Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Trump’s DFC Chief Ben Black and the Lingering Shadow of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 1) (6/8/26)

Transcript

Trump’s DFC Chief Ben Black and the Lingering Shadow of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 1) (6/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Epstein Chronicles. During the twenty twenty four presidential campaign, Donald
• 0:09
  Trump and his surrogates talked a big game about Jeffrey
• 0:13
  Epstein and about what they were going to do if
• 0:16
  they were elected. Well, they got elected, and instead of
• 0:20
  doing what they said they were going to do, they
• 0:22
  did the exact opposite. And if you were wondering why,
• 0:26
  all you have to do is take a look at
• 0:28
  the administration and see how many people were involved with Epstein,
• 0:33
  including the person we're about to talk about in this article.
• 0:36
  And this dude happens to be the son of Leon Black.
• 0:41
  And if that's not bad enough, this man's part of
• 0:45
  the Trump administration. Today's article is from The Guardian and
• 0:49
  the headline Trump appoint leading two hundred and five billion
• 0:52
  dollar US agency had personal ties to Epstein. This article
• 0:57
  was authored by Kate Brown. Ben Black, the head of
• 1:00
  a little known government investment agency funded by billions of
• 1:04
  dollars from US taxpayers, had personal and business ties to
• 1:07
  Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails and business filings released by
• 1:11
  the Department of Justice. Well, yeah, we've known about Ben
• 1:15
  Black for a long time and The fact that he's
• 1:18
  even in this administration tells you that this whole thing
• 1:21
  is not serious when it comes to Ebstein. Leon Black,
• 1:25
  his father one of the key people when it comes
• 1:29
  to Ebstein's finances, and his son, Ben Black is part
• 1:32
  of the administration that's promising us transparency. And Scott Assent
• 1:37
  wants to talk about Ron Wyden's son, Buddy, go take
• 1:42
  five looks in the mirror. His father, Leon Black, had
• 1:45
  once been the disgraced financiers highest paying client, calling on
• 1:49
  the convicted sex offender for tax advice and the orchestra
• 1:53
  payments to women. According to The New York Times and Bloomberg, Oh,
• 1:57
  I'm sure that's all it was. You know, Epstein was
• 1:59
  just working for him, because Epstein's such a genius in
• 2:02
  everything he did. Like, who's buying that bullshit these days?
• 2:07
  All you have to do is take one look at
• 2:09
  Jeffrey Epstein's emails and you can tell he wasn't some sylvant,
• 2:12
  wasn't some genius. He was useful, and boy did they
• 2:18
  use him because, believe me, when we're talking about a
• 2:22
  parasitic relationship, that's what all these people had with Jeffrey Epstein.
• 2:27
  A Guardian review of more than five thousand records from
• 2:30
  Epstein's private correspondence found that Ben Black invested in the
• 2:34
  same company as the financier Pedophile in twenty eleven, and
• 2:38
  the two men had a relationship for several years. Afterwards.
• 2:42
  Epstein told a friend that he attended Ben Black's thirtieth birthday,
• 2:46
  advised him on the purchase of an eleven and a
• 2:49
  half million dollar townhouse, and helped one woman compose messages
• 2:53
  to him. She wrote to Epstein to say that she
• 2:56
  and Black had kissed the following day. Good old Epstein
• 2:59
  as the matchmaker. Huh, what is this fiddler on the roof?
• 3:03
  More like diddler on the roof? And now Black holds
• 3:06
  the Senate confirmed position overseeing the Development Finance Corporation, the
• 3:11
  Trump administration's largest overseas investment arm. The agency was previously
• 3:16
  confined to work in low income countries, but Congress recently
• 3:20
  cleared it to invest in high income countries and tripled
• 3:23
  its lending cap to two hundred and five billion, greatly
• 3:26
  expanding Black's influence over taxpayer funds. The Epstein administration and
• 3:32
  full effect, nobody could do this job but Leon Black's kid. Okay,
• 3:37
  I guess I guess he's that talented we're talking about
• 3:40
  Warren Buffett wrapped up with Michael Berry. Huh okay, I
• 3:44
  guess that's what Ben Black is. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Epstein himself
• 3:49
  had some pretty terrible things to say about Leon Black's kids.
• 3:53
  Donald Trump is appointed at least three other men with
• 3:56
  known ties to Epstein to federal office. Howard Lutnik, the
• 3:59
  secret Terry of Commerce, testified recently to the House Oversight
• 4:03
  Committee after admitting that he had traveled to Ebstein's private island.
• 4:07
  He has never been accused of any wrongdoing related to
• 4:10
  Ebstein or otherwise. Lutnick sits on dfc's Board of Directors,
• 4:14
  where he and Ben Black joined six other presidentially appointed
• 4:18
  and Senate Conferm members in reviewing and approving the agency's
• 4:22
  oversees investments. Nothing like one of Jeffrey Epstein's buddies being
• 4:25
  in charge. I'll of two hundred and five billion of
• 4:27
  your tax dollars. Right, that's reassuring the scope of Ben
• 4:31
  Black's personal connection to Abstein has not previously been reported.
• 4:36
  Black has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection to
• 4:39
  Epstein or any other matter. The DFC did not respond
• 4:42
  to a request for comment. Lawyers for Leon Black responded
• 4:46
  to questions on behalf of both Leon and his son,
• 4:50
  and the White House spokesperson sent The Guardian an unsolicited
• 4:54
  defense of Black's fitness for his job. Look, I'm not
• 4:57
  saying that he's not fit for the gig. I'm Surery's intelligent,
• 5:01
  and I'm sure he knows what he's doing. The fact is,
• 5:04
  why do we have all these Epstein adjacent people holding
• 5:07
  positions of power? Especially considering everything that's come out, you
• 5:12
  would think that that would be you know the line
• 5:14
  in the sand, Ack, buddy, I can't have you in
• 5:16
  this administration. You're name five thousand times in the files.
• 5:20
  But then how can you have that standard when the
• 5:23
  President himself was named what thirty eight thousand times? And
• 5:27
  when I tell you that the fish stinks from the head,
• 5:30
  this is what I mean. A personal spokesperson for Ben
• 5:35
  Black said Ben Black had no personal or a professional
• 5:39
  relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I guess it was just Ron
• 5:42
  wyden Son. But sent wants to go after widen Son.
• 5:47
  Has he said anything about Ben Black? And look, again,
• 5:50
  I'm not saying that he shouldn't go after Ron WHD
• 5:52
  and son. He should, but he should have the same
• 5:54
  kind of vigor when it comes to Leon Black's kid.
• 5:58
  And that's the problem with everything that's going on right now.
• 6:02
  Nobody wants to hold their own side accountable. Everybody wants
• 6:05
  to have that gotcha moment for the other side without
• 6:09
  cleaning their own house. And if you have a disgusting
• 6:13
  ass yard, don't you dare pop your head over the
• 6:16
  wall and tell me to pull my weeds, because I
• 6:20
  promise you you're not going to get the reaction that
• 6:22
  you're hoping for. And I think the same holds true here.
• 6:25
  You have one side saying, well, what about Ron Wyden's kid?
• 6:28
  Then you have Leon Black over here, and the other
• 6:31
  side wants to point that out. Meanwhile the rest of
• 6:34
  us are like, all of you are corrupt and none
• 6:37
  of you are helping. Trump created the DFC with bipartisan
• 6:43
  support during his first term and appointed Jared Kushner's former
• 6:46
  college roommate Adam Bohler to transform the lending agency into
• 6:51
  a tool to counter China and pursue more direct private investment.
• 6:55
  And look, the concept of it's great. The problem is
• 6:58
  the guy that's leading the department. Well, one of Jeffrey
• 7:01
  Epstein's buddy sons. And not only that, but allegedly had
• 7:06
  his own relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. So it's not even
• 7:09
  like a sinse of the father type of deal. This
• 7:12
  dude had his own ties to Epstein, at least according
• 7:14
  to the emails. It's not clear exactly what led Trump
• 7:20
  to appoint Ben Black to the DFC post, particularly given
• 7:24
  that public record suggests an experience in international development and finance.
• 7:29
  Oh White House spokesperson told The Guardian Black had a
• 7:32
  lead experience for the role. And again, just remember that
• 7:36
  Jeffrey Epstein called Leon Black's kids retarded, and I know
• 7:41
  people don't like that word, but that's what he said.
• 7:43
  So that's the guy we want in charge of international
• 7:46
  finance for US. I'm going to need to see his
• 7:49
  whole ass resume. In January twenty twenty five, then Black
• 7:54
  called The Pallanteer co founder Joe Lonsdell co authored an
• 7:58
  essay calling for a pro market approach the foreign aid.
• 8:02
  They specifically cited the missteps of the Biden administration and
• 8:05
  the promise of investing in Greenland, a Danish outpost that
• 8:09
  Trump has said he would like to control Oh yeah,
• 8:12
  we're gonna get that. We're gonna have Cuba Venezuela, Canada
• 8:15
  fifty first state. How can anyone take this dude serious?
• 8:20
  Like at this point, with all the nonsense, how could
• 8:23
  you take anything that that man says seriously? Where those
• 8:28
  Amelia Earhart files? How about all those alien files? How
• 8:32
  about the JFK files? Oh what about the Epstein files.
• 8:36
  I don't know about you, folks, but I can't take
• 8:38
  all this transparency. I'm going to overdose on it. Three
• 8:44
  weeks after its publication, the President appointed Black now forty one,
• 8:48
  to take charge of the US largest overseas investing arm.
• 8:52
  Now age doesn't really matter. If the guy's qualified. He's qualified, right,
• 8:55
  I don't care. But my problem is I doubt he's qualified.
• 9:00
  You want to talk about nepotism. Here it is. Ben
• 9:05
  Black grew up amid the upper echelons of New York financiers,
• 9:09
  real estate moguls, and artificionados. His mother, Deborah Black, worked
• 9:13
  as a Broadway producer, garnering Tentoni awards for her work.
• 9:18
  And keep in mind that Leon Black was cheating on
• 9:21
  her with Guzelle Ganieva at least and probably other women
• 9:25
  for years, even when his wife was sick. What kind
• 9:28
  of scumbag does that. Leon partnered with Deborah's brother to
• 9:32
  found Apollo Global Management nineteen ninety, and the CEO led
• 9:36
  it to become one of the five largest private equity
• 9:38
  and credit managers in the world, with near lee one
• 9:41
  trillion under management. And I'm sure they got that far
• 9:45
  and square. I'm sure nobody got stepped on, nobody was destroyed,
• 9:49
  nobody had their life ruined. Leon Black and Trump were
• 9:53
  fellow travelers in the wild world of the nineties finance.
• 9:57
  The two vulture capitalists once vied for this real estate
• 10:00
  contracts in Boca Rautan and traveled to Moscow on business
• 10:04
  in ninety six, where Leon Black later told senate investigators
• 10:08
  that he and the president might have been in a
• 10:10
  strip club together. Oh well, might have been. Huh they were,
• 10:15
  And look, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not gonna
• 10:17
  sit here and play mister amish. If you want to
• 10:20
  go to the strip club, go to the strip club,
• 10:22
  but don't try and present yourself as some kind of
• 10:24
  god fearing great guy, because we know that's not true.
• 10:28
  And I'm so sick of it. The main stop on
• 10:30
  Trump's ninety six tour was Ducot Place, according to the
• 10:34
  Moscow Times, where Trump once hoped to build Europe's first
• 10:37
  Trump Tower. Leon Black went on the fund the development
• 10:40
  of the luxury office complex after the trip. Now, no
• 10:44
  connections here. Leon Black's not somebody that Donald Trump is
• 10:48
  trying to cover up for, not at all. They didn't
• 10:51
  even know each other. Stop it. Don't you know that
• 10:54
  this is a hoax and that you should move on.
• 10:58
  Lawyers for Leon Black said in illegal letter that Black
• 11:01
  had no current ties to Russia, never did any business
• 11:04
  with Trump. That they have known each other socially, mostly
• 11:07
  as co residents of New York City, and the fact
• 11:09
  that they were in Moscow at the same time thirty
• 11:12
  years ago has no news value in the year twenty
• 11:15
  twenty six. But it does, especially when you look at
• 11:18
  this through the lens of a cover up. Is Leon
• 11:21
  Black one of the people that Trump's trying to cover
• 11:23
  up for? In my opinion probably Black was also Epstein's
• 11:28
  top paying client by a wide margin for years. He
• 11:31
  paid Epstein to advise him on tax having strategy, and
• 11:34
  purchasing art, and acted as an intermediary in his affairs
• 11:38
  with women and how the hell does Leon Black expect
• 11:40
  anybody to take him serious when he says he has
• 11:42
  no ties to Russia? We already know you do. We
• 11:46
  know that Jeffrey Epstein reached out to somebody and grew
• 11:50
  or connected to grew to try and get people pressed,
• 11:53
  to try to get people intimidated. But sure, Leon Black
• 11:57
  has no idea what's going on over in Russia. Well,
• 12:00
  he can't even find it on a map. A Senate
• 12:02
  Finance Committee investigation found that Black paid the convicted sex
• 12:07
  offender one hundred and seventy million, which Black said was
• 12:10
  for legitimate estate and tax planning services. Epstein helped them
• 12:15
  send about twenty million to women, The New York Times found,
• 12:19
  but Epstein had nothing to do with anything like that.
• 12:22
  Just a lone wolf, just a guy that wanted to
• 12:25
  diddle some people, right, mister President, isn't that what you
• 12:28
  told us? I guess all of this is just made up.
• 12:36
  Three women have sued Lyon Black for alleged sexual abuse.
• 12:39
  Two of the suits have been dismissed and one remains pending.
• 12:43
  Lawyers for Leon Black said in a statement to the
• 12:45
  Guardian that misconduct allegations raised against Black were false, and
• 12:49
  that subsequent events have established with certainty that mister Black's
• 12:53
  account was truthful and his accusers' claims were not. Well,
• 12:58
  that's not true. We still have a case pending, So
• 13:01
  what are you even talking about. I think it would
• 13:03
  be a good idea to see what happens with that
• 13:05
  case before anybody is out here trying to exonerate Leon Black.
• 13:09
  Leon Black has never been charged with any crime in
• 13:11
  relation to the allegations. A separate independent inquiry commissioned by
• 13:17
  Apollo Management to investigate its founder alleged ties to Epstein's
• 13:21
  sex trafficking network in twenty twenty one found no evidence
• 13:24
  that Epstein ever introduced Black or offered to introduce Black
• 13:28
  to any underage women. Well, that investigation was a bunch
• 13:32
  of bs, absolute nonsense, nothing more than a whitewash, just
• 13:37
  like the rest of these internal investigations we always hear about.
• 13:41
  Have any of these internal investigations ever found anything that
• 13:45
  was damning, anything that sent people to prison? You all
• 13:48
  know the answer to that. All right, folks, We're gonna
• 13:51
  wrap up episode one right here, and in the next
• 13:53
  episode we're gonna pick up where we left off. All
• 13:56
  the information that goes with this episode can be found
• 14:00
  in the description box