Yesterday, I had a terrific conversation with “Mo” - Mosheh Oinounou - creator of the uber successful Mo News brand, here and on other platforms.
We talked about my experience of dealing with Jeffrey Epstein in 2002, when I was working for Vanity Fair, before Epstein was a bold-faced name. I also focus on how these latest documents show what a brilliant manipulator he was, not just of young women and girls, but also of wealthy men interested in his vast network and the insider knowledge of markets and much else he could give them. But what this latest tranche of Epstein files also has shown is surely that very few of them can plausibly deny knowing what Epstein was up to in his private life.
I also talk about what’s missing from the Epstein timeline in the Department of Justice document releases. An addendum on this: I mention that I couldn’t find anything on Epstein’s one time beneficiary Les Wexner. But I now see that according to the New York Times, there’s a draft email from Epstein to Wexner that is both threatening and emotional, harking back to when “You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years,”. A spokesman for Mr. Wexner told The Times that he never received the letter, and that it “appears to fit a pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct.” He and Epstein reportedly severed ties in 2007 shortly before Epstein went to jail in Florida.
But Epstein’s language triggers memories of allegations made by a local journalist, Bob Fitrakis, who maintained to me, both in 2002, and years later when I made the podcast and docuseries, Chasing Ghislaine, that the kind of control and influence that the Wexner/Epstein partnership was wielding was indeed mob-like. Fitrakis mentioned the expansion of New Albany’s huge development project in Ohio, as an example. And also the alleged use of planes to ship lingerie that were previously linked to Iran-Contra arms smuggling. He even referenced the murder of lawyer, Arthur Shapiro, who represented The Limited. I thought some of this was a little far-fetched at the time…now, of course, nothing seems completely off the table.
I get into why I think President Trump is not so much embarrassed by the Epstein Files as ticked that they are a bigger story than he is; and why it’s unlikely Epstein was working for the CIA or Mossad, as conspiracy theories have suggested. Epstein didn’t need to be an asset for a foreign government. We can see from the emails, that he had tentacles into the leaders of countries all around the globe. He was his own intelligence operation, all by himself. Not an entirely dissimilar business model from that of Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine, who traded information between multiple governments.
Thank you Jeanne Elbe, Deborah J., monique, Joanna K 🐾, StandUp12, and many others for tuning into my live video with Mo News! Join me for my next live video in the app.
