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Pizzagate, QAnon and the ‘Epstein List’: Why the Far Right Is Obsessed with Sex Trafficking

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/09/why-maga-is-obsessed-with-jeffrey-epstein-00134394

 #Epstein #EpsteinList #Epsteinadasi #EpsteinClientList EpsteinIsland EpsteinFiles EpsteinDocs

 

Pizzagate, QAnon and the ‘Epstein List’: Why the Far Right Is Obsessed with Sex Trafficking

Aday before the so-called Epstein list was supposed to drop, far-right conspiracy theorists buzzed with excitement over the expectation that it would crucify prominent figures on the left for their involvement in sex trafficking. It’s a wildly popular notion in that world, where Pizzagate and QAnon fantasies run rampant.

The truth, of course, was far different: The material made public in federal court last week, with more now being released, wasn’t some kind of Jeffrey Epstein client list, as had been speculated online. It was actually documents from a court case filed by one of Epstein’s victims that did include people’s names, but provided little new information on whether they knew of or participated in Epstein’s heinous crimes.

To get a sense of why conspiracy theories centered on sex trafficking and pedophilia — and now the “Epstein list” — are so buzzy in MAGA circles, POLITICO Magazine called up Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything and Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories.

Rothschild pointed to a toxic stew of age-old antisemitism; the worst incentives of today’s social media; and the right’s unending obsession with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump pops up in the documents, including some released on Monday, but that’s typically not a problem for his hard-core supporters. As with most conspiracy theories, adherents create their own reality.

“There’s nothing Trump can do that will lose these people’s loyalty,” Rothschild said. “Anything that is inconvenient, that alters their worldview, they’ll just ignore it, or they’ll make up some bizarre justification for it.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are the conspiracy theories surrounding the so-called Epstein list?

The conspiracy theories are that this new release of documents is going to finally be the thing that brings down the elite trafficking cabal that’s been running the world for 6,000 years. There’s this perception that there’s been information that’s been held back by the courts or by politicians or the media, this is finally going to put everything out in the open.

And because I’ve studied these movements for so long, I know that these movements really revolve around this idea that there will be a document or a memo or a list or a recording. And that will finally be the thing that finally ends the evil grip of the New World Order, and it never does. They always move on to the next one.

A common misconception is that the list documented Epstein’s clients who partook in sexual acts with minors, but that’s not the case, right?

It’s not the case at all. It’s a dump of documents related to the case. It’s not the smoking gun that’s going to finally bring down all of these powerful ones. A lot of the information and many of the names that are being revealed in these documents have already been known. Some of them were redacted.

But so far, I don’t really think there’s much of anything that we’ve learned that really changes our perception of what Epstein did and kind of who in his orbit knew what, because we know a lot of that already. We know it because of tenacious reporting, and the courage of the accusers who have faced him.

Then why was there so much excitement for the list within MAGA circles online — especially when the list itself wasn’t even documentation of Epstein’s clients?

I think it really ties back to this industry of conspiracy theories about the Clintons. I think they really feel like this will be the thing that brings down Bill and Hillary Clinton. They’re still obsessed with the Clintons. And so anything that can serve as the final nail in their coffin, they’re going to rally around, even if, of course, Trump and a lot of the people around Trump are also implicated in all of these documents. They don’t care about that at all. It’s about the Clintons and the rest of the liberal establishment.

What is it about the Clintons that captivates far-right conspiracy theorists like this?

Part of it is that it’s already been three decades of this: The Clinton conspiracy industry started in the early 90s. It started with stuff like Whitewater, Travelgate, stuff that is ancient history now. But there was a really well-funded, very organized and popular effort to bring the Clintons down. And then of course, it resulted in the impeachment, it resulted in the dump truck full of conspiracies about Hillary Clinton when she ran for president. And even though they’re not really in the public eye much anymore, it’s so prolific that conspiracy theorists have stuck with them because they know what works. They’re just like a classic rock band playing the hits.

You wrote a book on QAnon. Based on your research, why are conservatives so obsessed with the theory that prominent left-wing figures like the Clintons are running pedophile rings? Where does that conspiracy theory originate from?

There’s always been a certain amount of salaciousness in these conspiracy theories, and there are theories going back about the awful sexual depravity of the Catholics or later on of the Jews. So you’re always going to find a certain amount of attention paid to any kind of conspiracy theory involving sexual proclivity of trafficking. And if it involves children, people immediately just lose their mind — even if these children don’t exist. There are no children who have been trafficked because of Pizzagate because Pizzgate isn’t real.

But if you just put out the suggestion there, it grabs ahold in a way that is difficult to dislodge. I think a lot of it has to do with antisemitism. I think a lot of it has to do with fear of the occult and Satanic panic. So you get all of these things that are mixed together: the anti-Jewish sentiment, the fear of Satanism. And, of course, now it extends to social media. So you have these powerful figures, in media, in politics, in culture, academia. It’s very easy to kind of put these people together as part of this vast conspiracy. And if there’s a conspiracy of them, well, they’re probably doing horrible things to children, too, because that’s what evil people do.

You’ve mentioned that all these conspiracy theories are connected. How does the Epstein saga fit into the broader ecosystem of far-right conspiracy theories, including QAnon and Pizzagate? Particularly when Epstein was never even a figure on the left?

The QAnon and Pizzagate people — they really have embraced Epstein as the most obvious example of these sort of high-level traffickings. Of course, with Epstein, a lot of it was true. He was doing these things, he was connected to this absolutely abhorrent behavior.

But part of what happens is we lose the ability to discern noise from signal. So you’re tarring as a pedophile anybody who had any kind of association with Epstein. And of course, most of the people who were associated with Epstein had nothing to do with what he was doing. Some of them may have known about it, some of them may have looked the other way. And they certainly have a lot of hard questions to answer about their associations with Epstein and what they knew. But just because a person had a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein doesn’t make them part of sex trafficking rings. But it’s very easy to point at all of these people and say, “They’re all working together. They’re all hiding the same things. They’re all doing the same horrible things. And we’re the only people who will talk about it.”

Do you think if the Clintons weren’t involved, the “Epstein list” wouldn’t have blown up like this?

I really don’t think it would’ve. I don’t think it would have gotten quite the attention. I think there would have been some attention; you do have people in that world who are really obsessed with the idea of trafficking and Pizzagate and all that other stuff, but I think the Clinton connection is really what vaulted it into the stratosphere.

How did these people use the “Epstein list” as ammunition for their conspiracy theories, and how does the role of the internet factor into all this?

Internet is a huge part of it, and social media in particular. It spreads incredibly quickly, because it sounds believable and if you share it with some documents, it doesn’t matter if they’re real or not. The people who are passing this stuff around don’t care.

It’s very easy to spread these things around and very easy to ignore the parts of it that you don’t find to be palatable to your worldview, such as Donald Trump’s connections to it, and you play up the connections of people like Bill Clinton.

Do you see that misinformation about Epstein has been spreading more than other conspiracy theories?

I think it’s definitely spreading more. I think part of it is the fact that Twitter (now called X) has been so completely eviscerated as a source of truth. As soon as the documents came out, I started seeing fakes. And they were getting passed around by verified accounts with a million followers, who are making tons of ad money, because Elon Musk has completely eviscerated verification on Twitter. They have every incentive to pass fake documents along and if somebody says, “Oh, that’s not real,” who cares?

Disinformation and conspiracy theories spread so quickly and so readily on social media, while the rest of us are doing our research and writing our articles and doing our interviews, trying to figure out what this actually means. The people who believe this stuff have already decided what it means. And they don’t want to be told differently.

Twitter and people like Alex Jones and people like Steve Bannon, they have an alternative media ecosystem. These are not fringe people anymore. This is not the guy standing outside the football stadium waving a sign about the end is coming. This is a massive industry. You’ve got billions of dollars being pumped into misinformation, into these products, into these podcasts, into these books. It’s a job for a lot of these people, and they’re very good at it. They spread this stuff very quickly. They know it doesn’t matter whether it’s real or not, their audience doesn’t care.

Trump’s appearance in the documents unsettled some conservatives, like Alex Jones. Others like Jack Posobiec rushed to Trump’s defense by posting screenshots from the released court documents, claiming that Trump was exonerated. How does Trump’s presence here complicate the worldview of MAGA conspiracy theorists, especially those who thought Trump would save the nation from pedophiles?

It doesn’t complicate it at all. They just sweep it away. There’s nothing Trump can do that will lose these people’s loyalty. Whatever his involvement is, they just pretend it’s not there. Or they say, “Well, he was only there because he was getting information on Epstein to give to the FBI.” I saw tons of that early on in QAnon. The idea that there’s some sort of undercover sting operation. I’m like, really? I don’t think Donald Trump could stay quiet about that for five seconds. But you believe it, you talk yourself into it.

So it’s a lot like a lot of Trump’s other associations, and I write about this in my book on the Rothschilds. The Trump Taj Mahal was actually saved from bankruptcy by Rothschild Inc. Their bankruptcy guy was Wilbur Ross, who helped structure the deal that got the Taj Mahal out of bankruptcy. And, of course, Wilbur Ross later became Trump’s commerce secretary. You’ve never heard a peep about it from Trump believers, they just sweep it away. Anything that is inconvenient, that alters their worldview, they’ll just ignore it, or they’ll make up some bizarre justification for it.

With Epstein, we know how bad he was. And there may be some people who have a difficult time because they wind up in one of these documents. But ultimately, it’s not going to change that Epstein was a horrible person, and that it was people who were connected to Trump who helped him get out of prison the first time, that it was the incompetence of the jail that allowed him to take his own life. That is not going to change. There’s not going to be a document that completely alters our understanding of what happened.

What does it take to change the minds of conspiracy theorists, especially when it seems they’ll jump through all sorts of hoops in order to distort their reality for the sake of their own beliefs?

Most people will not change their mind. Most people will double down, they will show absolutely no interest in being wrong. For a lot of these people, that’s the worst thing that can happen. They have to go back to their friends and family and say, “You were right, I was wrong, and I’m an idiot.”

Sometimes it does happen. You will find people who have gotten out of movements like QAnon or have broken away from the hardcore Trump worship because they’ll read something or they’ll hear something that they just can’t reconcile with how they see the world. And once you find one thing that doesn’t work for you and these movements, you start to find more of them. I liken it to a tapestry where if you pull on one thread, the whole thing immediately unravels. But you have to want to pull on that thread, you have to prepare yourself for the possibility of it all, and you being left with a view that is completely collapsed. For a lot of people, that’s just too difficult. They just can’t handle it. So they just burrow into it more, and the more things go wrong, and the more predictions fail, and the more things don’t come true, the more they believe because they just have nowhere else to go.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s brother lists the evidence he claims feds are covering up about pedophile’s death

Jeffrey Epstein’s brother lists the evidence he claims feds are covering up about pedophile’s death

The New York Post headlines this of Jeffrey Epstein’s brother: 

Jeffrey Epstein’s brother lists the evidence he claims feds are covering up about pedophile’s death

The Post reports:

“Despite being the most high-profile prisoner in the US, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on August 10, 2019.

The financier, awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking underage girls, was found in his cell just after 6:30 a.m., having apparently used a length of orange bedsheet tied to the cell’s bunk bed to hang himself.

Throughout the previous night, cameras in the Secure Housing Unit where Epstein was being held weren’t recording, prison guards slept and Epstein was left without a cellmate despite prison psychologists’ direct orders.

Then-Attorney General Bill Barr would later call the situation a perfect storm of screw-ups.’

Within a week, a medical examiner had ruled the death a suicide, meaning no further investigation was required. Eventually, a 128-page report was produced by the Department of Justice which concluded prison staff made errors and blamed ‘long-standing operational challenges’ for Epstein’s death.

However, some have consistently challenged the official version of events, including Epstein’s brother, Mark, 69, who is campaigning for more information to be made public — including video from the cell block.

‘I only want to look at facts, but when we consider the facts available, we get more questions,’ the property developer told The Post.

‘There appears to have been no investigation once it was ruled a suicide, they saw no reason to dig deeper.’

‘It seems like a cover-up. Why can’t I find his pre-hospital care report and why can’t I get the 911 call?’

The following is a compilation of publicly available information about Epstein’s death as well as findings from Mark’s four-year investigation:

The autopsy

Two medical examiners were present for Epstein’s autopsy, Dr. Kristin Roman and Dr. Michael Baden. The latter was sent by Mark to independently oversee the procedure.

They agreed to list the manner of death as “pending,” saying further investigation was required.

That was overruled a week later by New York Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Samson, who changed it to suicide.

Samson said she had seen ‘additional evidence,’ but has never said what that evidence was. Baden said Epstein had two breaks on each side of his thyroid cartilage near his Adam’s apple, and one above it on the left side of his hyoid bone, which were ‘extremely unusual in suicidal hangings’ and ‘could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.’

Baden added: ‘I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case.’

In addition, no photo was taken of the position of Epstein’s body when he was found — which multiple medical examiners have agreed is a key piece of evidence in determining exactly how he died.

Autopsy photos show the marks on Epstein’s throat from the ligature were in the middle to lower portion of the neck, and straight, not raised and pointing toward the side and back of the throat in a way more consistent with hanging.

Epstein’s cell

The Department of Justice’s investigation into Epstein’s death says he was found “suspended from the top bunk in a near-seated position, with his buttocks approximately 1 inch to 1 inch and a half off the floor” and his legs in front of him.

This means most of his bodyweight was hanging on the ligature around his neck.

The guard who found him, Michael Thomas, claimed both that he ripped the sheet and that he cut it, then began chest compressions until prison medics arrived.

Two nooses were found in the cell, according to the CBS show “60 Minutes.”

The noose taken as evidence was not the one the prison guard ripped or cut from Epstein’s body.

The submitted and photographed noose was a whole piece of cloth with a hemmed edge and no staining or fluids, despite allegedly being around Epstein’s neck when he died.

In photos of Epstein’s cell, his sleep apnea machine can be seen — which Mark points out has an electrical cord that would have been easier to use to hang himself than a sheet.

Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who attended the scene were not interviewed, which is standard protocol in such cases.

Especially in high-profile cases, EMTs and hospital staff are interviewed by police, but in this case, none were. In addition, a pre-hospital care report for Epstein “can’t be found,” according to hospital staff.

The autopsy showed Epstein was dead for at least two hours before he was found, and possibly up to six hours.

However, despite clearly being deceased, he was transferred to a hospital and placed in a hospital gown on a gurney.

Meanwhile, the 911 call made from the prison and its contents have also never been released.

 Inmates and evidence

On July 23, while Epstein was in jail, guards were called to the cell he shared with former cop and now-convicted killer of four Nicholas Tartaglione due to an incident in which he had sustained neck injuries.

Following the incident, Epstein told prison staff he had been attacked by his cellmate. He later said he “did not remember” how he got the injuries and refused to speak further about it.

After the incident, on July 30, the prison psychology department said Epstein must have a cellmate at all times and was to be monitored.

The new cellmate, Efrain “Stone” Reyes, was assigned but transferred out of MCC to another facility less than 24 hours before Epstein’s death.

Reyes told his family Epstein seemed “depressed” and “didn’t want to live anymore,” according to the New York Daily News, which also quoted another inmate who said Epstein “was saying he’s going to kill himself because the government is trying to kill him anyway.”

Video evidence from the night of Epstein’s death was “limited.”

According to the Department for Justice’s investigation, “Recorded video evidence for Aug. 9 and 10 for the SHU area where Epstein was housed was only available from one prison security camera due to a malfunction of MCC New York’s Digital Video Recorder system.”

However, it also notes that “between approximately 10:40 p.m. on August 9 and about 6:30 a.m. on August 10, no one was seen entering Epstein’s cell tier from the SHU common area.”

Despite Freedom of Information Act requests being filed, the footage from the working camera, particularly showing when Epstein’s body was removed from the tier in the morning, has never been released to the public.

Sleeping guards

Prison guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas were stationed 15 feet from Epstein’s cell.

However, they fell asleep and did not check on prisoners in the Secure Housing Unit at all on August 9, the night Epstein died.

They later admitted to falsifying records that said they had completed the checks. Both were federally indicted, but struck a deal whereby, in exchange for admitting their guilt and cooperating with the federal probe into Epstein’s death, the charges were dropped.

Neither has ever spoken publicly about Epstein or what happened that night.

The indictment against the officers also lists the presence of two other prison guards, “Officer-1” and “Officer-2,” who were also on duty during at least part of their shift and were supposed to accompany Noel on her rounds. Their identities have never been released.

Mark says he has nothing to gain from his brother’s death, was not a part of his will and has incurred legal fees and had to spend money to protect his family since 2019.

‘They had a hearing which was coming up a few days after his death to appeal the bail restrictions … why would Jeffrey kill himself a few days before that hearing? Because if he got bail, he’d be out of jail, awaiting trial in his house with an ankle monitor,’ he told investigative journalist Declan Hill on his “Crimewaves” podcast.

‘Why kill yourself then? If bail was denied again, then I could understand it.’

‘Believe me, it would have been easier if [the pathologists] had come out and said, ‘It looks like a suicide,’ then I could put this whole issue behind me,’ he added.”

Safe to say, this controversy is not going away any time soon.

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Jeffrey Epstein list: Harvey Weinstein and Sarah Ferguson named as more documents emerge

Jeffrey Epstein list: Harvey Weinstein and Sarah Ferguson named as more documents emerge

A newly released batch of documents has named even more people connected to disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, including Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

It's the fifth batch of documents to be released after a New York judge ruled that court documents could be unsealed relating to a lawsuit brought about by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell - the late financier's former girlfriend. The latest round of documents were released just hours after a third and fourth were also made public on Friday.

In this latest round, almost 100 more files were released, naming convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and others. More documents are expected to be released in the coming days and weeks, giving a glimpse into the life of Epstein and his long-running campaign of abuse of young girls.

A number of famous names have appeared in documents so far, including Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Cameron Diaz and David Copperfield. However, the naming of individuals in these documents does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing or implicate them in Epstein's crimes.

The latest round of documents included excerpts of testimony from those who worked for Epstein, along with copies of phone messages he received, including one from Harvey Weinstein, and a number of legal memos from lawyers discussing who could have potentially been called as a witness if the lawsuit went to trial.

The records released relate to a defamation lawsuit Ms Giuffre filed in 2015 against Maxwell, who was accused by multiple women of helping Epstein to recruit underage women and girls who would be taken to his homes in New York, Florida, and on his private island in the US Virgin Islands, where they were sexually abused. Ms Giuffre sued Maxwell after she branded Ms Giuffre a liar over her claims she had been sexually abused as a minor.

The suit between Ms Giuffre and Maxwell was settled in 2017, with Maxwell later being prosecuted for her part in the sex trafficking conspiracy and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Maxwell released a statement on Wednesday night after the first batches of documents were unsealed. In it, she continued to protest her innocence with her attorneys Arthur Aidala and Diana Fabi Samson vowing to carry on at full steam with her appeal.

"Ghislaine Maxwell took no position on the Court's recent decision to unseal documents in Giuffre v Maxwell as these disclosures have no bearing on her or her pending appeal," said her lawyers in a statement. "Ghislaine's focus is on the upcoming appellate argument asking for her entire case to [be] dismissed. She is confident that she will obtain justice in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence."

One name that has repeatedly cropped up in relation to the documents is the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. Epstein's former housekeeper has claimed the Duke spent "weeks" at Epstein's Palm Beach, Florida, home, court documents have revealed.

Juan Alessi said both Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, were friends with both Epstein and Maxwell. A videotaped interview of Mr Alessi under oath in 2009 was released on Friday in the latest wave of documents.

During his interview, Mr Alessi was questioned on the relationship between the Duke and Duchess and Maxwell and Epstein. In it, he claimed Sarah Ferguson was "friends" with Epstein, and visited once for a "short time".

"I think Sarah was there only once and for a short time," Mr Alessi said in the video. "I don't think she slept in there. I cannot remember. I think she was visiting Wellington and she came to the house and we met her."

Among the records unsealed on Friday were copies of phone messages received by Epstein, handwritten by staffers, in 2004 - a year before police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating allegations the millionaire was paying underage girls for sex. While the phone messages didn't appear to contain any huge bombshells, they did give an insight into Epstein's associations with big names in both politics and Hollywood.

At the time of the calls, Epstein was associating with the rich and powerful, offering free rides on his private jet, later dubbed the 'Lolita Express' to names including former President Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey. One message regarding a missed call said Harvey Weinstein had been on the phone trying to contact Epstein.

Weinstein, at that time a force in Hollywood, was- once part of a media investment group that included Epstein. Weinstein's spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, said: "At the time, Epstein was seen as a wealthy power broker with access to many people of various industries and for many reasons.

"It wasn't uncommon for people of that calibre to talk, as we see from the lists that have been coming out. There was and remains nothing more to that."

Years later, Weinstein was involved in his own sex scandal and ultimately ended up being charged with raping and sexually assaulting women in the entertainment business. He is currently serving lengthy prison terms after being convicted in both New York and Los Angeles.

Epstein also had several messages regarding missed calls from Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent who was close to Epstein. Brunel was awaiting trial on charges of raping underage girls when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022.

Independent presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr has said in recent months that he had flown on Epstein's plane, but said he was not concerned that information from the unsealed documents would impact his public image. Speaking on NewsNation's Dan Ambrams Live on Wednesday night, he said: "I like what's happening today.

For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US

"I like the fact that all these papers are being released. I've been an advocate for transparency. I think the government keeps too many secrets. I think it's important for the American public to know whether Jeffrey Epstein had some kind of corrupt influence on public officials or any public figure."

During an appearance on Fox News in September, Mr Kennedy revealed he had flown on Epstein's private jet on two occasions. Giving more information on Wednesday, he clarified the first plane ride took place in 1993, when he visited his mother in Palm Beach. He added: "Remember, nobody knew anything about Jeffrey Epstein's nefarious activities 'til 2006.

"My wife knew his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and they offered us a ride when we were going to see my mother. I was with two children and my wife on the plane at that time, I knew nothing about Jeffrey Epstein."

Mr Kennedy said he accepted a second plane ride a year or two later when he took his children fossil hunting on the pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He said: "I hope everything that is known about Jeffrey Epstein comes out.

"I think it's odd that they have not - that Congress has not been able to subpoena and I've been an advocate for making sure that the government is transparent about everything, including every document, everything that is known about Jeffrey Epstein."

Epstein was jailed in July 2019, killing himself a month later in August before his federal trial began. The people listed in the Epstein files were those named as associates of Epstein and there is no suggestion those listed either knew about his crimes or participated in any criminal behaviour.

Prince Andrew has been named dozens of times in the files. The documents – part of a case against Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – have thrust Andrew back into the spotlight. They do not reveal any new allegations about Prince Andrew, Epstein or his associates.