#and one of my sister’s lawyers recently reiterated that

[pynkhues]

My sister’s very ugly, still ongoing divorce has lead me and her and our mother into making a documentary about financial abuse and family violence which is still in relatively early phases, but been SO furiously exhilarating to develop, and we just got funding to make a proof-of-concept with intent to make and that’s ALSO exhilirating, but also holy shit?

[theravenclawrevolutionary]

i'm not a frev expert. and you seem to be approchable enough and to have read enough. i had a question, or kind of a question. i just. i think that if robespierre wasn't against all the deaths by guillotine, he wouldn't have written that quote about virtue and terror. maybe i'm getting you wrong, or i'm not understanding the sense of that quote. could you explain?

Oh dang. I'm kinda surprised that people think I have any real authority on the subject of the Frev since I'm not an actual historian or anything and I'm surprised people find me approachable but of course I'll try my best for you Anon! And if anyone else has a better interpretation or anything else to add please, go ahead. I'll also try my best to keep it in as simple language as I can. But I digress.

⚠ This post is quite long so be prepared for that ⚠

First of all, Robespierre has more than one quote talking about terror and virtue. I'm assuming that you're thinking of the one that goes, "Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country." since that is the most common one. However, if you're talking about the one that goes "Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country." Let me know and I'll write about that one. The former is definitely a quote that, in my experience studying the Frev, gets misinterpreted from what it was originally meant to say fairly often.

To start with, it's very important to know what connotation and definition the words 'virtue' and 'terror' had in revolution-era France. Modern-day definitions may not be the same ones that were used in the past. According to my research, which of course isn't infallible, virtue was used to refer to someone's disposition and the way it would lead them to choose good over evil whereas where terror was seen simply as great fear. At the time there was no connotation of our modern-day terrorism to associate with the word. Nowadays we associate terror with terrorism which brings to mind murder, mindless destruction, oppression, and unchecked authority in which someone's ideals are forced upon large groups of people. Because of this many people assume that this is what Robespierre had in mind when he referenced terror when really he meant to describe the use of intimidation tactics to seize power from those who oppressed the lower class people and the general fear that was felt by the commoners.

Essentially the Reign of Terror meant 'a time period where everyone felt a sh*t load of Fear over all the bad stuff happening at once while the regular people try to overthrow the oppressive ruling class with intimidation tactics.' It does not mean 'a time period where loads of people were purposely committing widespread acts of terrorism to push their agendas'. And really, it was the only way to give everyone the chance to get rid of the old government, the monarchy, and allow a fair democracy that would be beneficial to the future of France to be built.

Next, it's important to know the context in which this quote was originally said. The speech where Robespierre said it took place on Feb 5th (?) of 1794. By this point, the revolution has been well underway for several long years and, as I said, a lot of sucky things are happening at the same time. The republic was in a war with a massive part of Europe and they're kinda getting curb-stomped. The country is in a state of civil war between the people that still supported the monarchy and all the different groups that had different views of how the country should be run. France's economy was complete sh*t too, so all this really radicalized the people and made the whole revolution situation so much worse than it already was.

At the time there were two factions, so to say, in the National Convention that were hella pissed at each other and really at odds. the Hébertists (who, to make things easy, wanted to escalate the Terror, go on the offensive with the military, and the overthrow and replace some of the existing government structures at the time) and the Dantonists (who wanted to sorta get rid of the revolutionary government, negotiate for peace in the war, and chill out on the whole Terror thing). And remember that these groups of people were very loose and like people in today's politic didn't agree with every stance their 'faction' took.

By the time Max made this speech, which was addressing these two groups, the situation between them was escalated big time. The Hébertists, with their views of 'more terror all over! That'll help us win everything,' or 'terror without virtue,' were pushing for a system that would quickly prove fatal. By contrast, the Dantonists with their, 'we just need to kinda chill and things will work out,' way of thinking or 'virtue without terror', would only lead to them (and the rest of the country) getting walked over by everyone else.

Throughout the entire speech, a speech I haven't recently read all the way through, Max comes back to the idea of terror and virtue, stressing that both are necessary. What I think he meant to do was talk about how the revolution couldn't survive without both terror (fear and the aggression that causes it) and virtue (the choice of good over evil) being applied. He's trying to explain to both groups that a little bit of both ideals is the most beneficial way to go about things. In reality, it has nothing to do with whether he personally believed in or advocated the death penalty/ the use of the guillotine. Instead, Robespierre is emphasizing that at that particular moment in time doing what is right and good (virtue) will most likely end up causing some bad things that will make people afraid for a while (terror).

What Robespierre is not saying is that terror, and by extension the violence that is causing the terror is virtuous. There are several easy-to-find sources that prove his personal disapproval of the death penalty from a moral standpoint. As a young lawyer in his hometown in Arras, he became physically ill at the idea of having one of his clients sentenced to death, even though he was found guilty of the crime he was on trial for. He made a speech agreeing with the abolition of the death penalty on May 30th of 1791 (?) arguing that there is no place for the death penalty in a civilized society because the law needs to be a model of what is good. He attempted to save the lives of Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins, two friends/coworkers that he is commonly charged with sending to their deaths when the opposite is actually true. Additionally, he did the same with other more controversial people including the king's sister of all people, Madame Elisabeth. Even when voting for the death of the king he reiterates his own opinion on the death penalty saying, "For myself, I abhor the penalty of death that your law so liberally imposes, and I have neither love nor hatred for the King; it is only the crimes that I hate…. It is with regret that I utter this baneful truth…Louis must die in order that our country may live." Though it conflicts with his personal views, Robespierre makes the decision based on the needs of France as a country, something that many politicians need to relearn how to do today.

Long story short, he was not supporting the use of the guillotine with that quote, but rather trying to get two opposing factions to realize that both intimidation/fear and making sound, beneficial decisions would keep France on the right track to building a successful democracy for the people. Hopefully this helped and I explained it in a way that was easy for you to understand. If you ever have any more Frev related questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer or I'll send you in the direction of someone else more knowledgeable if I don't know.

Also, can someone tell me if I did a good job of explaining this? I can never tell if things I write about the Frev make sense to me because I actually know exactly what I mean to say so everyone else kinda goes along with it or if I actually say helpful things of substance. Thanks guys! And if anyone else knows more about the subject or if I've made a mistake please help me out.

~Dara

[phroyd]

One of our Great Comedians leaves us this day! Rest In Peace, Jackie! - Phroyd

Jackie Mason, whose staccato, arm-waving delivery and thick Yiddish accent kept the borscht belt style of comedy alive long after the Catskills resorts had shut their doors, and whose career reached new heights in the 1980s with a series of one-man shows on Broadway, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 93.His death, at Mount Sinai Hospital, was confirmed by the lawyer Raoul Felder, a longtime friend.Mr. Mason regarded the world around him as a nonstop assault on common sense and an affront to his sense of dignity. Gesturing frantically, his forefinger jabbing the air, he would invite the audience to share his sense of disbelief and inhabit his very thin skin, if only for an hour.“I used to be so self-conscious,” he once said, “that when I attended a football game, every time the players went into a huddle, I thought they were talking about me.” Recalling his early struggles as a comic, he said, “I had to sell furniture to make a living — my own.”The idea of music in elevators sent him into a tirade: “I live on the first floor; how much music can I hear by the time I get there? The guy on the 28th floor, let him pay for it.”

The humor was punchy, down-to-earth and emphatically Jewish: His last one-man show in New York, in 2008, was titled “The Ultimate Jew.” A former rabbi from a long line of rabbis, Mr. Mason made comic capital as a Jew feeling his way — sometimes nervously, sometimes pugnaciously — through a perplexing gentile world.“Every time I see a contradiction or hypocrisy in somebody’s behavior,” he once told The Wall Street Journal, “I think of the Talmud and build the joke from there.” Describing his comic style to The New York Times in 1988, he said, “My humor — it’s a man in a conversation, pointing things out to you.”“He’s not better than you, he’s just another guy,” he added. “I see life with love — I’m your brother up there — but if I see you make a fool out of yourself, I owe it to you to point that out to you.”He was born Yacov Moshe Maza in Sheboygan, Wis., on June 9, 1928, to immigrants from Belarus. (Some sources give the year as 1931.) When he was 5, his father, Eli, an Orthodox rabbi, and his mother, Bella (Gitlin) Maza, moved the family to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Yacov discovered that his path in life had already been determined. Not only his father, but his grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfathers had all been rabbis. His three older brothers became rabbis, and his two younger sisters married rabbis. “It was unheard-of to think of anything else,” Mr. Mason said. “But I knew, from the time I’m 12, I had to plot to get out of this, because this is not my calling.”

After earning a degree from City College, he completed his rabbinical studies at Yeshiva University and was ordained. In a state of mounting misery, he tended to congregations in Weldon, N.C., and Latrobe, Pa., unhappy in his profession but unwilling to disappoint his father.Hedging his bets, he had begun working summers in the Catskills, where he wrote comic monologues and appeared onstage at every opportunity. This, he decided, was his true calling, and after his father’s death in 1959 he felt free to pursue it in earnest, with a new name.He struggled at first, playing the Catskills and, with little success, obscure clubs in New York and Miami. Plagued by guilt, he underwent psychoanalysis, which did not solve his problems but did provide him with good comic material.Nevertheless, he found it hard to break into the nightclub circuit in New York — in part, he claimed, because his act made Jewish audiences uncomfortable. “My accent reminds them of a background they’re trying to forget,” he said.

While performing at a Los Angeles nightclub in 1960, he caught the attention of his fellow comedian Jan Murray, who recommended him to the television personality Steve Allen. Two appearances in two weeks on “The Steve Allen Show” led to bookings at the Copacabana and the Blue Angel in New York.Mr. Mason’s career was off and running. He became a regular on the top television variety shows, recorded two albums for the Verve label — “I Am the Greatest Comedian in the World Only Nobody Knows It Yet” and “I Want to Leave You With the Words of a Great Comedian” — and wrote a book, “My Son the Candidate.”

After dozens of appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Mr. Mason encountered disaster on Oct. 18, 1964. A speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson pre-empted the program, which resumed as Mr. Mason was halfway through his act. Onstage but out of camera range, Sullivan indicated with two fingers, then one, how many minutes Mr. Mason had left, distracting the audience. Mr. Mason, annoyed, responded by holding up his own fingers to the audience, saying, “Here’s a finger for you, and a finger for you, and a finger for you.”Sullivan, convinced that one of those fingers was an obscene gesture, canceled Mr. Mason’s six-show contract and refused to pay him for the performance. Mr. Mason sued, and won.The two later reconciled, but the damage was done. Club owners and booking agents now regarded him, he said, as “crude and unpredictable.”

“People started to think I was some kind of sick maniac,” Mr. Mason told Look. “It took 20 years to overcome what happened in that one minute.”His career went into a slump, punctuated by bizarre instances of bad luck. In Las Vegas in 1966, after he made a few ill-considered remarks about Frank Sinatra’s recent marriage to the much younger Mia Farrow (“Frank soaks his dentures and Mia brushes her braces,” one joke went), an unidentified gunman fired a .22 pistol into his hotel room.A play he starred in and wrote (with Mike Mortman), “A Teaspoon Every Four Hours,” went through a record-breaking 97 preview performances on Broadway before opening on June 14, 1969, to terrible reviews. It closed after one night, taking with it his $100,000 investment.He also invested in “The Stoolie” (1972), a film in which he played a con man and improbable Romeo. It also failed, taking even more of his money. Roles in sitcoms and films eluded him, although he did make the most of small parts in Mel Brooks’s “History of the World: Part I” (1981) — he was “Jew No. 1” in the Spanish Inquisition sequence — and “The Jerk” (1979), in which he played the gas-station owner who employs Steve Martin.Rebuffed, Mr. Mason set about rebuilding his career with guest appearances on television. His new manager, Jyll Rosenfeld, convinced that the old borscht belt comics were ripe for a comeback, encouraged him to bring his act to the theater as a one-man show.

After attracting celebrity audiences in Los Angeles, that show, “The World According to Me!,” opened on Broadway in December 1986 and ran for two years. It earned Mr. Mason a special Tony Award in 1987, as well as an Emmy for writing after HBO aired an abridged version in 1988.

“I didn’t think it would work,” Mr. Mason said. “But people, when they come into a theater, see you in a whole new light. It’s like taking a picture from a kitchen and hanging it in a museum.”In 1991 Mr. Mason married Ms. Rosenfeld, who survives him. He is also survived by a daughter, the comedian Sheba Mason, from a relationship with Ginger Reiter in the 1970s and ’80s.“The World According to Me!” generated a series of sequels — “Politically Incorrect,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Prune Danish” and others — which carried Mr. Mason through the 1990s and into the new millennium.He published an autobiography, “Jackie, Oy!” (written with Ken Gross), in 1988. He also found a new sideline as an opinionated political commentator on talk radio. In the 2016 presidential campaign, he was one of the few well-known entertainers to support Donald J. Trump.Mr. Mason’s forays into political commentary caused him trouble. He was reported to have used a Yiddish word considered to be a racial slur in talking about David N. Dinkins, the Black mayoral candidate, at a Plaza Hotel luncheon in 1989. Mr. Mason was a campaigner for Mr. Dinkins’s opponent, Rudolph W. Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani said the incident had been blown out of proportion but nevertheless dismissed Mr. Mason from the campaign. Mr. Mason at first refused to apologize but did so later.

He drew attention for using the same word regarding President Barack Obama during a performance in 2009.Appearances on the cartoon series “The Simpsons,” as the voice of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, the father of Krusty the Clown, confirmed his newfound status, and earned him a second Emmy. Not even the 1988 bomb “Caddyshack II,” in which he was a last-minute replacement for Rodney Dangerfield, or the ill-fated “Chicken Soup,” a 1989 sitcom co-starring Lynn Redgrave that died quickly, could slow his improbable transformation from borscht belt relic into hot property.“I’ve been doing this for a hundred thousand years, but it’s like I was born last Thursday,” Mr. Mason once said of his career turnaround. “They see me as today’s comedian. Thank God I stunk for such a long time and was invisible, so I could be discovered.”

Michael Levenson contributed reporting.

Phroyd

[philomathhh9]

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Philomath, I just took a stroll down memory lane. A very cliché thing to say, I know. It was a long stroll though; the sun set and dawned upon my path countless of times and I kept walking. Swept away in a journey of nostalgia and emotions of comfort, I soon was struck by a wave of anger and resentment.

  All began when I chose to check my phone as I dressed to leave home to study for a big upcoming exam. A friend and colleague of mine had messaged me his location in Riyadh; his family recently moved there. We went back and forth and chatted about how our homes where a mere ten minute walk apart and that we could meet up once we visited our families in winter. It then hit me. “Home” was no longer that small cozy place in Saudi Arabia; the little apartment that I spent seventeen years of my life in. The place I had just called Home in front of my friend was nothing but a figment of my past - a dream I dreamt for just a little over a decade and a half. Home in the present is this place in Amman in which I currently take residence in with my sister, my lovely cat Leta, and my sweet departed cat-angel Valenta, who has been buried in our garden since May when illness rode her fate.

  I am content with the present day. I really am. However, calling my parents’ place in Saudi Home swung me back to the moments, days, months, and years of my being that I spent in innocence. I ran the Maps application and I checked every part of what used to be my life. I saw the school I spent the whole of my childhood in. I saw the park and the malls I used to go to on weekends with my mother. I saw the restaurant that my father enjoyed dining in on Fridays and I even saw the school I spent my high school years in. I then paused. Memories of my high school senior year washed up from an ocean I thought I had left behind. I spent it the way I spent the entirety of my days till then: dreaming, reading, and exploring the wonders of what life is. Curious is what I was. Not the kind of curious that is forced and involves taking a risk and leave familiar surroundings because they feel threatening and unsafe, but the type of curious that sticks to you in innocence while thriving in your provided environment- you just wonder if the outside is just as splendid.

  I wanted to become a lawyer at some point in high school and that brought me to read my personal statement that I had sent to universities in the UK for an undergraduate law degree. In front of me was a live example of what I used to be: a dreamer. Today, I believe that ignorance and innocence are synonymous from a certain perspective, despite being two very different words. The saying “Ignorance is bliss” is popular because of that very reason. Not knowing and staying in my naivete brought me happiness. Soon, the clock started to tick and the time came where being curious was not a thought to think of, but a thought to I had to execute. I had to figure out what was to become of me. My dreams of becoming a lawyer leaped away as the reality of its demanding financing settled. This marks strike one against young Philomath.

  Now, I am in the path of becoming a doctor; something I had chosen and kept as a back up plan in case the launch of my time with law failed. I know I did not choose it for the prestige of it. The human body and the world within infatuated me just as much. To reiterate, I am content with who I am and what I am doing today. It just so happened that the start of my new life as a meds student yanked my innocence away from me as I cried for and held on to it for dear life. My parents’ conditioning brought me to block away all my triggers and flaws by daydreaming and spending my time with thoughts of idealism. Now that my little daydreaming session of seventeen years had been brought to a screeching halt, I was shocked with what I found down here. As I recalled this and what followed today, I felt nothing but a strange mix of anger, resentment, disembodiment, and disbelief of what I had been and put others through. My surroundings in my first year of medicine were not only less than ideal, but straight up parasitic and gnawed at my little body day by day. The gnawing manifested physically; I lost a good fifth to fourth of my weight as depression and maladjustment took over me. Now that my bubble of idealism was popped, I was subjected to the thorns I harbored all along and had no idea what to do with them other than project them on others, both good and horrible people alike. That marked strike two for young philomath.

  Personal boundaries were alien things to me. Unfortunately, that me twinkle in the eyes of whom I know now to be a narcissistic sociopath. During the timeline in which him and I met, I was already dealing with confusion, maladjustment, and a dear friend that faced demons only I knew of. Today her and I do not really keep in touch anymore despite being mostly amicable. As far as I know, she is thriving and walking up her own path and struggle day by day and I am happy for her. Though, resentment still plagues the back of my head as she fell victim to projection of my own flaws and I sadly fell into hers. It was a lot of up, downs, lefts, and rights with her and at that time we brought horrible things out in each other. Apart from my doings, she had a phobia of abandonment and would do anything and everything to reassure herself and of course, due to my lack of boundaries, I enabled her. She was and is not a person of bad morale, but the anything and everything included a lot of jabs and stabs that mark where some scars in my soul still are today. That was strike three for you, young philomath.

  Back to the twinkly yet empty eyes of the narcissist that ended up becoming my wicked boyfriend. Like a vulture, he spent his first few weeks and months with me circling me and analyzing just how vulnerable I was and how much I had on my plate. Again, I had no boundaries; that meant that whatever he wanted, he would draw out of me. And inspite of that, nothing was ever enough for him. Everyone dear in my life at that time, I gone to the extremes for. That is: everyone but my own self. So I kept enabling him to use me, control me, and display me as an accessory. Did I project my flaws on him too? Yes. The truth is I never was, am, and will never be perfect. The difference though, was that I eventually recognized where I fell wrong with my people and took it upon myself to halt it and improve myself. Him on the other hand, emotionally abused the soul out of me until it no longer yearned to be in my body and to this very day, he victimizes himself as the ex of a horrible liar slut that harassed him for affection and ended up cheating on him. Again, horrible move on my part for both parties involved, but I will never ever dismiss the things he would do to me. He would use my insecurities as leverage and hold my emotional needs hostage until I popped and fell into an irrational reactive state. And of course, he contorted it all to make me out as the guilty. The crazy bitch. Yes of course, the crazy bitch that gave him everything she could give to him. The same crazy bitch that he gaslit, put down, and rejected when she needed him the most. What people do not know today is that when I horribly sought other than his affection as I fell into another reactive state due to constant episodic emotional rejection, I already was contemplating leaving him. The cycles of abuse became unbearable, and although I do not excuse myself for it, they finally pushed me to do something that was awfully wrong on my ex’s and the involved person’s behalf. And I cheated. The cherry on top of the icing? I do not recall the timeline it happened and suppressed it due to personal trauma. I lived my life knowing and believing that everything that happened between me and said person was at a time where him and I were not an item. Until it was brought to light by the third party that I did what I did around two weeks before I left him, the time I knew as the moments I was building myself up the courage to leave him. And that was strike four.

  Strike four marked the most ultimate of an ultimatum for me; it was either saving myself or continue down the path of self obliteration. Those two weeks before I left him were a turning point; for once I felt like I had to choose myself and my sanity before anyone else’s. I took back control of my life by ending it with him. Although initially it was amicable as we shared a group of friends, I ended up backing away more and more until I cut him off completely because he kept trying to get his sticky fingers on me and snatch me back onto his rollercoaster. Things with my friend were still going though, and with all that I already had endured she again did anything and everything to feel like I was not going to abandon her. I felt and feel for her, I really do. Just like emotional rejection and abuse pushed me to do a big mistake, her fears pushed her too. But reasons and context do not mean excuses. If I held myself accountable for everything I projected on her and him and everyone else in my life at that time, it would mean I had to hold her accountable too. And so, the journey of learning how to set boundaries and bettering myself began. She rejected it the whole time. To her, boundaries meant abandonment, and the more I set them, the more she’d do anything and everything to reassure herself I would not desert her. Until she did one last move, after which I could not bring myself to tolerate anything. At a weak point of hers, she spoke with my same ex that I had cut off to console her about my issues with me. She knew what kind of a person he is. In her vulnerable moments, he saw an opportunity to “avenge” the narcissistic injury I caused him by taking back my own control and pulled and withdrew information from her that he ended up using against me. With one big mistake, he contorted, molded, and spiced things until they tasted just right. To him, this was his big moment that he was waiting for: to end the bitch that dared dump him before he finished dumping her. One year after breaking up with him and not speaking with him at all, he used my friend’s poor judgement and vulnerability to attempt sabotaging me and my reputation. He circled me with other people and bullied me for my pronounced sexuality and supposed “manipulation and lies” and tried to convince other people to jump on an anti-me bandwagon. He even went as far as claiming that his reputation, which he ruined with his own hands, was in fact tarnished by me and the said fact that I was “psychotic” and never shut up about him and talked horrible of him to everyone I knew. All I did was confide in my so-called friends about the abuse I endured; ironically, no one turned against him the way he claimed and everyone that actually had a problem with him had nothing to do with the people I confided in. In this circle of nonsense that brought me severe trauma, barely anyone took him seriously. Reasonably so, picture viewing a couple split and move along with their own lives until one decides to dish and chase the other with some old dirt between them to convince people that the other was ruining their precious reputation. No sensible person would interfere with someone else’s problems with another. I ended up standing up for myself and further asserted my boundaries away from him by refuting responsibility for his broken reputation and stated that in fact it was his problem. I also mentioned that the circus of a show was unnecessary and that if he approached me like normal people do I would have been reacting very differently and took responsibility for my “dirt”. I ended things between him and I by pointing out the fact that it was pathetic to harass someone a year after they broke up him and it did nothing but prove his goal of claiming me as the “obsessed liar” the actual opposite. In the end, I was not the one to harass the other long after no contact with an old screw up.

  I then retained my most powerful tool: boundaries. Although I understood why my friend spoke with him, I could not help but hold her accountable that her irresponsibility with that move caused him to set off on a rampage. So I kept withdrawing from her and she could not bear it. Until one day she comes and “warns” me to “be careful of what I tell my friends because they are not the people I think they are”. The very friend that I had trusted with my life and a lot of information and mistakes on my behalf. The same friend that allowed him to grab those out of her in her vulnerable moments. I am more than sorry for everything I caused her, but this is something I would never forget. I remember trembling with anger and blocking her so that I would not blow up on her and cause her trouble and cost her a spiral. I got so angry that I became sick the next day. And ever since then, I had enough of my relationship with her. It was clear to me that we had both done too much to each other to recover from as normal friends. It had to end. After a few months of occasional angry SMS’s from her, I made it clear why I left and what I felt and that she would have to stop sending me message. She ended up acknowledging my hurt and apologized for everything she had done on her part. Everything. I remember crying with exasperation as I read her message admitting to everything; as for a good while of my life, I felt like I was the only one paying for my mistakes and trying to remedy them. The fact that someone else finally took responsibility for the damage done to me was something new and something alien. All that because I learned to set boundaries.

  I brought myself out of my stroll down memory lane. Now, I am filled with nothing but pride that I not only overcame my own demons and learned the concept of boundaries, pride that I chose to use my mistakes as a learning point and not a point of shame. I now have more power and independence than ever; although, I still have a lot to work on. My ordeal has caused me to be very reluctant with expecting anyone to assist me with any hardship and become guarded. On a note, I do not expect my ex’s last appearance to be final; that is unless he becomes knowledgeable enough to realize one more move towards me would show everyone watching his true color and that his most prized possession, his ego, would be in danger. I do hope he left things as they are and just gave up; as I am not a hostile person that enjoys attacking- even in self defense. But it became clear that staying out of his path does not stop him from staying out of mine. I feel always ready and on edge to play his exact game and use leverage against him so that he would never come near me again.

  As I now conclude writing to go study, I feel nothing but content with who I surround myself now and the person I have become. Thank you, Philomath again for living up to your name and allowing your love for learning get me out of a path of self destruction.

[letscuttothefeeling]

season three episodes nine & ten

Okay everyone, after a short hiatus, I’m back and ready to reenter the world of Siesta Key, much like Alex after his long-awaited return in episode three of this season. There’s a lot of ground to cover here, (over yonder and hither north), and a lot of bare ass to see. So let’s just cut to the feeling!

The summer’s third most important event on the Key, following closely behind Alex’s birthday which didn’t happen, and the Kompothecras Autism fundraiser which has yet to happen, is the Fourth of July. We all know how much the cast loves a themed bathing suit party and an excuse to take as many blueberry and watermelon Smirnoff Jello shots as possible, so this day is an honored tradition! But this year, we discover Juliette will not be participating in the annual debauchery. She’s under the impression that Alex and Alyssa will attend BG’s pool party, so in a rare moment of maturity (sorry Jules, but you know it’s true), she decides to work the holiday instead so that Blend, the boutique she works for, will be ready for its opening party. We love to see her contribute so thoroughly to Florida’s flourishing haute couture scene. But she’s mistaken – Alex and Alyssa are actually planning to head to Alyssa’s lake house in Georgia. (Go Dawgs! Sic em! Woof Woof!) Alyssa has invited Alex’s self-proclaimed “posse” consisting of JJ, Jared, Amanda, and Chloe. Her best friend Madi will also be there. I love being introduced to cast members’ friends because the company people keep is very telling of their overall aesthetic and vibe. Madi’s Instagram bio says that “chaos makes the muse,” and from that, I can assume that she’s a basic white girl who is obsessed with Show Me Your Mumu and uppers. How fitting!

Every girl who exclusively wears Show Me Your Mumu’s feed

While everyone is finalizing their FOJ plans, Madisson is enjoying a romantic evening at Ophelia’s On the Bay with Ish. This classic Siesta Key establishment is reserved for special occasions, so I’m already at the edge of my seat wondering what is going on in Ish’s shiny, bald head. Ish pulls a small jewelry box out of his pocket, and I’m breathlish. I mean, breathless. Is Ish going to propose?! Madisson’s face lights up, then falls when she sees the box has a necklish in it instead of a ring. Bummer! But rest assured, the jovial grin returns to Madisson’s face moments later when Ish asks her to move in with him! I mean, she’s quite literally giggling with excitement. Whatever happened to playing it cool? In fact, Madisson is SO jazzed that she suggests Ish come to lunch with her entire family soon, since her older sister, Paige will be in town. You may remember Paige as the girl who hooked up with both Pauly and Canvas, two major SK players. Fabulous track record. I can’t wait to see her again.

Country roads, take me home! We have arrived in Albany, Georgia and are ready to hit the lake and celebrate America! But before the celebration can begin, everyone must decide who is rooming with who. Chloe quickly nixes the possibility of Amanda rooming with JJ, and later chastises Amanda for even thinking about rooming with her toxic ex. Between you and me, Amanda looks quite peeved with her friend’s overbearing orders. After everyone gets settled, and Jared makes a connection with Alyssa’s friend Madi, Chloe walks inside and sees Alyssa shucking corn, something Alyssa apparently thinks only happens in the south, even though everyone literally everywhere who eats corn needs to shuck it. Alyssa confides in Chloe about Alex’s recent shuck up – his confession that he was on the phone with Juliette for six hours. Chloe lets it slip that Alex only admitted his wrongdoing to Alyssa after Chloe pushed him to do it, which makes Alyssa angry. She confronts Alex about it, and all I have to say is that if this is any indication of how Alex responds when presented with damning evidence, I do not want him representing me. He immediately gets defensive and angry at Chloe, and as much as I hate to admit it, Alyssa holds her own. She gets mad at Alex for attacking Chloe for simply telling the truth. Instead of just owning up to what he’s done wrong, Alex stammers out a half-apology and looks ready to fight Chloe. Oh no.

Cut to JJ and Amanda, grilling up some burgers and a hot conversation! After discussing their rekindled flame despite their tough past, Amanda tells JJ about another wrench in their road to romance – Chloe’s blatant disapproval. JJ looks really annoyed with the intrusion. I mean, he’s had to deal with BG, the fact that he cheated on Amanda multiple times already, and now this?! It’s so unfair. Speaking of BG, back on the Key, Brandon’s party is in full swing. You know what else is in full swing? The bare ass of a girl attending the party. Listen, I know the show loves to transition scenes by showing close-ups of scantily clad females, but this is just not something I can get behind. (Ha!) In all seriousness though, readers, please consider using something more than floss to cover your asshole if you ever find yourself on national television.

There’s more than one ass at this party, and her name is Kelsey. Sorry Kelsey stans, but this scene is just so violently cringe-worthy that I almost threw the remote at my screen. Kelsey can be so off-putting when she tries to flirt. But she’s hot and on a reality show so I’m not too worried about it. G Baby approaches Kelsey and asks her where “Jakey-poo” is. It’s worth noting that the robots controlling Garrett are becoming increasingly upsetting as well. Kelsey informs the Robot Garret that Jake is “over yonder, hither north” and then giggles/hiccups. I’m actually grimacing as I type this. Their nauseating display reminds me of why they’re actually perfect for each other. Foreshadowing, maybe? Kelsey then asks the question we’ve all been wondering – are Cara and Garrett still talking? Garrett says that they are not talking anymore, which is exactly what BG says about Amanda when Madisson asks. And as the fireworks explode in the night sky, I can’t help but think about the lack of fireworks in the love lives of our beloved cast. 

Back at the lake, tensions are rising faster than the current unemployment rate. Chloe seems to be the common denominator in everyone’s annoyance, and at dinner, everything comes to a head. Looking directly at Chloe, Alex asks, “Chloe, I know you like hanging out with us, but are you more of a team Juliette girl?” Chloe warns him “not to go there,” but Alex keeps pushing, accusing Chloe of being “finnicky.” Alex Merriam- Webster Kompothecras back at it again with the BURNS! Nice try buddy, I guess they don’t have vocab in law school. (I believe Alex meant to say “fickle,” but let me know your thoughts.) Chloe fires back by asking Alex a question – why hasn’t he made things official with Alyssa yet? Future Lawyer Alex blesses us yet again with a genius rebuttal: “Why? Because… I’ve… learned that… you shouldn’t push things. And when… the time is right...” Chloe cuts him off by reiterating that Alex still continuously hits Juliette up. At this point, I feel so bad for Alyssa who is just sitting there like a vegetable. But before I can focus on how painfully awkward she must feel, Amanda randomly starts butting in and yelling at Chloe for inserting herself in everyone else’s relationships. Chloe inserting herself in other people’s lives is literally the core theme of the show. Please get over it. Amanda keeps yelling because she’s clearly annoyed with Chloe’s criticism of JJ, and as JJ sits there, harrowingly silent, Chloe tells Amanda to fuck off and storms out of the lake house. Let’s all pray she didn’t drive home. The night isn’t all bad though – after the fight, Jared ends up sealing the deal with Madi, who insists that she “usually doesn’t do this on the first night.” Okay, sweetie. After Jared is unable to perform, the night, which began on an explosive note ends on a rather underwhelming one.

The fourth may be over, but the aftermath from the day remains. And what better way to catch up on the day’s events than over lunch? As Chloe meets up with Juliette to explain what happened at the lake, Madisson takes Ish to meet up with her entire family and break her news to them. I predict that while Chloe and Juliette’s lunch will go swimmingly, Madisson and Ish’s lunch will turn sour quickly. And I’m right! Juliette drinks in every last detail of Chloe’s public fight with Alex. I’m proud of her for steering clear of the drama this time, but I’m not naïve. Juliette can only be on the Key drama-free for so long. Let’s check in with Madisson. As anticipated, this is not going well. After Madisson’s mom asks if she is pregnant, and Madisson’s Dad refuses to acknowledge that she and Ish are anything but “just friends,” Madisson tells her family that she plans to move to Los Angeles with Ish. They appear less than pleased. It is a stark contrast from Madisson’s giddy reaction when he initially proposed the idea. Ish gently reminds her family that while Madisson would like their blessing, she is a grown woman and can make her own decisions. He knows their situation is “so unique”, but hopes they will grow to accept their relationship. Paige, Madisson’s sister, breaks her silence. While Madisson was hoping she might be an ally for their relaysh, she turns out to be team parent. “Unique…?” Paige questions. “Isn’t this more of a cliché? The old Hollywood producer sleeping with the actress…” Ouch! And here I thought her father was the harsh one!

While Madisson’s relationship becomes increasingly rocky, Alex decides to take things up a notch with Alyssa. During a bizarre conversation in which he essentially admits that he still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Alex seals the deal with Alyssa and asks her to be official. I wonder what prompted him to take the next step! Could it have been Chloe point-blank asking him why he hadn’t made things official with Alyssa the night before? We may never know. Regardless, Alyssa accepts the clearly sincere offer and Siesta Key has a new power couple. “Wait,” you might be thinking. “New power couple? But what about Ish and Madisson?” Oh, thanks for the reminder. Alex and Alyssa are only able to overthrow this couple because…they’re done. Gasp! In a shocking scene, Ish breaks up with Madisson on national TV. If I’m Madisson, a stunning 25-year-old girl who is D-List famous and kind of intelligent, I’m furious. How dare my old, overweight ex-producer dump my ass in front of all of America. But after Ish says he needs space and doesn’t think they should be together, Madisson just starts to softly cry and runs off-screen, away from her now ex-Father ex-boyfriend. I am torn because I know that Ish means well. It’s like that time in Stephanie Meyer’s classic American novel, New Moon. When Edward realizes that his relationship with Bella puts her safety and ability to lead a normal life at risk, he knows he must leave her. Even if it’s the last thing he wants to do. He must act out of selfless love. Eventually, though, he comes back to Bella…we can only hope for the same fate for Dadisson.

Speaking of exes, let’s check in on everyone’s least favorite exes, Boring Robby and Juliette! Boring Robby is throwing some sort of strange soirée, and it’s a little awkward that Juliette is there considering the last time these two saw each other it ended rather abruptly. But Juliette, on a mature streak, pulls Boring Robby aside and apologizes for the harsh convo. She invites him to the Blend opening as a peace offering, and even though he accepts, Boring Robby can’t help but push for a few more answers. He asks Juliette why she would ever say she loved him, and Juliette responds by explaining that while she did love him, she wasn’t in love with him, because she felt like he was “fatherly.” Okay y’all, you’ve heard of getting friend-zoned, but today we’re introducing you to a new dating trend, getting “dad-zoned!” She ends the talk by saying that she’s ready to make her own decisions without the influence of any man. Yas kween! The only other notable thing that happens at this party is that Garrett refers to himself as the “G-Slanger,” which to me, is really thrilling.

But not everyone is dartying today. Despite their blowout, business aficionados Chloe and Alex must meet at the Crescent Club to “work.” Before they hit the books, Chloe expresses her frustration with Alex. She explains that Alex is now doing the same thing Juliette did at the beginning of the summer. He’s mad at Chloe for continuing to be friends with Juliette. And WHY can’t she be friends with both!? Alex vehemently denies this claim but agrees that they need to find a way to smooth things over with everyone. On a more somber note, Jake comes over to Kelsey’s house and tells her that his father passed away, so he needs to return home. He also breaks things off with her. :( One of those rare actually intense moments in this show.

Blending business and pleasure never works, so when Alex shows up at Blend’s sign hanging, Juliette looks less than amused. Instead of gearing up for the opening party that night, Alex whisks Juliette away from her boss and coworker to have a chat with her. The chat goes absolutely nowhere – they’re literally talking in circles, saying the same things we’ve heard for three seasons. Juliette tells Alex she’s going to pretend like he doesn’t exist, and Alex responds with a menacing smile and says, “see you later.” I’m scared.

It’s time for the official opening of Blend! While I’m still confused as to how they were able to pull it together in time when Juliette went to Greece instead of helping out, I’m so proud of Juliette, Juliette’s random friend Kelly, and Juliette’s bitchy boss Courtney. Great job, ladies! Everyone seems to be having a good time until Alex and Alyssa waltz in. The party crashers, making their debut as an official couple, make their way across the venue. But while Alyssa passes Boring Robby without a second glance, Alex, who has yet to see his “ex-friend who dated his ex-girlfriend,” stops in front of Boring Robby and flicks him on the face. If I’m Alyssa, I’m breaking up with Alex then and there. He might as well take the microphone and scream “I’M NOT OVER JULIETTE” into it. But of course, Alyssa turns the other way and pretends to barely notice it. Boring Robby is still visibly reeling from the flick. Even though he’s trying to pretend like it was funny, you can tell he’s taken aback. Alex approaches him AGAIN, slaps him on the ass, and threatens to “knock [his] fake-ass teeth out.” In true Boring Robby fashion, he simply walks away, refusing to engage and keeping things as boring as possible. Luckily, Boring Robby’s spunky friend Joe is there to keep the reality show on track and talk a lot of shit. He starts by flipping Alex off and saying that Alex “hides behind his money.” Alex responds by bringing up Robby’s penis size. Maybe we’ve gotten it wrong this whole time. Maybe Alex is really into Boring Robby, and is mad at Juliette for getting in the way. Eventually, Alex lunges at Joe and threatens to fight him. As a future lawyer, Alex should know better than to physically attack anyone in public, specifically someone who is a literal walking hate crime, but then again, Alex isn’t known for his intelligence.

The next day, Kelsey heads to Boring Robby’s to make sure her job is still secure in light of all of the chaos that has ensued. (Remember that he’s randomly her boss, lol.) He assures her that all is okay, and has no problem with “continuing to use and abuse her.” I don’t think he got that quote from his collection of bizarre inspirational sayings, but it still made me cringe just the same. When Kelsey brings up the fight, Robby describes it as “par for the course.” I cannot get enough of his expressions! They’re never-ending! Later, when Juliette checks on Boring Robby to make sure he’s okay after the fight, he also assures her that he’s okay, that the fight was “par for the course,” and that “some zebras never change their stripes.” I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Boring Robby is truly the Confucius of our generation.

In the wake of the big fight, Chloe, resident shit-stirrer, is more determined than ever to mend all of the strife in her friend group (that she primarily caused.) Summoning her inner Mother Teresa, Chloe sends out a text to her friends demanding they meet up to hash things out. The text ends with a sweet message – “YOU ARE REQUIRED TO BE THERE SO I DON’T WANT ANY FUCKING EXCUSES.” Chloe certainly knows the way to people’s hearts!

In the final scene of this lengthy, two-episode extravaganza, we see the OG crew plus Jared at a bonfire. It’s nice to see all of the original cast together. Madisson kicks off the meeting by explaining how important everyone is to her. She breaks down, detailing how badly she needs a support system since her family hasn’t been there for her and Ish is gone. Chloe quickly glazes over the heartfelt cry for help and changes the direction of the conversation towards Alex and Juliette. As she tries to get them to see eye to eye, a very wasted Juliette calls Alex a “piece of shit” while Alex laughs in her face and tells her to go “bob her head” in the corner. I hate myself for laughing, but Juliette definitely nods her head weirdly when drunk. They peel off and have an emotional conversation that everyone can hear, and it ends with Alex holding a sobbing Juliette, assuring her that he would jump in front of a bullet for her. I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t be chill with my boyfriend doing that with (or for) his ex. Either way, at least they aren’t screaming at each other.

The episode ends with Brandon announcing a trip to Nashville. He’s going to record a song and wants to bring everyone along for a vacation. The two-part finale will take place in Nashville, and I cannot wait. In the words of Alex Kompothecras, future lawyer, “Sara-nara!” See y’all in Nashville next week!

[zarafoodrecipe]

Moore 'filthy' about Hadley's handshake after 'bully' claim

"Mate, Im filthy about this," he told PS, when asked to explain how he came to shake Hadley's hand. "I was contemplating how to use the coffee machine. I heard ,'hi Andrew', turned around and was stunned to see him [Hadley] with his hand reaching for mine, so technically I did shake it." But according to Moore: "Clearly he did it to report in to Rothfield. He asked me how I was and then in the most awkward 60 seconds of my life tried to help me use the coffee machine before disappearing." "I was trying to work out his angle, obviously reporting that to Rothfield was it. "And Rothfield has been, as far as Im aware, the only one trying to find a positive story about the bloke."

Sickened: Andrew Moore has accused Ray Hadley of bullying.Credit:ABC Moore confirmed it was the first contact he had with Hadley, who has declined to comment on Moore, since making his explosive accusations on April 3. "Im fully aware there is a reason for every action he takes, just wish I had seen him coming," Moore lamented, adding that he had not been contacted by Rothfield before the story was published. "When my wife read the story online I felt sick." PS had revealed in 2015 that Moore had kept a 40 page file on Hadley during his time at 2GB and contemplated launching legal action, but opted to quit the station to take up his current position with the ABC. Moore, who is now the ABC's Grandstand presenter and has known Hadley for 35 years, told 7.30 earlier this month: "As a human being, I think he's a bully. I think he thrives on intimidation yelling and screaming." When Moore complained to 2GB management about treatment he'd received, he said the matter ended up in Hadley's hands and was used as material for his show. "What I thought were private emails [were] being referred to on air by Ray, laughing about them. Not mentioning me by name, but it was clear, at least to me," Moore said. Hadley told 7.30 that he didn't remember such an incident and went on air the next day to reiterate that following previous allegations of bullying his workplace behaviour had changed. However, as PS has already exclusively revealed, within days Hadley was the subject of at least two new allegations of workplace bullying, which had been formally filed with management and are alleged to have occurred in recent months. PS has confirmed these new claims, by existing staff at 2GB, are currently being investigated by an independent third party. Hadley, sporting a new beard, returned to the 2GB Sydney studios last week after having relocated to Queensland for three weeks. Insiders report neither Hadley nor management have made any comment officially or unofficially about the latest claims. Management at 2GB's parent company Macquarie Media which is 54.5 per cent owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead has repeatedly stood by its position that it is unable to comment on bullying claims as they are treated confidentially. Rocky time for Jacenko as attacks hit raw nerve With the cameras out in full force, Roxy Jacenko ensured she was all smiles as she attempted in vain to operate a dish scourer to scrub the "Roxy is a c---" graffiti plastered over her Paddington offices on Wednesday morning.

On the hunt: Roxy Jacenko is offering a $5,000 reward to find the culprits of her latest graffiti attack.Credit:Louie Douvis By lunchtime it was gone, but similar missives scrawled along the route Jacenko takes from her Bondi home to her Paddington offices were not quite as easy to remove, especially on the wall of busy Syd Einfeld Drive. Jacenko, who is offering a $5,000 reward to find the culprits, claims she is unfazed by the latest attacks, but pin-pointing the offenders will not be an easy task, even with police currently investigating and her own CCTV footage showing a pair of men attacking her building in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Jacenko's various tribulations have been documented for many years, including across these pages. When PS approached her for comment on Wednesday, Jacenko wryly fired back: "Andrew, was it you?"

Graffiti sprayed on the wall of Roxy Jacenko's Paddington office.Credit:Andrew Hornery Well, PS hates to disappoint but it wasn't. Indeed, Jacenko has many detractors. She remains embroiled in an ugly and highly-public stoush with both her father Nick Jacenko and his partner, fashion designer Lisa Ho, which resulted in police being called following one particularly nasty incident on the streets of Woollahra. She is also estranged from her younger sister Ruby, more than a decade after her sibling was accused of punching Roxy twice at a Kings Cross party. In 2013 she was the subject of a 1000-word plus poison-pen letter purportedly written by a former staffer and titled Miss Karma. The letter went viral. In more recent years everything from her nose job and boob job, breast cancer media deals, relationship with former lover Nabil Gazal while her husband Oliver Curtis was in jail, to her children's relentless social media exposure, has ensured her position as one of this city's most written about characters. But Jacenko has not loved ALL the attention. In 2016 she called in the police after a lewd photo scandal erupted surrounding her then four-year-old daughter Pixie involving photo-shopped images of the little girl. In February she was rattled enough to engage lawyers after she was embroiled in a vulgar slanging match in front of a packed room with one of the attendees at her one-woman motivational talk. And behind the scenes, some of her closest associates say the latest attack which follows three other vandalism episodes on her building, ranging from paint bombing to faeces being smeared over her front door have hit a raw nerve. Last week PS revealed how unpopular she had become with neighbours in Paddington fed up with her $400,000 Aston Martin and husband's $250,000 Range Rover being illegally parked on their already cramped street. Next month her Sweaty Betty PR firm is marking its 15-year anniversary and Jacenko is understood to have plans for a big party. Exactly who will be celebrating remains to be seen. Pay no attention to the missing actor With his 32-year relationship in tatters, one time Australian showbiz golden boy Simon Gallaher has pulled out of his starring role in the Wizard of Oz spectacular. Gallaher told PS he was unable to face the audience on Newcastle this weekend and has quit from the production, in which he was due to play the role of the Wizard as it toured regional Australia.

Simon Gallaher (top-right) has exited the production of Wizard of Oz. Gallaher's personal life has been heavily scrutinised for the past six months since his former lover, fellow entertainer Todd McKenney, revealed how he discovered his ex-boyfriend had left him for his sister, Lisa. This week Gallaher confirmed his marriage to Lisa, the mother of their two adult children, had come to an end following McKenney's extraordinary revelations, which McKenney made in a lengthy interview on a gay community radio station in Melbourne late last year. The split comes as the Gallahers are expecting to welcome their first grandchild in a matter of weeks.

Todd McKenney as P.T. Barnum.Credit:Jeff Busby Gallaher took to social media to defend the decisions he had made in his private life after being openly criticised. Gallaher wrote on Twitter: "There was no lying, no delusions, no double life. A wonderful monogamous relationship with someone for 32 years. The other was a former dalliance long finished before a loving and fruitful marriage with no secrets. This is a public outing not a personal one. Check your facts." McKenney, who coincidentally opens in Melbourne this weekend with his latest role as P.T. Barnum, declined to comment further when PS called for a response to Gallaher's claim their five-year relationship was a "dalliance". Town goes to country for birthday bash If Ron and Nancy Reagan were still alive, it would be a safe bet that they would be among the long lineup of social luminaries heading to socialite, charity queen and one time cover girl Skye Leckie's 60th birthday party at her country estate Mulberry Farm in the Southern Highlands this weekend.

Birthday girl: Sydney society queen Skye Leckie is planning to mark her 60th birthday in a very big way this weekend. The Reagans became instant fans of Leckie way back in 1982 when she was Skye Macleod and ended up on the cover of US society magazine Town & Country wearing an Akubra for the magazine's special edition on Australia. She had been working for Vogue Australia "writing captions in a storeroom" at the time when she was asked to pose for the magazine.

Covergirl: Skye Leckie on the cover of American magazine Town & Country in 1982. "I forgot all about it but then I got a call from the White House and immediately thought it was someone having a lend and hung up because I was trying to get the Lotto numbers off the TV. But they rang back, and were deadly serious. I realised it wasn't a prank at all. Ronald and Nancy wanted to know about my hat and by the time I hung up I was arranging to have Akubras and a couple of Drizabones sent over to them," Leckie recalled to PS this week. The Town & Country cover has been dusted off and used as her party invitation, with the likes of Gretel Packer, Julie Bishop, Leo Schofield, Rachel Griffiths, Michael Usher, Mark Ferguson, Karl Stefanovic and Samantha Armytage, along with PS, heading for what promises to be one of the parties of the year. Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. Most Viewed in Entertainment Loading https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/moore-filthy-about-hadley-s-handshake-after-bully-claim-20190424-p51grs.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[courtneytincher]

Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell Spotted at In-N-Out Burger

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyOn Thursday August 15, the New York Post reported that British socialite—and accused madam of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—Ghislaine Maxwell had been spotted at an In-N-Out Burger in Universal City, Los Angeles. She was dining alone with a pet pup by her side, and reading a book titled The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives. When the Post's source snapped a picture of the raven-haired 57-year-old, he asked, "Are you who I think you are?" She replied, ‘Yes, I am.'”Police have reportedly been scrambling to find Maxwell as she faces a new lawsuit from one victim who alleges the socialite gave “organizational support to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring” and procured “underage girls for Epstein’s sexual pleasure.”Since Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said their sex-trafficking and conspiracy probe into the multimillionaire’s orbit is ongoing. (In a July court filing, prosecutors said they were investigating “uncharged individuals” in Epstein’s case.)Attorney General William Barr has vowed that authorities are coming for Epstein’s alleged accomplices. “Let me assure you that case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said Monday. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. Victims deserve justice and will get it.”Maxwell hasn’t been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. And for years, she has denied any wrongdoing, in particular after accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that Maxwell and Epstein groomed her for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew. (Buckingham Palace and Andrew also deny that anything improper happened.)Send The Daily Beast a TipEpstein Had His Own Lodge at Interlochen’s Prestigious Arts Camp for KidsBut last Friday, a tranche of unsealed documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre spelled out how Maxwell allegedly drove around seeking teen “masseuses” for Epstein to abuse, and how she allegedly participated in the sexual abuse herself and kept a “sex slave” of her own.David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre and other Epstein victims, said Maxwell should be prosecutors’ next logical focus after Epstein’s demise. “Maxwell is not gonna be able to hide,” Boies predicted. “There’s no place in the civilized world where she can go and not be found. And unlike Epstein, she does not have the massive resources that would be required to carve out a new life in some obscure place where she cannot be extradited from.”“I think it’s interesting to speculate as to where she is. I also think the more important issue is: where do the prosecutors stand in bringing a case and is she cooperating?”It’s unclear if Maxwell has spoken to authorities after Epstein’s arrest. Multiple lawyers of Maxwell’s didn’t return messages seeking comment. Before Maxwell was spotted at In-N-Out Burger, friends had told The Daily Beast that she was lying low in France, where she has been known to stay at Epstein’s residence on Paris’s exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe. “She isn’t responding to even her closest friends’ calls,” said one person who had tried reaching her in recent weeks. Epstein purchased multiple properties within a building at 22 Avenue Foch for about 1.5 million euros in 2002, and officials in France have called for a police probe into his activities there.Maxwell’s sister Christine also owns property in France.Yet on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that Maxwell wasn’t holed up somewhere in Europe—but in the secluded mansion of tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The British tabloid snapped photos of Borgerson, 43, walking a dog it claims is Maxwell’s.“She's become a real homebody, rarely ventures out,” a source told the Mail. “She’s the antithesis of the woman who traveled extensively and partied constantly with Epstein.”Tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson's home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MassachusettsRealtorOutside the wooded trail to Borgerson’s manse, where dogs were barking, a woman drove by and told a Daily Beast reporter of Maxwell: “Is she still there? They better get her out fast because the town will run her out.”Residents in the downtown Manchester area—less than two miles from Borgerson’s home—did not recognize Maxwell or her boyfriend, and only a few had heard about her connection to Epstein.A 66-year-old resident who has been living in the area since 1993 said he heard the news from a friend, and said he found it “surprising.”“This is not the kind of community that tolerates that crap,” he said.Another woman who asked not to be named said she was horrified to hear people connected to Epstein lived in the area. “I don’t care what political side you’re on ... I have less than zero tolerance. If she’s guilty I don’t want her in my town,” said the 46-year-old attorney, who said she’s worked with women who have been trafficked for sex.“If she’s falsely accused, then it’s horrible. If she’s rightly accused it’s repulsive and disgusting,” the lawyer said.In the city of Boston, where Borgerson owns another property close to the state house and the next to the city's historic park, all was business as usual.The strip of street his property is located on is a quiet area in Beacon Hill—a neighborhood known for its high housing costs and a stone’s throw from the bustling downtown area.  Reached by The Daily Beast, Borgerson denied that he was dating Maxwell or that she was staying at his $3 million home. “Ghislaine is not at my house. She’s a friend—former friend. Not true,” Borgerson said, adding that he was about to board a plane and would call police in light of the Mail’s report to protect his house and his family.“The police are coming to my house,” he said. “No one’s home except my cat.”In a text message to a Daily Beast reporter, Borgerson added, “Hi, I’m traveling abroad for business. Ghislaine Maxwell is not at my home and I don’t know where she is. I’m passionate about ocean policy and wish people were as interested in Jones Act reform, joining the law of the sea, and funding icebreakers.”Borgerson was listed as a “director” of Maxwell’s ocean nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, in 2013 tax filings. That year, Maxwell and Borgerson both attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. While Maxwell was representing TerraMar, Borgerson was there as CEO of CargoMetrics, a Boston-based firm that “delivers transformative quantitative investing and maritime shipping solutions, anchored in its proprietary platform that tracks all seaborne cargoes and vessels,” according to one press release.In 2014, a United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program, Maxwell’s “web-based non-profit” aimed “to protect the Oceans by empowering a global community of ocean citizens.” It further described Maxwell as “a private helicopter pilot and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.”A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches.” Friends of Maxwell, according to The New York Times, said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described Borgerson as a “Navy SEAL” to her pals.Maxwell’s dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative, the now-defunct networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as one of the “commitments to action” at their annual meeting. A close-up of Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonGoogle MapsIndeed, Maxwell was tied to the Clintons for years and attended Chelsea's wedding in 2010. She's also flown on President Trump's private jet, according to Politico, which reported Maxwell helped get Epstein access to Trumpworld, including parties at Mar-a-Lago.A blurb on the Clinton Foundation’s website announced TerraMar would launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance “to mobilize the international community and the public at large on the importance of the Oceans and the Seas and to ensure that the 193 UN Member States recognize and incorporate oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in 2015.”While TerraMar’s website listed modelling mogul Paolo Zampolli as a member of the Alliance, Zampolli recently told Politico he didn’t know Maxwell was involved. Zampolli said he remembered the late diplomat Stuart Beck, a former director of TerraMar, brought Maxwell to the United Nations twice to discuss her ocean activism. Zampolli reiterated this in an interview with The Daily Beast.“She came to the United Nations twice to meet with me. She had a very creative idea about the oceans,” Zampolli told one Daily Beast scribe. “She wanted to create awareness and give free passports to the ocean. Oceans are so big. Her idea wasn’t aligned with the charter of the U.N.”“She was very active and knowledgeable about the oceans,” he added. “I learnt after the meetings the Clinton foundation was funding her. She did not give us money. It was not a United Nations idea. It was a virtual passport. It’s like getting a piece of ice from an eskimo. It would be like getting a passport for an ice cube.”Shortly after Epstein’s arrest, TerraMar disabled its website and the New York Post reported that the feds were probing the charity over its potential connection to Epstein.“The TerraMar Project is sad to announce that it will cease all operations,” a message on the group’s defunct site reads. “The web site will be closed. TerraMar’s mission has always been to connect ocean lovers to positive actions, highlight science, and bring conscious change to how to people from across the globe can live, work and enjoy the ocean.”Before Maxwell surfaced, speculation ran wild as to where she might be. Those close to her pointed to one of her relatives’ properties in France.A property in southern France that belongs to Maxwell's sister ChristineDana Kennedy for The Daily BeastMaxwell was born in Maisons-Laffitte, in the Paris suburbs, to a French mother (Holocaust researcher Elisabeth “Betty” Maxwell) and a Czech-born father, the notorious publishing mogul Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, after he’d plundered hundreds of millions from his Daily Mirror employees’ pension fund. She and several of her six surviving siblings—as well as her late mother, who died in 2013—had homes in various small towns in the south of France. Her older sister, Christine Malina-Maxwell, has a home in Meyreuil, a semi-rural village about 8 miles from Aix-en-Provence. Nobody was home at the walled-in villa when The Daily Beast rang the gate buzzer Wednesday. Most of the surrounding estates seemed empty. A neighbor directly across the way had a strange reaction when asked if he knew the Malinas or Ghislaine Maxwell. He seemed to confirm that a man with the last name Malina lived there but said he’d never heard of Ghislaine Maxwell. But as the reporter was leaving, he started laughing and said, “Maybe they’re all there.”Meanwhile, there was no answer at Maxwell’s townhouse on Kinnerton Street in London's Belgravia district. A gaggle of press shutterbugs told a Daily Beast reporter they’ve seen no signs of life at the home over the last two or three weeks.Neighbors say the house, which had fresh flowers in its window boxes, hasn’t appeared lived-in for a while. “I’ve only seen someone go in and out a couple of times and my first thought was that it was maybe a cleaner,” said one resident who has lived on the street since last year. “It’s not really the kind of street where everyone talks to each other. It’s actually been quite nice having all you lot (journalists) around because there’s been someone to talk to.”Another neighbor said she didn’t recognize Maxwell’s name and said of the townhouse, “I have no idea who lives there. A few of us know each other on the street but I don’t know who lives at that house.”Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonJamie Ross for The Daily BeastAccording to public records, the property hasn’t been sold since 1997. The windows of the home appear to match those in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare midriff of Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles behind them. In a 2015 court declaration, Giuffre stated, “One day when I was in London (specifically in a townhouse that is under Maxwell’s name), I got news from Maxwell that I would be meeting a prince. Later that day, Epstein told me I was meeting a ‘major prince.’ Epstein told me ‘to exceed’ everything I had been taught.”“He emphasized that whatever Prince Andrew wanted, I was to make sure he got,” Giuffre added. “Eventually Prince Andrew arrived, along with his security guards. The guards then went out of the house and stayed out front in their car. It was just Epstein, Maxwell, and me inside alone with Andy.”Maxwell’s name is also connected to a cottage in Salisbury, records show, for her company Ellmax. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported the home was occupied by Maxwell’s old friend, Catherine Vaughan Edwards. (Katie Vaughan Edwards was listed as a “director” of TerraMar in 2012 tax records.) The New York Post, which revealed Maxwell posed for racy photos in the 1990s wearing an American flag bikini, reported that the British heiress was last spotted on Manhattan’s social scene in October 2016. One fellow socialite told the Post, “What’s crazy—now—is that other women liked her and really thought she was a ‘girl’s girl.’ The friend added, “I would see her at parties and she seemed perfectly lovely—but then I would hear these stories about her.”Wherever Maxwell is, she’s surely heard the news of Jeffrey Epstein’s demise. The two were entwined romantically, financially—and, some say, criminally—for years.According to one unsealed deposition, Epstein’s former house manager in Palm Beach, Juan Alessi, said Maxwell “became the supervisor not only for this house, but for all the homes” when Epstein was absent. Alessi said more than 100 girls came to Epstein’s mansion during his employment, and that he cleaned and returned sex toys to Maxwell’s closet.Asked who went out looking for girls, Alessi said, “Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein and their friends, because their friends relayed to other friends they knew a massage therapist and they would send to the house. So it was referrals.”A butler for Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, detailed one occasion where Maxwell, Epstein, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Sweden, entered the home Dubin shares with her husband Glenn, a billionaire hedge-funder. The employee, Rinaldo Rizzo, testified that Eva brought the girl into the kitchen and left. The teen, who was distraught, told Rizzo she was Epstein’s personal assistant. She then burst into tears, claiming she was on Epstein’s island with Maxwell and Epstein’s ex-assistant, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen. The trio had asked her for sex, and she said no.According to Rizzo, the girl didn’t know how she got to the Dubins’ residence from the island and claimed Kellen snatched her passport and phone and handed them to Maxwell. The girl then allegedly told Rizzo, “I was threatened by Ghislaine not to discuss this.”55 Court Street in BostonHandoutGiuffre claimed in a deposition that Maxwell had sex with underage girls every day Giuffre was around her—and that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Glenn Dubin, Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, MIT mathematician Marvin Minsky, former Senator George Mitchell, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the owner of a large hotel chain. (The men have denied her claims.)“Glenn and Eva Dubin are outraged by the allegations against them in the unsealed court records and categorically reject them," said a spokesperson for the couple.“You know, I was told to do something by these people constantly, told to—my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre testified. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.”Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell, filed in 2015, described the socialite as a “primary co-conspirator” who was granted immunity via Epstein’s 2007 plea agreement. This week, attorneys for Epstein’s victims suing the government asked a judge to rescind the deal’s provisions that protected Epstein’s accomplices, stating, “It would be unfair to the victims if Epstein not only managed to cheat justice through his death, but also left behind some kind of legal issue preventing the victims from obtaining the rescission remedy to which they are plainly entitled.”  As part of the shady non-prosecution agreement, the feds agreed not to charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”While Maxwell wasn’t explicitly named, she’s long been at the center of the Epstein controversy as his girlfriend-turned-majordomo and recruiter of his minor victims. And now that Epstein is dead, all eyes are on Maxwell as the keeper of his secrets.The government will have access to the full, unredacted evidentiary record in the case Giuffre brought against Maxwell, Boies said. “In my view, it is very unlikely that Maxwell will escape prosecution,” Boies said. “If that’s right, she would have an enormous incentive to see if she could do a deal.”He added, “It would be a lot better for her to cooperate as opposed to fight it, because somebody’s going to cooperate. There are too many people with knowledge. There are too many people involved in the criminal enterprise. Somebody’s going to cooperate, and in that context, if you’re somebody in Maxwell’s position, you want to be sure you’re in as early as possible.”Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Maxwell could remain as the most egregious offender in Epstein’s case.“I would imagine if I were a prosecutor or an investigator in the Epstein case, I would be considering her a subject of the investigation,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are usually subjects, witnesses or targets. You gather evidence about people.”“Just what we know from the press, there’s some complicity there,” McQuade added.McQuade said that if Maxwell were charged, the complaint would likely be filed under seal. And that the FBI has offices across the world to work with foreign agencies to find her—if Maxwell is hiding from authorities. “She is an intriguing figure here,” McQuade told The Daily Beast. “It could be that investigators have already talked to her and are not making that known that she’s cooperating. Or it could be that she is under investigation herself. She even could have been indicted under seal.”Based on the allegations brought by victims to the media, Maxwell could face charges for being  co-conspirator of Epstein, McQuade said. One of the child sex-trafficking charges in Epstein’s indictment, 18 U.S.C. 1591, refers to recruiting and enticing minors. “She herself could be liable as a principal even if she was not engaged in any sex acts with the girls,” McQuade said.— Additional reporting by Adam Rawnsley and Blake MontgomeryRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyOn Thursday August 15, the New York Post reported that British socialite—and accused madam of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—Ghislaine Maxwell had been spotted at an In-N-Out Burger in Universal City, Los Angeles. She was dining alone with a pet pup by her side, and reading a book titled The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives. When the Post's source snapped a picture of the raven-haired 57-year-old, he asked, "Are you who I think you are?" She replied, ‘Yes, I am.'”Police have reportedly been scrambling to find Maxwell as she faces a new lawsuit from one victim who alleges the socialite gave “organizational support to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring” and procured “underage girls for Epstein’s sexual pleasure.”Since Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said their sex-trafficking and conspiracy probe into the multimillionaire’s orbit is ongoing. (In a July court filing, prosecutors said they were investigating “uncharged individuals” in Epstein’s case.)Attorney General William Barr has vowed that authorities are coming for Epstein’s alleged accomplices. “Let me assure you that case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said Monday. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. Victims deserve justice and will get it.”Maxwell hasn’t been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. And for years, she has denied any wrongdoing, in particular after accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that Maxwell and Epstein groomed her for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew. (Buckingham Palace and Andrew also deny that anything improper happened.)Send The Daily Beast a TipEpstein Had His Own Lodge at Interlochen’s Prestigious Arts Camp for KidsBut last Friday, a tranche of unsealed documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre spelled out how Maxwell allegedly drove around seeking teen “masseuses” for Epstein to abuse, and how she allegedly participated in the sexual abuse herself and kept a “sex slave” of her own.David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre and other Epstein victims, said Maxwell should be prosecutors’ next logical focus after Epstein’s demise. “Maxwell is not gonna be able to hide,” Boies predicted. “There’s no place in the civilized world where she can go and not be found. And unlike Epstein, she does not have the massive resources that would be required to carve out a new life in some obscure place where she cannot be extradited from.”“I think it’s interesting to speculate as to where she is. I also think the more important issue is: where do the prosecutors stand in bringing a case and is she cooperating?”It’s unclear if Maxwell has spoken to authorities after Epstein’s arrest. Multiple lawyers of Maxwell’s didn’t return messages seeking comment. Before Maxwell was spotted at In-N-Out Burger, friends had told The Daily Beast that she was lying low in France, where she has been known to stay at Epstein’s residence on Paris’s exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe. “She isn’t responding to even her closest friends’ calls,” said one person who had tried reaching her in recent weeks. Epstein purchased multiple properties within a building at 22 Avenue Foch for about 1.5 million euros in 2002, and officials in France have called for a police probe into his activities there.Maxwell’s sister Christine also owns property in France.Yet on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that Maxwell wasn’t holed up somewhere in Europe—but in the secluded mansion of tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The British tabloid snapped photos of Borgerson, 43, walking a dog it claims is Maxwell’s.“She's become a real homebody, rarely ventures out,” a source told the Mail. “She’s the antithesis of the woman who traveled extensively and partied constantly with Epstein.”Tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson's home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MassachusettsRealtorOutside the wooded trail to Borgerson’s manse, where dogs were barking, a woman drove by and told a Daily Beast reporter of Maxwell: “Is she still there? They better get her out fast because the town will run her out.”Residents in the downtown Manchester area—less than two miles from Borgerson’s home—did not recognize Maxwell or her boyfriend, and only a few had heard about her connection to Epstein.A 66-year-old resident who has been living in the area since 1993 said he heard the news from a friend, and said he found it “surprising.”“This is not the kind of community that tolerates that crap,” he said.Another woman who asked not to be named said she was horrified to hear people connected to Epstein lived in the area. “I don’t care what political side you’re on ... I have less than zero tolerance. If she’s guilty I don’t want her in my town,” said the 46-year-old attorney, who said she’s worked with women who have been trafficked for sex.“If she’s falsely accused, then it’s horrible. If she’s rightly accused it’s repulsive and disgusting,” the lawyer said.In the city of Boston, where Borgerson owns another property close to the state house and the next to the city's historic park, all was business as usual.The strip of street his property is located on is a quiet area in Beacon Hill—a neighborhood known for its high housing costs and a stone’s throw from the bustling downtown area.  Reached by The Daily Beast, Borgerson denied that he was dating Maxwell or that she was staying at his $3 million home. “Ghislaine is not at my house. She’s a friend—former friend. Not true,” Borgerson said, adding that he was about to board a plane and would call police in light of the Mail’s report to protect his house and his family.“The police are coming to my house,” he said. “No one’s home except my cat.”In a text message to a Daily Beast reporter, Borgerson added, “Hi, I’m traveling abroad for business. Ghislaine Maxwell is not at my home and I don’t know where she is. I’m passionate about ocean policy and wish people were as interested in Jones Act reform, joining the law of the sea, and funding icebreakers.”Borgerson was listed as a “director” of Maxwell’s ocean nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, in 2013 tax filings. That year, Maxwell and Borgerson both attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. While Maxwell was representing TerraMar, Borgerson was there as CEO of CargoMetrics, a Boston-based firm that “delivers transformative quantitative investing and maritime shipping solutions, anchored in its proprietary platform that tracks all seaborne cargoes and vessels,” according to one press release.In 2014, a United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program, Maxwell’s “web-based non-profit” aimed “to protect the Oceans by empowering a global community of ocean citizens.” It further described Maxwell as “a private helicopter pilot and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.”A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches.” Friends of Maxwell, according to The New York Times, said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described Borgerson as a “Navy SEAL” to her pals.Maxwell’s dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative, the now-defunct networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as one of the “commitments to action” at their annual meeting. A close-up of Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonGoogle MapsIndeed, Maxwell was tied to the Clintons for years and attended Chelsea's wedding in 2010. She's also flown on President Trump's private jet, according to Politico, which reported Maxwell helped get Epstein access to Trumpworld, including parties at Mar-a-Lago.A blurb on the Clinton Foundation’s website announced TerraMar would launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance “to mobilize the international community and the public at large on the importance of the Oceans and the Seas and to ensure that the 193 UN Member States recognize and incorporate oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in 2015.”While TerraMar’s website listed modelling mogul Paolo Zampolli as a member of the Alliance, Zampolli recently told Politico he didn’t know Maxwell was involved. Zampolli said he remembered the late diplomat Stuart Beck, a former director of TerraMar, brought Maxwell to the United Nations twice to discuss her ocean activism. Zampolli reiterated this in an interview with The Daily Beast.“She came to the United Nations twice to meet with me. She had a very creative idea about the oceans,” Zampolli told one Daily Beast scribe. “She wanted to create awareness and give free passports to the ocean. Oceans are so big. Her idea wasn’t aligned with the charter of the U.N.”“She was very active and knowledgeable about the oceans,” he added. “I learnt after the meetings the Clinton foundation was funding her. She did not give us money. It was not a United Nations idea. It was a virtual passport. It’s like getting a piece of ice from an eskimo. It would be like getting a passport for an ice cube.”Shortly after Epstein’s arrest, TerraMar disabled its website and the New York Post reported that the feds were probing the charity over its potential connection to Epstein.“The TerraMar Project is sad to announce that it will cease all operations,” a message on the group’s defunct site reads. “The web site will be closed. TerraMar’s mission has always been to connect ocean lovers to positive actions, highlight science, and bring conscious change to how to people from across the globe can live, work and enjoy the ocean.”Before Maxwell surfaced, speculation ran wild as to where she might be. Those close to her pointed to one of her relatives’ properties in France.A property in southern France that belongs to Maxwell's sister ChristineDana Kennedy for The Daily BeastMaxwell was born in Maisons-Laffitte, in the Paris suburbs, to a French mother (Holocaust researcher Elisabeth “Betty” Maxwell) and a Czech-born father, the notorious publishing mogul Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, after he’d plundered hundreds of millions from his Daily Mirror employees’ pension fund. She and several of her six surviving siblings—as well as her late mother, who died in 2013—had homes in various small towns in the south of France. Her older sister, Christine Malina-Maxwell, has a home in Meyreuil, a semi-rural village about 8 miles from Aix-en-Provence. Nobody was home at the walled-in villa when The Daily Beast rang the gate buzzer Wednesday. Most of the surrounding estates seemed empty. A neighbor directly across the way had a strange reaction when asked if he knew the Malinas or Ghislaine Maxwell. He seemed to confirm that a man with the last name Malina lived there but said he’d never heard of Ghislaine Maxwell. But as the reporter was leaving, he started laughing and said, “Maybe they’re all there.”Meanwhile, there was no answer at Maxwell’s townhouse on Kinnerton Street in London's Belgravia district. A gaggle of press shutterbugs told a Daily Beast reporter they’ve seen no signs of life at the home over the last two or three weeks.Neighbors say the house, which had fresh flowers in its window boxes, hasn’t appeared lived-in for a while. “I’ve only seen someone go in and out a couple of times and my first thought was that it was maybe a cleaner,” said one resident who has lived on the street since last year. “It’s not really the kind of street where everyone talks to each other. It’s actually been quite nice having all you lot (journalists) around because there’s been someone to talk to.”Another neighbor said she didn’t recognize Maxwell’s name and said of the townhouse, “I have no idea who lives there. A few of us know each other on the street but I don’t know who lives at that house.”Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonJamie Ross for The Daily BeastAccording to public records, the property hasn’t been sold since 1997. The windows of the home appear to match those in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare midriff of Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles behind them. In a 2015 court declaration, Giuffre stated, “One day when I was in London (specifically in a townhouse that is under Maxwell’s name), I got news from Maxwell that I would be meeting a prince. Later that day, Epstein told me I was meeting a ‘major prince.’ Epstein told me ‘to exceed’ everything I had been taught.”“He emphasized that whatever Prince Andrew wanted, I was to make sure he got,” Giuffre added. “Eventually Prince Andrew arrived, along with his security guards. The guards then went out of the house and stayed out front in their car. It was just Epstein, Maxwell, and me inside alone with Andy.”Maxwell’s name is also connected to a cottage in Salisbury, records show, for her company Ellmax. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported the home was occupied by Maxwell’s old friend, Catherine Vaughan Edwards. (Katie Vaughan Edwards was listed as a “director” of TerraMar in 2012 tax records.) The New York Post, which revealed Maxwell posed for racy photos in the 1990s wearing an American flag bikini, reported that the British heiress was last spotted on Manhattan’s social scene in October 2016. One fellow socialite told the Post, “What’s crazy—now—is that other women liked her and really thought she was a ‘girl’s girl.’ The friend added, “I would see her at parties and she seemed perfectly lovely—but then I would hear these stories about her.”Wherever Maxwell is, she’s surely heard the news of Jeffrey Epstein’s demise. The two were entwined romantically, financially—and, some say, criminally—for years.According to one unsealed deposition, Epstein’s former house manager in Palm Beach, Juan Alessi, said Maxwell “became the supervisor not only for this house, but for all the homes” when Epstein was absent. Alessi said more than 100 girls came to Epstein’s mansion during his employment, and that he cleaned and returned sex toys to Maxwell’s closet.Asked who went out looking for girls, Alessi said, “Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein and their friends, because their friends relayed to other friends they knew a massage therapist and they would send to the house. So it was referrals.”A butler for Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, detailed one occasion where Maxwell, Epstein, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Sweden, entered the home Dubin shares with her husband Glenn, a billionaire hedge-funder. The employee, Rinaldo Rizzo, testified that Eva brought the girl into the kitchen and left. The teen, who was distraught, told Rizzo she was Epstein’s personal assistant. She then burst into tears, claiming she was on Epstein’s island with Maxwell and Epstein’s ex-assistant, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen. The trio had asked her for sex, and she said no.According to Rizzo, the girl didn’t know how she got to the Dubins’ residence from the island and claimed Kellen snatched her passport and phone and handed them to Maxwell. The girl then allegedly told Rizzo, “I was threatened by Ghislaine not to discuss this.”55 Court Street in BostonHandoutGiuffre claimed in a deposition that Maxwell had sex with underage girls every day Giuffre was around her—and that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Glenn Dubin, Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, MIT mathematician Marvin Minsky, former Senator George Mitchell, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the owner of a large hotel chain. (The men have denied her claims.)“Glenn and Eva Dubin are outraged by the allegations against them in the unsealed court records and categorically reject them," said a spokesperson for the couple.“You know, I was told to do something by these people constantly, told to—my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre testified. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.”Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell, filed in 2015, described the socialite as a “primary co-conspirator” who was granted immunity via Epstein’s 2007 plea agreement. This week, attorneys for Epstein’s victims suing the government asked a judge to rescind the deal’s provisions that protected Epstein’s accomplices, stating, “It would be unfair to the victims if Epstein not only managed to cheat justice through his death, but also left behind some kind of legal issue preventing the victims from obtaining the rescission remedy to which they are plainly entitled.”  As part of the shady non-prosecution agreement, the feds agreed not to charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”While Maxwell wasn’t explicitly named, she’s long been at the center of the Epstein controversy as his girlfriend-turned-majordomo and recruiter of his minor victims. And now that Epstein is dead, all eyes are on Maxwell as the keeper of his secrets.The government will have access to the full, unredacted evidentiary record in the case Giuffre brought against Maxwell, Boies said. “In my view, it is very unlikely that Maxwell will escape prosecution,” Boies said. “If that’s right, she would have an enormous incentive to see if she could do a deal.”He added, “It would be a lot better for her to cooperate as opposed to fight it, because somebody’s going to cooperate. There are too many people with knowledge. There are too many people involved in the criminal enterprise. Somebody’s going to cooperate, and in that context, if you’re somebody in Maxwell’s position, you want to be sure you’re in as early as possible.”Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Maxwell could remain as the most egregious offender in Epstein’s case.“I would imagine if I were a prosecutor or an investigator in the Epstein case, I would be considering her a subject of the investigation,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are usually subjects, witnesses or targets. You gather evidence about people.”“Just what we know from the press, there’s some complicity there,” McQuade added.McQuade said that if Maxwell were charged, the complaint would likely be filed under seal. And that the FBI has offices across the world to work with foreign agencies to find her—if Maxwell is hiding from authorities. “She is an intriguing figure here,” McQuade told The Daily Beast. “It could be that investigators have already talked to her and are not making that known that she’s cooperating. Or it could be that she is under investigation herself. She even could have been indicted under seal.”Based on the allegations brought by victims to the media, Maxwell could face charges for being  co-conspirator of Epstein, McQuade said. One of the child sex-trafficking charges in Epstein’s indictment, 18 U.S.C. 1591, refers to recruiting and enticing minors. “She herself could be liable as a principal even if she was not engaged in any sex acts with the girls,” McQuade said.— Additional reporting by Adam Rawnsley and Blake MontgomeryRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

August 15, 2019 at 09:44PM via IFTTT

[mercer-safehouse]

You've been kind of inactive lately, how's life going??

Thank you for checking in ;u;

I’m gonna put this under a readmore because I have a tendency to babble

TL;DR tho: not great, ups and downs, but i’m surviving

So, first and foremost, my biggest issue lately is drawing--I literally am incapable of drawing because i have no privacy because of the household situation (too many people, we gave our bedroom door to the other people in the house), and the kittens literally will not stay off of me and it freaks me the fuck out because I put them down to even stand up and they’re back on me before I can stand. And worse, they won’t stay off my tablet, which I have to keep on my lap, because my computer situation involves me sitting at the foot of my mom’s bed and keeping my laptop on a tray table.

I know this sounds overdramatic but I literally cannot live without drawing and I feel like I’m dying. But there’s nothing I can do. There’s nowhere I can go. I can’t even sit outside to scribble because it’s gotten cold even for Florida and my blood’s thinned down and I have no fat to store heat and the cold makes me dissociate because of PTSD related to harsh winters in Michigan. 

The cats repeatedly crawling onto my lap despite my attempts to free myself freaks me out really badly because as much as I love cuddling, when I need to move, I need to move. I can’t be trapped or I start freaking out. 

When I do manage to start drawing, I get about halfway through a shitty scribble before the kittens find me and get on my tablet and my mood IMMEDIATELY crashes and I have a breakdown and it’s awful.

I keep forgetting to take my meds on time and now I have to live with the stress of mom having to pay for my meds because I got booted off my insurance because apparently they’re salty about me getting lawyers to help me get on disability because I am growing more and more incapable of functioning like a normal human being.

I need to be isolated for hours on end so I can do creative things like draw and write because I’m super uncomfortable doing those things openly because those things are very personal to me. I have no way to do so and I’m being called to do something for mom every five minutes. I need isolation but the current way we’re living does not allow that. My sister is too lazy to help mom out, so mom and I are depended on to take care of EVERYTHING, including my sister’s cat and many birds. 

I’m trying desperately to deal with the fact that that same sister did horrible, horrible things to me as a child and she refuses to acknowledge it but I remember them, but I’m trying to move on anyways because I know she has issues of her own and she’s actually trying to improve but that doesn’t mean I will ever forgive her.

And then my brother, who I loved for my entire life, and my nephew, his son, are white supremacists, and have no place in my life. 

My two closest siblings basically are people I can no longer be close to--in fact I no longer even care for my brother, at all. It’s like all that love just shriveled up and died in an instant. He called me delusional, he told me my “tender feelings” don’t matter, and, you know. He’s a fucking racist asshole and so is his son. They are dead to me.

My life has been turned on its head, I feel like, and my coping mechanism has been stolen from me.

Because I can’t draw, I want to die, and I feel worthless. I’ve got over four hundred followers and I have nothing to give them. I feel awful. They deserve better. You deserve better. I am sincerely sorry I haven’t been putting out art lately.

Another fucked up thing I’ve dealt with (the entire household has dealt with) is our neighbor’s cat, Abby, got hit by a car. Abby had been spending time over with us, and even ate dinner with our cats. We were all very attached, and her owners were just going to leave her in the fucking ditch, so we buried her with our cats. 

Same neighbor no longer allows her diabetic cat inside because he pees all over the place. He can’t help it. We brought him inside a couple nights ago because it was nearly freezing temp. He hasn’t left since. My sister and her boyfriend have taken up the task of cleaning up after him. 

Because he hasn’t been outside, the neighbors were curious, and one of them mentioned in passing that the neighbor lady who owns the cat was wondering if he crawled under their trailer to die and they didn’t want him stinking up the place.

So, we now have a diabetic cat to care for since the neighbors won’t. Mom thinks he’s only got a few weeks left. His name is Baby and he is very sweet. He doesn’t know what the litterbox is but that’s okay. He’ll learn, or he’ll be cleaned up after. It’s okay.

But we’re going to wind up burying another cat eventually. We’ve buried so many cats. Car incidents, distemper, a dog attack. I’m tired. My heart wants to harden or shrivel up or something but the rest of the cats need me, so I have to stay soft.

And I can’t talk to my therapist about it. Because I don’t have insurance. I can’t allow mom to pay for my appointments. Our roommate isn’t employed at present (recent employers treated him like shit so we all encouraged him to bail out) which means things are tight, but that’s okay. We’re managing. It’s close but we’ve got this. 

In June things are going to get worse in the house because another sister of mine is moving in and that’s GREAT I’m looking forward to seeing her but we don’t have room. 

We’ll make room, but it’s going to feel awful for me. And the worse it gets for me, the more I feel like damaged garbage who needs to be catered to constantly. Years of the first-mentioned sister gaslighting me has left me feeling like everything is my fault, basically. lmao

I need to visit my dad. He wants to be part of my life. But I can’t bring mom with me because that would be Awkward and mom is basically my lifeline. Dad will accept me. He’s fine with who I am. He loves me so much. And I miss him. But I’m terrified of going somewhere without my mom, who I feel most days keeps me sane.

It’s going to take half a year starting whenever the lawyers get me on disability benefits for me to actually get the money, which means I’m going to have to wait at least another half-year to visit my partner, who is an absolute patient angel but I feel awful for taking so long to see her even though she doesn’t blame me. She’s so good to me ;____;

But I AM getting out of the house soon because a friend’s family was able to foot the bill for a plane ticket to go see them and I’m terrified about that because YAY FRIEND I’M SO EXCITED but also no mom to keep me stable.

I’m a 21 person. I should be out of the house. I should have a family of my own. But I still crawl into my mom’s bed when I have a nightmare or when I want to cuddle because I’m having a bad time. I still need my mom to stop my sister from being awful to me because my sister doesn’t respect me like an adult.

I don’t feel like an adult. I depend on everyone around me even though I need total isolation for at least a few hours a day when I want to draw and it’s awful because I can’t have any of that. 

And here I’m going to reiterate that my brother is a white supremacist because that is a recent revelation (though I’m not surprised, looking back) and it makes me so sick I want to die

I’m dealing with a ridiculous sort of dysphoria that has nothing to do with the usual kind I handle.

A tiny thing in comparison to the rest of the stuff above, but: tumblr’s antis freak me out so badly.

And on top of everything: the Tangerine Nightmare-elect

I’m passively suicidal but in no danger of actually going through with it, so like. I’m surviving. I actually kind of cleaned my room a tiny bit. I sweep little bits at a time. I’m trying. I’m just really tired and feel awful about not creating more.

[courtneytincher]

Where in the World is Ghislaine Maxwell?

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyWhere in the world is Ghislaine Maxwell?Police are reportedly scrambling to find the 57-year-old British socialite—and accused madam of deceased sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein—as she faces a new lawsuit from one victim who alleges Maxwell gave “organizational support to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring” and procured “underage girls for Epstein’s sexual pleasure.”Since Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said their sex-trafficking and conspiracy probe into the multimillionaire’s orbit is ongoing. (In a July court filing, prosecutors said they were investigating “uncharged individuals” in Epstein’s case.)Attorney General William Barr has vowed that authorities are coming for Epstein’s alleged accomplices. “Let me assure you that case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said Monday. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. Victims deserve justice and will get it.”Maxwell hasn’t been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. And for years, she has denied any wrongdoing, in particular after accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that Maxwell and Epstein groomed her for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew. (Buckingham Palace and Andrew also deny that anything improper happened.)Send The Daily Beast a TipEpstein Had His Own Lodge at Interlochen’s Prestigious Arts Camp for KidsBut last Friday, a tranche of unsealed documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre spelled out how Maxwell allegedly drove around seeking teen “masseuses” for Epstein to abuse, and how she allegedly participated in the sexual abuse herself and kept a “sex slave” of her own.David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre and other Epstein victims, said Maxwell should be prosecutors’ next logical focus after Epstein’s demise. “Maxwell is not gonna be able to hide,” Boies told The Daily Beast. “There’s no place in the civilized world where she can go and not be found. And unlike Epstein, she does not have the massive resources that would be required to carve out a new life in some obscure place where she cannot be extradited from.”“I think it’s interesting to speculate as to where she is. I also think the more important issue is: where do the prosecutors stand in bringing a case and is she cooperating?”It’s unclear if Maxwell has spoken to authorities after Epstein’s arrest. Multiple lawyers of Maxwell’s didn’t return messages seeking comment. Friends of Maxwell tell The Daily Beast that she is laying low in France, where she has been known to stay at Epstein’s residence on Paris’s exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe. “She isn’t responding to even her closest friends’ calls,” said one person who had tried reaching her in recent weeks. Epstein purchased multiple properties within a building at 22 Avenue Foch for about 1.5 million euros in 2002, and officials in France have called for a police probe into his activities there.Maxwell’s sister Christine also owns property in France.Yet on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that Maxwell wasn’t holed up somewhere in Europe—but in the secluded mansion of tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The British tabloid snapped photos of Borgerson, 43, walking a dog it claims is Maxwell’s.“She's become a real homebody, rarely ventures out,” a source told the Mail. “She’s the antithesis of the woman who traveled extensively and partied constantly with Epstein.”Tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson's home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MassachusettsRealtorOutside the wooded trail to Borgerson’s manse, where dogs were barking, a woman drove by and told a Daily Beast reporter of Maxwell: “Is she still there? They better get her out fast because the town will run her out.”Residents in the downtown Manchester area—less than two miles from Borgerson’s home—did not recognize Maxwell or her boyfriend, and only a few had heard about her connection to Epstein.A 66-year-old resident who has been living in the area since 1993 said he heard the news from a friend, and said he found it “surprising.”“This is not the kind of community that tolerates that crap,” he said.Another woman who asked not to be named said she was horrified to hear people connected to Epstein lived in the area. “I don’t care what political side you’re on ... I have less than zero tolerance. If she’s guilty I don’t want her in my town,” said the 46-year-old attorney, who said she’s worked with women who have been trafficked for sex.“If she’s falsely accused, then it’s horrible. If she’s rightly accused it’s repulsive and disgusting,” the lawyer said.In the city of Boston, where Borgerson owns another property close to the state house and the next to the city's historic park, all was business as usual.The strip of street his property is located on is a quiet area in Beacon Hill—a neighborhood known for its high housing costs and a stone’s throw from the bustling downtown area.  Reached by The Daily Beast, Borgerson denied that he was dating Maxwell or that she was staying at his $3 million home. “Ghislaine is not at my house. She’s a friend—former friend. Not true,” Borgerson said, adding that he was about to board a plane and would call police in light of the Mail’s report to protect his house and his family.“The police are coming to my house,” he said. “No one’s home except my cat.”In a text message to a Daily Beast reporter, Borgerson added, “Hi, I’m traveling abroad for business. Ghislaine Maxwell is not at my home and I don’t know where she is. I’m passionate about ocean policy and wish people were as interested in Jones Act reform, joining the law of the sea, and funding icebreakers.”Borgerson was listed as a “director” of Maxwell’s ocean nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, in 2013 tax filings. That year, Maxwell and Borgerson both attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. While Maxwell was representing TerraMar, Borgerson was there as CEO of CargoMetrics, a Boston-based firm that “delivers transformative quantitative investing and maritime shipping solutions, anchored in its proprietary platform that tracks all seaborne cargoes and vessels,” according to one press release.In 2014, a United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program, Maxwell’s “web-based non-profit” aimed “to protect the Oceans by empowering a global community of ocean citizens.” It further described Maxwell as “a private helicopter pilot and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.”A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches.” Friends of Maxwell, according to The New York Times, said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described Borgerson as a “Navy SEAL” to her pals.Maxwell’s dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative, the now-defunct networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as one of the “commitments to action” at their annual meeting. A close-up of Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonGoogle MapsIndeed, Maxwell was tied to the Clintons for years and attended Chelsea's wedding in 2010. She's also flown on President Trump's private jet, according to Politico, which reported Maxwell helped get Epstein access to Trump's world, including parties at Mar-a-Lago.A blurb on the Clinton Foundation’s website announced TerraMar would launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance “to mobilize the international community and the public at large on the importance of the Oceans and the Seas and to ensure that the 193 UN Member States recognize and incorporate oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in 2015.”While TerraMar’s website listed model mogul Paolo Zampolli as a member of the Alliance, Zampolli recently told Politico he didn’t know Maxwell was involved. Zampolli said he remembered the late diplomat Stuart Beck, a former director of TerraMar, brought Maxwell to the United Nations twice to discuss her ocean activism. Zampolli reiterated this in an interview with The Daily Beast.“She came to the United Nations twice to meet with me. She had a very creative idea about the oceans,” Zampolli told one Daily Beast scribe. “She wanted to create awareness and give free passports to the ocean. Oceans are so big. Her idea wasn’t aligned with the charter of the U.N.”“She was very active and knowledgeable about the oceans,” he added. “I learnt after the meetings the Clinton foundation was funding her. She did not give us money. It was not a United Nations idea. It was a virtual passport. It’s like getting a piece of ice from an eskimo. It would be like getting a passport for an ice cube.”Shortly after Epstein’s arrest, TerraMar disabled its website and the New York Post reported that the feds were probing the charity over its potential connection to Epstein.“The TerraMar Project is sad to announce that it will cease all operations,” a message on the group’s defunct site reads. “The web site will be closed. TerraMar’s mission has always been to connect ocean lovers to positive actions, highlight science, and bring conscious change to how to people from across the globe can live, work and enjoy the ocean.”Still, if Maxwell isn’t taking refuge in the Eastern Seaboard, perhaps she’s at one of her relatives’ properties in France.A property in southern France that belongs to Maxwell's sister ChristineDana Kennedy for The Daily BeastMaxwell was born in Maisons-Laffitte to a French mother (Holocaust researcher Elisabeth Maxwell) and a Czech-born father, the notorious publishing mogul Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, after he’d plundered hundreds of millions from his Daily Mirror employees’ pension fund. She and several of her six surviving siblings—as well as her late mother “Betty,” who died in 2013—had homes in various small towns in the south of France. Her older sister, Christine Malina-Maxwell, has a home in Meyreuil, a semi-rural village about 8 miles from Aix-en-Provence. Nobody was home at the walled-in villa when The Daily Beast rang the gate buzzer Wednesday. Most of the surrounding estates seemed empty. A neighbor directly across the way had a strange reaction when asked if he knew the Malinas or Ghislaine Maxwell. He seemed to confirm that a man with the last name Malina lived there but said he’d never heard of Ghislaine Maxwell. But as the reporter was leaving, he started laughing and said, “Maybe they’re all there.”Meanwhile, there was no answer at Maxwell’s townhouse on Kinnerton Street in London. A gaggle of press shutterbugs told a Daily Beast reporter they’ve seen no signs of life at the home over the last two or three weeks.Neighbors say the house, which had fresh flowers in its window boxes, hasn’t appeared lived-in for a while. “I’ve only seen someone go in and out a couple of times and my first thought was that it was maybe a cleaner,” said one resident who has lived on the street since last year. “It’s not really the kind of street where everyone talks to each other. It’s actually been quite nice having all you lot (journalists) around because there’s been someone to talk to.”Another neighbor said she didn’t recognize Maxwell’s name and said of the townhouse, “I have no idea who lives there. A few of us know each other on the street but I don’t know who lives at that house.”Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonJamie Ross for The Daily BeastAccording to public records, the property hasn’t been sold since 1997. The windows of the home appear to match those in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare midriff of Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles behind them. In a 2015 court declaration, Giuffre stated, “One day when I was in London (specifically in a townhouse that is under Maxwell’s name), I got news from Maxwell that I would be meeting a prince. Later that day, Epstein told me I was meeting a ‘major prince.’ Epstein told me ‘to exceed’ everything I had been taught.”“He emphasized that whatever Prince Andrew wanted, I was to make sure he got,” Giuffre added. “Eventually Prince Andrew arrived, along with his security guards. The guards then went out of the house and stayed out front in their car. It was just Epstein, Maxwell, and me inside alone with Andy.”Maxwell’s name is also connected to a cottage in Salisbury, records show, for her company Ellmax. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported the home was occupied by Maxwell’s old friend, Catherine Vaughan Edwards. (Katie Vaughan Edwards was listed as a “director” of TerraMar in 2012 tax records.) The New York Post, which revealed Maxwell posed for racy photos in the 1990s, wearing an American flag bikini, reported that the British heiress was last spotted on Manhattan’s social scene in October 2016. One fellow socialite told the Post, “What’s crazy—now—is that other women liked her and really thought she was a ‘girl’s girl.’ The friend added, “I would see her at parties and she seemed perfectly lovely—but then I would hear these stories about her.”Wherever Maxwell is, she’s surely heard the news of Jeffrey Epstein’s demise. The two were entwined romantically, financially—and, some say, criminally—for years.According to one unsealed deposition, Epstein’s former house manager in Palm Beach, Juan Alessi, said Maxwell “became the supervisor not only for this house, but for all the homes” when Epstein was absent. Alessi said more than 100 girls came to Epstein’s mansion during his employment, and that he cleaned and returned sex toys to Maxwell’s closet.Asked who went out looking for girls, Alessi said, “Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein and their friends, because their friends relayed to other friends they knew a massage therapist and they would send to the house. So it was referrals.”A butler for Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, detailed one occasion where Maxwell, Epstein, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Sweden, entered the home Dubin shares with her husband Glenn, a billionaire hedge-funder. The employee, Rinaldo Rizzo, testified that Eva brought the girl into the kitchen and left. The teen, who was distraught, told Rizzo she was Epstein’s personal assistant. She then burst into tears, claiming she was on Epstein’s island with Maxwell and Epstein’s ex-assistant, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen. The trio had asked her for sex, and she said no.According to Rizzo, the girl didn’t know how she got to the Dubins’ residence from the island and claimed Kellen snatched her passport and phone and handed them to Maxwell. The girl then allegedly told Rizzo, “I was threatened by Ghislaine not to discuss this.”Giuffre claimed in a deposition that Maxwell had sex with underage girls every day Giuffre was around her—and that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Glenn Dubin, Prince Andrew, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, MIT mathematician Marvin Minsky, former Senator George Mitchell, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the owner of a large hotel chain. (The men have denied her claims.)“You know, I was told to do something by these people constantly, told to—my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre testified. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.”Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell, filed in 2015, described the socialite as a “primary co-conspirator” who was granted immunity via Epstein’s 2007 plea agreement. This week, attorneys for Epstein’s victims suing the government asked a judge to rescind the deal’s provisions that protected Epstein’s accomplices, stating, “It would be unfair to the victims if Epstein not only managed to cheat justice through his death, but also left behind some kind of legal issue preventing the victims from obtaining the rescission remedy to which they are plainly entitled.”  As part of the shady non-prosecution agreement, the feds agreed not to charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”While Maxwell wasn’t explicitly named, she’s long been at the center of the Epstein controversy as his girlfriend-turned-major domo and recruiter of his minor victims. And now that Epstein is dead, all eyes are on Maxwell as the keeper of his secrets.The government will have access to the full, unredacted evidentiary record in the case Giuffre brought against Maxwell, Boies said. “In my view, it is very unlikely that Maxwell will escape prosecution,” Boies said. “If that’s right, she would have an enormous incentive to see if she could do a deal.”He added, “It would be a lot better for her to cooperate as opposed to fight it, because somebody’s going to cooperate. There are too many people with knowledge. There are too many people involved in the criminal enterprise. Somebody’s going to cooperate, and in that context, if you’re somebody in Maxwell’s position, you want to be sure you’re in as early as possible.”Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Maxwell could remain as the most egregious offender in Epstein’s case.“I would imagine if I were a prosecutor or an investigator in the Epstein case, I would be considering her a subject of the investigation,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are usually subjects, witnesses or targets. You gather evidence about people.”“Just what we know from the press, there’s some complicity there,” McQuade added.McQuade said that if Maxwell were charged, the complaint would likely be filed under seal. And that the FBI has offices across the world to work with foreign agencies to find her—if Maxwell is hiding from authorities. “She is an intriguing figure here,” McQuade told The Daily Beast. “It could be that investigators have already talked to her and are not making that known that she’s cooperating. Or it could be that she is under investigation herself. She even could have been indicted under seal.”Based on the allegations brought by victims to the media, Maxwell could face charges for being  co-conspirator of Epstein, McQuade said. One of the child sex-trafficking charges in Epstein’s indictment, 18 U.S.C. 1591, refers to recruiting and enticing minors. “She herself could be liable as a principal even if she was not engaged in any sex acts with the girls,” McQuade said.— Additional reporting by Adam Rawnsley and Blake MontgomeryRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyWhere in the world is Ghislaine Maxwell?Police are reportedly scrambling to find the 57-year-old British socialite—and accused madam of deceased sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein—as she faces a new lawsuit from one victim who alleges Maxwell gave “organizational support to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring” and procured “underage girls for Epstein’s sexual pleasure.”Since Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide on Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said their sex-trafficking and conspiracy probe into the multimillionaire’s orbit is ongoing. (In a July court filing, prosecutors said they were investigating “uncharged individuals” in Epstein’s case.)Attorney General William Barr has vowed that authorities are coming for Epstein’s alleged accomplices. “Let me assure you that case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said Monday. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. Victims deserve justice and will get it.”Maxwell hasn’t been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. And for years, she has denied any wrongdoing, in particular after accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that Maxwell and Epstein groomed her for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew. (Buckingham Palace and Andrew also deny that anything improper happened.)Send The Daily Beast a TipEpstein Had His Own Lodge at Interlochen’s Prestigious Arts Camp for KidsBut last Friday, a tranche of unsealed documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre spelled out how Maxwell allegedly drove around seeking teen “masseuses” for Epstein to abuse, and how she allegedly participated in the sexual abuse herself and kept a “sex slave” of her own.David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre and other Epstein victims, said Maxwell should be prosecutors’ next logical focus after Epstein’s demise. “Maxwell is not gonna be able to hide,” Boies told The Daily Beast. “There’s no place in the civilized world where she can go and not be found. And unlike Epstein, she does not have the massive resources that would be required to carve out a new life in some obscure place where she cannot be extradited from.”“I think it’s interesting to speculate as to where she is. I also think the more important issue is: where do the prosecutors stand in bringing a case and is she cooperating?”It’s unclear if Maxwell has spoken to authorities after Epstein’s arrest. Multiple lawyers of Maxwell’s didn’t return messages seeking comment. Friends of Maxwell tell The Daily Beast that she is laying low in France, where she has been known to stay at Epstein’s residence on Paris’s exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe. “She isn’t responding to even her closest friends’ calls,” said one person who had tried reaching her in recent weeks. Epstein purchased multiple properties within a building at 22 Avenue Foch for about 1.5 million euros in 2002, and officials in France have called for a police probe into his activities there.Maxwell’s sister Christine also owns property in France.Yet on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that Maxwell wasn’t holed up somewhere in Europe—but in the secluded mansion of tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The British tabloid snapped photos of Borgerson, 43, walking a dog it claims is Maxwell’s.“She's become a real homebody, rarely ventures out,” a source told the Mail. “She’s the antithesis of the woman who traveled extensively and partied constantly with Epstein.”Tech CEO and maritime expert Scott Borgerson's home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MassachusettsRealtorOutside the wooded trail to Borgerson’s manse, where dogs were barking, a woman drove by and told a Daily Beast reporter of Maxwell: “Is she still there? They better get her out fast because the town will run her out.”Residents in the downtown Manchester area—less than two miles from Borgerson’s home—did not recognize Maxwell or her boyfriend, and only a few had heard about her connection to Epstein.A 66-year-old resident who has been living in the area since 1993 said he heard the news from a friend, and said he found it “surprising.”“This is not the kind of community that tolerates that crap,” he said.Another woman who asked not to be named said she was horrified to hear people connected to Epstein lived in the area. “I don’t care what political side you’re on ... I have less than zero tolerance. If she’s guilty I don’t want her in my town,” said the 46-year-old attorney, who said she’s worked with women who have been trafficked for sex.“If she’s falsely accused, then it’s horrible. If she’s rightly accused it’s repulsive and disgusting,” the lawyer said.In the city of Boston, where Borgerson owns another property close to the state house and the next to the city's historic park, all was business as usual.The strip of street his property is located on is a quiet area in Beacon Hill—a neighborhood known for its high housing costs and a stone’s throw from the bustling downtown area.  Reached by The Daily Beast, Borgerson denied that he was dating Maxwell or that she was staying at his $3 million home. “Ghislaine is not at my house. She’s a friend—former friend. Not true,” Borgerson said, adding that he was about to board a plane and would call police in light of the Mail’s report to protect his house and his family.“The police are coming to my house,” he said. “No one’s home except my cat.”In a text message to a Daily Beast reporter, Borgerson added, “Hi, I’m traveling abroad for business. Ghislaine Maxwell is not at my home and I don’t know where she is. I’m passionate about ocean policy and wish people were as interested in Jones Act reform, joining the law of the sea, and funding icebreakers.”Borgerson was listed as a “director” of Maxwell’s ocean nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, in 2013 tax filings. That year, Maxwell and Borgerson both attended the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. While Maxwell was representing TerraMar, Borgerson was there as CEO of CargoMetrics, a Boston-based firm that “delivers transformative quantitative investing and maritime shipping solutions, anchored in its proprietary platform that tracks all seaborne cargoes and vessels,” according to one press release.In 2014, a United Nations event featured Maxwell as a speaker. According to her bio in the program, Maxwell’s “web-based non-profit” aimed “to protect the Oceans by empowering a global community of ocean citizens.” It further described Maxwell as “a private helicopter pilot and an Emergency Medical Technician and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.”A former Coast Guard officer, Borgerson was also a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, which featured Borgerson and Maxwell as speakers during one 2014 talk titled “Governing the Ocean Commons: Growing Challenges, New Approaches.” Friends of Maxwell, according to The New York Times, said Borgerson became her boyfriend. Maxwell had allegedly described Borgerson as a “Navy SEAL” to her pals.Maxwell’s dubious charity also roped in the Clinton Global Initiative, the now-defunct networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. In the fall of 2013, CGI named TerraMar as one of the “commitments to action” at their annual meeting. A close-up of Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonGoogle MapsIndeed, Maxwell was tied to the Clintons for years and attended Chelsea's wedding in 2010. She's also flown on President Trump's private jet, according to Politico, which reported Maxwell helped get Epstein access to Trump's world, including parties at Mar-a-Lago.A blurb on the Clinton Foundation’s website announced TerraMar would launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance “to mobilize the international community and the public at large on the importance of the Oceans and the Seas and to ensure that the 193 UN Member States recognize and incorporate oceans in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be adopted in 2015.”While TerraMar’s website listed model mogul Paolo Zampolli as a member of the Alliance, Zampolli recently told Politico he didn’t know Maxwell was involved. Zampolli said he remembered the late diplomat Stuart Beck, a former director of TerraMar, brought Maxwell to the United Nations twice to discuss her ocean activism. Zampolli reiterated this in an interview with The Daily Beast.“She came to the United Nations twice to meet with me. She had a very creative idea about the oceans,” Zampolli told one Daily Beast scribe. “She wanted to create awareness and give free passports to the ocean. Oceans are so big. Her idea wasn’t aligned with the charter of the U.N.”“She was very active and knowledgeable about the oceans,” he added. “I learnt after the meetings the Clinton foundation was funding her. She did not give us money. It was not a United Nations idea. It was a virtual passport. It’s like getting a piece of ice from an eskimo. It would be like getting a passport for an ice cube.”Shortly after Epstein’s arrest, TerraMar disabled its website and the New York Post reported that the feds were probing the charity over its potential connection to Epstein.“The TerraMar Project is sad to announce that it will cease all operations,” a message on the group’s defunct site reads. “The web site will be closed. TerraMar’s mission has always been to connect ocean lovers to positive actions, highlight science, and bring conscious change to how to people from across the globe can live, work and enjoy the ocean.”Still, if Maxwell isn’t taking refuge in the Eastern Seaboard, perhaps she’s at one of her relatives’ properties in France.A property in southern France that belongs to Maxwell's sister ChristineDana Kennedy for The Daily BeastMaxwell was born in Maisons-Laffitte to a French mother (Holocaust researcher Elisabeth Maxwell) and a Czech-born father, the notorious publishing mogul Robert Maxwell who died mysteriously after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, after he’d plundered hundreds of millions from his Daily Mirror employees’ pension fund. She and several of her six surviving siblings—as well as her late mother “Betty,” who died in 2013—had homes in various small towns in the south of France. Her older sister, Christine Malina-Maxwell, has a home in Meyreuil, a semi-rural village about 8 miles from Aix-en-Provence. Nobody was home at the walled-in villa when The Daily Beast rang the gate buzzer Wednesday. Most of the surrounding estates seemed empty. A neighbor directly across the way had a strange reaction when asked if he knew the Malinas or Ghislaine Maxwell. He seemed to confirm that a man with the last name Malina lived there but said he’d never heard of Ghislaine Maxwell. But as the reporter was leaving, he started laughing and said, “Maybe they’re all there.”Meanwhile, there was no answer at Maxwell’s townhouse on Kinnerton Street in London. A gaggle of press shutterbugs told a Daily Beast reporter they’ve seen no signs of life at the home over the last two or three weeks.Neighbors say the house, which had fresh flowers in its window boxes, hasn’t appeared lived-in for a while. “I’ve only seen someone go in and out a couple of times and my first thought was that it was maybe a cleaner,” said one resident who has lived on the street since last year. “It’s not really the kind of street where everyone talks to each other. It’s actually been quite nice having all you lot (journalists) around because there’s been someone to talk to.”Another neighbor said she didn’t recognize Maxwell’s name and said of the townhouse, “I have no idea who lives there. A few of us know each other on the street but I don’t know who lives at that house.”Ghislaine Maxwell's residence in LondonJamie Ross for The Daily BeastAccording to public records, the property hasn’t been sold since 1997. The windows of the home appear to match those in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the bare midriff of Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles behind them. In a 2015 court declaration, Giuffre stated, “One day when I was in London (specifically in a townhouse that is under Maxwell’s name), I got news from Maxwell that I would be meeting a prince. Later that day, Epstein told me I was meeting a ‘major prince.’ Epstein told me ‘to exceed’ everything I had been taught.”“He emphasized that whatever Prince Andrew wanted, I was to make sure he got,” Giuffre added. “Eventually Prince Andrew arrived, along with his security guards. The guards then went out of the house and stayed out front in their car. It was just Epstein, Maxwell, and me inside alone with Andy.”Maxwell’s name is also connected to a cottage in Salisbury, records show, for her company Ellmax. In 2015, the Daily Mail reported the home was occupied by Maxwell’s old friend, Catherine Vaughan Edwards. (Katie Vaughan Edwards was listed as a “director” of TerraMar in 2012 tax records.) The New York Post, which revealed Maxwell posed for racy photos in the 1990s, wearing an American flag bikini, reported that the British heiress was last spotted on Manhattan’s social scene in October 2016. One fellow socialite told the Post, “What’s crazy—now—is that other women liked her and really thought she was a ‘girl’s girl.’ The friend added, “I would see her at parties and she seemed perfectly lovely—but then I would hear these stories about her.”Wherever Maxwell is, she’s surely heard the news of Jeffrey Epstein’s demise. The two were entwined romantically, financially—and, some say, criminally—for years.According to one unsealed deposition, Epstein’s former house manager in Palm Beach, Juan Alessi, said Maxwell “became the supervisor not only for this house, but for all the homes” when Epstein was absent. Alessi said more than 100 girls came to Epstein’s mansion during his employment, and that he cleaned and returned sex toys to Maxwell’s closet.Asked who went out looking for girls, Alessi said, “Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein and their friends, because their friends relayed to other friends they knew a massage therapist and they would send to the house. So it was referrals.”A butler for Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, detailed one occasion where Maxwell, Epstein, and an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Sweden, entered the home Dubin shares with her husband Glenn, a billionaire hedge-funder. The employee, Rinaldo Rizzo, testified that Eva brought the girl into the kitchen and left. The teen, who was distraught, told Rizzo she was Epstein’s personal assistant. She then burst into tears, claiming she was on Epstein’s island with Maxwell and Epstein’s ex-assistant, co-conspirator Sarah Kellen. The trio had asked her for sex, and she said no.According to Rizzo, the girl didn’t know how she got to the Dubins’ residence from the island and claimed Kellen snatched her passport and phone and handed them to Maxwell. The girl then allegedly told Rizzo, “I was threatened by Ghislaine not to discuss this.”Giuffre claimed in a deposition that Maxwell had sex with underage girls every day Giuffre was around her—and that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Glenn Dubin, Prince Andrew, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, MIT mathematician Marvin Minsky, former Senator George Mitchell, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the owner of a large hotel chain. (The men have denied her claims.)“You know, I was told to do something by these people constantly, told to—my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” Giuffre testified. “Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.”Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell, filed in 2015, described the socialite as a “primary co-conspirator” who was granted immunity via Epstein’s 2007 plea agreement. This week, attorneys for Epstein’s victims suing the government asked a judge to rescind the deal’s provisions that protected Epstein’s accomplices, stating, “It would be unfair to the victims if Epstein not only managed to cheat justice through his death, but also left behind some kind of legal issue preventing the victims from obtaining the rescission remedy to which they are plainly entitled.”  As part of the shady non-prosecution agreement, the feds agreed not to charge “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”While Maxwell wasn’t explicitly named, she’s long been at the center of the Epstein controversy as his girlfriend-turned-major domo and recruiter of his minor victims. And now that Epstein is dead, all eyes are on Maxwell as the keeper of his secrets.The government will have access to the full, unredacted evidentiary record in the case Giuffre brought against Maxwell, Boies said. “In my view, it is very unlikely that Maxwell will escape prosecution,” Boies said. “If that’s right, she would have an enormous incentive to see if she could do a deal.”He added, “It would be a lot better for her to cooperate as opposed to fight it, because somebody’s going to cooperate. There are too many people with knowledge. There are too many people involved in the criminal enterprise. Somebody’s going to cooperate, and in that context, if you’re somebody in Maxwell’s position, you want to be sure you’re in as early as possible.”Barbara McQuade, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Maxwell could remain as the most egregious offender in Epstein’s case.“I would imagine if I were a prosecutor or an investigator in the Epstein case, I would be considering her a subject of the investigation,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are usually subjects, witnesses or targets. You gather evidence about people.”“Just what we know from the press, there’s some complicity there,” McQuade added.McQuade said that if Maxwell were charged, the complaint would likely be filed under seal. And that the FBI has offices across the world to work with foreign agencies to find her—if Maxwell is hiding from authorities. “She is an intriguing figure here,” McQuade told The Daily Beast. “It could be that investigators have already talked to her and are not making that known that she’s cooperating. Or it could be that she is under investigation herself. She even could have been indicted under seal.”Based on the allegations brought by victims to the media, Maxwell could face charges for being  co-conspirator of Epstein, McQuade said. One of the child sex-trafficking charges in Epstein’s indictment, 18 U.S.C. 1591, refers to recruiting and enticing minors. “She herself could be liable as a principal even if she was not engaged in any sex acts with the girls,” McQuade said.— Additional reporting by Adam Rawnsley and Blake MontgomeryRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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August 15, 2019 at 02:41AM via IFTTT