“The more that people look, the more invisible the men seem to become.” - V. Ward
As some may recall, Vicky Ward was one of the first reporters I befriended during the Ghislaine Maxwell trial last year. Throughout that strenuous month-long stretch, my first time inside a federal courthouse covering a high-profile trial, I always looked forward to early morning cafeteria conversations with Vicky, in part because she had spent over 20 years tracking this case and was chock-full of unique insight, solid theories, and significant footnotes to just about every angle of this widely sordid and complicated tale.
Our trial take, even in those early weeks, was identical. We both viewed it as a narrowly carved version, designed to show proof of justice with the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell. While her clients existed in shadowy reference, “cameo appearances,” Ward calls them. Present, but in heavily redacted form.
In the months following Maxwell’s conviction, I have gone back to reexamine many of Vicky's older articles, learning new things with each reading, so I was thrilled to see that she jumped on this latest ordeal, with a piece posted last week about the firing of Denise George (announced days after her complaint against JP Morgan, in connection to Epstein) was filed.
In this conversation, Vicky explains why this latest twist is so telling. How these men have remained anonymous for two decades, and why we may never uncover who they are or what they are guilty of when big money payoffs can still successfully ensure continued silence.
Vicky’s follow up, about these “big discrepancies” in the Epstein-Related Lawsuits, can be found here.
The suit alleges that JP Morgan “knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise” and that it “facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of — and were in fact part of — a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands.”
Points of Discussion:
Denise George, The US Virgin Islands Attorney General fired out of the blue by her boss, Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan, in an abrupt dismissal announced on New Year’s Eve, days after her complaint was filed
The mystery men behind Epstein’s two estate executives
Albert Bryan + Epstein’s connection explained
Epstein’s data-mining operation in the VI
Invisible men in Epstein’s orbit / heavy reactions in latest legal filings
The power of NDAs / money still buying silence / victim payoffs still securing client anonymity
The fate of GM’s appeal
“Unlike two related suits filed in the same court in November on behalf of anonymous Epstein survivors against JP Morgan, the Virgin Islands suit is heavily redacted—particularly on the pages naming the other high-net-worth clients it claims Epstein brought to JP Morgan as a quid pro quo for its financial services.” - VW
Vicky Ward has made a career “carving out a niche exposing the corruption that often occurs at the intersection of politics, money, and the culture.” You can follow her work on Substack here
Also Consider:
The Mystery Behind Jeffrey Epstein (including whether or not he was a spy)
Maxwell Unfiltered: The Full Transcript from My 2002 Interview with Ghislaine Maxwell
In House with Vicky Ward