Jeffrey Epstein: how US media - with one star exception - whitewashed the story

[Kid Berwyn]

Not fake news. The Guardian brings up a major threat to democracy: corrupt news media.

Jeffrey Epstein: how US media – with one star exception – whitewashed the story

The Miami Herald exposed a vast criminal network and a government cover-up – but why the silence elsewhere?

Ed Pilkington
The Guardian, July 19, 2019

EXCERPT...

Reiter warned Brown what would happen were she to continue digging: “Somebody’s going to call your publisher and the next thing you know you are going to be assigned to the obituaries department.”

Brown did not heed his warning. She flung herself at the investigation and eventually persuaded Reiter to go on record. Her resulting, award-winning three-part series last November exposed a vast operation in which 80 potential victims were identified, some as young as 13 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. She persuaded eight to tell their stories.

Brown also exposed a government cover-up in which Epstein got away with an exceptionally light sentence that saw him serve only 13 months in jail. She discovered that a “non-prosecution agreement” had been negotiated secretly in 2008 by the then top federal prosecutor in Miami, Alexander Acosta, that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution.

In 2017, Acosta was appointed by Donald Trump as labor secretary, a post that ironically is responsible for combating sex trafficking.

CONTINUES...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/13/jeffrey-epstein-alex-acosta-miami-herald-media

We likely wouldn’t know squat about Epstein & Associates without the Miami Herald.

Original DU post from August 2019: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212367573

[BoRaGard]

1. k and r

[Kid Berwyn]

7. After Trump, Bill Barr might have been the happiest to see Epstein carted to the morgue.

Why? Because his father, headmaster Donald Barr, likely hired the college-drop-out Epstein to teach at Manhattan's exclusive Dalton School.



From NYT:

Jeffrey Epstein Taught at Dalton. His Behavior Was Noticed.

Some students at the esteemed Manhattan prep school recall that Mr. Epstein, now charged with sex trafficking, was willing to violate norms in his encounters with girls.

By Mike Baker and Amy Julia Harris
The New York Times, July 12, 2019

Excerpt...

The school, which had been a progressive haven for the children of artists and writers, was undergoing a shift under a new headmaster. Donald Barr, the father of Attorney General William Barr, came in as a disciplinarian focused on beefing up the academics of the school, and on enforcing a strict code of conduct.

In a school known for creativity, administrators had prohibited denim jeans and “bizarre and eccentric costumes.” If Mr. Barr caught students using marijuana, he would often send them to therapy as a condition of staying in the school. He himself described his leadership style as “by ukase,” using the Imperial Russian term for an edict from the czar.

Staff members would sometimes turn students away from their morning classes; girls for skirts that were too short, and boys for hair that was too long.

Some students and parents balked at the constraints. Still, the school continued to draw families of fame. Around the years of Mr. Epstein’s tenure, records show the student roster included Prudence Murdoch, the daughter of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch; the fashion designer Jill Stuart; and several future actresses, including Jennifer Grey, Tracy Pollan and Maggie Wheeler.

While Mr. Barr was strict on the school culture, he made it a point to hire teachers from unconventional backgrounds, recalled Susan Semel, a social studies teacher at Dalton from the 1960s to 1980s who later wrote a book on the history of the school.

Continues...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-dalton-teacher.html

[Leghorn21]

2. ***Julie K. Brown***

Should get all manner of awards for her tireless efforts to bring justice to so so SO many survivors


RESPECT

[Kid Berwyn]

8. Outstanding Journalist -- and she worked as a singleton, alone on a story fraught with danger from ALL sides.

From the Mary Sue:

What Brown uncovered about that plea agreement is astounding. It’s not just the light jail sentence in a case that should by all accounts have come with a life sentence. The deal included immunity for any of Epstein’s “co-conspirators” in these crimes, despite the fact that those conspirators were not named in the case. That clearly seems to indicate that there were some powerful people who were concerned their names might come out later, and Acosta was issuing them protection as well as Epstein.

Source w/ links, details...

https://www.themarysue.com/julie-k-brown-praised-on-twitter/

[erronis]

24. Final paragraph from The Mary Sue

Epstein’s “collection” of friends also includes men like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, the UK’s Prince Andrew and many more. These are men that partied with Epstein in his homes and his private plane. Alex Acosta tried to protect these men or others like them–those who either took part in these crimes or helped him cover them up. But thanks to Brown’s reporting, hopefully some of that web will soon be unravelling. She did amazing work and she deserves a Pulitzer and every other possible accolade for it. For now, at least she’s getting her due credit on Twitter.

[Kid Berwyn]

38. "He did not do this alone."

Brown deserves Pulitzer. For now...Twitter, DU, Truth musta shamed NYT into action.

[malaise]

3. K & R

for truth

[Kid Berwyn]

10. Virginia Giuffre met Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago

America should be ashamed at how Virginia Giuffre suffered -- and was treated -- the facts are horrendous.



Reminder: Jeffrey Epstein hired a 16-year old who worked for Donald J Trump.

Unsealed documents detail alleged Epstein victim’s recruitment at Mar-a-Lago

by JOSH GERSTEIN
08/10/2019

Excerpt…

The roughly 2,000 pages of records released by the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals also show the same woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, appears to have claimed she had sex with a series of prominent men — including former politicians — at Epstein’s direction while working as a staff masseuse for the investment adviser, who eventually came under investigation in 2006 for sex trafficking over his involvement with teenage girls.

The deal drew objections and a lawsuit from some of Epstein’s victims, who alleged they were illegally kept in the dark about the agreement. Earlier this year, a federal judge agreed the victims’ rights were violated. That ruling, and a fresh indictment of Epstein in federal court in New York City last month, set in motion the resignation of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was the chief federal prosecutor in south Florida and signed off on the Epstein deal.

Snip…

In deposition excerpts made public Friday, Giuffre said she was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 when she was approached by Epstein’s longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell about giving massages to the wealthy investor, who owned a mansion in Palm Beach not far from the Trump resort.

“Where in the spa were you when you were approached by Ghislaine Maxwell?” Maxwell’s attorney Laura Menninger asked at a May 2016 deposition.

“Just outside the locker room, sitting where the other girl who works there usually sits,” Giuffre replied. “I was reading a book on massage therapy. … She noticed I was reading the massage book. And I started to have chitchat with her just about, you know, the body and the anatomy and how I was interested in it. And she told me that she knew somebody that was looking for a traveling masseuse. ... If the guy likes you then, you know, it will work out for you. You’ll travel. You’ll make good money.”

What people do to other people is sickening. What some do to children is unforgivable. Both scenarios include Donald John Trump.

[malaise]

11. The rot is deep

Rec

[Joinfortmill]

20. Very deep.

[calimary]

18. Downright ICKY people.

Just plain ICKY.

[Wiz Imp]

30. To be clear, Giuffre never accused Trump of any inappropriate conduct toward her.

However, she effectively said Trump would have to have known what Epstein was doing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/17/trump-epstein-relationship-records/

In a 2016 deposition of Giuffre that was released, she was asked about Trump. Giuffre said she had been recruited by Maxwell when she was a 17-year-old spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago.

“I don’t think Donald Trump participated in anything,” she said. “That would have to be another assumption. I never saw or witnessed Donald Trump participate in those acts, but was he in the house of Jeffrey Epstein.”

She said that anyone who visited Epstein’s house would have seen his many nude photos of women displayed on the walls. “These are salacious acts of girls, young girls doing things to each other that would be considered child pornography,” Giuffre testified. “If you walked foot into Jeffrey Epstein’s house and you went in there and you continued to be an acquaintance of his then you would have to know what was going on there.”

Meanwhile, Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s other alleged victims, was quoted as saying Epstein’s plane made an unplanned stop in Atlantic City between 2001 and 2006. There is no indication they saw Trump, and she said she never gave Trump a massage.

[Grins]

4. Note: Not current; this is from July 2019.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Yes. It says so in the OP.

And at the bottom of the OP it links to DU in 2019.

The facts still hold, right? I don't recall other newspapers and journalists reporting on Epstein when the guy was running around on day-release, thanks to then-Assistant US Attorney Alexander Acosta.

[malaise]

12. This is GD not Breaking News

and this scandal has been and is the top news item for over a week,

[Nimble_Idea]

34. breaking news every fucking day

here's the headline : DAY XXX, that child fuckers and their apologists aren't releasing the files.
and then re-post the OP message or others like it.


It is breaking news every fucking day, that folks can be with "I don't run interference for child fuckers. and never will."

and then you have the "other side" Come on corporate media, both siderisms. you dumb fucks.

The GOPedo MAGA fuckers have sided with what they always were. sick fucks.

[malaise]

35. Agree 100%

Rec

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread Kid Berwyn

[Kid Berwyn]

13. Epstein victim urged FBI to look at Trump twice

This story shames me -- and should shame anyone who pays taxes to support the FBI...

Epstein victim urged FBI to look at Trump twice

by Cameron Henderson
The Telegraph (London), July 21, 2020

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers twice urged the FBI to look at Donald Trump following an alleged incident with him.

In 1996, Maria Farmer, told police she was groped by Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Ms Farmer, who worked for Epstein as an art advisor, was one of the first people to accuse the paedophile financier of sexual misconduct.

When reporting the incident she raised concerns about the high-profile individuals surrounding Epstein, including Mr Trump and Bill Clinton, she told the New York Times.

Ms Farmer told the newspaper she had been troubled by a 1995 incident with the then-Apprentice star, in which she met Mr Trump for the first time after being summoned to Epstein’s Manhattan offices late one evening.

She claimed the impromptu meeting took place just before she began working for Epstein. Ms Farmer said she arrived in running shorts and that Mr Trump hovered over her and stared at her legs, making her feel scared.

She said Epstein then entered the room and said: “No, no. She’s not here for you,” before the pair left together. Ms Farmer claimed she then heard Mr Trump say he thought she was 16 years old.

Continues...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/epstein-victim-urged-fbi-to-look-at-trump-twice/ar-AA1J0foi

[not fooled]

6. Completely unsurprising

Oligarch-owned media whitewashes many aspects of 'Murican life so as to not stir up the proles.

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Small Circles Don't Want Big Waves

Same people who largely own Washington, largely own the Press.

History on how things got this way, courtesy of Greenpeace:

The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy

The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)

The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971

Introduction

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building — a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)

So did Powell’s political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment “right” for corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.

CONTINUED...

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

Additional and most important history:

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda

The Attack on Democracy

The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.

John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.

Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.

This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

Source: TUC Radio

Part 1: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-one-of-two/

Part 2: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-two-of-two/

News and Information -- what Democracy needs to thrive -- are now commodities for the elite few who can afford to collect such rarities. I'd say it's like a club surrounded by a high wall built by the American taxpayers to keep us out and it exclusive.

[Figarosmom]

14. I seem to remember

Her talking about this year's ago.

[Kid Berwyn]

39. The Razor-Thin Line Between Conspiracy Theory and Actual Conspiracy

Outstanding interview from The Atlantic:

The Razor-Thin Line Between Conspiracy Theory and Actual Conspiracy

A conversation with Julie K. Brown, the investigative reporter who knows more than almost anyone else about Jeffrey Epstein

By Adrienne LaFrance
The Atlantic, July 17, 2025

Excerpt...

The thing is, only some parts of the Epstein story are conspiracy theories, and it’s surprisingly difficult to suss out which ones. Epstein really did commit awful crimes. People in positions of tremendous power really did let him off easy back in the Bush administration.

So where is the line between conspiracy theory and actual conspiracy? In an attempt to make sense of all of this, I talked with Julie K. Brown, an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald and the reporter who knows more about Epstein than almost any other person on the planet.

The following is a transcript of the episode:

Snip...

LaFrance: This is a wild story politically, so wild that it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there are real crimes underlying the larger scandal. Like many people, I feel like I’m losing the thread on all of this. It’s extremely hard to understand which aspects of this are known to be true, known to be false, or somewhere in the muddy middle.

So on this episode, we’re going to try to make as much sense of this as we possibly can.

Julie Brown: This is gonna be like the (John F. Kennedy) assassination. Long after you and I are gone, there’s gonna be people that are gonna be writing and looking at this, and writing books about it. I just know it.

Snip...

Julie Brown:

Snip...

Jeffrey Epstein abused probably at least 200 young girls, some of them reportedly as young as 12 years old, over a span of decades. He also sexually abused young women who are in the area of 18 to 25 years old. But this is a case about a man who used these women as pawns to further his own ambition and finances, in that he used them not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others that he had hoped to do business with. And this was all part of the sex-trafficking operation. He had several different offices, so to speak, with this operation. He had a whole staff that helped him with this. He had legal people that helped him with this. So this was just not Epstein having sex in his mansion with a couple of underage girls. This was a whole operation.

And I think people sometimes lose sight of the fact that he was able to continue doing that because our federal government and our criminal-justice system failed these victims, and never really pursued this case with the seriousness and intensity that they should have from the very beginning. And that’s why he got away with it. It’s why he was released way back in 2009, and he was able to continue doing the same things all over again after his release from this plea deal that he initially negotiated two decades ago with the federal government.

Continues...

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/07/the-line-between-conspiracy-theory-and-actual-conspiracy/683569/

[FakeNoose]

16. DoJ is saying there are more like 1,000 victims

Many aren't coming forward, but some are. Julie K. Brown did an amazing and courageous thing, getting those women to go on the record. They gave dates, names, locations - whenever they could - and Julie worked hard to track it all down. As a great reporter does, she found corroborating sources and she turned it into a real news story.

Thank you, Julie K. Brown and the Miami Herald!

[Wiz Imp]

29. Brad Edwards is a lawyer representing over 200 of Epstein's victims.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-epstein-key-victims-attorney/story?id=123805543
What we know and don't know about Jeffrey Epstein, according to key victims' attorney
The lawyer for hundreds of Epstein's victims says he's never seen a client list.
ByJames Hill
July 16, 2025, 6:34 PM

Brad Edwards knows that what you are about to read may be difficult for some to accept.

A victims' rights lawyer from Florida, Edwards has been in pursuit of the truth about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's life and crimes for nearly two decades. He would be the first to say that Epstein caused incalculable damage and trauma to hundreds of women and girls.

In fact, long before Epstein became known worldwide for his crimes, Edwards presciently told a federal judge, "Because of [Epstein's] deviant appetite for young girls, combined with his extraordinary wealth and power, he may just be the most dangerous sexual predator in U.S. history."

That was 17 years ago. Back then, hardly anyone listened. In the years since, Edwards and his co-counsel -- on behalf of Epstein's victims -- have sued Epstein, his estate, the federal government and several financial institutions, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 200 survivors of Epstein's sex abuse and trafficking. He knows the victims' stories as well as anyone and, in the course of all the litigation, he has reviewed an expansive amount of non-public documents and evidence related to the late Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors.

[FormerOstrich]

17. I'd recommend this thread

a hundred times if I could.

The threads that are informative, well sourced, and to the heart of things become less and less. The majority of posts from recent times is a stark comparison to the research and sources we were posting in 2019. Then compare threads from either further back.

I believe there are a lot of factors why that is occurring. However, it makes me appreciate the efforts of great posts (regardless of topic).

Thank you!

[Joinfortmill]

19. This may become the story of the century.

[malaise]

21. This one is not going away

Good

[OverBurn]

22. Only a few new details, we knew most of this in 2016, right? Why does nothing ever bring him down?

Most politicians, one little scandal and they are done. Trump has a list longer than all before him combined. Does Russia have this much control over people pulling the strings? I guess I'll never understand.

[Nimble_Idea]

36. when you have photos and videos of them child fucking (hypothetically, amirite?)

then ????? maybe????

[Alice Kramden]

23. KnR

[malaise]

25. Adding this from the Palm Beach Post

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/trump/2025/07/18/could-pam-bondi-have-prosecuted-jeffrey-epstein-as-florida-ag/85239431007/

Could Pam Bondi have prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein when she was Florida's top legal officer?

[SheltieLover]

27. Good question!

[malaise]

28. Hi there

[SheltieLover]

31. Hiya

[SheltieLover]

26. Kick

[Hornedfrog2000]

32. Wow actual reporters?

Not just multi milionaires selling tone-deaf books, and billionaires trying to manipulate our thinking? Wow

[Mblaze]

33. It reminds me of how the Sacramento Bee

Was the only paper that covered the Contra/cocaine scandal. America has its head up its ass. Ourobouros.

[Simeon Salus]

37. k&r