Jeffrey Epstein will go down as one of the most prolific abusers and traffickers of underage girls in US history. He was also the frontman of one of the largest blackmail operations ever constructed. Its controlling members may never be known. His death of apparent suicide in very unusual circumstances while jailed in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center prison was excellent news for a long list of politicians past and present including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and former US president Bill Clinton, who was a frequent flyer on Epstein’s private jet, known as the Lolita Express. President Clinton was so fond of the plane’s offerings that he flew on 27 occasions, often slipping his secret service protection detail to climb aboard.
Other close Epstein contacts include Prince Andrew, who disastrously attempted to recently clear his name with a laughable interview that only hastened his fall from grace. Also sleeping sounder since Epstein’s demise – actors such as Alec Baldwin and Ralph Fiennes, Director Woody Allen, fellow billionaires Bill Gates, Elon Musk, David Koch, Rupert Murdoch members of the Saudi Royal family. Epstein might have been the best-connected man on the planet.
Crucial to the entire Epstein story is the blackmail component. Without an ability to act with apparent impunity the whole story simply makes no sense. How else is it possible to explain the complicity of the mainstream media, who ignored and actively buried the story for years? Or the non-actions of law enforcement officials, despite dozens of complaints and witnesses? Or the sweetheart plea deal that saw Epstein serve 13 months in a private wing of Palm Beach County Stockade, where he enjoyed unrivalled treatment such as unfettered day release for the final 10 months of the stretch? Prosecutors were told to pursue the amazingly lenient plea bargain because Epstein was attached to ‘intelligence’, and they held their tongues and complied. Only an individual with extraordinary connections that reach to the very top could get away with such crimes for so long. Dozens of witnesses came forward during the years before his ultimate 2019 arrest.
According to multiple witness statements, Epstein was singularly obsessed with sex involving young girls. The pursuit consumed him. His residences were overrun with female minors, coming and going around the clock, performing the paid massages that led to further sexual activity. To visit one of his sprawling properties was to be surrounded by such activity. Girls were procured from local schools and shopping malls, referred and brought along by other girls, and flown in from abroad, mostly from Eastern European countries, on a massive scale. Their names and phone numbers appeared in booking sheets that ensured Epstein’s appetites were constantly sated. His private island might have been home to the most unrestrained depravity, its seclusion providing the perfect setting for wild orgies that Prince Andrew was alleged to have attended. Bill Clinton was again a regular visitor to the island, often with Hilary in tow. The mind boggles.
The death of Epstein has thus far had the desired effect. The mainstream press reported his ‘suicide’ and simply moved onto other matters, like the impeachment games being played in Washington. With no sensational trial to cover, they quietly buried the story all over again. Nothing to see here folks. Multiple civil cases are in play that will see some of his victims receive a slice of a billion-dollar estate, but these will probably be settled quietly and dampen the noise further. And that will be that. An unimaginable story about a school teacher of modest means, who accumulated a billion-dollar fortune via a hedge fund that made no visible trades. A man who had donated millions to science and had dreams of fathering a super-race. A man with a contact list containing hundreds of names from elite circles who constantly rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous. A man who died mysteriously in jail having been removed from suicide watch, while security cameras pointed in the wrong direction and two guards slept on the job, the only recorded time such an event ever occurred at that institution. It is the story of the prosperous and powerful being lured by the honeypot of young girls, and being filmed in compromising acts and then blackmailed into paying for their continued freedom.
There is one possible loose end that could blow the story wide open. A retired Florida police officer now living in Russia owns copies of the videotapes. The contents have been verified by credible sources, and are said to show old men having sexual contact with young girls at Epstein properties. The owner has an insurance policy in place, which might be exercised given he believes two attempts have been made on his life in recent weeks, one involving poison, the other tampering with the wheels of his vehicle. The FBI apparently has copies of the same videos, but have chosen not to pursue the stars of the show just yet, for reasons unknowable. Should they surface, the videos will be like dynamite blowing through a dam wall. The entire sordid affair just might finally receive the attention it deserves.
Jackson Byrne