Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Why Didn’t Authorities Press Larry Visoski for More Answers (Part 1)

Transcript

Why Didn’t Authorities Press Larry Visoski for More Answers (Part 1) · 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. Larry Vesosky was never merely the man sitting
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: behind the controls of Jeffrey Epstein's airplane, and reducing him
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to Epstein's pilot dramatically understates the position he occupied in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Epstein's world. For nearly three decades, Vesosky served as Epstein's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: longtime chief pilot, transporting him between the property, cities, islands,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and social circles, that formed the physical infrastructure of Epstein's life.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He flew aircraft belonging to an extraordinarily wealthy man, whose
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: existence depended upon mobility, privacy, and the ability to move
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: between jurisdictions with remarkable ease. That made Vysotsky more than
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: transportation personnel, because aviation was one of the connective tissues
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: holding Epstein's sprawling operation together. Epstein maintained homes and operations
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and and the U.S.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Virgin Islands, while routinely traveling domestically and internationally. Pasosky was
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: positioned directly inside that system, repeatedly seeing who came aboard,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: where they went, when they traveled, and which employees coordinated
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: those movements. During the Glenn Maxwell's federal trial, Pasosky himself
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: became an important prosecution witness because his testimony supplied jurors
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: with an insider's description of Epstein's travel, properties, employees, in relationships.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: He testified that Maxwell was effectively Epstein's number two and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: described the extraordinarily close operational relationship between the two. Yet
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Vesosky maintained that he never witnessed sexual activity aboard Epstein's
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: aircraft and denied observing the criminal conduct that eventually made
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Epstein infamous. The unanswered question has therefore never been whether
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Larry Vesosky was close to Epstein because the documentary and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: testimonial record establishes that proximity beyond serious dispute. The question
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is how thoroughly investigators ever attempted to determine exactly what
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a man with that extraordinary vantage point actually knew. The
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: importance of Vysotsky begins with the simple reality that Jeffrey
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Epstein was an extraordinarily mobile predator whose properties were scattered
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: across enormous distances. Epstein could wake up in Manhattan, fly
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to Palm Beach, travel to New Mexico, continue to the Caribbean,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and then move internationally because private aviation eliminated many of
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the ordinary logistical obstacles confronting most people. Someone had to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: make that mobility possible, and for decades Vysotsky occupied one
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of the most important positions in the machinery. A private
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: pilot serving the same employer for years inevitably becomes familiar
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: with more than the headings, fuel requirements, and weather reports.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: He learns routines, destinations, schedules, passenger habits, recurring employees, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the peculiar preferences of the person paying them. Multiply that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: experience across nearly 30 years and the resulting institutional knowledge
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: becomes enormous. Flight logs associated with Epstein became some of
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the most scrutinized documents in the entire scandal, precisely because
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: travel could establish proximity between people, properties, and particular periods
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of Epstein's activities. Those logs do not prove criminal conduct
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: by every person appearing on them, something that must always
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: be emphasized, but they provide an invaluable map of Epstein's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: movements and his relationships. The pilot responsible for executing those
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: movements consequently occupied a position from which investigators could reconstruct
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: enormous portions of Epstein's life. When examining an enterprise as
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: geographically dispersed, As Epstein's, transportation was not a side infrastructure.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Transportation was essential to that infrastructure. And I think that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: reality becomes more significant when the passenger compartment of Epstein's
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: aircraft is considered alongside the allegations eventually made by his survivors.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Vysotsky acknowledged during Maxwell's trial that young women traveled aboard
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Epstein's planes while insisting that he never witnessed sexual misconduct.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: His testimony placed famous politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and other prominent
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: individuals aboard Epstein's aircraft at various times, although the presence
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: on the plane by itself establishes absolutely no participation in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Epstein's crimes. What mattered about the testimony was the extraordinary
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: breadth of Epstein's social universe, and Vysotsky's unusual position as
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: someone repeatedly moving through it. Unlike a dinner guest who
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: encountered Epstein occasionally, Vysotsky was an employee whose job required
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: recurring exposure to the people entering and leaving Epstein's orbit.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Unlike someone who visited one Epstein residence, he traveled between
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: several of them. Unlike outsiders who could plausibly claim ignorance
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: of Epstein's daily rhythms, Vysotsky existed inside the machinery responsible
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: for maintaining those rhythms. Now, none of those facts automatically
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: establish criminal knowledge, much less criminal liability. They did, however,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: make him an obvious potential repository of evidence about who
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: traveled where, how often particular passengers appeared, who coordinated their transportation,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and how Epstein's private aviation operation functioned. In any serious
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: investigation of a geographically dispersed trafficking operation, that kind of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: witness would ordinarily warrant extraordinarily detailed scrutiny. The relationship also
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: stretched far beyond an ordinary employer casually hiring an interchangeable
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: pilot whenever he needed transportation. Epstein retained Vysotsky for decades,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: indicating a level of continuity and trust that few people
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: enjoyed in Epstein's frequently shifting universe of acquaintances. And that
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: relationship and the length of it matters because Epstein was
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: intensely dependent on loyal personnel who could make complicated arrangements
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: without requiring constant explanation. Private aviation involves flight planning, aircraft maintenance,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: hangar coordination, passenger arrangements, ground transportation, security considerations, airport restrictions,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and constant communication when schedules change. Released correspondence associated with
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Epstein demonstrate that Vysotsky remained involved in operational conversations surrounding
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: aircraft movements and logistical details. That's exactly what should be
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: expected from a chief pilot. but it also illustrates why
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: describing him exclusively as someone who flew the plane misses
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the point. A chief pilot servicing an individual with Epstein's
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: travel demands became part of the operational nervous system surrounding him.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Messages moved through that system, schedules were adjusted through it,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and Epstein depended upon trusted people to translate his impulses
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: into actual movement. Vesovsky therefore possessed something investigators desperately seek
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: in complicated organizations. Knowledge accumulated through years of repetition. Whether
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: he understood the criminal purpose behind any particular movement is
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: a separate evidentiary question, but his capacity to illuminate how
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Epstein's world functioned should never have been controversial. Then there
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: was Zorro Ranch, one of the most important historically under-investigated
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: locations in the entire Epstein story. Epstein purchased the sprawling
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: New Mexico property in 1993, and eventually constructed a massive
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: residence supported by its own aviation infrastructure, including a private
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: runway and hangar. Survivors later described abuse occurring at the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: ranch making the property something considerably more consequential than just
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a billionaire's desert getaway. Yet, unlike Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, Palm
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Beach residence, and Caribbean properties, The New Mexico ranch did
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: not receive the same kind of immediate federal search after
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Epstein's 2019 arrest. New Mexico authorities have since revisited what
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: happened there, and finally this year, investigators conducted a search
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: after previously sealed information prompted additional scrutiny. The property's isolation
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: made aviation particularly important because Epstein could move himself, employees,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and guests into an environment far removed from ordinary public observation. Vysotsky,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: as Epstein's chief pilot, was naturally connected to that transportation system,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and therefore to the logistics surrounding the ranch. The reported
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: transfer of roughly 40 acres connected to the ranch to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Vysotsky further underscores that this was not simply an arms-like
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: relationship between a wealthy passenger and a hired aviation laborer.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: When an employer gives a long-time employee valuable property adjacent
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to or associated with one of the most secretive estates,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: investigators have every reason to examine the nature, history, and
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: purpose of that relationship closely. I think that the 40-acre
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: issue is important, not because receiving land in itself is
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: evidence of a crime, because it's plainly not, but because
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: it speaks to the depth of Epstein's relationship with Vysotsky.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Epstein had enough confidence in his pilot to establish financial
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and personal ties, extending beyond an ordinary paycheck. Publicly released
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: records and litigation material have also described Epstein providing or
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: facilitating financial benefits and legal representation for members of the circle,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: including employees whose testimony could potentially matter. Such arrangements demand
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: careful examination because economic dependency can shape relationships between powerful employers.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and long-time subordinates. Again, dependency doesn't prove conspiracy and loyalty
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: does not automatically equal criminal knowledge. But investigators examining a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: criminal enterprise are supposed to map precisely these relationships because money, property, employment,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and favors are can reveal how organization maintained its cohesion.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Epstein understood the usefulness of loyalty better than almost anyone
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in his orbit. He surrounded himself with employees who handled
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: discrete portions of his existence while he remained the central
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: figure controlling the resources. Vysotsky occupied one of the longest
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: running positions within that ecosystem. The fact that his relationship
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: apparently included employment, travel, property, and other forms of financial
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: connection should have made understanding that relationship an investigative priority
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: rather than just a footnote. The newer releases of Epstein-related
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: correspondence have made the simplistic description of Vysotsky as merely
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a cockpit employee even harder to sustain. Emails associated with
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Epstein's operation repeatedly placed Vysotsky in communication concerning movement, scheduling,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: aircraft availability, properties, and practical matters, that kept Epstein's extraordinarily
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: complicated life functioning. Some communications were completely mundane, precisely as
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: one would expect from an employee responsible for aviation logistics.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: But mundane communications are often enormously important when reconstructing how
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: an organization actually operated. Criminal enterprises do not spend every
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: hour sending messages explicitly describing crimes because most of their
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: existence consists of scheduling, travel, payments, MAINTENANCE, AND ORDINARY ADMINISTRATION.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: INVESTIGATORS RECONSTRUCT ENTERPRISES BY EXAMINING THE CONNECTIVE MATERIAL AND DETERMINING
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: WHICH PEOPLE REPEATEDLY APPEAR AT IMPORTANT JUNCTIONS. BASASKI REPEATEDLY APPEARS
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: BECAUSE TRANSPORTATION WAS ONE OF THOSE JUNCTIONS. HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: EPSTEIN'S EMPLOYEES, INCLUDING PEOPLE INVOLVED IN SCHEDULING AND FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: FURTHER ILLUSTRATES HOW AVIATION INTERSECTED WITH THE REST OF EPSTEIN'S INFRASTRUCTURE.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: The volume and duration of those contacts make it difficult
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to characterize Vysotsky as somebody standing outside Epstein's operational core.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: They instead portray a longtime employee positioned at one of
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the central logistical crossroads of Epstein's world, which is precisely
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: why the remaining unanswered questions surrounding his knowledge are so consequential.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: All right, folks, we're going to wrap up right here.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: And in the next episode, we're going to pick up
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: where we left off. All the information that goes with
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box.