Article

2019-08-13 -Lurid Crime Tales-

The day Jeffrey Epstein told me he had dirt on powerful people

[Irish Times] Almost exactly a year ago, on August 16th, 2018, I visited Jeffrey Epstein at his cavernous Manhattan mansion. The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.

So one of my first thoughts on hearing of Epstein’s suicide was that many prominent men and at least a few women must be breathing sighs of relief that whatever Epstein knew, he has taken it with him.

During our conversation, Epstein made no secret of his own scandalous past ‐ he’d pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from underage girls and was a registered sex offender ‐ and acknowledged to me that he was a pariah in polite society. At the same time, he seemed unapologetic. His very notoriety, he said, was what made so many people willing to confide in him. Everyone, he suggested, has secrets and, he added, compared with his own, they seemed innocuous. People confided in him without feeling awkward or embarrassed, he claimed.

I’d never met Epstein before. I had contacted him because my colleagues and I had heard a rumour that he was advising Tesla’s embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, who was in trouble after announcing on Twitter that he had lined up the funding to take Tesla private.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-08-13 05:24|| || Front Page|| [10326 views ] Top

#1 I don't believe a word. Why would Epstein converse about these things with James B Stewart of all people ? In his piece about the interview, Stewart describes Epstein as an oversharing, loose lipped lech who keeps steering the dialog toward controversy. Was he talking him into sharing a room with a damsel, hoping to hook a Pulitzer winning NYT writer ? What purpose did such talk serve ? He makes him sound more like John McAfee than the operator Epstein was. And for no reason slanders Elon Musk in the process. Anything can be reported now, that the horse is dead.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-08-13 08:54|| 2019-08-13 08:54|| Front Page Top

#2 Article author might be full of horse chips but I don't doubt the gist of it one bit.

Posted by Woodrow 2019-08-13 09:45|| 2019-08-13 09:45|| Front Page Top

#3 dron, James Stewart is a credible source: a low-key, serious journalist who plays it straight and who has a long history of solid, in depth reporting on Wall Street figures (Stewart himself is a former Wall Street, white shoe lawyer).

Stewart does not oversell. His tone is skeptical, neutral, balanced. He characterizes everything clearly and with proper qualifications: "Epstein seemed... my impression ... he claimed, said, stated ..."

Stewart does not assert that Epstein has dirt. He reports Epstein's claims, and merely suggests that these claims line up with "one of my [Stewart's] first thoughts... that many prominent men and at least a ew women must be breathing sighs of relief that whatever Epstein knew, he has taken it with him..."

Posted by Lex 2019-08-13 14:37|| 2019-08-13 14:37|| Front Page Top

#4 Hmmm... his book Tangled Webs is certainly informative. I'm ordering it. Thanks.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-08-13 15:09|| 2019-08-13 15:09|| Front Page Top

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