The sordid Jeffrey Epstein saga: Tangled noose of sexual abuse, celeb sleaze, mysterious death

Two American presidents, a prime minister, a British prince, a paralysed physicist, an anarcho-syndicalist, a US spy chief and a host of celebs—the whole caboodle in the orbit of a convicted paedophile who raped minor girls and passed them on to the wealthy and mighty. The sordid saga ends with the pervert’s sudden and mysterious death. The names of the affluent, influential and famous in the avalanche of unsealed documents describing the late Jeffrey Epstein’s chronicle of sexual abuse were splashed in the media this month. The A-listers ranged from Bill Clinton, Doland Trump, Prince Andrew, the late Stephen Hawking and Naom Chomsky to CIA director William Burns, famous American criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former Israeli premier Ehud Barak, the late Michael Jackson and former supermodel Naomi Campbell. A total of 4,553 pages of documents detailing more names, including Epstein’s staff, accusers and witnesses, were made public following an order by New York federal District Judge Loretta A Preska’s December order. The papers, stemming from the hearing of the 2015 civil suit filed by Epstein’s victim Virginia Giuffre, also contain legal arguments, exhibits and depositions recounting allegations, and descriptions of alleged crimes. She was one of the several minors hired as masseuses and trafficked by him and his partner and former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year federal sentence for sex trafficking in 2021. The girls were abused by Epstein—sometimes along with Maxwell—and several of his clients/friends at his houses in Florida, New York and New Mexico, his private Caribbean island of Little St James and his infamous jet Lolita Express, which trafficked the girls. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Epstein’s rise as a teacher—without a college degree—from NYC’s Dalton School and floor trader at the erstwhile Bear and Stearns to a global financier who hobnobbed with the world elite was dazzling. Suave, sophisticated and dapper, the slick financier started by managing the money of the rich and powerful. Gradually, he started his finance company, Intercontinental Assets Group. As a self-proclaimed bounty hunter who helped some moneyed clients recover their stolen money and others who had embezzled funds, Epstein was a brilliant liar and a fraud who sometimes posed as an intelligence agent or a government consultant. Beneath his excellent financial skills and suavity, the Jekyll-and-Hyde money manager had a dark and filthy side. The powerful and the perv Did his grime and sexual perversion attract several of his jet-setting clients/friends? The around 200 names of people don’t necessarily mean they were accused of or committed sexual abuse. But several of them had deep ties with Epstein despite being aware of his sexual perversion and first arrest and conviction in 2005 and 2008, respectively, for procuring a 14-year-old girl for prostitution. Some of these men were onboard the Lolita Express, took massages—not specifically sexual—or abused the girls during flights or on Epstein’s island or at his houses. Trump flew four times in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997. “I’ve known Jeff [Epstein] 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,” Trump told the New York Magazine in a 2002 interview.

🚨BREAKING:
Donald Trump is mentioned multiple times in the newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents

One example: "Jeffrey said, 'Great, we'll call up Trump and we'll go to -I don't recall the name of the casino-, but -- 'we'll go to the casino.' pic.twitter.com/CBh1i7dOFA

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 4, 2024

Clinton, named 50 times in the documents, flew 26 times with Epstein between 2001 and 2003. His 2002 infamous picture with another Epstein accuser, Chauntae Davies, rubbing down his neck during a layover en route to Africa for a humanitarian trip with Epstein grabbed eyeballs in 2020. “Would you mind giving it a crack?” the 42nd POTUS asked Davies.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Would you mind giving it a crack?' Clinton leans back and smiles while receiving neck massage from Epstein victim https://t.co/wtWwgLa2CX

— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) August 18, 2020

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Another victim, Johanna Sjoberg, testified in 2016 that Epstein told her that “Clinton likes them young”, referring to the girls. Epstein visited the White House 17 times during Clinton’s first term. In 2015, it was revealed that Epstein’s computerised phone directory contained 21 phone numbers for Clinton, including his personal one and email. In another sensational allegation, Giuffre said that Hawking, the author of A Brief History of Time, participated in an underage orgy on the island. Giuffre’s allegation is bolstered by an email mentioned in the documents wherein Epstein wrote to Maxwell to “ issue a reward” to any of Giuffre’s friends to counter that “Hawking participated in an underage orgy”. Epstein’s galaxy included prominent scientists, like Hawking and the late AI expert and MIT professor Marvin Minsky. One year after the monster’s arrest, Hawking was pictured attending a barbecue on Little St James during a conference along with 20 other globally renowned boffins on neighbouring island of St Thomas. Besides naming Hawking, Giuffre alleged that Maxwell instructed her to sleep with Minsky, who died in 2016. Andrew, the Duke of York, ‘sexually abused’ Giuffre thrice between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York and the island, according to her civil suit against the prince. In March 2022, he reportedly paid around £12 million ($16.3 million) to her to settle the case. Chomsky and Bard College president Leon Botstein received $270,000 and $150,000 from Epstein in 2018 and 2016, respectively, according to The Wall Street Journal. Leslie H Wexner, the founder and CEO of the women’s apparel retailer The Limited was under Epstein’s spell with the serial abuser amassing a huge wealth at his expense. In a 2016 deposition, Giuffre said that she was forced to have sex with Wexner 3-10 times. Giuffre was also trafficked to the late New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former US senator George Mitchell, the late French modelling executive Jean Luc Brunel and Harvard University law professor and Dershowitz. Some big questions arise: 1. What were a former and future US president doing inside the notorious creepy jet with the underage girls? 2. Why were acclaimed scientists rubbing shoulders with the perv on his island? 3. Why did Andrew pay such a staggering amount to Giuffre if he didn’t abuse her? 4. Couldn’t Chomsky find another financial consultant to manage his money? 5. Why billionaire Wexner opted only for Epstein instead of any other financier? The crème de la crème frequented Epstein’s houses and island, decorated with photographs of “young girls doing things to each other” amounting to “child pornography”. For example, Trump dined several times at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Epstein’s Black Book and his suspicious death It’s been widely alleged that Epstein blackmailed several of his clients and friends after ‘videorecording’ their sexcapades and also threatening to leak their affairs, including that of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. Connecting the dots brings out a clear picture of the association of these names with the serial sexual offender and his baffling death. According to Epstein’s younger brother Mark, the pervert had shocking information on Trump and the Clintons that could have disrupted the 2016 presidential election. “If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the election,” he told Mark in 2016. In his book Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes, former 60 Minutes producer Ira Rosen recounts Maxwell telling him before the 2016 election that Epstein had videotapes of both presidents in compromising positions with women. Few days before the 2016 election, a woman mentioned as “Katie Johnson” and “Jane Doe” in court filings dropped her third suit accusing Trump of raping her during an orgy at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 1994 when she was 13. She also cancelled a press conference at the last minute with her attorney Lisa Bloom saying “Johnson” received death threats. One of the exhibits unsealed on January 8 contains explosive emails Epstein’s victim Sarah Ransome sent to then-New York Post journalist Maureen Callahan in October 2016. Ransome claimed to have videos of multiple sexual encounters Clinton, Andrew and Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson had with her friend. According to one email, Ransome alleged that Trump had sex with “many girls”, including her friend, at Epstein’s mansion. Strangely, Ransome wrote to Callahan in her final email that she wants to “retract everything I have said to you and walk away from this”. It can’t be a coincidence that around one month after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors, Epstein died under mysterious circumstances in his cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre (MCC) on August 10, 2019. Was Epstein eliminated because of his Black Book, which contained 1,749 entries of 1,510 people, including around 40 members of royalty and European nobility and 12 high-ranking politicians and diplomats? Discovered by famous investigative journalist Nick Bryant in 2012, the Black Book was first published by Gawker, a non-mainstream media website/blog, in 2015. Unsurprisingly, the booklet and the published flight manifest of people on board the Lolita Express failed to get traction with the mainstream media. However, the Black Book was under the media glare with Epstein’s arrest in July 2019. There’s a high probability that the inflential persons mentioned in the booklet feared being implicated. “If Epstein talks, there’s gonna be a lot of powerful people who could go down,” Bryant told Vanity Fair in July 2019. He wondered why Epstein’s house manager “circled” the names of Trump, Barak and Dershowitz in the booklet. Within a month of his bail rejection, while prosecutors were building their case, Epstein was found ‘hanging’ from the lower bunker of his cell with his buttocks 1-1.5 inches above the ground. Epstein’s death triggered strong suspicions of a homicide with Mark believing he was murdered. Within a week, a medical examiner termed Epstein’s death a suicide with then-attorney general Bill Barr calling the situation a “perfect storm of screw-ups”. In its 128-page report, the Department of Justice blamed “long-standing operational challenges” for his death. Contrary to instructions, Epstein was left alone without a cellmate and taken off suicide watch despite his highly doubtable earlier attempt to ‘kill himself’. He was found on his cell floor with neck injuries on July 23. Later, he told his lawyers that his cellmate, former Westchester County cop Nicholas Tartaglione—found guilty of murdering four people in April 2023—tried to kill him. Then-Manhattan Federal Court Judge Richard Berman wrote to MCC warden Lamine N’Diaye that to his “knowledge, it has never been definitely explained what the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] concluded about the incident”. In an interview with journalist Declan Hill on the Crime Waves podcast in December 2023, Mark seriously doubted the suicide angle. https://twitter.com/declan_hill/status/1742266556808036483 Why would Epstein commit suicide if his appeal against the bail rejection was to be heard a few days later? He spent most of August 9 (Friday) with his legal team. “Jeff was looking forward to defending himself against the charges,” he said. In fact, during the last meeting with his lawyers on Friday, Epstein was in “ great spirits”, a source told the New York Post. “Everyday, he was very positive and the night before, he was really positive,” the source said. “I’ll see you Sunday,” he told one of his lawyers. Epstein called someone around 7.40 pm on August 9. The MCC said that it was his mother—but she had died in 2004! Mark claimed to know the person, who was “equally surprised to know Jeff killed himself”. The New York City pathologist said that it looked more like a homicide with the original certificate stating that the cause of death is “pending”. A few days later, however, the chief pathologist, who wasn’t present during the actual autopsy, termed it suicide. https://twitter.com/declan_hill/status/1742946409437859869 Online pics of other suicide victims show the noose high up on the chin and behind the ears. But the mark on Epstein’s neck was “at the centre of his neck and straight back as if he was strangled with a rope”. Mark hired famous forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who was present during the four-hour autopsy. He saw something unusual. “There were fractures of the left, the right thyroid cartilage and the left hyoid bone. I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging,” he told CBS News 60 Minutes. “Going over a thousand jail hangings, suicides in the New York City state prisons over the past 40-50 years, no one had three fractures,” Baden said. Besides, two nooses were found in the cell, but the one included in the autopsy report didn’t appear to match the injuries on Epstein’s neck. The ligature mark was in the middle of his neck, not beneath the jawbone, as common in a hanging. “The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging,” he added. According to Mark, the fractures resembled injuries caused by a karate chop. “I found out from Special Forces people that it is how they kill people. In this particular case, as if someone gave him a karate chop and garrotted him.”

An exclusive investigation by the students/professor (Me) at @UNewHaven
All the indications that Epstein was killed.
Including - the official count showing extra people on the tier that night.
The guards called it a 'ghost count'. #EpsteinClientList #Epstein pic.twitter.com/cmdbHMeJnM

— Declan Hill (@declan_hill) January 2, 2024

Several other questions remain unanswered. It was a crime scene and the body shouldn’t have been touched until the coroner showed up. But Epstein’s picture showed him in a hospital gown on a gurney, not the prison dress. “Who decided to dress a dead body in a hospital gown?” Mark asked. Why were the PCR and the 911 reports never found? Why were there no pics of Epstein’s body inside the cell? Why did the camera that could have captured Epstein’s cell door and the doors of other inmates on his tier malfunction on the night of August 9 and 10? Why did the two guards on duty on the second tier fall asleep? Mark also claimed that there was a mention of two unnamed guards present on August 10. “Why have they not been named? Who are they? Where are they today?” Moreover, who were the other prisoners on Epstein’s tier on the night of August 9? Where are they now? A lot of prisoners were transferred after his death. Mark also pointed to the lack of lividity, the bluish-purple skin discolouration after death, on Epstein’s legs. He was found hanging at 6.30 am. “If he was hanging for two hours, he should have had blood at the back of his leg and buttocks. Blood settles in your body due to gravity because it is not being pumped. His legs looked clear.” Mark also doubted Barr’s interest in the case. “Something was amiss when Bill Barr made the public statement that he saw the videotape of the camera outside the tier showing that no one went inside or came out. I imagine he’s a busy guy. Why is he watching the videotape?” In an interview with NewsNation this month, Mark said that Epstein “had dirt on people. In 2016, he said he had dirt on the then-presidential candidates”. “Why would Barr be covering this up? Who is he protecting?” Mark asked. “We need more answers. The medical personnel, the pathologist—none of them have been questioned, which is highly unusual, especially in high-profile cases,” he added. Obviously, the paedophile had more sleaze on the high and mighty. But he never went to trial—his death buried the dirty secrets. As attorney Sigrid McCawley, who represented Giuffre, rightly said, “The fact that Epstein took his own life within 24 hours of the unsealing of detailed and devastating documents and exhibits in Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, which informed the public of the scope, scale and sophistication of the international sex trafficking operation Epstein conducted, is no coincidence.” The writer is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.