Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Dani Bensky on Jeffrey Epstein, the FBI and a System That Failed (9/7/26)

Transcript

Dani Bensky on Jeffrey Epstein, the FBI and a System That Failed (9/7/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. One of the Epstein survivors that has taken
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: center stage over the last year or so is Danny Bensky.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And she has a lot of things to say about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the DOJ and the way that the DOJ has handled
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: this whole entire scandal. And as you can imagine, she's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: not exactly the DOJ and Todd Blanch biggest fan. So today,
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  Speaker 1: We have an article from El Pais and the headline,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Danny Bensky, Epstein survivor, the United States has failed spectacularly
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  Speaker 1: in this case. This article was authored by Hannah Slack.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Since she was a child, Danny Bensky, 39, dreamed of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: stepping onto a stage and performing. Ballet was her passion,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: but at 17, her path crossed with the financier and
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: prison seven years ago. allegedly. Now following the Justice Department's
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: controversial handling of the Epstein files and the appointment of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Todd Blanch as Attorney General, the official responsible for overseeing
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: their release, Bensky is fighting to obtain justice for herself
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and for the financiers, thousands of survivors. The United States
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  Speaker 1: has failed spectacularly in this case, she says in a
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  Speaker 1: video interview from New Jersey, where she lives. And there's
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  Speaker 1: not even a debate, is there? The United States has
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  Speaker 1: has failed, and not just this administration. Multiple administrations, since
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the first Clinton administration. This shit has been going on
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  Speaker 1: since then. But we're going to forget about Maria's report?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: We're going to forget about Maria telling the FBI what
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  Speaker 1: was happening and them ignoring her? Epstein ran what is
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  Speaker 1: widely regarded one of the largest known networks for the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: sexual abuse and trafficking in girls and young women. Last year,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: both chambers of Congress unanimously passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: requiring the Justice Department to release unclassified documents related to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the case. Since then, nearly half of the 6 million
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: files held by the government have been made public, revealing
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Epstein's ties to numerous public figures, from current U.S. President
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump to Norway's now Queen Consort, Mette Merritt. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: everybody else in between... And you know what's so funny?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Everybody always leaves out George Mitchell. And Bill Richardson. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder why. They were both credibly accused of sexually assaulting
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Virginia Roberts. Is that a conversation anybody wants to have?
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  Speaker 1: Is anybody going to talk about that? All these big
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: partisans that come running in and love pointing fingers? How
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: about you clean up your own yard? Any comments about
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Stacey Plaskett by any chance? Or is it only one-way fire?
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  Speaker 1: And this is what I'm talking about. If you can't
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: call this story fair, if you can't call the balls
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and strikes, go find something else to talk about. Because
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: this story requires nuance. And if you go into this
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: story thinking that one side is bad and the other
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: side is good, then you're going to miss the whole
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: entire point. For Bensky, it all goes back to 2004.
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  Speaker 1: She had left her family home and was looking for
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  Speaker 1: ways to continue pursuing ballet. You should go see Jeffrey,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: suggested a girl that she had met. He's an older
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: guy on the Upper East Side. You can make 200
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: or 300 for just giving him a massage. Bensky remembers
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: every detail. At first, I was very worried, confused, and
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  Speaker 1: I asked what I had to do, she said. You
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  Speaker 1: just have to go and give him a massage, and
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  Speaker 1: you know how to work the body really well because
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you're a dancer. It won't feel strange. Unaware of what
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: would happen behind closed doors, Bensky decided to meet him.
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  Speaker 1: She visited Epstein's mansion at 9 East 71st Street with
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: a friend. The first time we went, It was really
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  Speaker 1: a massage. He wouldn't stop talking. He bombarded us with
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  Speaker 1: questions about where our families were, who we live with,
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  Speaker 1: what our dreams were. That was how he was trying
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to get in. Find a weak spot. And then he
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: would try to utilize that weak spot as something that
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  Speaker 1: he could hold over these girls. Oh, your mom's sick?
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  Speaker 1: Let me help her with her bills. But now you
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  Speaker 1: have to do X, Y, and Z. And that was
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  Speaker 1: part and parcel for what this scumbag was up to.
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  Speaker 1: To the young Bensky, who had grown up attending private
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  Speaker 1: ballet lessons where her body was often scrutinized, there seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be no reason to be suspicious. He would tell
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  Speaker 1: me to undress and then examine me, but it was
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  Speaker 1: always like a lesson. Then came the massages, which were
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: also like a lesson and ended in quite inappropriate ways.
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  Speaker 1: I always thought, it's Jeffrey doing what Jeffrey does. Imagine
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  Speaker 1: thinking like that if somebody was abusing you. Because it
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  Speaker 1: was so normalized in that dude's world. And then of
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  Speaker 1: course you have the people. who say, well, she went back.
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  Speaker 1: Why did she go back? Well, I don't know. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: because it was normalized and she didn't think anything was
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  Speaker 1: wrong at the time. That could be possible, right? She
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: returned home when her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
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  Speaker 1: I knew Jeffrey had been involved in medicine. I thought
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  Speaker 1: his money came from that. In the mansion, a sculpture
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  Speaker 1: of a brain caught my eye. I thought maybe he
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  Speaker 1: was a neurosurgeon. She brought her mother's test results to him,
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  Speaker 1: believing the man she trusted then could help. He wanted
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  Speaker 1: me to recruit more girls for him, which I never did.
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  Speaker 1: And he threatened my mother. He said he could make
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  Speaker 1: sure the best specialists would take care of her, he recalls.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what he would do. How many girls have
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  Speaker 1: we heard this story from? Their mother or their father
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  Speaker 1: might not have been in the picture or might have
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: been on drugs or sick. And then Epstein says, look,
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  Speaker 1: if you do this for me, I'm going to fill
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  Speaker 1: in those gaps. And then once he does that, he
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  Speaker 1: feels like he has ownership, right? If they want to
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  Speaker 1: keep the money coming, if they want their mom to
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  Speaker 1: be taken care of, if they want the right medicine, well,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you better do what Epstein wants. What she remembers about
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  Speaker 1: their next encounter is his aggression. He assaulted me. He
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  Speaker 1: grabbed me hard. When she turned 18, Epstein intensified the threats.
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  Speaker 1: He told me, now you're a prostitute. Bingo. That was
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  Speaker 1: the plan. That's what they did. Once he had you
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  Speaker 1: caught up, he could say, look, You've already been involved
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  Speaker 1: in this. You're a co-conspirator. Now you better do what
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  Speaker 1: I tell you or you're going to get in trouble too.
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  Speaker 1: That's basically the implied threat, right? And nothing could have
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  Speaker 1: been further from the truth because everything that was happening
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  Speaker 1: to these women besides the core four and maybe a
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  Speaker 1: handful of others was coercion. They were all coerced into
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  Speaker 1: doing this. They didn't do this of their own volition.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't wake up one day and say, hey, look,
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  Speaker 1: I want to be part of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking
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  Speaker 1: ring And it sure is easy for people that have
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  Speaker 1: never been poor to say things like, well, it was
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  Speaker 1: only $ 200. Well, when you're poor, $ 200 is a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money. The young woman clung to ballet as a
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  Speaker 1: way out of her nightmare, but the emotional burden soon
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: became unbearable, and she eventually gave it up. The abuse
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  Speaker 1: continued for a year until 2005, when her mother underwent surgery.
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  Speaker 1: He no longer had any power over me. I stopped
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  Speaker 1: answering his calls, and he simply disappeared, she recounts. Three
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: years passed without her hearing from him. Then in 2008,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: after Epstein's first arrest, the FBI summoned her to appear
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: as a victim. It was an interrogation more than a
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: friendly interview. I did not have a lawyer specialized in
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  Speaker 1: victims' rights or any legal counsel with me. There was
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: no support system either. And there never will be, unfortunately.
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  Speaker 1: They don't really care. I hate to say it, but
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  Speaker 1: the FBI doesn't give a shit about this. Look at
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  Speaker 1: their track record when it comes to dealing with scumbags
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  Speaker 1: like Jeffrey Epstein. How'd they do with Larry Nassar? How
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: about the other doctor from down at Ohio State? Time
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  Speaker 1: and time again, they fumbled the ball. At first, she testified,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: but warnings from her friend that Epstein had been following
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  Speaker 1: her made her deny everything in the end. Even so,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Bensky never truly escaped her abuser. A visit from FBI
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: agents to her home in 2019, before sex trafficking charges
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: were brought against Epstein, dragged her back into the past.
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  Speaker 1: Later that year, the billionaire sex offender died by suicide
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  Speaker 1: in prison. according to the authorities. In 2024, Bensky filed
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  Speaker 1: a lawsuit against two of Epstein's main associates, his lawyer
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  Speaker 1: Darren Indyke and his accountant Richard Kahn, who managed the
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  Speaker 1: financier pedophile's estate after his death. Both men remain at large.
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  Speaker 1: Bensky says the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by Trump,
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  Speaker 1: who was also a friend of Epstein, has not led
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  Speaker 1: to any further investigations in the U.S., And the only
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: one of Epstein's co-conspirators behind bars is his ex-girlfriend, co-conspirator,
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  Speaker 1: fellow child abuser, bipedal serpent, Ghislaine Maxwell. Three million documents
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: of the six million existing have been made public, and
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  Speaker 1: there's not a single investigation or charge, she laments. I mean,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: there's really not much else to say, is there? Those
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: are just the facts. The Justice Department's handling of the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Epstein files has only reopened wounds for victims by disclosing
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: their personal information. The Epstein case happened a long time ago,
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  Speaker 1: and there's a lot to investigate. Without a doubt, there
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: are people who should be in jail. But there's another
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: crime being committed right now, which is the Department of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Justice's conduct, the survivor says. Well, yeah, it's a cover-up.
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  Speaker 1: And Todd Blanche is the one managing it. Her full name,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: among other personal details, appeared in public nine times, while
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the names of some members of Epstein's web are still redacted.
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  Speaker 1: Other victim reports appearing up to 500 times. Blanche, who
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  Speaker 1: recently became Attorney General, but was Deputy Attorney General when
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the documents were released, oversaw the process. Yeah, he's the shepherd.
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  Speaker 1: It's been his job from the very beginning to handle
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  Speaker 1: all of this. That's what Pam Bondi told us too, right?
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  Speaker 1: And when all the ships are down, and when there's
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: a new administration and a real investigation, does Todd Blanche
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  Speaker 1: think that Donald Trump's going to protect him? Does Todd
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  Speaker 1: Blanche think that he's not going to be the fall
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  Speaker 1: guy here? Because he is. And I promise you, I
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  Speaker 1: won't forget his name. Our government has basically spread pornographic
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: material around the world, and someone must be held accountable
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  Speaker 1: for that, insists Bensky, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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  Speaker 1: When asked about Trump's involvement, she says she has conflicting views.
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  Speaker 1: I was never his victim, but I do believe he
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  Speaker 1: must know something, and the fact that so many steps
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: were taken to protect his name is really problematic. He
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: needs to speak about what he knows. Both parties, Democratic
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and Republican, seem to understand that this is a human
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  Speaker 1: rights issue, not a political one, Bensky argues. Blanche's own
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  Speaker 1: party is saying, yes, there are things that need to
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: be addressed. Now, together with her survivor sisters, as she
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: calls some of Epstein's victims, she's pushing for change. We
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: want the Virginia law, which honors the late Virginia Roberts,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the most high-profile survivor in the financier's case, to be passed.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: The bill would guarantee victims access to justice regardless of
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: how much time has passed since the alleged abuse. Meanwhile, Bensky,
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  Speaker 1: now a mother of a young son and a contemporary
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  Speaker 1: dance instructor, is slowly healing her wounds. I hate that
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  Speaker 1: I met many of my dearest people through Epstein, but
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: these girls are magical. I hope a time comes when
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: everything falls into place. Man, I hope so too. And
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: all I can tell you is from my personal experience,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: how horrible this was for people like Virginia. I mean,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: her and I talked about it numerous times. And the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: path that Virginia was walking is not a path that
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I would wish on anyone. I can't even imagine. And
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt that she blazed the trail. Without Virginia
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: coming forward, forget it. None of this stuff would have
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: been in the public eye ever. So if they're going
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to name a law after somebody that has to do
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: with human trafficking, I think Virginia is the perfect choice.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Because if anybody is a symbol against human trafficking and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: scumbags like Epstein, it's most certainly her. All the information
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: description box.