← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
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This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. Your favorite clean, functional, delicious nutrition brand is raising the bar with a little help from Thomas Keller, Michelin Star Chef of the French Laundry. IQ Bar and Thomas Keller have teamed up to create a Salted Caramel Chip protein bar and Yuzu Mango Hydration Mix. With toasted macadamia nuts, rich caramel flavor and brain boosting nutrients, this bar is like having a Michelin Star meal in your pocket. Pair it with the tastebud Tingling Yuzu Mango IQ Mix Hydration Mix packed with magnesium and adaptogens to improve clarity and mood. With Keller's culinary excellence and IQ Bar's commitment to great taste and clean ingredients, this limited edition collaboration is simply Mwah. And the best part is that 10% of sales go directly to Chef Keller's nonprofit mentor that supports aspiring young chefs. Great taste, great nutrition, great mission. Go to iqbar.com today and enter promo code KELLER20 to get 20% off all Iqbar products plus free shipping. That's IQ B-A-R.com promo code KELLER20 hey.
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Everybody, Tim Miller from the Bulwark here. I'm sure many of you, like me, have been wondering what exactly is in the Epstein files? What are they? What is RD public? What is secret? What could we possibly learn if the files were released? What form are they in? And so I just wanted to do a little public education journalism for you and really break this out in a way that is easy to digest and understand. And I'm doing it all thanks to our girl Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald. So go, please do go support her journalism. Follow her on social media. This is an article that she wrote in the Miami Herald. We've done two interviews with her on this platform. You can go watch those as well. We'll link to them in the show notes. I did one a while ago. Bill Kristol did one on Sunday. So I'm cribbing from Julie Brown here. But I do think it's important to get this into the video world. What exactly is in the Epstein files? So here's what they list out for what is still secret. For starters, Epstein's computers. And I've mentioned this on a couple of podcasts. The second raid of his Manhattan mansion in 2019, where they seized computers, what appeared to be some CDs. The FBI, it's unknown actually whether the FBI examined them at the same time a search was conducted of his US Virgin Islands property, but that occurred many weeks after his arrests. Julie Brown says that sources on the island told her paper in 2019, that his employees removed boxes of computers and video equipment before that search was conducted. So maybe there's nothing from usvi, but we know the FBI got leased computers, video equipment, CDs from his Manhattan mansion in 2019. There was another batch of computers that were taken when he was first arrested in 2005. That was his Palm beach home. He lived down in Palm beach by Mar a Lago. It's how him and Trump were connected in the first place. During that investigation, it was later learned that his lawyers kept access to those computers and those files. We don't know whether the FBI was ever able to get their hands on them, but. And some of that was returned to Epstein in 2008 after he pleaded guilty to minor sex charges. So potentially some material there. So the Epstein computers and the videos related to the videos. He also had cameras at his properties. Epstein's brother and Epstein himself and allies have claimed that these cameras were only security cameras. However, several of Epstein's victims claimed that the sexual encounters were taped and used as blackmail. No one, however, has seen any of the videos. It's reasonable to assume that in the Epstein files, along with his computers, could be security camera footage from his homes. None of that has ever come out. We also have what is in the FBI's vault. The FBI releases files on its website, you know, as just this happens in. In many cases, just as kind of a public accountability measure. They released tens of thousands of pages from the original investigation back in 2007 and 2008. However, most of those documents have been blacked out. There have been journalists trying to get the unredacted versions of those for a long time. We know at minimum, that the FBI has the unredacted versions of the documents they've already put out. And so that would also be included underneath the Epstein files. That's something we know that they have. That could be gettable. There's some discussion of the client list. There's no real evidence that Epstein ever kept a list. So probably the Epstein files don't include, like, an actual list of the pedophiles that he was, you know, blackmailing or that were. That were with him. There's flight logs, and there are other maybe ways to kind of compile relationships and combinations of lists that. That you would assume that DOJ and FBI would have had from their past investigations. That. That is material that's still. We know there's still other. Other material, other evidence out there that would implicate other people, you know, besides those who've been named on the flight logs. It's probably not like contained in a very digestible list, but that is something that's out there. The US Marshals Service records. The marshals inspected Epstein's plane when it arrived from overseas. The Marshal Service is under dhs and they released some of the forms from that inspection thanks to a FOIA by the Miami Herald, Julie Brown. But other than Epstein's name, the forms were completely redacted. So we don't know what they might have uncovered on that plane. Maybe nothing, but we don't know since it was all redacted, that would be included in the Epstein files. There's some, maybe more flight records we don't have. We do have some flight logs. There are additional FAA records, additional evidence from his home that I mentioned earlier. In the US Virgin Islands, the former Attorney General for the USVI filed a lawsuit against Epstein's estate after he died, alleging that he used his Virgin Island's business as a shell company to conduct illegal activities, including child sex trafficking at his island home. The case was settled out of court. None of the evidence in that case was ever made public. Presumably that is material that is accessible and could be released. There's also been several federal grand juries that have heard evidence against Epstein. We don't know what was presented. Those are. Those are secret and under seal. That is something. Again, if you're promising to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein materials, you would release what was presented to two federal grand juries in his two cases. Then we come to the investigation of his death. They did release the video with the one minute missing of the Epstein depth. But there are other things we don't know. Were the inmates in his cells next to him, near him? Were they ever interviewed? You know, who else was ever on the floor? Right. There are elements of the death investigation that have not been released. Finally, here's the one that really gets me the most, because immediately people want to go to the salacious and obviously and the things that directly affected the victims via the child sex trafficking. But the thing that has always just piqued my interest the most about the Epstein case is how did he make his money? I asked Julie Brown about this directly in that interview that we linked to below, if you want to go watch it. The answers are just extremely unsatisfying. Who was giving him money? Were they involved in the child sex part of it at all? How did this guy who we don't have any evidence that he was a big successful investor, he kind of came out of nowhere, career wise. He was a teacher for a while. How did he make so much money to be able to have planes, to be able to put his name on buildings at Harvard? There I think are just a million questions that could lead to potentially relevant answers about other people who are implicated in this. Maybe it would lead to answers about why this has been covered up so long, why he got such a sweetheart deal initially. It's unclear whether the FBI ever even investigated his banking and business affairs. You would assume that he did, but we don't have any details about that. And then there are a lot of other very wealthy men who have been on the flight logs who've been accused of having sex by some of his victims. Were they just paying him off? But again, even if I don't know, could you live the lifestyle of a billionaire just from pedophile sex payoffs? I wouldn't think so, but maybe so to me that is just a huge missing piece of this story that if you are going to want to educate people about what really happened and have accountability, you would follow the money. You would figure out who was financing this guy, figure out why were they financing him? Was it because they thought he was such a great investment? That seems wrong. So were they financing him just solely for protection because they were going to his island and sleeping with 16 year olds? That is a big missing piece that I think is a legitimate line of inquiry for anybody that wants to to wants accountability and wants to see more information about what is in the so called Epstein file.
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So there it is. Just to kind of sum up what is in the Epstein files. There are the computers, particularly from the Manhattan home that we know were seized by the FBI potentially. There are the tapes and the video cameras in his various homes. There are the redacted records from the US Marshal Service and the FBI that we know have already been released, but with heavy, heavy redactions to such degree that you really can't decipher them. There's some additional FAA records, might tell us a little bit more about where the planes were going, who was on them. There's the evidence that was presented to the two grand juries. There was the evidence or lack thereof in the Epstein death investigation. And then any information in any of these investigations related to his financial records. So that, so, you know, you don't want to sound like a tinfoil hat person, crazy conspiracy person. Oh, I think there's a little black book that has all the, you know, all the perpetrators. It's not that. It's these seriously different buckets of information that we have that we know either in some cases that we know that the FBI, the federal government has, or we have reason to believe they have, that could be released to shed more light on this and maybe bring more people to account and, and who knows, maybe we'll discover that the President of the United States or some of his close friends are implicated and that's why they've gone from demanding all this be released to demanding that everybody shut up about it. So there you go. Hopefully that was useful. Send that to friends who are wondering what exactly is in these Epstein files and subscribe to the feed. We'll be back with much more on this. Everything else happened in the news. We'll be seeing you soon.
- [13:15]
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This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. Your favorite clean, functional, delicious nutrition brand is raising the bar with a little help from Thomas Keller, Michelin Star Chef of the French Laundry. IQ Bar and Thomas Keller have teamed up to create a salted Caramel chip protein bar and Yuzu Mango Hydration Mix. With toasted macadamia nuts, rich caramel flavor and brain boosting nutrients, this bar is like having a Michelin Star meal in your pocket. Pair it with the taste Bud Tingling Yuzu Mango IQ Mix Hydration Mix packed with magnesium and adaptogens to improve clarity and mood. With Keller's culinary excellence and IQ Bar's commitment to great taste and clean ingredients, this limited edition collaboration is simply mwah. And the best part is that 10% of sales go directly to Chef Keller's non profit mentor that supports aspiring young chefs. Great taste, great nutrition, great mission. Go to iqbar.com today and enter promo code KELLER20 to get 20% off all Iqbar products plus free shipping. That's IQ B-A-R.com promo code KELLER20.