"She's 2x8 years old and not blonde": Epstein's perversion and impunity

Barcelona"He has a teacher for you to teach you to speak Russian. She's 2x8 years old and not blonde. The lessons are free, and you can have your first one today if you call." This is a message from Jean-Luc Brunel to Jeffrey Epstein on April 1, 2005. The message was jotted down in a notebook by one of the people who worked for the American magnate at the time. Brunel was the director of a French modeling agency and committed suicide in 2022 while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking. At the time he left this phone message, he was a close friend of Epstein and had become one of his main pimps: he not only provided him with models but also underage girls. And he did so with the impunity of being able to leave a phone message like this, leaving a written trail. In fact, the documents declassified by the U.S. Department of Justice contain hundreds of notes that Epstein's employees made of the calls he received and couldn't answer. Some are very explicit. However, no one did anything.

Also in April 2005, a few days after offering a sixteen-year-old girl, Brunel dictated a message to Epstein's assistant: "He [Brunel] spoke to the doctor about your symptoms. It's a Bratislava virus. Muscle that can cut short your sex life." In another letter, he informed him that he had an eighteen-year-old girl and that she had admitted to him that she "loves Jeffrey."

There are hundreds of explicit messages: "She has girls for JE," "I have a girl," "She's available," "She has a girl for you," "She doesn't know what time to come tonight for the massage," "She has a female friend for you"... These are just some examples from Epstein's staff. And not just from an assistant who recorded everything. The American magnate's diaries make it clear that many people had contact with these girls—many of them minors—and knew—or at least could guess—what was happening to them. Drivers, cleaning staff, secretaries, lawyers... the entire network that worked with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell was aware of these comings and goings of underage girls at the Palm Beach mansion in Miami, and the trips to Little Saint James Island. In one of the messages that the FBI extracted from the diaries, for example, it's clear how someone named Tony asks if Epstein "would like someone today." Tony Figueroa was one of the people who collaborated with Epstein and admitted in court that he was paid to bring girls to his Florida mansion. The same girls who went to Epstein's house to massage the magnate or his friends, and who then ended up sexually assaulted, became facilitators for other victims. A girl named Tatum took dozens of teenagers to the "wolf's throat" in exchange for several hundred dollars. Girls from vulnerable backgrounds went to Epstein's mansion for 200 or 300 dollars.

The need for money and the possibility of entering a world of luxury and opportunity often led the same girls to offer themselves for work. A young woman named Caroline admitted over the phone that she needed "a job" andcash"Because I didn't have any money." "Do you have any work for me?" the girl would ask, who became a regular in Palm Beach for a while. "I'd like to work for him today," she announced in another message.

Epstein left everything written down. The sexual desire, and that of some important figures who also came to assault girls, many of them minors, under the pretext of a massage. Donald Trump, who appears in one of the notes with an old contact phone number.

Epstein's network remained virtually intact until 2019, when he was imprisoned in a New York jail. From then on, and especially after the declassification of his files, came the supposed surprise of many who knew him: "I didn't see anything that made me doubt him," declared former US President Bill Clinton before Congress. But Epstein was a pedophile; this had been known for some time. The big question is how he managed to continue acting with impunity. How did he move through the public eye, through high society, and even through the courts?

The first police investigation of Epstein dates back to 2005. The Palm Beach police began by analyzing a complaint from a minor and quickly realized that it was only the tip of the iceberg. In July 2006, the Palm Beach Post reported that the police were investigating Jeffrey Epstein, by name, because he was paying underage girls to give him massages. In September 2006, the New York TimesThe newspaper with the most subscribers in the United States also explained his case. The publication emphasized that although the police spoke of very serious crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein, he would ultimately only be prosecuted for minor offenses. Two decades ago, the public and the press were already aware of Epstein's case.

18-month pact

But for many, justice wasn't harsh enough. Epstein assembled a team of expert lawyers who convinced the prosecution to sign a highly controversial plea deal in September 2007. Epstein would plead guilty to two state prostitution charges in Florida. In exchange, he and his associates would receive full immunity from any federal criminal charges in the Southern District of Florida for sex trafficking of minors. The agreed-upon sentence included 18 months in jail, one year of house arrest, and permanent registration as a sex offender. The deal also protected "any potential co-conspirators of Epstein." In other words, neither Ghislaine Maxwell, nor any of the sex traffickers, nor any of the secretaries were ever convicted. Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Nadia Marcinkova are the names of the associates who were ultimately granted amnesty. All of this is also documented in the declassified documents.

This type of amnesty for Epstein's associates was also carried out without the victims' consent. The accusers knew nothing about it until the agreement was signed. Instead, Epstein agreed to pay them compensation. This agreement replaced a 53-page federal indictment already prepared by prosecutors, with more than thirty documented victims. The deal was validated by federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta. It took almost two decades for the deal to be directly deemed unfair. A district court ruled in 2019 that the government violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by not consulting with the victims before signing the agreement. An internal investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that Acosta exercised "poor judgment" regarding Epstein. Acosta was forced to resign as U.S. Secretary of Labor in July 2019. He was a member of Donald Trump's administration. The result of all this is that the justice system, far from curbing Epstein, gave him even more leeway to build a global prostitution ring that he maintained until his imprisonment in 2019. Epstein took his own life in a New York jail before his trial.

This legal history makes the reaction of some public figures to the declassification of the documents all the more surprising. Hillary Clinton testified before Congress that she was unaware of Epstein's crimes. Bill Gates also said he had no knowledge of Epstein's conduct. Prince Andrew made similar statements. The same was true for model Naomi Campbell, businessman Leon Black, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and entrepreneur Elon Musk. "No, I had no idea. I had no idea," Donald Trump responded in 2019 when asked if he had any suspicions that Epstein abused girls. The reality is that, since September 2006, Jeffrey Epstein's Wikipedia page has indicated that he is being investigated for soliciting prostitution from minors.