Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Goes Free

[PufPuf93]

It's interesting that Hopsicker would write an article with "Mega" in the title, go on to discuss Epstein, Wexner, and modelling agencies, and yet he didn't mention the Mega Group even once.

That's probably a matter of ignorance rather than obfuscation, but I find it hard to believe Hopsicker wouldn't already know about that project, especially since it sits squarely at the crossroads between unaccountable private intelligence agencies and drug trafficking.

Oh, and 9/11, you know, that, too.

Good to see Hopsicker still ticking along. He had some health issues at one point. Does good however imperfect work. Long ago I even bought two of his books.

[8bitagent]

Yeah I agree, good to see Hopsicker still around. It seems one of the few honest "conspiracy" para-politic researchers who hasnt gotten far right/all in for the Trump cult like most the others. If only the late Michael Ruppert were still around. Btw is Jake "Synchromysticism" or WrongWayWizard still around?

It's crazy to say, but as I've stated I don't think anything in the history of deep real politik/"conspiracy" research has come close to this Epstein case. First started reading Jeff's RI blog in late 2004, started posting here on the RI forum in 2007; but there's nothing I can think of (save for 9/11) that ties everything together as Epstein. I don't believe in the conspiracy idea that we're all living in a simulated reality...but hot damn, does it feel like this Epstein spiderweb is almost engineered by elseworld AI gods to *feel* like a meta-parody of feverish conspiracy theories.

Just in the last couple weeks, completely going by mainstream news, Epstein literally ties into the deepest blackest of lodge levels of global intelligence, eugenics, Wall Street, global elites, presidents and prime ministers, banks, royalty, etc. I mean "Mossad" and "Rothschilds" and Epstein is a headline news, for the far right that think "Zionism" runs the world. Yet the head of Saudi Arabia, British Royals, classic weapons/terror/drug runner tropes like "Adnan Kashoggi", to the Clintons to Trump to "pedo Hollywood" deeply ties into Epstein. The worlds leading eugenicists and scientists, Davos alumni, AI roboticists, etc. Weird offshore "Ocean" shell companies ran by Epstein's right hand woman Maxwell(whose dad was Mossad) and charity groups ran by Epstein/Maxwell tied deep to Clinton Global initiatives. With some of Epstein's lolita express victims even listed as heads of these weird shell charities. LOL at Chelsea Clinton saying she didn't know Maxwell, she's at her friggin' 2010 wedding and running "charities" under the Clinton group umbrella. I might hate the right wing, but if they ever had one theory thats right, its that the Clinton crime family is involved in a lot of really bad stuff.

I remember during the 9/11 Truth era of the 2000's, a lot of talk of Deutche Bank and the heads of Wall Street tied to 9/11 both profiting and foreknowledge, or even low budget conspiracy films like Who Killed John O'neil. And now we have every day articles talking about just how deep Epstein was with the most elite players in Wall Street.
Jeffrey Epstein Had a Door Into Apollo: His Deep Ties With Leon Black
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... with-black
Does it get any bigger than the Apollo Global Management group, or Deutche Bank? Some of the heads of the biggest financial institutions of Wall Street secretly met with Epstein AFTER his 2008 conviction while he was in Florida

And lest we forget Epstein and Wexner, the owner of most of the major clothing/retail outlets at your local mall. I honestly can't think of a more sprawling, dizzying, all encompass giant global map of intersecting real deep state insanity than this case.

Finally, it seems every hour there's a new sickening revelation with this case. And it no longer feels far fetched at all to think that the entire system worldwide, that so much of the political and financial elite worldwide truly are involved in this sick horrifying case. Yesterday one of the headline NBCNEWS/MSNBC features was the dark mystery surrounding Epstein's blue striped island temple, given how the actual structure doesnt match any of the original plans along with evidence there may be underground tunnels connected to it. Then we have all the evidence that Epstein was really big into disturbing prosthetic body parts afixed to the walls everywhere in his mansion like some sort of twisted serial killer along with disturbing artworks ala the Podesta brothers.
Here's a new article...Epstein is trying to sell one of his rape abuse helicopters for several million which was custom built for sex.
https://pagesix.com/2019/08/02/jeffrey- ... -cuddling/

Am I nuts in thinking Epstein is the rosetta stone of everything dark and unsettling worldwide? Hell at this point I won't be shocked if Epstein ends up directly linked to 9/11. This is some serious black lodge shit going on

[seemslikeadream]

it seems every conspiracy we've been talking about for the last 15 years is tied up in this story

[minime]

It has to be so big that we are too paralyzed to do anything about it.

Is it a salient feature of apophenia, or am I seeing patterns where none exist?

[brainpanhandler]

https://earth.google.com/web/@18.300342 ... y,0h,0t,0r

[seemslikeadream]

I was never harassed more than when I was posting at Democratic Underground when digging into Mark Foley and Florida and election tampering...even the DU dungeon was no match, it was preparation for what has happened to me for that last two years here

here's looking at you Bozo I will never forget you ..oh cassandra we hardly knew ye

I wish I could go into the info I know and proof about the spin offs from DU..they were no where radical or progressive unlike the words in the new and "improved" names...far from it


(I don't consider RI a spin off)

Yet the GOP still elevated him to the highest position in Congress, and to second in line for the presidency, all while this was probably known to the foreign intelligence services that threw parties for those powerful men in Washington who liked boys...

in effect blackmailing the government to leave them alone or face the consequences. That is what the Dennis Hastert story appears to be all about.

random facts girl.
‏

random facts girl. Retweeted julie k. brown
The IA probe into Epstein's work release is now considered a criminal investigation.

Why won't anyone dare mention one reason underlying Epstein's special treatment? ( Foleygate )

You have to address that dirty secret before you'll get any legit action out of deSantis.
random facts girl. added,
julie k. brown
Verified account

@jkbjournalist
BREAKING: and PALM beach Sheriff’s scrambling to [fill in blank] continues...
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/ ... 65462.html …
Show this thread

( you know, the same Foleygate that not only took down one member of congress [Mark Foley], but also revealed the sitting Republican Speaker of the House covered up for Foley's attempts to prey on underage male pages for 4 or 5 years or so....

The same Speaker who later admitted he serially molested multiple 14 year old boys who were under his care as a wrestling coach...

Which was known about by the GOP since BEFORE he ran for Congress the first time (bonus: the county GOP chair helped cover it up for him was also the Kendall county State's Attorney, per a man he raped in a public restroom when he was 9 years old)


Yet the GOP still elevated him to the highest position in Congress, and to second in line for the presidency, all while this was probably known to the foreign intelligence services that threw parties for those powerful men in Washington who liked boys...

Did Foreign Governments Blackmail Denny Hastert?
Alleged misconduct by the House speaker was well known to the FBI—and to Turkey and Israel.

By Philip Giraldi • October 20, 2015
As former House Speaker Dennis Hastert prepares to plead guilty in accordance with a deal he has made with federal prosecutors, most media will focus on the crimes the FBI mentioned in his indictment. Since Hastert was charged in May, the public has been shocked to learn that the former high-school wrestling coach allegedly spent large sums trying to cover up past sexual abuse. But one prominent whistleblower has been speaking up about the possible misdeeds of Hastert for years now—and the way that they may have compromised national security.

Longtime readers of The American Conservative are familiar with the Sibel Edmonds saga. Edmonds, an FBI translator who revealed large-scale corruption throughout the government, has received multiple gag orders under the State Secrets Act. She has nevertheless persevered in spite of concerns that she would be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned. TAC interviewed her for a feature article in 2009, and I also reviewed her claims multiple times over the last few years, including when her book Classified Woman came out in 2012.

Many of Edmonds’s claims involved Turkish and Israeli front groups seeking to influence U.S. policy while sometimes also engaging in illegal activity. The scope of the corruption allegedly involved bribery of senior government officials and congressmen, arranging for export licenses to countries that were embargoed, and the exposure of classified information. Edmonds has been questioned by a congressional committee, by individual congressmen and staffers, as well as by the FBI inspector general, and her information was found to be “credible,” “serious,” and “warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review.” She also provided interviews for “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair, both of which were able to confirm key elements of her story.

Some critics have opined that Edmonds overstates or misinterprets what she claims to know, but there is no reason to doubt her veracity when she describes documents and investigative files that she personally handled during her time with the bureau. No one has challenged her accounts of the investigations that were underway at that time. She has been gagged by the Justice Department precisely because the information she revealed is damaging to certain political and purported national-security interests.

In the course of her various media appearances, Edmonds provided significant information on Congressman Hastert, who was under FBI investigation while he was speaker of the House, a role he assumed in 1999 and held for eight years. In her TAC interview, Edmonds related that “In early 1997, because of the information that the FBI was getting on the Turkish diplomatic community, the Justice Department had already started to investigate several Republican congressmen. The number-one congressman involved with the Turkish community, both in terms of providing information and doing favors, was Bob Livingston. Number-two after him was Dan Burton, and then he became number-one until Hastert became the speaker of the House. Bill Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, was briefed on the investigations, and since they were Republicans, she authorized that they be continued… In 1999, [FBI agents in the Chicago field office] wiretapped the congressmen directly.”

In a deposition given in August 2009, Edmonds identified Hastert as “one of the primary U.S. persons involved in operations and activities that are not legal, and they’re not for the interest of the United States but for the interest of foreign governments and foreign entities.” She detailed what she believed to be Hastert’s wrongdoing: “This information has been public. The concerns, again would be several categories. The acceptance of large sums of bribery in forms of cash or laundered cash and laundering is to make it look legal for his campaigns, and also for his personal use, in order to do certain favors and call certain—call for certain actions, make certain things happen for foreign entities and foreign governments’ interests, Turkish government’s interest and Turkish business entities’ interests.”

When asked in the deposition, “Did you have reason to believe that Mr. Hastert, for example, killed one of the Armenian genocide resolutions in exchange for money from these Turkish organizations?” she responded, “Yes, I do… Correct… and not only taking money, but other activities, too, including being blackmailed for various reasons.” At the time of the deposition Hastert had left Congress and was working for the Washington lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro as a registered lobbyist for Turkey, reportedly earning millions of dollars in commissions.

Edmonds described her work on Turkish-language transcripts of investigations relating to Hastert covering the period 1996 until January 2003, elaborating on the possibility of blackmail. She recalled that Hastert “used the townhouse [in Chicago] that was not his residence for certain not very morally accepted activities. Now, whether that was being used as blackmail I don’t know, but the fact that foreign entities [Turkey and Israel] knew about this, in fact, they sometimes participated in some of those not maybe morally well activities in that particular townhouse that was supposed to be an office, not a house, residence at certain hours, certain days, evenings of the week. So I can’t say if that was used as blackmail or not, but certain activities they would share. They were known.”

In testimony before congressional staffers and committees, Edmonds has reported hearing Turkish wiretap targets boast of their secret relationship with a “Hastert.” They discussed giving him tens of thousands of dollars in clandestine payments in exchange for political favors and information. Many of the transcripts involved a suspect at the city’s Turkish Consulate, as well as several members of the American-Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, business entities that some FBI agents believed served as occasional covers for organized crime. Some calls appeared to be referring to drug shipments and other possible crimes.

One important contact was repeatedly referred to by Turkish callers under the nickname “Denny boy,” later identified as Hastert. The wiretaps revealed that tens of thousands of dollars were paid to Hastert’s campaign fund in small checks because donations of less than $200 need not be itemized in public filings.

Vanity Fair did its own due diligence in covering Edmonds’s claims, and the magazine’s David Rose wrote:

Hastert himself was never heard in the recordings, Edmonds told investigators, and it is possible that the claims of covert payments were hollow boasts. Nevertheless, an examination of Hastert’s federal filings shows that the level of un-itemized payments his campaigns received over many years was relatively high. Between April 1996 and December 2002, un-itemized personal donations to the Hastert for Congress Committee amounted to $483,000.

Edmonds noted that the phone taps contained repeated references to Hastert’s volte face in the fall of 2000 over the campaign to have Congress designate the killings of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 a genocide. In August 2000, Speaker Hastert declared that he would support the resolution and send it to the full House for a vote. The resolution, vehemently opposed by the Turks, did indeed pass in the International Relations Committee by a large majority. Then, on October 19, shortly before a full House vote, Hastert withdrew it.

Hastert explained his switch as being based on a letter he had supposedly received from President Clinton arguing that the resolution, if passed, would be damaging to U.S. interests. It is not known if a payoff ever occurred but, per Edmonds, a senior official at the Turkish Consulate indicated in one recorded conversation that the price for convincing Hastert to withdraw the genocide resolution would be at least $500,000.

Fast forward to the Dennis Hastert case making the rounds today, which focuses on relatively minor federal banking laws and ignores the other evidence that has been collected by the FBI on Hastert for the past 20 years. One has to ask, “Why Hastert and why now?”, but there does not seem to be a simple answer. It might be little more than the result of frustrated FBI investigators demanding that some action be taken.

Edmonds, for her part, has described how the Hastert case has been ignored by the media and has predicted that it would eventually be made to go away by the government. Indeed, legal action following up on the original indictment has been delayed through postponement after postponement and more recently sidetracked into a plea bargain that will allow the former congressman to plead guilty to reduced charges while at the same time sealing forever the unsavory details linked to his being blackmailed.

Hastert and his lawyers understand that they are well placed to effectively threaten the government prosecutors because Hastert knows where a lot of bodies are buried, metaphorically speaking. By demanding that the investigative files on him—which could include reports of illegal activity by a broad range of former officials—be released as part of his defense, he can force the government to drop or mitigate the charges against him. It is a ploy similar to that used by alleged AIPAC spies Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman in 2009, which led to the presiding judge’s dismissal of the case.

Glenn Greenwald writes that “Those with political and financial clout are routinely allowed to break the law with no legal repercussions whatsoever. Often they need not even exploit their access to superior lawyers because they don’t see the inside of a courtroom in the first place—not even when they get caught in the most egregious criminality.” There is a particular irony here: criminals in high office may avoid punishment through their willingness to implicate their peers who are engaged in much the same practices, in effect blackmailing the government to leave them alone or face the consequences. That is what the Dennis Hastert story appears to be all about.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com ... the-truth/

So:
Mark Foley (frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago & MOC 1995-2006)
Dennis Hastert (MOC 1986-2007, Speaker 1999-2007).

Funny how those dates map to when Epstein's hotshot Republican attorneys (+ Dershowitz) were able to get the GOP-controlled DOJ to give Epstein a sweetheart deal.
https://twitter.com/soychicka/status/11 ... 5678536704

[Wombaticus Rex]

It's crazy to say, but as I've stated I don't think anything in the history of deep real politik/"conspiracy" research has come close to this Epstein case. First started reading Jeff's RI blog in late 2004, started posting here on the RI forum in 2007; but there's nothing I can think of (save for 9/11) that ties everything together as Epstein. I don't believe in the conspiracy idea that we're all living in a simulated reality...but hot damn, does it feel like this Epstein spiderweb is almost engineered by elseworld AI gods to *feel* like a meta-parody of feverish conspiracy theories.

That's cause for concern, bud. You should be wary, not excited.

but if they ever had one theory thats right, its that the Clinton crime family is involved in a lot of really bad stuff.

No such thing, and you know that. You just like to talk about this stuff, it's a movie to you, it's entertainment. I've been giving you shit about that for so long now I don't even hold it against you anymore, to each their own.

But still: "The Clinton Crime Family" is a narrative that was cooked by operatives of The Bush Crime Family, of which the Clintons are a hayseed franchise. They have no plugs in the grid that they didn't inherit from the First Family of Skull & Bones.

I remember during the 9/11 Truth era of the 2000's, a lot of talk of Deutche Bank and the heads of Wall Street tied to 9/11 both profiting and foreknowledge, or even low budget conspiracy films like Who Killed John O'neil. And now we have every day articles talking about just how deep Epstein was with the most elite players in Wall Street.

Except, of course, he wasn't. Epstein, in point of fact, has a far narrower network than many of the other hyper-connected elites we've discussed here over the years. What you are perceiving here is the result of bad and sensational coverage, ie, JE had dies to Adnan Khashoggi -- so clearly Khashoggi's entire career was related to JE! Same with the Maxwells! And my god, is that STEPHEN HAWKING? ALL OF MODERN SCIENCE IS BUT A DINNER PARTY RANT BY THIS EPSTEIN UBERMENSCH!

I mean, come the fuck on. This is just treating data points like crack cocaine hits. In reality, Epstein was an operator for an Israeli espionage/blackmail outfit with a rigidly defined mission and a small cast of actual players. His fundamental MO is that of a crafty parasite, not some strategic mastermind.

This was a goals-driven cut-out cell of a much bigger system that Epstein coverage will never address. Everything that implicates the ongoing existence of the mind control, sexual torture, kidnapping and murder networks (and infrastructure) that services the ruling class will be wrapped up neatly as the anomalous perversions of a billionaire out of control. Epstein is not, ultimately, anywhere near the center of that spider web: there are thousands of him, operating with impunity, right now, today.

Finally, the simple fact the man is finally in prison should tell you a great deal about how disposable he ultimately was.

And I cannot help but add: 9/11 is full of players with much more power, and much bigger networks, than this latest circus sideshow will ever provide you.

Hell at this point I won't be shocked if Epstein ends up directly linked to 9/11. This is some serious black lodge shit going on

He is directly linked to 9/11. Mega group is absolutely key to the victory of the neocons. And again, it's just like a TV show! to you. It's not some serious black lodge shit. You're looking at Mossad. Turn off the TV and read some fucking books.

[liminalOyster]

Everything that implicates the ongoing existence of the mind control, sexual torture, kidnapping and murder networks (and infrastructure) that services the ruling class will be wrapped up neatly as the anomalous perversions of a billionaire out of control.

Speaking of

Jeffrey Epstein's bizarre blue-striped building on private island raised alarm
The building was supposed to be a music pavilion. But the actual structure bears little resemblance to the plans that were submitted to agency officials.


Aug. 1, 2019, 4:43 AM EDT

By Rich Schapiro

The bizarre blue-striped building on Jeffrey Epstein's private Caribbean island was supposed to be a music pavilion with a strikingly different design, according to permit records viewed by NBC News.

The building, shaped like a giant box and initially topped with a gold dome, has fueled rampant speculation and online conspiracy theories.

Drawings supplied by Epstein's architects to the U.S. Virgin Islands agency that oversees coastal development show that it was designed to be a haven for music: an octagonal 3,500-square-foot pavilion housing a grand piano.

But questions remain over whether it was built according to the plans that were submitted to the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Those 2010 plans, which were part of a permit application that raised concerns inside the agency, included drawings of a building that looks almost nothing like the structure that was built.

The plans for the pavilion, top, called for a different design than what was completed, bottom.The plans for the pavilion, top, called for a different design than what was completed, bottom.Obtained by NBC News

The drawings show a building with a 10-foot facade, stone exterior and multiple windows on the front. The structure that was erected has no windows or stone exterior on its front and appears to rise at least 30 feet.

One Department of Planning and Natural Resources official acknowledged that there were differences.

"The major difference seems to be in the shape of the building itself," Marlon Hibbert said in response to an email request for comment, in which NBC News had provided a link to a photo of the odd-looking structure.

"In the link you provided the building looks rectangular and in the drawings it looked octagonal," he wrote.

But neither Hibbert nor his fellow top officials responded to subsequent requests asking if the agency approved the building as it now appears.

Plans for Jeffrey Epstein's music pavilion on Little St. James island.Plans for Jeffrey Epstein's music pavilion on Little St. James island.Obtained by NBC News
It's no surprise that Epstein would have wanted a grand music room on his private island. Friends and former co-workers have described Epstein, a wealthy financier now accused of trafficking and sexually abusing young girls, as a talented pianist.

The permit issued to Epstein's company allowed for the building of an 1,800-square-foot music room, according to records viewed by NBC News.

The blue-striped structure sits on a lookout point on the southeastern edge of Little St. James island, which Epstein purchased in 1998 for $7.95 million. The building is surrounded by an expansive terrace painted bright white with red shapes. Locals say the structure's gold dome was blown away during Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Records viewed by NBC News show that the building was among proposed new construction that raised alarm inside the Department of Planning and Natural Resources. In March 2011, a top official sent a letter to Epstein's attorney expressing concern over development on the island.

A few months earlier, Epstein's lawyer, Maria Tankenson Hodge, had submitted a request to add a 3,000-square-foot spa to a permit application that included the music pavilion, a pool and a 2,000-square-foot cabana with a coral stone deck, living space and rest room. That portion of the island already housed a gym, tiki hut, nature observation cabana and dive pavilion, according to the documents.

"I am very concerned that major development is occurring on Little St. James Island through the processing of a series of minor" permit applications," Jean-Pierre Oriol, the then-director of the Coastal Zone Management program, wrote in a March 2011 letter to Epstein's attorney.

Oriol called on Hodge to provide a detailed inventory on "all existing structures on Little St. James" and a status report of all permits issued to Epstein's company "for which the scope of work is not completed."

Oriol also requested a meeting to discuss development on Little St. James.

The two sides did get together after the letter was sent, according to an agency official.

"They presented a survey of the existing site at the meeting and expressed no new buildings would be requested across the island," Hibbert said in a statement. "Our files do not reflect any other permit request since that 2011 time frame."

Hodge, Epstein's lawyer, did not return a request for comment.

Epstein, 66, is now facing up to 45 years in prison on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy. Prosecutors say he preyed on girls as young as 14 and paid some of them to become recruiters who provided him with a steady supply of victims in the early 2000s.

NBC News reported Tuesday that Epstein was seeking to expand his island estate during the same period that his lawyers were secretly negotiating a lenient deal with federal prosecutors in Miami investigating similar allegations against him.

Epstein ultimately struck a 2008 deal that spared him the prospect of a long federal prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to two state prostitution counts and served 13 months in jail in an arrangement that allowed him to leave for 12 hours a day, six days a week, on work release.

While the two sides were still hashing out the agreement, Epstein was moving forward with plans to triple the size of his 8,124-square-foot island residence and add a new pool, spa and underground theater, according to permit records viewed by NBC News.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/je ... d-n1037511

tl;dr: this guy's so bizarre he even violates zoning ordinances.

[seemslikeadream]

Vicky Ward
‏

This is quite a defense from Epstein’s former neighbor, the psychologist and computer scientist Roger Schank.



https://twitter.com/VickyPJWard/status/ ... 1436852225

Gloria Allred Representing Unknown Number of Alleged Epstein Victims
Published 07.31.19 12:42PM ET
Gloria Allred Representing Unknown Number of Alleged Epstein Victims
Marianne Dodson
Published 07.31.19 12:42PM ET

Mike Segar/Reuters
Gloria Allred is representing an unknown number of alleged victims in the case against accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The high-profile attorney sat in Manhattan federal court Wednesday morning, telling reporters she came to “better inform” the accusers she’s taken on as clients.

Allred would not say how many people she represents, but she did confirm she is working with a “number of accusers,” some of whom came forward before Epstein’s arrest and others who have come forward since then. Speaking to reporters, Allred urged any other victims to come forward before it became too late. “There’s still time for any accusers to come forward... It is not too late to help in the process of seeking justice,” she said.

The famed attorney said none of the accusers were involved in the previous Florida case and that none of them have filed a civil suit as of yet. Allred would not confirm if any of her clients had been threatened by anyone from Epstein’s camp, but she did note: “In general... many persons who accuse rich, powerful men are in fear that they will be harmed in some kind of way.”.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gloria-al ... tein-trial

[seemslikeadream]

Florida governor orders state criminal probe into Jeffrey Epstein case
August 06, 2019 02:51 PM, Updated 1 hour 25 minutes ago

Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been a free man, despite sexually abusing dozens of underage girls according to police and prosecutors. His victims have never had a voice, until now. By Emily Michot | Julie K. Brown
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered a state criminal probe into the actions of the Palm Beach sheriff and the former Palm Beach state attorney for their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex trafficking case.

DeSantis’ move comes as Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has come under increasing scrutiny for his decision in 2008 to give Epstein, a politically connected multimillionaire, unusually lenient work release privileges even though Epstein was a convicted sex offender who had been accused of molesting dozens of underage girls.

State Sen. Lauren Book, a Democrat from Plantation, collected more than 4,000 signatures on a petition demanding that the Republican governor ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to undertake the investigation. Ultimately it was Bradshaw who requested the inquiry, although only after several days of mounting pressure.


“We got support for this from all over the country,’’ Book said Tuesday. “Many of them are sexual assault survivors who have lived in the shadows for so long and who wanted to let Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors know that they are not alone.’’

Epstein, 66, is now under indictment in New York, charged with sex trafficking minors — both in Palm Beach and in Manhattan, where Epstein owns sprawling homes. Epstein was investigated in Palm Beach, starting in 2006, but then-State Attorney Barry Krischer wanted to charge him with a misdemeanor.


Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has tried to quell criticism of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter by ordering an internal investigation of his subordinates. Taylor Jones Palm Beach Post
The case was transferred to the FBI, which discovered even more victims, and federal investigators gathered enough corroborating evidence to fill a 53-page federal indictment. The indictment, however, was inexplicably shelved under then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who signed off on an agreement that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to lesser charges in state court.

As part of the deal, Epstein was jailed in a private wing of the Palm Beach County stockade. But within a few months, he was allowed to have his own driver pick him up and take him to an office he had set up in West Palm Beach, where he spent up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

In November, the Miami Herald published a multipart series of articles, Perversion of Justice, that raised new questions about the case. Federal prosecutors credited the investigation when they announced Epstein’s arrest early last month. Days later, Acosta, who had become President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor, resigned his post amid a rising chorus of criticism.

Bradshaw has been under fire for his approval of the work release program over objections from the lead federal prosecutor who handled the case, Maria Villafaña, who worked on Acosta’s staff. Bradshaw ordered an internal affairs investigation into the work release last month, then announced he would conduct his own criminal probe.

Book, however, pointed out that Bradshaw — as head of the agency — had an inherent conflict of interest. Book is herself a sexual assault survivor and an advocate for child abuse victims.

Two weeks ago, Book reached out to Capitol police after receiving an anonymous warning connected to a letter she wrote to DeSantis asking for a state inquiry.

Book said she also received more than a dozen calls from Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off on her quest, warning her that it could be politically perilous to go up against Bradshaw, who is close to John Kazanjian, the president of the powerful Florida Police Benevolent Association. Kazanjian, who is also president of the Palm Beach PBA, endorsed DeSantis for governor and served on DeSantis’ public safety transition team. The PBA contributed $25,000 to DeSantis’ political action committee.

Lawmaker says she was told to back off probe of Jeffrey Epstein work release

DeSantis, in announcing the investigation Tuesday, said he was doing so at the behest of Bradshaw, who in a letter to the governor Tuesday said he would cooperate with the state probe.

“I believe the public interest would be best served by an FDLE-led investigation examining every aspect of the Epstein case, from court sentencing to incarceration,’’ Bradshaw wrote.

DeSantis assigned the 19th Judicial Circuit, in neighboring Martin County, to oversee the criminal investigation.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/ ... 82872.html

Vicky Ward
‏
Key players in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking circle all live in an apartment building on East 66th Street.

Inside the mysterious Manhattan apartment building on East 66th Street, where underage models, lawyers, and key players in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking circle all live. Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is a frequent visitor.
Gabrielle Bluestone
Before his extended stay in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center began in July, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dwelled in some of the city's most exclusive real estate, laying his head in a palatial Upper East Side townhouse and conducting his mysterious business out of a landmarked mansion on Madison Avenue.

But it hasn't been all private islands and 7,000-acre ranches for the half-billionaire. For decades Epstein has run some of his operations quietly out of a squat Second Avenue residential building owned by his brother, Mark Epstein, and frequently visited by the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

According to property records and court filings, Jeffrey Epstein has long housed girlfriends, associates, employees, and businesses in a handful of units at 301 East 66th St. There are 200 units at the address, and the majority of them are owned on paper by his brother's development firm, Ossa Properties. While Ossa nominally owns the units connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the aforementioned records and filings show that Epstein effectively controls them.

A light-filled lobby on a less upscale block

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
The postwar white-brick high-rise sits atop a nail salon, a coffee shop, and an Italian restaurant along a traffic-choked stretch of Second Avenue. Topped by a green canopy, the front door opens to a doorman guarding a hallway that leads to a light-filled lobby decorated with two couches and an armchair. Though the building shares a ZIP code with Epstein's townhouse, its share of the neighborhood east of Park Avenue is less upscale, catering more to families and young professionals than foreign heads of state.

Some of Epstein's activity at the apartment building appears to be business-related: New York state corporate registrations tie 9 East 71, an LLC named after his townhouse, and NES LLC, which owns the townhouse and pays his pilots' paychecks, to the building.

Over the years, he's assigned units in the building to his house managers, and used two one-bedrooms to house his pilots during New York layovers. In the next-door garage, attached to 301 East 66th St. by a private entrance, he stored a Chevrolet Tahoe.

The agency that Epstein invested in housed underage models '4 girls to an apartment'

Over the years, a number of Epstein's friends have also called 301 East 66th St. home, including his ex-girlfriend, the socialite Eva Andersson (who is now married to hedge-fund star and Epstein confidant Glenn Dubin), and his former business partner, MC2 Models founder Jean-Luc Brunel. (According to a Page Six report, the modeling agency was named after Einstein's famous equation, with the missing "E" standing for Epstein. "He thinks everyone is too dumb to figure it out," the paper said.)

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Then there were the underage models. Many of them were foreign and scouted by Brunel, according to a 2010 deposition given by a former MC2 bookkeeper named Maritza Vasquez. (Vasquez could not be reached for comment but her sworn statement was supported by Epstein's former house manager, Alfredo Rodriguez, whose annotations of Epstein's address book include "Apt. for models" next to the 66th Street entry.)

"I know that the models were staying in different apartments belonging to Jeffrey Epstein," Vasquez said in her deposition. "There is not only one girl. There is not only one apartment. I believe there were like, two or three apartments. And they were put in between four girls per apartment."

All 4 of the named 'coconspirators' in Epstein's plea deal have been associated with the building

Vasquez said part of her job was helping to obtain visas for the girls, and she recalled fielding an angry call from Epstein after a model visa application for a 14-year-old, Nadia Marcinkova, fell through. Part of the problem, Vasquez said, was she wasn't really a model.

"That girl never work, she was never a model. She was living in his place but she disappear," Vasquez said she was told by a coworker who worked directly on the application. "She never actually even worked as a model."

Indeed, according to a Palm Beach Police Department report from 2006, Epstein told one of his victims that Marcinkova was a "sex slave" he had purchased from her parents in Yugoslavia when she was a teen. According to the report, Marcinkova frequently participated in sexual acts with Epstein and his underage victims.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
By 2007, she was 22 and working as an assistant for Epstein when she and three other women were granted immunity as possible coconspirators in his controversial plea deal with federal prosecutors. Records show that all the women named in that agreement, who were accused of helping to coordinate or physically participating in Epstein's sex trafficking operation — Marcinkova, Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff — shared something else in common: the 66th St. address.

It's not clear when Ross left the building, but Groff was still operating out of a 10th-floor unit as Epstein's assistant and an employee of NES LLC, in 2009, according to a deposition given that year by Epstein's pilot, Larry Visoski. (The company, now registered in the Virgin Islands, is still active. In March, after a judge invalidated Epstein's plea deal, someone operating as NES LLC shipped a 193-pound tile and carpet extractor from Epstein's private island to his Manhattan townhouse.)

Epstein's longtime lawyer has a corporate address there too

Both Kellen and Marcinkova (who later shortened her name to Marcinko) continued to live or work at 301 East 66th St. for the next decade, records show. The building is the active registration address for Marcinko's company, Aviloop, and was listed as the delivery address for Kellen's company, SLK Designs, up until this month. A group of young model types photographed with Epstein in 2016 have also been linked to the building, according to public records databases.

According to court documents and his attorney-registration files, Epstein's lawyer, Darren Indyke, used a 10th-floor unit as his primary office address for nearly a decade; he also used the address to receive mail for his corporation, DKI PLLC. It was later listed as the point of contact for Epstein's private foundation in 2008, the same year Epstein began serving out his sentence in Palm Beach.

An entry for 301 East 66th Street in Epstein's "little black book."
Jeffrey Epstein's Little Black Book
One of Epstein's units, previously linked to Marcinko and listed as a mailing address for a number of Epstein ventures, is now home to the studio of Joyce Anderson, a fashion photographer who specializes in headshots and "children/pre-teen sessions," according to her website.

She's been there since 2007, when she moved her studio from 30 Vandam Street — another building owned by Mark Epstein. (The Vandam Street building, a mixed-use six-story structure in Manhattan's Hudson Square, is also where a company called "Saint Model and Talent" was registered to Mark Epstein in 2005, business records show. According to the New York Department of State's Division of Corporations, it is still active, although there's no public trace that it operates.)

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Anderson and Mark Epstein made a joint donation to the New School scholarship fund in 2007, and appear to have a longstanding relationship, which is documented in Anderson's social-media posts. One photograph posted to her Facebook account in 2016 shows Anderson's luggage from a road trip, including an athletic bag embroidered with "J. Epstein."

Reached by phone, Anderson declined to comment on her work as a photographer or her connection to the Epstein brothers, saying: "I have no information to offer you. Have yourself a wonderful day, thank you."

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited 'often'

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak hasn't been photographed entering or leaving 301 East 66th St., like he was outside Epstein's infamous townhouse in 2016, but he made an impression nonetheless. Residents say he has been periodically visiting the building for years.

One former resident says she "often" saw Barak and his security detail in the building, with a sighting as recent as this calendar year. Another former resident, who confirmed Barak was a frequent visitor, said he once accidentally rode the elevator with Barak and two unfriendly security guards after sliding in through the doors at the last second.

Barak's presence in the building was often announced to residents by way of a visible security detail with Suburbans idling on the street outside, witnesses say. One source who visited the building in 2017 recalls seeing what the source described as "Mossad agents" — meaning Israeli security guards — waiting downstairs, and former residents said at least one member of the security team would typically be posted in the lobby with an earpiece when Barak was upstairs. On at least one occasion, the former resident said, NYPD officers were also stationed outside.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Barak's name and contact information appeared in Epstein's "little black book," which Gawker published in 2015. His name had been circled by Rodriguez, the house manager who had stolen it and tried to sell it to lawyers representing Epstein's victims. According to The Washington Post, Rodriguez told FBI agents that he had circled the names of "witnesses" to Epstein's activities.

Barak admitted to the Daily Beast last month that he had visited two of Epstein's Manhattan residences and his private island but denied meeting any girls there. He kept the details otherwise vague, telling the outlet that he and Epstein ultimately met "more than 10 times and much less than a hundred times, but I can't tell you exactly how many. I don't keep count."

Barak didn't mention the state of Florida in his statement, but Alan Dershowitz testified in a 2015 deposition that Epstein maintained a suite of guest bedrooms in his Palm Beach home, which were "assigned to people like Senator George Mitchell, Ehud Barak, prominent guests who would stay in his house."

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Barak is now reportedly working to dissolve a limited partnership he formed with Epstein in 2015, saying he didn't realize at the time of their agreement that Epstein's crimes involved minors. A spokesperson for Barak did not respond to a request for comment.

A doorman on duty at the building last week confirmed seeing security details outside, but said he wouldn't be able to determine if any visitors to the building were underage, suggesting at one point that a 30-year-old reporter standing in the lobby could be a teenager for all he knew.

Mark Epstein says he has nothing to do with his brother's businesses or alleged sex trafficking

Epstein's brother, Mark, has also long denied any knowledge of his brother's activities in the building.

"I don't live in that building, I don't monitor who uses those apartments," he told Crains New York last month. "I'm not sure who pays it, but Jeff's been renting there for years."

Reached by phone, Mark declined to answer any questions, referring a reporter to previous statements before abruptly hanging up. In response to an emailed list of questions, he wrote, "We didn't get disconnected, I hung up on you. Be clear about that."

But in the interview with Crains New York, Mark denied any business crossover between his company, Ossa Properties, and his brother. When a 2004 Harlem charter school filing characterized Ossa as "an affiliated NYC real estate investment company" of his brother's investment firm, J. Epstein & Co., he characterized it as a "mistake."

"There's no business relationship between those entities," he told the newspaper. But records show at least two 1991 filings where Ossa's address is listed as "475 Madison Avenue" — the home of J. Epstein & Co. and a charitable foundation named "Epstein Interests." It's also the same office where Jeffrey Epstein's attorney, Darren Indyke, first registered a company called E Management. According to court documents, E Management was operated by Brunel, the owner of MC2.

Mark Epstein purchased his units from Leslie Wexner, his brother's only known client

The $70 million townhouse on 71st Street was apparently given to Epstein by billionaire Les Wexler.
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Since its inception in the early 1980s, J. Epstein & Co. has had only one public client — the billionaire Les Wexner, who apparently gave Epstein the $70 million townhouse he now calls home before their personal and professional affiliation ended in 2007.

It turns out that the mansion isn't the only patch of New York real estate that Wexner transferred to an Epstein: Mark told Crains New York that he bought the units at 301 East 66th St. in the early 1990s from Wexner. His brother tipped him to the opportunity.

But a former classmate of Epstein's interviewed in James Patterson's book "Filthy Rich" made it sound like more of a partnership.

"He was a diamond in the rough, you see," Gary Grossberg told Patterson. "People recognized Jeffrey's brilliance very early on. But he had a gift for recognizing opportunities very quickly. He started buying properties in Manhattan, including 301 East 66th St. He asked his brother — did Mark want to join him? He did."

With additional reporting by John Cook and J.K. Trotter.
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-nyc ... web-2019-8
Almost all the apartments in the building are owned by Epstein's brother, who purchased them from Leslie Wexner, Epstein's only known client.
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-nyc ... web-2019-8

Former Israeli prime minster Ehud Barak is among those who stayed in the building owned by Epstein’s brother.
@eshugerman reports that several residents say they saw Barak in the building “multiple times over the last few years.”

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Israeli Politician Ehud Barak Often Crashed at Epstein Apartment Building, Neighbors Say
Residents of a building owned by Jeffrey Epstein’s brother say the former Israeli prime minister was a frequent guest when he was in New York.

Emily Shugerman
Gender Reporter
Updated 08.06.19 10:48AM ET
Published 08.05.19 4:08PM ET

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty
The residents of 301 East 66th St. always knew Ehud Barak was there by the flashy cars parked outside and burly security guards in the lobby. The former Israeli prime minster’s visits were an open secret among the tenants of the Upper East Side building, which is owned by Jeffrey Epstein’s younger brother.

Several residents of 301 East 66th St. told The Daily Beast they had seen Barak in the building multiple times over the last few years, and nearly half a dozen more described running into his security detail. The building is majority-owned by Epstein’s younger brother, Mark, and has been tied to the financier’s alleged New York trafficking ring.

When asked about his stays at 301 E. 66th Street, Barak told The Daily Beast, “Despite the fact that there was no wrongdoing on my part, and that there is not even the faintest suspicion of wrongdoing on my part, I’m not going to address these questions because in the current political environment in Israel, the mere fact of my response to such a question is churned up as spin in the political game.”

“As a former prime minister I’m accompanied by bodyguards everywhere I go,” he added.

While the Israeli politician has tried to play down his ties to Jeffrey Epstein since the billionaire’s indictment on charges of child sex trafficking, Barak became a fixture of the Epstein story after Israeli outlets reported he had received more than $3 million in payments from Epstein-connected institutions since 2004.

The former prime minister was also photographed leaving Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion in 2016 and has acknowledged visiting the billionaire’s private Caribbean island, where Epstein is accused of hosting orgies with underage girls.

Barak has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s alleged crimes and maintains he never so much as talked to the financier in the presence of underage women. In a previous interview with The Daily Beast, Barak said he was first introduced to the financier by Israeli leader Shimon Peres in 2002, and saw Epstein only “on occasion” after that.

“I've never been there at a party,” he said. “To the contrary, at his home, I met many very respected people, scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and I met him also in Boston, at MIT or the Harvard labs he supports.”

As Business Insider reported earlier this week, residents of 301 East 66th St. described Barak as a frequent presence at their 16-story building. One resident told The Daily Beast that she saw and recognized the statesman in the lobby, while another said he was identified to her by a doorman or fellow resident.

Five other current and former residents said they had not seen Barak in person, but saw his security detail around the building on multiple occasions. One recalled riding in the elevator with bodyguards speaking Hebrew, while another said she regularly saw someone posted outside an 11th-floor apartment. Another woman recalled seeing the security detail in the lobby at least a dozen times.

PROBLEM PALS
Ehud Barak: I Visited Epstein’s Island But Never Saw Girls

Noga Tarnopolsky

“When he wasn’t in his apartment, [the security guards] would hang out in the lobby as if it was their own living room,” one disgruntled resident recalled. “They would sprawl out, they’d put all their shit on the couches, and sometimes they ate on the table there.”

The majority of the units in the building are owned by Ossa Properties, a real estate company started by Mark Epstein. The younger Epstein has admitted to renting out apartments to Jeffrey for personal use, but maintains that his brother has no ownership stake in the building. When a Daily Beast reporter called for further comment, Mark Epstein hung up.

In 2010, a former bookkeeper for Mc2—the modeling agency owned by Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel—told the FBI that the 66th St. apartments were being used to house underage girls from South America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. In a sworn statement obtained by the Miami Herald, the bookkeeper claimed Brunel was sending the girls to Epstein’s parties or loaning them out to wealthy clients to be molested.

Brad Edwards, an attorney for several of Epstein’s victims, raised many of the same allegations in a deposition later that year.

“Those females get work visas to say that they’re models, but actually they are prostituted out by Jeffrey Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel, correct?” Edwards asked Adriana Ross, one of Epstein’s former assistants. “And various businessmen and politicians around New York and Washington D.C. go to these apartments frequently and have sex with underage minors, is that true?”

Ross, who has been accused of helping orchestrate Epstein’s “massages,” invoked her right against self-incrimination and declined to reply.

Epstein’s pilot, Larry Visoski, said in a 2009 deposition that he was paid via a company located at 301 East 66th St., from Epstein's longtime accountant Darren Indyke. (Property records show Indyke lived in the building until at least 2000.) Visoski claimed Lesley Groff—an assistant of Epstein’s who is accused of helping him procure underage girls—also worked out of the building.

Sarah Kellen, another assistant who was accused of helping schedule Epstein’s “massages,” ran an interior design firm out of the building as recently as 2015. Nadia Marcinkova, who was accused of participating in sexual encounters with Epstein’s underage girls, registered an aviation business to the 66th St. building in 2011. Property records show Marcinkova’s apartment was also located on the 11th floor.

Last year, an Israeli investigative journalist revealed that Barak received about $2.4 million in 2004 from the Wexner Foundation, where Epstein was both a trustee and major donor. Epstein also reportedly invested $1 million in Barak’s technology start-up, Carbyne, in 2015—almost a decade after the billionaire pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute.

Barak has said he is looking into how to disentangle Epstein from Carbyne’s finances. He has refused to expand on the work he did for the Wexner Foundation, other than to say that he “did what I committed to do.”

“I perform research and geopolitical consulting for a lot of interested parties,” he previously told The Daily Beast. “It is up to them if they want to discuss it.”

Still, the controversy has followed the statesman throughout Israel’s elections, where Barak is running to replace current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier this month, Netanyahu—who is facing indictment in several corruption cases himself—called for an investigation into Barak’s relationship with Epstein. In a complaint to the Israeli attorney general, a lawyer for Netanyahu’s party suggested the Wexner Foundation could constitute illegal foreign donations.

Barak responded with a joking tweet.

“It pains me to hear that people I know are in trouble with the law,” he wrote. “First Netanyahu, now Epstein. My wish for them both is that the truth will out. Period.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-e ... ref=scroll

It had earlier been reported that, in 2015, Jeffrey Epstein financed a "considerable part" of Barak's personal investment of "millions of dollars" in a startup:

Revealed: Jeffrey Epstein Entered Partnership Worth Millions With Ehud Barak in 2015
Epstein bankrolled a considerable part of Barak's investment in a startup called Reporty Homeland Security Barak: These are private investments, it wouldn't be proper to expose details
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.pr ... -1.7493648

https://twitter.com/VickyPJWard/status/ ... 5259952131

[Cordelia]

Epstein's entered his second month of living a more austere, less pretentious lifestyle. Cheers to his new accommodations in permanent incarceration.

[seemslikeadream]

Leslie Wexner Says Jeffrey Epstein ‘Misappropriated Vast Sums of Money From Me' - WSJ
Aug. 7, 2019 7:08 pm ET
L Brands founder Les Wexner said he discovered funds had been misappropriated after he decided...
L Brands founder Les Wexner said he discovered funds had been misappropriated after he decided in late 2007 to sever ties with his longtime money manager Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: James D. DeCamp/Zuma Press
Leslie Wexner, the billionaire behind Victoria’s Secret, said in a letter that his former money manager Jeffrey Epstein misappropriated more than $46 million of his fortune, revealing for the first time the financial fallout from his relationship with the disgraced financier.

The founder and chief executive of L Brands Inc. LB -0.46%▲ told members of his Wexner Foundation that the missing funds were uncovered after Mr. Wexner decided in 2007 to sever ties with Mr. Epstein. Mr. Wexner began the separation process after allegations against Mr. Epstein surfaced involving sexual abuse of underage girls.
“We discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family,” Mr. Wexner wrote in a letter Wednesday to the foundation. “This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now.”

In January 2008, Mr. Epstein transferred $46 million worth of investments to a Wexner charitable fund, tax records show. Mr. Wexner said the transfer was only a portion of the funds that his money manager had allegedly misappropriated. “All of that money—every dollar of it—was originally Wexner family money,” he wrote.

A lawyer for Mr. Epstein couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Last month, Mr. Epstein pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking counts stemming from what federal prosecutors alleged was a yearslong scheme to procure and sexually abuse dozens of girls. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted. Mr. Epstein has been denied bail and is in federal custody.
http://archive.is/rHI5r#selection-1745.1-1778.0

[seemslikeadream]

random facts girl.
‏

Les Wexner claims to have first met Epstein in the mid-1980s...

Interesting that Patterson's "Filthy Rich" places Epstein meeting Robert Meister of Aon* in the mid-1980s, not meeting Wexner until 1989.




*AON is another another Epstein-linked company in the WTC with links to Epstein where hundreds of employees perished, yet had magically taken its data backup tapes taken offsite the day before 9/11.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/it-and-lif ... uth-tower/




Of course, Epstein also sold a home next door to his own to Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which had the largest number of employees perish in the 2001 attacks of any tenant.

And of course, this happened this past May.


So. Trump is at a fundraiser at Howard Lutnick’s house tonight, at 11 E 71st street, on the UES.

9 E 71st Street: that's Jeffrey Epstein's house.

…
Show this thread
5:24 PM - 7 Aug 2019


twitter crashed in the middle of typing this up the first time; here's the quote from Filthy Rich.


https://twitter.com/soychicka/status/11 ... 4737342465

[Marionumber1]

A good overview on the links between Jeffrey Epstein and Les Wexner. Bob Fitrakis is mainly known for his work on the 2004 Ohio election fraud and other similar stolen elections, but he also covered Epstein and Wexner long before they were prominent names. One very interesting detail here is that, according to Ohio inspector general David Sturtz, Epstein was a person of interest in the mysterious death of Mossad/KGB/MI6? agent Robert Maxwell.

Bob Bites Back: Epstein’s Columbus Connection

by Bob Fitrakis
August 5, 2019

Not many people know that the infamous Jeffrey Epstein spent a lot of time in Columbus in the 1990s and owned the second most valuable house in Franklin County, in the plush Stepford suburb known as New Albany. Epstein came to my attention when I was an investigative journalist for Columbus Alive. The State of Ohio Inspector General David Sturtz, one of my sources, was gathering evidence against Les Wexner and Jeff Epstein regarding public corruption, bribery and information related to the murder of Columbus attorney Arthur Shapiro.

Sturtz referred to Epstein as Wexner’s “boyfriend,” but Epstein was more than that. He was an “international man of mystery” with ties to the CIA, the royal family, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and others. But, at the heart of it, he is perhaps our nation’s most well-known pedophile.

Echoing Greek tragedies, the local billionaire with his name on more central Ohio buildings than anyone and known for his generous philanthropy, is now caught up in Epstein’s human trafficking scandal.

The most disturbing allegation in this Epstein saga involving Les Wexner was made by Maria Farmer. Her sworn affidavit alleges that Epstein sexually assaulted her at Wexner’s New Albany mansion in 1996. Wexner denies that he knew anything about the assault.

With Epstein’s proclivities for underage girls, this seems a bit implausible.

Epstein was recently indicted for human trafficking and having sex with underage girls. Many say he promised to help them with their modeling careers. Wexner is the owner of Victoria’s Secret and many of Epstein’s assaults occurred at their New York City residence.

Epstein and Wexner reportedly met when they were introduced by Bob Meister, an insurance mogul. Wexner and Epstein’s real estate dealings go back to at least 1989 when they jointly purchased a mansion in Manhattan described as the second largest residence in New York City.

In 1998, business documents identified Epstein as president, along with Wexner, of the New Albany Company. Epstein owned the house on King George Drive in New Albany from 1994 until December 2007 when he gave it to Wexner with no money exchanged. Also in 1998, Wexner transferred his interest in their Manhattan property for $20 million to Epstein.

Recently, the founder of L Brands issued a statement claiming he “was never aware of the illegal activity” that Epstein is charged with. Wexner said that “I would never have guessed that a person I employed more than a decade ago could have caused so much pain to so many people. My heart goes out to each and every person who has been hurt.”

Wexner also stressed that “I severed all ties with Jeffrey Epstein nearly twelve years ago.” This corresponds to the period of time around 2008 Epstein was first convicted of soliciting an underage prostitute. The new charges against Epstein sexually exploiting and abusing underage girls are from the 2003-2005 period.

Wexner claimed to be a victim of Epstein himself. The Free Press talked to an attorney for one of Epstein’s “Jane Doe” victims in Florida. The attorney said that Wexner had sent his lawyers and financial people down to Florida in 2008. They provided documents proving that Epstein stole large amounts of money from Wexner.

Epstein’s “best friend,” accomplice, and procurer of young women, Ghislaine Maxwell, is the daughter of Robert Maxwell. Maxwell was an Israeli super spy who bought up British tabloids and the American publishing behemoth MacMillan, subsequently moving the editorial content in a right-wing direction. Robert Maxwell died under suspicious circumstances in 1991 when he fell or was pushed overboard off his yacht, The Ghislaine. According to Sturtz, Epstein was a “person of interest” in what some suspected was his homicide.

Epstein and Ghislaine’s relationship gave Epstein access to the elite in London and New York City. Epstein even attended one of the Queen’s birthday parties. In my article “Wexner’s Royal Connection” I covered Epstein’s heavy partying with Prince Andrew.

As has been widely reported, Epstein flew “The Lolita Express,” his personal 727 jet purchased from The Limited, to his own private “Lolita Island” in the Virgin Islands. Clinton was a frequent passenger. Law enforcement officials in Ohio including Sturtz felt that Epstein was running a “honey trap” -- a sexual blackmail scheme -- against wealthy and powerful people. Others joining Epstein on the island included Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, Alan Dershowitz and Donald Trump.

The New York Times unearthed a video showing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partying together in 1992 at a Mar-a-Lago event, Trump’s Palm Beach property. Trump and Epstein were enjoying the company of Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins cheerleaders. That same year Trump and Epstein were the only two male guests at the same Trump resort when more than two dozen “calendar girls” were brought in to entertain them. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine that “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

One of the most potentially explosive allegations to re-emerge during this recent Epstein scandal is that Donald Trump is accused of raping a thirteen-year-old girl in Epstein’s New York mansion in 1994.

Read more of my past articles about Wexner and Epstein at freepress.org: “The Shapiro Murder File,” “Wexner’s War,” and “Spook Air.” These pieces also appear in my books available at the online store on freepress.org: The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes and Nazis and The Fitrakis Files: Cops, Coverups and Corruption.

[seemslikeadream]

Lead U.S. prosecutor in ’08 Epstein case — who sources say wanted to charge him — resigns
BY JULIE K. BROWN AND JAY WEAVER
AUGUST 08, 2019 07:38 PM, UPDATED 10 MINUTES AGO
Years later, Epstein’s victims discuss the lasting impact of sexual abuse

Victims of Jeffrey Epstein share the emotional toll that sexual abuse has taken on them — even years after the abuse occurred. Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown interviewed the young women, most speaking for the first time about Epstein. BY EMILY MICHOT | JULIE K. BROWN


Victims of Jeffrey Epstein share the emotional toll that sexual abuse has taken on them — even years after the abuse occurred. Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown interviewed the young women, most speaking for the first time about Epstein. BY EMILY MICHOT | JULIE K. BROWN
A. Marie Villafaña, the lead federal prosecutor who helped negotiate a controversial plea deal for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has submitted her resignation to the Justice Department, the Miami Herald has learned.

Her departure comes amid a federal probe into the role she and other federal prosecutors, including her former boss, Alexander Acosta, had in sidelining a 53-page indictment against the wealthy New York investor in favor of a state plea to minor prostitution charges in 2008. Epstein, 66, was accused of molesting dozens of underage girls, most of them 14 to 16 years old, at his Palm Beach mansion more than a decade ago. He is now facing federal sex trafficking charges involving minors brought against him last month by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is examining whether Acosta, who resigned his cabinet post as secretary of labor last month — and other U.S. prosecutors involved in the 2007-2008 case — committed misconduct in negotiating the secret pact with Epstein. A federal judge in February ruled that the prior deal was illegally negotiated because Epstein and federal prosecutors concealed it from his victims in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

The Herald has learned that several people involved in the Epstein case have been questioned by the Justice Department in recent weeks as part of its ongoing OPR investigation.

Jonathan Biran, Villafaña’s lawyer, confirmed her resignation Thursday, noting that she has long planned to transition to a legal career in healthcare, and now plans to join the federal Department of Health and Human Services. In recent years, she has handled a number of healthcare fraud cases in South Florida.

Villafaña, 51, has worked in the Southern District of Florida, mostly based in West Palm Beach, for the past 18 years. She is the last member of the federal prosecution team that handled Epstein’s case in 2008 still employed by the Department of Justice. The other members of the team, including Acosta, left in the years after Epstein’s case was closed.

Acosta, appointed labor secretary by President Trump in 2017, stepped down July 12, six days after Epstein was arrested on new sex trafficking charges in New York. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, in announcing the indictment last month, dealt a rebuke to Florida-based prosecutors who dropped the federal case against Epstein.

“While the charged conduct is from a number of years ago, it is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims, now young women. They deserve their day in court and we are proud to be standing up for them by bringing this indictment,’’ Berman said at a July 8 news conference.

Play Video
Duration 1:14Labor Secretary Acosta resigns amid Epstein plea deal controversy

U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta has resigned, effective on July 19, 2019. His resignation follows controversy over his involvement in a plea deal for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2008. By Meta Viers
Epstein was denied bail and remains jailed in Manhattan pending his trial, tentatively set for next June.

On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered a criminal investigation into the state’s handling of the Epstein case, from his sentencing in 2008 to his incarceration and probation in 2009. In 2006, former Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer declined to prosecute Epstein on serious sex charges, which led to the U.S. Attorney and FBI taking over the case in 2007.

Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s role in the case is also under scrutiny since under his watch he permitted Epstein liberal work release privileges that allowed the multimillionaire to be chauffeured by his valet from the jail to his office in West Palm Beach six days a week, 12 hours a day.

Even when Epstein was in his cell at night, sheriff’s deputies reportedly allowed him to keep his door open.

The Justice Department’s probe, by its Office of Professional Responsibility, is similar to a police department’s internal affairs inquiry, focusing on possible misconduct or policy violations by federal prosecutors. It’s not clear what impact, if any, Villafaña’s resignation will have on the investigation.

Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, said it’s unlikely that Villafaña’s departure will derail OPR’s probe.

“There is no reason that they couldn’t continue the investigation, especially in a case like this where there is broad public interest in knowing what happened,’’ said Bromwich, a former inspector general for the Justice Department.

He added that it’s important for the department to make its findings public given that so much secrecy has surrounded the Epstein case.

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested Saturday, July 6, 2019, when he arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on his private jet.
“OPR’s tradition is to keep things bottled up in the department and to put very few of their reports in the public domain,’’ Bromwich said. “This time, it should be transparent.’’

The case has raised fundamental questions about whether well-connected, wealthy people wield influence over prosecutors and others in the justice system. Epstein had a wide circle of powerful friends, including former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Villafaña has never spoken publicly about the case. Sources close to her have said that she disagreed with Acosta’s decision granting Epstein and others involved in his activities immunity from federal charges.

Those close to Villafaña said that in the end, she was a loyal career prosecutor who toed the line of her boss while focusing her efforts on a provision in Epstein’s agreement that forced him to pay restitution to his victims. At the time of the deal, the FBI had identified 34 underage victims, most of them middle and high school girls who came from underprivileged backgrounds.

Epstein employed a number of people to help him schedule girls on a rotating basis to come to his Palm Beach home on the pretext that he would pay them to give him massages. The girls, however, told Palm Beach police that they were pressured to perform sex acts with him and with adult women. They were paid $200 to $300, and could earn more money if they brought friends, which many of them did, police documents show.

Federal prosecutor Marie Villafana's letter to the sheriff's office by Casey Frank on Scribd

In November, the Herald published a series of articles, Perversion of Justice, revealing that Epstein may have sexually abused or molested more than 100 girls in Palm Beach alone. Court records and FBI documents also showed that at the time his case was settled in Florida the FBI had received tips that there were other victims in New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owns homes.

Recently released documents revealed that Villafaña strenuously objected to Epstein’s work release, and wrote a letter to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office in December 2008 pointing out that the crimes he committed were not accurately reflected in his work release paperwork and that those records contained “omissions” that should have disqualified him for the program.

She was overruled, however, and Epstein continued his work release, ultimately serving 13 months before being released in 2009. One woman has since come forward to say she was hired to perform a sex act on Epstein in his office while he was on work release.

Biran said Villafaña’s resignation had nothing to do with the Epstein matter, and that she has recently completed a two-year training program on healthcare compliance. Most of her career has been spent advocating for the rights of victims, and she has received numerous awards for her work, he added.

“Ms. Villafaña is confident that, when DOJ’s internal investigation has been concluded, the department will find that she acted properly in all respects as the lead prosecutor in the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein,’’ Biran said.

Supporters said she has been a tireless prosecutor who rarely gives up a fight.

“If she was going to leave because of this case, she would have left a long time ago,’’ said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein, who supervised Villafaña early in her career.

“My experience with her is she digs in her teeth and doesn’t give up. She tries to uphold what all good prosecutors do, and that is to see that justice is served.’’

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“Who gets ripped off for $46 million yet doesn’t go to the authorities?”