Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jeffrey Epstein And The Intimidation Tactics He Used As Another Means Of Control (8/21/26)

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Jeffrey Epstein And The Intimidation Tactics He Used As Another Means Of Control (8/21/26) · 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. One of the things I always found quite
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: humorous about Jeffrey Epstein and his people was the fact
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  Speaker 1: that they thought that they were intimidating. Now, you might
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  Speaker 1: be intimidating when you're dealing with people who are working
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  Speaker 1: for a Vanity Fair, or people that are working for
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  Speaker 1: the New York Times, or when you're trying to assault
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  Speaker 1: young girls. But I assure you, you bitch ass clowns
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  Speaker 1: aren't intimidating any sort of real men, that's for damn sure.
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  Speaker 1: And they certainly have never intimidated me, never once. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: like I told you previously, after these idiots tried, I
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  Speaker 1: hopped on a flight to New Mexico and went to
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  Speaker 1: Epstein's house, and I was hoping that one of his
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  Speaker 1: goons at the very least would answer the door, but
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  Speaker 1: they just ignored me. So I stood out there for
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  Speaker 1: like forty five minutes talking hell is shit. But unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: they didn't send any of their goons out or anybody
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  Speaker 1: out to have a chat. But if you're a reporter
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  Speaker 1: or a photographer from Vanity Fair, Epstein certainly had no
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  Speaker 1: problem trying to flex on you, trying to intimidate you
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  Speaker 1: and threaten you so that you do what he wants
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  Speaker 1: you to do. And for somebody like Epstein, that was
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  Speaker 1: a very very very powerful tool for a very long time.
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  Speaker 1: And look, it works, right. Nobody wants to be intimidated.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody wants some goon showing up to their house talking shit,
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  Speaker 1: trying to fight them or hurt their family or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, when you report the news, when you're somebody
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  Speaker 1: that's you know, in the mix, that's certainly one of
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  Speaker 1: the dangers that comes along with it. There's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of crazy people out there, but a guy like Jeffrey Epstein,
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  Speaker 1: he relied on shit like this. He knew that he
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  Speaker 1: could intimidate people, he knew that he could threaten their jobs,
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  Speaker 1: he knew that he could threaten their livelihoods, and people
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  Speaker 1: would back off. But the landscape has changed, and now
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  Speaker 1: with the way the media is conducted via social media,
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  Speaker 1: via independent journalism, and the gatekeepers no longer hold the keys,
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  Speaker 1: that sort of strategy is not that effective anymore. And
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  Speaker 1: that's because people aren't going to be intimidated by you
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  Speaker 1: showing up and saying, well, we're gonna get you fired.
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  Speaker 1: Fired from what I run my own show. You're not
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  Speaker 1: gonna get me fired. Oh, we're gonna get you blackballed.
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  Speaker 1: No access, bitch, I don't have access anyway. None of
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  Speaker 1: these people want to talk to me. So when you
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  Speaker 1: do away with all the things that they can hold
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  Speaker 1: over your head, all of the you know, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: get you fired or you're not gonna get this gig
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  Speaker 1: or that gig, then it loses its teeth, right, And
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the point that we're at now. There's
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  Speaker 1: no more intimidation. There's no more fear tactics that are
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  Speaker 1: going to work on people. This story is so big
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  Speaker 1: now that you can't do it. But back in the
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  Speaker 1: day before all of this blew up, before there was
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  Speaker 1: this gigantic following online and so many people interested in
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  Speaker 1: what was going on, that was the tactic that Epstein
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  Speaker 1: and his buddies used on a regular basis. And in
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  Speaker 1: this episode, we're gonna hear from a photogeographer from Vanity
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  Speaker 1: Fair who says that he was sweated by one of
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  Speaker 1: Epstein's bodyguard slash drivers named Merwin Dela Cruz. So let's
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  Speaker 1: dive into this article from the Independent, and let's see
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  Speaker 1: what they have for us? Headline. Photographer who took White
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  Speaker 1: House vanity Fair portraits shares terrifying Epstein anecdote. This article
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  Speaker 1: was authored by Joe Summerlad. Christopher Anderson, the photographer who
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  Speaker 1: shaw members of Donald Trump's cabinet for a vanity fair
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  Speaker 1: future last month, has taken to Instagram to post a
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  Speaker 1: portrait he once took of Jeffrey Epstein, accompanied by a
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  Speaker 1: disturbing anecdote. Beside a stark black and white image of
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  Speaker 1: the late pedophile and five more of them, and his
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  Speaker 1: lavishly furnished office complete with stuff, tiger and framed photographs
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  Speaker 1: of the occupant's famous friends, Anderson wrote, Yes, that's Jeffrey Epstein.
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  Speaker 1: He explained that he was assigned by New York Magazine
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  Speaker 1: to photograph Epstein in twenty fifteen, illustrat an article by
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  Speaker 1: Michael Wolfe, the journalist and Trump biographer whose email correspondence
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  Speaker 1: with the disgraced billionaire was released last year by Democrats
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  Speaker 1: on the House Oversight Committee. I'd say it's more than
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  Speaker 1: that now. I know Michael wolf won't admit it, but
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  Speaker 1: I think him and Epstein were friends. You don't spend
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  Speaker 1: that much time with somebody if you're not friends. Oh
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  Speaker 1: he was working on apiece. Cool, let's see it. Where's
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  Speaker 1: all that b RO material? Where's everything you say you have? Now, remember, folks,
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  Speaker 1: Michael Wolfe has been crying wolf for a very long time.
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  Speaker 1: This guy's been talking about he has this, he has that,
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  Speaker 1: and then he never comes correct. It's always behind the paywall.
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  Speaker 1: It's always about the next drop and just leading people on.
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  Speaker 1: And that's certainly a problem with people that cover this
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  Speaker 1: story especially. It's always about that drip. Right, Oh well
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  Speaker 1: I have it on good authority. Blah blah blah, No
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  Speaker 1: you don't. Let's see the documents to back it up
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  Speaker 1: because at this point, unfortunately, especially with this story, trust me,
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  Speaker 1: Bro's not going to do it. So we're gonna need
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  Speaker 1: to see receipts, especially from people like Michael Wolfe and
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  Speaker 1: that other dude, Barry Levine, you know, the dude that
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  Speaker 1: wrote The Spider, another guy that is ill informed. I
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  Speaker 1: call people like that a tourist, only pops in when
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  Speaker 1: the story's popular again, only has something to say when
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  Speaker 1: he can make some money doing it. And the crazy
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  Speaker 1: part is people like that, they don't even understand the
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  Speaker 1: real nuance here. They don't even touch the systemic issues.
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  Speaker 1: Whether they don't have the courage to do so or
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  Speaker 1: they don't want to lose their access, I'll leave that
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  Speaker 1: up to you to decide. But the facts are the facts,
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  Speaker 1: and they speak for themselves. I didn't know much about
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  Speaker 1: him other than the fact that he had heavy connections
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  Speaker 1: the powerful men. Anderson rode of Epstein. He wanted to
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  Speaker 1: meet me before the shoot to negotiate buying out the
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  Speaker 1: pictures after publication. A young woman with an Eastern European
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  Speaker 1: accent after the door, I would later see the same
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  Speaker 1: girl setting up a massage table in a room just
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  Speaker 1: off one of his offices, followed quickly by his private
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  Speaker 1: secretary Leslie Groff. My guess is that it was Nadiya
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  Speaker 1: Marsenkova that was the European woman with the accent, and
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  Speaker 1: that's who he probably was associating with when he got
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  Speaker 1: to Epstein's house. And then of course leslie Groff, she
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  Speaker 1: was in charge of all the logistics. Jeffrey Epstein even
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  Speaker 1: called her his brain. But sure, leslie Groff not a
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  Speaker 1: co conspirator. She should have never been indicted, right right,
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  Speaker 1: Anderson continued. When Epstein arrived his eyes sized me up
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  Speaker 1: like someone always looking for the angles. He quizzed me
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  Speaker 1: about my pictures and how the shoot would go, and
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  Speaker 1: how much I thought my pictures were worth. He said
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  Speaker 1: he didn't want anyone else to have the pictures after
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  Speaker 1: the magazine published them, and offered me twenty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: to own them after the publication. Look, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how the photography world works, but if some guys offering
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  Speaker 1: to buy pictures from you for twenty g's probably going
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  Speaker 1: to do it right. The photographer explained that the offer
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  Speaker 1: amounted to all the money in the world to me
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  Speaker 1: at the time, because he had a young family to support,
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  Speaker 1: and that he had already been granted permission by the
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  Speaker 1: magazine to make such an agreement with this subject, who
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  Speaker 1: was made to understand that he would not receive the
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  Speaker 1: images until they had been published. So he had this
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  Speaker 1: all worked out with the magazine prior that he could
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  Speaker 1: sell the pictures, So it wasn't like he was doing
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  Speaker 1: anything that was wrong, right, just trying to sell some
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  Speaker 1: pictures make a few bucks. Well. Unfortunately for him, Jeffrey
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  Speaker 1: Epstein had other plans. Several days later, he decided to
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  Speaker 1: pull out of the story and started calling me to
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  Speaker 1: demand the pictures, Anderson resumed. I reiterated that the pictures
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  Speaker 1: were not his until after publication. Then the threat started.
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  Speaker 1: He sent his bodyguard driver Merwin, a massive guy in
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  Speaker 1: a long black overcoat and black leather gloves, to my
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  Speaker 1: studio to intimidate me. And it worked. Boy As tell
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  Speaker 1: you what. You show up at this studio with that
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  Speaker 1: kind of bullshit and you don't have a badge, We're
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  Speaker 1: gonna have a big ass problem because the only people
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  Speaker 1: I'm complying with is law enforcement. The rest of you,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna be in for it. Not gonna be a
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  Speaker 1: fun time for anybody involved. I promise you that, because
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  Speaker 1: you show up at my studio looking for a problem,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna find one. The magazine killed the story, too,
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  Speaker 1: so I cashed the check in. Merwin came by again
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  Speaker 1: to collect the hard drive and make sure I didn't
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  Speaker 1: have any more copies of the photos. Today, I found
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  Speaker 1: the copy on a very old hard drive. The Department
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  Speaker 1: of Justice is currently in the process of releasing all
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  Speaker 1: of its documents and investigative material on Epstein, who died
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  Speaker 1: by suicide allegedly in a New York City jail cell
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  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen while awaiting trial in compliance with the
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  Speaker 1: Epstein Transparency Act. The deadline for full publication of the
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  Speaker 1: files was December nineteenth, but the DOJ so far posted
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  Speaker 1: only around one percent of its total holdings by its
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  Speaker 1: own estimate, on its website in two tranches. It has
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  Speaker 1: advised a federal judge that it's still more than two
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  Speaker 1: million documents to review before they can be posted. And
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  Speaker 1: we all know that's just a starting point. Do you
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  Speaker 1: really think they're not going to find more documents that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: they have to review before they release them. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to all part of the plan, folks, And
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  Speaker 1: that's what happens when you write a law that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have any teeth. We're going to rely on the DOJ
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  Speaker 1: to be compliant when they have shown us or anything,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: but when it comes to this issue, but sure, let's
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  Speaker 1: just count on the DOJ to do the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: More than four hundred DOJ attorneys and one hundred FBI
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  Speaker 1: analysts are set to spend the next few weeks dedicating
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  Speaker 1: all or a substantial portion of their workday to examining
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  Speaker 1: the files. Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: of New York Road to US District Judge Paul A.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Ingelemeyer in an update this week, the legal experts are
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  Speaker 1: making redactions in the interest of safeguarding the sex offenders victims,
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  Speaker 1: protecting national security, and preventing ongoing investigations from being compromised.
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  Speaker 1: The DOJ has said, all that's bullshit a national security
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  Speaker 1: I thought he was a loan predator. How is it
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  Speaker 1: that somebody like Jeffrey Epstein's considered a national security risk
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  Speaker 1: if he's just a loan predator who diddles people. Can
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  Speaker 1: somebody please answer that question. Anderson recently attracted attention for
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  Speaker 1: his series of portraits of members of Trump's center circle,
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  Speaker 1: like White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Press Secretary
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  Speaker 1: Carolyn Levitt, Vice President J. D. Vants, Secretary of State
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  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Steven Miller.
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  Speaker 1: I'm surprised they didn't give Stephen Miller horns, or maybe
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  Speaker 1: he just has them, you know, maybe they're like hidden still,
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  Speaker 1: but chances are Stephen Miller has some horns. Very close
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  Speaker 1: up portrait has been a fixture in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: my work over the years, he told The Independent, particularly
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  Speaker 1: political portraits that I've done over the years. I like
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  Speaker 1: the idea of penetrating the theater of politics. I know
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot to be made with Oh, he intentionally
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  Speaker 1: is trying to make people look bad and that kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing. That's not the case. If you look at
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  Speaker 1: my photograph work, I've done a lot of close ups
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  Speaker 1: in the same style with people of all political stripes,
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  Speaker 1: and look, I have no idea about any of that.
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  Speaker 1: I don't follow along with, you know, portraits of the
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  Speaker 1: president or people that are making pictures for politicians. I
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  Speaker 1: don't give a shit. So I have no idea one
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  Speaker 1: way or the other. But what I do know is this,
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  Speaker 1: I have zero doubt that he's telling the truth about
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  Speaker 1: Epstein pressing them. That's certainly the kind of shit Epstein
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  Speaker 1: was up to, and we've heard it time and time
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  Speaker 1: again from journalists and from survivors themselves. And the wildest
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  Speaker 1: part is all of these legacy media outlets and all
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  Speaker 1: these outlets let him get away with it. Imagine being
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  Speaker 1: the editor and somebody pressing you like that, and you
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  Speaker 1: just go along to get along. Zero chance I'm causing
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of hell. And if you fire me, cool
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  Speaker 1: I'm just going to become more powerful after that, kind
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  Speaker 1: of like Obi wan kenobi. Right. So my advice to
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  Speaker 1: anybody out there covering the news, stands your ground because
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  Speaker 1: people like this overwhelmingly are nothing about bullies. And we
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  Speaker 1: all know that if you stand up to a bully,
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  Speaker 1: they leave you alone. And the same goes for people
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  Speaker 1: like Jeffrey Epstein. The only reason he was flexing the
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  Speaker 1: way he was is because he knew he had so
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  Speaker 1: much power, whether it was his friends in politics, his
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  Speaker 1: friends in law enforcement, or his friends and intelligence. He
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  Speaker 1: knew that he was basically untouchable. And he knew that
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  Speaker 1: during that climate, when it comes to the media, that
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  Speaker 1: nobody's going to go against him, really because they don't
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  Speaker 1: want to lose access. So these coward ass editors would
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  Speaker 1: play ball and they'd kill stories, they'd hide shit, and
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  Speaker 1: they'd act like nothing was wrong. And now these same
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  Speaker 1: outlets are showing up to the party acting like there's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: some kind of hero, acting like they've been around from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning, and going after Jeffrey Epstein no matter the cost.
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  Speaker 1: But the real truth is when the chips were down,
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  Speaker 1: most of these outlets punked out. And I think this
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  Speaker 1: story by mister Anderson. Is just another example of the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: legacy media bowing down to Jeffrey Epstein, and at some
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: point there needs to be a reckoning with how the
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  Speaker 1: legacy media enabled Jeffrey Epstein's behavior for all those years,
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  Speaker 1: and as far as I'm concerned, the time for that
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  Speaker 1: reckoning has arrived. All of the information that goes with
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  Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box.