Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were a golden couple in high-flying social circles that included Donald Trump, until their downfall for sex trafficking minors. (Photo: White House)
The Trump Justice Department posted a memo yesterday (July 7) slamming the door on the biggest pedophile scandal in U.S. history involving Jeffrey Epstein, and possibly dozens of prominent perps including Donald Trump.
The aftershocks of the announcement are still reverberating among the left and right on social media, not least Trump’s ardent MAGA supporters, who feel betrayed by their revered leader.
But another credible alternative exists to get the truth. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must convene a special grand jury to prepare a detailed investigative report on the case.
The statute of limitations may have been exceeded for criminal charges, since some incidents occurred in the mid-1990s. But New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act, allows survivors of child sexual assault to pursue criminal felony charges until they turn 28. They can file civil lawsuits until they turn 55.
There is no Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a grand jury proceeding. Trump and others would be forced to testify truthfully under penalty of first degree perjury. A conviction could include a prison term of up to seven years, probation for five years and a substantial fine.
Related: Jeffrey Epstein’s Lurid Pedophile Sex Ring in New Netflix Documentary
A full grand jury investigation can provide at least a modicum of justice for Epstein’s victims and bring true final closure to the scandal by implicating or clearing the names of those associated with the late financier.
Trump’s two-decade association with Epstein is well known, and allegations he raped and abused underage girls at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse have dogged him for a decade or more.
Prominent politicians on both sides of the political aisle and high-profile individuals who also had an association with Epstein — Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates among others — have also been tarred by allegations — quickly followed by denials.
The issue resurfaced during the 2024 election, and Trump vowed to make public the government’s long-withheld Epstein files. FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi were tasked with vetting the files before finally releasing them.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (background, right) meet President Clinton at the White House in 1993. (Photo: White House)
Bondi whetted the appetite of those demanding transparency clearly indicating in Fox News interviews that the list existed and was sitting on her desk.
Then came the DOJ memo, stating that no evidence exists that the convicted pedophile was murdered, had blackmailed officials or kept a so-called “client list.”
In the most shocking revelation, the memo also stated no evidence exists that “could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Alan Dershowitz Hit By New Underage Sex Claims While Defending Trump at Impeachment Trial
Epstein allegedly hung himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York. In 2021, Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty by a New York City jury for child sex trafficking and other offenses.
The verdict capped a month-long trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14.
Maxwell had a romantic relationship with Epstein for several years in the early 1990s and remained closely associated with him for more than 25 years until his death. She was not the only person who enabled his sex trafficking, but she is the only one who was charged and convicted.
Maxwell has never revealed anything about her time with Epstein, and his so-called clients remain unknown to this day. No one has ever been held accountable for any sex crimes related to the serial pedophile, despite claims the government was sitting on mounds of evidence.
The extent of Epstein’s involvement with Trump and other high-profile individuals only became clear when a Miami judge released thousands of pages of documents and transcripts from a 2015 lawsuit against Maxwell filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. The court papers were jaw dropping.
The papers not only contain dozens of bold-faced names, they also revealed more than 60 girls (now women) — and, perhaps dozens more had been raped or sexually abused by Epstein and his clients/friends at his New York City townhouse, his Caribbean island and at a New Mexico ranch.
Some were as young as 12- and 13-years-old at the time.
In New York City, Epstein threw parties at his Upper East Side townhouse that often devolved into orgies. Trump, Dershowitz, and others were present at various times with young girls at those parties or in other instances.
A woman identified as Katie Johnson, also Jane Doe, claimed Trump repeatedly raped her at Epstein’s townhouse when she was 13-years-old. Her testimony is captured in a dramatic YouTube video that has been posted for more than 10 years without any legal challenges.
Johnson made two abortive attempts to sue Trump but voluntarily withdrew the lawsuits without prejudice claiming she and her family were receiving death threats.
Epstein allegedly not only sexually abused the girls, but also used money, power and influence to intimidate them into silence afterward. Other girls also said they feared for their lives, as well.
Those who did complain said they felt powerless, isolated and alone after an unprecedented 2008 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a lesser prostitution offense, served 13 months in a county jail with leave during the day, and registered as a sex offender.
Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor, emeritus, and Epstein acquaintance, negotiated the sweetheart Florida plea arrangement. Then Florida U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, was on the other side of the table. He became Secretary of Labor in 2017 under then-President Trump.
The arrangement effectively shut the door to further investigation.
After Epstein was released from confinement, he picked up where he left off until he was recharged on July 6, 2019, for sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York.
He allegedly committed suicide in jail a month later.
The Florida plea deal was a sharp contrast to a 1996 Palm Beach police investigation that yielded enough evidence to put away Epstein for life, according to investigators.
In a June 2016 deposition in the Giuffre case, Palm Beach Detective Joseph Recarey testified that he had spoken to around 30 underage girls. All claimed they were recruited by Epstein and Maxwell to perform massages at his luxury home next door to Trump’s palatial Mar a Lago estate.
Maxwell groomed the girls for sex under the pretext of giving Epstein massages, during which he induced them into sexual acts. Afterward, he paid them. Maxwell coaxed some of the victims to recruit other young girls.
“Epstein would either attempt to fondle the girls or touch the girls inappropriately, and at which point he would masturbate. And when he was done, he would get up and go wash off while the girls would get dressed and go back downstairs and get paid,” the Palm Beach detective testified.
The 2021 Maxwell trial produced similar sordid allegations. Four women described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
One woman testified she was 14 when she met Maxwell and Epstein at a music camp that Epstein sponsored. Another woman said Maxwell and Epstein both fondled her.
One of the four women, who said she was “groomed” for sex by Maxwell testified Epstein specifically took her to meet Donald Trump at Mar a Lago when she was just 14.
The encounter took place in the 1990s, but the woman was never specifically asked during the trial why Epstein took her to meet Trump or whether she had sexual relations with the future president.
Epstein also recruited girls from a high school in a poor section of West Palm Beach. One girl testified that Epstein masturbated and fondled her “every time” they got together. He also wanted her to bring along “any friends that were my age or younger,” she testified.
Maxwell told a friend that Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands was completely wired for video. The friend believed that Maxwell and Epstein were videotaping everyone on the island as an insurance policy. When police raided his Palm Beach residence in 2006, two hidden cameras were discovered in his home.
Maria Farmer, who filed the first criminal complaint against Epstein in 1996, said Epstein showed her a media room in the New York mansion where individuals were monitoring pinhole cameras throughout the house, according to CBSNews.
The media room was accessed through a hidden door. She stated that in the media room “there were men sitting here. And I looked on the cameras, and I saw toilet, toilet, bed, bed, toilet, bed.” She added that, “It was very obvious that they were, like, monitoring private moments.”
In August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell, Epstein spoke at length with author Michael Wolff about his relationship with Trump. He alleged Trump was a serial cheat in his marriages and loved to “fuck the wives of his best friends.”
Wolff also said Epstein showed off photos of Trump with topless young women sitting in his lap. Trump denied the claims.
Epstein was apparently generous with the use of his private planes. Trump’s name appeared seven times in the passenger logs. Bill Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew and celebrities including Mick Jagger were also listed.
Epstein’s infamous leaked address books had Trump’s own phone number as well as Melania’s.
Lately, Elon Musk had been stirring the pot over Trump’s Epstein allegations. After an explosive falling out over Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the billionaire Tesla mogul went ballistic on “X.”
“Time to drop the really big bomb: (Donald Trump) is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.”