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Leon Black’s Epstein Fallout Stopped at the Museum Door (Part 2) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode we're picking up where we
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: left off with the Vanity Fair article talking about Leon Black.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The author of this article, once again, is Nae Freeman.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: In 1998, Black was named to the Art News Top
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: 200 Collectors list, the industry bible for the people who
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: collect at the highest level. It was around this time
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that Black started throwing his money into institutions. He lent
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: work to a blockbuster Goya show at the National Gallery
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of Art in 2001 and backed a show centered on
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Pierre Matisse as a dealer at the Morgan Library in 2002.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: He was the primary backer of a Munch show at
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: MoMA in 2006. So look, this dude is definitely locked in.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And the world of art, they love him. There is
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: no doubt that he is a favored son of the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: world of high-end art. And I think it really just
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: tells you everything you need to know. All the people
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: involved in MoMA, all the people involved in all these
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: events that have them there, and especially giving them a
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: place of prominence, well, they have some questions to answer, right?
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Now look, people are going to get invited to events.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And I understand that. I'm not saying that Leon Black
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be invited to events. But that doesn't mean we're
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: not going to have questions or criticism about it. When
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you have somebody that's this highly placed in society... was
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: obviously deeply intertwined with one of the biggest criminals maybe
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in the past, what, 30, 40 years in this country?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And when you look at Jeffrey Epstein's crime spree, I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: don't think that's hyperbole. Because remember, we're not just talking
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: about the abuse. We're talking about financial crimes. We're talking
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: about sham marriages, immigration crimes, all sorts of shit. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Leon Black was right in the middle of all of it.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: He was also beginning to hobnob at art world events.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: In 2010, Black attended Art Basel Miami Beach and was
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: seated at a W Magazine dinner for Don and Mero
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Rubel next to Stefano Tanchi, the publication's editor at the time.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: In 2012, he bought the art book publisher Phaedon and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in 2014, he added the online art concern ArtSpace to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: its holdings. So basically the godfather of art at this point, right?
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  Speaker 1: If you're doing anything in high-end art, you're probably involved
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  Speaker 1: with Leon Black. And if you're involved with Leon Black,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that makes you adjacent to Jeffrey Epstein, right? Because at
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this point, everybody knows what Leon Black is. So if
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you still choose to associate with him, well, that's on you.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I don't want to hear anything about, oh, my reputation.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Because if you cared about your reputation, you wouldn't be
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: hanging out with people that were adjacent to Jeffrey Epstein
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: or that were involved in Jeffrey Epstein's day-to-day activities. But
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: here we are. The Audis were also when Black started
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: working in close collaboration with Jeffrey Epstein. In Black's interview
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: with the Select Committee, he claimed he trusted Epstein simply
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: because so many other respected individuals also depended on him
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to look over their cash. Such a BS excuse. Can
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: you imagine being as rich as Leon Black and just
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: following along with everybody else? Do you really think that's
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: what happened? Do you really think Leon Black one day
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: woke up and said, you know what? I really wonder
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: what Deepak Chopra is up to. I wonder what Bill
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Gates is doing as far as their finances. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if I should do what they're doing and talk to
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  Speaker 1: the people they're talking to. As if Leon Black wasn't
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  Speaker 1: already as rich as all of them, basically. Certainly richer
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: than Chopra. But because all these other people were doing it,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Leon Black's going to get on board? Does that sound
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  Speaker 1: like somebody who built the fortune that Leon Black built?
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Does that sound like somebody who's always been at the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: head of the class, just to get in line and
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  Speaker 1: follow along with everybody else and do what everybody else
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  Speaker 1: is doing? Doesn't make sense to me. And I doubt
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  Speaker 1: it makes sense to you. By the time I first
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  Speaker 1: paid Epstein in 2013, I knew him to possess an
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  Speaker 1: unrivaled network of relationships with individuals in finance, academia, science,
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  Speaker 1: and politics, Black said, a group that included Deepak Chopra,
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  Speaker 1: Tom Barak, Tom Pritzker, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin,
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  Speaker 1: Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, Peter Thiel, and Steve Bannon,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: among others. And look, there's no doubt that that's a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: list of so-called respectable businessmen, right? But when you start
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: getting down to it, how many of them had ties
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  Speaker 1: to Epstein? Oh, that's right, all of them. And because
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of those ties, Mr. Black says that's why he wanted
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: to be friends with Epstein, too. And make no mistake, folks,
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  Speaker 1: that's all part of the hustle. They'll all just blame
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: each other. Oh, well, I had no idea, meaning Bill Gates.
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  Speaker 1: Leon Black was hanging out with him, so I thought
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it was cool. And on and on it goes. But
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  Speaker 1: nobody ever takes responsibility or accountability for the shit they
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: did or for the people they were associating with. And
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: if Deepak Chopra likes the guy, who is Leon Black
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: not to trust him? Basically what I just said, right?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking about one of the richest, most
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  Speaker 1: powerful men, one of the most shrewd men when it
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: comes to money in the whole world. But all of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a sudden, he needs all this help and advice? From
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a former math teacher from Dalton High School or Dalton
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  Speaker 1: School who got kicked out, who got fired? This is
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the guy you're bringing in? You mean to tell me
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: there's no other professionals in the industry that could do
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: what Epstein does? Well, I'm going to tell you that's bullshit. Unless,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of course, you're talking about stashing money, hiding it, coloring it,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and laundering it. Because that's the reason you use Jeffrey
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Epstein services. So stop the bullshit, stop the lies, and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: stop trying to tell us that you had no idea.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Black is one of the few private citizens to personally own.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: A globally famous guy on the street would recognize this
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: work of art. Sotheby's was set to sell Edvard Munch's
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  Speaker 1: The Scream, which had an estimated value of $ 80 million.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Bidding started at $ 40 million with half a dozen buyers
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  Speaker 1: actively in the hunt. The late South Beach Vice President
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Charles Moffat, speaking with a client on the landline phone,
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  Speaker 1: outlasted them all. After a 12-minute bidding war, the hammer
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  Speaker 1: came down at $ 107 million, or nearly $ 120 million with
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the buyer's premium, making it the most expensive work of
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  Speaker 1: art ever sold at that point. $ 120 million for that picture,
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  Speaker 1: that art. I just don't get it. Now maybe I'm
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: just not cultured enough, but I don't get it. The
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  Speaker 1: thought of spending that kind of money on a piece
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  Speaker 1: of art is absolutely insane. I mean, what are we
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: even doing here? $ 80 million? And then it goes all
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the way up to $ 120? And on the phone with
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Moffat was Leon Black. At the time, the price was shocking.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Now it seems a bit quaint. Honestly, a steal at
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: a time when works with much less cultural weight have
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: been selling for hundreds of millions of dollars. The demand
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: for undeniable trophies is far outpacing the supply. Well, that
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  Speaker 1: tells me that there's a lot of people out there
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  Speaker 1: with way more money than they need. Maybe we should
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: be doing some audits on these people with these gigantic
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: art collections. Might be a great idea, right? And look,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people that wants to steal
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  Speaker 1: all the money from the rich people, blah, blah, blah.
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  Speaker 1: But they're obviously laundering their money. And they're obviously hiding it.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And the sad truth is... Congress writes these tax laws
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: with that in mind. They have to have loopholes, right?
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  Speaker 1: For the people that really pay the bills, for the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: people that really control the party. And like I've been
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: telling you from the very beginning, those people are people
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: like Leon Black. Some estimate that if Leon Black ever
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  Speaker 1: put the scream up again at auction, it would become
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  Speaker 1: the first artwork to sell for over $ 1 billion. The
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: purchase cemented his status as a true trophy hunter, buying
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  Speaker 1: up masterworks for his private collection. Just six months after
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  Speaker 1: the Scream sold for the record price, the Museum of
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  Speaker 1: Modern Art organized an exhibition put together by chief curator
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  Speaker 1: Ann Temkin that showcased the iconic work, and the wall
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  Speaker 1: text said it was loaned from a private collection. At
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  Speaker 1: the time, Black was serving as the vice chair on
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  Speaker 1: the board. And by 2015, he was selected co-chairman of
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  Speaker 1: one of our culture's most exclusive cliques, the MoMA Board.
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  Speaker 1: Just another group I would never want anything to do with.
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  Speaker 1: The second you tell me it's an exclusive clique, no
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  Speaker 1: thank you. You know, these motherfuckers are up to no good,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and they're probably dancing around that owl at a bohemian grove.
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  Speaker 1: Bunch of weird mask-wearing sons of bitches. In 2018... Black
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  Speaker 1: was elected the sole chair of the board of MoMA,
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  Speaker 1: having ascended to that perch over the course of decades.
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  Speaker 1: But a few years later, the groundswell of anger around
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  Speaker 1: the Epstein revelations was forcing a reckoning throughout the museum world.
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  Speaker 1: When Black's term as chair of the MoMA board was
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: coming up in 2021, he decided to opt out of returning,
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  Speaker 1: but he did not leave the board where he remains today.
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  Speaker 1: As Lowry told WSJ at the time, he chose not
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  Speaker 1: to run for re-election for the chair because because he
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to make a decision that was not going to
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: be harmful to the museum. Well, here's an idea. Don't
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: be a scumbag. That might help. Our board looked very
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: carefully at Leon and ultimately decided that he was a
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  Speaker 1: solid trustee and he should remain. Lowry objected. also noted
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that Leon has never been charged with a crime related
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  Speaker 1: to Epstein. They love to be slick with that shit, right? Oh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: he was never charged. Well, he was never charged. He
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was never investigated. So how can he be charged? They
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: think they're cute, but they're really not. That same month,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: March 2021, He stepped down from his roles as CEO
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  Speaker 1: of Apollo, way earlier than expected. An investigation into his
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  Speaker 1: connections to Epstein by the law firm Deckert wrapped up
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: in January of 2021, finding no evidence of wrongdoing. Yet,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: even though he'd planned to step down in July, he
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: cut the cord months earlier, citing his health. It's always
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: their health, right? Well, I need to spend more time
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  Speaker 1: with my family. You mean the family that you were
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: cheating on? That family? And then in January of 2026,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the Epstein files were released. Art world media junkies quickly
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: figured out that the largest cache of art-related documents in
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the Epstein files has to do with Black. Taken together,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: this collection of emails, bank statements, and tax dossiers doesn't
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: just offer the fullest picture of an art collector in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the Epstein files. It might offer the most forensic, under-the-hood
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  Speaker 1: dive into a private art collection ever publicly released. The
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: documents show that in March of 2015 Black put up
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  Speaker 1: $ 1 billion of his art as collateral to secure a
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: $ 484 million loan from Bank of America. By 2017 the
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  Speaker 1: collateral package had grown in value to $ 1. 4 billion and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the loan was $ 695 million. The Epstein files reveal that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Black's art collection is an LLC holding that he owns
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: outright or is linked to. In order to facilitate this
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  Speaker 1: Every single work that he owned had to be personally
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  Speaker 1: and meticulously cataloged by Epstein, who had been providing Black
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: with what was described as financial advice, to the tune
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of an astounding $ 170 million, which Black paid to Epstein
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: over the course of six years. So if you're a
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: crack dealer and you're selling crack out of your mom's house,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: they can seize your mom's house. So why isn't Leon
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  Speaker 1: Black under investigation today? And then if it gets to
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  Speaker 1: a point where he gets convicted, they should seize all
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: this art and sell it off and give it to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the survivors. But as we all know, those laws are
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: only for us. Pouring over the spreadsheet brings endless surprises.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: It's simply unheard of for the public to get a
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: hold of a collection manifest usually shrouded in Pentagon levels
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: of secrecy. Some of the bigger ticket items that Black
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: has acquired over the years appear in the endless list
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of thousands of paintings, sculptures, video, furniture pieces, artifacts, and antiques.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: There's a Picasso sculpture, Bosté de Femi, that was tied
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: up in a dispute with the Guattari royal family. But
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: until the release of the Epstein files, we didn't know
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the official price that Black paid for it. Now we do.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: $ 125 million. They also reveal that in addition to the Raphael,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that Black bought at Christie's London in 2009, Black also
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: bought the Raphael offered at Southby's London in 2012 for
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: $ 48 million. Just throwing money around, huh? I wonder how
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: much of this was reported. I wonder how much of
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: this is taxable. It's unclear whether Black's standing in the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: cultural mule will ever fully shift, even following his June testimony.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: He still owns The Scream, which is reportedly on view
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: at the former home of Knoedler Gallery, which Black purchased
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  Speaker 1: for $ 50 million in 2015. MoMA did not respond to
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a request for comment. Zero chance. They have nothing to say.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: They just want to cash the checks. It's all they
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: care about. During the congressional hearing, Black claimed that he
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: was completely unaware of Epstein's criminal activity, even though in 2008,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Epstein had pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and one count of soliciting prostitution from a person under 18.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: He served 13 months in prison. No, he didn't. 13
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: months in a stockade. Epstein was registered sex offender for
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the entirety of his relationship with Black. Evidently, this particular
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Black mark against Epstein didn't especially bother Black. Well, fellow travelers, right?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: The only problem would be if Epstein was broke. I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: took it seriously, Black told Pucks William D. Cohen. in
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: 2024 but I didn't take it that seriously I mean
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: he was with a 17 year old prostitute got prosecuted
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: for it and got put away for a year and
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you know according to him even that person had shown
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: an ID that she wasn't underage my feeling is there
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: are serious things and there are things that are less
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: serious I didn't think it was the end of the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: world frankly and if you were wondering why the Florida
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: prosecution is such a gigantic black eye here it is
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that's their excuse right Oh, we didn't know. Well, he
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was prosecuted for a 17-year-old girl. Yeah, after he manipulated
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the whole entire fucking process to make sure that was
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the only charge that stuck. But sure, bang on with
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: your bullshit. The files later reveal that Black wrote a
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: note to Epstein on his 50th birthday, calling him best
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of all, a dear friend, and signed it, love and kisses, Leon.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: So you know that big club that George Carlin always
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: talked about? Well, this is it. And you and I?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: We're still not invited. All the information that goes with
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box.