Newly unsealed files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case imply that former US President Bill Clinton visited the investor’s private island along with “young girls,” and that the FBI knew well about the minors’ abuse.
Comprising hundreds of pages of documents, the trove was released on Thursday night following a judge’s order last week to have it unsealed, over the objections of Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend to Epstein who has recently been charged as an accomplice in his alleged sex-trafficking operation.
The records stem from a 2015 defamation suit filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, which was placed under lock and key after the case was settled in 2017, but was recently unsealed, as a result of a lawsuit brought last year by conservative blogger Mike Cernovich and the Miami Herald newspaper.
Among other revelations, the documents indicate that former US president Bill Clinton consorted with “young girls” during at least one visit to Epstein’s private resort in the Virgin Islands, where the billionaire was said to host regular “sex orgies.”
“When you were present with Jeffery Epstein and Bill Clinton on the island, who else was there?” one witness – presumably Giuffre – was asked during an interview, to which she replied that Epstein, Maxwell, an unidentified woman named “Emmy” and “2 young girls” had been on the island with the former POTUS. The witness did not elaborate on Clinton’s interactions with the girls, however.
Witness interview:
Bill Clinton was at Epstein's island with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and "2 young girls." pic.twitter.com/NG8PbaZLNt
The same witness also told her attorney in 2011 that she had overheard Epstein saying that Clinton owed him “favors,” but noted she couldn't tell whether he was joking.
“He would laugh it off. You know, I remember asking Jeffrey ‘What’s Bill Clinton doing here?’… and he laughed it off and said ‘well he owes me a favor,’” she said. “He never told me what favors they were. I never knew. I didn’t know if he was serious.”
He told me a long time ago that everyone owes him favors. They’re all in each other’s pockets.
Six references to Bill Clinton in Virginia Roberts' chat with her lawyers on April 7, 2011:
Asked about Epstein boasting "Bill Clinton owes me favors," Giuffe said:
"Yes. I do. It was a laugh though. He would laugh it off... I didn't know if he was serious. It was just a joke." pic.twitter.com/InugMgHOz5
Just watching blue check after blue check completely ignore the fact that a Jeffrey Epstein victim identified Bill Clinton as a resident of pedophile island.
How do you ignore what is objectively of the highest news value?
— Epstein Files Unsealed by Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 31, 2020
One of America’s top law enforcement agencies was also apparently aware that underage girls were still being abused at Epstein’s properties as far back as 2011 – years after he was sentenced for similar crimes in his first criminal case. During her defamation suit, Giuffre said she had provided the FBI a now widely circulated photo of herself and the UK’s Prince Andrew – where he is pictured smiling with an arm around her bare waist.
Remember that famous Prince Andrew photo with Ghislaine Maxwell and the victim?
The FBI had their own copy for years - even before the victim's 2011 FBI interview.
In 2014, moreover, Giuffre contacted the FBI to request evidence they had previously seized from Epstein’s residences to aid her civil case, suggesting the bureau had for long been informed of her allegations regarding Epstein and his continued involvement with minor girls.
Heartbreaking -
The minor victim was asking the FBI for the evidence (photos and videos) they seized from Epstein.
President Donald Trump also made an appearance in the unsealed papers. However, an associate of Epstein, Juan Alessi, said in an interview that Trump “never” stayed overnight while visiting Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, and that he did not receive any “massages” there, as “he’s got his own spa.” An alleged victim also maintained that while Trump and Epstein were “good friends,” Trump made no attempts to “flirt” with her.
Despite repeatedly insisting he had no ties to Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, legal scholar and former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz is directly accused in the documents of having “sexual relations” with an underage girl. He is also said to have witnessed “the sexual abuse of many other minors by Epstein and several of Epstein’s co-conspirators,” and would later help to negotiate an undisclosed immunity deal for himself during Epstein’s first criminal case.
The Ghislaine Maxwell (Epstein) documents have been unsealed.
Will be posting excerpts here -
Starting with allegations of minor being trafficked to Maxwell, Prince Andrew, and Alan Dershowitz (as prev. alleged).
More than 1,000 pages of documents from Giuffre’s civil defamation case had previously been released in August 2019, indicating that a long list of wealthy and powerful figures regularly spent time with Epstein at his lavish properties. One day after that trove was unsealed, Epstein was found hanging in his Manhattan prison cell, dead from an apparent suicide after being charged with sex trafficking and imprisoned some weeks previously.
Maxwell was arrested and charged with procuring minors for sexual abuse earlier this month, after keeping a low profile in the period following Epstein’s death. She has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts and remains in custody without bail, after prosecutors had labeled her an “extreme” flight risk.
The head of the US agency for Global Media has announced an investigation into state-funded Voice of America (VOA) for possible election meddling, after its service in Urdu promoted a clip of Joe Biden courting Muslim votes.
The probe, announced by the newly-appointed agency CEO Michael Pack on Thursday, aims to determine whether federal employees of the broadcaster, funded exclusively through taxpayer money, “transgressed the VOA Charter, VOA’s Best Practices Guide, VOA’s Journalistic Code,” and whether they committed US election interference and a federal offence by airing a video “that can only be described as an apparent election advertisement for [the] presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.”
The clip, which was branded with a VOA logo, shows Biden addressing the Million Muslim Votes Summit earlier this month and citing a hadith (saying of Islam’s Prohet Mohammed), while making a series of election pledges such as the ending of travel restrictions to countries with substantial Muslim populations, labeled by US President Donald Trump’s detractors as a “Muslim ban.”
“Your voice is your vote. Muslim American voices matter. I’ll be a president who seeks out and incorporates the ideas and concerns of Muslim Americans on everyday issues that matter most to our communities,” Biden says in the clip.
The ad, which also features the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, sees Biden’s promise of “having Muslim American voices as part of my administration.”
The video urges American Muslims to go out and vote, calling the effort “the largest Muslim voter mobliziation in America.”
The clip was shared on the VOA’s Urdu website as well as across its social media, before it was scrapped.
In his statement, Pack said that the agency is seeking to find those behind “this significant content and editorial breakdown.”
USAGM staff members who attempt to influence American elections will be held accountable
Ever since Pack was confirmed by the Senate in early June to lead the agency, mainstream media and Democrats have been sounding alarms over the VOA, initially set up in 1942 as a propaganda arm of the US government, potentially becoming an outlet for the wrong kind of propaganda – that is, a mouthpiece for the Trump campaign. However, that does not seem to be the case, at least, for now.
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Tropical cyclone Isaias, which is moving towards the Florida coast, has morphed into a category-1 hurricane, National Hurricane Center reported. The storm initially formed south of Puerto Rico.
#Isaias is now a hurricane based on data from the Air Force Hurricane Hunters. The intensity forecast shows a stronger storm than before, but the track forecast is unchanged. Go to https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB for details. pic.twitter.com/tXraiehHMX
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 31, 2020
Congress has voted to kill an amendment that would have blocked the military from recruiting through streaming platforms like Twitch, with nearly half of Democrats in the House joining the effort to strike down the measure.
A House vote of 196-292 easily quashed the appropriations bill amendment on Thursday, a measure introduced by New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to bar military funding for outreach to young gamers. While Republicans opposed the amendment unanimously, Democrats were split down the middle, with 103 joining the GOP and only a narrow majority of 126 voting in favor.
“War is not a game,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor ahead of the vote. “This amendment is specifically to block funding for recruitment practices on services such as Twitch, which are live streaming platforms largely populated by children well under the age of military recruitment rules.”
Children as young as 13… are targeted for recruitment forms that can be filled online.
The self-avowed democratic socialist took to Twitter after the vote to vent frustration about tech-illiterate colleagues, asking followers to “imagine trying to explain… what Twitch is” to elderly lawmakers, observing that “Congress can’t keep up” with the pace of technology. Despite scores of fellow Democrats shooting down her amendment, Ocasio-Cortez nonetheless deemed the failed vote a “really solid start.”
When our legislative bodies aren’t sufficiently responsive to tech, then that means we don’t have the tools required to protect people.
This is partially why companies know way more about you than you may even be aware of - bc it’s legal, and Congress is struggling to keep up.
Among Democrats to vote no on the AOC amendment was Ted Lieu of California, an Air Force veteran and former military prosecutor. His opposition prompted a wave of criticism online, some deeming the rep a reliable “supporter of the military industrial complex.”
@tedlieu you've got some explaining to do. You support the military recruiting young teens on Twitch?
According to how @tedlieu votes, it seems he supports the military using predatory tactics to recruit 13 year olds on gaming platforms
— ✿ #1 BNA Stan | 1312 ✿ (@dudeineedto) July 30, 2020
He’s a military man and a supporter of the industrial military complex. America doesn’t have a liberal party.
— The 6-King Prophecy (@6King_Prophecy) July 30, 2020
At 51-years-old, Lieu is slightly younger than the average representative – just over 57, according to the Congressional Research Service – a fact House candidate Richard Thripp said played into Thursday’s vote, citing a lack of “technological literacy” among older lawmakers.
The Senate is even older, at 61.8 years old on average. If your reps aren't well-versed in the workings of modern technology, how can we trust them to protect us from online consumer predation? Especially for the sake of our seniors, the most statistically vulnerable to scams.
— Richard Thripp for Congress 🍊 🧢 🌊 (@Thripp2020) July 31, 2020
Though the US Army paused its “e-sports” activities on Twitch earlier this month on the heels of several critical press reports, the practice has been condemned as an effort to draw impressionable children as young as 13 for future military service, with soldiers streaming war-themed games such as Call of Duty while chatting with teenage viewers for hours on end. The Pentagon was also found to use deceptive giveaways to generate interest, which ultimately directed participants to recruitment forms.
A sea of people has filled a park for a rally in support of Svetlana Tikhanovskya, opposition candidate in the Belarussian election set for next week, in what is reported to be the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.
Thousands of people flocked to the ‘Druzhba’ [Friendship] park in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, on Thursday to voice support for Tikhanovskya, who has emerged as a top challenger to the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko after several prominent opposition candidates were disqualified from the race.
According to estimates by Belarusian human rights group ‘Viasna,’ at least 63,000 people joined the rally-slash-concert. Attendees sang along in Russian, while flashing cell phone lights and waving balloons, red-and-green state banners as well as historical white-red-white flags.
The latest data from @viasna96: at least 63,000 rallied tonight in #Minsk. It’s one of the largest rallies in #Belarus then. Also,the site is not popular in the city. Security measure were increased,too. Usually,pre-election rallies were not popular at all pic.twitter.com/6l2xEuqdxR
Tikhanovskya first addressed the rally in Belarussian, and then switched to Russian. She said that she rejects revolution, and wants “peaceful changes” through “fair elections.”
The rally proceeded incident-free, with no arrests or disruptions reported.
Я был на концерте Макса Коржа на стадионе динамо в Минске, но это даже близко не сравнится по атмосфере с тем, что я видел сегодня. pic.twitter.com/t98NpIXIA7
Tikhanovskya’s husband, YouTuber Sergei Tikhanovsky, remains in jail on charges of obstructing elections and interfering with the work of the Central Electoral Commission. On Thursday, he faced additional charges of inciting mass riots which were tied by the country’s investigative committee to the case of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries arrested in Minsk earlier this week.
The Belarussin security chief identified them as the members of the ‘Wagner Group’ – a shady company providing mercenary services throughout the world said to be operating from Russia.
While speculation has been rife as to how the arrest of alleged Wagner-linked contractors might impact the looming vote, Lukashenko himself did not point any fingers, ordering a thorough probe into the incident and saying that he has “no intention of smearing an allied nation” without getting to the bottom of the case.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Thursday that 33 Russian citizens were arrested in Belarus, and that another warrant had been issued for 200 more. He said that Moscow is so far unaware of any illegal activities incriminating the Russian citizens, adding he expects their rights to be respected during the investigation.
Presidential elections in Belarus will be held on August 9, and the results are likely to hand reelection to Lukashenko, who is polling high at 72.3 percent, with Tikhanovskya lagging far behind at 7.5 percent, according to the latest Ecoom's survey poll.
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A sea of people has filled a park for a rally in support of Svetlana Tikhanovskya, opposition candidate in the Belarussian election set for next week, in what is reported to be the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.
Thousands of people flocked to the ‘Druzhba’ [Friendship] park in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, on Thursday to voice support for Tikhanovskya, who has emerged as a top challenger to the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko after several prominent opposition candidates were disqualified from the race.
According to estimates by Belarusian human rights group ‘Viasna,’ at least 63,000 people joined the rally-slash-concert. Attendees sang along in Russian, while flashing cell phone lights and waving balloons, red-and-green state banners as well as historical white-red-white flags.
The latest data from @viasna96: at least 63,000 rallied tonight in #Minsk. It’s one of the largest rallies in #Belarus then. Also,the site is not popular in the city. Security measure were increased,too. Usually,pre-election rallies were not popular at all pic.twitter.com/6l2xEuqdxR
Tikhanovskya first addressed the rally in Belarussian, and then switched to Russian. She said that she rejects revolution, and wants “peaceful changes” through “fair elections.”
The rally proceeded incident-free, with no arrests or disruptions reported.
Я был на концерте Макса Коржа на стадионе динамо в Минске, но это даже близко не сравнится по атмосфере с тем, что я видел сегодня. pic.twitter.com/t98NpIXIA7
Tikhanovskya’s husband, YouTuber Sergei Tikhanovsky, remains in jail on charges of obstructing elections and interfering with the work of the Central Electoral Commission. On Thursday, he faced additional charges of inciting mass riots which were tied by the country’s investigative committee to the case of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries arrested in Minsk earlier this week.
The Belarussin security chief identified them as the members of the ‘Wagner Group’ – a shady company providing mercenary services throughout the world said to be operating from Russia.
While speculation has been rife as to how the arrest of alleged Wagner-linked contractors might impact the looming vote, Lukashenko himself did not point any fingers, ordering a thorough probe into the incident and saying that he has “no intention of smearing an allied nation” without getting to the bottom of the case.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Thursday that 33 Russian citizens were arrested in Belarus, and that another warrant had been issued for 200 more. He said that Moscow is so far unaware of any illegal activities incriminating the Russian citizens, adding he expects their rights to be respected during the investigation.
Presidential elections in Belarus will be held on August 9, and the results are likely to hand reelection to Lukashenko, who is polling high at 72.3 percent, with Tikhanovskya lagging far behind at 7.5 percent, according to the latest Ecoom's survey poll.
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US President Donald Trump said he would send National Guard troops to quell chaotic protests in Portland, condemning activists as a “beehive of terrorists” as federal units deployed to the city prepare to withdraw.
Trump warned of the new Guard deployment during a Thursday press conference, one day after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) struck a deal with Oregon Governor Kate Brown to phase out federal police stationed in Portland, where they’ve worked with local authorities to defend a federal courthouse and other government property. Though the withdrawal was set to begin on Thursday, the president said National Guard troops would effectively replace the federal agents should the unrest continue.
“Our people are staying there to see whether they can do it today and tomorrow, and if they don’t do it we will send in the National Guard, and we’ll take care of it,” Trump said, labeling the protesters “professional anarchists” and “people who hate our country.”
We’re telling them right now, that we’re coming in very soon, the National Guard… So [federal agencies are] working today and probably tomorrow to clean out this beehive of terrorists.
“These are people that hate our country.”
Trump says if local law enforcement in Portland doesn’t disperse “this beehive of terrorists," he will send in the National Guard pic.twitter.com/DHjLiR019T
As part of the federal withdrawal deal, Portland law enforcement cleared out two large protester encampments set up in city parks on Thursday morning, as the spaces are located near federal properties that have been under siege by demonstrators for more than two consecutive months, including the courthouse. The protests have frequently become violent, seeing regular clashes between activists and police, with some demonstrators arming themselves with improvised weapons and smallexplosives. Police have also come under fire for heavy-handed tactics, with federal agents accused of wielding excessive force and “kidnapping” protesters off the street in unmarked vehicles.
Despite the agreement, DHS chief Chad Wolf said the withdrawal would only proceed once the agency is confident federal properties will be secure, leaving some question as to when the draw-down will actually take place. Wolf noted that “we anticipate the ability to change our force posture” in Portland once conditions on the ground “significantly improve.”
Federal agents were deployed to Portland earlier this month as part of a new multi-agency task force created by executive order in June, which aims to protect statues, historical monuments and other federal buildings. Such government properties have become common targets for anti-police brutality activists in recent months, amid a wave of mass protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May.
After a Russian TV channel loosely inspired by America's Fox News was blocked by video-streaming service YouTube earlier this week, Vladimir Putin's spokesman says Western web giants should be treated with a “low degree of trust.”
Dmitry Peskov emphasized that the companies are completely unaccountable and can do as they please. He said the public needs to be aware that they can be “thrown out of there along with their account” at any moment.
Tsargrad TV – launched with the help of ex-Fox producer Jack Hanick in 2015 – announced that the Google subsidiary blocked its account on July 28 over an apparent violation of the law on sanctions and trade rules.
Its owner, religious conservative Konstantin Malofeev, is under EU sanctions for his alleged involvement in the war in Eastern Ukraine.
“There is a solution – not to depend on the Western platforms,” Peskov added. “Any Western platform is a private platform... there are no rules there – neither rules nor guarantees.”
Olympic champion gymnast Karolina Sevastyanova, who sent the internet wild after being snapped with UFC's Conor McGrgeor, says she “wouldn’t look” at a man with any social media account... an announcement she made on Instagram.
Sevastyanova, who bizarrely made the comment while addressing her followers on the photo and video sharing social networking service, said she thinks it’s “just not right” for any normal man to have any kind of presence on social media.
“How would I react if a guy was present on social media? Was liking and commenting on everything… I wouldn’t even look at such a guy,” Sevastyanova told her 421,000 Insta followers.
“I think that normal men shouldn’t even have a page on Instagram. Or a private account just for friends. All the rest for me is just not right.”
The 25-year-old former athlete now full-time attention-seeker grabbed a snap with two-time UFC champ McGregor at a recent bash in Monaco, where she now lives and with pictures of which she floods her Instagram page and stories.
After posting the snap with McGregor, Sevastyanova had to bat off a backlash from suspicious fans who accused the pair of sneaking a snap with the beautiful brunette behind the back of the Irishman's partner and mother of his two children Dee Devlin.
Sevastyanova however insisted his long-time girlfriend was in fact present at the party, and pleaded with social media users to "stop asking her questions".
McGregor is one of the most watched sports stars in the world whether in the octagon or on the internet, but fails to break in the top ten most followed sports stars on Instagram with a mere 36.7million followers, trailing AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic in number 10, who has amassed 41.4 million.
Kiev-born Sevastyanova retired from professional sport after the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she and Team Russia snatched the Group All-around gold alongside Uliana Donskova, Anastasia Bliznyuk, Alina Makarenko, Anastasia Nazarenko, and Ksenia Dudkina.
Unlike serially-retired comeback king McGregor, whose comeback count Michael Myers would be proud of, Sevastyanova has stayed true to her word and hasn’t been tempted by a return to the spotlight.
Aside from her Olympic gold, Sevastyanova has two European championship golds to her name, both won in her native Russia, as well as a Youth Olympic Games gold medal and, aged 19, appeared on the cover of Russian Maxim.
Lawmakers expect to question US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on dealings with China, Russia and the decision to move troops out of Germany when he offers rare public testimony in the Senate on Thursday.
Pompeo will testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for the first time in 15 months, discussing the State Department’s annual budget request.
Foreign Relations Committee Democrats released a report this week criticizing Pompeo’s tenure at State. They said he had harmed the department’s ability to conduct diplomacy by leaving jobs open for months and treating career diplomats poorly, Reuters reported.
Deteriorating relations with China will be on the agenda, after Washington and Beijing each closed one of the other country’s consulates and Pompeo recently announced an end to Hong Kong’s special trading status.
