Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
Epstein Chronicles. One of the biggest de fews that we
see when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and the so
called investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates are these
internal investigations that are led by Jeffrey Epstein's friends. And
when it comes to the SDNY and the man that
leads the SDNY, Jay Clayton, could the conflict of interest
be any more apparent? Let us recall that before taking
this job at the SDNY, this dude was working for
Apollo Global, you know, Leon Black's company, and he was
very close and is very close to a lot of
the people that were in that world. So this is
the guy that we're gonna have investigate these people. It
doesn't really inspire much confidence in what's going on. And
when you have a situation that is just rife with
all kinds of corruption as it is, the last thing
you want to do as an institution is add to
the problem. But when it comes to this DOJ and
this administration, they don't care. And that's because they really
believe that they're going to make this go away. That's
what they think but they're wrong. Today, we have an
article from The Jacobin and the headline the Epstein class
investigates itself. This article was authored by Freddie Brewster. The
investment portfolio of the Interim US Attorney for the Southern
District of New York shows financial stakes and Epstein's associated
financial institutions and Venezuelan oil interests. The Trump appointee stands
to win big from his own investigations, like on what
planet is that okay? And since when is that something
that is acceptable in America? Jay Clayton, a top federal
prosecutor leading investigations into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Venezuelan president
Nicholas Madoro, and Major Wall Street Banks, holds more than
one point six million in investments in companies with a
potential financial stake in those same matters, according to ethics
disclosures reviewed by The lever Well, it's obvious that there's
a problem here, but it's not going to be addressed.
Just like the rest of this stuff, they don't care.
There is nothing that's going to force their hand, so
they're just going to roll with it, and especially right
now with their shiny new object that everybody's focusing on,
which is the war in Iran. They're going to keep
going as far as they can with the Epstein cover up.
And what did the Clintons used to say, never let
a good crisis go to waste, Right, So there's no
doubt that the Trump administration is going to use what's
going on in Iran to help cover up what's happening here. Clayton,
President Trump's pick to run the Justice Department's top dog
Southern District of New York office, owns stake in multiple
oil and gas companies that stand to benefit from Venezuela's
regime change, as well as Wall Street banks and financial
firms currently under investigation by Congress over their ties to Epstein.
And this is the guy leading the dance. I'm sure
that really inspires a lot of confidence in everybody out there.
I know it doesn't me. You know that Jay Clayton's
gonna do the right thing. He's never going to bend
and try and help his buddies. He's never going to
try and help his boss, Donald Trump. Right, that wouldn't
be ethical. And everybody in this administration is above and
beyond approach, Right, How dare you criticize anybody in the
most transparent administration of all time. The disclosure show Clayton
has more than one million in financial holdings and in
private equity giant Apollo Global Management, where he served as
board chairman until his Justice Department appointment. And that right
there should set off all kinds of alarm bells. And
if you were wondering how somebody like Leon Black has
avoided real trouble here, this is how when everybody that's
in control of the DOJ and the government is your
friend or your buddy or a fellow traveler, you're gonna
get hooked up. And let's not forget that Ben Black
is part of the administration. Leon Black's son j Clayton,
has a very personal interest in seeing the Epstein story
as a cabin doff story involving mysterious who could have
ever known it villain, rather than the story of interconnected
a moral elites. It appears to be two impartial people,
said Jeff how, executive director of the government watchdog group
Revolving to a Project. And I don't think I've met
one single person, regular person who doesn't see what's going
on here and doesn't see just how screwed up things
really are behind the scenes when it comes to the
so called masters of the universe. Because even if you
don't believe that this was some vast human trafficking enterprise,
how can you deny the rest of it? How can
you deny the stuff with the paper trail, How can
you deny the obvious corruption. Well, if you're a serious person,
you can't because it all goes hand in hand, and
when you start to get a lay of the land,
it looks like all these people were put in place
for that specific reason, right, the loyal soldiers, Todd Blanche,
Jay Clayton, Pam Bondy, Cash Patel, all people that are
going to play ball with what the administration wants them
to do, and not only that, but rally around those decisions,
like there the right decisions to make. When anybody who's
not being biased and is taking a neutral approach understands
that what they're doing is just furthering the cover up,
that's a really paralyzing bias to bring to the role
of prosecutor. Houser added, we should want professional skeptics to
serve our prosecutors, not the credulous. And I think that's
correct too. Why do we have to have all your
buddies everywhere in the government. Isn't that just a form
of DEI? That's really what it comes down to. Are
you really going to try and tell me that Jay
Clayton is the most qualified person for that position in
the whole country, or that Todd Baby Billy Blanches, or
that Pambondi is, or that Cash Patil is. We all
know the answer to that, and the answer is no. Clayton,
a former corporate attorney with no prosecutorial experience and Trump's
former Securities and Exchange Commission chair, served as chairchairman of
Apollo's board of directors from twenty twenty one intil April
of twenty twenty five, when Trump selected him to be
interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Clayton was never confirmed to the position by the Senate,
but in a rare move, a panel of judges appointed
him to the position until the Senate confirmation candidate can
take over. Oh, isn't that nice. It's just such a joke,
Like it's honestly a joke. The whole entire thing that
we're seeing here play out in front of us. The
political theater surrounding. This is so disgusting that it's almost
hard to put it into words. Seven months after Clayton
assumed his Justice Department position, amid a public pressure campaign
urging the Justice Department to release the so called Epstein files,
US Attorney General Pambondi tasked him with investigating people and
institutions tied to Epstein. According to Trump, that list should
include former President Bill Clinton, former Obama administration advisor Larry Summers,
billionaire tech founder and Democratic Party funder Reied Hoffman and
Wall Street Bank JP Morgan, Chase Funny, leaves out Leon Black,
leaves out jess Day, leaves out all of his buddies,
leaves out himself. But everybody else who is his enemy,
well they should all be targeted. What kind of moron
talks like that? I mean, even if you have a
case that's being built and you're talking like that, you're
gonna end up getting that case thrown out. Imagine if
a lawyer was talking like this, a prosecutor, I mean,
the defense team would be filing motions the second the
words came out of their mouth. And if any kind
of investigations ever initiated against any of those people, they're
going to claim that they're being targeted and it'll just
get thrown out anyway. But the truth is there was
never gonna be any kind of investigation into anybody, Democrats
or otherwise. So Donald Trump was just shooting his mouth
off like usual. Clayton has also been assigned to spearhead
the redactions of victims personally identifiable information in the trove
of Epstein investigation records the Justice Department began releasing on
January thirtieth. The process has proved to be a debacle
due to failures that left email addresses and nude photos
of potential victims unredacted, plus the name of a victim
in another high profile sex trafficking case recently prosecuted by
Clayton's office. The SDNY is like Monty Python meets a
Reno nine one one. Talk about a bunch of morons
who's running this shit? The Trailer Park Boys. On January third,
the Justice Department released its indictment against Madero, which included
Clayton's signature. That indictment has drawn criticism after the Justice
Department dropped certain claims and revised portions after submitting it
to the court. The indictment alleges that for more than
twenty years, Maduro led a narco terrorism ring that imported
tons of cocaine into the United States. Clayton is the
top federal prosecutor overseeing the government's case. Well at the time,
when they were trying to say it was about fentanyl,
that was obviously a bunch of bullshit. The vast majority
of fenyl or a precursor that comes into the country
is coming in through Mexico. Now cocaine, no doubt, certainly
coming from Venezuela. It's a transit point. But when we're
talking about fentyl, Venezuela had nothing to do with fentyl whatsoever.
So that was an obvious lie. If they would have
just said cocaine, okay, cool, believable. Still stupid, but believable.
And of course you're going to see that reflected in
the indictment, and I'm sure that it's going to be
superseded a couple of more times before Maduro ends up
going to trial. According to the Office of Government Ethics disclosures,
Clayton still maintained significant investments in many of the companies
involved in his office's work. That includes between one point
five million and six million worth of Apollo holdings, between
fifteen thousand and fifty thousand in JP, Morgan, Chase and
Bank of America stock, and between one thousand and fifteen
thousand in Bank of New York, Mellon and City Group stock.
The Justice Department has not announced any criminal prosecutions of
banks tied to Epstein, but Congress is investigating one point
five billion in suspicious financial transactions tied to Epstein, sex
trafficking crimes and disco conspirators that allegedly flowed through Deutsche Bank,
JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Bank of New York Mellon.
City Bank is among the institution Senators have called on
the Treasury Department to investigate over suspicious activities relating to
Jeffrey Epstein and dissociates. What's more, Clayton holds between nineteen
thousand and one hundred and ten thousand in Chevron, Conico, Phillips,
Exon Mobil, Phillip sixty six, and Valero Energy stock, oil
companies with a potential financial stake in Venezuela's future oil production.
He also owns between fifty thousand and one hundred thousand
dollars worth of stock in the holding company Berkshire Hathaway,
which also stands to gain from Venezuelan oil production thanks
to its six percent steak in Chevron. Clayton's portfolio also
includes between one million and five million in unvested American
Express stock, between one hundred thousand and two hundred and
fifty thousand in Google parent company Alphabet stock, and between
one hundred thousand and two hundred and fifty thousand in
Amazon stock, among other holdings. Federal ethics and conflict of
interest rules which apply to Justice Department employees barre prosecutors
from taking official action in a particular matter involving any
entity in which you or someone whose interests are imputed
to you have a financial interest. So Clayton should just
recuse himself from all of this. In fact, he should
go back to being a corporate lawyer. He is in
over his head, one thousand percent over his head. Those
rules also bar prosecutors from participating in cases involving any
person for whom you have served within the last year
as officer, director, trustee, general, partner, agent, attorney, consultant, contractor,
or employee. The Justice Department declined to comment on whether
Clayton plans to recuse himself from Epstein or of Venezuela
related matters. No way, he was put here for this reason.
He is not going to recuse himself. Well, you think
this DOJ has honor. During his time at Apollo, Clayton
helps s caere the company through a public relations quagmire
regarding Apollo's co founder and former CEO, Leon Black, and
his personal and business connections to Epstein. Apollo appointed Clayton
chairman after Black resigned from the position in March of
twenty twenty one, amid scrutiny over his Epstein ties and
sexual harassment allegations made against them. Several but not all,
of the related suits have been dropped, and Black has
denied the allegations. Yeah, well, good luck denying those. Good luck,
Leon Black, because from what I've seen from those court filings,
sure's a lot of smoke there. In January twenty twenty
one regulatory filing, Apollo disclosed an internal investigation into Black
and the firm's relationship with Epstein, as well as the
letter Black issued to investors, both of which stated Apollo
had no formal business ties to Epstein and that only
Black himself consulted with Epstein on business related issues. As
of if Black wasn't Apollo and Apollo wasn't Black, you
can't separate the two. Now they'll say you can, but
you can't. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way. Due
to the new Epstein Files revelations, Apollo's claims are now
facing legal scrutiny in the US District Court for the
Southern District of New York, Clayton's jurisdiction. While his office
is not directly involved in the case, the matter could
put pressure on him to include his former employer among
the people and institutions tied to Epstein that he's charged
with investigating. January thirtieth, Epstein Files release contained documents detailing
multiple emails between Epstein, current Apollo CEO Mark Rowan, and
other Apollo executives between twenty thirteen and March twenty sixteen,
long after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting a minor.
And again, this is where the timelines come in, right.
There's no excuse here, and Mark Rowan should be embarrassed.
He came out and said he had no contact with Epstein,
there weren't friends, blah blah blah, another lie. In response
to a group of Apollo shareholders filed a lawsuit on
March second in the Southern District of New York alleging
that Apollo, Black and Rowan were directly or indirectly involved
in drafting, producing, reviewing, or disseminating the false and misleading
statements and information that was submitted to shareholders in the
twenty twenty one regulatory filing. Yeah, they lied one thousand
percent without a doubt. And the crazy thing is, there's
all kinds of teachers' unions and different funds that are
being managed by Apollo Global, So this is just the
beginning of the trouble for them. Additionally, two major teachers'
unions are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate
what they call miss claims made in the regulatory filing.
Were troubled by Apollo's seeming inability to be forthcoming about
the extent to which Epstein was a personal, social, and
professional associate of the firm and its partners. The American
Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors
wrote in a letter to the Commission, Well, that's funny
considering how many professors were on Epstein's tea. That's a
bit ironic. No, we don't know exactly what motivates that
lack of candor, but it should be investigated. Well, that's true,
It most certainly should. Do you really think Jay Clayton's
going to be the guy to do it. Apollo did
not respond to a request for comment, but in a
February eighteen statement, Apollo said there's nothing new in the
Justice Department Epstein documents and that despite the flurry of
coverage and certain constituents pushing their own agendas, the facts
remain the same. Do they though? Do they really? And
even if they do, the problem for Apollo is we've
never seen the real facts. What we saw was a
water down report by Deckert. That's all we saw. Still.
Chris Tobe, an investment advisor and litigation expert for public
pension funds representing workers, said Clayton's Apollo holdings are a
clear conflict of interest and that he should resign. There
are just too many conflicts here, Tobe told the Lever
and I agree with that one hundred percent. And I've
been saying this for a while. I don't think Jay
Clayton should have this job. There's way too much conflict
of interest going on, and I don't know how anyone
could have any faith that Jay Clayton's going to do
the right thing, especially considering how terrible they did when
it comes to curating the Epstein files for release. So
I certainly have my doubts about Jay Clayton and about
how neutral he can be when he's pursuing his duty
as the head honcho of the SDNY. So we're going
to keep an eye on these cases and see what
happens as they continue to make their way through court,
and when we have some more information on them, we'll
get it added to the catalog. All the information that
goes with this episode can be found in the description box.