Section:GDN 1N PaGe:9 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 21:16 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
9Mark Oliver and agencies
New YorkJeff rey Epstein ’s apparent suicide at
the Metropolitan Correctional Cent er
in Manhattan has sparked outlandish
theories, including one backed by Don-
ald Trump.
Some politicians, such as Alexan-
dria Ocasio-Cortez, called for answers
without theorising and expressed con-
cern for Epstein’s victims. “We need
answers. Lots of them,” she tweeted.
Others regretted that Epstein would
not be able to incriminate others. “How
many other millionaires and billion-
aires were part of the illegal activities
that he was engaged in? ” asked the
New York mayor, Bill de Blasio.
In the hours after the death of the
fi nancier, who was accused of sexu-
ally abusing young girls, wild theoriesReaction
#Murder trend
in conspiracy
theories
▲ The prince and Virginia Roberts, 17,
at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in 2001The Republican senator Rick Scott
of Florida, the state where some of
Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse took
place, suggested others might have
been involved in Epstein’s death when
he called on offi cials to explain what
happened at the prison. “The Fed-
eral Bureau of Prisons must provide
answers on what systemic failures of
the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts
allowed this coward to deny justice
to his victims,” he tweeted.
The former New York mayor Rudy
Giuliani, now an attorney for Trump,
raised several questions about
Epstein’s death. “Who was watching?
What does camera show? ... Follow
the motives,” he tweeted on Satur-
day afternoon.
Some theories around Epstein
have been easily debunked. Days
after his arrest last month, online
memes wrongly claimed that the
Obama administration forged a once-
secret deal in Florida in 2008 which
allowed Epstein to plead guilty to
soliciting a minor for prostitution to
avoid more serious charges. In fact,
the deal was executed before Obama
took offi ce, under the former presi-
dent George W Bush.
Trump and Clinton have both
denied knowing anything about
Epstein’s abus e.began to emerge and #EpsteinMurder
was trending worldwide.
Trump retweeted a post that
doubted that Epstein had killed
himself and included the line “#Jef-
feryEpstein had information on Bill
Clinton & now he’s dead”.
The retweet was criticised yester-
day by the Democratic presidential
candidate Beto O’Rourke. “This is
another example of our president
using this position of public trust
to attack his political enemies with
unfounded conspiracy theories and
also to try and force you and me and
all of us to focus on his bizarre behav-
iour,” O’Rourke told CNN.
“He’s changing the conversation. If
we allow him to do that, then we will
never be able to focus on the true prob-
lem, of which he is a part.”
Trump is among the powerful peo-
ple who knew Epstein – who also
include Clinton, the former presi-
dent, and Prince Andrew – and he once
described him as a “terrifi c guy”.
Fuelling conspiracy theories is the
expectation that the inquiries into
Epstein’s death will look at suggestions
he had previously tried to kill himself.
They are likely to look at why he was
reportedly not on suicide watch on Fri-
day when new court documents on
allegations against him were released.Q&A
The facts behind the caseHow did Jeff rey Epstein fall from
well-connected fi nancier to
disgraced sex off ender?
Epstein, 66, grew up in Coney
Island, Brooklyn, and initially
worked as a teacher for private
schools in Manhattan, before
starting a career in Wall Street. There
is some mystery around exactly how
he made his money but he became
wealthy after forming his company
J Epstein & Co and linking up with
powerful businessmen including
Leslie Wexner , the founder of the
company that owns the Victoria’s
Secret lingerie brand.
Epstein befriended prominent
fi gures in entertainment, politics
and business but his jet-set lifestyle
started to unravel in 2005 when
police in Palm Beach, Florida,
began investigating after a parent
complained that he had molested
her daughter. The 14-year-old was
allegedly paid to strip and massage
Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion.
His lawyers brokered a much-
criticised plea deal in Florida in
2008 that closed a federal inquiry
involving at least 40 teenage
girls. Following a n investigation
published in November 2018 by the
Miami Herald, Epstein was arrested
last month and charged with sex
traffi cking. He pleaded not guilty
and was preparing for trial when he
died in prison on Saturday.What were the charges levelled
against him at the time of his death?
Epstein faced up to 45 years in
prison on US federal sex traffi cking
and conspiracy charges. Court
documents allege that he recruited
dozens of victims under the age
of 18, some of whom he trained
to recruit others, in an alleged
arrangement lasting at least fi ve
years in the early 2000s. Somevictims have alleged that Epstein,
or his associates, assigned them for
abuse by other men.
Epstein had pleaded not guilty
to those charges and was awaiting
trial next year. A judge denied a
bail off er involving Epstein’s jet
and real estate valued at tens of
millions of dollars, ruling that
Epstein was a “danger to others
and the community”. He was
held on remand at the Manhattan
correctional centre in New York.Who were his powerful friends?
Epstein travelled to Africa with Bill
Clinton on his private jet, became a
friend of Donald Trump, who once
described Epstein as a “terrifi c guy”,
and socialised with Prince Andrew.How have former friends reacted to
the charges against Epstein?
Clinton has denied any impropriety
in his dealings with Epstein, while
Trump has said he distanced himself
from Epstein in the early 2000s,
a claim backed by contemporary
accounts. Another associate of
Epstein, the former US senatorGeorge Mitchell, who brokered the
Good Friday agreement, denied
knowledge of the alleged crimes.
Court papers in a separate 2015
defamation lawsuit by Virginia
Giuff re, formerly known as Virginia
Roberts, against Ghislaine Maxwell,
which was settled in 2017, however,
cite one of Epstein’s accusers
who alleged that he ordered her
to give Prince Andrew “whatever
he required” and that the prince
touched the breast of a young
woman at Epstein’s mansion.
Buckingham Palace has consistently
denied the prince behaved
inappropriately with any underage
girls. A number of Epstein’s circle
have sought to distance themselves
from their old friend. After Epstein’s
arrest on sex traffi cking charges ,
Trump said he was “not a fan ”.Does Epstein’s death end the case?
While Epstein’s death has derailed
the case against him , three new
inquiries had been launched within
24 hours by the FBI, the inspector
general’s offi ce of the justice
department and the New York
medical examiner.
Alleged victims called for
investigations of alleged criminal
activity by Epstein and associates to
be carried forward. “Epstein is gone,
but justice must still be served,” said
Jennifer Araoz, who accused Epstein
of raping her when she was 15.
Jack Scarola, a lawyer for several
of Epstein’s alleged victims, said:
“While I’m sure none of the victims
regret his death, all of them regret
the information that died with
him. The one expectation is that
Epstein’s death not derail the
investigation into the named and
unnamed co-conspirators who
still need to be brought to justice.”
Henry McDonald▼ From top: Epstein with Prince
Andrew; with Trump, Melania
Knauss (now Trump) and Ghislaine
Maxwell; the New York hospital
where Epstein’s body was takenAndrew and Leslie Wexner, founder
of the company that owns the Victo-
ria’s Secret lingerie brand.
The fi rst allegations of sexual abuse
came in 2005 when a woman con-
tacted the Palm Beach police, alleging
her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been
taken to Epstein’s mansion by an older
girl. The girl was allegedly paid $
to strip and massage Epstein.
That triggered an 11-month investi-
gation that drew in the FBI. Interviews
with alleged victims and witnesses
showed that some of the girls involved
were under 18.
“Today’s events are disturbing, and
we are deeply aware of their potential
to present yet another hurdle to giv-
ing Epstein’s many victims their day
in c ourt,” said Geoff rey Berman, the
US attorney for the southern district
of New York, in a statement on Satur-
day. “To those brave young women
who have already come forward and
to the many others who have yet to
do so, let me reiterate that we remain
committed to standing for you, and
our investigation ... remains ongoing.”
Lawyers for Epstein said they were
“enormously sorry to learn” of their
client’s death.
“No one should die in jail,” said
the lawyers, Reid Weingarten, Marty
Weinberg and Michael Miller.
After original attempts to prosecute
Epstein collapsed, Trump’s former
labour secretary Alex Acosta came
under repeated scrutiny for being
seen as too lenient when he oversaw
the case.
In February, a judge ruled prose-
cutors in the case violated the law by
concealing the deal from his under-
age alleged victims. Acosta resigned
from his administration post in July.
As Epstein’s world unravelled,
some of those who had sought his
fi nancial investment advice came
forward while many more preferred
to distance themselves, issuing state-
ments painting their interactions in
minimal terms. They included Trump
and Clinton, who both issued state-
ments saying they had had little to do
with Epstein in recent years.
Wexner said this week that the
fi nancier had “misappropriated” more
than $46m (£38m) of his personal for-
tune. He said money went missing a
decade ago, according to a letter to the
Wexner Foundation.
“We discovered that he had misap-
propriated vast sums of money from
me and my family,” Wexner said in the
letter. “This was, frankly, a tremen-
dous shock, even though it clearly
pales in comparison to the unthink-
able allegations against him now.”РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS