Speaks Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter thanks to whom the case was reopened «The authorities must investigate all those involved in the trafficking of minors. It wasn’t the work of just two people ”
Two years after Jeffrey Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail on August 10, 2019, many questions still remain unanswered. Using his relationships with powerful friends, money, and even threats and intimidation, the millionaire financial advisor who abused dozens of minors managed to escape justice, but on 6 July 2019 he was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors, thanks to the investigation of Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, who had identified 80 past victims from his residences in Manhattan, Palm Beach, on the private island of Little St. James and on the ranch in New Mexico. Brown, one of the people who know the whole case best, has just published a book, Perversion of Justice (Perverse Justice) that tells the story – and the pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.
“It wasn’t suicide”
“Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide” – is the title of one of the chapters of Julie K. Brown’s book. While distancing himself from conspiracy theories (including the one fueled early on by then President Trump that Epstein was killed to protect the Clintons), the reporter cannot believe in suicide. “It’s hard for me to believe that someone like him who had lived his entire life above the law could have given up so easily. He was already busy manipulating the prison system; he paid the other inmates, he hired new lawyers ».
The Metropolitan Correction Center where Epstein, 66, was found dead at 6.30am is located four blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge, not far from Wall Street, where he began his career in finance. It was a notorious prison, which had housed Bernie Madoff, John Gotti and El Chapo, years criticized by human rights activists. Epstein was under observation for an attempted suicide, but many believed that it was a staging to receive special treatment – writes the journalist – and had deposited money, for “protection”, in the accounts of several inmates. He had spent the whole day of August 9 with his lawyers, preparing the appeal to try to get the release on bail set for 12 August. He was in a cell with a drug dealer from the Bronx, which that very night was inexplicably transferred in a Queens prison for collaborators of justice. The two guardians who were to monitor Epstein would have fallen asleep at the same time.
Authorities say they have evidence that it was suicide but never made it public. On 15 August the Washington Post wrote that Epstein had several broken neck bones, as is more typical in cases of strangulation than hanging, and this is the hypothesis that has since supported Jeffrey’s brother, Mark Epstein, based on the considerations of a private pathologist he paid for. Then there are other things that do not add up: the sheet found tied to Epstein’s neck on one side and to the top of the bunk bed on the other was one of several loops tied to the bed and window bars, but on the floor there was a sleep apnea machine (unclear why) and it would have been easier to hang yourself with one of the cables than with a sheet. It is also unclear why the doctors immediately removed the body, altering the crime scene. of which no photos were taken, and it is not clear what happened to the footage of the surveillance cameras.
Epstein didn’t leave a farewell notebut a handwritten note, in which he complained that he was locked by guards in a shower for an hour and fed burnt food. “The government must investigate this part of the story – concludes Brown – if only to make sense of the women who have been victims of abuse.”
“Many wanted him dead”
Without giving details, Brother Mark said that “many wanted Jeffrey dead.” One of the mysteries is whether he videotaped the relationships between girls and important friends who visited his homes. “There were certainly cameras in his house, even in the bathrooms. Even if there are no tapes, the people involved are certainly worried, ”says Brown. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, recruited at 16 in 2000 in Mar-a-lago, Donald Trump’s resort, says she has become a “sex slave” forced to please Epstein’s friends: three times with Prince Andrew, seven with Les Wexner, owner of Victoria’s Secret, and then former Governor Bill Richardson, artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, attorney Alan Dershowitz (all deny). Giuffre is filing a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in the United States. “For now, the only evidence he has against him is his word and a photo together, but who knows if no more will emerge in a civil case,” observes the journalist. But Giuffre is not the only one: other girls have said that they have been victims of abuse by important people, but for now they have decided not to come out..
In 2016, a woman, under the pseudonym Katie Johnson, reported being raped by Epstein along with Donald Trump when she was 13. Brown did not include the case, which took place in the middle of the election campaign, in the series of interviews published in the Miami Herald. “At the time I believed that one of the problems with how Epstein’s story was followed by journalists is that they focused too much on possible links with politicians and celebrities, thus failing to grasp the broader aspect of the neglect and possible corruption of the criminal system. But then I regretted it ». Trump and Clinton were both friends with Epstein at a time when he was clearly involved with underage girls. Clinton in 2002 went to Africa on Epstein’s Boeing 757 (the “Lolita Express”) for his campaign against AIDS. From the flight logs, it emerges that he traveled on the financier’s jets 12 times, not 4 as he admitted. Brown, however, points out that “although this clearly questions their judgment, so far there is no evidence of a relationship with minors by either of them.”
How many are the victims
About 15o victims were compensated with 121 million dollars through a fund activated in 2020 with the sale of some properties of the tycoon and closed on Monday on the eve of the anniversary of his death. The requests of another 75 women have been denied but can appeal. What is certain is that dozens and dozens of little girls passed by Epstein’s residences in Manhattan, in Palm Beach in Florida, on the island, in “Zorro’s” ranch and perhaps in Paris. “He had an obsession with minors … he focused on girls with financial difficulties.” He hired them as masseuses, paying a whopping $ 200 per session and offering gifts (iPods, jewelry) to favorites. After the first dates, he would ask them to undress (“but you can keep the panties”). He looked at them, touched them to orgasm (“he required three a day”) and went further with some, as we read in the documents. The butler who cleaned the bathroom of sex toys realized that they were very young. “They always ate milk and cereals, like my daughters.”
Ghislaine Maxwell
«It is evident that Ghislaine Maxwell knows a lot more about what Epstein did. He was always on his planes, lived in his houses, and the authorities believe it helped him organize the whole system of child abuse, ”Brown explains. Maxwell, an English heiress, who had moved to New York after the death of her father, the famous publishing magnate “fallen off the yacht” after stealing millions from employee pensions (his death, attributed by some even to the Mossad, is another still open mystery that deserves a separate article).
For a time, Epstein’s fiancée, then “friend”, Maxwell – according to several accusers – scoured the massage parlors in search of girls, waited for them outside the school, promised respectable jobs. When they took the bait, she instructed them on erotic massages (which she also used). He is now in jail awaiting a trial that will begin in November. “His lawyers will argue is that it happened a long time ago, out of the statute of limitations, or that his case is among those of the assistants for whom Epstein was granted ummunity.” In 2008 in Florida, in fact, Epstein escaped justice by pleading guilty to soliciting minors, serving only 13 months in prison (so to speak), avoiding federal sentences and granting immunity to Maxwell and other assistants (Sarah Kellen, who “Edited the list of girls”; Lesley Groff who organized the trips; Nadia Marcinkova, “sex slave” turned recruiter).
Some of the mysteries that still surround Jeffrey Epstein are likely to remain so for a long time, Brown concludes, “a bit like the assassination of JFK.” But the reporter hopes that the magistrates will investigate thoroughly whoever was involved in this story. “There was an entire ecosystem created around the abuse and trafficking of these underage girls. It wasn’t the work of just two people. ‘
August 10, 2021 (change August 10, 2021 | 04:28)
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