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| Jeffrey Epstein and his temple on Little St. James Island (from Wayne Madsen Report) |
Donald Trump apparently is telling the truth about having a "falling out" with convicted pedophile and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein -- although it was over a real-estate deal and not any concerns from Trump about Epstein's taste for sex with underage girls. Since Epstein's arrest on July 6, the scandal has developed tentacles that reach to China; Israel; Virgin Islands; Russia a ranch near Stanley, New Mexico; and vacation spots in the Michigan lake country, near Traverse City.
All of this comes from reporting over the past four days at D.C.-based Wayne Madsen Report (WMR). Let's take a look at some of the latest on a scandal that threatens a sitting U.S. president and VIPs from around the world:
Breaking News: Donald Trump actually tells the truth!
Trump is not lying, Madsen reports, when he speaks of a falling out with Epstein. Here's how Madsen describes it:
Trump’s relationship with Epstein did not falter over Epstein’s continued sexual molestation of underage girls but was caused by a dispute over Palm Beach real estate. The early 1990s was a time when Trump and Epstein allegedly engaged in orgies with girls as young as 12- and 13-years old at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion-townhouse. In 2002, Trump said that Epstein was a “terrific guy” who liked beautiful women on the “younger side.” Trump did not criticize Epstein but offered him praise.
In 2004, Epstein, who was still close to Trump, showed him a foreclosed Palm Beach mansion, called Maison de L'Amitié,that Epstein was planning to purchase for $36 million. Trump, without telling Epstein, bought the property for $40 million through a limited liability corporation called Trump Properties LLC. Since Trump Properties had no money, the deal was totally financed by Deutsche Bank, which has apparently taken over from the defunct BCCI as the new “Bank of Crooks and Criminals International.”
Perhaps as a result of new scrutiny of Trump’s business, as well as social ties to Epstein, Trump lashed out at those probing Deutsche Bank in a July 11 morning tweet:
“The Fake News Media loves the narrative that I didn’t use many banks because the banks didn’t like me. No, I didn’t use many banks because I didn’t (don’t) need their money (old fashioned, isn’t it?). If I did, it would have been very easy for me to get . . . And remember, a bank that I did use years ago, the now badly written about and maligned Deutsche Bank, was then one of the largest and most prestigious banks in the world! They wanted my business, and so did many others!”
The Epstein scandal quickly produces international shock waves
Epstein's ties to Israel form a fascinating angle to the story, and Madsen reports that underage girls were not the only victims in Epstein's perverse network:
Reporter and author Vicky Ward was told that before his Senate confirmation hearing to be Labor Secretary, Acosta had replied to White House staff interviewers that he had struck the sweetheart federal and state of Florida non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with Epstein because the pedophile “belonged to intelligence,” that Acosta was “above his pay-grade” and needed to “back off.” Based on Epstein’s close circle, which includes billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, a strong supporter of Israel; the late Mossad asset, publisher Robert Maxwell; Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine Maxwell; Israel’s uncompromising lapdog, attorney Alan Dershowitz; and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the “intelligence” masters for Epstein is Mossad. Epstein fits the bill of Mossad’s Talmudic motto, “Through Deception Thou Shalt Wage War.” Sexual blackmail of politicians and other important people has always been firmly part of Mossad’s playbook. And while Epstein’s prurient interests involved young girls, WMR has been informed by well-positioned sources that others within Epstein’s trafficking network produced underage males for select Epstein’s “clients.”
Speaking of Israel, Epstein's Little St. James Island includes a structure that appears to be a temple of some sort, perhaps a synagogue. What kind of activities took place there? That remains unclear, writes Madsen:
Little St. James is a 78-acre island located southeast of the coast of St. Thomas. Between 2009 and 2013, Epstein had a temple built in the southwest corner of the island. The blue and white stripe color scheme and gold dome on the structure strongly hint that it is a synagogue of some nature. However, the building is no ordinary synagogue. On the roof is a statue of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, along with statues of two crested birds that appear to be cockatoos. A statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, was also reported on the grounds around the temple. The Jewish religion prohibits the worship of idols, so Epstein’s temple is some sort of strange hybrid of a Greco-Roman-Judaic nature. The door on the temple’s building has a medieval lock designed to keep people confined in the structure.
The presence of a number of underage girls on the island at various times -- some girls as young as 12 -- suggests that the “temple” was used for some sort of bizarre sexual rituals. The temple and other structures on the island are only visible from the air, since access to the island is severely restricted. Some reports claim the gold dome and statues on the roof of the temple have been removed. Epstein also owns the nearby larger island of Great Saint James. Locals and tourists who once visited Great Saint James now avoid it like the plague. Local construction workers, who were hired to build Epstein’s island mansion, temple, and helipad, were required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and, almost to a person, are silent about what they have witnessed on the island, derisively nicknamed “Pedo Island” by the locals.
Little Trouble in Big China
Roughly five days after Epstein's arrest a prominent Chinese businessman was arrested on child-molestation charges in Shanghai. How did that happen so quickly, and what could be the ramifications? Writes: Madsen:
On July 11, Shanghai prosecutors charged Wang Zhenhua, the chairman of SeaZen Holdings Co. Ltd., a major Chinese real estate developer, and Future Land, a Hong Kong developer, with child molestation. Another man, identified only as Zhou, were arrested after the mother of a girl from Jiangsu province said Zhou took her daughter to a Shanghai five-star hotel, where she was molested by Wang and Zhou. Zhou first coaxed the girl by taking her to Shanghai Disneyland. Wang was also politically connected and served on the advisory board for the Shanghai municipal government. The government announced that Wang had been expelled from the body after his arrest. The fact that a billionaire pedophile, who likely had gotten away with molesting young girls for some time, would have been taken down so soon after Epstein’s arrest gives rise to the possibility that among Epstein’s papers have been discovered the names of powerful politicians and businessmen around the world. An FBI tip-off to the Shanghai police directly or through INTERPOL, may have resulted in policed surveillance of Wang and his associates. And in what could pose additional problems for Trump, the portfolio of SeaZen Capital Partners LLC includes properties around Trump properties in Palm Beach County, Florida, ground zero for Epstein and a Chinese intelligence blackmail and influence-peddling operation that involves Mar-a-Lago, billionaire members of Mar-a-Lago, and Trump golf courses.
From the Great Southwest to the Upper Midwest
The public probably thinks of the Epstein scandal arising mostly out of New York City and Palm Beach, Florida. But as Madsen reports, its tentacles reach far into more remote locations:
The U.S. Virgin Islands government is not the only one suspected of consorting with Epstein, who was required to check in with local authorities as a registered sex offender. Epstein was of no interest to authorities in New Mexico, where he maintains the high-desert Zorro Ranch, just east of the Sandia Mountains in Stanley. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said he will push for legislation to require anyone with a sex trafficking conviction to register as a sex offender in New Mexico. At least one of Epstein’s underage victims said she was abused by Epstein at the Zorro Ranch. Epstein bought the ranch property from former Governor Bruce King, who died in 2009. Balderas’s predecessor as Attorney General, Gary King, who is also Bruce King’s son and an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, claimed he returned Epstein’s campaign donations. Gary King’s family continues to own land around the Zorro Ranch, where Epstein also built an airplane hangar and runway. Former Governor Bill Richardson said he gave Epstein’s contributions to his political campaigns to charity.
Epstein also owned the Jeffrey Epstein Scholarship Lodge at Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts, a fine-arts children's boarding school and camp near Traverse City, Michigan. Epstein stands accused of raping then-15-year old Jennifer Araoz at the camp and grooming 13-year old Maria Farmer to be one of his sex slaves.
(Trivia: What recurring character in our Legal Schnauzer story has curious ties to New Mexico? Why, that would be Birmingham attorney and grease ball Rob Riley. Gee, I wonder how Riley developed his connections in New Mexico. Hmmmm.)
A possible Epstein plea deal and ties to organized crime in Russia
What could an Epstein plea deal mean for compromised VIPs around the globe. Madsen writes:
As Trump did not cut ties with Epstein over Epstein’s sexual consorting with minors but over a real estate deal, a significant question remains: Since Epstein faces, perhaps, the rest of his life in prison, he is in a position to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors if he provides them names of others involved in what Epstein’s indictment by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) calls a global “vast network” of victims. Epstein may not have been a billionaire, on paper, but he had access to billions of dollars, much of which -- as is the case with Trump – came from Deutsche Bank. What congressional and SDNY prosecutors are keenly interested in is: What is the amount of Russian oligarch and organized criminal syndicate money that was laundered by Deutsche Bank for businessmen like Trump and Epstein.
The Epstein story is so smarmy that we could use some humor to help break up the perversity. The Israeli angle reminds us of the classic Adam Sandler comedy "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Here are some highlights. Enjoy:
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