Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Trump’s DFC Chief Ben Black and the Lingering Shadow of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 2) (6/8/26)

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Trump’s DFC Chief Ben Black and the Lingering Shadow of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 2) (6/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:02
  Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
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  where he left off with the Guardian article talking about
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  Ben Black. The author of this article is Kate Brown.
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  Ben Black attended the Dalton School, a prestigious Upper east
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  Side establishment where Epstein briefly taught math and physics in
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  the seventies. He graduated in two thousand and two alongside
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  many of New York's most well healed children, and went
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  on to study history at the University of Pennsylvania. He
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  later earned a dual master's in business and law at
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  Harvard and a master's in taxation from New York University Harvard.
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  Always with Harvard. In twenty eleven, Ben Black and several
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  of his family members invested in Environmental Solutions Worldwide, a
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  diesel emissions control company where Epstein was a six percent
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  shareholder VIA's Virgin Island shell company Financial Trust. According to
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  SEC filings, Ben Black and Joshua Black, one of his brothers,
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  became directors of ESWW that same year. Company record show AH,
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  I have no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to
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  do with it, never mind the fact that Leon Black
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  has given Epstein hundreds of millions of dollars. But sure,
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  nothing to see here, just another coincidence. It's not clear
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  whether Ben Black was aware that Epstein was ESWW shareholder
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  when he took a stake in the entity through his
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  personal trust fund, though his father, Leon had encouraged Epstein
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  to invest in the group a year earlier. Oh, he
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  had no idea. Stop with the nonsense. Okay, not that
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  big of elite. His dad knew his dad encouraged Epstein
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  to invest. Is it too much for us to think
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  that Ben Black knew too? Two weeks after Leon black suggestion,
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  Epstein wired one million to purchase ESWW company debt augmenting
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  holdings that dated back to two thousand and five. According
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  to his barristern's account. Epstein, through his company, sold his
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  ESWW shares to the Black Family Partner's LP, a private
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  partnership that manages some of Leon Black's fourteen billion dollar
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  estate in November of twenty twelve. All these ties blind
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  and if this was normal circumstances, and say that you
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  or I were accused of what Epstein was accused of,
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  this will all be rico And I know, I know
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  you're tired of hearing it. But guess what, I'm tired
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  of living in a reality where it's not a Rico case.
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  This is exactly what Rico was built for. Lawyers for
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  Leon Black described this as a change an investment strategy
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  on behalf of Epstein. Oh just it's always Epstein's fault.
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  Have you noticed that too? All these people that get
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  called out, all these people that had relationships with them,
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  now they all want to blame Epstein. He was evil,
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  he was this, he was a well was he evil
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  when you got as were getting riched together? Was he
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  evil when he was pressing women that you allegedly assaulted?
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  And if he was, then why do you still do
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  business with him? Why didn't you write him out? Why
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  didn't you go to the authorities and tell them I
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  know a lot more about Epstein than other people. There
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  are some discrepancies in the public timeline documenting Ben Black's
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  involvement with ESWW. A Senate Ethics disclosure dates his board
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  term to June twenty twenty one, ten years after Black's
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  role was first listed in SEC filings. A company web
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  page that listed Ben Black on its board of directors
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  between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three has been taken down. Oh,
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  I'm sure it has been. Got to cover those tracks.
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  Got to make sure the cover up is running as
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  smoothly as possible. Right. Lawyers for Leon Black did not
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  answer questions about Ben Black's role on the ESWW board
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  or his tenure there. ESWW did not return a request
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  for comment about Black's ten with the company, and I
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  doubt they will private company. Why would they? Ben Black
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  said that he would resign from his position at EESWW
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  upon assuming his role at Development Finance Corporation, but would
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  continue to own company stock. By his mid twenties, Ben
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  Black had taken a position within the natural resources group
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  at his father's firm in New York, but he had
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  no idea about Epstein, right, no clue that Epstein was
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  a dirt bag. My dad hangs out with him, must
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  be a great guy, or the flip side of that,
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  your dad's scumbag too, either or Records show that Black
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  was scheduled to meet Epstein on several occasions after the
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  young scion returned to the city. He was first scheduled
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  to meet Epstein as his father's guest in twenty twelve.
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  It's not known whether the meeting went ahead. A year later,
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  emails between Epstein's staff and a Google administrator reflected that
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  Epstein would be joining Ben Black and his girlfriend for
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  a private tour of Google's New York headquarters. Leon Black
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  and crinny A Shuliac, Epstein's longtime Belarussian lover, were also
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  listed as part of the six person tour. The identity
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  of the six guest was redacted in Justice Department filings.
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  Oh what an intricate web we weave. All these people
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  are so connected, and they all knew Jeffrey Epstein a
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  lot more intimately than they ever let on. And now
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  that it's all coming to light, they're trying to say
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  face the best way they can. But when it comes
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  to these emails, they provide receipts, and all the people
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  that denied being friendly with Epstein being partners with them, well,
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  they were proven to be liars. Lawyers for Leon Black
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  said that Ben Black did not attend the tour of
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  the Google headquarters, and that a tour did not attend
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  does not establish a relationship of any kind, let alone
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  a close one. By September twenty thirteen, Epstein obtained Ben
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  Black's contact information after a family estate planning meeting which
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  both men were present. According to a memo summarizing the meeting,
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  Leon said fine to set up meetings with Ben and Josh.
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  Leon Black's assistant emailed Epstein's assistant. It's not clear whether
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  the two men corresponded, but Epstein told a friend that
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  he flew to the Hamptons to celebrate Ben Black's birthday
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  his thirtieth birthday in July of twenty fourteen. Lawyers for
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  Leon Black said Epstein did not attend a birthday celebration
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  for Benjamin in twenty fourteen, wherever, well, somebody's lying, who
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  is it? And why would Epstein lie about going to
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  the party. After reviewing the email in which Epstein told
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  a friend that he attended Ben Black's birthday, the lawyer
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  later said that they were not aware of any email
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  to Leon Black acknowledging any attendants at the party, and
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  mister Black and his son have confirmed that Epstein did
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  not attend whatever he may have set in emails. It's
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  very well known that Epstein was prone to exaggeration, lies,
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  and embellishments to try to elevate his importance with others. Oh,
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  Epstein was so evil, It's well known they knew that
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  about him, but they didn't know he was diddling people. Okay, sure,
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  how can anyone take any of these people serious? That's
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  the real question. And honestly, I'm at the point that
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  the people that take this kind of shit serious, I
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  don't take them serious. Sorry. If your ass is dumb
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  enough to be dog walked by these people at this point,
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  you deserve everything you get. Two days after Ben Black's
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  birthday party, Epstein weighed in on Black's plan to buy
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  and eleven and a half million dollars townhouse. The transaction
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  was carefully orchestrated to minimize tax exposure. Email show Epstein
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  toltally on Black's executive assistant that if Ben had questions
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  after the purchase, he could call any time. People need
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  to understand that was Epstein's biggest role, bundling money. That's
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  what he did. Everything else was secondary. Epstein was so
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  useful because he knew how to hide money. That's it.
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  That's the whole story. And because he was so useful,
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  they looked the other way. By the end of twenty fourteen,
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  Black's parents had moved into a thirty room Italian Renaissance
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  style mansion one block from Epstein's upper East Side address.
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  Tensions between Leon Black and Epstein Ebden flowed over the years.
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  Emails show Epstein repeatedly admonished Black for delaying personal changes
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  in his family's office, Elysia management, and short changing his
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  compensation for a formidable advisory task. In February twenty sixteen,
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  Epstein's assistant asked Ben Black and his brother Joshua if
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  they would have their portraits painted as a gift to
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  their father. The brothers agreed and met Kyang No, a
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  Korean painter, for a photography session. No told The Guardian
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  that he received a scholarship from Epstein to study portraiture
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  at the New York Academy of Art. He said the
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  scholarship stipulated that he had to paint at least one
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  portrait for donors. They sent me the two guys, he recalled.
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  I looked their photo and then I painted it in
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  my studio space. After graduating, some guy came and picked
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  it up. Well, I don't blame the artist, right, I
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  have no qualms with him. His job is to create art.
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  That's what he did. And Jeffrey Epstein, we all know
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  that he had his fingers deep in the New York
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  Academy of Art. And that's another question that I've always had,
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  just how deep did that go? And was the New
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  York Academy of Art feeding girls directly into the belly
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  of the beast, because if you listen to what Maria says,
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  that's what was happening. He added that he had no
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  knowledge of Epstein or the Black family at the time
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  or received any money in exchange for his work. Lawyers
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  for Leon Black initially said that neither Benjamin nor his
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  brother Joshua had sat for a portrait commissioned by Epstein,
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  and that no follow up eml suggested that a portrait
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  had been painted. After reviewing a picture of the painting,
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  the lawyers additionally said, as for the portrait you provided,
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  it appears to be painted from a picture. Neither Ben
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  nor josh Black sat for a portrait commissioned by Epstein.
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  Leon Black doesn't have any portrait of Ben and josh period,
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  So I guess the artist is lying. I'm gonna believe
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  the artist over Leon Black. Sorry. If Epstein appreciated the
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  boys help, his emails didn't convey much respect for their
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  financial acumen. You have a bomb of colored string that
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  your retarded children have formed, Epstein wrote to Leon in
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  a detailed note about their family finances. It has to
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  be carefully unwound. And that's what I said earlier. In
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  Epstein's own words, called Leon Black's kids retarded, and Black
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  continued to have a relationship with them. Imagine somebody telling
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  you your kids are retarded. I'll show you retarded because
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  you're gonna have CTE after I'm done with you. But
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  Leon Black, Nah, no big deal. I got a couple
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  retarded kids, haha, Jeffrey. On December thirty one, twenty fourteen,
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  Epstein received an email from Saint Bart's, a Caribbean destination
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  where many of the financier's friends flocked for the holidays.
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  Hello Jeffrey, Yes, last night we met Black's family and
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  Greek boy too. He was with a very ugly, rude girl.
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  But we had a great time with the brothers. Hopefully
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  we'll meet them today. They are very nice and this
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  is from an undisclosed person. On New Year's Day, he
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  received a second email. Tonight dinner with Ben Black and brothers.
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  This is a great time and lots of fun here.
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  I love it well. I wonder who that was. Were
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  they girls that were being trafficked meeting with the Black brothers.
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  So it looks to me like they've just been lying
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  this whole time, and they're so embarrassed about their relationship
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  with Epstein that they'll do whatever they can to try
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  and make sure nobody knows about it. But I think
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  these emails are damning, and my question is why is
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  Ben Black part of the administration? His email contacts were
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  among the young women gathered in same Bart's for New
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  Year's where one person reported that two hundred fabulous and
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  more fabulous guests had joined the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich,
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  then wife for a year in bash. Leon and Deborah
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  Black were among them. A month later, Epstein received a
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  missive from a woman in New York. Hello, Jeffrey, please
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  help me what to answer to Ben Black? He just
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  texted me, So, how does your schedule look? I have
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  a few ideas, but do you have a preference? Well?
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  What does that mean? Why does Jeffrey Epstein have anything
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  to do with some woman hanging out with Ben Black?
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  Could it be that Jeffrey Epstein was not the lone
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  predator that we've heard about. Nah, that couldn't be the case, right,
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  Epstein and the woman who identified herself as Cheek in
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  more than one hundred emails discuss Ben's email and his
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  subsequent invitation to dinner. At nine am the next morning,
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  Epstein received an email with the subject line Ben Black, Hello,
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  j Free. Last night I had a great time with
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  Ben and he kissed me. He was behaving like a
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  real gentleman. Chick references Ben Black and his family on
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  at least three separate occasions in her correspondence with Epstein.
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  So what role did Epstein play here? Was he matchmaking again?
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  And was this one of the girls that was trafficked?
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  I got questions? She first asked Epstein for help to
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  get in with Leon and the family to an exclusive
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  New Year's party. After he arranged her tickets to Saint
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  Bart's back in New York, Cheek asked Epstein for help
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  responding to blacks text messages, and then asked whether Ben
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  Black would be joining her appointment with his father one
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  month after they had kissed. Is Leon Bee coming tomorrow alone? No,
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  bb Jeffrey, what time would you like to see me tomorrow?
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  She wrote? It's not known whether the appointment went ahead. Look,
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  I'm sure that I'm not the only one that thinks
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  all of that needs to be explained, like what the
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  hell are you people doing and why. The Black family
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  lawyers describe Ben Black's relationship to Chick as a single
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  private date between two consenting adults. In twenty fifteen, Benjamin
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  met a woman and they went on a date and
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  he treated her nicely, a fact represented in the emails,
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  they said in a statement to the Guardian. They also
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  said that Ben Black did not know that the woman
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  would email Epstein or the content of any emails that
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  may have exchanged with Epstein. The lawyers did not comment
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  on records linking Ben Black to women in Saint Bart's
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  The lawyers did not comment on emails referring to Leon
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  Black and Chick. Like the other women in Epstein's orbit,
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  Chick appeared to defer to Epstein for both personal and
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  financial support. She asked for small favors like polishing a
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  resume or purchasing a coffee machine, and larger ones like
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  topping up her bank account when I ran dry. Epstein
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  also called on Chick for favors and scolded her when
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  she didn't follow through. We had planned to go to
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  Paris and I he needed help on the plane, he wrote,
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  after New Year's shameful, shameful. Amid their conversation, Chick appears
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  to write about Ben Black with a similar blend of
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  deference and awe. He is so cool and I don't
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  understand what he wants from me, she wrote, Oh, I
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  know what he wants. Not that difficult. Several DFC staff
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  raised questions about Ben Black's background when Trump first elected
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  the Wall Street scion to lead the US multi billion
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  dollar lending arm, according to interviews with nearly a dozen
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  former and current employees who spoke to The Guardian on
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  the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Oh, fear
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  of retribution from Trump? Come on, never, he would never
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  do that. Trump's just a great guy, and you know
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  he allows a lot of criticism from the people around them.
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  Black has a limited track record in emerging markets. According
• 15:56
  to public records, his New York based private equity firm
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  Fortinbras's Enterprises opened an outpost in the UAE in twenty
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  twenty four, where Black helped open a branch of his
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  family's office. That same year, his father, Leon was the
• 16:11
  subject of a Senate investigation into dealings with Epstein at
• 16:15
  the time. He's not qualified to do this for sure,
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  A former DFC director said of Black, it does make
• 16:22
  you wonder, you know, why is he in that role? Nepotism.
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  That's why nothing more than Donald Trump thrown as boy
• 16:28
  Leon Black a bone. A White House spokesperson sent an
• 16:32
  unsolicited email to the Guardian defending Black's fitness to lead
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  America's Deal Team, an agency that has been rebranded under Trump,
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  and Leon Black's lawyers sent a legal letter to the Guardian.
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  It's absurd to imply that Benjamin, who has law and
• 16:47
  business degrees from Harvard and a master's in taxation from
• 16:50
  New York University School of Law, is somehow underqualified to
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  run the DFC or only got the position based on
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  his father's connections to mister Trump. How many other people
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  have those same qualifications. So what may bend Black so special?
• 17:05
  Pretty simple question. When the Department of Justice released portions
• 17:09
  of Epstein's correspondence in December twenty twenty five, a handful
• 17:13
  of DFC employees uncover records of their boss and the
• 17:16
  files and their concerns changed. Initially, people were sharing Epstein's
• 17:21
  comments and private group chats, particularly Epstein's criticism of the
• 17:25
  Black Children's financial skills. One former staff member said, people
• 17:30
  were like eye roll. The guy running the world's largest
• 17:32
  bilateral bank apparently can't manage money. The person said, this
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  is such a joke. A few weeks later, staff discovered
• 17:40
  chicks email to Epstein describing her date with Ben and
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  the chatter largely stopped. People just wanted to put blinders on,
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  a former staff member said, summarising a series of their
• 17:52
  conversations with current employees. Now, they said, morale is low
• 17:56
  and people are afraid to speak out. Everybody's just looking
• 17:59
  out for their jobs. Well, that's usually what happens. Nobody
• 18:03
  wants to come forward because they know the deal. If
• 18:06
  they come forward, then Trump and his foot soldiers are
• 18:09
  going to come after you, and as we've seen recently,
• 18:13
  that is not a good ideal when it comes to
• 18:14
  your career. So look, let's be clear. There's no allegation
• 18:18
  that Ben Black did anything criminal, none at all. The
• 18:21
  problem is his father is somebody that was deeply entrenched
• 18:25
  and deeply tied to Jeffrey Epstein, and considering where the
• 18:28
  investigation is and that his father is a target of
• 18:31
  the investigation or should be, you would think that Ben
• 18:34
  Black wouldn't be in the administration, but unfortunately, in this
• 18:38
  bizarre reality that we find ourselves in, up is down
• 18:42
  and down is up and Epstein adjacent. Well, that's acceptable,
• 18:47
  all right, folks. That's gonna do it for this one.
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  All the information that goes with this episode can be
• 18:52
  found in the description box.