I just finished the four-part series streaming on Netflix titled “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.”
It is an engrossing program, and it rightly focuses on the voices of the survivors (the women who speak out clearly prefer to be known as “survivors,” not “victims.”)
The indictment of Epstein is powerful. He lured scores of young, underage girls to his mansion in Palm Beach for his sexual pleasure. Some say that he engaged hundreds of girls, some as young as 14.
Epstein lived a life of splendor. In addition to his home in Palm Beach, he owned a mansion in Manhattan, a beautiful spread in New Mexico, an apartment in Paris, but he claimed that his home was an island that he owned called Little St. James, also referred to as Pedophile Island or Orgy Island. He also owned two jets.
You will see some celebrities, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Alan Dershowitz. They appear in photographs with Epstein, but their memory of any relationship with him has faded. Jeffrey who?
Nothing is said about his relationship with Harvard, although he is seen wearing a a Harvard sweatshirt.
The fact that he taught at the private Dalton School in New York City is noted, which was curious since he never earned a college degree. Not mentioned is that he was hired by the Uber-conservative Headmaster Donald Barr, father of the current Attorney General William Barr.
The chief villain of the series Obviously is Epstein, as is his chief enabler Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the conservative British media mogul Robert Maxwell.
Another major villain is Alexander Acosta, who was the U.S. Attorney in Florida, who should have prosecuted Epstein years ago for sex trafficking of minors but instead made a secret sweetheart deal that allowed Epstein to get a short sentence that permitted him to leave jail six days a week, twelve hours a day to do as he wished. Trump named Acosta as Secretary of Labor, but when his velvet glove treatment of Epstein was revealed, he was forced to resign.
The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein were persistent in demanding accountability. For years, they thought that he would always be protected by his wealth and powerful connections. They were scarred for life by this monster.
The last episode raises questions about whether he committed suicide or was murdered. When you see his cell, it is hard to imagine that he hanged himself.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One thing unanalyzed in the documentary is the systematic objectification and sexualization of young women in our society (almost everywhere)–and whether education could have offered these teens the tools to recognize predatory behavior. Has all education about red flag behavior, stalking, and date rape vanished from high schools?
it used to be part of sex education.
Call me crazy, but I do think Epstein was gonna SING like a canary and that he was murdered.
I saw this film and it turned my stomach.
Remember, Donny hung around with Epstein. Many politicians and big monied folks hung out with Epstein.
There were probably cameras and tapes going on and so there’s DIRT on so many of the “rich and powerful.”
I can’t bring myself to watch it because the thought of creepy Epstein abusing young girls is sickening.
retired teacher,
It did MAKE ME SICK.
Epstein is a HORROR show, and to see him in pictures with the rich and politicians turned my stomach … big time.
I’m with you. Have no interest whatsoever. Got Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers and Duck Soup in the queue.
I am deeply troubled after watching that documentary with the idea that powerful wealthy men like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were documented friends and visitors to Epstein’s properties, and yet no one has investigated whether or not they sexually assaulted these under age girls. The only one who has had to face public scrutiny is Prince Andrew, and as far as criminal proceedings, there is nothing being pursued. I am absolutely crushed for the hundreds of girls who survived this terror only to have the investigation die with Epstein.
The investigation didn’t die, it was allegedly buried by Trump and Barr. Why? They were both probably clients of Epstein the pimp that trafficked in underage girls forced to perform.
Bill Barr buried the investigation into Epstein’s death. The only charges filed are those against the 2 guards who were on duty when Epstein died. There are so many questions about Epstein’s life, like how did he make all of his money? He told people he was an investor but he had no footprint on Wall St. Was it blackmail? If so, wouldn’t those transactions be in his files or in his banking records? The FBI must have Epstein’s files from his computer hard drives. Where are they & have they been buried, too? Could they have evidence of powerful people involved in Epstein’s underage sex traffic rings?
Other questions involve Donald Barr, who was also in the CIA in addition to being The Dalton School Headmaster. Why did Donald Barr hire him to teach at the Dalton School if he didn’t have a college degree? Why did Donald Barr introduce him to the CEO of Bear Sterns & help him get a job there after leaving the Dalton School? Why did Alex Acosta when asked about his light sentencing of Epstein tell the Trump transition team, when being vetted for Senate hearings, that he was told that Epstein belonged to intelligence?
https://nymag.com/tags/jeffrey-epstein/
The last sentence/question is the most interesting. Was Epstein protected by the CIA because he was working for them? “Do this for us and we will ignore what you are doing on your own and protect you.”
We know that after WWII, the CIA and the FBI hired Nazi war criminals to work for them during the Cold War. They even shredded the evidence of their war crimes and fast-tracked them to become U.S. citizens.
We also know that the FBI made deals with members of the mob and/or organized crime to catch bigger fish and protected their moles when they committed more crimes on their own.
Watched it. Sickened by it. Want every one of his accomplices brought to justice.
This documentary lets the powerful creeps who attended Epstein’s parties off easily. Consider this: Epstein himself claimed to others that he had photographic and video evidence on many of the most powerful people in the world. Authorities have by now raided and examined all of Epstein’s properties. What we know of what they found: nada
As one of the women said, Epstein’s properties had secret cameras everywhere. Whether it was Trump or Clinton or Dershowitz, anyone who hung out at Epstein’s orgies was taped. A lot of powerful men wanted those tapes destroyed.
My suspicion is that they already have been, Diane.
I watched it last week. Despite being a grotesque carnival of human predation and immorality, it is compelling. The deal Acosta gave him–which one judge characterized as conspiracy–gives us a hint of the powerful people protecting Epstein. I hope one day the full story comes out.
And the question about his suicide is also compelling: how many pathological narcissists like Epstein kill themselves? The autopsy evidence is troubling as well.
Horror that this story is, I think Americans should watch it as one aspect of the bigger picture of the trouble our society is in.
If you believe that Epstein committed suicide, perhaps I could interest you in some low-cost land I’m selling on Mars.
Depends. On the bottom of a crater, or on a ridge with a view?
I was being snarky and in full agreement.
I have for you, Greg, a lovely ocean-view lot on the Mare Erythraeum, for only 25K (I know, what a deal!), but you had better act fast because Jared Kushner is interested in buying it as a location for the Republican Galactic Convention, now that various states have refused to hold it in the absence of rules enforcing social distancing guidelines.
Thought it over. The commute’s too long.
One interesting piece of this is that Epstein’s wealth is NOT, as the documentary suggests, attributable to his work on Wall Street. Wall Street professionals say that he had almost no footprint there. Where did his money come from? Well, duh. He himself said he had the goods on the rich and the powerful. Who else was in the “model management” business? Jeffrey’s buddy Donald Trump.
Absolutely right, Bob, and in all the sensational horror of this sociopath’s life, that detail is all too easily and unfortunately lost.
Doubtless authorities conducted extremely thorough searches of Epstein’s palaces
to ensure that any potential evidence against anyone rich and powerful was found and destroyed.
This is the United States today. Like Rome under Caligula.
I wonder if Epstein pimped for Roger Ailes, the horrid beast of an alleged human that built the Fox fear factory. Netflix also produced “The Loudest Voice” another series starring Russell Crowe and Roger Ailes. After watching “The Loudest Voice,” I cannot comprehend how anyone would trust anything broadcast by Fox.
After Ailes was fired from Fox because of all the women at Fox Ailes had bullied and molested, Roger ended up working for Trump to get another horrid beast elected president of the U.S.
I wonder what happened to all the evidence that the FBI took from Epstein’s mansion in New York and that ranch in New Mexico. Once William Barr had it, it seems to have vanished. Does that mean Trump and his pet Waffen-SS General Barr are using that evidence to blackmail Epstein’s powerful and rich clients to support Trump allegedly explaining why the five conservative justices in the U.S. Supreme Court and most of the GOP senators continue to enable Trump’s endless fascism and corruption?
It is apparent that the only elected Republican that we know wasn’t a client of Epstein’s is Mitt Romney.
Lloyd,
If you are on Twitter, look for a trending hashtag called #LadyG
Not just Republican, Lloyd. The Epstein depravities were bipartisan.
I’m sure Epstein’s clients came from both parties, but how much do you want to bet that the majority we’re from the GOP.
Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump are very different types of “friends of Jeffrey Epstein”. It would be like putting Anna Wintour, Barbara Walters, Kanye West and William Barr in the same category as “friends of Donald Trump.” They all had some associations with Trump, but the nature of those associations were quite different.
Donald Trump, who seemed to have some business or potential business relationships with Epstein, seemed to be going to Epstein’s Florida parties with lots of young women (really girls). Clinton did not attend those parties. Prince Andrew seemed to spend overnights at Epstein’s NYC home with young women. Clinton supposedly attended one dinner party and was a no show at another dinner party at which he was supposed to appear (and magician David Blaine attended that one ).
All evidence so far shows Bill Clinton rode Epstein’s private jet with his secret service detail and staff from the Clinton Foundation on specific charity-related missions to Africa, Asia and Europe — he was not riding it to Epstein’s private island as other prominent “friends of Epstein” were or attending parties at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion the way Trump was.
And notably — the Clinton flights all happened years before the very first accusations about Epstein were made in Palm Beach — those were the ones that the Trump Administration official gave Epstein a wrist slap for. There isn’t any evidence that Clinton had any contact with Epstein after that at all.
It is certainly possible that more evidence could come out, but Clinton’s contacts with Epstein were all connected to his charitable work, and not social. And they ended a long time before it was learned how slimy and sick Epstein was when Epstein was first accused in Palm Beach. Maybe someone in the Clinton entourage had a good radar for the kind of man Epstein was and stopped it.
Notably, a lot of high level professors, academics and administrators at both Harvard and MIT had similar types of contacts with Epstein AFTER that Palm Beach conviction! But Clinton never did. But like he had done with the Clinton Foundation, Epstein made big donations to programs at MIT, Harvard and other charities and even after that Palm Beach conviction, those institutions and people there were still meeting with him. But there is no evidence that Bill Clinton or the Clinton Foundation allowed Epstein to whitewash his reputation with charitable donations once Epstein’s earliest crimes were known.
Here is the question that the press should be asking: what have you done with Epstein’s blackmail materials, with the tapes and photos?
Trump would tweet that he never met Epstein, hardly knew him. Doesn’t know what you are talking about. Fake news.