Jeffrey Epstein, a hedge fund manager who molested underaged girls and allegedly ran a human trafficking operation for the rich and powerful, has had a long friendship with Donald Trump. Other famous Epstein associates include Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Prince Andrew and more.
Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein was a “terrific guy” who he had known for 15 years. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump said. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Epstein was cited in a 2016 lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged that she was 13 when Trump raped her in 1994 during a party at Epstein’s house. The lawsuit was later withdrawn. Trump has denied the allegations.
Accused of operating an international sex ring, Epstein’s troubles are already implicating powerful men in politics. Alex Acosta stepped down July 12 as Labor Secretary amid growing outrage over the lenient deal he gave Epstein more than 10 years ago as a federal prosecutor.
Conspiracy theorists are having a party.
Epstein faced possible federal indictments for sexually abusing dozens of girls as young as 14 between 1999 and 2007. He reached a plea deal in 2008 involving watered-down allegations against him for soliciting a minor for prostitution. He served 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail for his crimes.
Indicted again on July 8, 2019 — this time in New York for conspiracy and sex trafficking — Epstein is being held in Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan. He’s accused of running a cult-like ring to prey on underage girls. He was denied bail after a search warrant revealed a fake Saudi passport and piles of cash in his safe.
Here are 10 things to know about the Epstein pedophile ring conspiracy that has elites scared.
Epstein would allegedly lure underage girls, mainly 13 to 16, to his homes and offer them $200 to $300 a session for “massages”. His chef would offer them cereal, New York Post reported. Joseph Recarey, then the lead detective on the case, told the Miami Herald that authorities amassed a huge amount of evidence against Epstein
Epstein accusers Virginia Giuffre and Sarah Ransome made these statements outside court in New York:
“I am deeply pleased that the federal prosecutors in New York have arrested Jeffrey Epstein and our case is taken in a serious way,”
Giuffre said through her attorney.
“The news of my abuser’s arrest today is a step in the right direction to finally hold Epstein accountable for his sex crimes and restore my faith that power and money can’t triumph over justice.’’
Epstein’s attorneys are hoping the same coverup and downplay that got their client a cushy plea deal of 13 months of jail time will happen this time around. Bradley Edwards, the attorney for some of Epstein’s accusers in 2008, said Epstein’s “lead defense is the fact that the government 10 years ago thought enough of the case to just make it go away. That’s what (his attorneys) are now going to use to say: ‘Hey, look, someone else thought it was nothing, so you should think it’s nothing, too.’ But I don’t see that working” in New York. “
In 2018, the Miami Herald identified more than 80 possible victims of Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse. The way the original plea went down may itself be cause for charges, AboveTheLaw reported:
“What the Epstein case reveals is … a world where the rich and powerful and their professional mouthpieces spend less time arguing the finer points of law and fact, and more time negotiating how “we can all just get along” with pedigreed perpetrators,” wrote Joe Patrice, senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. “If this case goes forward, every single one of these lawyers should face scrutiny — if not legal repercussions — for their role in enabling Epstein all these years.”
Then–U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta, the current secretary of labor, got Epstein a cushy plea deal. Acosta faced calls to resign by several Democratic lawmakers over his involvement in the deal, according to The Hill. He announced his resignation on July 12, 2019.
Epstein’s financial affairs are “a financial black hole.” As Bloomberg stated, “Today, so little is known about Epstein’s current business or clients that the only things that can be valued with any certainty are his properties.” These include a $77 million New York mansion, a $12 million Palm Beach compound, properties in New Mexico, Paris, the U.S. Virgin Islands, his private jet and 15 cars.
3. Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’
Acosta, who arranged for Epstein to get off lightly in 2007, was asked during his confirmation hearings for Labor secretary if his involvement in the Epstein case would be a problem.
Acosta explained that he’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers …’
That answer was good enough for the Trump administration to nominate and appoint Acosta, NY Mag reported.
4. Money laundering
Epstein could have blackmailed his social circle into investing with him, then dumped the cash in an offshore account to avoid taxes, according to Twitter’s Quantian.
Epstein dropped out of Cooper Union and NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences before getting hired in the mid-1970s to teach calculus and physics at the Dalton School, according to NY Mag. He was 21 and teaching kids a few years younger than himself. Students at the private K-12 institution included sons and daughters of New York City’s elite. There’s speculation that Epstein was hired at the prestigious Manhattan college-prep institution by the father of Attorney General William Barr. Barr, a former headmaster, left the school before Epstein started working there. Epstein’s students included the son of Bear Stearns chairman Alan Greenberg.
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He preyed on teens who had artistic aspirations — hundreds of them. A recent accuser, Jennifer Araoz, said she was recruited as a 14-year-old freshman outside The Talent Unlimited High School a few blocks from his mansion with the promise he would help her become an actress. He transported girls to his private island in the Caribbean on a jet nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” Miami Herald reported. He offered to become 13-year-old Nadia Bjorlin’s godfather and foster her singing career, her mother told the Daily Mail.
Epstein’s Financial Trust Company is ambiguous to the point of suspicious, NY Mag reported. Because the Southern District of New York’s Public Corruption Unit is handling the case, a financial or tax-related charge is much higher than if another sector of the court was in charge. The public corruption unit would have more flexibility on money laundering, corruption, or tax-related crimes, said Gene Rossi, a trial analyst for Law & Crime.
Epstein attended Interlochen summer camp as a kid and donated $17,000 and a new cabin to the school in the woods near the girls’ dorms, Miami Herald reported. He gave $180,000 to Ballet Florida in West Palm Beach, some of it specifically for therapeutic massages. He gave the all-girls Hewitt School near his Manhattan mansion $15,000. He donated $75,000 to Dalton. The origin of the money he donated was uncertain, but not the recipients, which included Harvard University, the Santa Fe Institute think tank and cancer research funds.
