Philip Weiss wrote about Epstein in NY Magazine in 2007. It mentions that he’s under indictment. It’s strange that this 5 part story didn’t get more traction back then. The link is odd, but if you scroll down, there are links to the other parts.
Yeah, see, I think that statement gets events in the wrong order. The deal was part of the preferential treatment. He raped children, and he pleaded guilty to one count that didn’t involve children at all.
But if the offer wasn’t for jail time rather than prison time, and if work release wasn’t possible, then it is unlikely he would have taken any deal at all. If no deal, then the state would have had to choose whether or not to prosecute him, and the feds would have had to too. I don’t think the state was going to prosecute but agreed to the deal the feds proffered. The deal was offered as a package - plead to one count, register as a sex offender, 18 months in county jail which allowed work release, etc. People plead to one or two counts all the time and often a lesser crime or even to a totally different crime.
Newspaper reporters are saying the evidence was THERE, but even the editor wouldn’t publish the stories as written. Attorneys thought the evidence wasn’t all there. All the evidence was there against OJ too but his high priced lawyers were able to beat the district attorney’s office. Really good lawyers with a lot of money. Evidence was there against Patty Hearst too. Against Michael Jackson. Against the Whitewater investments with Bill and Hillary and their friends - a really great Time Magazine article outlining it all and yet no prosecutions and on to the White House. I remember reading at the time and thinking “these people have committed fraud! Why aren’t they going to jail?” But everything a reporter can print isn’t admissible in court.
The next agency to step in will be the IRS. I think Epstein got all his money by laundering money for others. He claims to have run a hedge fund and to have made money on buying defaulted loans and collecting them, but really? There isn’t that much money in defaulted loans but there is money in passing through funds from other entities and claiming it was money collected from defaulted loans. Loose diamonds? Piles of cash? I say money laundering.
@twoinanddone which newspaper editor wouldn’t publish? Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair excised some info from Vicky Ward’s piece, but it’s been suggested that he did that because he was a little too close to the glitterati to be unbiased. I’d be interested to know if you’re referring to anything Julie Brown had in her series? Or anything any other reporters uncovered?
Again, source for this statement? I read that the FBI did not complete the interviews of all victims - presumably due to pressure coming from the DOJ.
Here’s a theory:
Epstein recruited high school girls who wanted to be models.
He sent them to his island filled with political bigwigs.
He told the bigwigs they were college girls.
He plied everybody with alcohol and drugs and he filmed everything and sold it to the Deep State or Israel so they could blackmail them.
That’s why he was always asking famous and wealthy people to his island. Not only were they a great source of revenue but also guaranteed his protection like the sweetheart Acosta deal.
In all likelihood he trafficked children as well. His island is near Haiti and in his New Mexico property is isolated and a good location for kids trafficked across the southern US border.
Who are these “attorneys” of whom you speak?
Also, let’s assume that, even though DOJ attorneys had already written a 53-page indictment, they thought the evidence wasn’t there. Let’s not pretend the only choices were to offer a sweetheart deal, or prosecute. That’s a false choice. They could have continued the FBI investigation instead of stopping it before all of the dozens of alleged victims had been interviewed and their stories investigated. If the evidence wasn’t there, why did they stop looking for it? What evidence is here now, that couldn’t have been there then if they’d bothered to look for it?
No it’s not. Unless 500 miles and separated by DR and PR is your definition of “close.”
The guy’s low-life scum, IMO, but let’s dispense with assuming facts not in evidence. From the photos of the (and I have to insert the word “alleged” for legal reasons) victims I have seen, he’s got a type, and they aren’t coming from Haiti or Mexico.
One of the articles said the scumbag liked slim, blond, white girls. However, it is possible that some of his guests had a different preference. Hope they all rot in hell.
Haiti is less than an hour by air or you could drive across the Dominican Republic and take a boat to the island which would be the more discrete way to do it. Epstein has multiple boats including one that could transport 200 people.
It’s only a theory, but far from outlandish. Below the temple are a series of tunnels, so trafficked children could easily have been brought in and kept out of view.
Known pedophiles have been to the island and I won’t be surprised if more names are revealed soon. Kevin Spacey would not have been interested in what Epstein preferred.
Hopefully, every one of these creeps meets justice soon.
It’s possible that I’ll win Powerball this week, too. There’s enough disgusting details in the allegations already brought forward that I see no value in inventing new ones.
Epstein is scum, but that’s a type of scum that hasn’t been whispered of or alluded to in any of the documents so far. His island is not near Haiti and neither Haiti nor Mexico exports the blonde girls that keep being listed as victims and accusers of Epstein. IMO, you’re overthinking and misinterpreting what the “trafficking” charge means here. It doesn’t mean he or his employee snatched girls in vans and transported them blindfolded across borders. In this case, it instead refers to the fraud and coercion that he and his associates used with these girls. The girls were “recruited” by one of his employees, girlfriends or another victim, told that Epstein would help them with their ______ (often modeling) career and offered a couple of hundred dollars to give Epstein a massage. The girls would be wowed by his estate, cars, planes, whatever.
They’d show up at his house and he’d continue the charade of how he wanted to help them and how beautiful they were, how they could talk about it during the massage. Then, sometime during one of the massages, Epstein is accused of pressuring the girls into sex. Some girls were even paid to find other girls and to keep quiet.
I grew up in SW Florida - the other coast from Epstein’s place, but the area has similar issues apparently. I’m not a bombshell, just an average looking blonde, and can tell you from personal experience that this sort of thing is not uncommon. Starting in your early teen years, it isn’t unusual to have old guys in luxury cars pull over and try to talk you into going with them or guys on luxury yachts try to talk you into taking a boat ride or the clerk at the swimsuit store tell you you look great in your bikini and the owner was always looking for “girls like you”. Although I’m more of a wary type and didn’t go, I had friends that did and their stories aren’t that far off of what is described in the Epstein story. Not to shock you, but none of them ended up having their modeling careers started in this way… Maybe this is a Florida thing. Hadn’t occurred to me that there weren’t creepy old predator types everywhere and that this was a particular problem for this area, but maybe they’re just bolder here because we all spend so much time in swimsuits and beachwear. Or maybe they’re emboldened because the predator types somehow know that nobody is going to believe a teenage blonde girl over the word of a successful businessman. It seems like it’s always been this way here.
This is the UN definition of trafficking:
In the case of Epstein, he is accused of recruiting children by the use of fraud, deception, abuse of power and/or abuse of a position of vulnerability, for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This is now called trafficking.
Graydon Carter excised the info about the sexploitation because he was known to use Vanity Fair as a tool for helping friends and punishing enemies.
Wow–sounds like a lot of men who are out there at least in FL accosting young females, especially if you’re blond and look like their “type.” Scary!
Well, that gave me a laugh, if anything on this topic could. Will that be the defense of every politician that (hopefully) gets indicted? “I thought they were college students.” Meanwhile “Deep State” (sic) is blackmailing them. I don’t know which part of this is more outlandish–that you think these men didn’t know, or that you are spreading conspiracy theories about this so-called “Deep State” (or Israel, for that matter.)
Can we stick to the reality of what men are doing, and not make excuses, please?
I don’t think the recruiting young girls was limited to Florida. Happened (still happens) in NYC and LA for actresses, in Vegas for dancers and models, in other places for whatever girls (or boys) want an introduction for in those areas. My friend was a legit model for Hawaiian Tropics and had to go to a lot of trade shows and NASCAR races and received a lot of propositions for ‘extra work.’ She was over 18, but barely.
Agree. Predators are adaptive. They seek target-rich environments. Florida may draw more than its share because there are women and girls of all ages walking around in bathing suits in settings where strangers regularly mingle - must feel like a supermarket for creeps who feel they can just pick from an endless stream of girls. But other areas have creeps, as well - the creeps just adapt their techniques to put them were the targets are. In inland, conservative states the predators volunteer as youth leaders, “mentor” young people or other covers that put them in contact with their targets since the targets aren’t conveniently walking by in bikinis. I haven’t spent enough time in NYC to guess what the mechanisms are there - they’ll be based on where the girls hang out or are easily accessed and peeled off from crowds, but rest assured, the predators have figured them out and use them. Different techniques for different areas.
https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/what-modeling-taught-me-about-jeffrey-epstein.html
Article by Sara Ziff who established the “Model Alliance, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization for people working in the fashion industry.”
Ziff writes, “We cannot seem shocked about reports of sex trafficking under the guise of modeling work given the imbalance of power and lack of protections that have plagued the industry for far too long.”
One of the accusers said she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell in front of her public high school on the Upper East Side when she was 14.
According to Vanity Fair, Epstein’s island is in the US Virgin Islands and until last year, he was flying young girls in and out of St. Thomas about twice a month. So no need to blame poor countries for overlooking his activities. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/horrors-of-jeffrey-epstein-private-island
In the case of the accuser @Midwest67 , the high school in question was Talented Unlimited, a public school for kids interested in the performing arts located a few blocks from Epstein’s home. The accuser says that after Epstein forced her to commit a sex act, she never went back. Her recruiter and Epstein himself continued to contact her for about a year after that. She didn’t tell anyone what had happened, but she never returned the calls and emails. She says she was so petrified she stopped going to that high school.