Jeffrey Epstein: the story of abuse, truths, lies and hoaxes that the internet covered

“Epstein Island Flight List (Official)”. It is not necessary to navigate the deep Internet or through complex documents to find, these days, a string of names under that title. It is enough to take a look at social networks (especially No, neither Oprah Winfrey, nor Pope John Paul II, nor Tom Hanks, Jimmy Kimmel, Matthew Perry or Mikel Arteta were clients of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's network of sexual abuse of minors, nor did they fly on their planes or drink champagne in their mansions. And no, not everyone who is cited (either in depth or in passing) in his hundreds of documents, such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield or Stephen Hawking, did anything illegal or immoral. Some didn't even know him. But that, in a few days where hoaxes have spread freely, has not mattered to the eternal liars who populate the network.

The story of the millionaire pedophile Epstein, who together with his lover-friend-girlfriend-madam Maxwell (it is not clear what they were, nor does she know it herself, as she has confessed) directed an entire organization of sexual abuse of minors, it is juicy for the press, enough for a series, if it were not for the nightmare story she tells. He, a self-made, brilliant kid from Brooklyn, who started two careers that he abandoned, entered investment banking and managed fortunes worth more than 15 billion dollars and amassed more than 500 until hanging himself in jail; she, the daughter of a British press magnate (Robert Maxwell, considered the Citizen Kane of his time and died in a boat accident in the Canary Islands in 1991) and sentenced to 20 years in prison; both handsome, friendly, discreet and well connected. Private islands, trips by helicopter or a plane called Lolitaparties in mansions… A scenario that could seem like a film of love and luxury, if it were not for the network of abuses that has been investigated for almost two decades, and that these days is more in vogue than ever thanks to declassification, on January 3, of 40 legal documents, and on the 4th and 5th, of another 160 more.

Thousands of pages that few have read, but that so many have started to comment on and from which names have emerged that are not in them, or that if they are, they do not always imply suspicion against the person mentioned. Especially in the United States, the birthplace of hoax spreaders and the many believers who want to unleash their hatred against almost any public figure, names and stories quickly began to flutter around the documents. Soon some images of the actor Tom Hanks dancing with a kippah in the head and a tallit on his shoulders with an alleged CNN sign stating that he had converted to Judaism and had fled to Israel “after the release of Epstein's client list.” There's no list to begin with, but in the documents, Hanks isn't even mentioned. The label is false, as CNN has confirmed. The images are from a manager's wedding of artists, Scooter Braun, in 2014. Now on Facebook The video is still found, but with a superimposed sign: “Video altered. “Independent fact-checkers have indicated that this information could be misleading to individuals.”

Neither Oprah Winfrey appears in the documents nor has she taken measures to appear in them, as some media outlets willing to get clicks with these lies make headlines. Yes, it is true that the presenter and producer, in the midst of a promotional campaign for her film The color purple (a remake of the one directed by Spielberg – who also does not appear in the papers – in 1985), has closed the comments on her Instagram account, with 23 million followers, it seems to remain immune to hoaxes and accusations. There is also no connection between her and Michael Jackson, whom a victim of Epstein's network simply remembers in Palm Beach, in the pedophile's mansion, but with whom she did not have relations. Neither the football coach Mikel Arteta nor the recently deceased actor Matthew Perry appear in any of the documents, nor as passengers on the flights. They are just hoaxes and more hoaxes.

Everything, or almost, has been known about Epstein for years. His abuse, connections, fortune, his goings-on, his closeness to power. His old friendship with Donald Trump was also known, in the nineties, where they were seen together laughing at parties. The former president himself said years ago that he was “a magnificent guy.” “You have a lot of fun with him. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, many of them young,” he said. They were different times. Five years ago, when Trump was already president and the magnate was arrested and went to prison (where he would commit suicide shortly after, in August 2019), he commented that they knew each other from Palm Beach (Florida), where they both had residences and frequented the same circles, although they were far from being friends: “I'm not a fan.”

But now Trump is on paper (a victim, Johanna Sjoberg, account in document 12 how once they couldn't land in New York and detoured to nearby Atlantic City, Epstein said, “Great, we'll call Trump and go to the casino”) doesn't mean he belongs to Epstein's circle or his abuse network. The same thing happens with Bill Clinton. The former US president appears in the documentation because Sjoberg herself is asked about him: Do you know if Bill Clinton was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein? They ask her. “I know he had dealings with Bill Clinton. I didn't know they were friends until I read an article by Vanity Fair about a trip of both of them to Africa,” she argues, without having had a relationship with the former president. “He once said that Clinton liked young people, referring to girls,” is the closest it gets. In 2019, Clinton already acknowledged having flown between 2002 and 2003 on Epstein's private plane. Both former presidents have been publicly distancing themselves from the figure of the pedophile for years.

The late scientist Stephen Hawking has been exposed by an email in which, among other things, his name is misspelled. Is he 14th document of the original 40, a email from Epstein—quickly written and loaded with typos—to Ghislaine Maxwell with a few lines that read: “A reward may be offered to any of Virginia's friends, acquaintances, and family.” [Giuffre] to come forward and help her prove that her accusations are false. The strongest is the dinner with Clinton, and the new version of the Virgin Islands that stven hawking [sic, por Stephen Hawking] “He participated in an underage orgy.” Images have been distributed on the Internet with supposed fragments of the documents that talk about Hawking, but they are manipulated. There is nothing more than that phrase, in addition to old images already known from 2006 in which Hawking is seen at a conference in the Caribbe
an, financed by Epstein, along with other scientists.

Johanna Sjoberg and Virginia Giuffre are two of the network's main victims, who make longer and more powerful statements and provide more names. It is Giuffre who accuses Prince Andrew of England, the third son of Elizabeth II, of abusing her when he was a minor; He took him to trial, but they reached an out-of-court settlement two years ago. Her name is clearly in the documents, with data and facts. Giuffre even speaks in her statement that there is “another prince”, and also of a “Spanish president” whose name she does not remember, but about whom she gives information: “he is Spanish, tall, dark hair, had a foreign accent . Man. He would say around 40 years.” The meeting, he believes he remembers, took place in the early 2000s in New Mexico, in the southern United States, where Epstein had a ranch. However, she talks about Spanishand that term in the US does not always mean from Spain, but can be Hispanic or Latino.

In the statements there are names, addresses and even telephone numbers, often public, although there are also words, phrases and even complete pages crossed out in black, with data and names of people that remain hidden. The documents declassified by Judge Loretta A. Preska will provide answers, but not a list of famous names in compromising situations, abusers, friends of Epstein, or a clientelistic network. In 2019, 2,000 pages were known, and in these years more and more documents, judicial petitions, boring legal documentation have been released that, more than leaking anything juicy, show the long, heavy and repetitive process that the victims have gone through. until having a voice in a fight that, for the moment and with a couple of culprits, seems far from over.

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