14 August 2019

Powerful Dirt

The venerable financial writer James B. Stewart published a fascinating piece yesterday (link here) about a previously unpublished interview he conducted with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and Donald Trump longtime friend, who committed suicide over the weekend as he awaited trial in New York.

The interview was originally "on background," meaning Stewart could use it but not attribute it to Epstein during his lifetime.

Stewart writes: "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."

And the one breathing the biggest sigh of all might be Trump himself, who regularly partied with Epstein back in the day.

Federal prosecutors and investigators are now combing through materials seized from Epstein's various homes (details here and here) to determining who else they may charge, so those sighing over his death may be celebrating too early. In fact, Epstein's death may mean some individuals are more likely to be charged because a previous plea agreement Epstein entered into years before his death will no longer shield them.

Given the complexity of the investigations involved, it may be some time before any charges begin to be made in any pending cases. That could catapult the story back into page-one headlines right around the election, making his close Epstein connections once again highly embarrassing for Trump himself.

That is, unless the evidence uncovered implicates Trump himself, too. And then Trump would go from the frying pan into the proverbial fire itself.

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