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EPSTEIN SURVIVORS’ ATTORNEY WHO EXPOSED GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY: Brad Edwards - We Can Do Hard Things | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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EPSTEIN SURVIVORS’ ATTORNEY WHO EXPOSED GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY: Brad Edwards

We Can Do Hard Things

Thu Feb 12 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: WE CAN DO HARD THINGS

Episode: Epstein Survivors’ Attorney Who Exposed Government Conspiracy: Brad Edwards
Hosts: Glennon Doyle (Treat Media), Amanda Doyle
Guest: Brad Edwards
Release Date: February 12, 2026

Overview

This episode features an extensive, revealing conversation between Amanda Doyle and Brad Edwards, the attorney who has represented over 200 survivors of Jeffrey Epstein over nearly two decades. Edwards details the systemic governmental failures and conspiracies that shielded Epstein and his associates from accountability, the courage and perseverance of the survivors, the repeated trauma inflicted by the justice system, and what must change to support survivors and ensure true justice.

Key Discussion Themes & Insights

1. The Courage and Resilience of Survivors

Courtney Wilde’s Story: Edwards recounts meeting survivor Courtney Wilde in 2008, describing her as the linchpin in exposing the Epstein case and government cover-up. Despite a traumatic life, Wilde’s determination never wavered, and she fought tirelessly for accountability.

“She’s just doing everything right…she’s just doing everything right…she’s a badass…this girl's been thrown down a million times and will always get up ready to fight.”
—Brad Edwards [07:14-08:54]
Wider Impact: Many survivors, including Wilde, endured not just Epstein’s crimes but systemic abandonment, being mislabeled as "prostitutes" by the justice system, and enduring profound, lifelong consequences.

2. Blatant Government Collusion and the Secret Non-Prosecution Deal

Conspiracy Details: Against all evidence and the recommendations of federal prosecutors, the DOJ and US Attorney’s Office secretly entered a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) in 2007 with Epstein, immunizing him and his named and unnamed co-conspirators from federal prosecution.

“It was a conspiracy, on paper, indefensible, between the government and Jeffrey Epstein against the victims. There’s no other way to categorize it.”
—Brad Edwards [15:20-18:19]
Process Subversion: The NPA was never shown to a judge, was hidden from victims (in violation of the Crime Victims Rights Act), and the DOJ deliberately misled survivors for months about the active status of the federal investigation.
Impact: This deal allowed Epstein to be prosecuted solely on state charges, which resulted in minimal jail time and ensured public records/press scrutiny were avoided.

3. Consequences for Survivors

Labeling and Silencing: By only charging prostitution-related offenses, the U.S. government further harmed survivors, branding them as “prostitutes” — a stigma that persists.
Immunity for Co-Conspirators: The broad immunity deal also prevented key witnesses from testifying, as their immunity could be revoked if Epstein violated his agreement in reaction to their testimony.
Secrecy: All elements of the deal, including the existence of detailed indictments and memos, were sealed for years, only coming to light through relentless legal action from Edwards and colleagues.

4. The Judicial Battle for Justice

Groundbreaking Lawsuit: Edwards describes “making up” the victims’ rights lawsuit, Jane Doe vs. United States of America, to force disclosure of the secret deal and advocate for survivor rights.

“I made up the lawsuit in terms of title and everything, called it an emergency, got an emergency hearing, explained the situation and the judge learned it the first time too.”
—Brad Edwards [27:33]
DOJ and Epstein United: For more than a decade, the government and Epstein’s team coordinated to resist these lawsuits and maintain the NPA.
Public Apologies and Findings: The culmination of these legal efforts included a public apology from Epstein to Brad Edwards (timed with journalist Julie K. Brown’s Miami Herald exposé), and a federal judge ultimately finding in 2019 that the federal prosecutors violated crime victims’ rights in collusion with Epstein.

5. Ongoing Intimidation and Surveillance

Survivors, their families, and attorneys were surveilled, harassed, and intimidated for years by Epstein’s private investigators.
Edwards describes being personally sued by Epstein, trailed, and followed for years until his own countersuit forced a public reckoning.

6. The 2019 New York Case and Epstein’s Death

After years of legal fighting, Edwards worked undercover with the Southern District of New York, aiding the operation that finally arrested Epstein in 2019.
Epstein was denied bail (in part due to survivor testimony), but died by suicide less than a month later in jail — an outcome devastating to Edwards and survivors but partially mitigated by Judge Berman’s decision to let survivors address the court:

“For Judge Berman to…make sure that victims could come in and get a chance to actually speak in court was something that most judges don’t have the compassion or time to do. But it meant a lot…we’ve already lost at least five victims to suicide. It would have been more.”
—Brad Edwards [47:29-49:21]

7. The DOJ’s Mishandling of Document Releases and Survivor Trauma

Epstein Transparency Act: Intended to ensure the release of investigation records with necessary redactions, so survivors could access their files and be protected.
Catastrophic Redaction Failures: In late 2025 and early 2026, the DOJ released tens of thousands — ultimately 3.5 million — documents without properly redacting survivor identities, names, addresses, and sensitive personal information.

“This is very, very standard procedure. A literal classroom of fifth graders can get this right. All the government’s proven is they’re not smarter than a fifth grader here…or they are.”
—Brad Edwards [57:36-57:44]
Irreparable Harm: Survivors exposed to new dangers: media harassment in home countries, risk of arrest, mental health crises, and suicide risk — with DOJ refusing to simply pull the files and re-redact, despite urgent warnings from lawyers.
Selective Redaction: Edwards notes the meticulous redaction of powerful individuals’ names in contrast to the negligence with survivor information.

8. Obstacles to Further Accountability

Government Inertia: Despite the documentation of wrongdoing, no prosecutors have faced any consequences, and the DOJ (regardless of administration) has insisted the case is closed, refusing to pursue further investigation or prosecutions even as foreign governments act.
Ongoing Legal Paths: Civil suits, such as those against banks that enabled Epstein’s operations, have provided some measure of justice and compensation—a model for pursuing accountability outside the DOJ’s inaction.

9. Legislative Efforts & Hopes for Systemic Change

The Courtney Wilde Reinforcing Crime Victims Rights Act: Seeks to establish real penalties for prosecutors who violate victims’ rights and to provide attorneys’ fees for those who take up these cases, ensuring history doesn’t repeat itself.
Call to Action: Edwards urges Americans to avoid politicizing the issue, to resist spreading conspiracies that harm survivors, and to act as upstanders:

“There are great Republicans, there are great Democrats, but we’re all Americans and these are real people. Do your job, have a heart, and be a good person. Don’t spread this stuff in the media and spread online because you’re hurting people….”
—Brad Edwards [82:15-83:21]
Whistleblowing: Encourages employees at banks and institutions who saw and enabled Epstein’s crimes to come forward.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Survivor Strength:

“She just cared about the right thing happening and could not even fathom that because this guy was rich or powerful, the system worked a different way for him…So if you’re all in, I’m all in.”
—Brad Edwards on Courtney Wilde [07:14-08:54]
On DOJ Collusion:

“What does Jeffrey Epstein want? What punishment will he take? What crimes does he want to plea to? I mean…it was a conspiracy, on paper, indefensible, between the government and Jeffrey Epstein against the victims.”
—Brad Edwards [15:20-18:19]
On the Harm of Labeling Survivors:

“It allowed Jeffrey Epstein and his defense team to have cover…labeling everybody as prostitutes. A label that to some degree is still being attached to them by some and maybe always will. Because…it’s been endorsed by the U.S. government.”
—Brad Edwards [18:19-20:16]
On Intimidation:

“All of the survivors that were either trying to pursue justice, their houses were surveilled. They had private investigators shining lights into the bedroom…You had to move your own clients to other states…to protect them during this whole period.”
—Krista Tippett [42:59-43:32]
On DOJ’s Redaction Failure:

“When they published the 3.5 million documents there were more than 10,000, I want to say more than 20,000 missed redactions of victims. It’s incomprehensible.”
—Brad Edwards [57:34-58:38]
On Why Justice Failed:

“Alex Acosta wanted to get ahead in life…so did some of the subordinates to him, but very high up in the office. And they did…they made this go away in the way that Jeffrey Epstein, his team, wanted to…The rest of them were willing to hurt the victims…if it could promote their career.”
—Brad Edwards [36:09-38:54]
On What Americans Must Do:

“Let’s for once, if everybody else won’t do their job, do your job, have a heart and be a good person. And don’t spread this stuff in the media…you’re hurting people to the point that it’s causing massive emotional distress.”
—Brad Edwards [82:15-83:21]

Important Timestamps

[01:59–10:11] Introduction of Brad Edwards and Courtney Wilde’s story
[13:10–16:29] Details of the secret non-prosecution deal and its impact
[18:19–24:46] The broader consequences for survivors and witnesses
[27:33–32:26] The legal war to expose the conspiracy and enforce victims’ rights
[42:14–47:29] Personal intimidation by Epstein and the 2019 arrest
[51:43–64:38] Epstein Transparency Act and catastrophic DOJ redactions
[69:15–73:30] Missing documents and DOJ refusal to pursue further investigation
[79:37–80:51] Courtney Wilde Act and the fight for systemic accountability
[82:15–85:15] Edwards’s call for individual responsibility and civic courage

Conclusion

This episode exposes, in granular and deeply human terms, how the justice system, across both parties and multiple administrations, worked to shield Jeffrey Epstein and his enablers at the expense of hundreds of vulnerable girls and women. Brad Edwards and the survivors he represents embody heroic courage and persistence. The message is clear: true accountability for such crimes must come not just from government, but from collective public courage, legislative action, support for survivors, and a refusal to tolerate institutionalized abuse of power.

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Transcript

Krista Tippett (0:00)

Hi everybody.

Amanda Knox (0:01)

This is Amanda and this is the second episode in my Epstein series. I am honored today to be talking with Brad Edwards, who has fiercely and fearlessly represented 200 Epstein survivors for almost two decades and is the attorney who exposed the prosecution's illegal conspiracy to shield Epstein from facing justice. In this powerful conversation in which Brad shares details he has never shared before, we walk through this the incredible courage and resilience of the survivors, the secret immunity deal between the federal prosecutors and Epstein and the government cover up how the DOJ seems to be intentionally re victimizing survivors in the way they are releasing the Epstein files, how Brad secretly.

Krista Tippett (0:48)

Worked with the Southern District of New.

Amanda Knox (0:49)

York to finally arrest Epstein in 2019, and what the path forward for accountability is now that the government has closed the door on further investigations and prosecutions. If you have not yet listened to the first episode in this series, the Epstein Files explained everything you need to know, I recommend you pause this and start there. It's the episode right before this one in the We Can Do Hard Things feed and there is a link to it in this show's show. Notes. In that show, I walk through in a clear chronological way 30 years of facts, history and reporting on the Epstein case to understand how we got to where we are now. And it will be valuable context for you as you listen to this conversation. Thank you for being here, for caring deeply about survivors and the truth they have fought decades to reveal against overwhelmingly powerful forces intent on bearing it. Let's remember what Andrea Gibson said. Even when the truth isn't hopeful, the telling of it is. Here's my conversation with Brad Edwards.

Krista Tippett (1:59)

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books, and I think it's a big part of why I wanted to be a lawyer. It's a story about a brilliant, heroic attorney and his deeply dignified, courageous client who both risk everything to try to extract justice from a system loyal only to power. In the book, Harper Lee writes, real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. When you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. I believe that is the truth about courage, which is why I believe some of the most courageous people walking the planet today are the intrepid survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and their steadfast advocates who have for decades risked everything to extract justice from a system loyal only to power. For 18 years, Brad Edwards has represented now more than 200 survivors of Jeffrey, Epistein and Glyn Maxwell, including a case that finally exposed that prosecutors were working for Epstein and against victims, securing the judge's finding that federal prosecutors and Epstein engaged in coordinated secret action to knowingly deprive Epstein survivors of their rights and in cases securing survivors hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution. He was by his client's side the first time EPSTEIN Survivors, even 20 years after the crimes, had the opportunity to have their voices heard by a court of law. But justice has never been served. The survivors are not done fighting. He and his brilliant law partner, Brittany Henderson, are not done fighting. And we Americans who are just starting to understand not only the depravity of Jeffrey Epstein, but the depravity of the justice system that relentlessly protected the rich, powerful predator and ruthlessly abandoned the countless vulnerable girls, are not done fighting. Something is changing in the air. We have finally had enough. We are going to fight with these survivors, and we are going to see it through no matter what. Brad, thank you for being with us here today. I know you are not able to have time for this, and you're making time for it, so it means a lot to us. Thank you.

Krista Tippett (4:14)

Your first involvement in this case was 18 years ago. When survivor Courtney Wilde comes to you in May 2008. I want to situate folks where we are in the timeline of the case at that point, when you meet Courtney. The Florida state prosecution of Epstein, understate attorney Barry Krisher, has already caved to the Epstein pressure and influence. That's in 2006, returning an indictment of only one count of solicitation of prostitution. No indictments related to sex crimes against minors, which would have allowed Jeffrey Epstein to simply do an intervention program and serve no jail time at all. This was despite the fact that two absolute heroic giants, Detective Joe Ricari and chief of police Michael Reader, had gathered for the State reports from 40 underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein and strong evidence from their investigation and their search of his home on Palm Beach Island. We talk about all of this in depth on the first episode in the series. So listen to that. But Chief Reader is so convinced that something nefarious is going that in July 2006, he takes the very unusual step of probably pressuring the FBI to open a federal investigation to try to get justice for survivors. In 2007, all seems to be going well. The FBI and the DOJ are working the case, talking to all the victims, finding new survivors. FBI agent Nesbitt, Kuykendall is working her ass off to get all the evidence. They have 35 to 40 survivors who were minors when they were assaulted or trafficked, who are willing to give testimony, including being transported across state lines. We know now that by May 2007, Assistant US Attorney Marie Vilafana is all in. Has drafted a 53 page indictment with an 82 page prosecution memo prepared. She is also wanting to open a money laundering investigation. She was prepared to issue subpoenas on that, going all the way back to 2003 for every financial transaction conducted by Epstein and his six businesses. It appears to be an open and shut case that would have put Epstein away for the rest of his life, even if he was only convicted of just one count. It seems to everyone paying attention that justice is about to happen. So Courtney Wilde, she comes to you in May 2008. She's been questioned by the FBI's investigation and she's scared of getting in trouble with the FBI. She's even more scared of Epstein. I love Courtney Wilde.

Brad Edwards (10:35)

Within days of meeting with Courtney, I had already gone. And I understood the operation that it was essentially bring girls in under some false pretense that it would be a massage for a high school girl to give. She gets $200, and then there's kind of two options. Every time you come back to me, you get $200, and every friend that you bring me, I will pay you, basically, a finder's fee. And so he. He started to run what it was essentially a spider web of recruitment of victims, recruiting other victims. And I understood that many of the victims, including Courtney, got to the point where the abuse was so bad that one of the ways to ensure she wouldn't be personally abused was to bring one of her also needy friends. And these are also other people who kind of need the life's essentials. I mean, this is not, you know, spending money at the mall. When she kind of explains this, and I start meeting other victims and realizing, okay, this is what he did. And the stories are all the same, and they have documents proving when they went there, how they got the money, etc. I said, this is the easiest case that I've ever seen. I mean, I was a prosecutor. I'm going to call the prosecutor. And I'm sure consistent with the letter that you just received from the FBI saying, be patient. It's a federal investigation. She's going to tell me that, yes, this is. He's going to prison for life and then some. You know, when I called Marie Villafagna, it was very clear to me from the beginning that she wanted. Not only wanted to prosecute him, she believed very strongly in the case, agreed with everything that I said, but that there were things that she couldn't tell me and that she was restricted from telling me to the point that she even came to my office personally. And I really thought, I'm going to call her, say, hey, this is what's happening. And she's going to say, don't worry about it. At the end of it, she said, hey, you know, there are things happening that I just can't tell you. And I Said that shouldn't happen. This makes no sense. I mean, victims have rights, at least the right to know what's going on. And she said, I don't disagree with you. And so that's what led to me kind of trying to figure out what can be done on an emergency basis and in filing the case against the government for Courtney.

Brad Edwards (13:10)

So June 29, 2008, I got a call from Marie Villafanya saying, Jeffrey Epstein's he's pleading guilty tomorrow in state court to state offenses. And I said, okay, well, your case is a federal case, so the federal case is still ongoing. And she said, can't talk about that. I said, that's weird. I was out of town at the time. So I sent an associate to the hearing who reported back on June 30, Epstein shows up to court. He pled guilty to solicitation of prostitution and procurement of a minor for prosecution. Prostitution. Two felonies. And I said, well, what about the federal offenses? And he said, unclear what happened there. So I kept trying to get a hold of Marie and saying, hey, what happened with the federal offenses? She just wouldn't tell me. She couldn't tell me. She told me she couldn't tell me. But there was an envelope attached to the plea agreement, which I said, as a prosecutor, this makes no sense. I've never seen something like this. So fast forward, I think it was July 5th or 6th. So a few days later, after trying to get an answer to what's happening with the federal investigation and getting nowhere, I filed a claim. Jane Doe vs United States of America. Went to the courthouse and said, this is an emergency. We need to get before the judge. And the crux of the pleading was, you know, just in layman's terms, something is going on that is definitely improper, probably illegal. The government's involved. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I'm telling you what happened. And he pled guilty to these charges in state court, but it was a federal investigation that I have these letters saying, the federal investigation is still going on. The prosecutors won't talk to me. They won't talk to the victims. I think that there is A secret deal in the works where the prosecutors are now secretly negotiating with Jeffrey Epstein. So that's what I want, a hearing immediately. And so we got a hearing within four days. And it was at that hearing where I was in court with Courtney Wilde, who as you said, was 14 when she was brought to Jeffrey Epstein's house. Another victim by that point who had joined the litigation, who was 13 when she was brought to Jeffrey Epstein's house for the first time. The prosecutors stand up and say essentially Mr. Edwards is wrong about one thing. We're not secretly negotiating a deal with Mr. Epstein. We secretly negotiated a deal with Jeffrey Epstein many, many months ago. In fact, the timeline really is. In September of 2007, the federal government gave Jeffrey Epstein immunity through a non prosecution agreement. And as part of that agreement, Jeffrey Epstein would plead guilty to state offenses and go to state jail. And between the time where they worked out the immunity agreement in September of 2007 and the time of the guilty plea in State Court, June 2008, in order to make sure victims didn't complain about that, the federal government just simply told the victims, flat out in black and white, the investigation's still ongoing. So it was blatantly intentionally misleading the victims so that they could work out a deal in favor of Jeffrey Epstein. And then I don't know if you've seen the correspondence, but they're literally corresponding, basically. What does Jeffrey Epstein want? What punishment will he take? What crimes does he want to plea to? I mean, it was a conspiracy, on paper, indefensible, between the government and Jeffrey Epstein against the victims. There's no other way to categorize it.

Brad Edwards (28:57)

The non prosecution agreement itself was not available to anyone. The judge at that hearing that we just described that happened after, you know, on July 11, I think of 2008, said, I agree the government should have to turn over the non prosecution agreement to the victims. And the government and Jeffrey Epstein fought us on that and we won. So a few months later, we get the agreement and we realize all of the different pieces that we've been talking about that were part of this cover up within the immunity agreement. And I said, okay, well, we're not done with this case. I want to know how deliberate the violation of the victim's rights were so that we can understand what the possible remedy is. Because I think that the remedy should be if a criminal defendant and the government conspire against the victims and they tell the victims actively there is a case, be patient, don't come to us, don't bother us. And really, you've worked out a secret immunity agreement, then you have intentionally violated their rights under the act. And it's a contract, right? We talked about it as a contract. The contract should be invalid because there's a third party to this contract whose rights have been taken from them. So invalidate the contract and we'll just put them in prison later. And that was always the goal, the government and Epstein throughout this case from 2008 until 2019, 11 years of fighting this case, they worked lockstep with one another. It was us and at times just me fighting the government and Jeffrey Epstein on this nuanced and very like novel legal theory saying, give me evidence, give me documents. In fact, to get the emails exchanged between Jeffrey Epstein and the government, Epstein's team, and you would think there's three or four, there's not. There's thousands of documents. We had to get an order from the judge. We won. Epstein and the government appealed it. We had to go to the appellate court and get the appellate court to say, under these circumstances, the victims should see it. That's the only reason the world can see now the conspiracy between the government, Epstein and your last point about there being a. And we had it referenced in the documents that there was a 52, three page indictment, an 82 page pros memo. The first time that I have seen those documents was last Friday in the document release. All these years, I've personally never even seen those documents because the government has refused to give them to us. So we've known that they exist. Still, the government fought us. Even after Jeffrey Epstein died, the government continued to fight us. But you're right, in 2018, the government ruled in our favor, saying yes, the victim's rights were violated and it was our intention to get the remedy that we asked, rip up the agreement and get him arrested. At the time in 2019, I was cooperating essentially undercover with the SDNY to get him arrested again in New York. And we all know that he died in jail. And so our case in Florida that we had been pursuing to undo his immunity agreement there was deemed moot because what's the point of undoing an agreement and prosecuting somebody who is dead? You can't do that. So that's the short version of a really, really long.

Amanda Knox (32:30)

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Brad Edwards (36:09)

Like I told you before, I don't buy into conspiracy theories, but I've seen a lot of evidence and I there's a couple things that happened here. One, he had a legal team that had influence not only in the legal world, but also made it pretty clear that anybody who agrees with Jeffrey Epstein gets promoted in life, and anybody who doesn't goes in the other direction. So Jeffrey Epstein hiring people that could make those types of things happen and also were his friends and would carry water for Jeffrey Epstein. I think it made people in political positions because I think we've all learned, right, that there are great prosecutors, there are line prosecutors like Marie Villafana, but above that, at the very top, those are political positions that are usually not even Prosecutors, I mean, whether you were talking about Alex Acosta or Jay Clayton, I'm not putting him in the same spot. Right, but, but they're political positions. They're not prosecutors. They're not people who've been in the trenches. Alex Acosta wanted to get ahead in life, so did some of the subordinates to him, but very high up in the office, and they did, you know, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Right. It's like they did all of this, they made this go away in the way that Jeffrey Epstein, his team, wanted to. And, you know, Alex Acosta was promoted to, you know, a cabinet member in the first go round with, with President Trump, you know, others in line, whether it's Matt Menshell, you know, he went to a big firm and, and, and got something out of it. Whereas Marie Villafana has just been stepped on from the time that she tried to prosecute him all the way through the very end. And I should say that when I was battling that case, I had a legal expert in victims rights, Paul Cassell, who was a former federal judge. And we would get, the two of us would get information that, hey, look, this was done by Clinton or it was done by some other politically powerful person. So we investigated that. And while that is not directly true, what the Epstein lawyers did do is communicate repeatedly to the U.S. attorney's office that they have powerful people that Jeffrey Epstein has associated with. And it wasn't only Clinton, it was other world leaders, other senators, people in power, federal judges that could help their career. And that this is going to be a career defining moment for the prosecutors to go up or down. And Marie was really the only one that just wanted to do what was right. The rest of them were willing to hurt the victims as much as you as they could possibly be hurt if it could promote their career. That's really why it was done, which is sad. It's like this good old boys, you scratch my back, I scratch yours kind of bullshit.

Brad Edwards (44:12)

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, at first he thought he could intimidate me, and it worked into him saying, how much do I have to pay you to go away? And I said, it's not about that. It's about you're going to have to make the most public apology in the most. The most clear apology, admitting to all of your wrongdoing to me in open court. So that case ends with him making a very clear apology to me, saying everything he said about me is wrong. My relentless pursuit has held him accountable. He did these things, which nobody really picks up on, but he makes this public apology. But we time Julie Brown's story coming out with that. And at the same time, I'm communicating with the FBI saying, he's about to make this apology. Listen to it come to my office. Southern District of New York comes down. I said, look, let's start working a Secret operation. The problem is Jeffrey Epstein has contacts in the government. He's. He's going to learn about it. So I have to keep personally meeting with him and telling him I'm meeting with him over the Crime Victims Rights act case, because ongoing, he's worried that I'm trying to disrupt his immunity deal still. So as we're meeting, I'm able to tell the government I know where Jeffrey Epstein is, because I have a meeting with him here on this day so that you know his whereabouts. You can then come meet with certain clients, and we can start building a secret operation. So we would be at meetings at Starbucks, and Jeffrey Epstein, he was getting paranoid. He would look over his shoulder and say, who's that guy in the parking lot? Thinking, now I had him under surveillance, so I don't even know what you're talking about. But I was telling the government, you got to indict him soon, because he's starting to make me nervous. He's getting really, really scary, really antsy. So I remember when it was right after the 4th of July that he was coming back from Paris and they arrested him. They knocked his door in at his New York townhouse. And then we started going to the hearings to make sure his bail was denied, because I was telling the prosecutors, if he gets bail, he's dangerous all over again. So everything that can be done to keep him in jail, once you have him there, you have to keep him in a cage. Otherwise the harm that he is going to inflict is going to be enormous on me, my family, on everybody.

Brad Edwards (52:58)

Exactly. And they wanted it for them personally. They don't want the whole world to see their name and things like that associated with Jeffrey Epstein and the abuse that they endured. But they want their own files. They can't get it now that President Trump has said, I'm releasing everything, I'm releasing nothing. We knew that nobody's going to have this on either side of the aisle, whether you're Republican or Democrat. Everybody says, hey, this doesn't make any sense. I know that. So what can we do now? And not that we speak for every victim, but having represented 200 victims, it was very clear what everybody thought is the answer to this is release all of the files. Redact all of the victims names for once. The victims should be protected in this process. So when we went to Washington D.C. last summer and spoke for hours with the House Oversight Committee and explained what the case really is about, what should be in the files, you know, if you really boil it down, it's like now that we've talked, it's pretty obvious. His information was taken from his house in the 2008 case. And when he was arrested in 2019, the terabyte or whatever of information was taken from his computer when his house was raided. There was other information that we had gathered in civil cases that the government had. There were witness statements, victim statements called 302s that were provided. And that was most of that was the basics of the investigation. Turn everything over, redact the victims names. We were fought on that by the administration. The administration fought hard about agreeing to that process. And that's why there had to be this act that was drafted, the Epstein Transparency Act. The administration was actively telling Republican members of Congress, do not sign off on this. If you do, you are a traitor. Or this is going to be considered an act of aggression against the administration. The same administration that said we're going to release all the files. So it made no sense. Although, you know, between us, obviously it makes sense. Right? That was the goal. I said right away to Ro Khanna and Tom Massie in a way you have to remember where you're signing into law enact where the fox is guarding the hidden house. The administration doesn't want the files to come out that now there's a federal law mandating they come out. Isn't it possible that as pure retaliation, that there will be missed redactions and victims names will come out? I even wrote a letter to Pam Bondi saying I fear for this could happen and that one of us or somebody on our side should be involved in the redaction process. And I was told, come on, like, come on, I mean that's, that would be childish for somebody to retaliate against victims. That's not going to happen.

Brad Edwards (61:45)

And when people are tell hey, this is going to be the consequence and you do nothing to remedy it, knowing that within every hour the consequence continues to grow. You do nothing, it's intentional. I have no doubt in my mind that what I told Ro Khanna and Tom Massey when this law passed. Fox guard in the hen house. When the administration doesn't want this bill to pass, there is going to be some revenge against those who helped it pass, which are the victims. You wanted this done so that the files could be out there but the victims names redacted. You're about to feel the impact of you wanting something that the administration didn't want and they do. It's happening, it's real and there's really nothing that can be done about it. Whether or not a lawsuit can be brought for the irreparable harm that has happened and in real time, as we're speaking is continuing to happen, we are investigating. Whether it can be done or whether the government has sovereign immunity from these intentionally harmful acts is still kind of a question. But it is the clearest case of a privacy violation by the government, both in terms of liability and damage that you can, that you can dream of. I wish 100 law firms hearing this would say let's just band together and sue the government because until you match their power, you're not going to be able to change things. But there is something very wrong with the culture that has developed over the last year. And again, like not getting political at all. I don't care if Republican Democrat. But there was a time in this country where at least the top people, the leaders, cared about other people no matter what their political beliefs were. They didn't teach hate speech. You didn't call people Miss Piggy. You led by example, you know, and that's just something that is so disheartening to me. And I think you hear it. It's like you fight for justice for so long, and then you feel how in this day and age, are we still being let down on an issue that seems so bipartisan? I mean, if there ever was one, like sex trafficking is bad and sex traffickers are bad, and the victims of those should be protected. How do we not agree with that?

Brad Edwards (73:30)

We mentioned that, that Brittany and I and the boy Schiller firm sued J.P. morgan and Deutsche bank for providing the financial infrastructure for this sex trafficking operation. Because when you look at the heart of it, pretty obvious to run an operation the way that Jeffrey Epstein ran it required enormous amounts of money to pay employees, people who are going to cover this up, recruiters, victims, etc. It required enormous amounts of money. Money and financial institutions had to be aware that he was a sex trafficker and then allow for him to run it. So we filed those lawsuits for the exact reason you said we didn't have to rely on the government. We could try to set the financial institutions that we rely upon straight. And those two cases were very successful. And I think that the victims got more justice from those cases so far than they've ever gotten from any aspect of our government. We're currently in a lawsuit with bank of America, same theory, and we're continuing to investigate, you know, in that way too. I think that we have provided to the government other information as they've asked us, you know, who else was involved. And we've simply said, you've looked at the files. Jeffrey Epstein hardly communicates with a person himself. He relies on people who have never identified themselves as victims, who use professional licenses to either move money around, set up corporations, set up phony corporations, make wire transfers Things that are components of this operation that could have never operated without him. Look at them. You're also looking at documents and you see Jeffrey Epstein communicating with a handful of men who claim to be model scouts. And he's saying, okay, I'm a Victoria's secret agent. That's what Jeffrey Epstein, one of his taglines, which he's not, but send them over to me, promises these 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 year old models that he can get their foot in the door. And Jeffrey Epstein had the connections where he actually could do it. So it wasn't just fantasy. He would get them over here, take their passports, use their immigration status against them, sexually exploit them, send them to men. Well, those guys that Jeffrey Epstein was communicating in other countries, communicating with that was sending these Eastern European women and women from other countries, clearly sex traffickers. I'm telling you right now, they are still sex trafficking to powerful men that are not Jeffrey Epstein because he's dead. Why isn't the government looking at them? That seems like low hanging fruit. Now you have email exchanges about how the setups are happening, happening. That's ridiculous. How is there nothing to see here? There's categories that should be looked into, especially those that were facilitating the operation, making it happen. I think right now though, the biggest message from us is to the media and to the governments and investigators in other countries who. The common theme is your government, US Government said, we're not releasing victims names, we're seeing names of victims coming from our country. So they must not be victims because they weren't redacted. So therefore they must be criminals. We're coming after them because of the redaction problems. The government has now put into danger the victims who they release because other governments can't possibly fathom that, that you could make this type of an error, that. That sounds preposterous to them. So even though we're now getting it redacted, the governments are saying, oh well, it was out there in the media in other places, especially the British press is all over the victims knocking on their doors, going up to their children. I mean, the amount of harm that's been done is outrageous. And if you really think that had Marie Villafane's indictment, had she been able to prosecute him in 2007, 2008, when she wanted to, he would have been in jail forever and this wouldn't have been the story that it's become.