This photo seized by the FBI shows Jeffrey Epstein on his private jet, the’Lolita Express’ with an underage girl, whose face has been redacted. (Photo: DOJ)
Startling new revelations are slowly piecing together how Jeffrey Epstein fed his sexual appetite for young girls, and how those in his wide circle of friends and business associates knew… and did nothing.
In the past two weeks a confidant of Microsoft Bill Gates, a 20-year friend of Melania Trump, and a small-time modeling agent, Ramsey Elkholy, have all come forward with detailed pieces of Epstein’s inner workings.
What’s more, they provide a growing body of evidence that confirms the testimony of dozens of girls — now young women — who fell victim to one of the largest and prolonged sex trafficking operations in history, spanning decades around the world.
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The new information paints a picture that is by no means complete; but taken together makes a compelling case for releasing more than 3 million Epstein documents still withheld by Acting Attn. Gen. Todd Blanche.
Wideranging Congressional hearings before a select group of lawmakers, akin to the Senate Watergate Committee, are the only way to get to the bottom of the scandal.
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were reportedly best friends during the 1990s and beyond (Photo: House Government Operations Committee)
Melanie S. Walker should be one of the first to testify. She’s a neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, who served as a key institutional bridge between Epstein and Gates, according to an extensive article in The Wall Street Journal,
Donald Trump, whom Epstein described as “his best friend,” was with him when he and Epstein met Walker at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in the 1990s. Trump had bought the New York landmark in 1988 and sold it off in 1995 to avoid bankruptcy.
Epstein initially tried to recruit Walker as a model but later advised her to continue her medical education and paid all her expenses. Her lawyer David Fleissig, claimed this month that she was in a “coercive relationship” with Epstein that spanned decades, but did not involve sex.
She started working for Gates’s foundation in 2006 after engaging in a relationship with Microsoft exec Steven Sinofsky, who had his own ties to Epstein, according to The Journal.
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In the early 2000s, she met Gates through Sinofsky. She reportedly met Gates at a company barbecue, according to Rolling Stone magazine, which first revealed the relationship in a 2021 article.
In 2006, she was hired by the Gates Foundation, partly so she would stay in Seattle along with Sinofsky, During this time Walker talked highly about Epstein, according to the magazine.
Bill Gates and disgraced Prince Andrew were involved with Epstein. What did Gates know? Perhaps, plenty. (Photo: House Government Operations Committee)
While working at the foundation for more than a decade, she connected Gates, and several of his associates, with the pedophile financier.
She was also close with Britain’s disgraced former Prince Andrew Montbattan-Windsor, according to The Journal.
In apparent move to widen his circle of influence and create a blackmail opportunity, “Epstein actively encouraged Walker to have sex with Gates,” correspondence between Epstein and Walker revealed. He was still married to Melinda Gates,
By Aug. 2014, six years after Epstein’s Florida conviction for sex trafficking, Walker appears to have been aware he was still involved in trafficking.
That month, Walker sent Gates what appeared to be a warning: Gates should maintain “a healthy distance for anything of a personal nature” when dealing with Epstein, she wrote.
Using her flair for medical euphemisms, Walker wrote that Epstein had “pretty incredible human specimens” at his disposal, and offered her own advice; she had seen what could “happen to too many powerful people over the years.” Epstein tries to appeal to the “weaknesses or proclivities” of his targets, she noted, according to The Journal.
More Reading: Epstein Files Most Horrifying Claims: Murder, Rape, Torture, Snuff Films, Sexual Abuse, Blackmail
Yet, during her tenure with Gates, she continued to try to get close to him. According to Department of Justice documents, she provided Epstein with sensitive Microsoft corporate intelligence and insights into Gates’ personal life. By the summer of 2017, the relationship between Walker and Gates turned sexual, just as Epstein had hoped.
Elon Musk’s name surfaces on Jeffrey Epstein’s daily calender. (Photo: House Government Operations Committee)
The affair ended the same year while Walker was winding down her work for Gates. When she was ready to break off the relationship, she turned to Epstein for advice.
Footnote: It wasn’t until early 2020 that the Gates’ became legally separated and living apart from Melinda after 27 years of marriage. They officially announced their divorce on May 3, 2021.
‘The Walker relationship was consensual and ended amicably, according to her lawyer. Walker continued to reach out to Gates periodically for years after.
For his part, Gates has acknowledged his friendship with Epstein was a “huge mistake” and a “serious lapse in judgment.” Gates has also strongly denied allegations of criminal, sexual, or illicit misconduct, labeling them “absolutely absurd and completely false.”
But it’s clear from Walker’s warning that Gates knew of Epstein’s illegal activities with young girls in the mid 2000s and did nothing to inform the police. That potentially makes him and Walker accessories to sex trafficking, and both must be called to explain under oath before a Congressional Committee.
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Melania Trump now appears to have been far more involved with Epstein than her previous denials would suggest, including a possible relationship, according to a former close friend.
Former Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro, who is estranged from 19-year boyfriend and close Trump associate Paolo Zampolli, has ripped open a chapter in Melania’s past that’s far different from the first lady’s recollections.
Donald Trump’s infamous birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein was confirmed in Congress. He denies sending it.
What makes Ungaro different is her close association with Melania and Zampolli, who is now Trump’s U.S. Special Envoy (or Special Representative) for Global Partnerships.
“She was an escort of Jeffrey Epstein. That’s how she met Donald Trump…” Ungaro said in a recorded statement she’s since deleted.
“I am not telling a story. I am standing by the truth I lived,” she added in a seperate social media post.
Ungaro says Melania knows she personally witnessed highly compromising interactions and feels threatened by that, according to media reports. Ungaro was part of Melania’s “close circle of friends” for 20 years.
For her part, Melania’s self-titled memoir claims Zampolli first introduced her to Trump in Sept. 1998 at the Kit Kat Club in New York City. The introduction was completely independent of Epstein, she asserts.
If Melania was as close to Epstein as Ungaro asserts, she must know relevant information about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
So far, however, Melania has issued a blanket denials, claiming she never knew Epstein more than casually. She claims she never even met his sex trafficking partner Ghislaine Maxwell,despite mounds of evidence to the contrary.
Zampolli is one of the connections that link Melania, Ungaro, Epstein and Trump.
More Reading: Trump Implicated in Two Alleged Epstein Killings; Death Threats Were Used Pervasively to Silence Victims
The Italian-born businessman and former modeling agent, recruited Melania (then known as Melania Knauss) in Milan in 1995. He sponsored her H-1B work visa to bring her to the United States in 1996.
According to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents provided to The Associated Press, Melania actually worked illegally in the United States, landing at least 10 modeling jobs without legal permission to work. She obtained a green card in 2001.
The primary connection between Trump, Epstein and Zampolli revolves around the 1990s New York City modeling scene. In 1999,Trump founded his own modeling agency, originally named T Models and later Trump Model Management.
Earlier, Trump had joined forces with John Casablancas — founder of Elite Model Management — to elevate “Look of the Year,” a global modeling competition created to scout teenage girls for contracts with Elite.
Young girls pose at Epstein’s Caribbean retreat, Little St. James Island, circa 2006. (Photo: SDNY)
Trump hosted the event at the Plaza Hotel, appeared as a judge, and became closely tied to Casablancas’s modeling empire.
Casablancas allegedly sent a 15-year-old model to an Upper East Side residence in 1990 for a casting call, where she was directed to meet a photographer later identified as Epstein, who sexually assaulted her, according to a lawsuit filed in 2019.
Trump Model Management allegedly followed the exact same pattern: It brought young girls into the country on tourist or “extraordinary talent” visas, overcrowd them in overpriced apartments, charge them for every service, and send them to work illegally while racking up debt they could never repay, Medium reported last year.
Former models from Trump’s agency say they were instructed to lie to customs and start working immediately upon arrival.
More Reading: Epstein Lusted for Ever Younger Girls; Maxwell Groomed Them for Sex; Newly Released File Details Sordid Lives
While the modeling industry at large served as a major recruitment pipeline for Epstein, the Trump agency’s involvement, if any, is unclear. But Trump had his own share of scandals. A 2016 lawsuit charged the agency with the exploitation of foreign models.
Casablancas’s agency was also closely tied to Jean-Luc Brunel, an executive who ran Elite Paris. Brunel was later accused of being a close associate and facilitator for Epstein’s sex trafficking. Epstein funneled $1 million into his modeling operations, according to records.
Casablancas died in 2013 of cancer. In 2022, Brunel was found hanged in his cell in La Santé prison in Paris.
The 76-year-old had been held for over a year by the French government on suspicion of raping and trafficking minors for sexual exploitation.
Ramsey Elkholy, then a New York City modeling agent, recently detailed his relationship with Epstein in a lengthy Washington Post interview that exposed Epstein’s model connection. Elkholy was a major recruitment asset for Epstein, accoreding to Department of Justice files.
Elkholy pitched young models to Epstein in hundreds of emails over almost a decade, often discussing their physical attributes and sexual tastes.
“I was blown away the first time I met her in person, wanted to tear her clothes off immediately,” he emailed in 2009 to Epstein, who was still under house arrest for his 2008 plea deal.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the ‘Lolita Express.’ (Photo: HOC)
“I really want you to meet her and now she is saying she wants to meet you, so it would be a shame if you didn’t see her before she leaves the country.”
Elkholy left the fashion industry entirely before Epstein’s 2019 arrest, but he could provide crucial insight into Epstein’s operations.
After Epstein’s 2008 sweetheart deal, negotiated by former Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Epstein continued to recruit young girls up until his 2019 arrest.
It took an investigative seriesd published in 2018 by The Miami Herald to open the door to a new investigation in New York City. None of Epstein’s close associates are known to have aided in the investigation.
The insuing public uproar over the series, which exposed Epstein’s sweetheart deal in Florida, led federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to pursue a new indictment.
Epstein was ultimately charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking between 2002 and 2005.
Federal agents raided his $77 million townhouse on New York City’s posh Upper East Side and seized a vast trove of photos depicting underage girls,documents, financial records and recordings of sex acts.
Epstein was denied bail and held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. He died there, allegedly by suicide on Aug. 10, 2019, still awaiting trial.
Trump’s Acting Attorney General Blanche, whom Trump has nominated to serve full time, is refusing to release the vast trove of information or pursue investigations against Epstein’s cohorts.
The scandal cries out for a special prosecutor and extensive congressional hearings to get to the bottom of who was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, including possibly Trump himself.