Mega Edition: Author Michael Gross And The Day He Spent With Jean Luc Brunel (7/25/26)

Summary

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The Epstein Chronicles

Mega Edition: Author Michael Gross And The Day He Spent With Jean Luc Brunel

Host: Bobby Capucci
Date: July 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Epstein Chronicles focuses on Jean Luc Brunel, a notorious French modeling agent with deep and disturbing ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Host Bobby Capucci examines Brunel's role in Epstein's sex trafficking operation, drawing on extensive allegations, legal documents, survivor testimony, media reports, and notably, insights from author and journalist Michael Gross, who spent a memorable and chilling day and night with Brunel in the 1990s. Capucci aims to shine a spotlight on Brunel’s criminal activity and the systemic neglect that enabled such abuse for decades, with sharp criticism for the lack of legal accountability thus far.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Brunel’s Place in Epstein’s Inner Circle

• Brunel was not just an associate but functioned as a key enabler, procurer, and possible consigliere in Epstein’s transcontinental operation (01:01–05:02, 07:03–12:11).
• Despite relentless and credible accusations spanning decades, multiple U.S. administrations failed to act against Brunel.
  • “Nobody from the Clinton administration, nobody from the Bush administration, nobody from the Obama administration, and certainly nobody from the Trump administration has stood up and held these people to account.” (05:02, Bobby Capucci)

2. Brunel’s Pattern of Behavior

• Allegations date back to the 1980s and include drugging and raping models, as well as recruiting underage girls from economically devastated regions (12:11–16:46, 23:49+).
• Virginia Giuffre (Roberts), an Epstein survivor, attests that “Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls. And everything I have seen confirms this claim.” (16:46, quoting Giuffre)

3. The Modeling Industry as a Hunting Ground

• Brunel’s agencies (Karen Models, MC2) are implicated as fronts for trafficking and abuse:
  • Use of “scouts” to recruit teens globally, then “farming them out” to wealthy Epstein-connected clients (12:11–16:46).
  • Former bookkeeper Martiza Vasquez told the FBI about scouts bringing in teens for clients at up to $100,000 a night; refusal meant no pay.
  • “Who has a hundred thousand dollars to spend a night with a girl? Only members of polite society, folks. These people are sick.” (18:46, Capucci)

4. Culture of Silence and Systemic Enabling

• Capucci lambasts the “see no evil” attitude among industry insiders, clients, and law enforcement, criticizing the normalization of predatory behavior.
  • Notable quote: “What do you expect them to do? They're supposed to stand up to John Luke Brunel, especially when the authorities don't give a [expletive] and the complicit legacy media is no better. What are they supposed to do? Stand by themselves in front of the world?” (32:44)
• Major brands and modeling agencies—Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks—continued to support and enable Brunel’s career despite long-term rumors and confirmed allegations (32:00+).

5. Michael Gross’s First-Person Account

• Gross recalls meeting Brunel in Miami in the early 1990s, observing “teenagers, really...with willowy frames and lovely faces of neophyte models and a smaller number of older men who appeared to be, well, smug probably sums it up best.” (40:00)
• Gross’s interviews and experiences with Brunel are foundational to the book Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, which exposed the dark underbelly of the industry.
• Memorable story: Gross assists a distressed model—“Dakota”—to escape a club where Brunel forced her presence. He’s later shown a peephole in Brunel’s apartment used for spying on models in the bathroom. (48:03–55:21).
  • Gross (reading from his notes): “She told me she hated the place and Brunel had forced her to come. ‘Can you get us out of here?’ she whispered...” (50:54)
  • On the peephole: “...there was a hidden hole drilled through a wall and a view of a bathroom. The girls were laughing about their escape when Brunel joined us. Earlier that day, he denied that he still used cocaine...he was uncommonly animated...” (52:03–54:20)
• Gross describes the fear and control Brunel wielded over young models—a system of dependency and intimidation interwoven with their living situation and career prospects.

6. Persistent Lack of Accountability

• Despite a mountain of evidence and survivor testimony, Brunel dodged depositions by lying about his whereabouts and operating with impunity, all while legacy media and law enforcement turned a blind eye (12:11–23:49).
• Capucci: “He is as guilty as the day is long. In my opinion, he needs to be swooped up right now, hit with RICO indictments and put on trial.” (07:03)

7. Industry-Wide Implications

• Capucci argues for investigative scrutiny into the modeling world as a whole, declaring it “riddled with malfeasance” and a safe harbor for predators (23:49–32:00).
  • “There is a story to be told about the modeling world, and at some point, it’s a story that really needs to be dug into by somebody who is competent and reliable, because there is malfeasance running amok within that industry...” (23:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On systemic denial:
  "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I had no idea that Jeffrey Epstein was a pervert. Son of a bitch. Ah, no, man. How would I know, bro?" (05:02, Capucci)

• On survivor testimony:
  “Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls. And everything that I have seen confirms this claim.” (16:46, quoting Virginia Giuffre)

• On the normalization of abuse:
  “Unfortunately, predatory behavior has been normalized and in turn even enabled by some modeling agents who may lack the judgment or training to address or prevent these abuses from happening.” (32:00, Sarah Ziff of Model Alliance, quoted by Capucci)

• Michael Gross describes Brunel’s world:
  “A pack of extremely young women. Teenagers, really, with the willowy frames and lovely faces of neophyte models and a smaller number of older men who appear to be...smug.” (40:00, Gross via Capucci)

• Gross rescues a model from club:
  “She told me she hated the place and Brunel had forced her to come. ‘Can you get us out of here?’ she whispered, gesturing to another model.” (50:54, Gross via Capucci)

• On failure of authorities:
  “Still, nobody has stepped in. Still nobody has brought these people to justice.” (56:15, Capucci)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• The scale of Epstein-Brunel operation & government failures:
  [01:01–07:03]
• Specific allegations and modeling industry mechanisms:
  [12:11–23:49]
• First-person account by Michael Gross—night out with Brunel, peephole incident, models’ fear:
  [36:43–56:15]
• Capucci’s reflections on industry complicity and call for accountability:
  [55:21–59:10]

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Tone & Language

Capucci pulls no punches, expressing open contempt for institutional failures, disgust at the normalization of predatory behavior, and deep empathy for victims. The episode is candid, forceful, and at times darkly sarcastic, tailored to listeners who demand unvarnished truth rather than sanitized media narratives.

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Conclusion

This episode is a scathing indictment of not only Jean Luc Brunel but the entire system that allowed him—and Epstein—to thrive. It leverages powerful survivor testimony, investigative journalism, and Michael Gross’s chilling firsthand account to expose how organized, global sex trafficking persisted under a veneer of glamour and legitimacy. Capucci demands accountability and persistent focus on forgotten perpetrators like Brunel.

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For correspondence, Bobby Capucci can be reached at bobbycapuccirotonmail.com or on Twitter @boby_capucci.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

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[D]

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[B]

Article is from the Daily Beast. The author of the article is Emily Sugarman. The headline models say Jeffrey Epstein's closest pal drugged and raped them. That's a pretty ominous headline, huh? Kind of ominous headline that you would think would have people getting arrested at the very least to sit down and have a talk, right? But no. In this world where these people move, in this world where these people shake, going to jail is unheard of. I highly suggest that you folks check out the Daily Beast coverage of this story. They have done very, very, very good work following the Jeffrey Epstein case. One of the only outlets to continually, you know, dig deep and provide good information, good context, and they've continued to cover the case. So make sure you check out the Daily Beast work. Even as he was serially, serially abusing underage girls, billionaire financier, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein managed to collect a stable of powerful famous friends, former presidents, prime ministers, lawyers, and scientists with whom he could discuss his plans to improve the human race with his own DNA. And obviously it goes much deeper than that, right? We know that these scientists were working on a lot of confidential projects, a lot of projects that probably shouldn't be discussed. And we know that Jeffrey Epstein owned a lot of these academics, a lot of these scientists, and that Jeffrey Epstein not only had access to them, but also had access to the programs that they were working on and whatever sort of project they were cooking up. Again. Do you really think it just happened to be a coincidence that Jeffrey Epstein decided to move to Stanley, New Mexico, pretty much smack dab in the middle of Los Alamos and the Santa Fe Institute. Do you really think that's just a coincidence, or do you think he wanted to be very, very close to all of his academic stooges? But Epstein's closest pal appears not to have been a prominent politician or top academic, but a sleazy, scandal prone modeling agent with virtually limitless connections to young women around the world. And I will say this about that statement. I don't believe that he was Jeffrey Epstein's best pal. I just believe that he was a convenient friend for Jeffrey Epstein, a convenient associate who was able to provide stuff that other people A might not be willing to provide or B not be able to provide. And with Jean Luc Brunel's connections in the modeling world, and with his connections all around the seedy part of that world, it was easy for Jean Luc Brunel to swoop in and act as a top procurer for Jeffrey Epstein. And again, if we're talking in mob terms, his consigliere, Jean Luc Brunel, 72, is the former head of Karen Models and MC2, two well regarded international modeling agencies that launched the careers of COVID girls like Ginta Lapina, Juana Berga and Cecily Lopez. He has also been accused by former models of drugging and date raping them and by former employees of recruiting foreign underage girls to be pimped out of Epstein's New York apartments. And we know this to be the case for sure. We've heard Maria Farmer talk about it, we've heard other people talk about it, we've heard Steve Scully talk about. Is a fact, in my opinion, that this was occurring. Okay?

[C]

And.

[B]

And it is a travesty that the United States government, at least three administrations going back four probably let all of this occur underneath their noses. Nobody stood up, no hero appeared. Nobody from the Clinton administration, nobody from the Bush administration, nobody from the Obama administration, and certainly nobody from the Trump administration has stated, stood up and held these people to account. Brunel and his attorney did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment. The modeling agent has previously denied any sexual misconduct or involvement in Epstein's crimes. Of course he has. All of these people have done the same thing. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I had no idea that Jeffrey Epstein was a pervert. Son of a bitch. Ah, no, man. How would I know, bro? Don't worry about your friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. That's the least of your worries, buddy. A, you've been running around raping people since the 80s supposedly. And B, you're being credibly accused by Virginia of taking part in the sexual abuse of her and perhaps other girls. I don't know that for a fact. That hasn't come out yet. But it would be logical to think that if Epstein was receiving three 12 year old models from France from Jean Luc Brunel, that Jean Luc Brunel was also partaking in the abuse. Right? Then you add the fact that he's being credibly accused by Virginia and it's not that hard to make the leap. I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work as a scouter or model agency's manager, Brunel said in a 2015 statement, adding, I have exercised with the utmost ethical standard for almost 40 years.

[D]

So the last time anyone heard from

[B]

this guy was five years ago. That's the last statement this guy's made. Nobody's decided to track him down, nobody's chasing him down. There's no private investigators looking to talk to him. I mean, I know the Sun's offering a reward for Ghislaine Maxwell because we know she's not in France, right? But nothing for Jean Luc Brunel. Nothing. Nobody's interested in what this clown has to say. Boy, if I had the resources, forget about it. There would not be a stone left unturned in my pursuit of this dirtbag. For years prior to Epstein's apparent suicide this month, Brunel was one of the financier most frequent male associates. The agent appears more than 15 times on flight logs from Epstein's private plane jetting everywhere from Paris to New York, often in the presence of young women. He visited Epstein nearly 70 times in jail, according to visitor logs, and several more times while the pedophile was on house arrest in Palm Beach. According to one of Epstein's housemen, Brunel was comfortable enough to whip up his own meals in the pedophile's kitchen and was one of Epstein's most frequent callers. And I've also heard reports that while Epstein was in the clink, if you want to call it that, that Jean Luc Brunel was also staying at the Palm beach mansion at times. So for this guy to act like him and Epstein weren't. Buddy buddy. For him to act like he wasn't a key cog in the machine, it is ridiculous. This man is as guilty as the day is long. And my opinion, he needs to be swooped up right now, hit with RICO indictments and put on trial. A trove of documents unsealed this month revealed several messages Brunel left for Epstein over the years, dutifully recorded by the financier pedophiles employees and later recovered by investigators. In one message, the note taker reported that Brunel just did a good one 18 years. Who reported who reportedly told him I love Jeffrey. So the people who were writing these notes were aiding and abetting after the fact the actions of sexual abusers. At the very least, that alone is a predicate for rico. I don't know how much clearer I need to be that this is a RICO case. No matter how you chop it. There is no way in hell how this does not end up in a RICO case when we have a proper functioning justice system. He has a teacher for you to teach you how to speak Russian, reads Another note, dated September 2005. She is 2 times 8, 16 years old, not blonde. Lessons are free and you can have the first today if you call. Think about what that is inferring to and then try not to vomit before you let it register. The person who took these notes is just as guilty as Jeffrey Epstein and Mark and Jean Luc Brunel. While it is unclear how they met, Brunel and Epstein were friends since at least the launch of MC2 in 2005.

[A]

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[B]

According to legal documents, that's incorrect. Their relationship goes back way, way, way further than that. Jean Luc Brunel has been running around the scene in New York for quite some time. We know that Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture in so called polite society. And we know that these two dudes were definitely a lot closer than that considering MC2, which was opened in 2005. Epstein was a. A silent partner and, you know, had a lot of connections to this modeling agency. What, did they just meet one day and. And then three weeks later, Epstein was like, all right, let's go into business together? Of course not. This relationship was set up. This relationship relationship was put into motion and then we see where it went, we see how it ended up. In fact, Epstein and MC2 were so closely associated that one insider referred to the page pedophile as the silent E in the agency's equation. For those who failed high school science, E equals MC squared is the formula underpinning Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. And that is why the company was named MC2. So for people to act like Epstein and Jean Luc Brunel weren't close or. There's nothing here. There's not a thread to be pulled on here. Did you fall and hit your head? Are you suffering from cte? Because that's the only way that you can look at this case and not understand the sort of monster and animal that Jean Luc Brunel is. Representatives for Epstein and MC2 have long denied having any business relationship. But Brunel admitted in court documents that Epstein once extended him a million dollar letter of credit. Credit which the agent used to invest in a new venture with Elite Models in Paris. The venture, E Management, was first registered by Epstein's attorney, who listed its address as 457 Madison Avenue. The same as the same as Epstein's investment firm, JJ. Epstein and company. See, what Jeffrey Epstein was trying to do here, folks, is the same thing he was doing at Victoria's Secret, but at a whole different kind of level. Whereas a little bit of discretion at the very least must have been used during the Victoria's Secret modeling shows. When Jeffrey Epstein has you as a model at his agency, that he's running from behind the scenes, well, that's a whole different ball game entirely, right? You are completely and utterly at his mercy, in his grasp and bound for misery. According to Brunel, the venture fell apart after Elite Models learned of the sex trafficking allegations against Epstein. The modeling agent even sued Epstein in 2015, claiming the allegations had tarnished his agency's reputation and caused him a tremendous loss of business. This is like Stalin suing Hitler. I mean, are you kidding me? No matter how scummy Jeffrey Epstein's stink is, your stink is just as bad, Mr. Brunel, you dumb, disgusting bastard. But at least two people have claimed that Brunel not only knew about the trafficking, he was an active participant. And this is what I was talking about. And this is why the profile is so important. And this is why we're hammering it home again. On the podcast today, Virginia Roberts, one of the first survivors to speak out against Epstein after he was granted a sweetheart plea deal, claimed in legal filings that Brunel was one of many powerful men she was forced to sleep with in her years as Epstein's sex slave. She also accused Brunel of using his agency to find foreign girls, obtain visas for them and farm them out to his friends, including Epstein. Think about that for a minute. What that, what that means. How many girls were, quote, unquote, farmed out to Epstein? And then what happened to all of these girls? Where are they? What happened to the unnamed girls who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and provided for him by John Luke Brunel? Where are all of these girls? That is a question that I want answered yesterday. A lot of the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds and he lured them in with a promise of making good money. Robert said in a 2015 affidavit, Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel's girls. And everything that I have seen confirms this claim. Guys, just think about that for a moment, what that means. And this isn't just some half assed source saying this or unnamed source saying this. This is Virginia saying this. Over a thousand girls trafficked to Jeffrey Epstein by Jean Luc Brunel. Now, do you think Brunel was doing that by himself or were there other participants? Don't you think it's important to find out? Don't you think it's important to make sure that the remnants of this trafficking ring are crushed and scattered into the winds of history? And the precedent is set that going forward, if anyone else ever thinks of doing something such as this, that the penalties would be so severe that they wouldn't even think about it. In a nation of laws, that's what would occur in a Nation where justice is equal to everybody that would occur. But unfortunately folks, that is not the nation we live in and it has not been the nation we have lived in for decades. Describing an orgy she was allegedly forced to participate in on Epstein's private island, Roberts added, my assumption was that Jean Luc Brunel got the girls from Eastern Europe as he procured many foreign girls for Epstein. They were young and, and European looking and sounding and we know that that is a perfect fertile feeding ground for these disgusting flesh vampires, right? War torn areas, areas that are very poor, areas where these girls are, will do anything to get out of these countries. I mean have you seen like a show like 90 Day Fiance and some of these beautiful Ukrainian women and some of the dudes they're talking to in America just to get to America and get a visa. Now you have some guy show up and big modeling guy pass some buck shows up, nice car, other girls with them and he's telling you all these pie in the sky dreams how you're going to be this great model, you're going to be the next insert great model here and he's going to make it happen. And these are girls that you have to understand, folks. You think we're poor in America or in other Western countries. You don't know what poverty is until you go to a war torn place, a place where it's been filled with economic and political strife. People will do anything, anything to escape those environments. And these young girls were lured into this life by Jean Luc Brunel. Thousand, at least a thousand, according to Virginia, from Jeffrey Epstein's own mouth. Into the clutches of this monster to be abused and, and then discarded and tossed into the trash heap. It is absolutely unacceptable and it is absolutely unacceptable that this man's story is not blasted all over the news. A former employee of MC2, Martiza Vasquez, also accused Brunel of similar misdeeds. Vasquez, who worked as a bookkeeper for the agency between 2003 to 2006, told the FBI that Brunel employed scouts to bring in teenage models from South America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. The most desirable of those teens were housed in Epstein's Upper Eastside apartments and loaned out to wealthy clients for up to $100,000 a night. Vasquez alleged if they refused to be molested, she said, they would not be paid. Brunel has denied these claims and says Vasquez was fired from his agency for embezzling company funds. Think about that folks, a hundred grand a night now they're not running around the South Bronx selling these girls for a hundred thousand dollars a night, are they? Who has a hundred thousand dollars to spend a night with a girl? Only members of polite society, folks. Only members of a society where we are not invited. These people are sick. They're depraved, and they do not care about you, me or our families. That much is quite evident. Over the years, several outlets reported that the FBI was investigating Brunel, but no charges ever emerged. In fact, the Modelizer managed to avoid being deposed in a single civil suit against Epstein, of which there were more than a dozen. In a lawsuit filed by Brad Edwards, an attorney for several Epstein survivors, the lawyer claimed Brunel skirted depositions by saying he was living in France when he was in fact staying at Epstein's Palm beach mansion. And there's what I was inferring before about him staying at the Palm beach mansion. We've heard this from a lot of credible sources. And if you're following the case, you know they don't get more credible than Bradley Edwards or more heroic. Especially in this case this weekend, someone

[A]

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[B]

So, Brad, this guy has never even had to answer at a deposition? Nothing. He's never answered any questions and nobody's talking about him. Well, we're talking about him. Jean Luc Brunel, you have our attention now, sir. And when you have my attention, believe me, you have it. Brunel, in his 2015 suit, claimed Epstein had pressured him into skipping the depositions and said he regretted missing the chance to clear his company's name. He also claimed to have lost millions of dollars in potential business. And due to the notoriety and tremendous publicity surrounding Epstein's criminal charges, charges he claimed to have nothing to do with, the suit included emails from several agents and talent scouts saying they could not work with Brunel because of the sexual misconduct allegations. So they couldn't work with him because of the sexual conduct allegations. Right, but it's cool that he's being credibly accused of rape for decades, Right? That didn't stop them from working with him. I'm telling you right now, there is a story to be told about the modeling world, and at some point, it's a story that really needs to be dug into by somebody who is competent and reliable because there is malfeasance running amok within that industry, and the poor girls that get sucked into that industry are being abused at a large and alarming rate. I have decided to bring judicial proceedings in France and in the United States against allegations which caused considerable damage to me personally and to my models, agencies, Brunel said in a statement at the time. I strongly deny having participated, neither directly nor indirectly, in the actions of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein is being accused of. You can deny it all you want, but you have no evidence. The evidence is very clear here, sir. All right? It's not like you've been some upstanding citizen your whole life. A married man, always devout to his wife, et cetera, et cetera, and then these allegations are dropped on you. No, you've been a smarmy worm your whole entire life. You've been accused of rape, you've been accused of all sorts of disgusting crimes, and you act like people just believe what you have to say, like your entire life's work leads us to that point. But charges of sexual misconduct have followed Brunel since before he met Epstein. In Michael Gross's 1995 book, Model, several of Brunel's peers described him as a dangerous playboy known for preying on young women Elite Models founder John Casablancas, who himself has been accused of sexual misconduct, told Gross that Brunel and his friends were known for roaming Paris nightclubs and to invite girls and put drugs in their drinks. Sounds like a bunch of fantastic people, huh? These modeling agency scouts sure are top notch individuals. I mean, there's nothing creepy about these old ass men who want to be around young girls in lingerie or anything anyway, right? Because that's normal behavior for old men. Give me a break already. Cut the shit, cut the lies and cut the nonsense. In Ian Halperin's Bad and Beautiful One, former Karen model accused Brunel and his friends of inviting more than a dozen models to a private party at one of their apartments, then forcing some of the young women to have sex with them. Most of the women felt they had been raped, the former model said, but they were afraid to report it to the police because Brunel would ruin their careers. And that was a very valid fear for them to have, right? Jean Luc Brunel was a very powerful modeling scout. A guy that was running around with the, you know, the power brokers of the industry. For these young girls, especially these young girls that come from these poor war torn countries, what do you expect them to do? They're supposed to stand up to John Luke Brunel, especially when the authorities don't give a. And the complicit legacy media is no better. What are they supposed to stand by by themselves in front of the world and say that this man did such and such to me? Nobody's going to believe them. Well, guess what? We all believe you now. In a 60 Minutes feature from 1988, several American models who worked with Brunel in Paris described a culture in which young models were plied with drugs and taken up parties with older men. At the parties, women said they would be denied work if they declined the men's sexual advances. Two women in the feature accused Brunel of drugging them. One accused him of raping her while she was unconscious. And it's typical for people like this guy, right? We've heard this about this man several times and he is still avoiding scrutiny. According to Craig Pies, one of the reporters on the piece, the story did not end there. PI said he spoke with three more women over the course of his six month investigation who said they were drugged and raped by Brunel or his friends, but who did not feel comfortable coming forward on air. And folks, how many times have we seen that in this kind of case, especially the Epstein case women not wanting to come forward because they're scared of reprisals. When you have someone like Ghislaine Maxwell threatening you like she did to Maria Farmer, you understand why. My sense, based upon the allegations, is that Jean Luc, Jean Luc was a predator, his group was a predator, and they used their tools of power and leverage to force sex from women who otherwise might not be willing to engage in it, pies told the Daily Beast. Of course he did. That was that was their mo. That's what these people do. They feel like their power and their wealth and gives them the freedom to treat you, me or anybody they feel is below them any way that they deem necessary. Brunel declined to be interviewed by 60 Minutes at the time, but later denied the allegations. Christy Turlington, a top model and close friend of Brunel's, later told Halperin she thought some of the stories were exaggerated. In this business, you never know who to believe, she said. Isn't that nice? Christy Turlington laying cover for Jean Luc Brunel Remember that next time Christy Turlington has some sort of product out, folks. Just this week, New Zealand model Zoe Brock told French publication Liberation she Briefly lived in Brunel's apartment at age 17, but left after he insisted they would have to sleep together eventually. The allegations are similar to those Brock made in a 2007 Medium piece. Cesia Husman, a Dutch model, claimed she wasn't so lucky after initially resisting Brunel's advances. She said the agent gave her a drink that made her feel dizzy, then brought her into his bedroom and assaulted her. Aren't these allegations on their own enough? Then you have to add into the fact all of the girls he provided for Jeffrey Epstein and what he did to Virginia. If law enforcement would have just taken it seriously and if they would have acted in the correct way, how much pain could have been ended? How much pain could have been avoided? I remember he was on me. I tried to push him away and the noise when he ripped my clothes, she told Liberation. Then it's the black hole. I woke up in bed. I was totally disoriented. I went to collect my belongings in the room where I slept and I went directly to the station to leave Paris. The prior allegations seem not to have hampered Brunel's business too much. In recent years, MC2 has counted major department stores like Nordstrom's, Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue as clients. According to a letter from Brunel's business partner, first obtained by Bloomberg, a Nordstrom executive even wrote a letter expressing her full and unqualified and unqualified support of Brunel's visa application in 2014. Isn't that nice, huh? Sarah Ziff, the founder of the advocacy organization Model alliance, said behavior like Brunel's is often overlooked in the modeling industry. Unfortunately, predatory behavior has been normalized and in turn even enabled by some modeling agents who may lack the judgment or training to to address or prevent these abuses from happening, Xxif told the Daily Beast. Lack the training? How about just lacking basic morals? How about just lacking basic human compassion? How about just being, you know, a human flippin being? Today, however, Brunel's influence over his modeling empire appears to be diminishing. MC2 announced in 2012 that Brunel would be moving to a scene, scouting and consulting role for the company. On Friday, a spokesperson for MC2 in New York told the Daily Beast that Brunel was basically retired and living out of the country. As for specifics about Brunel's role, the spokesperson said, he doesn't really have one and this is how they do it. Oh, he's not with the company anymore. So that's the end of that. We're not answering any questions. We don't know anything about the guy. Meanwhile, he ran the company, owned the company, was in charge of the company for years and years and years. Nobody knew anything, huh? None of you knew anything? Anything? Okay. Ruth Malka, who took over Karen Models from Brunel in the early 2000s, told Liberation she hadn't worked with him in years. Malka told the website she never witnessed any improper behavior on Brunel's part, but added, I'm shocked at everything I hear. It disgusts me. Oh yeah? You never heard anything? Nobody heard anything. Nobody saw anything, Nobody witnessed anything? Anything. Well, here's some breaking news for all of you who didn't witness anything. Unfortunately for all of you, we know the score. We are witnessing your denial. We are witnessing your. Your ineffectual defense. And we are also witnessing you still provide cover and enable a sex trafficking ring that was run by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Your time is up, Mr. Brunel. And I want you to understand this very clearly. The predator has now become the prey. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmel.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c [e-mail] youm can also find me on Twitter at boby underscore Capuci

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We're going to talk about an article today from the Daily Beast and this article has to do with Jean Luc Brunel and the author of the article Michael Gross's night out with him, Jean Luc Brunel and in Michael Gross's own words, Jean Luc Brunel's Terrified Models. Jean Luc Brunel is not talked about enough in this case. He is a very important part of this case, a linchpin, a guy who was in a leadership role. A man who is accused of providing young 12 year old girls for Jeffrey Epstein as a birthday present. A man who is accused of partaking in the sex trafficking. A man who is accused of not only enabling Jeffrey Epstein's behavior, but also being one of the key procurers of it. So this morning we're going to take a little bit of time so that we can talk about Jean Luc Brunel, a Little bit and talk about how this man deserves to be in bracelets and underneath the jail right next to Ghislaine Maxwell. This man seems to escape scrutiny in a lot of the stories, but it is very important that everybody in a leadership position, especially within this criminal organization, faces justice. There is no reason why Jean Luke Brunel, who has been under all sorts of clouds of impropriety when it comes to women for decades, there is no way that this guy should still be roaming the streets. How is he not arrested? How is he not brought into custody? And how is he not forced to roll over on the rest of them? All right, this article is from the Daily Beast. The author is Michael Gross, and this article was published originally on August 29th of 2019. The headline, My Night with Epstein Powell. Jean Luc Brunel and his Terrified models. It was 1993 or 1994 when I first encountered Jean Luc Brunel, the controversial French modeling agent, at a then trendy south beach restaurant called the Strand in Miami. Shocking that he's in south beach, huh? Who else was living in Florida? Jeffrey Epstein, perhaps. A table near mine, set for 6, expanded to seat 10, then shrank for 8, then enlarged to fit a party of 12, and was finally occupied, as I finished my meal, by a pack of extremely young women. Teenagers, really, with the willowy frames and lovely faces of neophyte models and a smaller number of older men who appear to be, well, smug probably sums it up best. Of course, these are the kind of people that were always around. Jean Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein. I call them fellow travelers. You can't hang out with a guy like Jeffrey Epstein or a guy like Jean Luc Brunel and not know what they're up to. It is an impossibility, in my opinion. And for all of these people to come out and act like they had no idea what sort of monster Jean Luc Brunel is, what sort of monster Jeffrey Epstein is. It defies reality for anyone to use that excuse. And the author here, Michael Gross, pretty much says it right here. A bunch of older men and young teenagers, really, with willowy frames and lovely faces. The girls with pie in the sky.

[B]

Dreams, right?

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Oh, we'll make you a model. Come work for our agency. We'll take care of you. We'll hook you up, we'll make sure you reach the stratosphere. And then when they're in the clutches of these sick bastards, what happens? They're abused, they're exploited, and then they're discarded. A quarter century later, I was Reminded of that dinner when Brunel suddenly riveted the world's attention in the hours immediately before the suicide allegedly of the notorious pervert and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, when it was alleged that the Frenchman had provided underage women to the very disgusting pedophile look. And not just provided women, folks,

[B]

when

[D]

you follow this case and you know the deal, you also know that Jean Luc Brunel is being credibly accused by Virginia Roberts. And it's obvious for anyone who knows anything about the man that he has done this over and over and over again, used his position with within these modeling agencies to take advantage of these young women on a regular basis. And this piece of this scumbag is still flocking around free, doing whatever the hell he wants. Who knows who he's abusing right now. Shortly after that Miami night, I interviewed Brunel, among many others, for a book on the modeling industry published in 1995 as Model the Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. I think that headline sums it all up. And I'm definitely going to pick this book up by Michael Gross, Model the Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, because I think to truly understand what was going on within the ranks of these modeling agencies and how they were exploited by people like Epstein and Jean Luc Brunel, I think it's important to have as much information as possible, Right? So I'm going to check out this book by Michael Gross and see if it adds any context to what we're talking about. So although I neither met nor wrote about Epstein, my phone started ringing following his latest arrest for trafficking underage women. And it hasn't stopped since. As of Brunel pile up like a mound of fetid garbage, notably in England's Guardian, France's Liberation, the the Washington Post

[B]

and the Daily Beast.

[D]

And reporters have told me that apparently I'm among the very few journalists to have interviewed the then elusive and now impossible to find Brunel. So that's pretty telling right there, right? A guy like Brunel who operates in the shadows, a guy like Brunel who is acting almost as like a consigliere for Jeffrey Epstein. And if you're not familiar with mafia terms, a consigliere is basically an advisor, right, to the don. And if we're looking at this from a RICO standpoint and painting that picture, then you could easily have Jean Luc Brunel in that position as consigliere, right? So this man certainly never wants to talk to reporters. He knows that he was involved in all sorts of disgusting activity and this, this gentleman, Michael Gross, is one of the only reporters who have ever been able to pin this man down and have a conversation with him. So again, that's why this article is a proper addition to the catalog. And also I just like to bring a little bit more light on to Jean Luc Brunel's name because I don't feel like he's talked about enough. But there's more to this story than the handful of damning quotations the papers have lifted from model from and about the man sometimes described as a rabbitoire, that is one who beats the bushes during a hunt to drive game out into the open. And look, Brunel is a sick bastard, right? But he's cagey, he's crafty, he's been doing this for quite some time and I'm sure he has a lot of contacts that Jeffrey Epstein left him. Again, this isn't your average guy, your average modeling scout, your average a human trafficker. This is a man with connections. This is a man who has a lot of secrets that he could reveal. And this is a man that should be arrested yesterday. There's the videotape of a 60 minute segment from 1988, long suppressed by legal order, that exposed him as an alleged serial abuser of young women. For instance, interviews with competitors who described him as a serial rapist. And a 28 page transcript of our taped interview in which I asked about the charges that Brunel was way more loco than parentis with the young women in his charges as well as his oft reported fondness for cocaine. And that's another huge part of the situation with the models. These kind of scenes and this sort of social situation is the sort of place where drugs are very prevalent, especially cocaine. And in Miami beach during the 80s, early 90s, forget it, everybody was getting gacked. So you think about one of these sort of, you know, situations where you have these aspiring models and these perverted ass gross old dudes who are supposedly model scouts or agents or whatever, and you have a recipe for disaster. Everyone's on blow, everyone's getting high. And you know, once you get a taste for that kind of stuff, it's easy to get addicted. So they would use the drugs, I'm sure, to almost control these girls. His assurances of his innocence then were barely credible, but I felt a responsibility to report them alongside the sordid charges against him and some of the more damning passages from our conversation. But I left out what happened that same night as our daytime interview this

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remember why I was in the nightclub, but Les Bond Douches, Douchet, whatever, that evening. It was 25 years ago, after all. But what happened there and afterward is a crystal clear memory, most likely because I planned to include it in a final chapter of Model that was never written because the book was already long and tawdry enough. So not only did he have an interview with Jean Luc Brunel during the day, obviously he went out with him at night. And he's going to go into this story here about what occurred while he was out with Jean Luc Brunel. My plan was to conclude the Tomb with a chapter on the youngest models of all, known as test board kids, discovered in malls and at modeling conventions and then thrown into the deep end of fashion, of the fashion pool, the studios and clubs of Paris and Milan. There they would either sink or they would swim. I chosen a handful of them at an annual modeling convention in New York, asked them to be my pen pal for a year. And that day at Brunel's agency, Karen met one of them, Robin. I've changed the model's names. A Midwesterner who'd sign with him. She introduced her to. She introduced me to her friend who called herself Dakota. And we chatted and went on our separate ways. And how many girls like this are there, girls that have, you know, a story to tell about people like John Luke Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein, but have never been able to tell their story either because they've feared for their lives, they've been intimidated, or they just don't want to relive the pain of what occurred. And it really bothers me to know that somebody like Jean Luc Brunel has been active since the 80s, folks, and nobody has wrangled this son of a bitch. No parent has punched this man square in the face. I have news for you. If this was one of my kids being abused like this, you wouldn't have to worry about the cops finding you. You wouldn't have to worry about the Federales finding you, because I would find you and I would would exact vigilante style justice. Because it's obvious that the authorities could care less. They could not care less. But there was Dakota on the restaurant floor above the disco at Les Bans Duchess, sitting with Brunel and another group of models and older men at a huge table. And when she waved hello, it was clear she was miserable. She told me she hated the place and Brunell had forced her to come. Can you get us out of here? She whispered, gesturing to another model.

[B]

Sure.

[D]

Easy. I took them in a taxi to their model apartment off of Champ Ulysses. Ah, there's that Champs Ulysses again, huh? Isn't that where Ghislaine Maxwell is supposedly hiding out now? A crowded room where dirty clothes covered every inch of the floor.

[C]

And.

[D]

And Dakota told me she'd moved there first after living with Brunel at his far more spacious and glamorous apartment nearby on Avenue Hoche. And this is the same story we saw at the building on East 66th Street. 5, 6, 7, 8 models living in one apartment. Squalor, dirty apartments, mattresses on the floor, etc.

[B]

Etc.

[D]

So what they would do is they'd bring these girls in and then they treat them like they were basically indentured servants. There she discovered an apparent peephole that looked into the bathroom the models in residence used, inspiring her to flee a bit. Not very far. The only part of the story that wasn't normal was that peephole models often bunk in their agents homes. Want to see it?

[B]

Dakota asked.

[D]

She still had a key. This is creepy, bro. So this Brunel cat had all of these young girls shacked up with him because he's supposedly an agent, a scout, whatever. And while they're using the bathroom, this disgusting old prick is peeping on them through a peephole around the corner we went then up one of those old French cage elevator elevators to a far more lavish flat where, sure enough, the there was a hidden hole drilled through a wall and a view of a bathroom. The girls were laughing about their escape. When Brunel joined us earlier that day, he denied that he still used cocaine. I had a problem, he said in a staccato burst. It was not a major. I mean, it was a problem for four or five years. I did it as fun because I never did it in the day, and then I did it as an experiment. Fine, it lasted maybe a bit longer than it should, but. But it had never been like a problem. It had never been. I was at work at 9 in the morning. But as the notes I took afterwards say, he was uncommonly animated. So I wouldn't have vouched for the truth of that assertion. Typical of drug addicts, right? Ah, yeah, I'm not on drugs anymore. I used to have a problem, but I'm all good now. Meanwhile, he has ski rings around his nostrils, it's snowing out of his nostrils, and the dude is obviously gacked out of his beak. Come on, man. Mean to tell me you weren't on blow anymore? Yeah, okay. And he was with a friend with a case of the sniffles and the peephole. I want you to look behind all the mirrors, he said. Frankly, I just wanted out of there. So the author here, Michael Gross, was creeped out. He went to this flat, looked through the peephole after the model showed it to him, and then Mr. George Jung Jr comes out of the bathroom gacked out of his mind, acting like he has not gacked out of his mind. And as far as Michael Gross goes, the author of the story, all he wants to do is beat feet and get out of Dodge. At this point, a demand that Dakota returned to Les Les Banes Duches with him made me nervous.

[B]

Earlier that day, he.

[D]

He'd struck me as shrewd, smug and vaguely sleazy. She told me she had to rebuff his advantage. His advances, his reappearance added scary to that list. So it wasn't a request, according to Michael Gross, it was a demand that this model, Dakota, return with him to that club. And when you're in a situation like this model was, you're pretty much beholden to this guy. Not only does he hold your career in the palm of his disgusting hand, your living situation is based on him as well. So what happens is they complete you. They can. They completely catch you up in their web. And then when you can't go anywhere, they move in for the kill. There was a white Ferrari with a white leather interior sitting outside his building. Dakota sat in front and when Brunel offered to drop me off en route, I squeezed into the back. Her hand snaked around the seat where Brunel couldn't see it.

[B]

I grabbed it.

[D]

She squeezed until we reached the point des Arts and I got out of the thrumming car. Will you be okay? I whispered to Dakota. Her voice said yes. Her eyes, they weren't so sure. And off they roared into the night. You know, I don't know if I would have been comfortable doing leaving this. This young lady like Michael Gross was. Honestly, I shouldn't even say I don't know. I know for a fact that me and this Brunel cat would have probably squared up. I have no tolerance for people like this, zero tolerance for people like this. And especially after covering this case, you put me in a room with a dude like Jean Luc Brunel, I'm for sure punching him in the face. Not even a question after seeing the way he was treating these girls. Etc. Etc.

[B]

Forget it. There's zero chance.

[D]

So I, you know, I don't know how Michael Gross was able to contain himself and not at the very least get in this guy's face, because it's obvious what he's up to, the sort of scumbag he is. Sometime later, I got a letter from Dakota. She was still in Paris and I never learned more of what happened to her. But she reported that Robin had returned to the prairie suffering from an ulcer. I never heard from her again either. But what young woman full of dreams would want to tell the tale of how she failed as a fashion model? Even if quitting was one of the smartest choices she ever made. And it's the truth. It's such a sad story for a lot of these girls. You know, so many of these girls that we don't even know their names. These ex models, these young girls that were brought up into the circle, they are used, discarded and then put into the trash. The whole modeling industry needs a shake up, folks. It really does. Over the years, since I vaguely kept tags on the tabs on the agents who were the protagonists, if not the heroes of model. So I heard that Brunel had broken with this and that partner and founded an agency of his own in Miami. And beginning about a decade ago, when I first learned of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. I certainly wasn't surprised. For his part, Brunel and his lawyers have denied the claims that he recruited underage girls for Epstein and abused them himself. Still, he's disappeared in the wake of Epstein's arrest and suicide. So, you know, Brunel was engaging in all sorts of disgusting behavior before he even sent these girls to Epstein. So these girls were being victimized multiple times by multiple people on multiple continents and still nobody has stepped in. Still nobody has brought these people to justice. Now, of course, I feel for the no longer young woman who have finally been emboldened to speak out about Brunel and I wonder and still worry about Dakota. It's a pretty harrowing tale, folks, and it just gives you another look into Jean Luc Brunel, his psyche and how he has been at this for decades. And once again, it is all about context. It's all about meat on the bone. And for anyone who is just getting involved in this case, Jean Luc Brunel is a name that you should definitely look into. Jean Luc Brunel is a key player in this and he does not get enough press. We're going to change that here on the podcast though. We're going to make sure that we mention this man more often because it's very important that Jean Luc Brunel, along with Ghislaine Maxwell and the rest of the co conspirators, get fitted for a pair of bracelets and a 6x10 cell. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c [e-mail] you can also find me on Twitter O b b ycapucci

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