← The Tara Palmeri Show
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Welcome to the Tara Palmieri Show. Virginia Giuffre's memoir is out Nobody's Girl, and it is absolutely shaking the world. As I've always said, Virginia is a singular voice in the Epstein story. The horror she endured after two years of being enslaved by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are beyond words. And I think the world is finally starting to hear them, to see them. And I just started her book last night. I just got my hands on it a little bit earlier, although my Amazon package is coming in, but someone very graciously handed it to me that got an advance copy. And she's so honest and so unsparing and I'm so happy her true essence comes across in this book because that's what I saw from the time that we spent together traveling around the country trying to get people who witnessed her abuse to speak up and to stand by her, to say, virginia, I see you, I validate you, I know you, I saw what you went through and I'm here to stand by you now. I'm ready to do the right thing. And I'm actually really touched because I found out just a few hours before I went on Aaron Burnett last night, which you'll hear on the show, you'll see the clip in a few minutes. But that Virginia wrote about our journey together in her book, it's in a chapter called Unbroken, which makes me really happy. She writes about the second season of Broken, Seeking justice, which we did together. And she called the project backed by, she said the project was backed by two terrific guys named Adam Hollywood, director Adam McKay and Adam Davidson. And she said she was impressed by the team's firepower, which makes me really glad to hear that. And she said, I like that. Palmary didn't give two shakes about Epstein, only about the women he'd hurt. And that's true. When I started this show, I said I don't care about Jeffrey Epstein. I only care about the survivors and putting together the pieces of their lives that were broken by him. And so she said I would help. I would be helping to gather reporting during a 10 day cross country journey with Palmieri. Our goal, to track down some of the people who'd worked for Epstein during the Time I knew him, I was hoping that some who'd stayed silent before his death might now be willing to talk. And then she goes through our journey to the chef Adam Perry Lang's house and restaurant, how she tried to get him to speak. She, she talks about going to the, the pilot Larry Vasofsky's house, calling him up, and how he hung up on her. She also talks about a experience where we tried to talk to an adult model who worked for Jeffrey Epstein, who, she, who Virginia was forced to have sex with, and, and what happened at that house. I mean, that was pretty wild. The woman blamed Virginia for killing Jeffrey Epstein. It was, it was, was really, really over the top. And then the last part is when we went to Juana Les's house, Epstein's house manager of two decades, who actually drove Virginia home the night that she was first assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein and Galen Maxwell, and who was in the car when Galen Maxwell recruited Virginia at Mar A Lago. And yeah, it's, it's really interesting to read it through her eyes. I wrote an essay in my newsletter, the Red Letter, which you can find@tara palmeri.com about this experience, about knowing Virginia and what it takes to be believed and what she taught me about what it takes to be believed. And I go into these, these stories through my perspective, through seeing her eyes, her, her reaction. And she writes about it through her own, and they're actually really similar. One thing I noticed was that she said, I hoped that she's talking about the chef. Of course, I hope that he might have information that could help me hold Epstein's co conspirators account accountable. But also on a purely emotional level, I just wanted to hear Lang confirm my experience. He could have said something as simple as, I saw what happened to you because I was there, and that would have helped me heal. Would I have been thrilled if he handed over incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoing? Sure, but I wasn't really expecting that. Mostly what I wanted was validation. Clearly, though, I wasn't going to get that from Lang. She also writes about the heartbreak that she experienced when we went to Alessi's house and how he was just changing his story in front of us, doing gymnastics, walking this bizarre tightrope he crafted in his head. And yeah, again, I write about this in New York magazine and @tarapaul.mary.com Reading this book, I know so many of these stories already. I'm so happy she finally put them to paper. I wish that she could have named more names When I read the names, I. I know who she's talking about. I know the brutality she suffered. I saw her body physically record foil when she passed by the Palm beach airport because of the abuse she suffered in the air at the Lolita Express. But I think when you read this, you'll realize that Virginia was a perfect prey for someone like Glenn Maxwell, who looked for girls who were broken. And she really was nobody's girl. And it really breaks my heart. I'm gonna sit down and read this and finish it. It'll be really hard for me. We were friends. We spoke before she died. We spoke in February 2025. She killed herself in April, and she wasn't well. And I remember telling her, you know, you should go see your family. You should come to the US you should spend time with them. She was going through a terrible divorce. She wasn't with her children. They were her light. They gave her that energy to keep shining for others. And, you know, I just wish she didn't take her life, and I wish she could have lived to see this justice. I really believe the genie is out of the bottle. I think anyone who reads this book, which is going to be a bestseller, I believe it will. Will not stand for what we're seeing right now. Mike Johnson trying to block the confirmation of a congresswoman who has been duly elected to her seat so that she can pass a bill to release the Epstein files, to command the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. If they're released, you'll see, hopefully, if they're released with unre. Unredacted, you'll see all of the people that Virginia writes about. You'll see their names in her depositions. And I'm really proud of her for pushing the story forward. I knew her book was going to be explosive. I just didn't. I just wasn't. I wasn't 100% sure. But I'm. I think it's in the writing. I think it's in the full story. I think it's an understanding. Virginia, you understand how something like this could happen. Take a listen to the the show with Aaron Burnett on cnn. I'll be doing a number of interviews today on my substack, which you can go to@tarapalmary.com. i'll be doing one with, well, Katie Tur on MSNBC. You can watch that on MSNBC, but we'll post it here, too. I've got Don Lemon at five. I've got the V from under the Desk News. You know her at three. I've got Jim Acosta at four, so I am fully lined up today. But it's all about Virginia. This is her big day. Her book is finally out and I'm just so happy that she's rocking the ex, the establishment that she is exposing Epstein's network. Thank you again for tuning in and for all of your support. You make all of this happen. Take a listen here. Monday Sidekick, the AI agent that knows.
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Giuffre also writes graphic detail what she experienced at the hands of Epstein. I'll share just one thing that she said. She writes in session after session, he would play out various fantasies with me as the victim, she writes. She says the chains and contraptions he used on her caused so much pain that I prayed I would black out. When I did, I'd awaken to more abuse. Giuffre suffered through this for years and years. She did marry and have children of her own and died by suicide this past April at the age of 41. This book coming as calls to release all of the Epstein files, to find out all of the names of people who knew people who participated, are hitting roadblocks from the Trump DOJ and from the House Speaker, Mike Johnson. Out front now, Tara Palmieri, who is named in Duffrey's book because obviously you and Virginia Tara traveled together around the country to find people that she says were involved who worked for Epstein to corroborate her story. You spent so much time on this. Claire Howarth is the deputy editor at Vanity Fair, which obtained the first exclusive excerpt of Giuffre's memoir. And I know you've got it with you, and I know you've read the entire thing and done your own exhaustive reporting. So, Claire, when you've had a chance to read it, we're looking at it there and I think it's so interesting when you look at the COVID it's nobody's Girl. And she's sort of, she's fading out, right? As if she almost isn't visible to people. How much does she shed new light on, on these crucial questions of the who knew who participated? Who has not been held to account to this time?
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There are sort of two first of all, thanks for having me. It's nice to see you too, Tara. She writes very lovingly of her experience with Tara. There are two levels here of detail. One is the graphic nature of the detail itself. A lot of things we know are now illuminated in a way that only a survivor of these crimes could be able to detail them. And the other is how much we really don't know. She refers to a lot of these men as billionaires. One, two, and three. There's a prime minister, head of state, and you realize you kind of suspect, you know, who the characters are, but we still don't know this information publicly.
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And she talks about those individuals which she named specifically, but also says there were many more people who abused her. Right. So many more men, but she doesn't put a full number on. And then, of course, that we don't know.
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That's dozens, dozens.
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And then what about all the other women and the other. Right. I mean, it is unbelievable. Women that we see. That is. I mean, Taryn, in another excerpt that was published by the New York Post, she talks about the prime minister that Claire just referred to. She said she was raped by this man. She writes, he repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life. And then she said she begged Epstein not to send her back to this man, to the prime minister. I got down on my knees and pleaded with him. I don't know if Epstein feared the man or if he owed him a favor, but he wouldn't make any promises, saying coldly of the politician's brutality, you'll get that sometimes you knew her. So for you, there are things that are even more graphic and horrific than are put in this book. And yet for so many of us, this is just absolutely stunning graphic detail.
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I knew this was going to happen with her book. I had a feeling that it was going to be explosive because I don't think people understood the brutality of what she lived through. I remember when we were driving past the Palm beach airport. It was February 2020, and the Lolita Express, Epstein's private plane, was parked there. And we drove past it, and I watched her body just recoil. And she recounted the type of abuse she endured from the same prime minister up in the air and the way that she was just truly treated inhumanely. And I. I'm really proud of her that she's put that. She's put these details out there, and it's worse even than she writes. And it' sit's incredibly upsetting. And there was no one there to help. There was no one there to help her. She was nobody's girl. Nobody saw her as the daughter of somebody that was worth saving after two years of abuse. And these are the people that we look up to. These are the leaders.
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Well, I mean, this is the thing. Prime Minister, Billionaire 1, Billionaire 2, Billionaire 3, and many more. Where those individuals came from, Claire, who were rich and powerful and every time I say it, who have not been held to account and are right now being protected by people who don't want to put the Epstein files out there. In part, you know, I mean.
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Well, it's, as you say, it's not, not just that there were so many men who abused her. There was a network of people who really helped him make his abuse possible, whether it was the finance, you know, involved in the sex trafficking, the people on the periphery watching the abuse take place. It's just, it's really shocking that the level of detail that she describes is falling.
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Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of being his accomplice, was central to Virginia Giuffre's expression and to many others. And I'm just going to say after her meeting with a number two at the doj, right, she gets moved to this minimum security prison in a residential neighborhood where no one convicted her of her crimes would ordinarily be. That's where she is now after her meeting with the Trump doj. In the, in excerpt you publish at the Vanity Fair, right, she talks about when she met Ghislaine Maxwell and she talks about she's been recruited by Maxwell. One of the first times she. She goes into Jeffrey Epstein's home, Tara. And the excerpt that Claire has says walking, I tried not to stare at the walls which were crowded with photos and paintings of nude women. Maybe this was how wealthy people with sophisticated tastes decorated their homes. Be cool, I thought. We made a U turn around a king sized bed, then entered an adjoining room with a turquoise green massage table. A naked man lay face down on top of it, his head resting on his folded arms. Say hello to Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell instructed. Before I could do so, the man spoke to me. You can just call me Jeffrey. Yeah. This is a woman who recently showered Trump with praise in the hopes of a pardon.
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Yeah. No, this is a. I think when people read this book, they will have zero mercy for Ghislaine Maxwell. I think when people read this book, they will scream louder for the files. She has a harrowing tale and I think the thing about Virginia and T.O. and I hope that you can see this in the book, but she was a hopeful person, she was a great person. But she was abused throughout her life from as a child, you know, she writes that her father molested her. Then she goes on to Being, you know, trafficked on the streets, homeless by 11, and then. And then retrafficed again, just as she's trying to build her life back together. You just see her as this person who has just been so abused and neglected her entire life. I mean, the title Nobody's Girl is perfect and in so many ways. And I just think that you can't not read Virginia's story, know Virginia, and not feel compassion for her for so. And I'm so happy that the narrative is finally changing because for so long, Epstein's defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz, called her a child, a teen prostitute, as if a teenager could be a prostitute. You know, the tabloids were ruthless to her when she accused Prince Andrew of abuse. She has been dragged through the mud, maligned for a decade. It took almost a decade for the crown to finally acknowledge her.
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And now, of course, he's been stripped of his titles, although not the title of Prince.
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Right.
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You know, which Virginia's brother was expressing his frustration in me the other day about. But again, Claire, just to make the point of how many more women there are who suffered and how many men there are who are walking around right now thinking that this won't come for them.
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This won't come for them. That's right. And she details her allegations again against Prince Andrew. Three encounters. And she, you know, of course he denies them, but yeah, like you say, Maxwell was very deeply rooted in the abuse. And the insidious thing about her is that she kind of capitalized on this vulnerability of Virginia's and this person who Maxwell spotted as being broken, she sought her out, she picked her. And that was very much the way that Epstein and Maxwell worked together to find these 150 plus girls and women who they abused.
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Clara and Tara, thank you very much. I'm so grateful to talk to you and to hear all of your reporting and of course, I hope everyone's going to read this.
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That was another episode of the Tara Palmieri Show. Thank you again for tuning in. Please rate, subscribe, Share this with your friends. If you like my reporting, please go to tarapaumari.com that's T A R A P A L M E-R-I.com with just one eye. And sign up for the Red letter. It's how you get my exclusive reporting straight to your inbox. And it's how you can support my independent journalism. No billionaires involved here, no establishment propping me up. This is just me doing independent journalism, following the leads when they come. I want to thank my producer Eric Abenate. I want to thank Abby Baker, who does research and social media. And I want to thank Adam Stewart, who does my graphics. See you again tomorrow.