Standby For A Live Video Chat About The Epstein Files With Julie K. Brown On Tuesday At Noon ET!
We Will Get Into Everything!
Hey Everyone,
Forgive my silence this past week. I’ve been deep reporting on the book about the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly by Luigi Mangione, who has pled not guilty.
We learned on Friday, that unless the government appeals the judge’s ruling, Mangione is slated to stand trial in federal court on October 13th. BUT, in a big win for the defense, the death penalty is no longer on the table. In-person jury selection begins September 8th, which means I will be head-down for the next little while, reporting and writing. (State prosecutors have said, late in the game, they want to go to trial on July 1 - ie ahead of the Feds - but I have my doubts that that will happen. I think that the State has been outmaneuvered on this one).
As I am working on the book, I will do my best to keep up with my weekly videos on Wednesday at 5pm. With the exception of this week, where we have a schedule change. On Tuesday morning at noon ET, I will talk with Julie K. Brown, the intrepid Miami Herald journalist whose series “Perversion of Justice” about Jeffrey Epstein’s hideous sex crimes, finally woke up Congress and kicked the wheels of justice into gear.
I met Julie when we were covering Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial. But we haven’t talked person to person since then - and certainly not since Friday’s document dump, in which we are both trashed by Epstein!
Julie has reported on her substack that Epstein trashes her.
And here’s him trashing me to my then boss at Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, during our fact-checking process in 2002, and knocking down my questions about the Farmer sisters’ allegations of sexual abuse. You’d have thought, give the threats he made me, while I was pregnant, and the anxiety it caused, that my boss would have shown me this fax - but no. I learn of its existence now.
Ugh.
We know what happened after this fax was received: the Farmer sisters were cut from the article….leaving them exposed to Epstein and Maxwell, who went on to terrorize Maria and abuse many, many more children. And, of course, Carter went on to defend himself by trashing my journalism - even though he employed me for the next decade to write five major pieces a year for the magazine. I was that bad!
See you on Tuesday!
When "trash" does the trashing, you know that you must be doing something right, Vicky! Just like the current "one" who trash-talks everyone who does what is good, honorable and right, this one was from the same litter (pun on litter). When Steve Bannon asked him if he were the devil, Epstein NEVER responded to the question. Even the devil can't admit who he is and points the finger to everyone and anyone else! Keep your head up, Vicky! Your reporting sheds the light on that devil!
Powerful look at how institutional cowardice enables predators. The fact that Epstein's attacks on both journalists came during fact-checking yet the victims got cut anyway shows the pattern wasn't jsut about one editor's judgment call. I've seen similar dynamics in corporate environments where legal pressure gets prioritzed over truth telling. Conversations like this help document the mechanics of institutional betrayal.