Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Mark Filip’s Role: The Missing Link in the Epstein Cover-Up (Part 2)
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:06Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
- 0:08Speaker 1: where we left off with the letter that was sent
- 0:11Speaker 1: by Ken Starr to Mark Phillip. Although these matters were
- 0:15Speaker 1: within the scope of the CEOs review, rather than considering
- 0:19Speaker 1: whether federal prosecution is appropriate, CEOs only determined that US
- 0:23Speaker 1: Attorney Acosta would not be abusing his prosecutorial discretion should
- 0:28Speaker 1: he authorize federal prosecution in the case. The abusive discretion
- 0:32Speaker 1: standard constitutes an extremely low bar of evaluation, and while
- 0:36Speaker 1: it may be appropriate when the consideration of issues are
- 0:39Speaker 1: exclusively factual in nature, this standard fails to address concerns
- 0:44Speaker 1: particular to this situation, namely the novel application of federal statutes.
- 0:49Speaker 1: The abusive discretion standard in such pure legal matters of
- 0:53Speaker 1: statutory application risk causing a lack of uniformity. The same
- 0:58Speaker 1: federal statutes that would stretch beyond their bounds in Miami
- 1:02Speaker 1: have been limited to their heartland in each of the
- 1:04Speaker 1: other federal districts. Also, because the case implicates broader issues
- 1:08Speaker 1: of the administration of equal Justice, federal prosecution in this
- 1:12Speaker 1: matter risks the appearance of selectivity in its stretching of
- 1:15Speaker 1: federal law to fit the facts. In fact, recent testimony
- 1:19Speaker 1: of several alleged victims contradict claims prosecutors made during the
- 1:23Speaker 1: negotiation of a deferred prosecution agreement. The consistent representations of
- 1:28Speaker 1: key government witnesses such as redacted or redacted or redacted
- 1:31Speaker 1: and redacted, confirm the following critical points. First, there was
- 1:35Speaker 1: no communication telephonic or otherwise that meets the requirements of
- 1:39Speaker 1: Section twenty four to twenty two B. For instance, misredacted
- 1:43Speaker 1: confirmed that mister Epstein never emailed, text messaged, or used
- 1:47Speaker 1: any facility of interstate commerce whatsoever before or after her
- 1:51Speaker 1: one and only visit to his home redacted At thirty Second,
- 1:55Speaker 1: the woman who testified admitted that they lied to mister
- 1:58Speaker 1: Epstein about their age and ordered to gain admittance to
- 2:01Speaker 1: his home. Indeed, the women who brought their underage friends
- 2:04Speaker 1: to mister Epstein testified that they would counsel their friends
- 2:07Speaker 1: to lie about their ages as well. Misredacted stated the following,
- 2:13Speaker 1: I would tell my girlfriends just like redacted, they were
- 2:16Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen or twenty, and the girls that I
- 2:19Speaker 1: didn't know and I don't know if they were lying
- 2:21Speaker 1: or not. I would say, make sure that you tell
- 2:23Speaker 1: him you're eighteen. Third, there was no routine or habit
- 2:26Speaker 1: of improper communication expressing an intent to transform a massage
- 2:30Speaker 1: into an illegal sex act. In fact, there was often
- 2:33Speaker 1: no sexual activity at all during the massage. Misredacted testified
- 2:37Speaker 1: that sometimes mister Epstein just wanted his feet massaged, sometimes
- 2:41Speaker 1: he just wanted a back massage. Redacted also stated that
- 2:44Speaker 1: mister Epstein never touched her physically, and that all she
- 2:48Speaker 1: did was massage's back, his chest, and his thighs and
- 2:51Speaker 1: that was it. Finally, there was no force, coercion, fraud, violence, drugs,
- 2:55Speaker 1: or even alcohol present in connection with mister Epstein's encounters
- 2:59Speaker 1: with these women. Misredacted stated that mister Epstein never tried
- 3:03Speaker 1: to force me to do anything. These accounts are far
- 3:06Speaker 1: from the usual testimony in sex slavery, internet stings, and
- 3:09Speaker 1: sex tourism cases previously brought. The women in actuality were
- 3:15Speaker 1: not younger than sixteen, which is the age of consent
- 3:17Speaker 1: in most of the fifty States, and the sex activity
- 3:20Speaker 1: was irregular and in large part considered solo self pleasuring.
- 3:25Speaker 1: The recent crop of civil suits brought against mister Epstein
- 3:28Speaker 1: confirmed that the plaintiffs did not discuss any sexually related
- 3:31Speaker 1: activity with anyone prior to arriving at mister Epstein's residence.
- 3:35Speaker 1: This reinforces our contention that no telephonic or internet persuasion, inducement, enticement,
- 3:41Speaker 1: or a coercion of a minor or any other individual occurred.
- 3:45Speaker 1: In addition, mister Jeffrey Herman, the former law partner of
- 3:48Speaker 1: one of the federal prosecutors involved in this matter and
- 3:51Speaker 1: the attorney for most of the civil complainants as described
- 3:55Speaker 1: in detail below, was quoted in the Palm Beach Post
- 3:58Speaker 1: as saying that it doesn't matter that his clomedients lied
- 4:00Speaker 1: about their ages and told mister Epstein that they were
- 4:03Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen. Not only is the federal prosecution of
- 4:06Speaker 1: this matter unwarranted, but the irregularity of conduct by prosecutors
- 4:10Speaker 1: and the unorthodox terms of the deferred prosecution agreement are
- 4:14Speaker 1: beyond any reasonable interpretation of the scope of a prosecutor's responsibility.
- 4:19Speaker 1: The list of improprieties includes, but is not limited to,
- 4:22Speaker 1: the following facts. Federal prosecutors made the unprecedented demand that
- 4:26Speaker 1: Epstein pay a minimum of one hundred and fifty thousand
- 4:29Speaker 1: dollars per person to an unnamed list of women they
- 4:32Speaker 1: referred to as miners and to whom they insisted required
- 4:35Speaker 1: representation by a guardian at Lydium. Mister Epstein's council later
- 4:40Speaker 1: established that all but one of these individuals were actually adults,
- 4:44Speaker 1: not miners. Even then, though demanding payment to the women,
- 4:48Speaker 1: the USAO eventually asserted that it could not vouch for
- 4:51Speaker 1: the veracity of any of the claims that these women
- 4:54Speaker 1: might make. Federal prosecutors made the highly unusual demand that
- 4:58Speaker 1: mister Epstein paid the fees of civil attorneys chosen by
- 5:02Speaker 1: the prosecutors to represent these alleged victims, should they choose
- 5:06Speaker 1: to bring any civil litigation against them. They also proposed
- 5:09Speaker 1: sending a notice to the alleged victims stating in an
- 5:13Speaker 1: underlying sentence that they should choose their own attorney. Mister
- 5:16Speaker 1: Epstein would not be required to pay their fees. The
- 5:19Speaker 1: prosecutors further demanded that mister Epstein waive his right to
- 5:23Speaker 1: challenge any of the allegations made by these victims. The
- 5:27Speaker 1: assistant US attorney involved in this matter recommended for the
- 5:30Speaker 1: civil attorney a highly lucrative position an individual that we
- 5:34Speaker 1: later discovered was closely and personally connected to the assistant
- 5:38Speaker 1: US attorney's own boyfriend. Federal prosecutors represented to mister Epstein's
- 5:42Speaker 1: council that they had identified and later rechecked and reidentified
- 5:46Speaker 1: several alleged victims of federal crimes that qualified for payment
- 5:51Speaker 1: under US Code eighteen, Section twenty two fifty five, a
- 5:54Speaker 1: civil remedy designed to provide financial benefits to victims only
- 5:58Speaker 1: through state discovery provision. Did we later learn that many
- 6:02Speaker 1: of the women on the rechecked victim list could not
- 6:04Speaker 1: possibly qualify under twenty two to fifty five. The reason
- 6:09Speaker 1: is that they themselves testified that they did not suffer
- 6:11Speaker 1: any type of harm whatsoever, a prerequisite for the civil
- 6:15Speaker 1: recovery under twenty two to fifty five. Moreover, these women
- 6:18Speaker 1: stated that they did not now are in the past,
- 6:21Speaker 1: consider themselves to be victims. During the last few months,
- 6:25Speaker 1: mister Herman, first assistant Sloman's former law partner, has filed
- 6:28Speaker 1: several civil lawsuits against mister Epstein on behalf of the
- 6:32Speaker 1: alleged victims. It's our understanding that each of mister Herman's
- 6:36Speaker 1: clients are on the government's confidential list of victims. Most
- 6:40Speaker 1: of these lawsuits seek fifty million in money damages. Assistant
- 6:44Speaker 1: US Attorney David Weinstein spoke about the case in great
- 6:47Speaker 1: detail to Landon Thomas, a reporter with The New York Times,
- 6:51Speaker 1: and revealed confidential information about the government's allegations against mister Epstein.
- 6:56Speaker 1: The assistant US attorney also revealed the substance of confidential negotiations,
- 7:01Speaker 1: and just to interject, Blendon Thomas is a reporter that
- 7:04Speaker 1: was outed in the emails as being an Epstein confidant.
- 7:08Speaker 1: So he was getting information from David Weinstein, who was
- 7:10Speaker 1: a US attorney, and then funneling it to Jeffrey Epstein.
- 7:15Speaker 1: But we're crazy, we're conspiracy theorists right. When counsel for
- 7:19Speaker 1: mister Epstein complained about the media leak's first assistant Slowman,
- 7:22Speaker 1: responded by asserting that mister Thomas was given, pursuant to
- 7:26Speaker 1: his request, non case specific information concerning specific federal statutes.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Based on mister thomas contemporaneous notes, that assertion appears to
- 7:35Speaker 1: be false. For example, mister Weinstein told mister Thomas that
- 7:39Speaker 1: federal authorities believe that Epstein had lured girls over the
- 7:42Speaker 1: telephone and traveled in interstate commerce for the purpose of
- 7:46Speaker 1: engaging in underage sex. He recounted to mister Thomas the
- 7:50Speaker 1: usao's theory of prosecution against mister Epstein, replete with an
- 7:54Speaker 1: analysis of the key statutes being considered. Furthermore, after mister
- 7:59Speaker 1: Epstein's defense team complained about the league two USAO, mister
- 8:03Speaker 1: Weinstein and mister Thomas owned description then admonished him for
- 8:07Speaker 1: talking to the defense and getting him in trouble. Mister
- 8:10Speaker 1: Weinstein further told him not to believe the spin of
- 8:13Speaker 1: mister Epstein's high priced attorneys, and then, according to mister Thomas,
- 8:17Speaker 1: mister Weinstein forcefully reminded mister Thomas that all prior conversations
- 8:22Speaker 1: were merely hypothetical. We are constrained to conclude that the
- 8:26Speaker 1: actions of federal officials in this case strike at the
- 8:29Speaker 1: heart of one of the vitally important enduring values in
- 8:32Speaker 1: this country, the honest enforcement of federal law, free of
- 8:36Speaker 1: political consideration and free of the tank of personal financial
- 8:40Speaker 1: motivations on the part of federal prosecutors, that at a
- 8:43Speaker 1: minimum raised the appearance of serious impropriety. We were told
- 8:48Speaker 1: by the US Attorney Acosta that is part of the
- 8:50Speaker 1: review he requested the Department had the authority and his
- 8:53Speaker 1: consent to make any determination it deemed appropriate regarding this matter,
- 8:58Speaker 1: including a decision to decline federal prosecution. Yet CEO's only conclusion,
- 9:04Speaker 1: based on its limited review of the investigation, is that
- 9:07Speaker 1: US Attorney Acosta would not abuse his discretion by proceeding
- 9:11Speaker 1: against mister Epstein. Thus, the decision on whether the prosecution
- 9:15Speaker 1: is fair and appropriate has been placed once again in
- 9:19Speaker 1: US Attorney Acosta's hands. In light of the foregoing, we
- 9:23Speaker 1: respectfully ask you that you review this matter and discontinue
- 9:26Speaker 1: all federal involvement so that the state can appropriately bring
- 9:30Speaker 1: this matter to closure. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity
- 9:34Speaker 1: to meet with you to discuss these important issues. Such
- 9:37Speaker 1: a meeting would provide the Department with an opportunity to
- 9:40Speaker 1: review the paramount issues of federalism and the appearance of
- 9:44Speaker 1: selectivity that are generated by the unprecedented attempts to broaden
- 9:48Speaker 1: the ambit of federal statutes to places that they have
- 9:51Speaker 1: never been reached. We sincerely appreciate your attention to this matter,
- 9:55Speaker 1: Respectfully submitted, Ken Starr and Joe Whitley. All right, and
- 9:59Speaker 1: as you can see from this letter, they went way
- 10:01Speaker 1: above Acosta's head. Like I've told you from the very beginning,
- 10:06Speaker 1: this was not an Acosta decision. In fact, Acosta, if anything,
- 10:10Speaker 1: wanted to proceed, he was undercut by his bosses at
- 10:14Speaker 1: the DOJ. And if you needed proof of that, here
- 10:16Speaker 1: it is. This was the opening salvo of the sweetheart
- 10:20Speaker 1: deal being put into place. And you see how they
- 10:22Speaker 1: just go over Acosta's head. Like I've been telling you
- 10:25Speaker 1: for years. So the whole entire time that people wasteed
- 10:28Speaker 1: on Acosta just more time for these people to get
- 10:31Speaker 1: their narrative under control, when the real people that were
- 10:34Speaker 1: in charge of this shit were sitting in DC. And
- 10:37Speaker 1: if you're looking for the real architect of the Jeffrey
- 10:39Speaker 1: Epstein NPA, look no further than Mark Philip. All of
- 10:44Speaker 1: the information that goes with this episode can be found
- 10:47Speaker 1: in the description box