Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Mega Edition: Leon Black And His Political Donations And The Claims Of A Set up (4/28/26)

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Mega Edition: Leon Black And His Political Donations And The Claims Of A Set up (4/28/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
0:04
On this edition, we're going to talk about Leon Black
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and the new allegations that he's making, that he was
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part of a corporate coup, that his old partner at
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Apollo Global put Miss Ganieva up to making these accusations,
0:21
and that Josh Harris was doing it all to try
0:25
and get rid of Leon Black because of their issues
0:28
behind the scenes. Now, there's an article out in the
0:31
Daily Beast today by Kate Bricklett, who is discussing this. Now,
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if you've noticed over the I don't know last few
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hours from last night into this morning, I posted a
0:44
bunch of episodes dealing with Leon Black and the situation
0:49
we're about to talk to. As you all know, I
0:51
love context, so I wanted to provide a little bit
0:55
more context for you because I knew that there was
0:58
going to be some significant news this morning breaking about
1:02
Leon Black. So we're not gonna spend too much time
1:06
here in the monologue. We're gonna dive right into this
1:09
article and we're gonna see what sort of nonsense Leon
1:13
Black is now up to. All Right, this article is
1:16
from the Daily Beast and the author is Kate Bricklett
1:21
headline Jeffrey Epstein pal Leon Black claims rape accuser was
1:26
part of a corporate coup. Now, we all know that
1:30
the allegations against Leon Black are heinous, disgusting, disturbing, and
1:36
we all know that he was real good friends with
1:39
Jeffrey Epstein to the tune of one hundred and fifty
1:42
eight million dollars at least. So when these claims were
1:47
first brought forward, I was not surprised at all. Now
1:51
him trying to fight back and blame Harris for this
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kind of ridiculous on his part. To be honest with you,
2:00
I don't think it's gonna go anywhere. Harris is not
2:02
some shrinking violet that Leon Black's gonna be able to
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bully like he's always done. Harris is another very powerful
2:10
Hedge funder owned sports teams, helped create Apollo Global, Big
2:14
Time Player. It's gonna take a lot to, you know,
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rattle his tree. And we're gonna see what Leon Black
2:22
is bringing to the table here. But it looks like
2:24
another one of these attempts to try and deflect blame
2:28
from himself and put it onto somebody else. And we've
2:31
seen that strategy from these people for a very, very
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long time, especially in the Epstein case. As billionaire Leon
2:41
Black fights a former model's rape lawsuit in a Manhattan court,
2:44
he's roping in other high profile men and claiming someone
2:48
secretly bankrolleder case in order to stage a coup at
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his former firm, Apollo Global Management. And make no mistake
2:56
about it, folks, he is looking to weasle his way
3:00
back into Apollo. He cannot abide by the fact that
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the power was taken away from him, the reins were
3:07
taken away from him. He cannot. He can't live like this, right.
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He has to be in control. So he's come up
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with this idea. If he can, you know, you know,
3:17
make the picture look like he was being blackmailed and
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it was a corporate coup, then the board members will
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have to accept him back. Meanwhile, has he forgotten his
3:27
relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? This is a separate issue here.
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If he thinks we're gonna forget about his cozy relationship
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with Epstein and the one hundred and fifty eight million,
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dude's crazy. Furthermore, I don't believe a word he has
3:41
to say about the situation here with miss Ganieva, I
3:45
believe what he has to say is true, to be
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honest with you. Last June, Guselle Ganieva filed a defamation
3:53
suit against Black, the seventy year old friend and client
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of wealthy sex offender pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. I mean he
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sexually abused her for years and coerced her into signing
4:03
a non disclosure agreement to keep her silent about the assaults.
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Typical of these people. Oh you know, I'll give you
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a bazillion trillion dollars and I'll assault you, but just
4:13
can't say anything about it. Cool, And that's the way
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they do it, right. They have all of these non
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disclosure agreements, and they use their money and power to
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make sure that people never say a word about their abuse.
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And then if somebody does say something about their abuse, oh,
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the counter lawsuits begin. We had a non disclosure agreement.
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Nothing about the fact that you're a sick bastard who
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abused people. Only about the fact that your stupid agreement
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wasn't fulfilled. Black, who denies any wrongdoing and says they
4:45
had consensual affair, is attempting to subpoena Ganieva's phone records
4:49
and those of New York Public Relations executive Steven Rubinstein,
4:53
who the embattled mogul claims was enlisted by Apollo co
4:57
founder Josh Harris the plant negative stories about him in
5:01
the press. So if you go back to the beginning,
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when we first started talking about Leon Black, I told
5:08
you guys that my sources had told me that there
5:11
was a battle royale going on in the boardroom. I
5:14
have an episode dealing with that, and I'm going to
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post it from a year ago, two years ago at
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this point, but some of my former colleagues from when
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I worked at Canter Fitzgerald had told me about the
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situation and the buzz that was going on about the
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battle that was happening between Harris and Black, even before
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the Epstein allegations came to light. So this has been
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a brewing problem behind the scenes, and it's starting to
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come to a head now. In court filings this week,
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Black unveiled shocking accusations against Harris, describing him as an
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ARC rival who backed Ganieva's litigation behind the scenes after
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losing a multi billion dollar succession fight to replace Black
5:57
as Apollo CEO in twenty two one. Well, that whole
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entire deal was tilted against Harris from Jump Street. You
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had Rowan and Leon Black who were talking behind the
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scenes about making sure Rowan got that position from the beginning,
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and Josh Harris was never going to be considered for
6:20
that position because Leon Black knows him and Harris have issues.
6:24
He knows that Harris is not going to bend to
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his will, and Rowan, on the other hand, well, Rowan will.
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So this has been something that has been in the
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making for quite some time. Now. Did Harris do this?
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I don't know. I wasn't there, but I would think
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that this is just a deflection from Leon Black because
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he knows how serious these claims are and he knows
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the jeopardy he's in not only for that, but his
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relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as well. The pleading accuses Harris
6:55
of enlisting Rubinstein to help shape his own media profile
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and seed harmful stories about Black. It also alleges Harris
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attempted to oust Black in twenty twenty and twenty twenty
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one by spotlighting the financial arrangements with Epstein, whose sexual
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abuse of girls had been widely reported on four years. Well,
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you blame Harris, I mean imagine you helped found this company,
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and then Leon Black thinks it's a good idea to
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go and hang out with Epstein. Give him one hundred
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and fifty eight million dollars for I'm using air quotes
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here advice, hang out with Epstein, fly to Epstein's house, and,
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according to Miss Gannieva, well a lot worse. You blame
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Harris for being pissed off. Now, don't get it twisted.
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I don't think Harris is a good guy either. Another
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one of these billionaires, destroy you at all cost types
7:44
of hedge fund m efforts. But in this case he's
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certainly the lesser of two evils. Black seeks to show
7:52
communication between Miss Ganieva's camp and mister Rubinstein's camp, between
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his accuser and the public relations teams that work for
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his arch rival, further demonstrating that Miss Ganiheva's claims are
8:04
nothing but fabrications stitched together from whole cloth. His lawyer,
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Dania Perry said in the pleading, so they've been saying
8:12
that from the beginning that Miss Ganiheva and her accusations
8:15
here are bunk, that they are not true, and that
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it was all a push to get some money. Now,
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I don't buy that for a minute. To be honest
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with you, people don't go after people like Leon Black
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unless they have the goods, unless they have some evidence,
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right because if not, you're looking to get destroyed. Because
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that's exactly the kind of man Leon Black is. He's
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made a career out of destroying people and companies. The
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private equity titan resigned from Apollo last March, two months
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after an internal review found that he had paid Epstein
8:54
one hundred and fifty eight million dollars from twenty twelve
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to twenty seventeen for tax in a state, planning and
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other financial advice. It just beggars the mind, right, how
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are you going to pay one hundred and fifty eight
9:07
million dollars for financial advice? If you have one hundred
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and fifty eight million dollars, you're the man who created Apollo.
9:14
You really need to go to an outside source for
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financial advice. What were you really giving that money to
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Epstein for, mister Black. Black also stepped down as chairman
9:29
of the Museum of Modern Art in wake of protests
9:32
over his ties to the late sex trafficker Blake's file.
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Black's filing states that Harris enraged that Apollo passed him over,
9:40
then forged ahead with a malicious campaign to take mister
9:43
Black down. And this is going to be the gist
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of it, right, It's all Josh Harris's fault. I want
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you to pay attention to Harris. He's coming after me.
9:53
Don't look at what I'm doing though, Don't look at
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my relationship with Epstein. Don't look at the fact that
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Miss Ganieva is leveling some serious charges against me. It's
10:02
all Harris's fault. Mister Harris convened a team of media experts,
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including prominently mister Rubinstein, not only to manage his own reputation,
10:17
but to also impune and indeed intempt to destroy mister Black,
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Perry said in the court filing. Both Harris and Rubinstein
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have denied Black's accusations, with Harris's spokesperson calling them desperate
10:29
and absurd. The claims in mister Black's legal memorandum are baseless, untrue,
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and unsupportable. Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for Harris, told The
10:39
Daily Beast, mister Harris does not know Miss Ganieva, has
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never met or spoken with her or anyone representing her,
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has no financial or any other dealings with her or
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her representatives, not no involvement of any kind in the filing,
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in the filing of any claims by her. Simply put,
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mister Harris has nothing whatsoever to do with a deeply
11:00
troubling situation mister Black finds himself in, and any statement
11:05
or implication otherwise is unhinged at best. So Harris right
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here is flatly denying it, saying, Look, your situation is
11:13
your own. Don't try and drag me into the muck
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with you. You're the one who's being accused of serious
11:18
sexual assault charges. You're the one who is paling around
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with Jeffrey Epstein, not me. Don't bring me into this.
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And of course what Leon Black is attempting to do
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is exactly that. Let's move this spotlight a little bit
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over to the left here on the Harris Boys. Evan Farber,
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an attorney for Rubinstein, told us mister Rubinstein and his
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firm have absolutely no relationship with miss Ganieva past present,
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formal or informal. They have never met or communicated with
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her or any of her representatives. These and the rest
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of the claims filed by mister Black's attorneys offer a
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concocted ever evolving conspiracy theory packed with false information and
12:00
are not based in reality. So let's not forget and
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you know, lose the plot here. The plot is Miss
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Ganieva has leveled serious sexual charges against Black, and now
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Black in return, is attempting to destroy Miss Ganieva like
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they always do, and by doing that, what he's doing
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is bringing Josh Harrison to it as well, So he's
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looking to get rid of two of his rivals in
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one fell swoop here. Genie Christiansen, a lawyer for Ganieva
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and partner at Whigdor LLP, also denied Black's accusations. Rather
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than responding to our clients serious allegations of sexual assault
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and rape as alleged in her complaint, Leon Black is
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deflecting from his own conduct by infusing his personal strife
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with former partners at Apollo into her case, she told
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The Daily Beast, and that's one hundred percent where I'm
12:53
at as well. Look, these guys are the masters of manipulation.
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They're the masters of making moves behind the scenes, and
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Leon Black is certainly not an apprentice. This guy has
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been destroying careers and people since Junior Soprano is wearing
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short pants, folks. While Black concedes that he paid Ganieva
13:15
one hundred thousand dollars a month from October twenty fifteen
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through March of last year, and forgave one million dollars
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in loans to her as part of their NDA, he
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argues she lacks any apparent independent means of supporting herself.
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So what what does that have to do with anything?
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You're the one who gave her all of this money, right,
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Why did you give her all of this money? Oh,
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it was a consensual affair, dude, Your wife was sick,
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bro all right, So throughout the whole time your wife
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was ill, you're cheating on her, and then you have
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the audacity to make the person you cheated on her
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with sign an NDA after you allegedly sexually assaulted her. Yeah,
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you're a hell of a guy. Pal. It is not
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hard to infer that she is being bankrolled by someone
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with deep pockets Perry Black's lawyer alleges and Tuesday's filing. Meanwhile,
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her false claims are seated and amplified by mister Rubinstein,
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the same PR guru who already has done mister Harris
14:11
work and spreading rumors about mister Black's alleged sexual misconduct.
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What do you mean spreading rumors? These are court filings
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that we're looking at. Nobody spread these rumors. There's nobody
14:22
out there on the pitch trying to get the rumor
14:25
mill going on. Leon Black. You're doing it all for yourself,
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all right. You don't need any help. Everything's swirling and
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falling down on you in a radioactive fashion because of
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your own decisions. All of these people who are supposedly
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so much smarter than the rest of us, sure seem
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like a bunch of dumbasses, don't they. The filing doesn't
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refer to any specific evidence or exhibits of the alleged
14:50
smear campaign, but instead points to a circumstantial timeline as
14:54
twenty twenty turned into twenty twenty one, with an independent
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investigation into mister Black's relationship with mister Epstein underway, mister Rubinstein,
15:03
despite being on retainer with Apollo, works specifically on mister
15:07
Harris's behalf. Perry alleged this work included being in communication
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with mister Harris on talking points and media statements relating to,
15:15
among other things, mister Black and mister Epstein. Well, none
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of this would have happened. You wouldn't have to worry
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about that if your client, mister Black, wasn't hanging out
15:26
and enabling Jeffrey Epstein. Pretty simple. Mister Black is entitled
15:32
to probe the timing and prove that it is no coincidence.
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Just as mister Rubinstein prepared and fed allegations to media
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to further mister Harris's ambitions, so too were the allegations
15:45
relating to miss Gannieva. His attorneys stated, I mean, come on,
15:49
this is really going to be your defense. They're not
15:53
gonna bring anything stronger to the table. Here's what they
15:57
think is what they're gonna do. They think they're gonna
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steamroll over missus Gunnanieva because she's not some high profile person,
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and they think that if they drag this out, they'll
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litigate it long enough she won't be able to afford it.
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So I hope some lawyer takes it pro bono and
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really sticks it to leon Black. Black's team underscored that
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Rubinstein previously worked with The New York Post, where Ganieva
16:19
gave an exclusive interview months before her lawsuit was filed,
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and it beggars belief to suggest that Gazelle. Ganieva herself,
16:27
without professional public relationship help, convinced Ronan Farrow and other
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prominent reporters to sign on as the first three followers
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of her new Twitter account. Black's legal team continued as
16:38
if Twitter is a real place, I can't stand when
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people bring up Twitter like it's a real place. Like
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twenty percent of adults use Twitter. That's it. It's for
16:47
the loudest voices amongst us. It's for the water carrying tribalists.
16:52
That's what Twitter is. It's not a representation of the
16:55
rest of the country. Come on. Nevada State Van Kanieva
16:58
first came forward with acting with accusations of abuse in
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a series of tweets in March twenty twenty. One weeks later,
17:06
Black denied her claims and said I have been extorted
17:08
by miss Ganieva for many years, and I made substantial
17:12
monetary payments to her based on her threats to go
17:15
public concerning our relationship in an attempt to spare my
17:18
family from public embarrassment. Here's an idea. Don't engage in
17:22
the behavior in the first place, and you don't have
17:24
to worry about sparing your family from embarrassment. See how
17:27
that works, and you'll be a little bit richer as well.
17:30
We all know that's your favorite thing, right Leon Black,
17:32
being a little bit richer. So if you don't get
17:34
involved in this sort of shit in the first place,
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you don't have to worry about it. Thanks for coming
17:39
to my ted talk. Ganieva then filed her defamation suit
17:44
against Black, which said she was a single mother from
17:46
Russia when she met him in two thousand and eight,
17:49
and she believed he would help her career move beyond modeling. Instead,
17:53
she says Black trapped in a cycle of intimidation, abuse
17:57
and humiliation. Sure sounds like them o Jeff Epstein used,
18:00
isn't it all of a sudden, Leon Black is using
18:04
the same strategy, according to miss Ganievo over here. So
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she later updated her lawsuit to add accusations that highlighted
18:12
an especially close relationship between Black and Epstein. In an
18:17
amended complaint, Ganieva claimed Black fluor to Florida in two
18:21
thousand and eight and encouraged her to have sex with
18:24
his best friend, Epstein, who was on work release from jail,
18:27
but she refused. While visiting Epstein's Palm Beach lair Ganieva
18:31
said she met his former assistant and alleged co conspirator,
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Sarah Kellen. According to Ganieva, Kellen said that Black and
18:39
Epstein were sex addicts and warned they are very powerful
18:42
and if you don't do what they want you to do,
18:44
there will be consequences that I do not want for you.
18:47
Sounds about right. Sarah Kellen getting in the mix, trying
18:50
to smooth things over, get these girls in it for
18:53
Epstein and his buddies to abuse, certainly fits with the pattern.
18:58
Ganieva also lamb Glen Maxwell, Epstein's recently convicted accomplice, approached
19:04
her in twenty thirteen and offered to help her get
19:07
a passport. We know that was something they were doing too.
19:10
They had the scam marriages going on with Dyke and Khan,
19:14
and they were getting a citizenship for people via that scam.
19:20
So these guys, Epstein and his friends, they had their
19:23
fingers in many pies, folks. Since Ganieva came forward, Black
19:28
filed a short lived counterclaim alleging he was the victim
19:31
of an extortion scheme. He dropped that state court action
19:34
in September. In October, Black sued Ganieva and whigdor LLP,
19:40
the law firm representing her, for racketeering and defamation in
19:43
federal court. Aside from Ganieva and her lawyers, Black named
19:47
three other public defendants, John Doe's one and two, and
19:50
he described as public relations and social media professionals, and
19:55
John Doe three, a funder who was supposedly covering the
19:58
cost of the litigation and alleged pr campaigns against him.
20:02
Now I said at the time that Josh Harris was
20:06
a likely suspect for this sort of thing, and if
20:10
anyone was going to be fingered for it, it would be Harris,
20:14
considering the animosity that had been built between him and
20:19
Black at this point. The defendants here created an enterprise
20:27
to extort and cancel one of the world's most prominent
20:30
business leaders. Black's racketeering suit claims, and again it's galling right.
20:34
Black has a racketeering suit against Harris and the Ganieva
20:40
but we don't have a racketeering suit against Maxwell go figure.
20:44
In response, whigdor LLP asked the court to sanction Black
20:47
and this legal team for allegedly filing the suit for
20:50
improper purposes, namely retaliating against the firm for representing Ganieva
20:55
and attempting to interfere with their ability to represent her.
20:59
It's no surprise that a billionaire faced with allegations of
21:02
sexual assault would want to use his fortune to change
21:05
the subject by retaliating against his accuser and her representatives
21:09
in a very public manner, Rivkin Radler LLP, lawyers for Wigdor,
21:14
stated last week and a memorandum seeking sanctions. However, zealous
21:19
representation does not equate to or excuse the filing of frivolous,
21:23
harassing or retaliatory litigation. So they're saying it's all bs,
21:28
and that Black's team filed it as a intimidation method
21:33
to tell these people, look, if you try anything, we
21:36
will crush you. I'm Leon Black, and I'm coming for
21:39
everything you own if you attempt to even bring these
21:42
charges against me. And that's what they've done forever, and
21:45
they've been able to intimidate people for a long time
21:47
doing that. Wigdor's lawyers added that no amount of investigation
21:53
could possibly have led Black or his counsel to a
21:56
good faith belief that the firm was involved with a funder.
21:59
They said Black's legal team knew Wigdor was representing Ganieva
22:03
on a contingency agreement in her state court lawsuit. No
22:07
one has paid or reimbursed Wigdor for anything in connection
22:10
with its representation of miss Ganieva, they said, So it
22:13
looks like it's pro bono here, which is a great thing,
22:16
and I'm glad Wigdor is doing that, because when you're
22:19
dealing with high profile people like Black, it's very hard
22:23
to litigate against them in court if you don't have
22:25
a huge bankroll. Lawyers for Wigdor also denied the firm
22:31
or Ganieva had enlisted a public relations specialist a publicizer
22:36
accusations it is frivolous for Black to allege, as he
22:40
does with the improper of his counsel, that miss Ghanieva
22:44
needed the assistance of a flak to use the hashtags
22:47
me too or Leon Black, they wrote, meaning she didn't
22:51
need to hire somebody to use those hashtags and you know,
22:56
talk about these people on her own on social media. Black,
23:00
with his billions of dollars, may believe that he can
23:02
levy baseless and legally defective RICO and defamation claims against
23:06
opposing council with impunity in an attempt to interfere with
23:10
Whigdoor's ability to represent Miss Ganieva and gain an advantage
23:14
in her first filed state court action. Wigdor's lawyers added, however,
23:19
his lawyers should have refused to go along with that
23:22
wrongful approach. In a letter to the court last week,
23:25
Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich indicated he will file an amended
23:29
racketeering complaint by January twenty eighth. Estrich added that Wigdor's
23:34
motion for sanctions should be denied as moot once the
23:37
updated lawsuit is filed. So kill them with filings, kill
23:41
them with court appeals, kill them with technicalities and loopholes.
23:46
That's what he's trying to do here. He's trying to
23:50
use his great power, his great wealth, to make this
23:53
too much of a long and drawn out war and
23:57
financially not feasible for anybody to engage. Earlier this month,
24:03
Ganieva's lawyers filed a motion to quash black subpoena to
24:07
AT and T for her phone records, calling it a
24:09
clear and unnecessary invasion of privacy and a transparent attempt
24:13
to intimidate and harass Miss Ganieva. Black is simply fishing
24:18
for evidence for use in the federal lawsuit despite having
24:22
received sworn statements from Miss Ghanieva that she has not
24:25
spoken to any public relations firm or agent, wrote Whigdoor
24:28
attorney Lindsay M. Goldbrum. So the back and forth is
24:33
on right. You know that Black wants everything he could
24:36
possibly get, and Miss Gannieva's lawyers they're not having it.
24:39
They're pushing back, saying this is unfounded, this is bs
24:43
and it's going to be interesting to see what the
24:45
court says. Black believes wrongly that plaintiff conspired with other
24:52
people to file this action against Black for the sole
24:55
purpose of embarrassing him and ruining his reputation. Goldramaded, he
24:59
is not entire to continue on a quest that has
25:01
yielded no information and that unquestionably will continue to do so.
25:06
And furthermore, his reputation was already ruined by his association
25:09
with Epstein. That's a ridiculous argument. Rubinstein's lawyer, Farber, also
25:15
moved to defeat a subpoena for his phone records, calling
25:18
it brazenly over broad and improperly invasive. Black only seeks,
25:23
not only seeks Rubinstein's phone records and texts from October
25:26
twenty twenty to September twenty twenty one, but records for
25:29
each of his agents, representatives, and employees. Farber said, So
25:34
that's a big ask that Leon Black is making here,
25:37
and I don't think it's going to go over so well.
25:39
We'll have to see though. All Right, folks, that's gonna
25:42
do it for this episode, and I wanted to get
25:44
it added to the catalog considering we had those other
25:47
Leon Black episodes that I uploaded last night. Want to
25:51
make sure we have, you know, as much context as possible.
25:54
I have a few other episodes dealing with Leon Black,
25:56
such as the Battle Royale in the Boardroom episode. I'm
26:00
gonna upload that one as well. All Right, folks, if
26:04
you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
26:06
Bobby Kapuci at ProtonMail dot com. That's Bobby c ap
26:11
you Cci at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find
26:15
me on Twitter at Bobby underscore cap you Cci. The
26:21
link that we discussed can be found in the description box.
26:25
All right, everybody, this article we have this morning is
26:28
really going to play and well to what we've been
26:31
talking about and how I've been trying to hammer home
26:35
the fact that there is a lot of dirty deceitful,
26:40
gross money floating around in the American political system. Now,
26:45
I'm sure that's the case for elsewhere. I don't live there,
26:47
I can't speak for elsewhere. What I will say is this,
26:51
Guys like Leon Black fund both sides of the aisle,
26:56
fund both parties, and in return, well, when those people
27:01
are in their offices, they're expected to make sure that
27:05
the laws that they write are favorable to people like
27:09
Leon Black, that there's some loopholes for them to exploit,
27:13
that there are some back doors for them to exit
27:17
out of if they ever get in trouble. What do
27:19
you think they're just donating this money because they're that's
27:23
the guy that they want to win. No, when they
27:26
give this money to these politicians, it's because they believe
27:29
that these politicians can do something for them in return.
27:33
Now it might be might not be an outright bribe, right,
27:36
but it might be a favorable ruling, or packing a
27:39
bit of pork into a bill, or you know, there
27:44
are plenty of ways to skin the cat, as they say,
27:47
and people on both sides of the aisle have surely
27:52
mastered the art. We're talking about serious money that gets
27:57
poured into people who then have the audacity to get
28:03
up there on their ivory tower and yell down at
28:06
the rest of us. It's absurd, frankly, and taking it
28:12
a step further, this just plays right into my point
28:14
that I was making the other night. How I don't
28:17
believe that any outside money should ever be accepted or
28:21
should be used by any candidate running for Senate or Congress.
28:27
That money should all come from within the state, so
28:30
that that person who gets elected, I know this is
28:33
going to be a big shocker, is only accountable to
28:36
his or her constituents and is not accountable to these
28:41
bagmen like Leon Black. And I'll tell you what, if
28:46
these politicians that are planning on running at some point,
28:50
or if any of you are planning on running at
28:51
some point, I think that that would be a fantastic
28:54
platform to run on. I think people in your state
28:57
would appreciate that shit. And I think think that people
29:00
in your state would be hyped up and fired up
29:03
to vote for a candidate who promises to only take
29:07
in state money, no matter how little it is. Because
29:12
when you have people like Leon Black, and you have
29:15
people like Len Dubin, and you have insert other American
29:19
oligarch here, manipulating our financial system by buying their way
29:25
into local politics via senators and congressmen and attorney generals.
29:32
It's not good. That's not the way it should be.
29:36
And then these people that we send to DC that
29:39
are supposedly representing us are not doing that. They're representing
29:45
they're bag men. They're representing the people on K Street.
29:48
They're representing people like Leon Black. And you know what
29:55
the truth is, these people don't care. It's all about
30:00
out raising obscene amounts of money in politics these days.
30:05
And you really think that we're supposed to believe all
30:07
of that money that you raise from people like Leon
30:10
Black is going to your campaigns anyway, how much of
30:14
that finds its way into the pocket of these candidates
30:20
or these congressmen or congress women or these bureaucrats, I'm
30:24
sure a whole hell of a lot of it. And
30:26
that's just the unfortunate truth of the matter, folks. When
30:32
you have this kind of money coming in from people
30:34
like Leon Black, pouring into states where there's only three
30:38
or four million people living in the state, it's an
30:41
absurd way for somebody like him to manipulate the politics,
30:46
and it should not be allowed I don't think that
30:49
one single dollar should ever come from somebody like Leon
30:53
Black and go to somebody who is looking to become
30:55
a senator or is looking to hold their Senate seat, unless,
30:59
of course it's from the state that Leon Black lives in.
31:02
Then hey, look whatever you do in your state, if
31:04
you're a resident of that state, fine, I'm talking about
31:08
outside money, you know, money that pours in from New
31:11
York to say Nevada. Unacceptable. It is unacceptable, and I
31:17
don't feel like the states, all of the states get
31:20
the proper representation when that occurs. And I think it's
31:24
a big problem right along with term limits. So today
31:30
Forbes or should I say yesterday excuse me, Forbes had
31:33
an article out about some of the people that received
31:37
money from Leon Black. We're going to dive into that
31:41
article and we're going to see which ones of these
31:44
grifting ass thieves that we have sent to Washington, d C.
31:49
And elsewhere have received money from Leon Black, and then
31:53
the question will become are they going to return it?
31:58
This article is from Forbes headline leaders in both parties
32:02
received money from Leon Black, billionaire caught up in Epstein's scandal.
32:07
This article was authored by Lazette Voitko. Leon Black, the
32:13
billionaire chairman, chief executive and co founder of Apollo Global Management,
32:18
donated at least one hundred thousand dollars to mostly Republicans
32:23
senatorial campaigns since twenty and nineteen. Isn't that nice? So?
32:29
Why is Leon Black so worried about senatorial campaigns? Why
32:34
is he so worried about people who are running for Senate?
32:39
Just because that's far less than he gave to the
32:44
political causes ahead of the two thousand and six election
32:47
based on a Forbes analysis of contributions reported by the
32:51
Federal Election Commission. Look, Leon Black has serious ties to
32:57
people like Jared Kushner. I'm sure that him and Donald
33:01
Trump are homies, and I'm sure that all of the
33:06
other people who have received money from him are going
33:12
to be looking for ways to give it back. At
33:15
this point, you would think right. Black has been on
33:21
your scrutiny recently for his ties to the dead disgraced
33:23
financier pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The ties have begun to post
33:28
problems for his massive private equity firm. Oh, isn't this nice?
33:34
There are several people who were going to get to
33:38
who have received money from him Democrats and Republicans alike.
33:42
It's just unbelievable to me that these people would accept
33:48
this money considering we all have known about Leon Black's
33:52
involvement with Jeffrey Epstein for quite some time now. This
33:55
is not something new. This is not a revelation that
33:58
the Times broke, eh this is something that we have
34:02
known for quite some time. And the fact that these
34:06
people would take the money from this guy, knowing his
34:09
ties to Jeffrey Epstein, it's repugnant. It's the same way
34:12
I felt about good old Pete Buddha Judge taking money
34:16
from Glenn Dubin. Oh, but he gave it back. That's
34:18
not the point. The point is who's in charge of
34:23
vetting these donors. GOP heavyweights are among the recipients of
34:30
Black's donations, including Senate Majority Leader Cocaine Mitch McConnell himself
34:37
fifty six hundred dollars, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
34:41
fifty six hundred dollars, and Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas
34:46
twenty eight hundred dollars. About thirty three percent of his
34:49
donations went to moderate Democrats like Chris Coons of Delaware
34:53
and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. So Cocaine, Mitch Graham,
35:01
Tom Cotton, Chris Coons and Mark Warner, What are you
35:06
going to do with that money that was donated to
35:08
you by Leon Black? I would prefer if none of
35:13
the politicians in America or you know, people running for
35:16
office were tainted with ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Now, obviously
35:22
it'll be well, we had no idea that mister Black
35:26
was entangled with mister Epstein. That'll be the excuse from
35:29
all of them. Meanwhile, these are the same people that
35:32
want us to believe that they should be writing laws
35:34
that are going to keep me or you out of
35:36
jail or put us in jail. These are the people
35:39
that we want in charge. Huh. But they had no
35:41
idea and they couldn't vet who Leon Black was, or
35:44
what his associations were or anything like that. They just
35:47
accepted the money hand over fist. Do you know why,
35:50
Because it's all about greed, and it's all about that
35:53
out of state money. Folks. Let's get that out of
35:56
state money into Arkansas. What the hell does Leon Black
36:00
care about Arkansas or South Carolina? I mean, really, it's
36:06
political kobooky and I am tired of it. Black's donations
36:13
in twenty and nineteen and twenty and twenty decreased by
36:17
some eighty percent compared to twenty and fifteen and twenty
36:21
and sixteen, when Black gave about five hundred and seventy
36:24
thousand dollars. Well, that's interesting. So his donations were clipped
36:31
by eighty percent. I wonder why. I wonder why he
36:38
stopped donating very interesting stuff now probably had something to
36:44
do with the same reason most of these big Republican
36:48
bundled bag men bounced out. A lot of them wanted
36:52
nothing to do with Trump. We saw a lot of
36:54
the traditional Republican donors really turn a blind you know,
36:59
turn their their the other way and hold their noses
37:02
over Trump. And who knows, maybe Black is one of
37:06
those kind of dudes. But to me, I think that
37:10
Leon Black is the kind of guy that understands that
37:14
the presidential race really doesn't mean shit. He understands that
37:19
these senators and these congress people where he puts, you know,
37:23
a majority of his money, where he donates a majority
37:26
of his money to both sides of the aisle, well
37:28
he knows that those are the people that are writing
37:30
the laws. Those are the people that really have an
37:34
impact on his life, not some president that's there for
37:37
four or eight years and who is managed behind the
37:39
scenes by these money men. And that's all the presidents,
37:43
by the way, Okay, every single one of them. The
37:48
majority of those funds were directed to two super packs.
37:52
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Senate Majority Pack,
37:56
which is the super pack supporting Democrats in the Senate,
37:59
and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Congressional Leadership Fund,
38:03
which is the super pack supporting Republicans in the House.
38:06
Oh pretty sly huh. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
38:11
to the Senate Majority Pack. Then that money will get
38:14
distributed to various states, again outside dark money tanking state races.
38:21
How many of these professors, how many of these lawyers?
38:25
How many of these doctors would be elected in your
38:28
home states and sent to DC if it was reliant
38:31
only on the people of your state to fund the
38:35
race and then to vote in the race. I am
38:37
sure not too many of them. So, like I always say,
38:42
it is time to vote these incumbents out, and then
38:46
it is time for some strict guidelines, no outside money
38:50
into Senate or congressional races, and term limits. If we
38:55
can get those two things done, and you see them
38:58
fighting tooth and nail against stuff like this. By by
39:00
the way, if we can get those two things done,
39:03
we can make sure that we have a fighting chance
39:06
as a society without that stuff. Forget it. The political
39:10
class is going to drag us all under with them.
39:15
His spouse, Deborah Black, a theatrical producer and Melanoma Research
39:19
Alliance co founder, gave less compared to her husband over
39:23
the past year, with seventy eight thousand dollars going to
39:26
candidates on both sides of the aisle. Black and his
39:29
wife gave to many of the same congressional candidates, but
39:32
about forty three percent of Deborah Black's donations went to Democrats.
39:36
Like her husband. Deborah Black contributed more overall in the
39:40
twenty sixteen cycle, but not by much, at one hundred
39:44
and six thousand, five hundred dollars. So that's how they
39:48
play the game, right, They're like they show up. They're like,
39:50
all right, look, so I'm going to do I'm going
39:53
to donate to the Republican senators. You donate to the
39:57
Democratic congressman. And then you know, well, we'll make sure
40:00
that we're covered on both ends. When these guys are
40:03
writing laws, will be looked at favorably by both sides,
40:08
and so the game goes. These people with all of
40:12
this money, this dirty ass dark money that keeps pouring
40:16
into these races, are such an impediment on actual freedom
40:22
and free choice that it's not even funny. I mean,
40:25
how much money gets poured into these states by people
40:28
like Leon Black, and Leon Black's just one of these,
40:32
one of these mega donors two hundred and fifty thousand
40:35
dollars to a Senate a pack committee. It's just absurd.
40:39
It is absolutely absurd. And these people like Leon Black,
40:46
like Glenn Dubin, have no sense of right and wrong.
40:56
They operate on a different level than the rest of
40:58
us because all of this money that we're talking about,
41:02
that they donate to the very people who write the laws.
41:08
Black's political donations tapered off amid an ever expanding public
41:11
relations crisis. Black, whose net worth Forbes estimates at seven
41:16
point seven billion with a bee, is under fire for
41:19
transferring over fifty million dollars to Epstein after he was
41:23
convicted in two thousand and eight of soliciting prostitution from
41:27
an underage girl. So all these people that received money
41:31
from a Mitch McConnell, Coons and the rest, you better
41:36
donate that money somewhere and then it's time to start
41:40
explaining how you ended up taking money from Leon Black
41:44
considering what the hell is going on right now. Like
41:48
I say, this is not a news story. This is
41:50
not something that just occurred. This is something that's been ongoing.
41:54
This is something that a quick Google search for any
41:57
of these people who accepted this money would have showed them.
42:00
And I'll tell you what, I bet a bunch of
42:02
them knew and they did not care. That conviction became
42:07
the subject of a November twenty eighteen Miami Herald investigation,
42:12
which found that Epstein negotiated what many believed to be
42:15
an overly lenient plea deal with US attorneys after dozens
42:19
of underage girls had accused him of sexual abuse. Blackfaced
42:24
questions about his relationship with Epstein in July twenty nineteen,
42:29
when The New York Post first reported that Epstein served
42:32
on the board of the Black Foundation for four years
42:35
following his two thousand and eight conviction. So you mean
42:38
to tell me that the New York Post could break this.
42:41
The New York Post can find this, But all of
42:44
these so called rulers of the free world, all of
42:47
these so called statesmen, couldn't figure it out. What a
42:52
bunch of bozos. This is who we have entrusted our
42:55
future to. This is who we have entrusted our safety to.
43:04
Black is deep regret for his ties to Epstein, according
43:07
to an October twelfth letter to investors and stress that
43:10
the disgraced financier Pedophile never did any business with Apollo. Again,
43:15
I find that to be ludicrous. Leon Black is Apollo,
43:20
and Apollo is Leon Black. Come on, man. Black's ties
43:24
to Epstein have begun to have financial ramifications for Apollo management.
43:29
One of the country's biggest pension funds, the Pennsylvania Public
43:32
School Employees' Retirement System, sat in an emailed statement to
43:35
Forbes that it would not make any new investments in Apollo.
43:41
We talked about this previously, and it's a huge deal.
43:45
It's really a big deal, and I would not be shocked,
43:48
like I said when we were discussing this, if other
43:52
public pensions pulled back as well, because this is just
43:55
a huge cloud hanging over your head. And if these
43:59
public pensions are pulling back, don't you think the politicians
44:02
would be falling all over themselves to give this money back.
44:05
But no, they have to wait for a Forbes story
44:07
to talk about it. They have to wait for me
44:10
to talk about it. They have to wait for you
44:12
to get mad about it. They just can't do the
44:14
right thing. The decision was made the day after The
44:20
New York Times revealed the fifty million dollars the fifty
44:23
million dollar Epstein bombshell on October twelfth, FUN spokesman Steve
44:28
Essek told Forbes that fifty million dollars looms large. There's
44:33
no way that I believe that this was for some
44:36
sort of charitable works. What the fifty million was for,
44:40
I have no idea, folks. I won't even begin to speculate.
44:43
But I do not think it's for what they said
44:45
it was for, that's for sure, And I think that
44:50
it's probably dirty money. Cambridge's Associates, a leading investment consulting firm,
44:57
reportedly might stop recommending Apollo to its client representatives for
45:01
Cambridge Associates to cline Forbes request to confirm this. So
45:05
there is definitely that talk. We've heard that from several sources.
45:09
I've talked to several people who have confirmed that Cambridge
45:13
has definitely pulled back at this point as they await
45:16
to see what occurs. But I don't think that our
45:20
politicians have that sort of leeway. I think that they
45:24
need to come out and condemn this shit right away.
45:27
And if they've taken any money from Leon Black, it
45:29
needs to be donated, it needs to be given back.
45:32
They need to do something with it, because this is
45:35
not a good look. Black wrote in a July twenty
45:41
nineteen email to employees that the money he paid Epstein
45:45
was for professional services to my family partnership and related
45:50
family entities involving tax, estate planning and philanthropic advice. Again,
45:55
why would Leon Black, who is worth seven point seven
45:59
billion with a bee, need Jeffrey Epstein's punk ass to
46:04
help him with anything, maybe pairing his socks, maybe driving
46:09
him around the city financial advice. I'm not buying it
46:14
for a second tax advice, a state planning. Really, Jeffrey
46:21
Epstein's the best option you got there? Huh, mister Black.
46:26
It is all absurd that they would think that we
46:28
would believe this report surface this week that Black requested
46:33
on Tuesday that the Apollo board hire an outside law
46:36
firm to review his business dealings with Epstein. According to
46:39
The Wall Street Journal, the review is Black's attempt to
46:42
clear his name and would hopefully result in renewed investor confidence. Yeah.
46:48
I'm sorry, but your independent review is not going to
46:52
cut it all right. That's not going to take anyone's
46:56
eyes off of your role in Jeffrey Epstein's behavior. That's
47:00
not going to take anyone's eye off of your relationship
47:03
with Jeffrey Epstein. If you really want to do the
47:06
right thing, why don't you speak with the investigators. Why
47:08
don't you call the lawyers for the survivors and sit
47:11
down with those lawyers and talk to them. Maybe you
47:14
know something and you don't know that you know it,
47:18
but one thing is for sure, you're not going to
47:20
avoid this, and this is not going to go away
47:24
after some measly ass outside investigation. We've look We've seen
47:30
how these outside investigations go. Look at the New York
47:33
Academy of Arts and look at how they had to
47:36
send out an apology to Maria afterwards. They don't look
47:39
these outside law firms they're hired by these people. Do
47:43
you really think that they they're going to they want
47:46
to give their employers, their employers bad news about what
47:49
they found, or are they going to you know, fudge
47:51
some shit. Sorry, I don't have faith in the integrity
47:56
of most of these lawyers, all right, Sorry, That's just
47:59
how I feel. Representatives for Black and Apollo did not
48:04
respond to questions from Forbes about his political giving and
48:08
what he hopes the outside review of his business dealings
48:10
with Epstein might accomplish. The political giving is unacceptable. Again, folks,
48:16
I'm gonna drive this point home. I don't think that
48:19
any outside money should come into these races, especially money
48:22
from people like Leon Black. Why is he so concerned
48:25
about what the hell happens in Arkansas? Meanwhile, Apollo co
48:31
founder Mark Rowan and his wife Carolyn made at least
48:34
one million dollars in political donations this year to the
48:37
Trump Victory Pack, a joint fundraising effort between the president's
48:41
re election campaign and the Republican National Committee, outstripping Black.
48:46
Look again, when it comes to the presidential campaign, if
48:50
people want to waste their money on that, I really
48:53
don't give a shit one way or the other I
48:55
believe that the presidential elections are just a waste of time.
48:59
For the most part, nothing ever changes that. They're just
49:03
another face that comes in and then another face that leaves.
49:09
The real problem are these people behind the scenes with
49:13
all this money pouring it into these races at a
49:17
local level. In my opinion, I am truly convinced of
49:19
that at this point, they're not gonna get me with
49:22
their political kabuki anymore. They're not gonna get me with
49:25
their political theater or their WWE style of politics, because
49:33
I'm not falling for it. This is all garbage on
49:38
the national stage. Whoever the president is, it's the same story, right.
49:42
How many times do we see a president get elected
49:45
and then right after the president get elected, his whole
49:47
entire cabinet and staff is filled out with people from
49:50
the financial sector, over and over and over again. And
49:56
it's just it's it's rather apparent when you know what
49:59
to look for, and when you're really looking for that
50:01
kind of stuff, it's rather apparent that there is a
50:05
serious problem with this sort of money pouring into our
50:10
political system. NBC News reported Wednesday that back in April,
50:17
rowan email Jared Kushner, President Trump's son in law and
50:20
senior advisor, seeking relaxed coronavirus restrictions that would benefit Apollo.
50:26
Kushner lands squarely in the middle of this, with Apollo
50:30
reportedly dispersing one hundred and eighty four million dollar loan
50:33
to his real estate company in twenty seventeen. Yeah, I'm
50:37
sure that I had nothing to do with the fact
50:39
that he's Donald Trump's son in law. I mean, nepotism
50:42
never happens in this neck of the woods, right, none
50:45
of these people ever benefit from their relationships, just like
50:50
we shouldn't believe anything about hunter By. No, it's all bs.
50:56
It is such a joke. How much in the pale
50:59
the legacy media is for a ruling class on both
51:03
sides of the isle. If they really cared, and if
51:07
they really gave a shit the way they say they do,
51:09
they would start right at the very dark heart of
51:12
all of it, And that, my friends, is the financial sector,
51:17
and people like Leon Black and the rest of the
51:20
scuzbags would be forbidden from pouring their disgusting dirty money
51:27
into every single state election, thus having control at least
51:35
when it comes to distributing the money to these politicians
51:40
for their reelection, etc. Etc. Over the decisions that these
51:44
politicians are making. It is a big problem, and we
51:50
see it here, and we see it as they dump
51:53
money into both sides of the aisle. It's not about
51:55
them being part of any sort of tribalistic party the
51:59
way that they want everybody else to be. These people
52:02
aren't at each other's throats. They're behind the scenes clanking
52:05
their glasses and laughing about the transfer of wealth while
52:08
you and I are being told that we should hate
52:09
each other. All I could say is this from where
52:16
I'm sitting and from my perspective, in my opinion, it
52:19
is time to end all of this dirty money in
52:24
American politics. It is time to stop all of this
52:27
outside money dumping into states, and it is time to
52:31
hold these politicians accountable for where they receive this money from.
52:40
If you'd like to contact me, you can do that
52:42
at Bobbykapucci at ProtonMail dot com. That's Bobby c ap
52:47
u Cci at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find
52:51
me on Twitter at Bobby underscore cap u Cci. All
52:56
of the links that go with this episode can be
52:58
found in the description box.