Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jes Staley Is Set To Face Congress Today Over His Epstein Ties (7/23/26)

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Jes Staley Is Set To Face Congress Today Over His Epstein Ties (7/23/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Today, Jess Staley is scheduled to walk into
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Congress and attempt one of the most difficult sales pitches
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of his long and increasingly disgraced career, convincing lawmakers that
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: his extraordinarily close relationship with Epstein was somehow far less
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: significant than the documentary record makes it appear. Staley would
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: apparently like the public to believe that he was merely
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a banker servicing a wealthy client, an innocent executive who
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: wandered into Epstein's orbit without understanding what was happening around them.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately for Staley, the emails, the visits, the years of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: continued contact, and his own descriptions of the relationship have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: turned that narrative into a steaming pile of corporate manure.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: This wasn't some forgettable account buried in a vast banking portfolio.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Staley described his relationship with Eppsbstein as profound. He reportedly
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: referred to Epstein as family, But now that those words
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: have become inconvenient, Staley's memory has apparently developed the same
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: mysterious technical difficulties that always seem to infect powerful men
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: when Epstein accountability finally arrives. Now, the problem for Staley
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: is not simply that he knew Jeffrey Epstein. Plenty of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: people knew Epstein, and mere association alone does not establish
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: participation in his crimes. The problem is the depth, duration,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and intimacy of that association, followed by Staley's relentless effort
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to shrink it into something sterile, professional, and insignificant. He
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: met Epstein while working at JP Morgan, where Epstein became
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: one of the private banks most notorious and lucrative clients.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Staley continued communicating with him after Epstein's two thousand and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: eight conviction, visited his properties, and maintained a relationship that
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: stretched far beyond the normal boundaries of banking customer. Epstein
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: even named Staley as a potential executor of his estate
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: during multiple years. Yet Staley's public defense has remained an
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: insultingly simple variation of the oldest excuse in the Epstein scandal.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I was close to him. I benefited from knowing them.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I stayed close to him after everyone knew he was
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a convicted sex offender. But somehow I never saw anything
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: troubling YO. That excuse is not merely difficult to swallow.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: It requires the public, you and me, to remove its brain,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: place it gently on a shelf, and pretend that one
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of the most sophisticated bankers in the world suddenly possessed
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the observational skills of a fucking garden vegetable. Just Staley
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: spent decades evaluating people, measuring risk, protecting institutions, and navigating
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  Speaker 1: the private affairs of billionaires. We're supposed to believe that
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  Speaker 1: he could detect weakness in a balance sheet from fifty
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: pen but could not recognize the radioactive danger surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Apparently Staley could assess markets, clients, and reputational exposure across
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the globe, but Epstein remained an unsolvable riddle wrapped in
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a private jet and parked on an island. And then,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of course, there are the emails. More than one thousand
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: communications were cited in the British regulatory proceedings, including messages
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: revealing a relationship far warmer and more personal than the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: one Staley later described. Faced with this documentary avalanche, Staley
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: as leaned on the wonderfully convenient claim that he doesn't
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: recall some of the messages, of course he doesn't. Powerful
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: men like Staley or dug Band rarely remember the incriminating details,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but they somehow retain perfect recollection of every fact that
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: might absolve them. But unfortunately for Staley, the emails remember
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: even when Staley does not. The records, remember, the calendars,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: remember the travel history remembers, and today Congress should make
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  Speaker 1: certain that every forgotten detail is placed directly in front
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of him until his memory either returns or his excuses
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: collapse under their own way. Staley's already tried to sell
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a sanitized description of this relationship to British regulators, and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that effort ended disastrously. The Financial Conduct Authority concluded that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: he had misleadingly characterized his ties to Epstein, imposed a
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: financial penalty and banned them from holding senior positions in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the British financial industry. Staley appealed thought the findings, and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: he lost. Barclays had defended him before ultimately acknowledging the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: information emerging later showed it had been misled. So when
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Staley speaks to Congress today, lawmakers should understand that they're
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: not dealing with a man whose account has remained untouched
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: by serious scrutiny their dealing with the former banking titan,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: whose version of events has already been tested against documentary
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: evidence and found wanting just Staley's narrative also depends on
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: treating Epstein as though he were merely another eccentric millionaire
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: whose depravity remained concealed behind an impenetrable curtain. But after
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, Epstein was not operating under the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: cover of total secrecy. He was a registered sex offender
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: whose criminal case had generated substantial public reporting and controversy.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Continuing a close personal relationship with him was not an
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: act of ignorance. At minimum, it was a conscious decision
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to treat Epstein's conviction as something that could be compartmentalized, minimized,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: or ignored. Staley was free to walk away. Instead, the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: relationship continued. Now he wants the public to believe that
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: his proximity should carry no meaning because he claims he
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: didn't know the full scope of Epstein's conduct. That may
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: be his legal position, but morally and professionally, it's pathetic.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: The financial system did not accidentally become Epstein's greatest shield.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: It became his shield because prestigious people and powerful institutions
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: repeatedly decided that his money, contacts and usefulness mattered more
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: than the screaming warning signs. Epstein needed bankers willing to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: bank them, executives willing to vouch for him, and institutions
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: willing to keep asking how much he was worth instead
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of why. So many disturbing allegations followed him everywhere. Staley
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: occupied a critical position within that world. He wasn't some
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: junior employee processing paperwork in a basement. He was a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: senior executive with enormous authority, exceptional access, and every professional
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: incentive to understand exactly who his clients were. The idea
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that he should be treated as an innocent bystander is
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: not merely unconvincing, it's disgusting. Congress must also resist turning
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: today's appearance into another carefully managed ritual where in a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: dat witness arrives with an army of lawyers, develops selective amnesia,
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  Speaker 1: and escapes through a side door before the public learns
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: anything meaningful. This interview is happening behind closed doors, which
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: already gives Staley the benefit of avoiding immediate public scrutiny.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: That makes it even more important that lawmakers press them relentlessly,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: preserve the transcript, and release all of it. They should
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: ask when he first learned of Epstein's abuse, why the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: relationship continued after the two thousand and eight conviction, what
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: services JP Morgan provided, what internal concerns were raised, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: whether Staley ever intervened on Epstein's behalf. They should examine
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: every contradiction between his testimony, the emails, the regulatory findings,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and the litigation record. No vague answer should be allowed
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: to float by unchallenged. No sudden memory lapse should be
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: treated as the end of the inquiry. Jess Staley has
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: spent years presenting himself as another unfortunate casualty of Jeffrey Epstein,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a man whose reputation and career were damaged because he
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: plays trust in the wrong person. Yo, spare us. The
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: true casualties were the girls and young women that Epstein abused,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: while prestigious men like you continued taking his calls, managing
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: his money, and welcoming him inside elite institutions. Staley lost
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: a banking career. Epstein's survivors lost pieces of their lives
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: that no resignation, settlement, or congressional hearing can ever return.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Any attempt by Staley to position himself near the victim
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: column should be met with the kind of contempt that
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it deserves. So today Jess Staley finally gets another opportunity
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to explain himself. He can explain the emails. He can
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: explain why Epstein was family. He can explain the visits,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the continued contact, the banking relationship, and the years of minimization.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: He can explain how a man celebrated for his intelligence,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: judgment and command the financial real risk remained allegedly oblivious
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to the infernal burning directly beside him. And perhaps most importantly,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: he can explain why anyone should believe him now after
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: regulators concluded that his earlier characterizations of the relationship were misleading.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And that's why, in my opinion, Jess Daily doesn't deserve
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: some kind of polite conversation followed by a handshake and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a waiting limousine. He deserves a forensic interrogation of every
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: excuse he is offered and every contradiction preserved in the record.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: He deserves questions that do not stop when the lawyers
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: become uncomfortable. He deserves lawmakers who understand that wealth and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: prestige are not substitutes for credibility, because the age of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: allowing Epstein's powerful associates to mumble I didn't know and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: disappear back into their mansions should have ended years ago. Today,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Congress has a chance to demonstrate that it finally has
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  Speaker 1: for once. Let Jess Daily answer without hiding behind the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: fog of selective memory, legal euphemisms, and carefully polished corporate language.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Let him explain why his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: close enough to be called profound when it was useful,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: but supposedly distant and insignificant when the consequences arrived. Let
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: him explain how a man paid millions for his judgment
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: somehow missed every warning sign surrounding one of the most
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: notorious predators of the modern era. Let him explain why
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the public should trust his recollection when regulators already concluded
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that his account was misleading. And if he can't explain it,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: then Congress should stop pretending that confusion is an answer,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: that forgetfulness is innocence, or that power automatically deserves the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. Jess Staley has had years to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: refine his excuses. Today those excuses should be dismantled one document,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: one email, and one contradiction at a time, and listen.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Jess Staley has had every advantage money, status and in
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: institutional protection can provide. Today he should be made to
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: answer without shields. And when this testimony is over, the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: question should not be whether he survived the hearing. The
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: question should be whether his story survive the facts. All
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  Speaker 1: the information that goes with this episode can be found
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: in the description box.