Huge endorsement of @jkbjournalist just now at SDNY presser. US Attorney Berman say they were "assisted by some excellent investigative journalism."
— Kate Bolduan (@KateBolduan) July 8, 2019
Jeffrey Epstein abused girls for years. So did Harvey Weinstein. Lots of people knew. What changed?
Women reporters. Like @jkbjournalist at the Miami Herald and @jodikantor and @mega2e of the @nytimes. Not to mention @emilysteel of the Times who brought down Bill O'Reilly.
— Peter Sagal (@petersagal) July 8, 2019
Epstein supposedly made his endless money the old fashioned way—as a hedge fund manager charging even richer people fees—but the only client of his that anyone has ever been able to identify (afaik) is Leslie Wexner—the fashion magnate who sold him his upper east side lair.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 8, 2019
Speculation thread that’s going around twitter:
(2/13) The obvious route is, well, obvious: you could just be a pimp, offering underage prostitute services to very rich people. This has two problems: you're very disposable (see: DC madam), and it's also not super lucrative. You can't charge millions of dollars up front.
— Quantian (@quantian1) July 8, 2019
(4/13) So, what to do? Well, the second idea has some merits. First, you need to recruit people in. Have lots of massive parties at your spacious home (check), invite top academics, artists, politicians to encourage people to come (check), and supply lots of young women (check)
— Quantian (@quantian1) July 8, 2019
(6/13) You inform him she was really 15, but you offer him a nice, neat way to buy your silence: a large allocation to your hedge fund, which charges 2/20 (check). To ensure nobody else asks questions, you also take the extraordinary step of demanding power of attorney (check)
— Quantian (@quantian1) July 8, 2019
(8/13) The fund itself doesn't need investment personnel (check), only some back office people to process the wires (check). You don't want to money from non-pedophiles, or they'll notice you've just put it in a S&P 500 fund, so you reject all incoming inquiries (check)
— Quantian (@quantian1) July 8, 2019
(12/13) And, of course, the scam can be kept going as long as people are willing to pay, which is forever. If you're ever caught, just lean on some of your other friends in government to lean on the prosecutor to get you a sweetheart deal. There's almost zero risk.
— Quantian (@quantian1) July 8, 2019
All just speculation, of course! Only Epstein himself knows the real, full story… probably. But tonight there’s quite a few people newly empowered to find out.
@VickyPJWard had a Vanity Fair piece on Epstein that covered the experience of some of his victims, but her editor cut out their story bc it was "unsubstantiated" https://t.co/O2hRj2iiUY
— Stoll (@ShannonToll) July 8, 2019
Sidebar — the rumors I’ve seen for the last few years, since the story about Acosta’s Palm Beach deal broke, frequently mention that young Epstein was well-positioned, geographically and socially, to come in contact with the Russian “entrepreneurs” branching out from the dying Soviet Union to New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. A mysteriously unsearchable offshore hedge fund would be an excellent vehicle for laundering money, explosively so in the “greed is good” Reagan-era 1980s and thereafter…
A man has a 7 story home worth $77m in the middle of Manhattan, and no one knows how he makes his money.
Where I’m from you get a new car and you ain’t got a job, law enforcement is sitting outside your house taking pictures.
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) July 9, 2019
In light of Epstein arrest, this story from two weeks ago is worth revisiting: Trump Labor Department is weakening protections for victims of human trafficking. https://t.co/OUejsz478t
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) July 7, 2019
The Epstein news makes tonight a good night to remind people that Trump Model Management, as described in this excellent Aug 2016 @MotherJones piece, was essentially an international human trafficking operation. https://t.co/LSjwYQfp6u
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 7, 2019
We live in a very dark timeline, indeed.
trollhattan
Beginning to lose my faith in humanity.
wenchacha
Let the chips fall where they may. All fall down.
Duane
@trollhattan: “Tell me again Grandpa, what was humanity?”
Emerald
Soooo interesting that part of the Epstein investigation is being done by the public corruption unit.
Gawd, I hope they nab a large basketful of those deplorable a$$hole$.
smike
Does this schadenfreudigan sweater make me look smug?
oatler.
@wenchacha: Johnny Fever: “Chips are falling!”
patrick II
OT. Barr is taking a shot at coming up with a reason that John Roberts (really, its just him) might find unembarrassing enough to do what he wants to do and approve the citizenship question for the census. I am guessing what that justification will be. It’s a little long, sorry, wish I was a better writer. But its late and no one will probably read it anyhow:
Census question:
Donald Trump asked for and William Barr is delivering a new reason why the citizenship question should be added to the census survey. The new reason will finally be a version of the truth. They want to use the question to identify citizens because it will be a political advantage to Republicans. Political advantage has already been ruled a legitimate reason for gerrymandering districts. The case came to the Supreme Court because Texas had redrawn district lines that crowded all of the black and brown people in a few districts. When challenged Texas asserted it was O.K. because it would elect more Republicans. The Supremes agreed that was a valid reason. Racism was not the goal but the byproduct of the valid reason of political advantage.
So,the citizenship question will be added because even if it causes political advantage that is a valid reason to allow the question. Racism is just a happy byproduct.
John Revolta
@patrick II: I’m not saying it’s a sure thing but this could definitely be the play. What the hell!- they already figured out how to win elections with fewer votes- got it down to an art. Compared to that, this is practically legit.
Vhh
There is a little problem here. The Constitution clearly says the census should count residents, not citizens. The originalist wing of the SC chose to ignore this. Roberts may wish to preserve some shred of his credibility.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Vhh: “Roberts may wish to preserve some shred of his credibility.”
Heh, heh, heh… oh, you are serious.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
trnc
@Vhh:
If that were true, he wouldn’t have left the door open for a new rationale with a nudge and a wink and he wouldn’t have opened the gerrymandering floodgates.
It’s time for everyone to face the fact that Roberts is as dirty as the rest of them.
SFAW
@smike:
“Not many people could pull that off, but on YOU, it looks GOOD!”
SFAW
@Vhh:
Well, actually, it says “free persons.”
But I’m appalled that any of those browns think they have the right to call themselves “free.” And I’m guessing that Roberts’s version of the Constitution still includes the (un-stricken) words “three-fifths.”
joel hanes
@Vhh:
Roberts may wish to preserve some shred of his credibility.
Been too late for that since Shelby County, and Rucho v Common Cause sealed the door.
He has no credibility left to preserve.
A circumspect hack is still a hack.
Searcher
@SFAW: Shit, I’d consider it a major step if Reps considered them “persons”.
Will fetuses be counted in the states that consider them so?
randy khan
@SFAW: The 14th Amendment changed it to “persons.”
randy khan
@trnc:
Personally, I think he was trying to be cute and clever by limiting the decision to a procedural issue (there was an equal protection issue there, too), based on the government’s insistence that it had to have an answer by June 30 because of printing deadlines, which effectively turned the procedural issue into as much of a case-ender as the equal protection issue. He didn’t count on Trump being so pig-headed as to not get that the Supreme Court decision was supposed to end it.
Now he’s kind of caught in a box. He needs to hope that the district courts find a way to bail him out and that the new DoJ team is not really clever.
PaulWartenberg
@trollhattan:
It’s not humanity that’s the problem.
It’s the unchecked billionaires and political allies running fraud and human trafficking schemes.
Snarki, child of Loki
It’s the unchecked billionaires and political allies running fraud and human trafficking schemes.
Party like it’s 1794.
sdhays
@randy khan: By the sounds of it, he will likely get his wish (assuming you’re right about what Roberts wants) – the new DOJ team is cobbled together from people across the department who aren’t used to dealing with these kind of issues, so they’re unlikely to be better than the team they’re replacing. Some of them are political appointees and thus not likely to be “high quality”.
Neldob
Deplorable comes to mind. again.
SFAW
@randy khan:
Yes, and it also got rid of the “three-fifths” qualifier, but thanks for the pedantry.
The point was that the word used was “persons,” not “residents.” As with the whole “citizens” bullshit that started this, there’s a difference.
And, just to be even more pedantic: the word “resident” does not appear in Article I, Section 2, nor does “reside,” but “citizen appears — but only as an eligibility requirement for being a Rep.
SFAW
@Searcher:
Only if their parents are white. No octoroons!
SFAW
@randy khan:
and that they don’t judge-shop. [I have no idea if that’s even possible, but given the corruption of Barr and his minions, I figure there will be no evil left unattempted.]
Malovich
Sunlight and air, sure, but I’m thinking vacuum and solar radiation at this point.
Hoodie
Roberts has to be exasperated with this, because it will really illustrate that the federal judiciary has become a total farce. He gave them a huge bone with the gerrymandering ruling, but, as can be expected, they’re stupid and greedy. Roberts wants to maintain at least a veneer of legitimacy because he’s smart enough to know that once the utter hackitude of the federal bench under Republicans is fully exposed, they are at risk of legislated oblivion through court packing and jurisdictional restrictions, if not worse (think about what happens to judges in banana republics). He set this up so they really should not come back, at least not until the 2030 census. They’re going to go into a federal district court and basically admit that the government lied in the first suit. If they get a judge with any integrity, s/he will ask them to first explain whether (1) the first set of lawyers were lying and misrepresenting why Commerce wanted to add the question or (2) Commerce lied to the first set of DOJ lawyers – and the Court – as to the reasons. Seeing as the DOJ lawyers should not have proceeded with a factual predicate they knew was a lie (legal ethics and all that), (2) is the only answer that makes any sense. The judge could even bring in the first team to testify as to what Commerce told them, as the privilege would be pierced by the crime/fraud exception. Changing the legal team doesn’t change the fact that Commerce lied to the court. They should be sanctioned and told to go piss up a rope, especially since there is no reason for the change to the census other than partisan hackery, which has become inseparable from racism. If they get multiple levels of the federal judiciary to go along with this nonsense, we are truly fucked.
Captain C
@Vhh:
I realize that it’s said about Roberts that he cares about his legacy, but at this point, his legacy is basically Dred Scott Roberts, Happy Destroyer of American Democracy and Committed Republican Hack, and pretty much won’t change, ever. I have a feeling that deep down, he knows this and doesn’t really care, as long as the people who throw the dinner parties he attends are willing to pretend he is a Great and Impartial Justice.
(Edited for grammar)
chopper
@Captain C:
somehow i imagine this being yelled by andre the giant, covered in a cloak.
patrick II
@Captain C:
Roberts cares about his legacy to whom? To the common man or to the racist elite he intends to keep in power and will be the ones writing history?
Roberts cares about the actual law enough to keep a veneer of authority with court decisions so that he can keep driving us towards his version of recidivism.
Tim C.
Roberts is smart enough to keep the GOP from eating it’s own poop when needed. I do wonder who else besides him didn’t want to look at the Alabama abortion law. It takes 4 to get cert so at least one other Republican on the court said “no”
Another Scott
@Hoodie: ThinkProgress has more:
It would be great if a 16 ton estoppel weight were dropped on this whole Census question travesty, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens…
Cheers,
Scott.