#" "Ghislaine Maxwell

[gurucave]

Jeffrey Epstein: New Revelations in Second Document Batch

A new wave of court documents has surfaced, shedding further light on the disturbing saga surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s exploitation of young girls at his beachfront mansion. These documents provide intricate details about the recruitment process involving approximately 30 women, revealing a harrowing narrative of exploitation and manipulation. The testimonies within these filings, made public…

[nando161mando]

[blooming-skeleton]

@gamer2002

A new round of court records from a lawsuit related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released Monday, which include photos from an accuser as well as an exhibit that mentions discredited allegations she made about Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson.

At least 17 documents were unsealed. More than 200 documents have been released since Wednesday.

The records are part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein, against his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell that the two settled in 2017. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of aiding Epstein's sex trafficking of young women and girls. Her appeal will be heard in March.

The documents unsealed Monday include several photographs produced by Sarah Ransome, who filed a lawsuit against Epstein, Maxwell and other alleged co-conspirators in 2017 under the pseudonym "Jane Doe 43." Ransome was also involved in the Giuffre case as a witness. She was deposed and provided dozens of photographs showing Epstein, Maxwell, herself and other young women on Epstein's private island.

According to another unsealed filing, Ransome testified that some of the pictures were taken by Jean Luc Brunel, a French model scout and associate of Epstein, and given to her by him

Also included in Monday's document unsealing is an exhibit that contains emails sent by Ransome to a New York Post reporter in the fall of 2016.

In those messages, Ransome made allegations that implicated former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson. 

-ABC news

Mr. Trump flew from Bozeman, Mont., to Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Aspen, Colo., on the jet, made by Gulfstream, to attend campaign fund-raisers after Mr. Trump’s signature Boeing 757, often referred to as Trump Force One, experienced a mechanical issue en route to a campaign rally in Bozeman on Friday.

A Trump campaign official said that the campaign had called its charter jet vendor, Private Jet Services Group, after the mechanical failure to get a plane that could ferry the former president, and that the charter service had provided the Gulfstream jet. The official added that the campaign had used that private jet service as a vendor for years, and that it would take efforts to avoid using that plane in the future.

-The New York Times

Speculation about which famous and powerful figures would be tarnished by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal heated up at the end of last year when a judge ordered that court documents from a years-old case related to the disgraced financier be made public. And while Epstein’s black bookcontained a staggering number of A-listers and high-society pals, perhaps the biggest question surrounding the court documents’ unsealing was what they would reveal about Donald Trump.

The hype escalated on the afternoon of January 3, 2024, when Mark Epstein said that three years before his brother died in jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, he told him he knew secrets that could blow up the presidential election between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“Here’s a direct quote: ‘If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the election.’ That’s what Jeffrey told me in 2016,” Mark Epstein told the New York Post.

Wild stuff! But Mark Epstein said he didn’t know what information his brother was referring to. And while Trump and Bill Clinton (who have both denied any Epstein-related wrongdoing) were mentioned in both old court documents and those released in early 2024, there was no smoking gun.

Yet questions about Trump’s ties to Epstein persist, as the convicted sex offender is now a conspiracy-theory fixture and more Epstein files could still be unsealed. Here’s a running list of the new revelations and what we have already learned about Trump’s relationship with Epstein.

Trump began palling around with Epstein in the late ’80s, but the depth of their friendship is a subject of debate.

Footage unearthed by NBC News in 2019 shows the two men joking around and ogling women during a party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 1992.

In 2002, the mogul told New York, “I’ve known Jeff 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. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Yes. Flight logs show Trump was on Epstein’s plane multiple times, though he has denied it.

Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times between 1993 and 1997, according to flight logs made public during various court proceedings. As the Miami Herald reported in 2021, Trump was accompanied by his then-wife Marla Maples and two of his young children on some of these flights:

The flights were all between Palm Beach and New York City airports, with the June 1994 flight stopping at Ronald Reagan Washington Washington National Airport between Palm Beach and New York. A woman named Marla, apparently Trump’s then-wife Marla Maples, is listed as joining him on the June 1994 flight, along with a Tiffany, apparently their then-infant daughter, and a nanny. Trump’s son Eric is listed as joining him on an August 1995 flight between Palm Beach and New York.

Nevertheless, in a January 2024 Truth Social post, Trump claimed “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.” There is no evidence that he ever visited Little Saint James, Epstein’s property in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Bizarrely, it seems Trump unwittingly used a plane formerly own Epstein during the 2024 campaign. The Miami Herald reportedthat the Trump campaign used a blue Gulfstream jet formerly owned by Epstein to travel to several campaign fundraisers after Trump’s private jet experienced mechanical problems on Friday, August 9, 2024:

Trump, enroute on his own private plane to a campaign event in Bozeman, Montana last week, unexpectedly landed in Billings because of mechanical problems, a campaign spokeswoman said. He and part of his staff then flew on a small charter to Bozeman for a rally Friday night. The next day, he switched to another larger Gulfstream with a serial number that matches a plane once owned by Epstein, his former neighbor in Palm Beach, the campaign confirmed.  “The campaign had no awareness that the charter plane had been owned by Mr. Epstein,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the charter was commissioned by a vendor that has often been used by the campaign. “We heard about the former owner through the media.”

Epstein’s old plane is now owned by Threshold Aviation Group, an Ontario, California-based company that offers private charter service. The Herald noted that the plane used by the Trump campaign was not the infamous “Lolita Express”; Epstein replaced that plane around 2017 and it “has since been destroyed.”

-The INTELLIGENCER

And that’s just a few things Sir Agent Orange has done.

Republican Donald Trump is heading towards an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in November. How might his criminal prosecutions affect his election campaign?

The 78-year-old is the first former president in US history to be criminally convicted, having been found guilty of falsifying business records.

A few weeks later, the US Supreme Court ruled he had partial immunity in perhaps the most serious case he faces - that he tried to overturn the 2020 election result.

And it was not long before the former president scored a further legal win, when a Florida judge dismissed a case related to his handling of classified documents.

What's it about?

Whether Trump illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.

Federal prosecutors allege he pressured officials to reverse the results, knowingly spread lies about election fraud and sought to exploit the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021 to delay the certification of Mr Biden's victory and stay in power.

He's been charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens. 

Some had speculated he would be charged with insurrection, or aiding insurrection, but that is not one of the charges.

He has denied wrongdoing and claimed the Biden administration is behind the prosecution.

-BBC News

A judge on July 15 dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump, which clears away one of the major legal challenges facing the former president. In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the hush money trial in Manhattan criminal court. Trump is the first former president in US history to be convicted of a felony, and with his third presidential bid under way for 2024, the stakes are high for both him and the country.

Catch up on what you need to know about Trump’s cases, including key evidence, charges and what’s next in the legal process.

Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. Both Trumpand his aide Walt Nauta have pleaded not guilty.

On July 27, 2023, the special counsel charged Trump with three new counts, including one additional count of willful retention of national defense information. Nauta was also charged on two new counts. A third defendant, Carlos de Oliveira, was added to the case and charged with four counts, including being added to the obstruction conspiracy charged in the original indictment.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on July 15, 2024, saying in a ruling that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution.

"In the end, it seems the Executive’s growing comfort in appointing ‘regulatory’ special counsels in the more recent era has followed an ad hoc pattern with little judicial scrutiny,” Cannon wrote.

Key evidence

Recording of Trump discussing holding secret documents he did not declassify

About 100 classified documents found in a FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August

Surveillance footage turned over to the Justice Department that allegedly shows Nauta and De Oliveira moving document boxes around the resort

-CNN

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actorwho said the two had sex.

Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.

The verdict is a stunning legal reckoning for Trump and exposes him to potential prison time in the city where his manipulations of the tabloid press helped catapult him from a real estate tycoon to reality television star and ultimately president. As he seeks to reclaim the White House in this year’s election, the judgment presents voters with another test of their willingness to accept Trump’s boundary-breaking behavior.

-AP News

[duchessofostergotlands]

hey, sorry for the disturbance but i just wanted to ask what does tumblr have to do with whole epstein island going on. i googled it but found nothing so i wanted to ask. thank you.

It's the first result that comes up if you google the quote I listed, third that comes up for me if I just google Epstein Tumblr:

[mariacallous]

In recent times, Prince Andrew has been the subject of both a televised comedy musical and a number of formal council petitions from Brits who no longer wish their street to be called Prince Andrew Drive or Prince Andrew Way. Yet, amazingly, the duke somehow still remains the most ridiculous thing about his own life. Barely a week goes by without some wince-inducing story about his comeback plans finding its well-sourced way into the news.

After many years of non-cooperation with any number of attempts to get to the bottom of her allegations against him, Andrew last year finally settled a civil claim with Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by the deceased paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. The settlement did not include any admission of guilt. Giuffre is now reported to be writing a book about her experiences with Epstein and beyond, and though her settlement with the duke would prevent her speaking out in detail about Prince Andrew, multiple articles suggest he is ready to launch a lawsuit should she mention him. “Andrew and his lawyers are ready to go on the attack,” a “source familiar with the case” told the Mail at the weekend. “Then her claims will be put under scrutiny for the first time in a court of law.” Finally! I don’t know about you but I always pay a reported £12m to settle a case out of court, when all I really want is for its claims to be heard in a court.

Then, last week, allies of the duke let it be known that “details are about to be made public which will change people’s perceptions of him”. Intriguing. Are those details … could they possibly be … a photograph subsequently published on the front page of the Daily Telegraph last Saturday? Unclear. But oh dear me, where to start on this picture, released by Ian Maxwell, the brother of Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine?

You will almost certainly have seen this truly cursed image by now. If you somehow swerved it, however, the details are as follows. Two (mercifully clothed) adults are sitting in the bath of Ghislaine’s former Belgravia mews house, which you will recall is where Giuffre alleges she was first coerced into sexual activity with Prince Andrew. Around the faces of the two people in the photo – and I can barely believe I’m typing this, but here we are – there are elasticated laminated A4 sheets of paper, worn as masks. Think of it as Eyes Wide Shit. One mask bears the face of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, from the notorious original photo of her with the duke’s hand round her waist, taken in the house in question on the night in question. Odd choice – but not the oddest, let’s face it. The other figure is wearing a contemporary photo of Prince Andrew, 62, which only serves to emphasise the bizarre grossness of what the reader is being asked to behold and consider. Unbelievably, actual lawyers had something to do with this nutso line of defence, which the Telegraph chose to headline: “The photo that ‘clears Duke’ over bath sex”.

We might begin by querying whether “bath sex” is really the correct term for alleged rape of a trafficked teenager. But wait, because there’s more. The image is accompanied by quotes from Ian. I always feel I missed the point in time that the utterances of Ian Maxwell began being treated with something other than quizzical contempt. When precisely did this switcheroo happen? Anyway, here is Maxwell on the photo, which he seems to have personally staged. “I am releasing my photographs now because the truth needs to come out,” explains Ian, apparently dialling in from the Arkham Asylum of British public life. “They show conclusively that the bath is too small for any kind of sex frolicking.” Two points. One: they don’t show anything of the sort. And two: What? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!

“The family have even supplied the bath’s dimensions,” gibbers the Telegraph, “revealing that the base of the bathtub measures 1,359mm by 380mm.” I’m not sure any newspaper in the land can credibly take the high ground on the lunacies of other publications. There but for the grace, and all of that. But I don’t imagine I was the only reader who saw this picture online and had to go to the source to check whether that really and truly was the actual front page. Yet it honestly was. Less of a marmalade-dropper, more of a stomach-vacater.

If that photo wasn’t the gamechanging gambit at which Andrew’s allies were hinting, perhaps it was last week’s interview with Ghislaine herself. In this, Maxwell clutched one of the visiting-room telephones at the Florida prison in which she is currently serving a 20-year-sentence for her crimes, and explained through the glass that the original photo of the duke with his arm round Giuffre (in which she herself is pictured smirking stage left) was a fake. If that was the de-smoked gun, then unfortunately all it took was for the news photographer who had originally snapped the image from a hard copy Giuffre handed him to produce his image of the back of that photo. This displays the standard developers’ date stamp. It turns out to have been an ordinary printed snap, processed at a one-hour lab at Walgreens on 13 March 2001, three days after the date on which Giuffre alleged she was first forced into sexual activity with Andrew. The news photographer had gone back through his archives after being incensed by Ghislaine’s interview last week. As he put it: “I thought, ‘here we go again’.”

And here we do seem to keep going again. Quite how long the duke will fail to realise his comeback is doomed is not clear. News that he would no longer have offices at Buckingham Palace, which is undergoing a £369m refurbishment, was tempered by hints that he would still probably be granted rooms at nearby St James’s Palace. But for what, given he appears to have nothing to do other than mount a wildly ill-advised rearguard action against deeply unsavoury claims he decided to settle?

Andrew no longer enjoys the range of confected positions that enabled him to be helicoptered between the world’s finest golf courses. Does one really need a suite of damask-walled and lavishly gilded rooms with liveried attendees for his current activities? I can’t help feeling a lock-up with a single swinging lightbulb somewhere off the M25 might be more appropriate in the circumstances. That is the only staged photo any of us wishes to see. Failing that, a silent retirement for this lifelong self-saboteur would be in all interests, including his own.

[collymore]

Always blame the dead; never the living! The normal practice of the British Establishment!

By Stanley Collymore  

I'm no monarchist: and that's literally neither an excuse nor a bitingly scathing condemnation, just a naturally candid explanation on my part, but evidently all the same, rather intelligently, very sensibly, and similarly logically, why I literally don't see, that a now dead Liz Windsor ought obviously really, to be truly dragged into, this latest mess surrounding and discernibly occasioned by her offspring even if, as we all do know, he was truly and effectively her favourite son! As obviously, it was Andrew who of his very own volition, crucially and effectively got involved with Jeffrey Epstein and significantly there's certainly no unequivocal   evidence, positive nor obviously very egregiously circumstantial, that anyone actually forced him into that close and significantly personal relationship that aptly existed, between both of them!

So whether guilty or not of any misdeeds Andrew was most undeniably very physically present and therefore unquestionably had some idea of what was evidently rather distinctly going on; and ought therefore, to have literally distanced himself from it all, at first sight! But, quite self-evidently and for his own personal reasons, he simply didn't! So obviously there was something, whatever it was, which was clearly interesting and likewise also quite beneficially compelling to actually have kept Andrew very genuinely   interested and also participatorily and simply committedly, involved as well, as implacably, interested in obviously what Jeffrey Epstein and an unswervingly dutiful moll, Ghislaine Maxwell were odiously and egregiously noxiously doing!

(C) Stanley V. Collymore 9 January 2024.

Author's Remarks: Mr Alan Dershowitz says? What an utterly sick joke! Seems that anyone can practice law in the USA, including the likes of Alan Dershowitz and Rudy Giuliani, and usually does! And to quote Mandy Rice Davies in the Profumo court case, Alan Dershowitz "would say that, wouldn't he?"

Sensibly, logically and most intelligently why would anyone literally pay millions to any person they publicly claim not to have ever met simply because their mummy told them to? Try fathoming that one out!  

Ah well! It's all about image and actually protecting the supposed sanctity, in the eyes of the gullible and distinctively very sycophantic serfs, of this allegedly quite divine monarchy at all costs. And all this public exhorting of Charles Windsor to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ requisite to the sinful brother of his Judas Iscariot, Andrew Windsor, is preposterously quite laughable if it wasn't, so bloody serious!

Undoubtedly Andrew was a spoilt rather overindulged child who unrestrictively was allowed to and even decently permitted to grow up to become a pompous middle aged man. But amongst the Windsor of both genders he's not alone in that!

Charles personally for over two decades had very close, personal relationships with noxiously, verminous, paedophiles in the form of Jimmy Savile and Bishop Peter Ball, to name just two among this coterie of paedophiles that infested the Windsor households across the board, had full and unhindered access to these peoples' homes and likewise their personal staff and other employees.

And had Diana not resolutely put her foot down Charles would have had Jimmy Savile as one of Harry's godfathers. As well, there's the issue of another odious paedophile who was commissioned to paint Liz Windsor's portrait. Where is that portrait now that the world knows what an evilly, vile paedophile Rolf Harris was? Damage limitation they've all like bat out of hell distanced themselves after Harris' conviction from it. Go do your research on the aforementioned and other rather sick behavioural patterns of the Windsor family, and not simply concentrate on one convenient bad apple, that fictitious stories about Meghan and Harry were quite racially used to cover up!

Then there's the irony of a serial and odiously adulterous pair, not a single apology in sight, happily going off to Church purely for show and the serfs swallowing it hook line and sinker. But I guess if the Church of which you're the hereditary Head, and founded both on murder and adultery was good enough for Henry VIII it should be equally so in the British feudal system that comprises the 21st Century.

Henry VIII had his blood lust and wanted request with Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Charles his with Diana Spencer; as yet though no one has accused or thinks that Andrew has been complicit in or has actually had murder carried out on his behalf; has he Charles?

[boricuacherry-blog]

First of all, the FBI never investigated MJ. They've said that already on their own website, but people want to continue to believe misinformation. They assisted law enforcement "as needed." They have NEVER, I repeat, NEVER opened an investigation on the Michael Jackson.

Second of all, Epstein wasn't known to the public as the person we know him to be today. That doesn't mean people he personally interacted with weren't made aware. Stuff like that generally happens on the downlow anyway. We don't know. Also MJ was good friends with Trump (during the heat of the accusations Trump let MJ stay at Trump Towers) and Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were at Mar A Lago many times. Just the fact that a man with decades long accusations of pedophilia is being associated with Epstein raises some questions.

Third of all, I looked at the pictures of what they found at Neverland. To me, that clearly looked like child porn. 8 year olds without shirts bending over in sexual positions and kids in a book with visible hard ons through their swimming trunks? And to add on to that, it was photographed by convicted pedos for clearly one purpose? And a photograph of a little boy in a sexual pose? Too many things that didn't in any way suggest innocence to me.

Gavin Arvizo himself said MJ pressured him to sleep in the bed with him if "he loved him." And according to MJ, kids are so faultless and don't lie, so which one is it?

Fifth, there are certain medications and bleaching products that when repeatedly used can induce what looks like vitiligo. So I'm not going to just assume he had vitiligo because of the autopsy, however, vitiligo did not change the shape of his nose and every other black feature on his face.

Lastly, you said a whole lot of nothing and for what...there's more things that point to him being a pedo than not. The FBI thing is the first thing I would expect an MJ fan to have researched but I guess it's easier saying the FBI investigated for 10 years when they never did even for one year 🤔 what they found at Neverland alone makes me think something is wrong. Like, hello?

People going so hard to explain MJ's behaviors when he didn't even go out of the way to stop having sleepovers, even after he saw it was affecting the kids he supposedly loved so much agony with themselves and their family units.

One of MJ's underage friends has been quoted as saying that to be friends with him is to spend your life defending his actions. It wouldn't be that way if MJ had cared about how his actions affected other people.

As far back as the 80s/early 90s, there was a social worker on a train who filed a report stating she felt there was something inappropriate going on with MJ and a boy he claimed was his cousin. The accusations of him with children go even farther back than the first public accusation we know of.

Since everyone's reading comprehension clearly just went out the window when the person in the Epstein documents asked about Michael Jackson. The girl literally said nothing happened. And to go into more detail, this was before anything about Epstein came to light and when Epstein was still fronting as one of those financial businessmen. MJ was LITERALLY THOROUGHLY investigated and HEAVILY survellienced by the government/FBI for over 2 decades BEFORE and AFTER meeting Epstein, the FBI REALLY wanted MJ gone from the public eye, they even tried to use his childhood photos and some playboy magazines to prove he was guilty. In the 2000s MJ was in conflict with Sony and was going broke, some people(we dont know who they were yet) recommended he go to Epstein to solve financial issues. MJ dipped out and Epstein never got his number, his name literally was not in that black book. Y'all keep bringing up those false accusations with the boys when if you actually look up anything on it, the boys came forward and said their parents lied, and the bed thing was false because MJ's room was huge and had two beds, he had the PARENTS AND THEIR KIDS sleeping in the beds in his room while HE slept in his own GUEST ROOM.

Stop making shit up when the people who wanted so badly for him to do something criminal literally couldn't find anything at all in all those years that he was looked at so closely to the point he was literally having mental breakdowns from being watched every where he went, during every call, and so on.

(edit: To add to this, people constantly lie about his skin and how he felt about himself and his body too. When for one, his autopsy was right there and literally says he suffered from lupus and Vitilogo and his hair was literally the way it was due to it being set on fire in that one Pepsi commercial, there are literally graphic images of just how badly his scalp had been damaged. He never hated himself or his blackness, infact he actively tried to hide his white splotches for as long as he could. He used makeup and skincare stuff that he was unaware had any bleaching affects in the ingredients. He was very open and loud about being proud of his African heritage, he even was crowned in an African village.

I made this post cause I started tweaking because the singular black breadtuber I was watching was reading the Epstein documents and when he got to Michael being mentioned he and everyone in chat suddenly became illiterate and he was talking some shit like "it would seem he really was that guy if those documentaries, court stuff and articles didn't already convince you" like WHAT??? And chat was agreeing and someone was like "the Twitter stans are still gonna find a way to defend him after this" mind you, if you weren't bread dead and believed all that slander, all the court stuff declared and pretty much proved his innocence and later one people including his own friends and family came forward saying they were forced and coerced into lying. Those documentaries that came out and so many of those articles were straight up slanderous because they were damn tabloids, I don't get why people are still trying to use tabloids as proof when they were known for spreading rumors that often were not true in the slightest. This shit actually has me genuinely heated. Like, the breadtuber didn't bother reading the rest and was just like "well that proves it" even though it was stated right below that Epstein did not have his contact. Then there's the dumbasses on Twitter too making this shit worse. You'd think that most people at some point would bother to actually use their brains and seek out as much info as possible instead of taking lies and running with it, especially if they have a platform where they literally should be doing such a thing but nope. The guy was iffy about the star wars guy and whether or not he was actually a contact in Epstein's list but that same grace was not afforded to MJ.

Another edit:Oh and also it's wild MJ's false accusations are always brought and people say Elvis and Prince are better than him meanwhile Elvis and Prince were known pedos and abusers. Like are you fucking kidding me!!!)

[nando161mando]

[laurasroyalblog]

There aren’t really curse words strong enough to adequately communicate my disdain for Andrew, and others have expressed it better than I could ever hope to, so I am going to look at a different angle to this interview.

Clearly, Andrew was coached by lawyers and PR people to say that he has “no recollection” of meeting Virginia.  That is pretty standard from a legal perspective because it’s extremely difficult to prove that statement false.  However there are 2 big issues with that statement.

1) Literally everyone knows that’s PR talk.  It’s not even remotely subtle.  Bill Clinton used “to my knowledge” all the time in the 90s when testifying about his troubles. OJ Simpson said this a lot when on trial for murder.  And both of these were decades ago.  It’s so freaking blatant at this point.  And PR talk where everyone knows it’s PR talk is ineffective at best and detrimental at worst.

2) This is more detrimental than ineffective because there’s a picture of Andrew with Virginia. That picture is going to be posted with that quote in every single article about it.  It’s not just a random picture at an event or something like that.  It’s a picture from a clearly private and personal event with Ghislaine Maxwell looking on.  For the sake of argument let’s say that Andrew truly doesn’t remember meeting Virginia (for the record: I don’t believe this). Saying that he has no recollection when there’s a picture like that is just going to make him look like a massive liar which defeats any goal he would’ve had for this interview.

I just struggle to understand how anyone in Andrew’s camp thought this would help things.  His apology doesn’t even really do much because it sounds like he’s not sorry he did it, he’s just sorry he got caught.  

But regardless of any of this, the BRF have no need for Andrew doing work on behalf of the firm.  I have given up on the Queen doing anything about it, but if King Charles kicks Andrew the fuck outta the firm well then it will have still been too late, but better late than never.

[napoleoninrags]

President Barabbas

The mob chose a mobster. Elections have consequences.

by Greg Olear

"Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country.” —Donald John Trump, 24 March 2020

I WAS RAISED Catholic, which meant that every Sunday, come hell or high water, we went to church. The Catholic Mass is extremely rote. There’s a lot of call-and-response, a lot of standing up and sitting down, a lot of the same material, repeated over and over and over again. The Apostles’ Creed, for example, has been recited at Mass, in much the same way, since it was codified at the Council of Nicaea during the reign of Constantine the Great, a mere 17 centuries ago.

The best day of the liturgical year, in my recollection, was Palm Sunday. The priest always shared the same story: Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect, appeared before his subjects in Jerusalem on the occasion of Passover, and agreed to free a single Jewish prisoner. The mob had to choose: should Pilate free Jesus, the alleged “King of the Jews,” or Barabbas, a notorious criminal? Whereupon we, role-playing in the pews, would cry, WE WANT BARABBAS! My brother and I shouted with gusto, to my mother’s extreme annoyance: WE WANT BARABBAS! And so the killer was set free, and Christ condemned to die.

I didn’t know at the time that this passage, perpetuating as it does the “Jews killed Jesus” myth, was used for centuries by anti-Semites to justify their despicable deeds. I never interpreted it that way. To me, the story is about how mobs, led as they are by riled-up morons, can easily be fooled and manipulated into voting against their best interests.

The 2016 election is a recent example of how the angry masses, presented with a clear choice of good guy versus bad guy, chose unwisely. It’s not fair to either party to compare Hillary Clinton with Jesus Christ, and Pontius Pilate did not use the Electoral College system in determining whom to pardon, but notorious criminal Donald John Trump is absolutely President Barabbas. The mob went with the mobster.

Three years into the Trump Administration, and a shocking number of the president’s associates are either in prison, about to head to prison, under indictment, or under investigation. There is Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chair, currently incarcerated. There is Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney, fixer, and bagman: ditto. There is the treacherous Michael Flynn, awaiting his sentence (or, perhaps, his pardon). There is Trump’s longtime buddy and shadow campaign advisor Roger Stone, soon to toddle off to the hoosegow. There’s also those who have not yet been indicted because of the nefarious machinations of the corrupt Attorney General, William Barr: Rudy Giuliani, Jared Kushner, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Mick Mulvaney, Erik Prince, and Trump’s lousy kids Ivanka, Eric, and Don Junior.

What is remarkable here, aside from the obvious fact that Trump cavorts with an uncanny number of crooks, is that none of these people has flipped. Manafort pretended to, only to ratfuck the FBI. Flynn, too, lied to investigators. Only Cohen gave up some dirt—but how much did he really surrender? The thing is, the rest of these people aren’t nearly as hard. Trump wants to pardon Roger Stone because he knows him well enough to know that he will sing to stay out of the Big House. Jared Kushner, aka Boy Plunder, has done so many illicit things that he will keep FBI agents busy for years; is Mr. Ivanka really not going to flip to avoid prison? And I can’t imagine Don Junior exhibiting the same trollish swagger around Cellblock D.

Trump’s partners in crime are all selfish assholes. They have no real loyalty. Giuliani, for example, loathes Trump with every fiber of his noxious being. He’s only protecting him out of his own self-interest. At some point, to preserve themselves, these fuckers will all turn on each other, and it will be the end of Reservoir Dogs all up in here: a bunch of petty crooks threatening to take each other down.

So why haven’t they?

A big queen sits in the middle of the stalemated chessboard, preventing all movement. The queen’s name is William Barr. He is the titular Attorney General of the United States, but his actual function is to slow-roll the Department of Justice from its takedown of Trump and his co-conspirators. To that end, he holds up witnesses. He stymies evidence from being sent to prosecutors. He cock-blocks US Attorneys, sure as he cock-blocked Mueller. He kicks the can and kicks it again and again and again, hoping to run out the clock. Barr has been so successful that the GOP is not even remotely worried about the bad stuff coming out. He’s gummed up the works so badly that we couldn’t even get witnesses at the fucking impeachment trial.

With a big, fat cork in the bottle of evidence, Trump and his fellow criminals do not have to fear retribution from law enforcement for as long as he stays in office. The only danger now is if they turn on each other. If they respect omertà, they are golden. Thus it is in all of their interests—Trump’s, but also Pence’s, McConnell’s, Pompeo’s, Kushner’s, and so on—to stay the course. These people will do anything, including exacerbate a global health crisis, to not get caught. They don’t care if we die. Repeat: they don’t care if we die. As Mr. White says in Reservoir Dogs: “The choice between doing ten years and taking out some stupid motherfucker, ain’t no choice at all.”

What are they hiding?

In Trump’s case, generations of criminal involvement with the mob—first La Cosa Nostra, later the Russian mafiya. His grandfather was a minor pimp at the dawn of the organized crime era, but Donald’s father, Fred Trump, was, as Lincoln’s Bible tells us, “a businessman front for the Genovese crime family.”

To best understand Fred, just track his rise from single-family home construction to big residential developments. From Shore Haven (1947) to Beach Haven to Trump Village, all were done with known mafia partners, in Genovese-controlled territory, and eventually with a fully Genovese-owned construction company (HRH Construction).

When the Russian mafiya began rolling in, they landed in Fred’s properties and partnered with the Genovese on some big ticket scams. This was also during the time that Fred and his attorney Roy Cohn set up S&A concrete (via Nick Auletta)—a joint venture between Tony Salerno (Genovese boss) and Paul Castellano (Gambino boss), so that donald could build in Manhattan. Remember donald’s quote, “Even my father, he said, you don’t want to go to Manhattan. That’s not our territory?” That’s because Manhattan, for construction, was Gambino territory. They controlled the concrete and unions. And Fred was a very loyal, shrewd front for the Genovese. To get his idiot, greedy kid into Manhattan, Fred and Roy Cohn had to get those two mob bosses to agree on a joint venture.

When the Russian mafiya pushed out the Italian mob after the fall of the Soviet Union, Donald Trump began laundering money for unseemly Vor associates of Semion Mogilevich. The Russians extended him credit when no US bank would touch him, and he remains in their debt—a fact the Mazars and Deutsche Bank documents will reveal, which is why Trump has moved heaven and earth to keep said documents secret.

Because the Russian mafiya works hand in glove with the Russian government, Trump is also, as Hillary Clinton correctly told us four years ago, Putin’s puppet. His ties to Russian intelligence (Putin, remember, is ex-KGB) go back decades. Recruitment of Trump by the KGB began in the Reagan Administration; for all we know, his succession of ex-Soviet-bloc wives better reflect his allegiance to the Soviets than his taste in women. He is also connected to the Russian organized crime via his friend Jeffrey Epstein, a collector of kompromat and money launderer for arms dealers; Epstein’s longtime partner was Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of Robert Maxwell, the spy and former business partner of, yes, Semion Mogilevich.

Trump’s underworld ties were all there in 2016, barely below the surface, for all the world to see. Wayne Barrett wrote about them for the Village Voice. Robert Friedman alluded to them in Red Mafiya. Craig Unger covers them closely in House of Trump, House of Putin. The mainstream media knew damned well what the guy really was, but chose to equate Trump’s years of actual mobbed-up crimes with HRC’s email server. The result? Every half-wit Fox News watcher proclaims, with a straight face, that Hillary, not Donald, is the crook!

Truth: Trump is a notorious criminal, a serial rapist and sexual assailant, wholly owned by the mob, controlled by the underworld and the Kremlin. He is a latter-day Barabbas—and because of the whims of a riled-up mob, he’s now, somehow, the President of the United States. Make no mistake: If he thinks it will help him avoid prosecution, he will order the churches open for Easter without qualm or hesitation. In his calculus, Jesus gave up His life for us, so we should give up our lives for Trump. He will happily pervert the holiest of Christian holy days to get what he wants. To this monster, nothing is sacred..

[jeffreyepsteinblog]

OPINION:  US PROSECUTORS SHOULD FOCUS ON JEAN-LUC BRUNEL RATHER THAN GHISLAINE MAXWELL

Sure, Ghislaine Maxwell very well may have had her hand in a lot of the sketchy behavior going on at the time and likely did in fact recruit underage girls to come back to Epstein’s various residences to provide him sensual massages that quickly turned into sexual abuse.  She may have even been involved in some of the actual abuse, or so it has been alleged. However, while she gets the highest level of attention now that Epstein is dead, she is still widely considered not much more than Epstein’s enabler, his Madam, and if she’s considered a co-conspirator, most do not see her possessing the same level of guilt as Epstein possesses.  That being said, it would seem that she is the main Focus of the Federal Authorities now that Epstein is dead, but is she really who the Feds should be focusing on?

There is actually someone that seems to have been involved with both the sex trafficking scheme as well as the systematic abuse of underage girls to the same extent that Epstein and who shares the same level of guilt as Epstein himself, but the Media doesn’t seem to think he deserves the same attention as Miss Maxwell for whatever reason.  While the Feds have indicated that they are now interested in pursuing charges against Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers, they seem to have most of their focus on several female employees or friends of Epstein, primarily Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins ex-girlfriend turned Madam and Epstein’s right hand...woman as it relates to his actions in abusing hundreds of underage girls.  In additional to Miss Maxwell, several other female associates of Epstein seem to be listed in most news reports of who the Feds are most likely to go after now that Epstein’s dead.

While he has been named as a potential co-conspirator and has been labeled as someone in Epstein’s inside circle, Jean-Luc Brunel has really not gotten the amount of attention he deserves in this case, especially when compared to Miss Maxwell.  In fact, based on all the allegations set forth in the hundreds of news articles that have been written over the years, Brunel may actually be just as guilty as Epstein himself.  Furthermore, it even appears that Brunel’s unlawful behavior as it relates to the sexual abuse of underage girls, goes back much further than Epstein’s, as far back as the early 80s.

WHO IS JEAN-LUC BRUNEL?  Brunel is French-born modeling scout who has apparently been responsible for finding some of the most famous models in modern history.  He had run a modeling agency named Karin Modeling agency which he grew into an extremely successful modeling agency.  When he decided to expand his modeling business into the US, it is alleged that he did so with a generous loan from Epstein. In the process, he changed the name of his modeling agency to MC2.  Epstein has been quoted saying that the MC2 name referenced Einsteins famous equation and that the E in E=MC2 stands for Epstein.  In other words, Epstein was something akin to a silent partner in Brunel’s modeling agency.

It’s been alleged that Brunel would scout out modeling talent and Epstein would have them flown to the US on his private jets. Epstein would house them in several apartments that he owned down the street from his Manhatten Mansion, and Epstein would fund the process of getting the girl’s visas.  The girls themselves were ordered to do as Epstein wanted, essentially ending up as his own personal sex slaves.  He is alleged to have also sent them out to other wealthy people for sexual favors.  This particular operation, which seems to be definition sex trafficking, was as much the doing of Brunel as it was Epstein.  In fact, based on messages that were later seized by the Government, from Brunel to Epstein in code, discussed specific underage girls that Brunel had secured for Epstein’s personal use.

Brunel has a history of accusations of sexual abuse of underage girls dating back to the early 1980s and seems to have been every bit involved in trafficking European girls to the US for Epstein to use for sex, both personally and to send out to other wealthy individuals.   Brunel’s involvement not only involves similar actions as Miss Maxwell, basically the recruiting of underage girls, but he was also accused of having sexually abused many of them to a similar degree as Epstein himself.  On that basis, it would seem that he shares the same level of guilt as Epstein and should now be the main focus of the Federal Authorities, at least more so than Miss Maxwell.

[myinnerscarlett]

The World and all its Charms

Charm is a lost art. Charm is what we expect when we come to a city called the Hostess City of Savannah. Take my word for it, as my husband and I officially became super-hosts...independent of any agency. For whatever it’s worth, we have been through our share of less than charming agencies that boast they are doing great. They let less than desirable people into our property and, when we pointed out their transgressions, acted like it was our fault. Not our fault people abuse property and safety of inhabitants. That’s not what I’d call a Lucky charm. Put that in your next ad campaign. And we also don’t put up with neighboring agencies who wreak havoc in the townhomes surrounding us - no matter which agency they employ - eye opening to some who found out through us just how bad it’s getting. Because we are about true hospitality for both guests and neighbors. Some people never learn. I’m grateful for those who do. The city putting its foot down is a step in the right direction. That’s the Hostess City I’m talking about. I’m preaching to the choir for those who also live in highly touristic Airbnb towns. It’s all about balance & talk about an act... On that note, the opposite of a mark of hospitality, a book reviewer should never have to be described by a reviewed writer as one who “incorrectly states some facts and omits others.” Letter to the Editor, April/May 2019. As curious or foreign as that approach is to me (because I’d call it rude), it’s always interesting to see how folks change their tune when confronted with their own failings. Much like the vacation rental agencies in Savannah, and doubtless/countless other places... One minute it’s all about I stand by my opinions or (as last year’s reviewed writer put it) “way w-aaay off” appraisal, now it’s - to put it in the proverbial nutshell - who cares. That letter to the editor appeared in June 2018. If you write about it, you care about it. Period. I see a trend. It’s either a marketing ploy on the part of the editor to make sure The Bulletin stays a battleground, for the sake of interest, or just a game, as Mensans are fond of games.  If it was a publication for sale, controversy might help up it. However, The Mensa Bulletin is a “free” magazine that comes with membership. To put it into perspective, it’s the only freebie we mensans get, the readership is getting much older and its book reviewer is unpaid. I skim the issues infrequently and no longer use the resource as a means to get my work to a greater audience. Works I have had reviewed come out as good as my husband and I have as super-hosts. As for readability, there are far more important news outlets and infinitely more important news circulating. I agree with the WSJ article that described Mensa as more of a party club than intellectual meeting of minds (should be both) and anyone who says differently, fine, who cares, right? “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” Quote from Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Denmark, anyone?) I’ll get back to that later. Let’s take the high road. Let the others wallow in the mud. Super-hosts, remember? Speaking of which, so much mud...so little time. In March of 2003, Vanity Fair published a piece called “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” It looked at his lavish lifestyle and questioned the origin of his vast fortune upon which it was based. Questionable is the operative word here. What it failed to do - and failing others is the topic - is report on the team of Jeffrey Epstein and gal pal procurer “I’m innocent to a witch” Ghislaine Maxwell. Crucible references are so apropos here. The Farmers’ accusations are among so many women’s accusations made public lately. They recounted theirs on the record long ago, but that part didn’t make the cut. Another example of bad editing. In their own words: “We decided to share our story about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell with a writer for Vanity Fair in 2002 because telling other people what happened to us, as we had already done, did not lead to either of them being held accountable.” Accountability for one’s actions. Another mainstay of so-called professional agencies. They hoped the story would put people on alert so as to avoid other girls falling prey to their abuse. The article that ran essentially, in their own words, “erased our voices.” Among the tools of intimidation, it’s alleged,  were Epstein’s coterie of intimidating lawyers; a five figure donation to a New York Time’s reporter’s favorite non-profit; a bullet delivering a message; and - get this - a deployment of charm? What was that, surely not the alleged severed cat’s head left on the front lawn of the editor-in-chief? The world and all its charms. Charm should not be equated with buying people off. After all, we don’t live in Denmark’s autonomous region of Greenland. But it is called The Kingdom of Denmark and the King of Denmark figures into Hamlet. And our very own “King of Israel, Chosen One and Second Coming of God” tRump wanted to buy it (or if that didn’t work out, maybe trade it for Puerto Rico). Why some are asking Congress to invoke the 25th amendment, I’ll never know. Ah, sarcasm, but then what else are fools for? There’s The Crucible again. The New York Daily News has had a field day - and rightly so - with the depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper turned The Last Whopper, with tRump front and center, but surrounded by cronies: VP Pence, HUD Sec Ben Carson, Education Sec Betsy DeVos, First “Lady” Melanie (done on purpose) daughter Ivanka and his boy Elroy, I mean son-in-law Jared Kushner. Meet the Jetsons, right. These people are not just other worldly...they are lost in space. As for Bernie’s thoughts on Israel taking tRump’s cues on not allowing members of Congress to visit there...even if - in the one case - Netanyahu flipped (bc of Tlaib’s grandmother)...not so fast. Banning members of Congress should come at a price - to the tune of billions in military aid. Playing fair sometimes means playing hardball. That occurs even when one is as hospitable as a super-host. Or good old Bernie Sanders. That’s an expression, not a judgment. No age discrimination, please. Some of us are not just super-hosts, we are super-agers, like Bernie and the list of candidates in the presidential line-up. For quality people everywhere, no matter what your demographic, I got one question for you... Can you spell “Misogynist,” “Xenophobe,” and “Narcissist,” because I know I can. How about let’s define charm and actually not just use it but insist on others behaving in the same way. At the end of the day, don’t ever let the narcissists or their distractions get in the way.

That’s the story of...that’s the glory of love.

 The narcissists are running our country now. You need to understand what this means. Read and share this book today! 

[bountyofbeads]

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partied together. Then an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion came between them.

https://wapo.st/2GBQrDK

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partied together. Then an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion came between them. (THERE'S RECEIPTS)

By Beth Reinhard, Rosalind S. Helderman and Marc Fisher | Published July 31 at 5:05 PM ET | Posted July 31, 2019 10:22 PM ET |

For the better part of two decades starting in the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump swam in the same social pool. They were neighbors in Florida. They jetted from LaGuardia to Palm Beach together. They partied at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and dined at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion.

And then, in 2004, they were suddenly rivals, each angling to snag a choice Palm Beach property, an oceanfront manse called Maison de l’Amitie — the House of Friendship — that was being sold out of bankruptcy.

Before the auction, Epstein and Trump each tried to work the ref; the trustee in the case, Joseph Luzinski, recalls being lobbied by both camps.

“It was something like, Donald saying, ‘You don’t want to do a deal with him, he doesn’t have the money,’ while Epstein was saying: ‘Donald is all talk. He doesn’t have the money,’ ” Luzinski said. “They both really wanted it.”

Only one man would win.

In the wake of Epstein’s arrest last month on sex trafficking charges, many who socialized with him — including Trump — are eager to have it known that they never much liked the man, or weren’t really friends, or barely even knew him.

“I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” the president said in the Oval Office the day after New York authorities took Epstein into custody.

But friends and associates said the two wealthy New York-to-Palm Beach commuters had socialized for years, drawn together by a mix of money, women and power.

“They knew each other a long time,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide who said he pressed the candidate about his ties to Epstein in late 2014 as the real estate mogul considered a White House run. “Bottom line, Donald would hang out with Epstein because he was rich.”

Their falling out, Trump said, happened about 15 years ago — several years before Epstein’s conviction on a prostitution solicitation charge.

Trump has not said why their relationship ruptured. “The reason doesn’t make any difference, frankly,” the president said.

Fifteen years ago, the two men squared off over the Palm Beach mansion. Just a few months later, local police began investigating allegations that Epstein was sexually abusing minors. Trump has also said — without providing details — that he at some point banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.

The White House declined to comment. Epstein’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

It had been a typical Trump relationship: heavily chronicled in the news media, with an uncertain core beneath the surface.

Photos and articles captured the men together over the years, the future president of the United States and the future convicted sex offender: Here they are, Epstein and longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump and his then-girlfriend, Melania Knauss, double dating at a celebrity tennis tournament at Mar-a-Lago. Partying with Britain’s Prince Andrew. Hanging out with National Football League cheerleaders. Dancing, laughing, palling around at a party Trump threw to celebrate his “freedom” after he divorced his second wife, Marla Maples.

“Terrific guy,” Trump said of Epstein in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with.”

Within two years, public sightings of the two had ended.

‘THEY WERE GOOD FRIENDS ’

Trump and Epstein were more than just neighbors who happened to end up at the same parties. They were two outer-borough New York guys, both with a knack for building their images and making a buck. Both attracted a ton of attention, though Trump worked hard to win notice and Epstein sometimes sought to deflect it. Both won reputations as men who were seen around many beautiful women.

In 2016, Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten told Fox News that Trump had “no relationship” with Epstein: “They were not friends and they did not socialize together.” Garten declined to comment for this article.

But Epstein, asked in a 2010 deposition if he had ever socialized with Trump, responded: “Yes, sir.”

The Epstein-Trump relationship didn’t exist in isolation but as part of a larger Palm Beach social swirl. In the early years after Trump bought the private Mar-a-Lago estate in 1985, Epstein and Trump were spotted together at Palm Beach events, including a pre-pageant dinner at Mar-a-Lago in 1992, according to people in attendance.

“They were tight,” said one person who observed them together and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. “They were each other’s wingmen.”

Trump, recently divorced from his first wife, Ivana, was in an on-and-off relationship with the woman he would soon marry, Marla Maples.

During that period, the New York developer, casting himself as a carefree playboy billionaire, hosted and attended parties at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere, sometimes featuring models, cheerleaders and beauty pageant contestants. Trump had a business connection to all three industries: For a time, he ran a modeling agency. He owned a team in the United States Football League, a short-lived competitor to the NFL. And he controlled the Miss Universe pageant.

Since the start of his career, Trump had made his love life a central part of his public image. The idea was to build his brand as an avatar of fabulousness and to extend that brand by attaching beautiful women to his name, he has said.

“I create stars,” he said on ABC’s “Primetime Live” in 1994, adding: “I’ve really gotten a lot of women great opportunity. Unfortunately, after they’re a star, the fun is over for me. It’s like a creating process. It’s almost like creating a building. It’s pretty sad.”

Trump’s parties at Mar-a-Lago often featured models from Miami who floated around the patio and pool, with many more women than men, friends have recounted.

“That’s true,” Trump said in an interview in 2015, stressing he was single at the time. “The point was to have fun. It was wild.”

“There’s 100 beautiful women and 10 guys,” Roger Stone, his longtime adviser, told The Post in 2016. “���‘Look, how cool are we?’ . . . I mean, it was great.”

Epstein, who in 1990 bought his own place in Palm Beach, two miles north of Trump’s, never became a member of Mar-a-Lago but visited the club for social events, Garten has said. On some of those occasions, Epstein was accompanied by Maxwell.

“Donald liked Epstein,” said Steven Hoffenberg, a Trump acquaintance who was Epstein’s business partner at a New York private equity firm in the 1980s and ’90s, until Hoffenberg was convicted of running a massive Ponzi scheme. “But he was crazy about Maxwell, a very charming lady.”

Epstein made several appearances at Mar-a-Lago. He attended a party there with NFL cheerleaders in 1992, where he was videotaped by an NBC news crew gathering footage for a segment on Trump. The network recently released the footage, in which Trump greets Epstein warmly and whispers in the financier’s ear, leading Epstein to double over in laughter.

Photographs and videos show Epstein and Trump posing together at the mansion in 1992, 1997 and 2000. The two were also pictured together, with model Ingrid Seynhaeve, in 1997 at a Victoria’s Secret party in New York City.

Around that time, Trump flew at least once, in the late 1990s or 2000, on Epstein’s private plane from Florida to New York, according to Epstein’s brother, Mark, who described the flight in a 2009 deposition.

In an interview last week with The Post, Mark Epstein said Trump flew on the plane “numerous times” but said he was only present for one flight.

“They were good friends,” Mark Epstein said. “I know [Trump] is trying to distance himself, but they were.” He added that Trump used to comp Epstein’s mother and aunt at one of Trump’s Atlantic City casino hotels. When a Post reporter sought further details, Mark Epstein hung up.

When Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book of phone numbers appeared in a court file a few years ago, it contained 14 numbers for Trump; his wife, Melania; and others in Trump’s inner circle.

Trump and Epstein’s appearances together often made the news: In February 2000, Epstein and Maxwell attended a celebrity tennis tournament at Mar-a-Lago. Epstein brought along Prince Andrew, who was photographed with Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss.

Trump also dined at Epstein’s Upper East Side Manhattan mansion in 2003, according to New York magazine. “The dialogues are so engaging,” Epstein told the magazine, “that serving even the most extraordinary food sometimes seems inappropriate.”

But according to Stone, Trump turned down numerous invitations to Epstein’s private island and his Palm Beach home. In a 2016 book, Stone quoted Trump as saying that “The one time I visited [Epstein’s] Palm Beach home, the swimming pool was full of beautiful young girls. ‘How nice,’ I thought, ‘he let the neighborhood kids use his pool.’ ”

‘Palm Beach egos going at it’

It was another prime property on Palm Beach island that pitted the two men against each other — a six-acre oceanfront estate with a 180-degree view of the Atlantic.

In November 2004, Trump, who was starring in NBC’s “The Apprentice” at the time, declared himself intent on winning “the finest piece of land in Florida and probably the U.S.,” an estate that had been seized as part of the bankruptcy of nursing home magnate Abe Gosman.

Trump said he planned to create “the second greatest house in America, Mar-a-Lago being the first” and then resell it.

Epstein was also enraptured by the property, which Gosman had purchased in 1988 for about $12 million from Leslie Wexner, the Ohio-based retail executive who was a friend and patron of Epstein’s. In contrast to Trump, Epstein seemed interested in living at the place. Harley Riedel, an attorney for Gosman, said the previous owner had filled the mansion with pricey art and “really did have in his heart that it would be nice if someone moved in and lived there.”

At first, Epstein pressed to gain the upper hand in the competition for the estate, according to Luzinski, the bankruptcy trustee. Epstein agreed on a price and terms that were viewed as favorable for Gosman’s creditors if a higher bid didn’t emerge, he said.

As the competition heated up, Trump and Epstein began talking each other down to the trustee, Luzinski said.

On Nov. 15, 2004, the bidders, their representatives, and a small cavalry of lawyers representing the creditors and the Gosman family gathered in a courtroom at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in West Palm Beach. Trump was connected by phone.

The auction began with an attempt by one of Epstein’s three attorneys to knock Trump out of the bidding. Attorney Andrew Kamensky argued that Trump was not qualified because he demanded that the property have title insurance or he would not close on the sale. “What I’m telling you is that Mr. Epstein will — he will close,” Kamensky said, according a transcript obtained by The Post.

Trump wasn’t in Palm Beach — his own attorney, Raymond Royce, was in the courtroom. But Trump was on the phone, and now he chimed in to defend himself.

Riedel’s first notice that Trump might personally take part in the proceedings came when his voice boomed from the speakerphone. “I was sort of shocked,” the lawyer said.

Judge Steven Friedman rejected Epstein’s objection. The bidding began with Epstein’s offer of $37.25 million, but he dropped out after his bid of $38.6 million was topped.

Trump “had made up his mind to get it no matter the price,” said Charles Tatelbaum, a lawyer for one of Gosman’s creditors, JPMorgan Chase Bank.

A third bidder jumped in late, prompting Trump to pipe up again. “This is Mr. Trump,” he said over the speakerphone. “It seemed to be very clear that they dropped out also.”

The judge allowed the other bidder, Mark Pulte, to proceed, but Trump outbid him, too, with an offer of $41.35 million.

“I will therefore determine by the bang of the gavel that Mr. Trump is the higher bidder,” Friedman said.

In an interview, Luzinski described the showdown as “two very large Palm Beach egos going at it.”

It is unclear whether Trump and Epstein were in contact after the house sale. That month, Trump left two messages for Epstein at his home in Palm Beach, according to records obtained by Vice News — the last known interaction between the two men.

Four years after he bought the Gosman mansion, Trump sold it to Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, more than doubling his investment.

‘HE’S A REAL CREEP ’

It is unclear when Trump learned of allegations that Epstein was preying on teenage girls. In a 2002 interview, he gave no indication of concern, telling New York magazine that Epstein “enjoys his social life.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.

On Nov. 28, 2004 — less than two weeks after the mansion auction — Palm Beach police fielded a tip that young women were seen coming and going from Epstein’s home, then-Police Chief Michael Reiter said in a deposition. Reiter declined to comment.

Four months later, in March 2005, police received a complaint from a woman who alleged that her 15-year-old stepdaughter had been paid $300 by Epstein to massage the financier while partially undressed, according to the police report. The Palm Beach police investigation identified more than a dozen possible victims, the report shows.

In 2006, a Palm Beach grand jury returned an indictment against Epstein of a single count of soliciting a prostitute. Epstein pleaded not guilty. That July, news organizations first reported that Palm Beach police had investigated Epstein for unlawful sex with minors and wanted the FBI to take up the case.

After a lengthy FBI investigation, federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute Epstein under federal law, allowing him instead to plead guilty in state court in 2008 to two felony counts, including soliciting a minor.

Epstein is now facing federal charges in New York of sexually abusing dozens of girls. He has pleaded not guilty.

In late 2007, the New York Post reported that Epstein had been barred from visiting Mar-a-Lago, which Epstein at the time denied.

Earlier this month, Garten, the Trump Organization lawyer, said that Trump “banned him from stepping foot on the property.”

Nunberg said that when he quizzed Trump about his relationship with Epstein, Trump told him, “He’s a real creep, I banned him.” Trump told Nunberg that Epstein had recruited a young woman who worked at Mar-a-Lago to give him massages. Nunberg said Trump told him he issued the edict against Epstein years before the police investigation became public.

Epstein has also been accused of preying on a girl he met at Mar-a-Lago.

One of his alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, has alleged in court documents that when she was a 16-year-old towel girl in Mar-a-Lago’s locker room in 2000, Maxwell “recruited” her to come to Epstein’s Palm Beach place to make money by giving massages.

Giuffre said in a lawsuit against Maxwell that Epstein sexually abused her at his mansions in both Palm Beach and Manhattan. That case was later settled out of court. Epstein and Maxwell have both denied taking part in any sex trafficking.

Trump also appears to have been helpful to Epstein’s accusers.

Brad Edwards, an attorney for some of the alleged victims, said in an interview last year that when he was seeking information from Epstein’s acquaintances in 2009, Trump was “the only person who picked up the phone and said: ‘Let’s just talk. I’ll give you as much time as you want. I’ll tell you what you need to know.’ ”

Edwards declined to say what Trump told him but said he was “very helpful in the information that he gave.”

When Nunberg looked into Trump’s ties with Epstein, he said that Trump’s longtime secretary, Rhona Graff, and others in the Trump Organization all agreed that Trump had made a clear break with Epstein.

“That’s all I needed to know,” Nunberg concluded. “He’d never let somebody else get leverage over him.”

Manuel Roig-Franzia and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

[pscottm]

Ghislaine Maxwell pays tribute to 'dear friend' Prince Andrew from behind Florida prison walls | Daily Mail Online

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11319119/Ghislaine-Maxwell-pays-tribute-dear-friend-Prince-Andrew-Florida-prison-walls.html

“I was very touched that he would remember me and that he would wish me well. And I was very touched by his remembrance of me.”

— Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, quoted by the Daily Mail, saying she was flattered by Donald Trump’s well wishes after she was arrested.

[alphabetsoup-blogposts]

"I feel so bad for dear friend Andrew"

Oh let's do one of our mad, silly shots in the dark, shall we?

Offer is doable—warden [is a] dear friend.

"Convict"

looks more straightforward:

C on Vict. (eg Victory Air Transport per abbreviation)

OC in CVT (eg, Coventry per IATA)

OC tin—CV (eg, Cargolux or Cabo Verde)

O in VTCC (Chiang Mai per ICAO)

where C is Vitamin C, OC is Cotton and O is Oz or Big O.

Postscript: I was drawn to this article by the word "friend" (aka Freddy) and then the stand-out "friendship", but the context is sophisticated and I thought it would be best to ignore the obvious. Broadly, I assume such words are usually signals at best and red herrings at worst. I should, perhaps, be more explicit about these assumptions but I would bore myself silly if I were so introspective all the time.

Postscript 2: just a reminder that—while I do make assumptions about why certain words are chosen (indeed, that's the whole thing, really)—I've never made assumptions about why code washes through a particular communication, about the person pushing it or the person to whom it speaks. I can see here, for example, that the headline is not directly taken from later quotes from Ghislaine Maxwell. That is to say—even if "warden" were a good transposition (which I strongly doubt) I would draw no obvious inference, as to the prison involved. One thing I made clear a long time ago is that I myself had real life experience of being set up to use a particular linguistic formula and understand how this happens frequently in all kinds of contexts where language is reviewed for public dissemination. (Cf, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver re crime reporting and the adoption by newspapers of often unattributed language from police reports.)

[swldx]

BBC 0428 29 Jun 2022

9915Khz 0358 29 JUN 2022 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) SINPO = 55445. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z then ID@0359z pips and newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by Neil Nunes. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (of the Trump Administration), painted a devastating picture, including an allegation, which Trump denies, that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was traveling in and wrestled with a Secret Service officer in an attempt to divert his motorcade to the Capitol, where his supporters were gathering on January 6 following a Rally. Turkey has signed an agreement to support Finland and Sweden’s bid for Nato membership. The foreign ministers of Sweden, Turkey, and Finland shook hands after signing documents. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the memorandum addressed Turkey’s concerns around arms exports and the fight against terrorism. Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in a US prison for helping former financier Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls. The Final Report of the Colombian Truth Commission was presented in the Colombian capital, Bogotá and was attended by the president-elect, Gustavo Petro, who received the first copy of the text. “We have to cut the cycle of violence,” Petro said. A vessel carrying Haitian "Migrants" (my quotes as there’s a good chance most of them would be considered refugees by international standards) trying to reach the United States wound up instead on the coast of Cuba. Two Roman Catholic Priests were killed in the Nigerian states of Edo and Kaduna over the weekend. Philippines authorities have again ordered the shutdown of an investigative news site founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa. Sports. @0406z “Newsday” begins. Backyard fence antenna, Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.