FLASH
Shkruar nga Anna Merlan
Besides all the unpublished court records and the mystery of Epstein's wealth, it certainly begs the question why the FBI and the Justice Department released an unsigned memo declaring the case closed...
"I want every email from Epstein," MAGA activist, self-proclaimed journalist, former Pizzagate promoter, and former evangelist, Mike Cernovich, recently declared.
In the decades since the Jeffrey Epstein scandal began, he has attracted a lot of attention from some very strange and obviously unpleasant people, each drawn to the case for their own reasons. Cernovich became involved in his capacity as a quasi-journalist and promoter of conspiracy theories involving wealthy and powerful sex offender groups. He was one of the people who filed a lawsuit to uncover documents in the civil case of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who claims Epstein trafficked her to multiple wealthy and powerful men.
But these days, even those who frequently spread misinformation like Cernovich have a reasonable point: there is a troubling amount of information we still don't know about Jeffrey Epstein.
The first question concerns Epstein's personal wealth; it has never been clear how, exactly, he became so wealthy.
The basic facts are clear: Epstein was a billionaire pedophile and friend of the world’s rich and powerful who, by all accounts and all available evidence, died by suicide in 2019 while incarcerated and facing sex trafficking charges. But from the time Epstein’s crimes first came to the attention of police and the press in the early 2000s to the scandal and chaos that followed this month as the FBI and Trump’s Justice Department tried to hush up the case, there have been many unresolved dilemmas, unanswered questions, undisclosed documents, and an endless supply of fodder for future conspiracy theories.
In a 2019 article, the New York Times attempted to answer the question of Epstein's wealth, noting that in the 1980s, he befriended Victoria's Secret founder Les Wexner, quickly becoming his personal money manager.
Epstein had worked for two years as a math and physics teacher at the elite Dalton School and then as an options trader for Bear Stearns before being laid off in 1981. Since then, he has founded his own money management firm for billionaire clients. The business was an immediate, almost surprising success. As New York magazine wrote in 2002, “there were no road shows, no brilliant marketing demonstrations — just this: Jeff Epstein was in business for those with more than $1 billion.”
By the time Vicky Ward wrote a famous profile of Epstein for Vanity Fair in 2003, he was committed to a secret life, one that Ward described as "very carefully private, almost obsessively so."
Among those clients, as far as anyone could tell, was Victoria’s Secret’s Wexner. Those around the executive also couldn’t understand why Epstein had so quickly assumed a position of trust in his financial life. “Almost from the moment Epstein arrived on the scene in the 1980s in Columbus, Ohio, where L Brands was headquartered,” the Times wrote in its 2019 article, “Wexner’s friends and colleagues were puzzled why a well-known businessman at the height of his career would trust so much an outsider with a thin resume and little financial experience.” And it was through his connection to Wexner’s companies that Epstein began trying to expand his reach to young women, the Times wrote, “by trying to get involved in recruiting lingerie models for the Victoria’s Secret catalog.”
By the time Vicky Ward wrote a famous profile of Epstein for Vanity Fair in 2003, he was committed to a secret life, one that Ward described as "almost obsessive, while listing himself in the phone book under a pseudonym."
“There are many women in his life, mostly young,” Ward wrote, in a line that now sounds incredibly ominous, “but there are none with whom he has been able to commit.”
It would be 2019 before Epstein was indicted again, this time on federal sex trafficking charges, with the alleged offenses listed as dating from 2002 to "at least 2005."
In the early 2000s, Epstein lived in a mansion in Palm Beach. There, he and his associates, including his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, hired teenage girls to give him massages; during these sessions, Epstein sexually abused them.
Epstein was indicted in 2006, but as journalist Julie K. Brown has carefully documented in the Miami Herald for years, he was almost immediately given an extremely lenient and scandalous plea deal.
Epstein pleaded guilty to only two counts of aggravated prostitution, and he and his associates reached a federal plea agreement under which he was not charged with sex trafficking. Top federal prosecutor Alex Acosta was directly involved in brokering the deal: years later, while serving as Donald Trump's labor secretary, repeated criticism of his role in the Epstein deal led to his resignation.
Epstein served just 13 months in county jail, where he spent most of his time in his office on what was called work release.
Një mbikëqyrës burgu shkroi në një memo se qelia e tij e burgut duhet të lihet e hapur "për momentin" dhe atij duhet t'i jepet "qasje liberale në dhomën e avokatit ku do të instalohet një televizor". Do të duhej deri në vitin 2019 që zemërimi për marrëveshjen e mosndjekjes penale të arrinte kulmin dhe Epstein u padit përsëri në Nju Jork, këtë herë për akuza federale për trafikim seksual, me datën e veprave të dyshuara të listuara si nga viti 2002 deri në "të paktën vitin 2005".
Përveç misterit të pasurisë së Epstein dhe trajtimit të tij jashtëzakonisht të butë nga sistemi i drejtësisë, ekziston edhe një mal me materiale të pazbuluara të lidhura me shumë çështje civile dhe dy penale të ngritura kundër tij. Siç e përshkroi Brown në mars, materiale nga çështje të shumta nuk janë publikuar kurrë, duke përfshirë dokumente zbulimi për një çështje civile të ngritur në vitin 2008 kundër FBI-së nga viktimat e supozuara të Epstein. Ka gjithashtu prova të pazbuluara në lidhje me pronat e Epstein në Ishujt Virgjër të SHBA-së, Little Saint James dhe Greater Saint James.
“Pse personelit iu tha të sinjalizonte të dhënat në të cilat përmendej Presidenti Trump?”, shkroi senatori Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) në letra të hapura drejtuar Prokurores së Përgjithshme Pam Bondi, Drejtorit të FBI-së Kash Patel dhe Zëvendës Drejtorit të FBI-së Dan Bongino. Pas disa javësh të mbushura me kritika, Trump bëri thirrje për publikimin e të dhënave të jurisë së madhe nga çështjet e Epstein në Florida dhe Nju Jork; meqenëse të dhënat e jurisë së madhe zakonisht janë sekrete, procesi i publikimit të këtyre të dhënave mund të zgjasë shumë. “I kam kërkuar Departamentit të Drejtësisë të publikojë të gjitha dëshmitë e Jurisë së Madhe në lidhje me Jeffrey Epstein, vetëm me miratimin e Gjykatës”, shkroi Trump në TruthSocial të shtunën në mëngjes.
Përveç të gjitha të dhënave gjyqësore të papublikuara dhe misterit të pasurisë së Epstein, sigurisht që lind pyetja pse FBI-ja dhe Departamenti i Drejtësisë publikuan një memo të pafirmosur duke deklaruar se çështja ishte mbyllur. Dhe vetëm këtë javë, anëtari demokrat i Senatit, Dick Durbin, nga Illinois, pretendoi se FBI-së iu tha të "shënonte" çdo dosje të Epstein që lidhet me Trump. Megjithatë, implikimet e këtij pretendimi nuk janë ende plotësisht të qarta.
One of the less convincing allegations in the Epstein saga is the idea that a Deep State assassin snuck into his Manhattan jail cell in 2019. In all likelihood, Epstein died alone, facing something approaching real consequences for the first time in his sordid life. But it is absolutely true that it is still not entirely clear who helped him rise, solidify his fortune, and perhaps help him evade responsibility for his crimes, nor is it the scale of those crimes or the infrastructure of wealth, power, and coercion that made them possible. In a rare moment of unity for the American public during an impossibly divided time, that, at least, is something we can all agree on. /Adapted from Pamphlet by Mother Jones/
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