Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Mega Edition: Author Michael Gross And The Day He Spent With Jean Luc Brunel (7/25/26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Article is from the Daily Beast. The author of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: article is Emily Sugarman. The headline models say Jeffrey Epstein's
- 0:09Speaker 1: closest pal drugged and rape them. That's a pretty ominous headline, huh.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Kind of ominous headline that you would think would have
- 0:19Speaker 1: people getting arrested at the very least to sit down
- 0:22Speaker 1: and have a talk, right, But no, in this world
- 0:25Speaker 1: where these people move, in this world where these people shake,
- 0:31Speaker 1: going to jail is unheard of. I highly suggest that
- 0:36Speaker 1: you folks check out the Daily Beasts coverage of this story.
- 0:40Speaker 1: They have done very, very very good work following the
- 0:43Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein case, one of the only outlets to continually,
- 0:47Speaker 1: you know, dig deep and provide good information, good context,
- 0:54Speaker 1: and they've continued to cover the case. So make sure
- 0:59Speaker 1: you check out the Daily beat work. Even as he
- 1:03Speaker 1: was serially abusing underage girls, billionaire financier, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
- 1:10Speaker 1: managed to collect a stable of powerful, famous friends, former presidents,
- 1:16Speaker 1: prime ministers, lawyers, and scientists with whom he could discuss
- 1:21Speaker 1: his plans to improve the human race with his own DNA.
- 1:25Speaker 1: And obviously it goes much deeper than that, right, we
- 1:28Speaker 1: know that these scientists were working on a lot of
- 1:31Speaker 1: confidential projects, a lot of projects that probably shouldn't be discussed.
- 1:39Speaker 1: And we know that Jeffrey Epstein owned a lot of
- 1:41Speaker 1: these academics, a lot of these scientists, and that Jeffrey
- 1:44Speaker 1: Epstein not only had access to them, but also had
- 1:49Speaker 1: access to the programs that they were working on and
- 1:52Speaker 1: whatever sort of project they were cooking up. Again, do
- 1:55Speaker 1: you really think it just happened to be a coincidence
- 1:59Speaker 1: that Jeffrey Epstein decided to move to Stanley, New Mexico,
- 2:04Speaker 1: pretty much smack dab in the middle of Los Alamos
- 2:09Speaker 1: and the Santa Fe Institute. Do you really think that's
- 2:13Speaker 1: just a coincidence, or do you think he wanted to
- 2:16Speaker 1: be very very close to all of his academic stooges.
- 2:24Speaker 1: But Epstein's closest pal appears not to have been a
- 2:26Speaker 1: prominent politician or top academic, but a sleazy, scandal prone
- 2:32Speaker 1: modeling agent with virtually limitless connections to young women around
- 2:36Speaker 1: the world. And I will say this about that statement.
- 2:40Speaker 1: I don't believe that he was Jeffrey Epstein's best pal.
- 2:43Speaker 1: I just believe that he was a convenient friend for
- 2:46Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein a convenient associate who was able to provide
- 2:49Speaker 1: stuff that other people a might not be willing to
- 2:53Speaker 1: provide or be not be able to provide. And with
- 2:57Speaker 1: Jean Luke Burnell's connections in the modeling world, and with
- 3:01Speaker 1: his connections all around the seedy parts of that world,
- 3:05Speaker 1: it was easy for Jean Luke Burnell to swoop in
- 3:09Speaker 1: and act as a top procureur for Jeffrey Epstein. And again,
- 3:13Speaker 1: if we're talking in mob terms, his consiglieri, Jean Luke
- 3:20Speaker 1: Burnell seventy two is the former head of Karen Models
- 3:23Speaker 1: in MC two two, well regarded international modeling agencies that
- 3:28Speaker 1: launched the careers of cover girls like Jinta Lapina, Juana Berga,
- 3:33Speaker 1: and Cecily Lopez. He has also been accused by former
- 3:37Speaker 1: models of drugging and date raping them, and by former
- 3:40Speaker 1: employees of recruiting foreign underage girls to be pimped out
- 3:44Speaker 1: of Epstein's New York apartments. And we know this to
- 3:47Speaker 1: be the case for sure. We've heard Maria Farmer talk
- 3:51Speaker 1: about it, We've heard other people talk about it, We've
- 3:54Speaker 1: heard Steve Scully talk about it. It is a fact,
- 3:57Speaker 1: in my opinion that this was occurring, okay, And it
- 4:01Speaker 1: is a travesty that the United States government, at least
- 4:06Speaker 1: three administrations going back four probably let all of this
- 4:11Speaker 1: occur underneath their noses. Nobody stood up, No hero appeared.
- 4:17Speaker 1: Nobody from the Clinton administration, nobody from the Bush administration,
- 4:23Speaker 1: nobody from the Obama administration, and certainly nobody from the
- 4:27Speaker 1: Trump administration has stood up and held these people to account.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Brunell and his attorney did not respond to multiple calls
- 4:39Speaker 1: and emails seeking comment. The modeling agent has previously denied
- 4:43Speaker 1: any sexual misconduct or involvement in Epstein's crimes. Of course
- 4:47Speaker 1: he has. All of these people have done the same
- 4:49Speaker 1: thing here. No evil see, no evil speak no evil.
- 4:52Speaker 1: I had no idea that Jeffrey Epstein was a pervert
- 4:55Speaker 1: son of a bitch, ab No, how would I know, Bro,
- 5:00Speaker 1: don't worry about your friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. That's the
- 5:03Speaker 1: least of your worries, buddy. A, you've been running around
- 5:07Speaker 1: raping people since the eighties, supposedly, and b you're being
- 5:10Speaker 1: credibly accused by Virginia of taking part in this sexual
- 5:14Speaker 1: abuse of her and perhaps other girls. I don't know
- 5:18Speaker 1: that for a fact that hasn't come out yet, but
- 5:20Speaker 1: it would be logical to think that if Epstein was
- 5:23Speaker 1: receiving three twelve year old models from France from Jean
- 5:27Speaker 1: Luke Brunel, that Jean Luke Brunell was also partaking in
- 5:31Speaker 1: the abuse. Right. Then you add the fact that he's
- 5:35Speaker 1: being credibly accused by Virginia, and it's not that hard
- 5:39Speaker 1: to make the leap. I strongly deny having committed any
- 5:44Speaker 1: illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my
- 5:47Speaker 1: work as a scouter or a model agency's manager, Brunell
- 5:51Speaker 1: said in a twenty fifteen statement, adding I have exercised
- 5:55Speaker 1: with the utmost ethical standard for almost forty years. So
- 6:00Speaker 1: the last time anyone heard from this guy was five
- 6:01Speaker 1: years ago. That's a last statement this guy's made. Nobody's
- 6:05Speaker 1: decided to track him down, nobody's chasing him down. There's
- 6:08Speaker 1: no private investigators looking to talk to him. I mean,
- 6:12Speaker 1: I know the Sun's offering a reward for Gilain Maxwell
- 6:16Speaker 1: because we know she's not in France, right, but nothing
- 6:19Speaker 1: for Jean lu Brunel. Nobody's interested in what this clown
- 6:22Speaker 1: has to say. Boy, if I had the resources forget
- 6:25Speaker 1: about it, there would not be a stone left unturned
- 6:29Speaker 1: in my pursuit of this dirt bag. For years prior
- 6:35Speaker 1: to Epstein's apparent suicide this month, Brunell was one of
- 6:38Speaker 1: the financier pedophiles most frequent male associates. The agent appears
- 6:43Speaker 1: more than fifteen times on flight logs from Epstein's private plane,
- 6:47Speaker 1: jetting everywhere from Paris to New York, often in the
- 6:50Speaker 1: presence of young women. He visited Epstein nearly seventy times
- 6:55Speaker 1: in jail, according to visitor logs, and several more times
- 6:58Speaker 1: while the pedophile was on house arrest in Palm Beach.
- 7:02Speaker 1: According to one of Epstein's housemen, Brunell was comfortable enough
- 7:06Speaker 1: to whip up his own meals in the pedophile's kitchen
- 7:09Speaker 1: and was one of Epstein's most frequent callers. And I've
- 7:13Speaker 1: also heard reports that while Epstein was in the clink,
- 7:16Speaker 1: if you want to call it that, that Jean Luke
- 7:19Speaker 1: Brunell was also staying at the Palm Beach mansion at times.
- 7:24Speaker 1: So for this guy to act like him and Epstein
- 7:26Speaker 1: warn't buddy buddy, for him to act like he wasn't
- 7:29Speaker 1: a key cog in the machine, it is ridiculous. This
- 7:37Speaker 1: man is as guilty as the day is long. In
- 7:41Speaker 1: my opinion, he needs to be swooped up right now,
- 7:45Speaker 1: hit with Rico indictments and put on trial. A trove
- 7:54Speaker 1: of documents unsealed this month revealed several messages Brunell left
- 7:57Speaker 1: for Epstein over the years, dude recorded by the financier
- 8:01Speaker 1: Pedophiles employees and later recovered by investigators. In one message,
- 8:07Speaker 1: the note taker reported that Brunel just did a good
- 8:10Speaker 1: one eighteen years who reportedly told him I love Jeffrey.
- 8:15Speaker 1: So the people who were writing these notes were aiding
- 8:20Speaker 1: and abetting after the fact the actions of sexual abusers.
- 8:25Speaker 1: At the very least, that alone is a predicate for Rico.
- 8:33Speaker 1: I don't know how much clearer I need to be
- 8:36Speaker 1: that this is a Rico case. No matter how you
- 8:39Speaker 1: chop it. There is no way in hell how this
- 8:47Speaker 1: does not end up in a Rico case when we
- 8:49Speaker 1: have a proper functioning justice system. He has a teacher
- 8:55Speaker 1: for you to teach you how to speak Russian, reads
- 8:57Speaker 1: another note, dated September two thousand and five. She is
- 9:00Speaker 1: two times eight sixteen years old, not blonde. Lessons are
- 9:04Speaker 1: free and you can have the first today if you call,
- 9:07Speaker 1: think about what that is inferring to, and then try
- 9:13Speaker 1: not to vomit before you let it register. The person
- 9:18Speaker 1: who took these notes is just as guilty as Jeffrey
- 9:22Speaker 1: Epstein and John Luke Brunell. Well, while it is unclear
- 9:31Speaker 1: how they met, Brunelle and Epstein were friends since at
- 9:33Speaker 1: least the launch of MC two in two thousand and five.
- 9:37Speaker 1: According to legal documents, that's incorrect. Their relationship goes back, way, way,
- 9:42Speaker 1: way further than that. Jean lu Burnell has been running
- 9:45Speaker 1: around the scene in New York for quite some time.
- 9:48Speaker 1: We know that Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture in so
- 9:51Speaker 1: called polite society, and we know that these two dudes
- 9:54Speaker 1: were definitely a lot closer than that. Considering MC two,
- 9:58Speaker 1: which was opened in two thousand eight. Epstein was a
- 10:02Speaker 1: silent partner, and you know, I had a lot of
- 10:06Speaker 1: connections to this modeling agency. What did they just meet
- 10:09Speaker 1: one day and then three weeks later Epstein was like,
- 10:12Speaker 1: all right, let's go into business together. Of course not.
- 10:17Speaker 1: This relationship was set up, this relationship, relationship was put
- 10:21Speaker 1: into motion, and then we see where it went. We
- 10:25Speaker 1: see how it ended up. In fact, Epstein and MC
- 10:32Speaker 1: two were so closely associated that one insider were referred
- 10:36Speaker 1: to the pedophile as the silent E. In the agency's
- 10:39Speaker 1: equation for those who failed high school science, E equals
- 10:43Speaker 1: MC squared is the formula underpinning Albert Einstein's theory of relativity,
- 10:49Speaker 1: and that is why the company was named MC two.
- 10:52Speaker 1: So for people to act like Epstein and John Luke
- 10:55Speaker 1: Brunel weren't close or there's nothing here, there's not a
- 10:59Speaker 1: threat to be pulled on here. Did you fall and
- 11:03Speaker 1: hitch your head? Are you suffering from CTE? Because that's
- 11:07Speaker 1: the only way that you can look at this case
- 11:09Speaker 1: and not understand the sort of monster and animal that
- 11:13Speaker 1: Jean Luke Brunel is. Representatives for Epstein and MC two
- 11:19Speaker 1: have long denied having any business relationship, but Brunell admitted
- 11:23Speaker 1: in court documents that Epstein once extended him a million
- 11:27Speaker 1: dollar letter of credit, which the agent used to invest
- 11:30Speaker 1: in a new venture with Elite Models in Paris. The
- 11:33Speaker 1: venture emanagement was first registered by Epstein's attorney, who listed
- 11:38Speaker 1: its address as four fifty seven Madison Avenue, the same
- 11:43Speaker 1: as Epstein's investment firm, Jay Epstein and Company. See what
- 11:48Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein was trying to do here, folks, is the
- 11:51Speaker 1: same thing he was doing at Victoria's Secret, but at
- 11:54Speaker 1: a whole different kind of level. Whereas a little bit
- 11:59Speaker 1: of this agression, at the very least must have been
- 12:01Speaker 1: used during the Victoria's Secret modeling shows. When Jeffrey Epstein
- 12:06Speaker 1: has you as a model at his agency that he's
- 12:09Speaker 1: running from behind the scenes, well that's a whole different
- 12:12Speaker 1: ballgame entirely right. You are completely and utterly at his mercy,
- 12:17Speaker 1: in his grasp, and bound for misery. According to Brunell,
- 12:24Speaker 1: the venture fell apart after elite models learned of the
- 12:27Speaker 1: sex trafficking allegations against Epstein. The modeling agent even sued
- 12:32Speaker 1: Epstein in twenty fifteen, claiming the allegations had tarnished his
- 12:36Speaker 1: agency's reputation and caused him a tremendous loss of business.
- 12:40Speaker 1: This is like Stalin suing Hitler. I mean, are you
- 12:44Speaker 1: kidding me? No matter how scummy Jeffrey Epstein's stink is,
- 12:50Speaker 1: your stink is just as bad, mister Brunel, You dumb,
- 12:54Speaker 1: disgusting bastard. But at least two people have claimed that
- 13:00Speaker 1: Brunell not only knew about the trafficking he was an
- 13:03Speaker 1: active participant. And this is what I was talking about,
- 13:06Speaker 1: and this is why the profile is so important, and
- 13:09Speaker 1: this is why we're hammering at home again on the
- 13:11Speaker 1: podcast today. Virginia Roberts, one of the first survivors to
- 13:17Speaker 1: speak out against Epstein after he was granted a sweetheart
- 13:20Speaker 1: plea deal, claimed in legal filings that Brunell was one
- 13:24Speaker 1: of many powerful men she was forced to sleep with
- 13:27Speaker 1: in her years as Epstein's sex slave. She also accused
- 13:33Speaker 1: Brunell of using his agency to find foreign girls, obtain
- 13:36Speaker 1: visas for them, and farm them out to his friends,
- 13:39Speaker 1: including Epstein. Think about that for a minute. What that means.
- 13:45Speaker 1: How many girls were quote unquote farmed out to Epstein?
- 13:51Speaker 1: And then what happened to all of these girls? Where
- 13:53Speaker 1: are they? What happened to the unnamed girls who were
- 14:00Speaker 1: abused by Jeffrey Epstein and provided for him by John
- 14:04Speaker 1: Luke Brunell. Where are all of these girls? That is
- 14:07Speaker 1: a question that I want answered yesterday. A lot of
- 14:14Speaker 1: the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds, and
- 14:17Speaker 1: he lured them in with a promise of making good money,
- 14:20Speaker 1: Robert said. In the twenty fifteen Affid David Jeffrey Epstein
- 14:24Speaker 1: has told me that he has slept with over one
- 14:26Speaker 1: thousand of Brunell's girls, and everything that I have seen
- 14:29Speaker 1: confirms this claim. Guys, just think about that for a moment,
- 14:34Speaker 1: what that means. And this isn't just some half assed
- 14:37Speaker 1: source saying this or unnamed source saying this. This is
- 14:40Speaker 1: Virginia saying this. Over a thousand girls trafficked to Jeffrey
- 14:45Speaker 1: Epstein by Jean Luke Brunel. Now do you think Brunell
- 14:49Speaker 1: was doing that by himself or were there other participants?
- 14:55Speaker 1: Don't you think it's important to find out? Don't you
- 14:58Speaker 1: think it's important to make sure that the remnants of
- 15:02Speaker 1: this trafficking ring are crushed and scattered into the winds
- 15:07Speaker 1: of history. And the precedent is set that going forward,
- 15:11Speaker 1: if anyone else ever thinks of doing something such as this,
- 15:15Speaker 1: that the penalties would be so severe that they wouldn't
- 15:18Speaker 1: even think about it. In a nation of laws, that's
- 15:24Speaker 1: what would occur. In a nation where justice is equal
- 15:28Speaker 1: to everybody, that would occur. But unfortunately, folks, that is
- 15:33Speaker 1: not the nation we live in, and it has not
- 15:36Speaker 1: been the nation we have lived in for decades. Describing
- 15:41Speaker 1: an orgy she was allegedly forced to participate in on
- 15:44Speaker 1: Epstein's private island. Roberts added, my assumption was that Jean
- 15:48Speaker 1: lu Brunell got the girls from Eastern Europe as he
- 15:51Speaker 1: procured many foreign girls for Epstein. They were young and
- 15:54Speaker 1: European looking and sounding, and we know that that is
- 15:58Speaker 1: a perfect fertile feeding ground for these disgusting flesh vampires.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Right war torn areas, areas that are very poor areas
- 16:09Speaker 1: where these girls are will do anything to get out
- 16:13Speaker 1: of these countries. I mean, have you seen like a
- 16:15Speaker 1: show like ninety Day Fiance and some of these beautiful
- 16:18Speaker 1: Ukrainian women and some of the dudes they're talking to
- 16:21Speaker 1: in America just to get to America and get a visa.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Now you have some guys show up and big modeling
- 16:30Speaker 1: guy pass some bucks, shows up, nice car, other girls
- 16:33Speaker 1: with them, and he's telling you all these pie in
- 16:36Speaker 1: the sky dreams, how you're going to be this great model.
- 16:38Speaker 1: You're going to be the next insert great model here,
- 16:42Speaker 1: and he's going to make it happen. And these are
- 16:44Speaker 1: girls that you have to understand, folks, you think we're
- 16:46Speaker 1: poor in America or in other and Western countries. You
- 16:49Speaker 1: don't know what poverty is until you go to a
- 16:52Speaker 1: war torn place, a place where it's been filled with
- 16:55Speaker 1: economic and political strife. Will do anything, anything to escape
- 17:02Speaker 1: those environments. And these young girls were lured into this
- 17:09Speaker 1: life by Jean Luke Brunel thousand at least one thousand,
- 17:12Speaker 1: according to Virginia, from Jeffrey Epstein's own mouth, into the
- 17:17Speaker 1: clutches of this monster, to be abused and then discarded
- 17:21Speaker 1: and tossed into the trash heap. It is absolutely unacceptable,
- 17:28Speaker 1: and it is absolutely unacceptable that this man's story is
- 17:33Speaker 1: not blasted all over the news. A former employee of
- 17:39Speaker 1: MC two, Martiza Vasquez, also accused Brunell of similar misdeeds. Vasquez,
- 17:45Speaker 1: who worked as a bookkeeper for the agency between two
- 17:48Speaker 1: thousand and three to two thousand and six, told the
- 17:50Speaker 1: FBI that Brunell employed scouts to bring in teenage models
- 17:54Speaker 1: from South America, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. The
- 17:58Speaker 1: most desirable of those teams were housed in Epstein's Upper
- 18:01Speaker 1: East Side apartments and loaned out to wealthy clients for
- 18:05Speaker 1: up to one hundred thousand dollars a night. Vasquez alleged,
- 18:09Speaker 1: if they refuse to be molested, She said they would
- 18:12Speaker 1: not be paid. Brunell has denied these claims and says
- 18:15Speaker 1: Vasquez was fired from his agency for embezzling company funds.
- 18:19Speaker 1: Think about that, folks, one hundred grand a night. Now,
- 18:24Speaker 1: They're not running around the South Bronx selling these girls
- 18:28Speaker 1: for one hundred thousand dollars a night? Are they? Who
- 18:30Speaker 1: has one hundred thousand dollars to spend a night with
- 18:33Speaker 1: a girl? Only members of polite society, folks, Only members
- 18:40Speaker 1: of a society where we are not invited. These people
- 18:48Speaker 1: are sick, they're depraved, and they do not care about you,
- 18:54Speaker 1: me or are families. That much is quite evident. Over
- 19:00Speaker 1: the years, several outlets reported that the FBI was investigating Brunel,
- 19:04Speaker 1: but no charges ever emerged. In fact, the modelizer managed
- 19:09Speaker 1: to avoid being deposed in a single civil suit against Epstein,
- 19:13Speaker 1: of which there were more than a dozen. In a
- 19:15Speaker 1: lawsuit filed by Brad Edwards, an attorney for several Epstein survivors,
- 19:20Speaker 1: the lawyer claimed Brunell skirted depositions by saying he was
- 19:23Speaker 1: living in France when he was in fact staying at
- 19:26Speaker 1: Epstein's Palm Beach mansion. And there's what I was inferring
- 19:29Speaker 1: before about him staying at the Palm Beach mansion. We've
- 19:32Speaker 1: heard this from a lot of credible sources, and if
- 19:35Speaker 1: you're following the case, you know they don't get more
- 19:37Speaker 1: credible than Bradley Edwards or more heroic, especially in this case.
- 19:42Speaker 1: So this guy has never even had to answer out
- 19:46Speaker 1: a deposition, nothing, He's never answered any questions, and nobody's
- 19:50Speaker 1: talking about him. Well, we're talking about him. Jean Luke Brunel,
- 19:56Speaker 1: you have our attention now, sir, And when you have
- 20:01Speaker 1: my attention, believe me you have it. Brunell, in his
- 20:08Speaker 1: twenty fifteen suit, claimed Epstein had pressured him into skipping
- 20:11Speaker 1: the depositions and said he regretted missing the chance to
- 20:14Speaker 1: clear his company's name. He also claimed to have lost
- 20:18Speaker 1: millions of dollars in potential business due to the notoriety
- 20:21Speaker 1: and tremendous publicity surrounding Epstein's criminal charges, charges he claimed
- 20:26Speaker 1: to have nothing to do with. The suit included emails
- 20:29Speaker 1: from several agents and talent scouts saying they could not
- 20:32Speaker 1: work with Brunell because of the sexual misconduct allegations. So
- 20:36Speaker 1: they couldn't work with him because of the sexual conduct allegations. Right,
- 20:41Speaker 1: but it's cool that he's being incredibly accused of rape
- 20:44Speaker 1: for decades. Right, that didn't stop them from working with them.
- 20:47Speaker 1: I'm telling you right now, there is a story to
- 20:50Speaker 1: be told about the modeling world, and at some point
- 20:54Speaker 1: it's a story that really needs to be dug into
- 20:56Speaker 1: by somebody who is competent and reliable, because because there
- 21:00Speaker 1: is malfeasance running a muck within that industry, and the
- 21:06Speaker 1: poor girls that get sucked into that industry are being
- 21:10Speaker 1: abused at a large and alarming rate. I have decided
- 21:17Speaker 1: to bring judicial proceedings in France and in the United
- 21:19Speaker 1: States against allegations which cause considerable damage to me personally
- 21:24Speaker 1: and to my model's agencies, Brunell said in his statement
- 21:28Speaker 1: at the time. I strongly deny having participated neither directly
- 21:32Speaker 1: nor indirectly in the actions of mister Jeffrey Epstein as
- 21:36Speaker 1: being accused of. You can deny it all you want,
- 21:39Speaker 1: but you have no evidence. The evidence is very clear here, sir.
- 21:43Speaker 1: All right, it's not like you've been some upstanding citizen
- 21:46Speaker 1: in your whole life, a married man always devout to
- 21:49Speaker 1: his wife, etc. Etc. And then these allegations are dropped
- 21:53Speaker 1: on you. No, you've been a smarmy worm your whole
- 21:56Speaker 1: entire life. You've been accused of rape, You've been accused
- 21:58Speaker 1: of all sorts of disgusting crimes, and you act like
- 22:01Speaker 1: people just believe what you have to say. Like your
- 22:04Speaker 1: entire life's work leads us to that point. But charges
- 22:12Speaker 1: of sexual misconduct have followed Brunell since before he met Epstein.
- 22:16Speaker 1: And Michael Gross's nineteen ninety five book Model, several of
- 22:19Speaker 1: Brunell's peers described him as a dangerous playboy known for
- 22:22Speaker 1: preying on young women. Elite Models founder John Casablancas, who
- 22:28Speaker 1: himself has been accused of sexual misconduct, told Gross that
- 22:31Speaker 1: Brunell and his friends were known for roaming Paris nightclubs
- 22:36Speaker 1: to invite girls and put drugs in their drinks. Sounds
- 22:39Speaker 1: like a bunch of fantastic people, Huh. These modeling agency
- 22:42Speaker 1: scouts sure are top notch individuals. I mean, there's nothing
- 22:47Speaker 1: creepy about these old ass men who want to be
- 22:50Speaker 1: around young girls in lingerie or anything anyway, right, because
- 22:53Speaker 1: that's normal behavior for old men. Give me a break, already,
- 22:59Speaker 1: cut the shit it, cut the lies, and cut the
- 23:02Speaker 1: nonsense and Ian Halpern's Bad and Beautiful. One former Karen
- 23:09Speaker 1: model accused Brunell and his friends of inviting more than
- 23:12Speaker 1: a dozen models to a private party at one of
- 23:14Speaker 1: their apartments, then forcing some of the young women to
- 23:17Speaker 1: have sex with them. Most of the women felt they
- 23:20Speaker 1: had been raped, the former model said, but they were
- 23:22Speaker 1: afraid to report it to the police because Brunell would
- 23:26Speaker 1: ruin their careers, and that was a very valid fear
- 23:34Speaker 1: for them to have, right, Jean Luke Brunell was a
- 23:37Speaker 1: very powerful modeling scout, a guy that was running around
- 23:40Speaker 1: with the you know, the powerbrokers of the industry. For
- 23:43Speaker 1: these young girls, especially these young girls that come from
- 23:45Speaker 1: these poor, war torn countries, what do you expect them
- 23:49Speaker 1: to do? They're supposed to stand up to John Luke Burnell,
- 23:53Speaker 1: especially when the authorities don't give a shit and the
- 23:55Speaker 1: complicit legacy media is no better. What are they supposed
- 23:58Speaker 1: to stand by themselves and the world and say that
- 24:01Speaker 1: this man did such and such to me. Nobody's going
- 24:03Speaker 1: to believe them. Well, guess what we all believe you now.
- 24:14Speaker 1: In a sixty minutes feature from nineteen eighty eight, several
- 24:17Speaker 1: American models who worked with Brunell in Paris described a
- 24:20Speaker 1: culture in which young models were plied with drugs and
- 24:23Speaker 1: taken of parties with older men. At the parties, women
- 24:27Speaker 1: said they would be denied work if they declined the
- 24:29Speaker 1: men's sexual advances. Two women in the feature accused Brunell
- 24:33Speaker 1: of drugging them. One accused him of raping her while
- 24:36Speaker 1: she was unconscious. And it's typical for people like this guy, right.
- 24:40Speaker 1: We've heard this about this man several times, and he
- 24:44Speaker 1: is still avoiding scrutiny. According to Craig Pyes, one of
- 24:50Speaker 1: the reporters on the piece, the story did not end there.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Pie said he spoke with three more women over the
- 24:56Speaker 1: course of a six month investigation who said they were
- 24:59Speaker 1: drugged and rape by Brunel or his friends, but who
- 25:02Speaker 1: did not feel comfortable coming forward on air. And folks,
- 25:07Speaker 1: how many times have we seen that in this kind
- 25:09Speaker 1: of case, especially the Epstein case, women not wanting to
- 25:12Speaker 1: come forward because they're scared of reprisals. When you have
- 25:17Speaker 1: someone like Gilane Maxwell threatening you like she did to
- 25:21Speaker 1: Maria Farmer, you understand why my sense, based upon the allegations,
- 25:27Speaker 1: is that John Luke was a predator. His group was
- 25:30Speaker 1: a predator, and they use their tools of power and
- 25:33Speaker 1: leverage to force sex from women who otherwise might not
- 25:37Speaker 1: be willing to engage in it. Pies told The Daily Beast.
- 25:40Speaker 1: Of course he did. That was their mo That's what
- 25:43Speaker 1: these people do. They feel like their power and their
- 25:46Speaker 1: wealth gives them the freedom to treat you, me, or
- 25:50Speaker 1: anybody they feel is below them any way that they
- 25:53Speaker 1: deem necessary. Brunell declined to be interviewed by Sixty Minutes
- 26:00Speaker 1: at the time, but later denied the allegations. Christy Turlington,
- 26:05Speaker 1: a top model and close friend of Brunel's, later told
- 26:08Speaker 1: Halprin she thought some of the stories were exaggerated. In
- 26:11Speaker 1: this business, you never know who to believe, she said,
- 26:15Speaker 1: isn't that nice Christy Turlington laying cover for Jean Luke Brunell.
- 26:20Speaker 1: Remember that next time Christy Turlington has some sort of
- 26:23Speaker 1: product out, folks. Just this week, New Zealand model Zoey
- 26:28Speaker 1: Brock told French publication Liberachon she briefly lived in Brunell's
- 26:33Speaker 1: apartment at age seventeen, but left after he insisted they
- 26:36Speaker 1: would have to sleep together eventually. The allegations are similar
- 26:40Speaker 1: to those Brock made in a two thousand and seven
- 26:43Speaker 1: medium piece. Sizia Husman, a Dutch model, claimed she wasn't
- 26:47Speaker 1: so lucky after initially resisting Brunell's advance, As she said,
- 26:51Speaker 1: the agent gave her a drink that made her feel dizzy,
- 26:54Speaker 1: then brought her into his bedroom and assaulted her. Aren't
- 26:59Speaker 1: these out allegations on their own enough. Then you have
- 27:02Speaker 1: to add into the fact all of the girls he
- 27:04Speaker 1: provided for Jeffrey Epstein and what he did to Virginia.
- 27:08Speaker 1: If law enforcement would have just taken it seriously, if
- 27:11Speaker 1: they would have acted in the correct way, how much
- 27:14Speaker 1: pain could have been ended, How much pain could have
- 27:17Speaker 1: been avoided. I remember he was on me. I tried
- 27:22Speaker 1: to push him away, and the noise when he ripped
- 27:25Speaker 1: my clothes, She told Liberation. Then it's the black hole.
- 27:29Speaker 1: I woke up in bed. I was totally disoriented. I
- 27:32Speaker 1: went to collect my belongings in the room where I slept,
- 27:35Speaker 1: and I went directly to the station to leave Paris.
- 27:38Speaker 1: The private allegations, not to the a prior allegations, seemed
- 27:43Speaker 1: not to have hampered Brunell's business too much. In recent years,
- 27:47Speaker 1: MC two has counted major department stores like Nordstrum's, Macy's
- 27:51Speaker 1: and Sacks Fifth Avenue was clients. According to a letter
- 27:54Speaker 1: from Brunell's business partner, first obtained by Bloomberg, a Nordstrom
- 27:59Speaker 1: execut kative even wrote a letter expressing her full and
- 28:02Speaker 1: unqualified and unqualified support of Brunel's visa application in twenty
- 28:08Speaker 1: and fourteen. Isn't that nice? Huh? Sarah z If, the
- 28:13Speaker 1: founder of the advocacy organization Model Alliance, said behavior like
- 28:17Speaker 1: Brunel's is often overlooked in the modeling industry. Unfortunately, predatory
- 28:22Speaker 1: behavior has been normalized and in turn even enabled by
- 28:26Speaker 1: some modeling agents who may lack the judgment or training
- 28:30Speaker 1: to address or prevent these abuses from happening. Ziff told
- 28:34Speaker 1: The Daily Beast. Lack the training, how about just lacking
- 28:39Speaker 1: basic morals? How about just lacking basic human compassion? How
- 28:43Speaker 1: about just being you know, a human flippan being. Today, however,
- 28:50Speaker 1: Brunell's influence over his modeling empire appears to be diminishing.
- 28:55Speaker 1: MC two announced in twenty twelve that Brunell would be
- 28:58Speaker 1: moving to a scouting and consul role for the company.
- 29:01Speaker 1: On Friday, a spokesperson for MC two in New York
- 29:04Speaker 1: told The Daily Beast that Brunell was basically retired and
- 29:07Speaker 1: living out of the country. Asked for specifics about Brunell's role,
- 29:12Speaker 1: the spokesperson said, he doesn't really have one, and this
- 29:16Speaker 1: is how they do it. Oh, he's not with the
- 29:18Speaker 1: company anymore, so that's the end of that. We're not
- 29:21Speaker 1: answering any questions. We don't know anything about the guy. Meanwhile,
- 29:24Speaker 1: he ran the company, own the company, was in charge
- 29:26Speaker 1: of the company for years and years and years. Nobody
- 29:28Speaker 1: knew anything. Huh, none of you knew anything, Okay. Ruth Malca,
- 29:34Speaker 1: who took over Karen Models from Brunell in the early
- 29:36Speaker 1: two thousands, told Liberations she hadn't worked with him in years.
- 29:41Speaker 1: Malca told the website she never witnessed any improper behavior
- 29:44Speaker 1: on Brunell's part, but added, I'm shocked at everything I
- 29:48Speaker 1: hear it discussed me. Oh yeah, you never heard anything.
- 29:52Speaker 1: Nobody heard anything, nobody saw anything, nobody witnessed anything. Well,
- 29:59Speaker 1: here's some breaking news for all of you who didn't
- 30:02Speaker 1: witness anything. Unfortunately, for all of you, we know the score.
- 30:11Speaker 1: We are witnessing your denial, We are witnessing your your
- 30:18Speaker 1: ineffectual defense. And we are also witnessing you still provide
- 30:25Speaker 1: cover and enable a sex trafficking ring that was run
- 30:31Speaker 1: by Jeffrey Epstein and Gelaane Maxwell. Your time is up,
- 30:37Speaker 1: mister Brunel, and I want you to understand this very clearly.
- 30:43Speaker 1: The predator has now become the prey. If you'd like
- 30:47Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at Bobby Kapucci
- 30:49Speaker 1: at Protonmeil dot com. That's b O b b y
- 30:53Speaker 1: c ap u c c I at ProtonMail dot com.
- 30:57Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter at Bobby I
- 31:00Speaker 1: Underscore cap u Cci. We're gonna talk about an article
- 31:06Speaker 1: today from The Daily Beast, and this article has to
- 31:09Speaker 1: do with Jean Luke Brunell and the author of the article,
- 31:14Speaker 1: Michael Gross's Night Out with Him, John Luke Brunell, and
- 31:20Speaker 1: in Michael Gross's own words, Jean Luke Brunell's Terrified Models.
- 31:26Speaker 1: John Luke Brunell has not talked about enough in this case.
- 31:29Speaker 1: He is a very important part of this case. A lynchpin,
- 31:34Speaker 1: a guy who was in a leadership role, A man
- 31:38Speaker 1: who is accused of providing young twelve year old girls
- 31:43Speaker 1: for Jeffrey Epstein as a birthday present, A man who
- 31:47Speaker 1: is accused of partaking in the sex trafficking, a man
- 31:51Speaker 1: who is accused of not only enabling Jeffrey Epstein's behavior
- 31:57Speaker 1: but also being one of the key procureurs of it.
- 32:03Speaker 1: So this morning, we're gonna take a little bit of
- 32:05Speaker 1: time so that we can talk about Jean Luke Brunell
- 32:09Speaker 1: a little bit and talk about how this man deserves
- 32:14Speaker 1: to be in bracelets and underneath the jail right next
- 32:19Speaker 1: to Gilaine Maxwell. This man seems to escape scrutiny in
- 32:25Speaker 1: a lot of the stories, but it is very important
- 32:29Speaker 1: that everybody in a leadership position, especially within this criminal organization,
- 32:35Speaker 1: faces justice. There is no reason why Jean Luke Brunell,
- 32:40Speaker 1: who has been under all sorts of clouds of impropriety
- 32:47Speaker 1: when it comes to women for decades. There is no
- 32:50Speaker 1: way that this guy should still be roaming the streets.
- 32:53Speaker 1: How is he not arrested, how is he not brought
- 32:56Speaker 1: into custody, and how is he not forced to roll
- 32:59Speaker 1: over on the rest of them? All? Right? This article
- 33:04Speaker 1: is from The Daily Beast. The author is Michael Gross
- 33:08Speaker 1: and this article was published originally on August twenty ninth
- 33:12Speaker 1: of two thousand and nineteen. The headline My night with
- 33:16Speaker 1: Epstein pal Jean Luke Brunel and his terrified models. It
- 33:22Speaker 1: was nineteen ninety three or nineteen ninety four when I
- 33:24Speaker 1: first encountered John Luke Brunell, the controversial French modeling agent,
- 33:29Speaker 1: at a then trendy South Beach restaurant called The Strand
- 33:33Speaker 1: in Miami. Shocking that he's in South Beach? Huh? Who
- 33:37Speaker 1: else was living in Florida, Jeffrey Epstein? Perhaps a table
- 33:44Speaker 1: near mine set for six, expanded to seat ten, then
- 33:48Speaker 1: shrank for eight, then enlarged to fit a party of twelve,
- 33:52Speaker 1: and was finally occupied as I finished my meal by
- 33:55Speaker 1: a pack of extremely young women teenagers really, with the
- 33:59Speaker 1: willowy frame and lovely faces of neophyte models, and a
- 34:02Speaker 1: smaller number of older men who appear to be well smug.
- 34:07Speaker 1: Probably sums it up best. Of course, these are the
- 34:10Speaker 1: kind of people that were always around Jean Luke Burnell
- 34:14Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Epstein. I call them fellow travelers. You can't
- 34:21Speaker 1: hang out with a guy like Jeffrey Epstein or a
- 34:23Speaker 1: guy like Jean Luke Burnell and not know what they're
- 34:26Speaker 1: up to. It is an impossibility, in my opinion, and
- 34:31Speaker 1: for all of these people to come out and act
- 34:33Speaker 1: like they had no idea. What sort of monster Jean
- 34:36Speaker 1: Luke Brunell is, What sort of monster Jeffrey Epstein is?
- 34:40Speaker 1: It defies reality for anyone to use that excuse. And
- 34:47Speaker 1: the author here, Michael Gross, pretty much says it right here.
- 34:52Speaker 1: A bunch of older men and young teenagers really with
- 34:55Speaker 1: willowy frames and lovely faces. The girls with pie in
- 34:59Speaker 1: the sky dream right. Oh, we'll make you a model,
- 35:01Speaker 1: come work for our agency. We'll take care of you,
- 35:04Speaker 1: we'll hook you up, we'll make sure you reach the stratosphere.
- 35:08Speaker 1: And then when they're in the clutches of these sick bastards,
- 35:11Speaker 1: what happens. They're abused, they're exploited, and then they're discarded.
- 35:18Speaker 1: A quarter century later, I was reminded of that dinner
- 35:21Speaker 1: when Brunell suddenly riveted the world's attention in the hours
- 35:25Speaker 1: immediately before the suicide, allegedly of the notorious pervert and
- 35:30Speaker 1: pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, when it was alleged that the Frenchman
- 35:34Speaker 1: had provided underage women to the very disgusting pedophile look,
- 35:42Speaker 1: and not just provided women, folks, When you follow this
- 35:46Speaker 1: case and you know the deal. You also know that
- 35:49Speaker 1: Jean Luke Brunell is being credibly accused by Virginia Roberts.
- 35:55Speaker 1: And it's obvious for anyone who knows anything about the
- 35:58Speaker 1: man that he has done this over and over and
- 36:01Speaker 1: over again, used his position within these modeling agencies to
- 36:07Speaker 1: take advantage of these young women on a regular basis.
- 36:10Speaker 1: And this piece of shit, this scumbag, is still flocking
- 36:14Speaker 1: around free doing whatever the hell he wants. Who knows
- 36:17Speaker 1: who he's abusing right now. Shortly after that Miami Night,
- 36:24Speaker 1: I interviewed Brunell, among many others, for a book on
- 36:27Speaker 1: the modeling industry published in nineteen ninety five as Model
- 36:31Speaker 1: the Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. I think that headline
- 36:35Speaker 1: sums it all up, and I'm definitely going to pick
- 36:37Speaker 1: this book up by Michael Gross, Model the Ugly Business
- 36:40Speaker 1: of Beautiful Women, because I think to truly understand what
- 36:45Speaker 1: was going on within the ranks of these modeling agencies
- 36:49Speaker 1: and how they were exploited by people like Epstein and
- 36:52Speaker 1: John Luke Brunell, I think it's important to have as
- 36:55Speaker 1: much information as possible, right So I'm going to check
- 36:58Speaker 1: out this book by Michael and see if it adds
- 37:03Speaker 1: any context to what we're talking about. So, although I
- 37:08Speaker 1: neither met nor wrote about Epstein, my phone started ringing
- 37:12Speaker 1: following his latest arrest for trafficking underage women, and it
- 37:15Speaker 1: hasn't stopped since, as exposees of Brunell pile up like
- 37:19Speaker 1: a mound of fetid garbage, notably in England's Guardian, France's Liberation,
- 37:24Speaker 1: the Washington Post and The Daily Beast, and reporters have
- 37:28Speaker 1: told me that apparently I'm among the very few journalists
- 37:31Speaker 1: to have interviewed the then elusive and now impossible to
- 37:35Speaker 1: find Brunel. So that's pretty telling right there, right, A
- 37:42Speaker 1: guy like Brunell who operates in the shadows, A guy
- 37:45Speaker 1: like Brunell who was acting almost as like a consigliari
- 37:49Speaker 1: for Jeffrey Epstein. And if you're not familiar with mafia terms,
- 37:54Speaker 1: a consigliari is basically an advisor right to the dawn.
- 38:00Speaker 1: And if we're looking at this from a Rico standpoint
- 38:03Speaker 1: and painting that picture, then you could easily have Jean
- 38:07Speaker 1: Luke Brunel in that position as consiglieri. Right, So this
- 38:12Speaker 1: man certainly never wants to talk to reporters. He knows
- 38:16Speaker 1: that he was involved in all sorts of disgusting activity,
- 38:21Speaker 1: and this gentleman, Michael Gross, is one of the only
- 38:24Speaker 1: reporters who have ever been able to pin this man
- 38:26Speaker 1: down and have a conversation with him. So again, that's
- 38:29Speaker 1: why this article is a proper addition to the catalog.
- 38:34Speaker 1: And also I just like to bring a little bit
- 38:36Speaker 1: more light onto John Luke Brunell's name, because I don't
- 38:40Speaker 1: feel like he's talked about enough. But there's more to
- 38:44Speaker 1: this story than the handful of damning quotations the papers
- 38:47Speaker 1: have lifted from model from and about the man sometimes
- 38:51Speaker 1: described as a rabbitoi i e. One who beats the
- 38:54Speaker 1: bushes during a hunt to drive game out into the open.
- 38:59Speaker 1: And look, Brunell is a sick bastard, right, but he's cagy,
- 39:04Speaker 1: he's crafty. He's been doing this for quite some time,
- 39:07Speaker 1: and I'm sure he has a lot of contacts that
- 39:09Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein left him. Again, this isn't your average guy,
- 39:14Speaker 1: your average modeling scout, your average a human trafficker. This
- 39:18Speaker 1: is a man with connections. This is a man who
- 39:21Speaker 1: has a lot of secrets that he could reveal. And
- 39:24Speaker 1: this is a man that should be arrested yesterday. There's
- 39:30Speaker 1: the videotape of a sixty minute segment from nineteen eighty eight,
- 39:33Speaker 1: long suppressed by legal order, that exposed him as an
- 39:36Speaker 1: alleged serial abuser of young women, for instance, interviews with
- 39:41Speaker 1: competitors who described him as a serial rapist, and a
- 39:44Speaker 1: twenty eight page transcript of our taped interview in which
- 39:48Speaker 1: I asked about the charges that Brunell was way more
- 39:51Speaker 1: loco than parentis with the young women in his charges,
- 39:54Speaker 1: as well as his oft reported fondness for cocaine. And
- 40:00Speaker 1: that's another huge part of this situation with the models,
- 40:04Speaker 1: these kind of scenes and this sort of social situation
- 40:09Speaker 1: is the sort of place where drugs are very prevalent,
- 40:12Speaker 1: especially cocaine, and in Miami Beach during the eighties early nineties,
- 40:17Speaker 1: forget it, everybody was getting gagged. So you think about
- 40:22Speaker 1: one of these sort of you know, situations where you
- 40:26Speaker 1: have these aspiring models and these perverted ass gross old
- 40:30Speaker 1: dudes who were supposedly model scouts or agents or whatever,
- 40:34Speaker 1: and you have a recipe for disaster. Everyone's on blow,
- 40:37Speaker 1: everyone's getting high, and you know, once you get a
- 40:41Speaker 1: taste for that kind of stuff, it's easy to get addicted,
- 40:44Speaker 1: so they would use the drugs I'm sure to almost
- 40:48Speaker 1: control these girls. His assurances of his innocence then were
- 40:53Speaker 1: barely credible, but I felt a responsibility to report them
- 40:57Speaker 1: alongside the sordid charges against him and some of the
- 41:00Speaker 1: more damning passages from our conversation. But I left out
- 41:04Speaker 1: what happened that same night as our daytime interview. I
- 41:07Speaker 1: don't remember why I was in the nightclub less bond, douches,
- 41:11Speaker 1: duche whatever that evening. It was twenty five years ago,
- 41:14Speaker 1: after all, but what happened there and afterward is a
- 41:17Speaker 1: crystal clear memory, most likely because I planned to include
- 41:21Speaker 1: it in a final chapter of Model that was never
- 41:24Speaker 1: written because the book was already long and tawdry enough.
- 41:29Speaker 1: So not only did he have an interview with Jean
- 41:35Speaker 1: Luke Brunell during the day, obviously he went out with
- 41:38Speaker 1: him at night, and he's going to go into this
- 41:40Speaker 1: story here about what occurred while he was out with
- 41:43Speaker 1: John Luke Brunel. My plan was to conclude the Tomb
- 41:47Speaker 1: with a chapter on the youngest models of all, known
- 41:50Speaker 1: as test board kids, discovered in malls and at modeling conventions,
- 41:55Speaker 1: and then thrown into the deep end of fashion, of
- 41:57Speaker 1: the fashion pool, the studios and clubs of Paris and Milan.
- 42:01Speaker 1: There they would either sink or they would swim. I
- 42:05Speaker 1: chosen a handful of them at an annual modeling convention
- 42:07Speaker 1: in New York, asked them to be my penpal for
- 42:10Speaker 1: a year, and that day at Brunell's agency, Karen met
- 42:14Speaker 1: one of them, Robin. I've changed the model's names, a
- 42:17Speaker 1: midwesterner who'd signed with him. She introduced her to She
- 42:21Speaker 1: introduced me to her friend, who called herself Dakota, and
- 42:25Speaker 1: we chatted and went on our separate ways. And how
- 42:28Speaker 1: many girls like this are there? Girls that have, you know,
- 42:32Speaker 1: a story to tell about people like John Luke Brunell
- 42:36Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Epstein, but have never been able to tell
- 42:40Speaker 1: their story, either because they've feared for their lives, they've
- 42:45Speaker 1: been intimidated, or they just don't want to relive the
- 42:48Speaker 1: pain of what occurred. And it really bothers me to
- 42:53Speaker 1: know that somebody like Jean Luke Brunell has been active
- 42:56Speaker 1: since the eighties, folks, and nobody has wrangled this son
- 42:59Speaker 1: of a no parent has punched this man square in
- 43:02Speaker 1: the face. I have news for you. If this was
- 43:08Speaker 1: one of my kids being abused like this, you wouldn't
- 43:10Speaker 1: have to worry about the cops finding you. You wouldn't
- 43:13Speaker 1: have to worry about the federal allies finding you, because
- 43:18Speaker 1: I would find you, and I would exact vigilante style justice.
- 43:27Speaker 1: Because it's obvious that the authorities could care less. They
- 43:32Speaker 1: could not care less. But there was Dakota on the
- 43:38Speaker 1: restaurant floor above the disco at less bands douches, sitting
- 43:43Speaker 1: with Brunell and another group of models and older men
- 43:46Speaker 1: at a huge table, and when she waved a low
- 43:49Speaker 1: it was clear she was miserable. She told me she
- 43:51Speaker 1: hated the place, and Brunell had forced her to come.
- 43:54Speaker 1: Can you get us out of here, she whispered, gesturing
- 43:56Speaker 1: to another model. Sure, easy took them in a taxi
- 44:01Speaker 1: to their model apartment off of Champ Elysses. Oh there's
- 44:05Speaker 1: that Champs Elysses again. Huh isn't that where Gilane Maxwell
- 44:08Speaker 1: is supposedly hiding out now a crowded room where dirty
- 44:13Speaker 1: clothes covered every inch of the floor. And Dakota told
- 44:16Speaker 1: me she'd move there first after living with Brunel at
- 44:19Speaker 1: his far more spacious and glamorous apartment nearby on Avenue Hoche.
- 44:25Speaker 1: And this is the same story we saw at the
- 44:28Speaker 1: building on East sixty sixth Street five six seven eight
- 44:32Speaker 1: models living in one apartment, squalor dirty apartments, mattresses on
- 44:38Speaker 1: the floor, et cetera, et cetera. So what they would
- 44:41Speaker 1: do is they'd bring these girls in and then they'd
- 44:43Speaker 1: treat them like they were basically indentured servants. There she
- 44:50Speaker 1: discovered an apparent people that looked into the bathroom the
- 44:53Speaker 1: models in residents used, inspiring her to flee a bit,
- 44:57Speaker 1: not very far. The only part the story that wasn't
- 45:01Speaker 1: normal was that peepole models often bunk in their agents' homes.
- 45:05Speaker 1: Want to see it, Dakota asked, she still had a key.
- 45:09Speaker 1: This is creepy, bro. So this brunell cat had all
- 45:12Speaker 1: of these young girls shocked up with him because he's
- 45:15Speaker 1: supposedly an agent, a scout, whatever, And while they're using
- 45:19Speaker 1: the bathroom, this disgusting old prick is peeping on them
- 45:23Speaker 1: through a peepole around the corner. We went then up
- 45:29Speaker 1: one of those old French cage elevator elevators to a
- 45:33Speaker 1: far more lavish flat, where sure enough, there was a
- 45:36Speaker 1: hidden hole drilled through a wall, and a view of
- 45:39Speaker 1: a bathroom. The girls were laughing about their escape. When
- 45:42Speaker 1: Brunell joined us earlier that day, he denied that he
- 45:46Speaker 1: still used cocaine. I had a problem, he said, in
- 45:50Speaker 1: a staccato burst. It was not a major I mean,
- 45:53Speaker 1: it was a problem for four or five years. I
- 45:55Speaker 1: did it as fun because I never did it in
- 45:57Speaker 1: the day. And then I did it as an ex barriment. Fine,
- 46:00Speaker 1: it lasted maybe a bit longer than it should, but
- 46:03Speaker 1: it had never been like a problem, and it had
- 46:05Speaker 1: never been I was at work at nine in the morning.
- 46:08Speaker 1: But as the notes I took afterwards say, he was
- 46:11Speaker 1: uncommonly animated, So I wouldn't have vouched for the truth
- 46:15Speaker 1: of that assertion. Typical of drug addicts, right, ah, yeah,
- 46:19Speaker 1: I'm not on drugs anymore. I used to have a problem,
- 46:22Speaker 1: but I'm all good now. Meanwhile, he has ski rings
- 46:27Speaker 1: around his nostrils, it's snowing out of his nostrils, and
- 46:30Speaker 1: the dude is obviously gacked out of his beak. Come on, man,
- 46:35Speaker 1: mean to tell me you aren't all blow anymore? Yeah, okay,
- 46:42Speaker 1: And he was with a friend with a case of
- 46:44Speaker 1: the sniffles and the people. I want you to look
- 46:46Speaker 1: behind all the mirrors, he said, frankly, I just want
- 46:49Speaker 1: an ad of there. So the author here, Michael Gross,
- 46:53Speaker 1: was creeped out. He went to this flat, looked through
- 46:56Speaker 1: the people after the model showed it to him, and
- 47:00Speaker 1: then mister George Young Junior comes out of the bathroom
- 47:05Speaker 1: gagged out of his mind, acting like he is not
- 47:07Speaker 1: gagged out of his mind. And as far as Michael
- 47:11Speaker 1: Gross goes, the author of the story, all he wants
- 47:14Speaker 1: to do is beat feet and get out of dodge.
- 47:16Speaker 1: At this point, a demand that Dakota returned to Les
- 47:21Speaker 1: Bains Duches with him made me nervous. Earlier that day,
- 47:25Speaker 1: he'd struck me as shrewd, smug, and vaguely sleazy. She
- 47:30Speaker 1: told me she had to rebuff his advantage, his advances.
- 47:34Speaker 1: His reappearance added scary to that list. So it wasn't
- 47:39Speaker 1: a request, according to Michael Gross, it was a demand
- 47:43Speaker 1: that this model Dakota returned with him to that club.
- 47:47Speaker 1: And when you're in a situation like this model was,
- 47:50Speaker 1: you're pretty much beholden to this guy. Not only does
- 47:53Speaker 1: he hold your career in the palm of his disgusting hand.
- 47:56Speaker 1: Your living situation is based on him as well. So
- 48:00Speaker 1: what happens is they complete you. They can, they completely
- 48:04Speaker 1: catch you up in their web, and then when you
- 48:06Speaker 1: can't go anywhere, they move in for the kill. Was
- 48:11Speaker 1: There was a white Ferrari with a white leather interior
- 48:13Speaker 1: sitting outside his building. Dakota sat in front, and when
- 48:17Speaker 1: Brunell offered to drop me off en route, I squeezed
- 48:19Speaker 1: into the back. Her hand snaked around the seat where
- 48:22Speaker 1: Brunell couldn't see it. I grabbed it. She squeezed until
- 48:26Speaker 1: we reached the point des arts and I got out
- 48:29Speaker 1: of the thrumbing car. Will you be okay, I whispered
- 48:32Speaker 1: to Dakota. Her voice said yes, her eyes they weren't
- 48:36Speaker 1: so sure, and off they roared into the night. You know,
- 48:40Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have been comfortable leaving
- 48:43Speaker 1: this young lady like Michael Gross was. Honestly, I shouldn't
- 48:46Speaker 1: even say I don't know. I know for a fact
- 48:49Speaker 1: that me and this Brunell cat would have probably squared up.
- 48:54Speaker 1: I have no tolerance for people like this, zero tolerance
- 48:57Speaker 1: for people like this, and especially after this case, you
- 49:03Speaker 1: put me in a room with a dude like Jean
- 49:05Speaker 1: Luke Burnell. I'm for sure punching him in the face,
- 49:09Speaker 1: not even a question, after seeing the way he was
- 49:15Speaker 1: treating these girls, etcetera, etcetera. Forget it, there's zero chance.
- 49:19Speaker 1: So I you know, I don't know how Michael Gross
- 49:24Speaker 1: was able to contain himself and not at the very
- 49:26Speaker 1: least get in this guy's face, because it's obvious what
- 49:30Speaker 1: he's up to, the sort of scumbag he is. Sometime later,
- 49:36Speaker 1: I got a letter from Dakota. She was still in Paris,
- 49:39Speaker 1: and I never learned more of what happened to her,
- 49:42Speaker 1: but she reported that rob And had returned to the
- 49:44Speaker 1: prairie suffering from an ulcer. I never heard from her
- 49:47Speaker 1: again either, But what young woman full of dreams would
- 49:51Speaker 1: want to tell the tale of how she failed as
- 49:53Speaker 1: a fashion model, even if quitting was one of the
- 49:56Speaker 1: smartest choices she ever made. And it's the truth, that's
- 50:00Speaker 1: a sad story for a lot of these girls. You know,
- 50:02Speaker 1: so many of these girls that we don't even know
- 50:04Speaker 1: their names, These ex models, these young girls that were
- 50:07Speaker 1: brought into the circle. They are used, discarded and then
- 50:12Speaker 1: put into the trash. The whole modeling industry needs a
- 50:17Speaker 1: shake up, folks, It really does. Over the years since
- 50:21Speaker 1: I vaguely kept tags on the tabs on the agents
- 50:24Speaker 1: who were the protagonists, if not the heroes, of Model.
- 50:28Speaker 1: So I heard that Brunell had broken with this and
- 50:30Speaker 1: that partner and found it an agency of his own
- 50:33Speaker 1: in Miami, and beginning about a decade ago, when I
- 50:36Speaker 1: first learned of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, I certainly
- 50:39Speaker 1: wasn't surprised. For his part, Brunell and his lawyers have
- 50:43Speaker 1: denied the claims that he recruited underage girls for Epstein
- 50:46Speaker 1: and abused them himself. Still he's disappeared in the wake
- 50:50Speaker 1: of Epstein's arrest in suicide. So you know, Brunell was
- 50:56Speaker 1: engaging in all sorts of disgusting behavior before he even
- 50:59Speaker 1: sent these girls to Epstein. So these girls were being
- 51:02Speaker 1: victimized multiple times by multiple people on multiple continents, and
- 51:08Speaker 1: still nobody has stepped in. Still nobody has brought these
- 51:12Speaker 1: people to justice. Now, of course, I feel for the
- 51:19Speaker 1: no longer young woman who have finally been emboldened to
- 51:22Speaker 1: speak out about Brunel, and I wonder and still worry
- 51:26Speaker 1: about Dakota. It's pre harrowing tale, folks, and it just
- 51:31Speaker 1: gives you another look into Jean Luke Brunell, his psyche
- 51:35Speaker 1: and how he has been at this for decades. And
- 51:39Speaker 1: once again, it is all about context, it's all about
- 51:43Speaker 1: meet on the bone, and for anyone who is just
- 51:48Speaker 1: getting involved in this case, Jean Luke Brunell is a
- 51:51Speaker 1: name that you should definitely look into. John Luke Brunell
- 51:54Speaker 1: is a key player in this and he does not
- 51:57Speaker 1: get enough press. We're going to change that here on
- 52:00Speaker 1: the podcast though. We're going to make sure that we
- 52:02Speaker 1: mention this man more often because it's very important that
- 52:07Speaker 1: John Luke Brunel, along with Gilaan Maxwell and the rest
- 52:11Speaker 1: of the co conspirators get fitted for a pair of
- 52:14Speaker 1: bracelets and a six x ten cell. If you'd like
- 52:20Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at Bobbycopucci at
- 52:22Speaker 1: ProtonMail dot com. That's b O B B Y c
- 52:25Speaker 1: A p U C c I at ProtonMail dot com.
- 52:29Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter at BO B
- 52:31Speaker 1: B y underscore C A p U C C. I
- 52:35Speaker 1: are