The
British equivalent of this woman, Melanie Shaw, was thrown into jail
and the key thrown away for revealing pedophilia at the top of UK
society while the signs of Randy Andy’s connection with Epstein
were expunged.
Add
to that Tommy Robinson (whatever you think of is politics) who is
being sent to jail a SECOND time for revealing the truth about Muslim
grooming gangs
The
folk who have been talking about this for years are vindicated.
Jeffrey Epstein Accuser
Shares Story Of Alleged Rape For 1st Time
In
a TODAY exclusive, Jennifer Araoz shares with Savannah Guthrie her
chilling account of alleged sexual assault by billionaire Jeffrey
Epstein, which she says happened when she was in high school. Araoz
is not part of the Southern District of New York’s case against
Epstein, who pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges.
Jeffrey
Epstein’s Sick Story
Played Out for Years in Plain
Sight
How
did the New York financier stay nearly untouchable for decades? Vicky
Ward—who has reported extensively on Epstein, and on efforts to
rehabilitate him—finds out what’s changed.
9
July, 2019
A
couple of years ago, I was interviewing a former senior White House
official when the name Jeffrey Epstein came up.
Unaware
of my personal history with Epstein, this person assured me that the
New York financier was no serious harm to anyone. He was a good guy.
A charming guy. Useful, too. He knew a lot of rich Arabs, including
the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and, further, he had clever ideas
about creating bond issues for them. “OK, so he has a girl
problem,” this person threw on, almost as an afterthought.
Epstein’s
name, I was told, had been raised by the Trump transition team when
Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Miami who’d
infamously cut Epstein a non-prosecution plea deal back in 2007, was
being interviewed for the job of labor secretary. The plea deal put a
hard stop to a separate federal investigation of alleged sex crimes
with minors and trafficking.
“Is
the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation
hearings]?” Acosta had been asked. Acosta had explained, breezily,
apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the
Epstein case. 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
in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient
answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no
comment when asked about this.)
And
so, it seemed—until the news of Epstein’s arrest on Saturday for
allegedly trafficking minors—thus continuing a pattern of blatant
exceptionalism that surrounded him, and his social and business
nexus.
For
almost two decades, for some nebulous reason, whether to do with ties
to foreign intelligence, his billions of dollars, or his social
connections, Epstein, whose alleged sexual sickness and horrific
assaults on women without means or ability to protect themselves is
well-known in his circle, remained untouchable.
I
spent many months on his trail in 2002 for Vanity Fair and discovered
not only that he was not who he claimed to be professionally, but
also that he had allegedly assaulted two young sisters, one of whom
had been underage at the time. Very bravely, they were prepared to go
on the record. They were afraid he’d use all his influence to
discredit them—and their fear turned out to be legitimate.
As
the article was being readied for publication, Epstein made a visit
to the office of Vanity Fair’s then-editor, Graydon Carter, and
suddenly the women and their allegations were removed from the
article. “He’s sensitive about the young women,” Carter told me
at the time. (Editor’s Note: Carter has previously denied this
allegation.) He also mentioned he’d finagled a photograph of
Epstein in a swimsuit out of the encounter. And there was also some
feeble excuse about the article “being stronger as a business
story.” (Epstein had also leaned heavily on my ex-husband’s
uncle, Conrad Black, to try to exert his influence on me, which was
particularly unwelcome, given that Black happened to be my
ex-husband’s boss at the time.)
But
much worse was to come from Epstein’s army of willfully blind
lobbyists. In 2007 and 2008, as the FBI prepared a 53-page indictment
that would charge Epstein with sex crimes, Epstein’s powerful legal
team played the influence card.
After
the one meeting with then-U.S. Attorney Acosta, where presumably
“intelligence” was mentioned, the indictment was shelved and,
instead, Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement with federal
prosecutors, pleading guilty to one count of solicitation of
prostitution and one count of procurement of minors for prostitution,
which earned him a cushy 13 months in county jail, from where he was
allowed to leave to work at his office and go for walks.
The
deal granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators.” Most
significantly, federal prosecutors agreed to keep the deal secret
from Epstein’s victims, which meant they would not know to
challenge it in court. As it turned out, this actually broke the law,
because victims have a right to know of such developments, under the
Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
“A
few years ago the journalist Michael Wolff wrote a profile of him for
New York magazine that was meant to ‘rehabilitate’ Epstein’s
image and would tell of all the billionaires who still, secretly,
hung out with Epstein.”
We,
the public, had access to all this information as it played out over
the years in plain sight. And yet the outrage just was not there.
After his absurdly soft jail time, Epstein carried on as before. He
shamelessly wandered the streets of New York accompanied by
startlingly young looking foreign women. People in his social set
still tell me how “brilliant” he is and phone him for financial
advice. A few years ago the journalist Michael Wolff wrote a profile
of him for New York magazine that was meant to “rehabilitate”
Epstein’s image and would tell of all the billionaires who still,
secretly, hung out with Epstein. The piece had “fact-checking”
issues and never ran. Even so, the notion that it was considered is
mind-boggling.
So
kudos, then, to the Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown, who many
years after the fact went back and interviewed some of Epstein’s
alleged victims in her brilliant three-part series “Perversion of
Justice.” It was Brown who told the stories of teenagers in trailer
parks outside Palm Beach who needed money for shoes or just to live,
who went to give Epstein massages and so much more. Brown and her
editors actually took the women seriously.
It
was that heart-wrenching series that caught the attention of
Congress. Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, joined
with his Democratic colleagues and demanded to know how justice had
been so miscarried.
Given
the political sentiment, it’s unsurprising that the FBI should feel
newly emboldened to investigate Epstein—basing some of their work
on Brown’s excellent reporting.
The
story in the indictment that was unsealed earlier Monday was eerily
familiar to all of us who have been paying attention to Epstein’s
sick story. What is different, finally, after 16 years, is the
reaction, which is, at last, appropriate.
One
of the young women who spoke to me 16 years ago emailed Monday
evening. “Shocked and elated,” she said. “Fingers crossed they
all finally go down.” Amen to that.
This is the Miami Herald article.
I had to go to archives for this for some reason
https://archive.fo/0QP8v
This is the Miami Herald article.
I had to go to archives for this for some reason
https://archive.fo/0QP8v
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