Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
As you're all aware, we are at the Christmas break
for the trial, so obviously there's nothing groundbreaking happening in
the mornings or even in the evenings at this point.
But that's okay, because we're still going to be here
adding some context, and we're going to do that today
by talking about the grand jury transcripts from Palm Beach. Now,
there was a lot of talk a few weeks ago
that this judge was going to release these grand jury transcripts,
and that would have been a huge boost in the
arm for transparency. We all know that whatever went on
in that grand jury room in two thousand and six,
it was not good, all right. Whatever was going on
in that grand jury room based on that arrest was
not up to par. And the fact that only one
of those girls was able to give their story in
front of the grand jury tells you everything you need
to know about the prosecutors and about the whole entire
scenario that unfolded this prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. The original
prosecution was legitimately one of the biggest travesties of justice
perhaps ever. When you look at the grand scope of
it all, and you look at the disgusting nature of
his crimes and the wake of misery he left. I mean,
it's hard not to look at it like that. And
the fact that Barry Krisher and the State Prosecutor's office
in Florida worked hand in hand with Dershowitz and Lefkowitz
and the rest of Jeffrey Epstein's legal team to not
only get him off, but to destroy his own witnesses,
Barry Kirsher's own witnesses, meaning these girls, is just unbelievable
to me. And you have this judge down there in
Palm Beach, you know, one of the good old boys,
one of the been around forevers, still mucking things up,
still not interested in transparency. You would think, after all
these years and all of the scrutiny over the Jeffrey
Epstein case, that some of these judges would wise up
by now. But like I always say, they think they're
feudal lords and these courtrooms are their fiefdoms and they
can do whatever they want. And these lifetime elected, lifetime
appointed judges bad news. Folks talk about people who are
power hungry. Every now and then you'll run across one
of these judges like this guy, and you just shake
your head. But there's been a lot of them when
it comes to the Jeffrey Epstein case. A lot of
these judges, a lot of these people in positions of power,
have failed these girls time and time again. And with
this latest blow, this judge not going to release these transcripts.
It's just another victory for the scumbags and just another
hurdle in the way of those who are trying to
bring those scumbags to justice. This morning, we have an
article from the Palm Beach Post and the author is
Jane Musgrave. Was the Jeffrey Epstein case intentionally sunk? Judge
won't excuse me, Judge won't release secret grand jury papers.
And again it's another blow to transparency. It's another blow
to those of us who want the truth, and it
just again throws up another over. What everybody perceives at
this point is government malfeasans. You would think that they'd
want to expose that, right, you would think that they'd
want to put that on blast, But that's not how
it works. They're going to cover your ass mode and
they got to protect the other scumbags that they work with,
and it's just such a dog and pony show at
this point, and the illusion that there's a fair justice system,
the illusion that there isn't a two tier justice system,
is being shattered on a regular basis at this point.
A Palm Beach County Circuit judge on Monday refused to
release secret documents that could explain why a two thousand
and six grand jury indicted serial child molester Jeffrey Epstein
on a single charge of prostitution despite evidence that showed
he abused more than a dozen girls at his Palm
Beach mansion. Now let that sink in for those of
you who aren't really completely up to date on the case,
you know, those of you who have you know, had
a life for the last three years, this might seem like,
what the hell are you talking about here? How is
that even possible? But this is what they've been dealing with,
meaning the survivors from the beginning, law enforcement has not
been on their side. Law enforcement, in fact, a lot
of the time has worked against them. And you see
it here again when you have this judge who makes
the decision that these grand jury documents will not see
the light of day, as if it's some sort of
national security issue where nobody should ever see those grand
jury documents. Now, I understand if there was a legitimate reason,
a legitimate issue, keeping those documents from the public, But
there's no legitimate reason, unless, of course, you're trying to
cover for somebody, unless of course you're trying to protect
your friends in a tent. In a ten page order circuit,
Judge Donald Haffel rejected arguments by attorneys for the Palm
Beach Post who pushed him to release the records, citing
a rarely used state law that allows the secrecy of
grand of the grand jury to be pierced to further
the interests of justice. And if this isn't a case
where that hits home, I don't know what is. These
grand jury testimony should be on the uh uh uh
uh excuse me released. They shouldn't be hidden from the
public for all of these years, especially if it moves
the interests of justice, and it certainly would, considering the
non prosecution agreement is based on all of this, So
to get rid of that non prosecution agreement, wouldn't it
stand to reason that having these grand jury documents tints
released would go a long way to making that occur.
While Halfel noted the newspaper offered strong arguments, he said
he was bound by the state's law. The court rules
against the newspaper because the established and binding maxims of
Florida law constrain it to do so, Halfley wrote. Halfly wrote,
and again we know that that's not one hundred percent
the case. If it promotes the interest of justice, as
according to the state law in Florida, then the documents
can be released, the transcripts can be released. But they
don't have any interest in doing that. Him, the other
judge that's involved in this, Krystal Marx, all of them
had ties to Barry Krisher or other people involved in
the case. That's how these things work with these bureaucrats.
They're all friends, they're all going to the same company functions,
and on and on and on it goes. We've discussed
it a lot here on this podcast. You're not buying
the lawyer for what they're going to do in the courtroom.
For the most part, you're paying for a lawyer for
the connections they have outside of the courtroom, for the
access they can get you to the prosecutor's office. Why
do you think in a situation like Maxwell's she hires
somebody like Christian everde ex prosecutor has a lock with
the SDNY knows all of the prosecutors. They're all probably chummy.
They probably go to barbecues together, you know what I'm
talking about. While state law allows the release of grand
jury records to further the interest of justice, he said,
it is clear the legislature intended that exception to be
used only in pending criminal or civil cases. So just
because this happened a while back, and now Epstein's dead,
let's just forget it ever happened. We'll just move on.
And you know what it is, what it is. Sorry,
the girls who are victimized, no justice for them. It's
basically what this judge is saying. And I mean it
shouldn't shock anybody considering, you know what we see these
judges do on a regular basis from the bench here
in America. But you would think that something like this,
with all of the interests surrounding it, all of the
questions that still need to be answered, that if you
were a judge, you'd say to yourself, you know what,
in the interests of justice, in the interests of moving
the truth forward. I'm going to release these transcripts, and
that's what the law is put on the books for.
But unfortunately this judge didn't want to interpret the interpret
it that way. Instead, the newspaper advocates a more expensive
interpretation of the term. He wrote, the newspaper wants the
ability to publish the materials and reference them and its reporting,
and also to make the materials available to the public. Yeah,
that's how this works, judge. Okay, the public is interested
in a case that it's probably one of the most
corrupt of all time. So yeah, there is going to
be a bit of hesitancy to trust you. There is
going to be a bit of cynicism when it comes
to court rulings, and the fact that you want to
keep this stuff away from the public is just going
to feed into conspiracy theories and outlandish thoughts. The government
plays a huge part in all of that. They could
stem and stop a whole bunch of the conspiracy stuff
with a whole lot of different topics if they just
stop their bullshit. But they don't want to ever be transparent.
They want to keep everything private. Everything's a national security issue,
isn't it, And that's what they'll say. Or if you're
looking to get information about something, say like Jeffrey Epstein's
first alleged suicide attempt, what they'll say is the information
is unavailable because it's still part of an ongoing investigation,
and that ongoing investigation has to do with Tartan. So
they'll just run you in circles for as long as possible,
and if somehow you do get some Freedom of Information
Act information from them, it'll be heavily redacted or partial.
You'll never get the full story like the newspapers attorneys.
Haffel said the transcripts could help answer troublesome questions about
why the politically connected, multimillionaire pedophile escaped serious punishment. Some
claim that then State Attorney Barry Krisher was improperly influenced
by Epstein's high octang defense team. I agree with that.
I definitely think he was. When you go back and
you look at all of the documentation, and you look
at the reporting, and you look at how things broke,
it's very obvious that he wasn't working as an advocate
for these survivors, and neither was the Prosecutor's Office of
Florida or hell, the federal prosecutor's office either. Because remember,
while Acosta was the one who was the direction man, right,
the guy who was considered the quote unquote boss on
the ground, he had people to answer to as well.
He's just a mid level bureaucrat. He don't make decisions
like this. He had to kick that up the chain
to move Mukesi and the rest of them. So they
all failed from the top down, from the federal government
all the way down to the state, and now all
the way back to this judge. Absolute failures a top
of absolute failures. It may very well be that the
disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein's grand jury records could reveal the
fair treatment did not occur, and that mister Epstein might
have escaped appropriate punishment through some failing of our justice system.
Haffel said, yeah, well, how about releasing the documents then instead,
you'll just sit on them right like a dragon hoarding
its gold. Post hasn't decided whether to appeal, but he
said state law can't be ignored on a whim or
to satisfy the public's curiosity. The court's interpretation of the
scope of the state law. End of the phrase furthering
justice is governed and constrained by the established rules of
statutory construction, Halfley wrote. Attorneys for the Posts said they
were reviewing the order and had not yet decided whether
to appeal. I really hope they do. I mean, I
know it's an extra cost on them to appeal stuff
like this, and the attorney fees get to be a
bit excessive. But you would think that in the interest
of justice, in the interest of transparency, that they would
release this documentation. And really what it comes down to
is this judge's interpretation of the law. That's all it is.
But he said state law can't be ignored on a
whim or to satisfy the public's curiosity. In a statement,
a comptroller and Clerk of the Courts, Joe Abruzzo, said
that while he hired a top media lawyer to represent
his office in the lawsuit, he wasn't against the newspaper's request.
While Florida statute is clear on its prohibition of releasing
information from grand jury cases, I want to be clear
that I have absolutely no objection to releasing grand jury
information in the Epstein case if directed by the court.
A Bruso said, So what the comptroller is saying, look,
I'll release this information, but I have to be directed
to do so by the court. That's the only way
that I can release this. And once again it goes
back to the judges. These guys running around like their
Taiwin lanister in the courtroom. He hired Shane Voight, a
Tampa attorney who won a one hundred and forty million
dollars verdict against Gawker on behalf of retired professional wrestler
Hulk Hogan and has represented others in fights against news outlets,
to represent the office. During a hearing on October twenty second,
Void argued that if half of approved the newspaper's request,
it would open the floodgates for others to do the same. Well,
so what open the floodgates and then on a case
by case basis decide what should or what shouldn't be released?
Why is that so difficult? Oh? Is it going to
cause extra work for the clerks? God forbid? I mean,
are we supposed to just slow everything down and you know, oh, well,
let's wait on things here, because you know, we don't
have enough time or enough people. I don't even understand
what any of it means the floodgates will open. Well,
if they're legitimate requests, then maybe the floodgates need to
be opened. Said he could craft the narrow order that
would assure the clerk wouldn't be inundated with demands for
grand jury records. Still, he said, after reviewing the law,
he determined the documents must remain secret. State Attorney Dave
Ahrenberg declined to comment on Halfle's decision. While the paper
initially named him in the lawsuit, he was dropped after
he claimed he didn't have the records. Executives of the newspaper,
which is owned by Gannet Gannet Company, said they were
disappointed by Halfle's decision. Yeah, you would think so. Right.
As a newspaper organization, the idea is to get as
much information to the public as possible, let the public decide.
And what better way to do that than to provide
raw data such as transcripts. I don't need the middleman, right,
provide us with the transcripts, provide us with the information
that we need, and let us decide what's going on
here as the public. But no, they'll keep everything hidden.
And then what he'll do is he'll cite some obscure
law here. Oh well, it'll cause a flood of other requests,
and all of it is nonsense. Whenever I hear any
of this stuff, all I hear is no, we don't
want to be transparent. No, you can't know the truth.
That's basically what I hear every time they start in
on the nonsense. While the Post appreciates the court's consideration
of the issues, we respectfully disagree with the legal conclusion
that public access to the Epstein grand jury materials is
not warranted under the circumstances, said Marrable Perez Wadsworth, president
of Gannett News USA Today Network and publisher of USA Today.
It is our right and responsibility to report all aspects
of this case, and we will continue to diligently seek
the facts in our pursuit of transparency. Can argue with
that and props to them for doing it. I mean,
is it too much to ask to have some transparency
or as the public to have the proper information in
a case that is so important. Post Executive editor Rich
Christie echoed those sentiments. For sixteen years, the Post has
been driven to report on the heinous acts of Jeffrey Epstein.
For two reasons, justice for the victimized girls and accountability
for our readers. He said, today's ruling by Circuit Judge Haffl,
while disappointing, does not deter us from our mission of
furthering justice for Epstein's young victims. The Post will always
fight to shine a spotlight wherever it is needed to
expose the actions or in actions of those charged with
serving and protecting the public period. He concluded, Hey, I'll
tell you what, I'm all for that, and I'll be
right here with you, Ryde and Shotgun as far as
trying to get these transcripts, because it's a big deal.
It's a huge deal. And I can't express enough how
important that on prosecution agreement is in protecting these people. Still,
and all of this plays such a huge part in
that the ruling was a blow to efforts to unravel
the sordid case that grabbed international attention. It also came
on a day that a federal jury in New York
began deliberating whether Epstein's longtime girlfriend co conspirator Gleain Maxwell
recruited in groom teen's for his pleasure. The fifty nine
year old British socialite co conspirator general all around scusbag
bipedal serpent faces a lengthy prison term if connected if
convicted of multiple charges in connection with the sex trafficking scheme.
During the October hearing, the newspaper's attorneys argued that the
case was unique. More than fifteen years has passed. Epstein
is dead, so none of the information can be used
against him. The sixty six year old financier pedophile who
counted former President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew his friends,
hung himself allegedly in a Manhattan jail cell in August
twenty nineteen while awaiting trial on dozens of sex trafficking
charges in New York. Again, he's dead. None of this
information can be used against him or anything like that.
So I don't understand how it won't be released. Now. Look,
if he was still alive and there was a chance
that this information could be used or all right, I
get it. I might not agree with it, but I
get it. I don't agree with it, and I don't
get it in this instance. The guy's dead. He's rotting.
It's time for transparency. A dozen girls said they were
sexually abused. Only one testified as part of a twenty
nineteen investigation titled The First Failure. Sources familiar with the
grand jury proceedings told the Post that while more than
a dozen teens told Palm Beach police that Epstein molested them,
only one, a fourteen year old girl, was called to testify.
And this is what I talk about a lot in
reference how only one girl was called to give testimony,
and how it flashes shades to what we saw here
in the Maxwell trial with only four girls being called. Well,
I understand the scopes a little bit different. It's just
for those of us who have been through this already,
it's concerning to see the sources said Krisher's top lieutenants
villified the team. Instead of focusing on the abuse she
suffered at the hands of the wealthy pedophile, they quizzed
her about her social media activity, which included references to
boys and drinking. Her posts on our MySpace page were
We're given to Kursher by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz,
one of Epstein's top flight attorneys, And that was the
strategy then, it's the strategy now, and it'll continue to
be the strategy until these juries wake up and start
convicting these people. We all know that the girl were
absolutely destroyed by not only the authorities, but by Epstein's attorneys.
Oh they're talking to boys. They were smoking weed, they
drank on their MySpace page. Really, let me ask you,
how many of you out there, as young teenagers didn't
do any of those things? I know we all did.
I know I did. If you're gonna base my life
on what I did as a young man, then boy,
I'll tell you I'd be in big trouble. Her alleged
treatment by state prosecutors could explain why grand jurors indicted
Epstein on the lone prostitution charge instead of multiple counts
of child molestation that were sought by the police. The
prostitution charge ignored the tender age of Epstein's accusers and
the fact that teens under the age of eighteen couldn't
legally consent to sex. We've talked about that from the
jump too. How can you even call a girl under
eighteen a prostitute when they can't even consent to sex?
How is that? Even logical legal experts say prosecutors will
tremendous influence over grand jurors who aren't skilled in the law. Cynically,
some embrace a time honored maxim that a prosecutor, if
he desired, could indict a ham Sandwich, And this is
a fact as well. You know, the grand jury rooms
are places where indictments definitely come down at a huge swell.
The statement you get a ham Sandwich indicted at a
grand jury certainly rings true because it's something that a
lot of people talk about who are in the know.
After his death, scores of young women came forward publicly
describing how Epstein sexually assaulted them at his home in
Palm Beach, his penthouse apartment in Manhattan, his ranch in
New Mexico, and his private island in the Virgin Islands.
Some said he forced them to have sex with his
celebrity friends while aboard his private jet, the Lolita Express.
Many teen victims were from Palm Beach County, like teens
from Royal Palm Beach and John I. Leonard High Schools.
Many were allured to Epstein's homes with the promise of
being paid two hundred dollars to give him a massage.
He greeted them wearing little more than a towel. He
offered to pay them more to disrobe, let him fondle them,
and to have sex. Boy, what does that all sound like?
Sounds like a bunch of testimony we just heard, doesn't it.
Imagine this testimony mirrors that testimony. And if they would
have actually done their job during this first arrest and
had more than one of the victims give their testimony
to the Grand Jerry, a lot of this could have
been stopped. Perhaps the girls, some from hardscrabble backgrounds, were
promised careers in high fashion college educations or other perchs
that were beyond their reach. The Grand Jerry mark the
beginning of when the case spun out of control. Angry
at Chrishier's handling, at his agent's angry at Chrisher's handling
of his agency's investigation, Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Ryder
went to the FBI. Ultimately, in his secret deal, South
Florida attorney Alex Acosta agreed to shell of a fifty
three page federal indictment against Epstein if he would plead
guilty to state prostitution charges. And now, remember, it's not
just a costa here. He's the scumbag with no spine,
no doubt about it, and He deserves his infamy for
his role, but he wasn't the one who made the decision.
He might have been the one who filed it up
the chain of command, but he didn't okay it, that's
for sure. As part of the so called non prosecution agreement,
Krisher added a charge of solicitation of a minor for prostitution.
Federal prosecutors insisted on the second charge because it would
force Epstein to register as a sex offender. How that
workout in New Mexico. Oh, that's right. He didn't have
to register there because he knew. He planned all of this.
He took precautions. On June thirtieth, two thousand and eight,
Epstein pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to
both prostitution charges. He served thirteen months of an eighteen
month sentence and a largely vacant wing of the county stockade.
He was given liberal work release privileges. He was allowed
to spend up to twelve hours a day, six days
a week working at a private foundation he created months earlier.
The fallout from what one state prosecutor described as the
deal of the century was far reaching, if delayed and
not only was Epstein out, according to some of these
other accusers, he was abusing them while he was out
on this work release program. Fantastic job done by the
federal government. Huh, fantastic job done by the Florida state authorities.
After Epstein was charged in New York, a Costa resigned
as former President Donald Trump's labor secretary when questions were
raised about his involvement in crafting the non prosecution agreement.
Before his resignation, a Costa sought to blame Krisher. He
claimed he was forced to clean up a mess Krisher
created when the state prosecutor refused to file serious charges
against Epstein. Acosta pointed out that Krisher originally offered to
allow Epstein to plead guilty to aggravate an assault, serve
no jail time, and have the felony record a raised
if he complied with the terms of his probation. That
was unacceptable, Acosta said during a nationally televised news conference.
So basically, it's a point him game, right, you did it,
he did it, she did it, And in reality, what
they do is they cause enough confusion then that nobody's
held responsible. Krisher responded that Acosta was attempting to rewrite history.
In a prepared statement, he said, I can emphatically state
that mister Acosta's recollection of this matter is completely wrong.
A federal investigation in twenty twenty found that Acosta place
too much trust in Krisher. A two year state investigation
completed last year concluded that Krisher had little input into
the nonprofit prosecution agreement and found no wrongdoing. State investigators
were denied access to the grand jury proceedings. So not
only has the public locked out, they locked out the
state investigators who were investigating wrongdoing. Here in the FDL report. Yeah,
nothing to see here, folks, keep on moving. Everything is
just fine. We're all fine. After Epstein died, authorities in
the US Virgin Islands worked with those who were administering
his estate to set up a fund to compensate his victims.
They wrapped up their work in August after paying slightly
more than one hundred and twenty one million to more
than one hundred and thirty five people. According to the
New York Times, look, this is a situation that, obviously,
as you can tell here, has been going on for
quite some time, and there was hope that this judge
was going to release these grand jury documents. Well that's
not going to occur. So the battle continues for transparency, folks,
and we'll continue to report on it and we'll continue
to talk about it until there's some movement and we
finally get a glimpse behind the curtain. All Right, folks,
that's gonna do it for me today, and I'll be
back later on, obviously with a evening update and expect
some more context episodes as well. If you'd like to
contact me, you can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at
ProtonMail dot com. That's bo bbu Y c ap Ucci
at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on
Twitter at b O B b u Y underscore c
A p U C c I. The link that we
discussed can be found in the description box.