Jeffrey Epstein ‘knew Silicon Valley sex secrets’
After Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail, many felt his death had saved powerful people from embarrassment.
After Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail, everyone from the mayor of New York to the most ardent conspiracy theorist felt that his death had saved powerful people from potential embarrassment.
That was also the reaction of journalist James Stewart, who met Epstein last northern summer at his Manhattan home. As they spoke, Epstein claimed to know the sexual peccadillos and drug habits of Silicon Valley tycoons, Stewart wrote in The New York Times.
At the time Epstein, whose wealth was listed at more than $US500 million in court filings last month, claimed to be advising billionaire Elon Musk on candidates for the board of Tesla, his electric car company.
Stewart wrote that Epstein showed him a photo of Mohammed bin Salman and claimed the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was a regular visitor and spoke to him often.
The financier mentioned other big names in tech and “said people in Silicon Valley had a reputation for being geeky workaholics”, though this was incorrect. Stewart wrote: “He said he’d witnessed prominent tech figures taking drugs and arranging for sex.”
Epstein was arrested last month, accused of trafficking minors for sex, and was in the Manhattan Correctional Centre awaiting trial when he was found “unresponsive” in his cell on Saturday.
He had reportedly hanged himself, though he had previously been on suicide watch and, contrary to prison rules, he was alone in his cell and had not been checked for hours. Two prison guards have since been put on leave and the warden reassigned.
US Attorney-General William Barr, who said investigators had uncovered “serious irregularities” at the jail, made the personnel moves after Epstein’s death. He has also vowed to continue the federal sex-trafficking case against him and “any co-conspirators”.
Although it wasn’t immediately known what role staffing shortages and overworked guards played in Epstein’s death, it laid bare a federal prison system beset by personnel issues, sexual harassment claims, inmate violence and other problems.
This week FBI investigators raided Epstein’s Little St James Island hideaway in the US Virgin Islands, which has been dubbed “Pedophile Island”.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a prostitution charge involving a minor in 2008, escaping more serious charges.
When Stewart went to his townhouse last year, the door was answered by a woman who may have been in her late teens.
Just as party guests on the Upper East Side were fascinated by a man facing disgrace in Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, so Epstein’s notoriety encouraged people to air their dirty laundry — innocuous by comparison — with him, Stewart wrote.
“People confided in him without feeling awkward.”
Epstein predicted that Mr Musk would deny correspondence with him, Stewart wrote. He said Epstein considered becoming a minister of religion so confidantes felt their secrets were safe.
Epstein apparently offered no proof of his claimed association with Mr Musk, 48, and insisted the interview be off the record.
A representative for Mr Musk said “it is incorrect to say that Epstein advised Elon on anything”.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 57, Epstein’s former girlfriend, appeared behind Mr Musk in a photograph of the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2014, although Mr Musk’s representative said she inserted herself there without his knowledge.
Stewart concluded that Epstein had “embellished his role in the Tesla situation to enhance his own importance”.
He wrote that he subsequently twice declined invitations to dinner at Epstein’s, one supposedly including Woody Allen and another with Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former adviser.
The Times, The Wall Street Journal
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