Epstein revelations from beyond the grave

Four years after he died in jail, stories about Jeffrey Epstein continue to surface. Cockburn took in the Wall Street Journal’s deep-dive into the demonic sex offender’s emails, which reveal that Epstein was meeting with even more well-known and influential people than previously thought. From top government officials to leaders in the banking world, Epstein was never far from the corridors of power. The question is why these people would have any interest in meeting with someone like Epstein.

CIA director Bill Burns and Epstein had multiple meetings around the time the then-deputy secretary of state was leaving government. Three meetings are recorded in the documents seen by the Journal, one at a law firm and two at Epstein’s Manhattan residence. The Journal quotes the CIA spokeswoman as saying, “The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector.” “They had no relationship,” she added. We are being asked to believe that one of the top security officials in the world would schedule a meeting with someone for advice without doing the most cursory research into said person. Doesn’t that just restore your faith in our institutions…

Kathryn Ruemmler, an Obama-era White House counsel, met Epstein “more than three dozen” times, according to the Journal. The relationship was not superficial: he ordered food she liked for their meetings (avocado sushi rolls — grim) and even tried to get her better seats on a flight. The initial interaction occurred when Epstein reached out to see if Ruemmler would want to represent Bill Gates, according to Goldman Sachs, where she now works. The GS spokesman added that “Epstein also invited her to meetings and social gatherings, introduced her to other business contacts and made referrals. It was the same kinds of contacts and engagements she had with other contacts and clients.” More than thirty-six meetings seems like a bit more than just the average “contacts and engagements.” Ruemmler is now on Goldman Sachs’s reputational risk committee — because Epstein may be dead but irony certainly isn’t

Ariane de Rothschild — CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Group — was another Epstein acquaintance, and one whom Epstein helped connect with Ruemmler for business. She had “more than a dozen meetings with Epstein,” but the relationship was quite odd. The Journal reports that Epstein “sought her help with staffing and furnishings” and even turned to de Rothschild for “help finding a new assistant, ‘female… multilingual, organized’.” Epstein and de Rothschild also signed a $25 million deal for a company of Epstein’s to supply services to Edmond de Rothschild Group. While in 2019 the group said it had “no business links” to Epstein, and that he and de Rothschild “never met,” it now admits that “wasn’t accurate.” Cockburn finds that a strange thing to get wrong… $25 million deals completed under the CEO’s guidance are not the kind of things you forget. It seems unlikely, too, that de Rothschild somehow  failed to remember her more than twelve meetings with Epstein.

Epstein also met with both Noam Chomsky and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, according to the Journal. Barak asserts that he held meetings with Epstein to chat about politics and meet “interesting persons.” Probably true, but still unusual. Chomsky was more prickly. He responded to the Journal’s queries by saying, “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.” Chomsky claims that Epstein facilitated a visit with Barak to talk about “Israel’s policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.” Epstein and Chomsky also met multiple times with Professor Martin Nowak at Harvard to “discuss neuroscience and other topics”, and Epstein treated Chomsky to meetings with famous individuals like Woody Allen. Regarding that particular meeting, Chomsky said, “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.” Well then… someone’s a bit touchy…

The whole situation is strange. Epstein was a registered sex offender since 2008, yet many of these people seemed to have no problem cultivating a time-consuming relationship with him. A meeting or two could be written off as insignificant, but dozens? Count Cockburn skeptical that none of them had even the slightest inkling that something was off…