Michael, great reporting. I always learn a lot when I read you. When you offer political opinions, I usually don’t agree with them, but your reporting is always objective and in depth, so I love reading it. And I respect your reporting so much, that your opinions that differ from mine always provoke thought and cause me to challenge my assumptions. So, thanks for all of the hard and honest work you do.
Could the mainstream media be any worse? This woman profiting off of lies with no regard for the selfsame victims she claims (through labored tears im sure) to advocate for--despicable. (jfc those nauseating passages about her pathetic social life, are you a journalist or are you writing a telenovela?)
No matter how low my opinion of mainstream media has gotten over the years apparently it's never low enough. I'm glad at least you're out here, because as hard as it is for the 'brrrrr Pedophilic fetus eating monsters' crowd to stomach there is nuance to these stories and the actual truth matters.
Brown is fully aware of Ransome's lack of credibility. In 2024, she wrote:
"But she later recanted her statements, telling the Miami Herald in 2019 that she made up the stories because she was alarmed that the U.S. media had failed to investigate whether Trump and Bill and Hillary Clinton were connected to Epstein. Both Trump and Hillary Clinton were running for president at the time she made the false statements."
People, particularly MAGAs, forget that the original framing for Brown's series on Epstein was about Trump's labor secretary, Alex Acosta. It's in the title: "Perversion of Justice: How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime". You'd think MAGAs might have been just a wee bit skeptical of this story that was unearthed to damage Trump's presidency and push a #Metoo narrative, but I guess the Elite Pedo Ring conspiracy theory was just too fun for them to resist!
We did know that the framing was about Trump and Alex. I'm from Miami and we knew that Epstein was protected by the Feds. Alex was told that Epstein was untouchable.
The fake MAGA are the ones attacking Trump over the manufactured storyline - the rest of us know what has been taking place.
Epstein was not protected by the Feds, in fact, the Feds stepped in because they thought the State was not even going to prosecute him. Alex was not told that Epstein was untouchable or that he belonged to intelligence. Epstein clearly was not "untouchable", he went to prison for over a year and then got charged again in 2019 despite a Non-prosecution agreement.
And didn’t Epstein get mad at Dersh for the sentencing? I think Michael mentioned that on a podcast lately. If true, why get mad at your attorney if you got a ‘sweetheart’ deal?
She's a myth peddler. She started off her series with a lie then sensationalized the story. Vicky Ward also did a lot of sensationalizing. They suckered the world into their fantasy. Yes, Epstein was bad but if Acosta hadn't worked out the plea deal they'd filed a Federal case and gone to trial, he's have probably walked if the judge didn't throw the case out on the basis that it was a state matter.
FYI, I have read all of the Florida State Attorney files on the Epstein and there is nothing in there about Maxwell being involved in any way with any of the girls. Virginia Roberts Giuffre was Epstein's employee as was Ransome (who was an adult. So was Marie Farmer, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.) I suspect Roberts, Ransome and Farmer wanted to cash in on the victim's restitution funds the plea provided.
And as Michael has pointed out in the Maxwell trial, the prosecution only found 4 witnesses and of the 4, two of them the judge instructed the jury to ignore their testimony due to the veracity of their credibility
There may be a bigger story here. Brown is a liar, an embellisher, and, I would wager, a plagiarist.
I heard once from a Epstein mythologist that Brown wrote about Epstein being Mossad in her book. So I looked it up, and here's what she wrote:
"He told people he worked for the CIA and Mossad, that he was a corporate spy and a concert pianist."
Brown is relying on a source here from 1992 which says:
"One outrageous story links him to the CIA and Mossad. Another that Epstein was a concert pianist."
Do you think Brown's paraphrasing accurately reflects the source? Brown turns an "outrageous story" linking him to CIA and Mossad into Epstein actually telling people he worked for the CIA and Mossad!
Let's turn now to Dershowitz who Brown continues to have a huge vendetta against because he dared to defend himself from false accusations from two or three crackpots.
Brown basically says that Dershowitz is a lying perjurer who can't be trusted:
"Then he testified, in a SWORN DEPOSITION, that he never went on any plane trips WITHOUT HIS WIFE. But he was listed on those passenger manifests as traveling multiple times without his wife. During at least one trip, he was on the plane with a model named Tatiana. It might not prove that he had had sex with anyone other than his wife, but it certainly raises questions about his recall."
So I looked up Dershowitz's sworn deposition given in 2015. To my knowledge, this is the only deposition he gave in relation to this Epstein business. Here's what he said:
"My nephew accompanied me on one occasion. My research assistant, Mitch Webber, accompanied me on one occasion. My son or grandson, I'm not sure which, accompanied me on one occasion. And the occasions that I flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane were almost always business occasions during a time when my daughter, Ella, was in elementary school, if we're talking about the relevant period of time. And during that period of time, on occasion MY WIFE DID NOT FLY WITH ME."
Dershowitz also said in this deposition: "That is a lie, sir—a categorical lie. I challenge you to find any statement where I said I have never traveled outside the presence of my wife."
What Dershowitz seems to have been saying in media appearances is that he went to the island with his wife.
At one point in her book, Brown even weakly implies that Dershowitz might have murdered his ex-wife! Brown is Just Asking Questions, you know.
I never fully read Brown's book as it leans way too much into conspiracism, but I suspect that her book is filled with such dishonesty and probably plagiarism too.
By the way, your new pal Nick Bryant recently told Chris Hedges that Dershowitz was saying "'I only fly with my wife. She flies everywhere with me'. Well, then I got the flight logs. And actually Dershowitz is taking lots of flights with Tatiana and Claire. And his wife is noticeably absent"
Excellent work. I was beginning to think Lady Victoria Hervey, Lady Colin Campbell, Alan Dershowitz and me were the only sane people commenting on this sordid affair.
Great article. It came out just as I’ve been reading Brown’s book and trying to assemble a timeline of the allegations. So far, I’ve learned there’s been nothing new since 2006. That the Florida case against Epstein had merit but was a real stinker. Too many unreliable witnesses and that faced with Epstein’s unlimited defense budget, no one wanted it. So Florida hands it to the Feds who hand it right back. So Florida settles it only because the Feds granted immunity to Epstein and all co-conspirators. So it was done by 2008 and only revived by Brown in 2018-19. Meanwhile, on the civil side, much money was paid in compensation to victims many of whom wanted nothing more to do with it.
And now we have a very serious Federal issue which is the SDNY Feds claiming they aren’t bound by the immunity granted by the Florida district. That is the issue on appeal in the Maxwell case. If SCOTUS doesn’t clarify this, no Federal attorney will be able to offer immunity in exchange for a plea. Crazy times.
Tara Palmari dragged Virginia Robert’s all over the country to try to “interview” anyone Virginia knew or thought she knew was associated with Epstein, and whether or not they saw her with him. I don’t believe there were any takers! There has never been much collaboration on anything she has claimed.
Amazing! When Bondi or someone else says there is nothing to ‘the Epstein files’ you need to believe her. When Epstein is described as someone who tried to ingratiate himself or be pictured with certain people, people who say they really did not have much of a relationship with Epstein, you need to also believe them. It looks like the media saw an opportunity to do what they love to do. They fanned the flames of lies and let the ensuing fire rage so they could write more about it.
I am more likely to believe the sightings of Elvis.
Great point about this being a #MeToo story. The whole Epstein saga relies overwhelmingly on "believe women" standards of evidence. Rightwingers like Darryl Cooper who might otherwise be inclined to criticize #MeToo are happy to suspend disbelief in this case.
This is good reporting Michael and you impugn Brown and Giuffre and others' credibility convincingly. It leaves me however with the question of what do you think that Clinton and Prince Andrew and other similar men were doing with Epstein? These relationships have been documented to be pretty extensive. I'd be interested to know what you think about that aspect of the matter.
I believe the connection between them was. Prince Andrew was looking to pay off about $20k of debt for his ex wife Duchess of York and if I remember Epstein provided seed capital for the Clinton Initiative
Michael, great reporting. I always learn a lot when I read you. When you offer political opinions, I usually don’t agree with them, but your reporting is always objective and in depth, so I love reading it. And I respect your reporting so much, that your opinions that differ from mine always provoke thought and cause me to challenge my assumptions. So, thanks for all of the hard and honest work you do.
Could the mainstream media be any worse? This woman profiting off of lies with no regard for the selfsame victims she claims (through labored tears im sure) to advocate for--despicable. (jfc those nauseating passages about her pathetic social life, are you a journalist or are you writing a telenovela?)
No matter how low my opinion of mainstream media has gotten over the years apparently it's never low enough. I'm glad at least you're out here, because as hard as it is for the 'brrrrr Pedophilic fetus eating monsters' crowd to stomach there is nuance to these stories and the actual truth matters.
Nice work, Michael. No, you're not crazy.
Brown is fully aware of Ransome's lack of credibility. In 2024, she wrote:
"But she later recanted her statements, telling the Miami Herald in 2019 that she made up the stories because she was alarmed that the U.S. media had failed to investigate whether Trump and Bill and Hillary Clinton were connected to Epstein. Both Trump and Hillary Clinton were running for president at the time she made the false statements."
People, particularly MAGAs, forget that the original framing for Brown's series on Epstein was about Trump's labor secretary, Alex Acosta. It's in the title: "Perversion of Justice: How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime". You'd think MAGAs might have been just a wee bit skeptical of this story that was unearthed to damage Trump's presidency and push a #Metoo narrative, but I guess the Elite Pedo Ring conspiracy theory was just too fun for them to resist!
We did know that the framing was about Trump and Alex. I'm from Miami and we knew that Epstein was protected by the Feds. Alex was told that Epstein was untouchable.
The fake MAGA are the ones attacking Trump over the manufactured storyline - the rest of us know what has been taking place.
Epstein was not protected by the Feds, in fact, the Feds stepped in because they thought the State was not even going to prosecute him. Alex was not told that Epstein was untouchable or that he belonged to intelligence. Epstein clearly was not "untouchable", he went to prison for over a year and then got charged again in 2019 despite a Non-prosecution agreement.
And didn’t Epstein get mad at Dersh for the sentencing? I think Michael mentioned that on a podcast lately. If true, why get mad at your attorney if you got a ‘sweetheart’ deal?
She's a myth peddler. She started off her series with a lie then sensationalized the story. Vicky Ward also did a lot of sensationalizing. They suckered the world into their fantasy. Yes, Epstein was bad but if Acosta hadn't worked out the plea deal they'd filed a Federal case and gone to trial, he's have probably walked if the judge didn't throw the case out on the basis that it was a state matter.
FYI, I have read all of the Florida State Attorney files on the Epstein and there is nothing in there about Maxwell being involved in any way with any of the girls. Virginia Roberts Giuffre was Epstein's employee as was Ransome (who was an adult. So was Marie Farmer, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.) I suspect Roberts, Ransome and Farmer wanted to cash in on the victim's restitution funds the plea provided.
And as Michael has pointed out in the Maxwell trial, the prosecution only found 4 witnesses and of the 4, two of them the judge instructed the jury to ignore their testimony due to the veracity of their credibility
There may be a bigger story here. Brown is a liar, an embellisher, and, I would wager, a plagiarist.
I heard once from a Epstein mythologist that Brown wrote about Epstein being Mossad in her book. So I looked it up, and here's what she wrote:
"He told people he worked for the CIA and Mossad, that he was a corporate spy and a concert pianist."
Brown is relying on a source here from 1992 which says:
"One outrageous story links him to the CIA and Mossad. Another that Epstein was a concert pianist."
Do you think Brown's paraphrasing accurately reflects the source? Brown turns an "outrageous story" linking him to CIA and Mossad into Epstein actually telling people he worked for the CIA and Mossad!
Let's turn now to Dershowitz who Brown continues to have a huge vendetta against because he dared to defend himself from false accusations from two or three crackpots.
Brown basically says that Dershowitz is a lying perjurer who can't be trusted:
"Then he testified, in a SWORN DEPOSITION, that he never went on any plane trips WITHOUT HIS WIFE. But he was listed on those passenger manifests as traveling multiple times without his wife. During at least one trip, he was on the plane with a model named Tatiana. It might not prove that he had had sex with anyone other than his wife, but it certainly raises questions about his recall."
So I looked up Dershowitz's sworn deposition given in 2015. To my knowledge, this is the only deposition he gave in relation to this Epstein business. Here's what he said:
"My nephew accompanied me on one occasion. My research assistant, Mitch Webber, accompanied me on one occasion. My son or grandson, I'm not sure which, accompanied me on one occasion. And the occasions that I flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane were almost always business occasions during a time when my daughter, Ella, was in elementary school, if we're talking about the relevant period of time. And during that period of time, on occasion MY WIFE DID NOT FLY WITH ME."
Dershowitz also said in this deposition: "That is a lie, sir—a categorical lie. I challenge you to find any statement where I said I have never traveled outside the presence of my wife."
What Dershowitz seems to have been saying in media appearances is that he went to the island with his wife.
At one point in her book, Brown even weakly implies that Dershowitz might have murdered his ex-wife! Brown is Just Asking Questions, you know.
I never fully read Brown's book as it leans way too much into conspiracism, but I suspect that her book is filled with such dishonesty and probably plagiarism too.
By the way, your new pal Nick Bryant recently told Chris Hedges that Dershowitz was saying "'I only fly with my wife. She flies everywhere with me'. Well, then I got the flight logs. And actually Dershowitz is taking lots of flights with Tatiana and Claire. And his wife is noticeably absent"
Excellent work. I was beginning to think Lady Victoria Hervey, Lady Colin Campbell, Alan Dershowitz and me were the only sane people commenting on this sordid affair.
Great article. It came out just as I’ve been reading Brown’s book and trying to assemble a timeline of the allegations. So far, I’ve learned there’s been nothing new since 2006. That the Florida case against Epstein had merit but was a real stinker. Too many unreliable witnesses and that faced with Epstein’s unlimited defense budget, no one wanted it. So Florida hands it to the Feds who hand it right back. So Florida settles it only because the Feds granted immunity to Epstein and all co-conspirators. So it was done by 2008 and only revived by Brown in 2018-19. Meanwhile, on the civil side, much money was paid in compensation to victims many of whom wanted nothing more to do with it.
And now we have a very serious Federal issue which is the SDNY Feds claiming they aren’t bound by the immunity granted by the Florida district. That is the issue on appeal in the Maxwell case. If SCOTUS doesn’t clarify this, no Federal attorney will be able to offer immunity in exchange for a plea. Crazy times.
Tara Palmari dragged Virginia Robert’s all over the country to try to “interview” anyone Virginia knew or thought she knew was associated with Epstein, and whether or not they saw her with him. I don’t believe there were any takers! There has never been much collaboration on anything she has claimed.
Amazing! When Bondi or someone else says there is nothing to ‘the Epstein files’ you need to believe her. When Epstein is described as someone who tried to ingratiate himself or be pictured with certain people, people who say they really did not have much of a relationship with Epstein, you need to also believe them. It looks like the media saw an opportunity to do what they love to do. They fanned the flames of lies and let the ensuing fire rage so they could write more about it.
I am more likely to believe the sightings of Elvis.
MT I'm enjoying your astute take. Have Krystal and Sagaar acknowledged nick Bryant's lack of credibility? (Or JKB for that matter)
I feel like they're better than that! This Epstein fever sure is entertaining though.
Thank you Michael, solid work! 👍
Great point about this being a #MeToo story. The whole Epstein saga relies overwhelmingly on "believe women" standards of evidence. Rightwingers like Darryl Cooper who might otherwise be inclined to criticize #MeToo are happy to suspend disbelief in this case.
This is good reporting Michael and you impugn Brown and Giuffre and others' credibility convincingly. It leaves me however with the question of what do you think that Clinton and Prince Andrew and other similar men were doing with Epstein? These relationships have been documented to be pretty extensive. I'd be interested to know what you think about that aspect of the matter.
I believe the connection between them was. Prince Andrew was looking to pay off about $20k of debt for his ex wife Duchess of York and if I remember Epstein provided seed capital for the Clinton Initiative
Good take down, Mikey
Brown is the Ronan Farrow of this saga