After Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and charged in federal court with underage sex trafficking this past week, the mainstream media began a predictable campaign to tie Epstein to Trump.
The rightosphere, equally predictably, posted articles pointing out Epstein’s closer relationship with Bill Clinton, which reportedly included activities with the Clinton Foundation. Flight logs also show multiple occasions on which Clinton traveled on Epstein’s so-called “Lolita express” flights. The number of occasions could be as few as four; some reporting claims more than two dozen.
As LU noted on Wednesday, Internet sleuths have reported that photos of Bill Clinton with Epstein are being scrubbed from the Web, while photos of Trump and Epstein attending the same events have been featured by the MSM – and are even being faked.
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Trump’s supporters have highlighted reporting that Epstein was banned from Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort years ago, allegedly after Epstein made inappropriate advances to the 18-year-old daughter of a client.
All of this is unfolding in the context of an Epstein case that most observers think could affect a lot of “very connected” people, from politicians to industry executives and the media.
It’s the latter point that makes for the interest of a lawyer’s comments from December 2018, when Epstein settled a lawsuit with accusers represented by Bradley Edwards of Edwards Pottinger LLC. The suit stemmed from the plea agreement Epstein had reached with the state of Florida in 2008 on the original criminal charges brought against him, involving sex with minors (girls of mostly 14 to 15 years old).
Edwards represented plaintiffs in 2009 who filed suit to obtain a judgment against Epstein, when it became clear he would not have to meet even the startlingly lenient terms of that plea agreement. Officials in both Florida and New York seem to be implicated in letting Epstein off the hook. And the federal government, which reportedly had a 50-odd-page charge list drafted against Epstein, didn’t weigh in to take things further.
The usual reporting at the New York Times and other mainstream media has, as I said, been at pains to link Epstein to Trump. But those outlets are not suggesting that Democrats will not be affected.
The sense seems to be a chary one, that Epstein could bring down a lot of people. The MSM haven’t been touting Democrats or any other group as having clean hands. They’ve just been emphasizing the theme about “a lot of people,” alongside the drumbeat about Trump.*
So the passage in this video of an interview with Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance, from December 2018, is very interesting, and possibly very informative. It starts about 4:55.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=435&v=Yqb59n69Z80
Here is a transcript of attorney Bradley Edwards’s comments on Trump (courtesy Zero Hedge):
The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who, in 2009 when I served a lot of subpoenas on a lot of people, or at least gave notice to some pretty connected people, that I want to talk to them, is the only person who picked up the phone and said, let’s just talk. I’ll give you as much time as you want. I’ll tell you what you need to know, and was very helpful, in the information that he gave, and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever, but had good information. That checked out and that helped us and we didn’t have to take a deposition of him in 2009.
Most of the coverage of this video has focused on the point that Trump’s helpfulness was an indication that he had little to do with Epstein, and simply chose to be a good citizen.
But when there’s thought to be a huge network of connections and influence on the order of the Epstein scandal, the real point may be more than that. It may be a central key to why the East coast “elite” hate Trump so much, and have been so obsessively determined to bring him down. There’s reason to believe Trump has no motive to cover up Epstein’s dealings. His attorney general now has teeth and has acted fearlessly so far. And not only can Trump not be tarred with complicity in whatever the Epstein crimes may be; he looks like the one guy who in 2009 was free to talk — and willing to.
* In January 2016, independent journalist Ken Silverstein wrote an article with information about Epstein and Trump for Vice.com. Fusion GPS, no fan of Trump, was reportedly shopping the story around, and Silverstein bit. In spite of the best efforts of both Fusion GPS and Mr. Silverstein, no smoking gun or particularly damning or salacious connection was unearthed between Trump and Epstein. In 2017, The Washington Times spoke to Silverstein about that piece and reported the following:
Mr. Silverstein, who wrote the Vice.Com story, was asked by The Washington Times if Fusion pushed the Epstein-Trump story.
“Since you asked, yes, they helped me with that,” Mr. Silverstein said. “But as you can see, I could not make a strong case for Trump being super close to Epstein, so they could hardly have been thrilled with that story. [In my humble opinion], that was the best story written about Trump’s ties to Epstein, but I failed to nail him. Trump’s ties were mild compared to Bill Clinton‘s. …”
