Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Larry Vassoski was never merely the man sitting
Speaker 1: behind the controls of Jeffrey Epstein's airplane, and reducing him
Speaker 1: to Epstein's pilot dramatically under states the position he occupied
Speaker 1: in Epstein's world. For nearly three decades, Thesaski served as
Speaker 1: Epstein's longtime chief pilot, transporting them between the property, cities, islands,
Speaker 1: and social circles that formed the physical infrastructure of Epstein's life.
Speaker 1: He flew aircraft belonging to an extraordinarily wealthy man whose
Speaker 1: existence depended upon mobility, privacy, and the ability to move
Speaker 1: between jurisdictions with remarkable ease. That made Vysoski more than
Speaker 1: transportation personnel, because aviation was one of the connective tissues
Speaker 1: holding Epstein's sprawling operation together. Epstein maintained homes and operations
Speaker 1: in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and the US vs.
Speaker 1: Jann Islands while routinely traveling domestically and internationally. Vassoski was
Speaker 1: positioned directly inside that system, repeatedly seeing who came aboard,
Speaker 1: where they went when they traveled, and which employees coordinated
Speaker 1: those movements. During the Glenn Maxwell's federal trial, Vsaski himself
Speaker 1: became an important prosecution witness because his testimony supplied jurors
Speaker 1: with an insider's description of Epstein's travel, properties, employees, and relationships.
Speaker 1: He testified that Maxwell was effectively Epstein's number two and
Speaker 1: described the extraordinarily close operational relationship between the two. Yet
Speaker 1: Vassoski maintained that he never witnessed sexual activity aboard Epstein's
Speaker 1: aircraft and denied observing the criminal conduct that eventually made
Speaker 1: Epstein infamous. The unanswered question has therefore never been whether
Speaker 1: Larry Vassoski was close to Epstein, because of the documentary
Speaker 1: and testimonial record establishes that proximity beyond serious dispute. The
Speaker 1: question is how thoroughly investigators ever attempted to determine exactly
Speaker 1: what a man with that extraordinary vantage point actually knew.
Speaker 1: The importance of Asaski begins with the simple reality that
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein was an extraordinarily mobile predator whose properties were
Speaker 1: scattered across enormous distances. Epstein could wake up in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: flight upon beach, traveled to New Mexico, continue to the
Speaker 1: Caribbean and then move internationally. Because private aviation eliminated many
Speaker 1: of the ordinary logistical obstacles confronting most people, someone had
Speaker 1: to make that mobility possible, and for decades, the SASKI
Speaker 1: occupied one of the most important positions in the machinery.
Speaker 1: A private pilot serving the same employer for years inevitably
Speaker 1: becomes familiar with more than the headings, fuel requirements and
Speaker 1: weather reports. He learns routines, destinations, schedules, passenger habits, recurring employees,
Speaker 1: and the peculiar preferences of the person paying them. Multiply
Speaker 1: that experience across nearly thirty years, and the resulting institutional
Speaker 1: knowledge becomes enormous. Flight logs associated with Epstein became some
Speaker 1: of the most scrutinized documents in the entire scandal, precisely
Speaker 1: because travel could establish proximity between people, properties, and particular
Speaker 1: periods of Epstein's activities. Those logs do not prove criminal
Speaker 1: conduct by every person appearing on them, something that must
Speaker 1: always be emphasized, but they provide an invaluable map of
Speaker 1: Epstein's movements and his relationships. The pilot responsible for executing
Speaker 1: those movements consequently occupied a position from which investigators could
Speaker 1: reconstruct enormous portions of Epstein's life. When examining an enterprise
Speaker 1: as geographically dispersed as Epstein's, transportation was not a side infrastructure,
Speaker 1: transportation was essential to that infrastructure, and I think that
Speaker 1: reality becomes more significant when the passenger compartment of Epstein's
Speaker 1: aircraft is considered alongside the allegations eventually made by the survivors.
Speaker 1: Vasoski acknowledged during Maxwell's trial that young women traveled aboard
Speaker 1: Epstein's planes, while insisting that he never witnessed sexual misconduct.
Speaker 1: His testimony placed famous politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and other prominent
Speaker 1: individuals aboard Epstein's aircraft at various times, although the presence
Speaker 1: on the plane by itself establishes absolutely no participation in
Speaker 1: Epstein's crimes. What mattered about the testimony was the extraordinary
Speaker 1: breath of Epstein's social universe and Vasaski's unusual position as
Speaker 1: someone repeatedly moving through it. Unlike a dinner guest who
Speaker 1: encountered Epstein occasionally, Vassasky was an employee whose job required
Speaker 1: recurring exposure to the people entering and leaving Epstein's orbit.
Speaker 1: Unlike someone who visited one Epstein residence, he traveled between
Speaker 1: several of them. Unlike outsiders who could plausibly claim ignorance
Speaker 1: of Epstein's daily rhythms, Thesoski existed inside the machinery responsible
Speaker 1: for maintaining those rhythms. Now, none of those facts automatically
Speaker 1: established criminal knowledge, much less criminal liability. They did, however,
Speaker 1: make him an obvious potential repository of evidence about who
Speaker 1: traveled where, how often particular passengers appeared, who coordinated their transportation,
Speaker 1: and how Epstein's private aviation operation functioned. In any serious
Speaker 1: investigation of a geographically dispersed trafficking operation, that kind of
Speaker 1: witness would ordinarily warrant extraordinarily detailed scrutiny. The relationship also
Speaker 1: stretched far beyond an ordinary employer casually hiring an interchangeable
Speaker 1: pilot whenever he needed transportation. Epstein retained asaske for decades,
Speaker 1: indicating a level of continuity and trust that few people
Speaker 1: enjoyed in Epstein's frequently shifting universe of acquaintances. And that
Speaker 1: relationship and the length of it matters because Epstein was
Speaker 1: intensely dependent on loyal personnel who could make complicated arrangements
Speaker 1: without requiring constant explanation. Private aviation involves flight planning, aircraft maintenance,
Speaker 1: hangar coordination, passenger arrangements, ground transportation, security considerations, airport restrictions,
Speaker 1: and constant communication when schedules change. Released Correspondence associated with
Speaker 1: Epstein demonstrate that Vesoski remained involved in operational conversations surrounding
Speaker 1: aircraft movements and logistical details. That's exactly what should be
Speaker 1: expected from a chief pilot, but it also illustrates why
Speaker 1: describing him exclusively as someone who flew the plane missus
Speaker 1: La Pointe, a chief pilot servicing an individual with Epstein's
Speaker 1: travel demands became part of the operational nervous system surrounding them.
Speaker 1: Messages moved through that system, schedules were adjusted through it,
Speaker 1: and Epstein depended upon trusted people to translate his impulses
Speaker 1: into actual movement. Vesoski therefore possessed something investigators desperately seek
Speaker 1: and complicated organizations, knowledge accumulated through years of repetition. Whether
Speaker 1: he understood the criminal purpose behind any particular movement is
Speaker 1: a separate evidentiary question, but his capacity to illuminate how
Speaker 1: Epstein's world functioned should never have been controversial. Then there
Speaker 1: was Zoro Ranch, one of the most important, historically under
Speaker 1: investigated locations in the entire Epstein story. Epstein purchased a
Speaker 1: sprawling New Mexico property in ninety three and eventually constructed
Speaker 1: a massive residence supported by its own aviation infrastructure, including
Speaker 1: a private runway and hangar. Survivors later described abuse occurring
Speaker 1: at the ranch, making the property something considerably more consequential
Speaker 1: than just a billionaire's desert getaway. Yet, unlike Epstein's Manhattan townhouse,
Speaker 1: Palm Beach residents, and Caribbean properties, the New Mexico ranch
Speaker 1: did not receive the same kind of immediate federal search.
Speaker 1: After Epstein's twenty nineteen arrests, New Mexico authorities have since
Speaker 1: revisited what happened there, and finally, this year, investigators conducted
Speaker 1: or a search after previously sealed information prompted additional scrutiny.
Speaker 1: The property's isolation made aviation particularly important, because Epstein could
Speaker 1: move himself, employees, and guests into an environment far removed
Speaker 1: from ordinary public observation. Thesaski, as Epstein's chief pilot, was
Speaker 1: naturally connected to that transportation system. And therefore to the
Speaker 1: logistics surrounding the ranch. The reported transfer of roughly forty
Speaker 1: acres connected to the ranch to Vasaski further underscores that
Speaker 1: this was not simply an arms leng relationship between a
Speaker 1: wealthy passenger and hired aviation labor. When an employer gives
Speaker 1: a longtime employee valuable property adjacent to or associated with,
Speaker 1: one of the most secretive estates, investigators have every reason
Speaker 1: to examine the nature, history, and purpose of that relationship closely.
Speaker 1: I think that the forty acre issue is important not
Speaker 1: because receiving land in itself is evidence of a crime,
Speaker 1: because it's plainly not, but because it speaks to the
Speaker 1: depth of Epstein's relationship with the sask Epstein had enough
Speaker 1: confidence in his pilot to establish financial and personal ties
Speaker 1: extending beyond an ordinary paycheck. Publicly released records and litigation
Speaker 1: material have also described Epstein providing or facilitating financial benefits
Speaker 1: and legal representation for members of the circle, including employees
Speaker 1: whose testimony could potentially matter. Such arrangements demand careful examination
Speaker 1: because economic dependency can shape relationships between powerful employerlayers and
Speaker 1: longtime subordinates. Again, dependency doesn't prove conspiracy and loyalty does
Speaker 1: not automatically equal criminal knowledge, but investigators examining a criminal
Speaker 1: enterprise are supposed to map precisely these relationships because money, property, employment,
Speaker 1: and favors can reveal how organization maintained its cohesion. Epstein
Speaker 1: understood the usefulness of loyalty better than almost anyone in
Speaker 1: his orbit. He surrounded himself with employees who handled discrete
Speaker 1: portions of his existence, while he remained the central figure
Speaker 1: controlling the resources. The sask occupied one of the longest
Speaker 1: running positions within that ecosystem. The fact that his relationship
Speaker 1: apparently included employment, travel, property, and other forms of financial
Speaker 1: connection should have made understanding that relationship an investigative priority
Speaker 1: rather than just a footnote. The newer releases of Epstein
Speaker 1: related correspondence have made the simplistic description of Vasaski as
Speaker 1: merely a cockpit employee even harder to sustain. Emails associated
Speaker 1: with Epstein's operation repeatedly placed Vesask in communication concerning movements, scheduling,
Speaker 1: aircraft availability, properties, and practical matters that kept epstein extraordinarily
Speaker 1: complicated life functioning. Some communications were completely mundane, precisely as
Speaker 1: one would expect from an employee responsible for aviation logistics,
Speaker 1: but mundane communications are often enormously important when reconstructing how
Speaker 1: an organization actually operated. Criminal enterprises do not spend every
Speaker 1: hour sending messages explicitly describing crimes, because most of their
Speaker 1: existence consists of scheduling, travel, payments, maintenance, and ordinary administration.
Speaker 1: Investigators reconstruct enterprises by examining the connective material and determining
Speaker 1: which people repeatedly appear at important junctions. Vasoski repeatedly peers
Speaker 1: because transportation was one of those junctions. His correspondence with
Speaker 1: Epstein's employees, including people involved in scheduling and financial administration,
Speaker 1: further illustrates how aviation intersected with the rest of Epstein's infrastructure.
Speaker 1: The volume and duration of those contacts make it difficult
Speaker 1: to characterize Vesosky as somebody standing outside Epstein's operational core.
Speaker 1: They instead portray a longtime employee positioned at one of
Speaker 1: the central logistical crossroads of Epstein's world, which is precisely
Speaker 1: why the remaining unanswered questions surrounding his knowledge are so consequential.
Speaker 1: All right, folks, we're gonna wrap up right here, and
Speaker 1: in the next episode we're gonna pick up where we
Speaker 1: left off. All the information that goes with this episode
Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.