was a convicted sex predator. So he was supposed to be monitored by the US Marshall Service. And he just wasn't monitored at all.
This is all around the island, Little St. James that he was doing this? Is that where they connected?
Right. And you know It's a remote island. You could only get there by boat or plane. So it was the perfect locale for him to have some of these sex parties, so to speak, or to entertain his clients, and offer them food, wine, and and a young girl if they wanted it.
So what's your view of Epstein's death? Was it a suicide or what? What's your view?
I'm not convinced it was a suicide. I'm not saying it wasn't, but I am troubled by all the holes in the whole story. And quite frankly, the fact that the videotape that the Trump administration released to try to show that it was a suicide was not the video of his wing. It was of a another area of the jail. And unless they weren't told that, why would they use that? Unless it was a desperate move to try to quiet some of these loud voices who are questioning why Trump now is not releasing more information about the case.
You would think that they'd be careful given the atmosphere and the intense scrutiny, to make sure that whatever they put out would be accurate. And yet they put out this faulty, to say the least, false information. They did that before too when Bondi was saying, "Oh, I have this on my desk." She's telling the whole world on Fox News, "Oh, yeah, we have it. It's going to come out. We're going to release everything." And then she gives a binder of dated material to internet influencers. And in the victim's eyes, this was a stunt. They've been thinking that maybe Trump's going to get to the bottom of it. And here, with each step that they have taken, the victims feel that this is becoming another cover-up really.
Although it's one of those cover-ups in plain sight, as we see. They do this stuff that's so clumsy, handing out things that we've known already. The whole thing with Todd Blanche going down to see Maxwell. I mean, come on, we're not stupid here. and yet they do it. And I'm not sure in my own mind, is it about arrogance? Is it about incompetence? Is it just that they think they can get away with murder, and they're going to show that they can get away with murder? I don't know.
I don't know. I've asked that question both on the interviews that I've done on television, and on social media. I don't understand the endgame here. What's the end game? Is the endgame going to be that they're going to give her a pardon, and she's going to say Trump had nothing to do with this? I know that his supporters sometimes believe everything he says, but I just don't think they're going to believe this.
So Pam Bondi said there was no client list of people who were blackmailed, but you never came across such an object ever. It seems to me that it was made up, wasn't it?
I've seen it online. It's got everyone in it, from Barbara Walters, to all sorts of prominent names from New York social life, that have nothing to do with anything except that Ghislaine Maxwell knew them, right?
Right. And somehow this morphed into people on social media saying, "Where's his list of clients?" Then that kind of took on a life of its own.
Now I do think that Epstein kept files on people. I absolutely think he did business with a lot of the men that have already been named as suspects. So it it makes sense that as a superb businessman, he probably kept files on these people. Now, whether that file included material about their sex life, we just don't know. But Virginia Giuffre, who was one of the most outspoken victims on this, and who was with him for quite a number of years, said that he would quiz her about a certain client's sexual predilections, and to her mind it was a way to have something on someone.
Epstein was friends with all sorts of prominent people. And he seemed to collect them. And among them was somebody who also had an interest in the modeling industry, and overlapped in the entertainment industry, who was a friend of Epstein's. That was Harvey Weinstein.
Right. And he was also on the message pads. The Palm Beach Police Department did a search warrant on his home at the time he was first arrested, and these were the old-fashioned pink message pads where when someone called you, you'd write their name and why they're calling on the top copy and there was a copy right underneath. So they got these books of message pads, and Harvey Weinstein was one of those people that called him. Trump called him. There were a lot of names of people who would call him. Now, of course, they didn't say what they wanted. They just said, you know, Trump called, or Harvey called.
Yeah. There was a report that Epstein broke up with Weinstein because Epstein raped a young woman that Epstein regarded as his own, and somehow it involves Jean Luc Brunel, the guy who ran Epstein's model agency.
This raises another question. Why don't they talk to Harvey? Harvey might know something too?
That's a very interesting question. Do you think Harvey Weinstein should be called as a witness by, or be approached by, Todd Blanche and the Justice Department?
I mean, he's a sex predator himself. So again, it's the same quandary involving someone who you have to ask the question of, "are they talking because they're really being honest, or because they want some kind of a deal?" So I think you have the same credibility issue with him. Although I feel like he might be able to provide information from a different vantage point, because he might not have been part of this Epstein sex trafficking operation, but maybe saw things? Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, I don't really know.
He was, despite what Donald Trump says to the contrary, friendly with Trump, who attended a number of -- it's been publicly reported, with photographs, that he and Melania attended Miramax film openings with Weinstein, and took photos with Weinstein. So they were friendly despite what Trump says. And we don't know what Weinstein might have to offer. I've seen a photograph of Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Guislaine Maxwell all dressed up at Prince Andrews, at Windsor Castle, at Prince Andrew's daughter's birthday party.
Yeah, I remember that. I just don't think that anyone wants those names to get out of the men who were very powerful and wealthy, who participated in sex with these girls and young women. They're very powerful people, and I don't think that even Trump wants those names to get out.
No, absolutely. I want to ask you about an incident that happened. I think your story is one of the great stories of modern American journalism.
Thank you. Thank you.
You deserve all the laurels, and you know, this story, which you've doggedly pursued on your own, has American politics in its grip right now, years later. And it goes to the heart of not only the crimes that were committed of sexual predation, but also of social power and political power. And yet, when you were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, someone wrote a letter urging the Pulitzer Prize committee not to give this award to you.
Right. Right. Alan Dershowitz, very publicly. He's put it on Twitter, so I'm not telling stories here.
Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer?
Yeah. Alan Dershowitz.
Not to mention Ken Starr, but that's another story.
I know now that there were a couple of journalists on the jury who didn't feel like what I did was much. Remember, by the time that they reviewed it, Epstein hadn't been arrested at that point. It was just after my series ran, so there was some feeling like, what's the big deal? Yeah.
Well, for a defense attorney to intervene in a journalism prize seems pretty extraordinary to me, and beyond the call of duty.
Yeah. I mean, it is what it is.
And he has attempted to insert himself again, and claims that Ghislaine Maxwell is the Rosetta Stone, and before she was questioned by Todd Blanche, he raised her name.
Yeah. Well, she does know a lot. Ghislaine was on the ground level of this sex trafficking operation. In fact, some of the girl victims, or I should say survivors, that's what they want to be called, "the survivors," believe that she was a bigger monster than Epstein, because she was the one that made them feel safe. She was the one that brought them in. She used fraud by saying, "He's going to hire you. You're going to travel. You're going to be a masseuse." She acted like a motherly, nurturing type, you know, English lady with her English accent. And they took it as, "Wow, she's a really smart and kind lady." And she's who snared them. So in their mind and under the testimony that convicted her, some of these women were sexually molested by her. It wasn't that she just brought them to Epstein. She was involved with some of the sex. She would groom them, and tell them, "This is what you do to pleasure him."
I think with men who engage [DELETE] and hebephilia, it's more of a sickness that arises from their own abuse. Like my grandfather, my alleged grandfather, Walt's son, who worked for the CIA, allegedly faked his death to remove himself from my mother, because he was so sickened by what he could not control doing to her. Contrast that with my stepmother, who delighted in abusing me, and laughed at me when I was incapacitated by the drug they had me on, and made fun of me drooling on myself, being unable to speak. I think with her, and with Ghislaine, I'm certain they were abused as children themselves, but there's a different kind of psychopathy that grows within them where they get off on the power of it, and abetting in these acts to please their partners.
Now, Kari Epstein [her stepmother] was more sexually attracted to me than she was to her husband, Steven. But she did also do these things in order to stay in good graces with him. And that was more out of survival. Kari was a very broke cellist in her early adulthood with no familial support, whereas Ghislaine also comes from the aristocracy. She had access to her own funds independent of Jeffrey. So I can't speculate too much on what she gained from it besides psychopathic pleasure and sadism. A schaudenfraude of sorts. But I'm not a doctor. She was not a large presence in my life. That speculation on her personality is primarily based on what I know about my stepmother.
It would start out as a massage, then take off all your clothes, and it would be a little further each time. So she was grooming them for sex, and she participated in that.
Yeah, so I wonder if you're in touch at all with Maria Farmer?
With who?
Maria Farmer.
I've never interviewed her, even though I tried a couple of times, but initially she was suffering from cancer, and going through chemotherapy, and she just wasn't healthy enough. Then I had an interview scheduled with her. I was going to fly to Arkansas, and the night before I was scheduled to fly to interview her, Epstein was arrested. So I had to go to New York, and we never really were able to connect after that. I've never interviewed her.
And the connection to the relationship?
Well, Maria Farmer worked for Epstein. She was one of those women that got recruited, and worked for him, but in New York. And she is an artist, and Epstein was connected to a lot of important museum people, and people in the art world, and was telling her that he would help her with her paintings, and get people to look at them so she could sell them.
In any event, she has accused Epstein and Maxwell of trying to have sex with her. She rejected them, but she was there during this period of time when they were recruiting other people. So she had information. She saw some of this, and she went to do an interview with Vicky Ward, from Vanity Fair. And she told Vicky her story. She also went to the New York Police Department to report what was going on. They referred her to the FBI. The FBI did talk to her way back in the early 2000s, but they never did anything about it.
The time that is most memorable to me is the time when he hit on me because I was in the office. It was one of the first times I started working for Jeffrey. Donald Trump's a sleazebag. Okay. Yes. Um, it was when I started working for Epstein, and it was 9:00 at night. And Jeffrey Epstein's office was totally empty. I told the New York Times this, but of course they don't tell the whole thing, right? Even though Mike Baker is amazing, but they they would not allow him to tell the truth. So basically, I go into this office, it's 9:00 at night, and I sit down, and a few minutes later, and I'm wearing running clothes, okay, so it was really weird. It's 9:00 at night, and I'm wearing running clothes because I didn't have money. So I had to jog up there, right? And so I've just struggled, you know, for so long. So I'm like up there in the office seated, and I've got my running clothes on, so my legs are showing. And in walks this man that when I reported him to the FBI, I said that game show host Donald Trump, because I thought he was a game show host. He's so cheesy, you know. You know he walks in and I just kind of acknowledged him, like a head nod or something, and immediately he's seated across from me, I mean standing across the room from me, and I'm seated, and he's like oh Maria. Sorry, I was just looking at something. He's standing across the room, and he's looking at me, and I'm like oh gross. You know this guy's so gross. Anyway, he's just looking, glaring at my legs, like yum. I told my sister I felt like I was his dinner. or his lunch, you know? The way he was looking at me. So Epstein comes in and by the way, I did not look good. I was like not a pretty I'm not exceptionally beautiful or anything like that. These are just gross people, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just like a normal person who went on a run and I'm seated there. So he assumed I was there for him. And Epstein, this is how I know. Epstein walks up to him and goes, "No, no, she's not here for you." And they were smirking and Epstein whispered something. He goes, "Go in there." And so Trump, at 9:00 at night, goes in the other room. There's someone in there for him. Right. Right. I don't know who. But Epstein said, "No, no, no. She's not here for you."
That's what she just said recently, yes. You know, Trump and Epstein were friends. I don't know how you can deny that. They were friends. Maybe they had a falling out later, but at one point they were very close. They were friends. So it wouldn't surprise me that she encountered him. She encountered other people, too. So you have to understand that she feels that if the FBI had listened to her back then, and had truly investigated what was going on, it's possible that all these hundreds of women wouldn't have been raped, or molested, or abused, you know, in her mind. Now as we know now, the portion about her talking about Epstein, it was a profile, by the way. Vicky Ward was doing a profile of Epstein, and the editor decided to take out the part about Maria.
I remember this years ago. It was Graydon Carter who took that out, I think.
Right. So she was around Maxwell, she was in that orbit where she could see what Epstein was doing. And by the way, both Maxwell and Epstein molested her sister who was younger than her, who was a teenager. And then tried to ingratiate themselves with her. What they would do is they would buy things for these victims. These victims were being dazzled by Epstein, because they had so much money. You would go into his home in New York, and there are pictures of him with Bill Clinton, and other world leaders. He had tons of money. He had a big staff that was doing everything for him. So they were sort of in awe of him. And Maria and Annie in particular, wanted to go to college, and they came from a family that didn't have means. And he was promising them that he would put them through college, at least put Annie through college.
She tells the story that when Trump came in, Epstein said, "This one's not for you."
This is the first time I heard her talk about that. But, you know, with victim trauma like that, you don't always remember everything right away. Sometimes it comes back to you years later. It's funny how your brain, especially if you're a child that has been abused, or a young person, it does affect you. I talked to experts about this, and it does affect the way your brain works.
Yeah, you're still on the case. You're still reporting on this.
I am. Yes. Yeah.
So as the Trump administration and its Department of Justice is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell and so forth, you're still out there.
Yeah, I'm still here, and I'm following tips, and getting lots of them every day, by the way. I'm getting a lot of people, which by the way, when I was doing my story, my original investigation, I couldn't even get a lawyer to comment for me on that case. I had so many problems trying to get a lawyer to talk to me about this deal, and how it worked, and just to comment on how unusual this deal was. And it really was a struggle. In some ways, finding a lawyer that was willing to comment on that case was harder than getting the victims to talk to me.
You know, people do listen to this podcast, we hope. And if any sources are listening, what would you say to them about coming to you?
Well, I've done this for a very long time. So I keep my sources confidential. And I don't think I would have been able to do a story like this if I didn't know how to handle sources, because a lot of what I found out was through sources. They would point me in the right directions. That's what I'm looking for. someone who's going to point me at something that maybe nobody noticed before, or saw before, or just something that will lead me to uncover more about how this man and this woman really were able to sexually abuse so many young women and girls over two decades. So I'll listen and investigate I guess.
Well thank you Julie K. Brown, the indispensable journalist of the Miami Herald, who has uncovered the Jeffrey Epstein case, and is still on it, as well as indispensable. The unsinkable Julie Brown . Thank you so much, and this session of the court of history, on behalf of Sean Wilentz and myself, is now adjourned.
Trump Biographer REVEALS Trump DEADLY FEAR from Past MeidasTouch Aug 1, 2025
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas introduces this exclusive report from Trump and Epstein biographer Michael Wolff about the torment Trump is going through right as he tells his friends he had nothing to do with the suspicious death.
Transcript
This is a Meidas Touch exclusive. You've never heard these details before. They come from Michael Wolf. Michael Wolf is Donald Trump's former biographer. Michael Wolf was also going to be Epstein's biographer. Michael Wolf met with Jeffrey Epstein multiple times, spent hours and hours with Epstein, heard things from Epstein that nobody has heard before. So, Michael Wolf is going to share these things with you. Michael Wolf also has connections deep inside the White House right now and connections very close to Donald Trump. Why? Because Wolf is Donald Trump's former biographer. He's developed this information. Now, Wolf has exclusive details. Over the past 24 to 48 hours, Donald Trump has apparently been calling up close confidants to tell them, you know, I didn't kill Epstein, right? You know, it wasn't me who did that, right? Do Do you know that? I want you to hear it in Michael Wolf's words. what Trump is allegedly saying to people that he knows. But I also want you to hear from Michael Wolf about other things that Epstein told him that led to August of 2019 when eventually Epstein died. Allegedly died by suicide. So this is never before exclusive con never before seen or heard exclusive content. What is Donald Trump saying about how Epstein died? Okay. Um, what did Epstein say to Michael Wolf before his death? Stunning words. I want you to watch now. Hey, Michael, tell us uh give us this exclusive info. I had a conversation yesterday with someone who speaks to Trump often, and this person had spoken to Trump in the last 48 hours. Now, a really a really good way to understand what's on Trump's mind is to track the conversations that he has with this set of people who he he calls often. Um, I mean, I think my feeling has always been that he uh that that that Trump needs to think out loud and and uh calling this list of people who he who he appears appears to trust even though they might call me afterwards. uh is is a way really to say to think to follow exactly what is on Trump's mind. In this conversation that he had um within the last last several days, he said to this person, "People say I had Epstein killed. I didn't have Epstein killed," Trump said. And then this person said,"Well, do you think that he was killed?" And Trump replied, "A lot of people wanted him dead." I find this, to be honestly, a chilling conversation, which I've which I've been thinking about. Um, the idea that the president of the United States would have to say, even go out of his way to say that he hadn't had someone killed seems chillingly to imply that he could have had someone killed, you know, and there's a way that Trump has often often spoken about his belief that that assassinations, both domestic and foreign, have been carried out freely carried out by the United States government. And then the idea that there are a whole population of people who wanted Epstein dead. Um and and Trump Trump seems to include rather include himself in in this and and again it's that it's that sense and sense on the part of Trump that he believed Epstein knew too much. And certainly in the case of in the case of Trump, Epstein could fill in a whole part of the of the Trump background. the um those early days, Trump's early days in the real estate business in the real estate business in in New York and the real estate business in in New York is filled with I a matter of fact I I don't know how you're you can be in the real estate business without having direct connections to organized crime. Um certainly that was that was one of the things that Epstein talked about. Um there are years in which the two of these guys were just were pursuing models, models, models, models. Uh doing what what whatever they they could to get these women this period in Trump's life when there have where when there have been accusations after accusations by a whole lineup of of women. And then this was the period in Trump's life of his bankruptcies. And Epstein had an had an interesting view on on on this because Trump was forgiven personal loans that he had guaranteed personally of about a billion dollars. Now, when you're forgiven personal loans, that immediately becomes income. and Epstein would talk about his involvement with Trump in hiding this money from from the IRS. What did Epstein know about Trump? That's a a foundational question here. And I spent a a lot of time thinking about the ways in which Epstein Epstein was a clear threat to Trump and especially after he became the president of the United States. But I think it's also important to think about what kind of threat Trump was to Epstein. I know at one point when Epstein had these would show me these pictures of Trump again it was a and I I described these before but a set of about a dozen Polaroid pictures three of which I specifically remember two with girls different girls sitting on Trump's lap topless and then if a third with a telltale stain on the Trump on the front of Trump's pants with um with four or five girls pointing at this topless girls pointing at him and laughing and I I urged Trump I urged Epstein I said I said these you should release these these pictures um um I I mean if for no other reason I mean and Epstein was already in trouble and already a a figure of of um um which which uh which people were he was already demonized. I said, you know, maybe this will even even even help you. You can be on the side of on the side of right here. And um and I remember Epstein said again chilling at the time. He said, he said, "I may be a pervert, but I'm not crazy." And then he said, "Trump is a man without any scruples." A chill went up my back then. And I think this I think this brings us to August 10th, 2019 in that jail cell. And obviously obviously all of the questions about what happened that morning are involved with why this story keeps going. And the question, I think that the largest largest question hovers over that is is what did what did Donald Trump know about what happened that that night? And I think in all of the Epstein files, that is the singular and pivotal question we need answered.
We Tracked Every Visitor to Epstein Island | WIRED WIRED Nov 22, 2024
Even in death, the secrets of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his infamous private island remain tightly guarded. But in 2024 WIRED conducted an investigation uncovering the data of mobile devices belonging to almost 200 of his visitors. How strong was the data? So precise that we followed visitor's movements to and from Epstein Island to within centimeters—tracking their countries, neighborhoods, and even buildings of origin. This is Epstein Island’s Secret Data: On The Grid.
Transcript
- Even in death, the secrets of Jeffrey Epstein remained tightly guarded. But earlier this year, I spearheaded a WIRED investigation that uncovered the data of almost 200 mobile phones belonging to visitors to his infamous Pedophile Island. The data was so precise, we were able to map the paths of these visitors to within centimeters, including their neighborhoods, buildings of origins, and the paths they took to get to the island. These digital trails document the numerous trips of wealthy and influential individuals, seemingly undeterred by Epstein's status as a convicted sex offender. WIRED's analysis of the data is ongoing and it raises profound questions about privacy and surveillance. This is "Epstein Island's Secret Data, On The Grid." This is Little Saint James, AKA Epstein Island. These red dots on the map represent some of the 11,279 coordinates I obtained. They were left exposed online by a location data broker with ties to the Defense Department called Near Intelligence. Between 2016 and Epstein's final arrest in 2019, Near collected data on more than 200 cell phones that visited the island. We don't know why they did that, or which client or prospective client of Near decided to query the data in this way to produce the maps. But the maps you'll see in this video, show where visitors to Epstein Island spent most of their time. Let's take a step back. You might be wondering, "Where is Epstein Island anyways?" Well, it's here, Little Saint James is a private island that is part of the U.S .Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Caribbean Sea. Epstein purchased Little Saint James in 1998 for $7.95 million. It's about 71 acres, the size of 54 football fields. He made the island his primary residence, and soon after, began welcoming visitors and throwing infamous parties where he was accused of having groomed, sexually assaulted, and trafficked untold numbers of women and girls. The maps of the data collected by Near, and which we at WIRED recreated here, indicate the most visited spots on the island. From the main house here with the pool, to the beaches and the large sundial, it's all on display, including the enigmatic Hilltop Temple site over here, which has been the focal point and speculations about Epstein's mysterious activities on the island. But the tracking of phones, wasn't contained to Little Saint James, surveillance continued long after the visitors left. The data reveals the locations of visitors 30 minutes before and after arriving on the island, which shows us the exact routes everyone took to get there. Some landed here, at the Cyril E. King Airport on neighboring Saint Thomas Island. With its private jet and VIP terminals, it was the go-to hub for Epstein's 200-seater Boeing 727 plane dubbed Lolita Express. We see data points clustered at various area beaches, hotels, and luxury resorts, including the Ritz Carlton Hotel here. To get to Epstein's Island, many visitors got on a boat at a designated dock at the American Yacht Harbor, a private marina on Saint Thomas, co-owned by Epstein at the time. From there, we see a flow of movement through Great Saint James Island, a larger island just to the north, which Epstein purchased in 2016 for $22 million. He had hoped to develop it, but was met with legal challenges after damaging the island's coral reefs and protected habitats. The data then traces visitors' movements as they were ferried to Epstein's private dock on Little Saint James. Epstein also had a helipad on the island and owned at least one helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76 which he used often to transport himself, guests, and victims from the airport or elsewhere, according to legal documents and testimony. It's worth noting that the data reveals a regular flow of traffic to and from Little Saint James, between 2016 and 2019. A lot of people were visiting the island, even after eps Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008, and served jail time for procuring a minor for prostitution. If we keep following the data trail and we widen our view, we'll see that the tracking of visitors continues once they have left the island, and presumably gone back home. The Near Intelligence data we uncovered, pinpoints 166 locations throughout the United States, in 80 cities across 26 states. Topping the list were Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Michigan, and New York. The data points are labeled as "Common Evening Locations," or "Common Daytime Locations. Typically, their homes are work. Many of the visitors were likely wealthy, as indicated by coordinates pointing gated communities in Michigan, as well as homes in Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket in Massachusetts. We even have data points from a Downtown Miami nightclub, and also the sidewalk across the street from Trump Tower in New York City. Before we jump to conclusions, some sources have highlighted interactions between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at social events. But after Epstein's 2008 conviction, there are no verified reports of Trump maintaining a relationship with a convicted pedophile. Take a look at this point over here in New Mexico, this is a property that was owned by Epstein, a secluded 8,000-acre ranch. Another property of Epstein's is seen over here on El Brillo Way in Palm Beach, Florida. This waterfront mansion was sold, demolished, and is now being rebuilt, but it was where prosecutors claimed Epstein trafficked numerous underage girls with the intention of molesting and abusing them. But we don't just see the coordinates of wealthy homes amongst the data. The median household income of Palm Beach is more than twice that of nearby communities where we also see data points. Some of these points could represent victims or employees who worked on the island, which is why we're careful about revealing names, and continue to carefully analyze the data. If we zoom out more, we notice something strange. There are no data points anywhere in Europe. Does this mean it was strictly Americans visiting Jeffrey Epstein on his island? No, we do see data points from the cache identifying origin cities in Australia, the Cayman Islands, and way over here in Kiev in Ukraine. We know that Epstein himself had a place in Paris, and we know from victim testimony and flight logs that his associate, Jean-Luc Brunel, owner of a modeling agency in Paris did visit the island. So why don't we see these data points? One possibility could be Europe's extensive privacy laws. Considered the strongest privacy and security law in the world, the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, gives Europeans robust rights to their personal data, even outside of Europe. Under comparatively lax US privacy laws, Near intelligence was able to source its location data for this precision surveillance. To explain how this data might have been collected in the first place, we need to talk about the world of digital advertising and data brokers. The reason you get a targeted ad displayed on an app or a website is because apps on your phone have been transmitting information about you to ad exchanges in real-time bidding platforms, that information often includes your location data. Data brokers, like Near Intelligence, extract, repackage, analyze, and sell the data from these ad platforms. In fact, according to internal company documents from 2019, Near Intelligence, which has roots in Singapore and Bengaluru, India, claimed to have information on around 1.6 billion people in 44 countries. They offer a platform for searching that allows their clients to query their vast dataset, by drawing a box around a specific area like Little Saint James, Near then provides insights about the devices that observed within the selected area. We don't know who or why someone searched Epstein Island, but the reports and maps they created were sitting unprotected and totally searchable as publicly accessible code, and that's where we found them. And those aren't the only Near Intelligence data sets that we found. Google's web crawlers were able to locate at least two other reports, one geofencing the Westfield Mall in the Netherlands, and another target in a park in El Paso, Texas. This is data unrelated to our investigation about Epstein Island, but it shows how unsafe personal data can be. In some cases, it's just a Google search away. So Pro Tip, if you don't want your personal data swimming around in the murky waters or programmatic advertising, make sure you limit ad tracking on your phone, disable location services and third-party cookies, and use an ad blocker. So what happened to the island after Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking? Well, in May of 2023, billionaire investor Stephen Deckoff, purchased both Little Saint James and Great Saint James for $60 million. He's currently building a luxury resort on Little Saint James, that he says could open as early as 2025. Also, Ghislaine Maxwell, former British socialite and Epstein accomplice, was convicted in 2021 on five counts, including sex trafficking of minors by force. Maxwell was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire tracked to a million-dollar home by federal agents using location data pulled from her cell phone. I'm Dhruv Mehrotra, the WIRED Investigation into the Secret Data of Epstein's Island continues.
pt1- Was Jeffrey Epstein A Spy? by NJ Criminal Podcast Premiered Jul 22, 2025 NJ Criminal Podcast
Next episode: • pt2- Jeffrey Epstein's Private Aviation Ne... - Tom the producer reveals Jeffrey Epstein not just as a convicted offender, but as a likely central figure in a sophisticated covert operation involving arms trafficking, money laundering, and systematic protection by government agencies. Allegedly...
KEY REVELATIONS EXPOSED:
• Intelligence Training: How Epstein was allegedly trained in arms trafficking and money laundering by international dealers with intelligence connections • Financial Crimes & Protection: His role as "technical wizard" in the $482 million Towers Financial fraud scheme - and how he mysteriously escaped prosecution • The Wexner Connection: How billionaire Leslie Wexner gave Epstein "complete power of attorney" and transferred his $77 million Manhattan mansion for $0 • Political Access: Epstein's 17 documented visits to the Clinton White House and his integration into elite policy circles • The 2008 Deal: How U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta admitted he was told Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to "leave it alone" • The 2025 DOJ Memo: Government claims that no client list exists, timed with high-level political visits
SOURCES: Court documents, government records, congressional testimony, Whitney Webb's "One Nation Under Blackmail," and award-winning investigative journalism.
This isn't speculation - it's documented evidence. The story reveals systematic protection of powerful individuals by government networks.
Transcript
August 10th, 2019, 6:30 a.m. at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Jeffrey Epstein, billionaire, financeier, and convicted sex offender, alleged trafficker of hundreds, if not thousands of minors, is found dead in his cell. The official story is, of course, suicide. Case closed. Move along. Nothing to see here. But something remarkable happened. Alex Acasta, the same US attorney who gave Epstein that infamous 18-month sweetheart deal back in 2008, admitted something that should be all over the place. And it's that Epstein is associated with intelligence. According to multiple sources, including investigative journalist Vicky Ward, when Aosta was asked by the Trump transition team to explain that lenient sentence, he said, and I quote, "I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone." Belonged to intelligence. Think about that for a moment. A United States attorney admits he gave a child trafficker rapist a slap on the wrist because someone in the intelligence community told him to back off. Welcome to the New Jersey Criminal Podcast. I'm Tom the producer. And what you're about to hear isn't conspiracy theory. It's all documented fact. court records, government memos, congressional testimony, investigative journalism that won pulit surprises. I rely heavily. I've got to give a shout out early to a twobook series that has done a wonderful job of organizing the people in information in this case and that's Whitney Webb's one nation under blackmail part one and two. That's one of many sources I'm using but I have to shout that out. as a topshelf bit of investigation. So over the next hour, we're going to examine the Epstein case through the lens of documented evidence, not speculation nor theories. I'll probably get into a theory or two, but when it comes to child exploitation and trafficking, the real conspiracy isn't in wild theories and shadowy cabals. It's it's about the systematic protection of powerful predators by other powerful people who benefit from keeping the truth buried. They're forcing us to tell the story with their actions over the last month. Today, we start with a simple premise, the making of an intelligence asset. Jeffrey Edward Epstein was born January 20th, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a groundskeeper for the New York's parks department. and his mother was a homemaker. Or was he? By age 14, Jeffrey was in elite circles in ways that in retrospect seem almost orchestrated. And you're, this is going to be a theme from his first hirings onward. like he's been touched by a golden angel who makes sure that he always gets picked for something outrageously connected to power. 14-year-old Epstein attended the prestigious Interlockan Center for the Arts reportedly on a scholarship for his bassoon aptitude. You heard me right. His bassoon aptitude. Now, here's what's chilling about this detail is that decades later, investigators would discover Epstein used his connections to interlock and to recruit what Webb describes in her books as an as unwitting female teens with musical talents into his sex trafficking and sex blackmail enterprise. He donated heavily to the school and even constructed his own lodge there. And this is the pattern we're going to see over and over is Epstein embedding himself in institutions where he can access children while simultaneously being positioned for advancement by forces that should have been protecting those same children after graduating Lafayette High School at 16, having again skipped two grades. And nobody can explain this because later he's drops out and drops out and drops out college after college. Doesn't exactly excel. But in high school somehow he's graduating at 16, skipped two grades and he jumps to the prestigious Cooper Union College from 69 to 71. Then NYU from 71 to 74. He didn't graduate from either. that in 1974, this repeat college dropout was hired at one of the most elite schools in Manhattan. Think about that. One of New York's most prestigious private schools hired a man with no college degree, no teaching credentials to educate children of the wealthy and powerful. That's way wilder than inexplicably graduating at 16. But it gets it gets better. Former students later recalled, according again to Web's research, Epstein's persistent attention to teenage girls attending student parties and attempts to spend time with female students away from school. people who worked at Daltton at the time all remark that even then it seemed bizarre that this guy with no degree is being brought into the one of the most elite schools. It's wild. So he ends up leaving Dalton in 1976 officially due to concerns about his teaching skills. But there's already a creepy pattern of inappropriate attention to teenage girls and then this convenient exit with no consequences. Get used to those phrases. Inappropriate attention to teenage girls followed by a convenient exit with no consequences. Next stop, Wall Street. In 1976, Epstein was hired. Oh, no, no, no, no. Let me jump back to Dalton real quick. The man who hired Jeffrey Epstein at the Dalton school was Bill Bar, Trump's first term attorney general's father. Epstein wasn't just hired into this elite school, which was wild enough 3 minutes ago that I forgot this little detail, but he was hired by the father of the man who was running the Justice Department of the United States when He allegedly committed suicide in the most locked down jail in the country. Next stop, Wall Street. In 1976, Epstein was hired by Bear Sterns, prestigious investment bank. He's hired by Allan Ace Greenberg, who would later become the firm's CEO. Within four years, four years, this college dropout with no financial c credentials and no college degree became a limited partner at Bear Sterns investment bank. Another golden touch on his shoulder, it would seem. Now, Webb notes he became known for his knowledge of US tax codes and how wealthy individuals could avoid them. And that's huge. his the flag he plants early in his career hiding money, laundering money. And we'll see where that then bleeds into all the criminal activity that surrounds the type of people who need to hide and launder money. And in 1981, something happened that would establish another pattern in his life. Documented criminal activity. again followed by mysterious protection. So according to SEC records in April 81, Epstein was he's brought in he's interviewed as part of an insider trading investigation involving a tender offer by the Bronmanowned Seager Company. Here's the remarkable part. Epstein resigned from Bear Sterns the day after this tender offer and internal company sources suggested he's in illegal operations had committed perhaps significant expense accounts violations and these are all things that should end your career on Wall Street. So then what happens next, 81 to 86, is also crucial to understanding how Epstein became Jeffrey Epstein. Very murky activities during this time. His main company during this period was an intercontinental assets group incorporated in 1981. His claim is that he worked as what he called a bounty hunter for the rich and powerful, helping recover money looted by African dictators, or alternatively helping the rich and powerful hide their stolen money. According to Steven Hoffenberg's sworn testimony, something far more significant was happening during this period. Epstein was being trained in arms trafficking and money laundering by Adnan Khasshoggi and Sir Douglas Lease. Now let me repeat that. Arms trafficking and money laundering training by international arms dealers with documented intelligence connections. Adnan Khasshoggi was a Saudi arms dealer who, according to multiple sources, was allegedly on the payroll of Israel's MOSSAD, close to the intelligence apparatus of the Saudis and the United States. Douglas Lease was a British arms dealer with intelligence connections who would later be involved in the Al Yamama arms deal with Saudi Arabia, a deal so corrupt that investigations into it were shut down by Tony Blair and Prince Andrew. Yes, the same Prince Andrew who would later become Epstein's close friend and alleged client.
And some notes on Adnan Kosigible. If that name rings a bell, it might be a recollection of the journalist Kosigible who two and a half years a three years ago was murdered in the Saudi embassy in was it Turkey? Well, Adnan was his uncle. And the journalist who got murdered in that Saudi embassy wasn't just a journalist. He also had intelligence ties. So according to Hoffenberg's testimony documented by Web, Epstein was not just learning from these men. He was becoming what Hoffenberg called a major participant and principal in the arms trafficking and money laundering operations of Adnan Kosigible and Sir Douglas Lees for Israel. Now this wasn't freelance criminal activity. This was intelligence work. This is the training of an asset who would later use these same skills, financial manipulation, international networks, sexual compromise to build what prosecutors would eventually call a sexual pyramid scheme. But first, he had to perfect his craft. And and this is where the Towers Financial Corporation comes in. One of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history. and Jeffrey Epstein's graduate school in financial crime. From 87 to 93, Jeffrey Epstein partnered with Steven Hoffenberg at Towers Financial Corporation and what happened there would demonstrate essentially his criminal brilliance and the protection network that would shield him from consequences for the rest of his life. Towers Financial was prior to what's his name? Maid off. I think this was the largest or one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history. They siphoned funds from acquired insurance companies and sold unregistered promisory notes worth 272 million to people of modest means plus bonds that were worth another 210 million. And this is late8s money. Hoffenberg called Web Epstein brilliant. He called him the technical mastermind behind these fraudulent transactions. He said Epstein was personally extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme, including $25,000 monthly checks. And here's where it gets interesting is that in November 93, Hoffenberg testified before a Chicago grand jury and told them Epstein was in charge of and the technical wizard of the entire tower's financial fraud. Okay. So, this is someone in sworn testimony who's working in partnership with Jeffrey Epstein, saying Jeff was in charge. Jeff was the wizard of the fraud. Three months later, Epstein's name mysteriously disappeared from the case entirely. He was never charged, never indicted, never prosecuted. Other Towers executives went to prison and our college dropout elite school teacher walks away from one of the biggest frauds in history. Uh he later got sued I think by was it Hoffenberg saying this dude did it he did it u and that went nowhere. Web's research also reveals that lawsuits went on for decades from the victims. Uh found as late as 2018 victims were still trying to hold Epstein accountable and in large part those lawsuits were dismissed. again fitting in nicely with what appears to be these golden touch efforts to shield Epstein from any culpability at any point in his life. Hoffenberg later claimed that if his case had gone to trial, it would have exposed not only Epstein's role um but the full extent of the Epstein to Lee's connection, which would have been damaging for several parties, including the intelligence agencies to which both Epstein and Lees were allegedly connected. But think about that. This financial fraud case was essentially killed. the civil lawsuits are killed and it's appears to be because the ties that lead not just to Epstein and Hoffenberg but to Epstein's then connections especially Lees. So he's now a finely tuned weapon for arms trafficking and international money laundering. and he's teflon. Nothing sticks to him. Heck, nothing gets thrown at him to stick. But he wasn't just learning financial crime at this point. He was demonstrating intimate working knowledge of front companies. And why is that important? Because intelligence doesn't do business as intelligence. CIA doesn't go set up a business and say, "Hey, we're going to do an operation. They work with somebody who's got the skill set that has been recently acquired by a guy like Jeffrey Epstein for front companies and moneyaundering and hiding money and all the components of the financial webs by those looking to hide nefarious money." So his relationship with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International is particularly significant. That's um Adnan Kosogible's main bank and was later exposed as a moneyaundering operation for intelligence agencies and organized crime worldwide. Now that's happened to a bunch of banks. It's not an unusual story where something happens and the beans get spilled that they're playing dirty pool with big business organized crime and intelligence. In addition to that, there's congressional investigations and they reveal that the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was involved in what they described as obtaining leverage over powerful individuals by providing young ladies sometimes underage. Sound familiar? So now potentially we've got not potentially we've got Adnan Kosigible who going back decades and decades has this reputation for doing just that gaining power over individuals by sex blackmail. We've got Epstein all trained up and then we've got their bank according to congressional investigators we've got their bank Kosogi and Epstein's involved in leverage over powerful individuals by providing young women sometimes underage. So it doesn't take great leaps to see the natural progression here. and he remains just squeaky clean teflon. So by 87 now Epstein the debacle he comes out just clean as a whistle. 86 87 Epstein is branding himself as a property developer which is that's fine. Hey great be a property developer. But if you've just got your masters in money laundering and financial tricks, this is a perfect new means of disguising that. Now he's a builder. Big big bucks can move around in that conversation. And his focus is uh New York City, Palm Beach, Florida markets, both of which are known for commercial real estate moneyaundering. Now he's also extensively involved in foreign currency trading. A um 95 letter from Lynn Forester, who became Lady De Rothschild, to President Clinton, referenced Jeffrey Epstein and currency stabilization, quote unquote. Let me pause here to emphasize something important. That's not a theory or speculation. These are all documented business relationships, court filings, congressional testimony, and sworn statements from people who work directly next to Epstein. Meanwhile, Epstein's intelligence connections get deeper and deeper. I mean, Kosigible's got to retire at some point, and so does Gizlane Maxwell's father, Robert Maxwell, though. We'll leave that for later. According to Israeli military intelligence officer Ari Ben Minaj, Epstein's affiliation with Israeli intelligence dated back to at least the mid 80s. Ben Minaj claimed he was personally introduced to Epstein by Robert Maxwell. Yep. Gizlane's father as someone who had been approved by the higherups in the Israeli intelligence network. This intro allegedly included Ahoud Barack, who's a former Israeli prime minister and head of military intelligence. Hoffenberg corroborated this, claiming that in the 80s, Epstein boasted of ties to Israeli intelligence services. He would later brag about being a CIA agent. At the time, Gizlain Maxwell is making the introduction through her father to intelligence. But the intelligence connections weren't limited to Israel, of course. So, multiple sources suggest Epstein had ties to CIA operations as well. And there's documentation that ties Robert Maxwell to CIA operations in his history far before these conversations in the 80s and 90s. According to reporting by Nigel Roser in 2001, Epstein once claimed to have worked for the CIA. He later denied it when questioned by journalists. Uh by the early 90s, he's positioned perfectly at the intersection of international arms dealing, money laundering, intelligence operations, and sexual compromise. He has a financial skill set. He has an international network, and he has the protection of intelligence agencies. All he needs is an operational infrastructure. And that's when he meets Lesie Wexner. This is unbelievable. Lex Les Wexner wasn't just Jeffrey Epstein's client. He wasn't just his business partner. According to evidence we'll examine, Wexner provided something far more valuable. He provided cover, credibility, and financial infrastructure for what would become the largest sexual blackmail operation in modern history. In the late 1980s, Wexner, founder and CEO of the limited and victorious secret, Abberrombian Fitch, he gave Jeff Epstein something that billionaires simply don't give to money managers. He gave Jeffrey Epstein complete power of attorney over his finances. Think about that. Less Waxner, worth billions of dollars, gave a college dropout with no credentials and a history of financial fraud affiliations unlimited access to his money, his properties, and his business empire. So, it looks like Wexner provided the bankroll for much of the operation, provided a convenient cover for Epstein, where he poses as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret. Young women and girls were allegedly told they were being recruited for Victoria's Secret modeling opportunities. Instead, they were being recruited into Epstein's trafficking network. The Victoria Secret brand, the most one of the most recognizable names in fashion, was allegedly being used as a front for child trafficking. So, it gets a little worse. Wexner also claimed to have bankrolled other sex trafficking ring via this guy Mike Jeff, the former CEO of Abbercrombie and Fitch. So, we're talking about Les Wexner here may have allegedly funded not one but two separate sex trafficking operations using his retail empire to provide cover for the recruitment of young women underage. Through Wexner, Epstein gains access to multiple properties that would become central to his operation. his handed a Manhattan mansion at 9 East 71st Street, the largest private residence in Manhattan, was transferred to Jeffrey Epstein by Wexner for0. Wexner just gave Epstein a Manhattan mansion worth of worth tens of millions of dollars for free. If you want to lose your mind, check out Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Did Jeffrey Epstein? It's almost like they did it ironically when you watch it now because they they say things like he can't stay out of the classroom. Now he's a billionaire and he can't stay out of the classroom. That's in the Robin Leech is saying that on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. You couldn't script it. and the the Palm Beach mansion, where much of the documented abuse secured, was also connected to Westerners's financial network. Again, going to Web's research, these properties were equipped with what she describes as a network of cameras, including in bedrooms and bathrooms, allegedly for recording blackmail footage. Jump to Gizen Maxwell's first trial. If I'm mispronouncing her name, I couldn't possibly give less of a [ __ ] FBI agents testified that they found hard drives and CDs with compromising material during their 2019 raid of Epstein's Manhattan mansion. But here's the shocking part. Evidence disappeared from FBI custody in a case involving the trafficking of potentially a thousand children. Evidence that could have exposed the clients and co-conspirators simply vanished. But Epstein's not just building a domestic operation at his point at this point in time. His intelligence connections are giving him both international reach and protection. From '92 to 96, the State Department under Secretary of State Jim Baker leased a former Iranian console general residence in Manhattan to Epstein. It would seem that there's other reasons beyond just seeking a financially welloff tenant for this arrangement. Jim Baker's connections included Raymond Hill, owner of Mainland Savings, a savings and loan tied to Adnan Kosigible and allegedly tied to Israeli and American intelligence. Epstein's gaining membership in the most exclusive foreign policy organizations in America from 95 to 2009. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also a member of the trilateral commission. He was on the board of Rockefeller University, allegedly appointed personally by David Rockefeller. According to Leon Black, a co-founder of Apollo Global Management, who later paid Epstein's uh 190 million for financial advice, advice not to invest advice. 190 million. Nothing weird about that. So that's according to Leon Black, he was personally appointed by David Rockefeller to the university board. I mean, and Leon Black should know because for some reason he's paying him $190 million. So this isn't just networking. This is positioning. This is Epstein being placed at the heart of foreign policy, financial establishment, and simultaneously running an international child child trafficking operation where if you mix that chocolate with that peanut butter, you've then got the most important people in the world at a blackmail operation. Oh man, can you do damage? But let's not jump ahead. His Austrian passport issued in the 1980s under an alias with a Saudi Arabian address suggests assistance from highly connected Austrian diplomats or somebody with clout in Austria. I mean, you don't just get a passport and multiple passports when his properties were raided, including US passports. Now, how do you have multiple US passports? You got a friend in intelligence. You've got a friend who can boss around the State Department and get them to issue. I mean, that that's that's that'd be the most powerful thing most of us ever pulled off in our life. Oh, I got the US government to just give me a fake P. Let's and these are like the the breadcrumbs on the plate in this conversation. All right. So, I will say Whitney Webb speculates that his connection in a in Austria could have been a guy whose name is Ronald Lauder who served as US ambassador to Austria from 86 to 87 and had ties to intelligence. But perhaps more significantly, Epstein's operation was attracting the attention of powerful individuals who should have been investigating him, not socializing with him. Former CIA director Bill Burns was friends with Epstein and met with him numerous times, which he admitted only after first trying and failing to cover it up. Epstein reportedly helped Burns secure a position at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, because that's what college dropouts do. They bestow positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which is a deep state think tank. A CIA director taking career help from a known child trafficker. This is after Epstein's first conviction. Most true crime stories, that would be the craziest element you ever heard. Oh my god. You watch that true crime documentary? The CIA director was working with them. There's so much [ __ ] going on here. That's just another breadcrumb. But I digress once again. So by the early 2000s, Epstein had built a multibillion dollar covert operation that combined international arms trafficking, money laundering, sexual blackmail and intelligence operations into a single network designed to compromise and control potentially the most powerful/influential individuals in the world. Powerful meaning seauite and politician. Influential meaning entertainment maybe. So let's jump to January 20th, 1993. Slick Willie Bill Clinton inaugurated as the 42nd president of the USA. Within months, Jeffrey Epstein was walking through the doors of the White House as if he owned the place. According to visitor logs from the White House obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, Epstein visited the Clinton White House a documented 17 times. Not 17 meetings in three visits. 17 separate visits, often accompanied by what witnesses described as attractive young women. But it wasn't just social visits. Epstein's meetings were particularly concentrated with Mark Middleton, the deputy chief chief of staff, who was later described as being embroiled in foreign espionage activities, quote unquote. Uh, Web suggests this probably points to a scandal in the Clinton area that's never been investigated. Now, Mark Middleton is dead. He's suicided himself in May 2022 under what are described as highly unusual circumstances. He was reportedly found hang from a tree with an extension cord, then shot himself twice in the chest with a shotgun. Let me repeat that. He was hanged from a tree, then shot himself twice in the chest with a shotgun. The man who facilitated Jeffrey Epstein's access to President Bill Clinton died under circumstances so unusual that they would be hilarious if they weren't so convenient for people who wanted to avoid questions about that access. But the Clinton connection goes far beyond White House visits. There's photographic evidence, actual photographs of President Clinton receiving a massage from Shantae Davies, underage girl who was trafficked by EP Epstein while traveling on Epstein's private jet. I've seen the picture. It's Clinton getting a back rub. Uh I mean, it doesn't look good. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions beyond there because that's the only picture I've seen. Now, the Clinton Epstein relationship continued long after Clinton left office. He flew on Epstein's private jet, the Lolita Express. I want to say 27 times, even more times than Epstein visited the White House. They show Clinton traveling to Epstein's private island and other properties where the abuse was taking place. There's affidavit of testimony also from uh victims who claim to uh mingled with Bill Clinton on the island itself. Clinton wasn't the only powerful dude in Epstein's orbit at that point. Prince Andrew, who's the second son of Queen Elizabeth, too, became one of Epstein's closest associates and alleged clients. There is a photograph that supports proof of a relationship Prince Andrew had with his arm around the waist of a 17-year-old Virginia Guay. Virginia Guay with Gizlane Maxwell standing beside them. Now, I hate to point this out. Virginia Gefrey just allegedly quote committed unquote. But back to the picture of Gizlane Maxwell standing next to Prince Andrew and Virginia Duffrey when she was alive and 17 years old. I don't know if you saw the interview with that idiot, Prince Andrew. So, you're absolutely sure that you're at home on the 10th of March. She was very specific about that night. She described dancing with you. And you profusely sweating and that she went on to have bar possibly. There's a slight problem with with with with with the sweating um because uh I I I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat um or I didn't sweat at the time. I'd bet a million dollars he's a child. And that was Oh, was she? Yes. I didn't sweat at the time because I um had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at. Uh and I simply it it was it was it was almost impossible for me to to sweat. And it's only because I have done a number of things in the recent past that I'm starting to be able to do that again. So I'm afraid to say that that that that there's a medical condition that says that I didn't do it. So therefore because I was inverted. No, he was, man. It was really great move. He was inverted. Is it possible that you met Virginia Roberts, dined with her, danced with her in [ __ ] had sex with her on another date? No. Do you remember meeting her at all? No. Do you know you didn't meet her or do you just not remember? No, I have. I I I I don't know if I've met her, but no, I I have no recollection of meeting her because she was very specific. She described the dance that you had together in [ __ ] She described meeting you. She was a 17-year-old girl meeting a senior member of the royal family. Never happened. She provided a photo of the two of you together. Yes. Your arm was around her waist. Yes. You've seen the photo. I've seen the photograph. How do you explain that? I can't because I don't I have no again I have absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken. Do you recognize yourself in the photo? Yeah, it's pretty difficult not to recognize yourself. Some [ __ ] is lying. Now, perhaps more significantly, Epstein's connections extend into the world of technology and scientific research in ways that also suggest intelligence agency interest. And there's an underlying theme there that's worth mentioning, which is the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA, was explicitly supposed to avoid relationships with the criminal element from its founding. But as early as World War II, behind the back of the president, sometimes behind the back of the head of intelligence, they were absolutely married to organized crime. And so pre- internet, pre-technological advances we're dealing with right now, the best marriage for intelligence to have somebody doing dirty work for them is organized crime. I would argue now the best connections for intelligence are companies like Facebook, banks, cell phone companies. But Epstein's got a bent for scientific research and some interesting scientific research. looks like he was interested in everything the intel agencies are interested in. He actively and you can find interviews with people like who's it Brett Weinstein or Eric Weinstein the physicist. He's like Jeff Epstein knew all about my work and I don't know why but I'd love to know why Jeff Epstein knew all about my work. So he targeted and formed relationships with these technologists, researchers, scientists, prominent intellectuals. Stephen Hawking, Stephen Hawking was rolling around that island. Marvin Minsky Minsky later had sexual allegations against him. Bill Gates met with Epstein multiple times after his conviction despite knowing about his criminal history. Gates along with figures like Peter Teal, Jeff Bezos had direct business relationships or have direct business relationships with US intelligence agencies and actively work with CIA, NSA, and the rest of them. Amazon's given him servers. Mark Zuckerberg is cited as an example of what people consider an asset, providing data access to the CIA through Facebook's vast surveillance network. And unless I'm mistaken, Peter freaking Teal was one of the seed funders of Facebook and Teal's linked to to intelligence top to bottom. I'm not sure that Facebook wasn't started specifically to be a surveillance platform, but leave that for another day. So, this not just about sexual compromise. This is about intelligence gathering at the highest levels of scientific, technological, and political power. Epstein used philanthropy as moneyaundering. He helped set up the Gates Foundation. He was involved in setting up the Clinton Global Initiative, which is probably a great tool to launder a bunch of money if that's what you wanted to do. I'm not saying that's what anybody wants to do. He had significant donor relationships with several of the top schools in the country and ties to university board members, teachers and executives across the country. And there are a list as long as my arm of the top tier schools in the country that have relationships with intelligence or certain intelligence programs have actually been run on those university campuses, be they research programs, think LSD, MK Ultra, that type of thing. a research environment is a perfect place to do things like that. So he's hooked in across the country at that level. But by 2005, the network that protected him for decades now is going to face its first real test because you've got a 14-year-old girl in Palm Beach, Florida. She's about to tell her parents something that's going to launch an investigation into Jeff Epstein. And that's when we learned confirm how deep his protection network really goes. So in 2005, a 14-year-old girl and her parents make a report to the Palm Beach police. Jeffrey Epstein had molested her at his mansion. This isn't a rumor. This wasn't gossip. This wasn't speculation. This was a formal police report alleging the sexual abuse of a child. That report launched an investigation that would uncover what prosecutors later described as a sexual pyramid scheme involving dozens of victims and potentially hundreds of powerful men. By ' 06, police had charged Epstein with unlawful sex acts with persons under the age of consent. the Palm Beach uh county attorney or state attorney for that jurisdiction. Oh, they go to grand jury. July 2006, the FBI opens a federal investigation called Operation Leapyear. An FBI document based on those investigations was quoted as being powerful enough to have likely put Epstein behind bars for life. Life in prison. That's what the evidence supported. And that's what they said years later in New York in 2018 or 2019. Life in prison. That's what what was said in the New York case. But instead, in 2007, Alex Aosta, US attorney in 2007, Alex Aosta, later to become President Trump's labor secretary during the same term where Bill Bar, son of the man who gave Jeffrey Epstein, college dropout, his first job at an elite academy in Manhattan, he agreed to what can only be described as the most corrupt plea deal in modern American history. Alex Acasta Epstein would plead guilty to two felony prostitution charges. The victims were not notified of the agreement. All grand jury subpoenas were voided. and email messages obtained by the Miami Herald suggest that during the months of negotiations between Epstein's attorneys and Aosta's office, Aosta conceded conceded conceded to Epstein's demands. And this brings questions right to Alex Aosta's lap. Later on, the final deal was signed and sealed, so nobody would even know the scope of the crimes. sealed. Epstein appeared in court, was sentenced to only 18 months. He was allowed to serve that in a private wing of the Palm Beach County stockade. He had his own security detail. He was permitted to work 6 days a week at his office. So, he's just sleeping at the jail and I think he had weekends off. Think about that. a man with evidence against him that could potentially put him away for life got 18 months for the same evidence back in ' 07. Better than that, he has to leave the jail every single day and then he gets released after only 13 months. So when Alex Aost is later asked by the Trump team when he's getting his job in the previous administration, the same administration where Bill Bar worked, they ask him what the heck. How did you let the pedophile off with 13 months in jail? Acasta says he had been told that Jeffrey Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone. Aosta is questioned about this later in 2019 when Epstein's dead. He will neither confirm nor deny if Epstein was an intelligent asset. Intelligence asset. A United States attorney admitted he gave a child trafficker a lenient sentence because intelligence agencies told him to back off. That's not prosecutorial discretion or a plea bargain gone wrong. That's intelligence interference in a federal child trafficking case. The Epstein case represents what the people who like to take a weird step back and use phrases like the deep state. Like to me, this is the merger of covert intelligence, uh, finance, banks, tech business, and organized crime. It's it's the it's designed for plausible deniability and it's the ultimate tool for intelligence and assets are way better than agents. Cuz if your agents get busted, you're in trouble. If your assets get busted, they're not going to run around telling people they work for CIA or MSAD. And this network, we're talking about key figures like Ehood Barack, former freaking Israeli prime minister or president Maxwell Gizlane, the daughter of Robert Maxwell, arguably one of the most prolific spies in Israel history. Less Waxner is clearly aligned with providing financial backing and cover for this operation. It's alleged to be an Israeli spy ring so powerful that it influences former and current US presidents, orchestrates coverups, and operates the world's largest blackmail ring. It's like a massive unregistered political party. There's dual there's citizens peppered throughout our government and intelligence and it it's there's more people who lead agencies for the United States government who have an Israeli passport than you can shake a stick at. which general said during the Bush administration that he would he would walk through in the Pentagon and there were just MSAD agents just walking around without name tags during Bush presidency in when we're in Iraq. That's wild. So this brings us to 2025 and the most brazing cover up attempt in modern political history. After promising transparency on the Epstein files during his campaign, Trump's administration has engaged in uh turn on YouTube or an interview on TV. They're going to be describing it as the sloppiest political cover up in modern history. Attorney General Pam Bondi went on Fox in February and claimed all these files are on our desk right now to review. had previously claimed there were thousands of videos. Tie that with what we know about the history of the people that Epstein's been associated with since the 60s and 70s, the jobs he's gotten, who's hired him, and who his associates were. You don't have to leap anywhere. So there's Sunday night, couple weeks ago, the Justice Department releases a memo and slinks away like cowards. Nobody signed it. Says there's no client list, no blackmail operation, and no evidence of murder. Epstein died by suicide. Case closed. No incriminating clients list. Well, that's ridiculous. I don't need an incriminating client's list. I've seen the flight logs. I've seen Epstein's black book. Anybody can if they care enough to look. The unedited video released by DOJ had a minute cut out. Doesn't show Epstein's cell door. Doesn't show a full view of his wing. It doesn't show full access to his wing. You could get to his cell go from a different direction that that camera didn't cover at all. And they had previously told us, didn't they, there's no video at all. System was turned off. So, I don't know, maybe they jerry this up with some Google technology that we haven't seen yet that does AI videos. But, I mean, doesn't look good, unedited. Everybody who's analyzed it says it was it was rendered multiple times out of probably Adobe. And that's not RAW. So there's people integral to the network who are never charged. Who got charged? Gizlane. What about Sarah Kellen? Sarah Kell's been described as integral to the operation. She was never charged with anything. Never questioned under oath. The government confiscated boxes of tapes, DVDs, CDs, files. Lots of evidence. We never saw much or any. It's it's it's the ultimate gaslight. And most people haven't looked at all this stuff, but I mean, we've seen a bunch of associations. And this little talk I'm giving you now is part one of like four. That's how many freaking notes I have on this. Oh, and the timing of that DOJ announcement was particularly interesting because it occurred the day before Benjamin Netanyahu visited DC. So, I don't know. We're going here about an hour. What are we looking at? We've looked at how Epstein was trained in arms trafficking, money laundering by international dealers connected to intelligence. uh how he built a financial empire and financial connections committed fraud, was not prosecuted. We've seen how he gained access to the highest levels of political and influential power while trafficking children. If you're a bad enough person to traffic children and then you get access to the most important people in the world, it almost seems like the natural progression would be to start blackmailing them. The guy's already a complete posos. Most disturbingly, we've seen how this operation was protected. Who can protect? Intelligence can protect. Ask Alex Acasta. What he's going to say is I'm not going to confirm or deny anything. But he previously said Epstein, he was told Epstein was intelligence and to leave it alone. This is I'm doing my best not to dig into conspiracy and to present genuine relationships, genuine outcomes, and that which is genuinely documented. Anybody who calls legitimate questions about this conspiracy theories, they're using that label as a weapon to shut down conversation, investigation, and accountability, or they're just too lazy to look and see. The Epstein case represents something very much larger than one predator or one network. It's about the system and power. In fact, it's this thing. We're just calling it Jeffrey Epstein. And maybe that's by design, but it's this thing. He just had the franchise for a while. Maybe Diddy had a franchise. The next time we're going to examine the financial networks that funded this operation, the tech companies that may have provided surveillance infrastructure, and the ongoing efforts to prevent accountability. If you care to look, you'll see something is there. Now, let me give credit again for the up teen time. Whitney Web, One Nation Under Blackmail, volume one and two is awesome. There's a Miami Herald investigative series by hero journalist Julie Brown. There's uh court documents from the Southern District of New York. There's FBI documents uh via FOYA. There's a bunch of congressional testimony and SEC records. Uh and frankly, there's a bunch of new news analysis from the last month. So, there's there's a lot