The news broke on Saturday morning, Aug. 10, but it came as little surprise when the millionaire financier, political donor, and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was reported to have committed suicide while in federal custody at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
Photos of his body encased in a black bag being hustled from the NewYork Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital depicted the glamorless exit of a man whose controversial life put him in the company of royalty, US presidents, movie stars, and well-heeled elitists jetting around the world doing God knows what. But as we know, dead men tell no tales, so perhaps the truth was suicided as well.
And that’s why no one is celebrating Epstein’s demise: Too many questions have been left unanswered.
US Attorney General William Barr came out seething and swinging hours after the news was reported: “Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI's investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General, who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of the death.”
Similarly, but a tad more ominous, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee, spat out a letter to Barr demanding answers. Sasse pointed an accusing finger at the beleaguered feds: “The Department of Justice failed, and today Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators think they might have just gotten one last sweetheart deal.”
The Charmed Life
Epstein was a smart kid from Brooklyn with hard-working middle-class parents, his mother a school aide and his father a groundskeeper for the New York City Parks Department. A whiz at math and science and an accomplished musician, Epstein skipped two grades, graduated high school at 16, and tried his hand at college. After two failed attempts, he left university without a degree.
But -- with no degree or teaching credential -- he did become a respected physics and mathematics teacher at the exclusive private Dalton School in Upper East Manhattan. Several former students have recalled Epstein as a young man who “dressed flamboyantly” and was “very high energy and dynamic.”
Ironically, it was Donald Barr, Dalton’s headmaster and father of Attorney General Barr, who hired Epstein.
In two short years, Epstein went from tutoring and teaching the kids of Wall Street barons to working for Bear Stearns as a floor trader. His client list is still mostly shrouded in mystery, and so are his many other enterprises since he left Bear Stearns to form a private financial business. Properties are owned through offshore LLCs and off-limits to prying eyes. But frankly, the massive wealth Epstein accumulated is still a mathematical equation that does not add up.
The Fatal Fall
Jet-setting, photos with the famous, and lavish parties on his opulent, extremely private properties have come to an abrupt conclusion. As a onetime convicted sex offender, Epstein may have angered someone with as much influence and pull as he once had, and it landed him behind bars – again – accused of sex trafficking and other crimes of the flesh.
(Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images)
In the recent past, Epstein met with public relations consultant R. Couri Hay, who claims Epstein was concerned about his image. As Couri remembers, “He hates every story starting with ‘billionaire pervert.’ Jeffrey had long stories about the difference between pedophilia with very young children and tweens and teens a little older. It was his way of trying to talk his way around it.”
But there was no talking his way around “it” anymore. And this time around in the state of New York, additional details were published – the most destructive being Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records showing Bill Clinton to be a frequent flyer of 27 trips on Epstein’s plane to worldwide destinations. With a plethora of young women of questionable ages on board, and at times flying without his protection detail, Clinton has of late been tainted with troubling optics. Through a spokesperson, Clinton denied being aboard the plane dubbed the Lolita Express – although the FAA has proof otherwise.
And now, upon Epstein’s death, #ClintonBodyCount is once again trending. Folks are asking if Epstein is indeed dead or has been spirited off to be reinvented in the witness protection program. One doesn’t have to look into the abyss to wonder if the alternatives to Epstein simply committing suicide are more likely.
Perhaps Attorney General Barr will ferret out the truth.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tweeted his thoughts after the news broke, assuring the good citizens of the US that “pedophiles facing federal criminal charges are at high risk for suicide.” And then he went further: “It happened in several of my Maryland cases when defendants were released on bail.”
But in this instance, Epstein was in custody, and now questions need answers. Whether they will be satisfactory for the American public will be determined at a later date. In the meantime, Dinesh D’Souza, an Indian-born American, political commentator, author, and filmmaker, made his feelings crystal clear when he tweeted:
“Taking on the Obama-Clinton gang is a health hazard. When I was in federal confinement for eight months, I was more afraid of something like this — drugs found in my locker or an apparent suicide —than I was of the murderers, rapists, and gang members who were my fellow inmates.”
Without a doubt, if the accusations about Epstein’s exploits over the years with heads of state, entertainment icons, and other elite and wealthy men and women are found to be true, Epstein scored an easy way out. Now let’s see if he left a smoking gun to take down those who may be in line for the sweetheart deal of the century.
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