Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News has seen what's in Jeffrey Epstein's email Eighteen
Speaker 2: thousand messages to and from the disgraced financier and convicted
Speaker 2: sex offender from one of his personal email accounts.
Speaker 3: There are messages that cover a wide range of topics
Speaker 3: and subjects. You have messages about his Amazon shopping habits,
Speaker 3: messages about his finances. There's even a message about moving
Speaker 3: a forty pound tortoise to and from Epstein's private island.
Speaker 2: That's Bloomberg Senior investigative reporter Jason Leopold.
Speaker 3: We really get a sense of what was going on
Speaker 3: in Epstein's life during these critical years.
Speaker 2: These are messages dating back to two thousand and two,
Speaker 2: but most of them are from two thousand and five
Speaker 2: to two thousand and eight. Bloomberg reporters and data analysts
Speaker 2: spent the last month pouring over these emails to better
Speaker 2: understand how Epstein built and sustained his vast influence machine
Speaker 2: and sex trafficking operation.
Speaker 3: We're reading Jeffrey Epstein in his own words, and you're
Speaker 3: sort of like a fly on the wall. You get
Speaker 3: to look into his wealth, you get to look into
Speaker 3: how he emotionally, psychologically manipulated and abused his victim. You
Speaker 3: get to see how he worked behind the scenes trying
Speaker 3: to beat back these criminal allegations, his indignation as he's
Speaker 3: being investigated. Really, though, to me, what stands out is
Speaker 3: his callousness toward these young women, these young girls, as
Speaker 3: they were brought into his world.
Speaker 2: One picture that emerges from these messages is that Julayne Maxwell,
Speaker 2: Epstein's one time girlfriend, had a more involved and enduring
Speaker 2: role than she said previously. In twenty twenty one, a
Speaker 2: jury effect Maxwell guilty of recruiting and grooming women for
Speaker 2: Epstein to sexually abuse. Recently, she sought to downplay how
Speaker 2: close she was to him. Some of these emails appear
Speaker 2: to contradict that.
Speaker 4: It certainly adds to questions about her credibility and truthfulness.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Legal reporter Eva Benny Morrison.
Speaker 4: I think it certainly poses more questions than it answers
Speaker 4: about what the true nature of their relationship was, and
Speaker 4: also comes for a critical time from Maxwell. Her lawyers
Speaker 4: have indicated that they would welcome any relief from the
Speaker 4: Trump administration, whether that looks like a pardon or a
Speaker 4: commutation of her twenty year sentence for sex trafficking.
Speaker 2: I'm David Gera, and this is the big take from
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News Today. On the show, Jeffrey Epstein's emails. What
Speaker 2: eighteen thousand never before seen messages reveal about Epstein himself
Speaker 2: and his relationships with Glenn Maxwell and powerful people all
Speaker 2: over the world. This is an incredible trove of email messages,
Speaker 2: and I'm curious sort of what you can tell us
Speaker 2: about how you got them.
Speaker 3: Sure, I'm going to give you a really short answer.
Speaker 3: I cannot discuss anything related to sources or methods. I
Speaker 3: sound like the CIA now, but yeah, I really can't
Speaker 3: go into anything related to how we were able to
Speaker 3: obtain this.
Speaker 2: When they did get their hands on this collection of emails,
Speaker 2: Jason Leopold and Ava Benny Morrison wanted to see what
Speaker 2: they reveal about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Julane Maxwell.
Speaker 4: Over the years, We've only really heard Maxwell describe that
Speaker 4: relationship in her own words on a few occasions, in
Speaker 4: a twenty sixteen deposition and then most recently in a
Speaker 4: two day interview with a top DOJ official.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm gilln Maxwell.
Speaker 5: Good morning, as Maxwell, how are you?
Speaker 2: July Maxwell sat for an interview with Deputy Attorney General
Speaker 2: Todd Blanche. The Justice Department later released the recordings, and
Speaker 2: it happened as the Trump administration sought to quiet and
Speaker 2: uproar over its refusal to release the so called Epstein files.
Speaker 2: The conversation started with Blanche explaining the terms of the interview.
Speaker 5: Whatever you talk about today, you have what's called immunity,
Speaker 5: So that means that the words that you say today
Speaker 5: we cannot use against you in a case in chief
Speaker 5: if we were able to bring one.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 5: There's exceptions to that, the most meaningful one of which
Speaker 5: is that if you say something today that's not true,
Speaker 5: that's a lie, we can bring a prosecution against you
Speaker 5: for what's called false statements.
Speaker 2: One of the first things Blanche asked Maxwell about was
Speaker 2: how she and Jeffrey Epstein met in nineteen one.
Speaker 1: Right, I met him at his officis in on that sale,
Speaker 1: And I think the most memorable thing I can think
Speaker 1: about that is he was wearing a tie, which she
Speaker 1: didn't often give. It had a giant so mykel ketch
Speaker 1: up ste sounds like, well, okay.
Speaker 4: She really described herself as a one time girlfriend of Epstein,
Speaker 4: someone who was then hired to become his property manager
Speaker 4: and look after his luxury homes all over the world,
Speaker 4: but was drifting away from him as she entered into
Speaker 4: a long term relationship with someone else. She has said
Speaker 4: that her role in his life was very, very diminished
Speaker 4: by about two thousand and eight when he reported to
Speaker 4: jail in Florida.
Speaker 5: So when he's going to go to jail, he says,
Speaker 5: can you stay around and manage everything?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: And do you do that? I do, okay, and then
Speaker 5: we'll come back to that.
Speaker 1: We'll not manage everything now. I mean there are other
Speaker 1: people at this point most specific role than was very
Speaker 1: very diminished.
Speaker 4: But these emails seem to call into question the truthfulness
Speaker 4: of some of those statements. You know, in two thousand
Speaker 4: and eight alone, as he was preparing to to prison,
Speaker 4: they were exchanging emails at a rate of almost one
Speaker 4: per day. As she was helping wind down his affairs,
Speaker 4: his properties all are around the world. He was going
Speaker 4: to her for advice on the minutia of the state
Speaker 4: charges that he might play guilty to. So it shows
Speaker 4: a real consistency of communication that contrasts I think, and
Speaker 4: conflicts with some of her statements publicly about when they
Speaker 4: ceased contact.
Speaker 2: There's also correspondence that shows the two of them remained
Speaker 2: incredibly close personally.
Speaker 4: On two occasions in two thousand and five. In two
Speaker 4: thousand and seven, they are discussing a shared fertility procedure.
Speaker 2: The first time was in October two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: just days after police showed up at Epstein's home with
Speaker 2: a search warrant, Maxwell sent Epstein detailed instructions for a
Speaker 2: sperm donation. She said he could collect a sample at home,
Speaker 2: but it had to be within ninety minutes of a
Speaker 2: procedure she had scheduled. About two years later, Maxwell emailed
Speaker 2: Epstein another set of instructions at another critical moment.
Speaker 4: In two thousand and seven. One of these email exchanges
Speaker 4: occurred just as he was preparing to sign a non
Speaker 4: prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, So that really undercuts what
Speaker 4: Maxwell has said about the presence that she had in
Speaker 4: his life, saying that she was pretty much all but
Speaker 4: absent from his orbit by that point.
Speaker 2: Maxwell has maintained Epstein kept her in the dark about
Speaker 2: the details of his first sexual abuse case from the
Speaker 2: mid two thousands. But these emails show she not only
Speaker 2: knew about the legal issues he faced, but she also
Speaker 2: helped him strategize during his negotiations with federal prosecutors.
Speaker 3: These emails really do demonstrate her knowledge of the legal
Speaker 3: jeopardy that Epstein faced in two thousand and six leading
Speaker 3: up to this non prosecution agreement that he had signed
Speaker 3: that you saw him essentially escaped federal charges.
Speaker 2: In exchange for immunity from those federal charges. Epstein agreed
Speaker 2: to plead guilty to two state felonies in Florida, including
Speaker 2: procuring miners to engage in prostitution. Again, he consulted with
Speaker 2: Maxwell over email while he and prosecutors negotiated that deal,
Speaker 2: so she was very.
Speaker 3: Much in the know. You know, he's asking her, what
Speaker 3: do you prefer loudon lascivious conduct or procuring miners for prostitution,
Speaker 3: and you know, she's responding essentially by saying that she
Speaker 3: would prefer the former for the most part.
Speaker 2: Take us to two thousand and nine, So Jeffrey Epstein
Speaker 2: gets out of jail. Then he served thirteen months of
Speaker 2: an eighteen month sentence. Julian Maxwell has told the Department
Speaker 2: of Justice that back then, her relationship with him was
Speaker 2: quote almost non existent. What can we learn from the
Speaker 2: emails about that period of.
Speaker 3: Time, Well, there's a gap in the emails, and the
Speaker 3: communications pick up again around twenty fourteen, when Maxwell herself
Speaker 3: was under scrutiny for conspiring with Epstein in the trafficking
Speaker 3: of young girls.
Speaker 2: One of those accusers was Virginia Giuffrey. In twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: Gufrey accused Maxwell of helping Epstein find and traffic teenagers.
Speaker 2: That same year, Maxwell sent Epstein a request quote can
Speaker 2: you send me the file on Virginia that your lawyers
Speaker 2: have or whatever info you have on her? And by
Speaker 2: early twenty fifteen, Maxwell wrote to Epstein she planned to
Speaker 2: distribute that dossier to others.
Speaker 3: So the communications between Maxwell and Epstein around twenty fourteen
Speaker 3: really shows how Maxwell went on the offensive on the
Speaker 3: offensive in terms of her plans to attack and discredit
Speaker 3: one of the victims who had accused her of being
Speaker 3: a co conspirator. And she's exchanging emails with Epstein over
Speaker 3: the course of a year more or less and disclosing
Speaker 3: what she planned to do and how she intended to
Speaker 3: be incredibly aggressive in defending her reputation.
Speaker 2: Jeffrey went on to sue Maxwell for defamation for calling
Speaker 2: her a liar in a public statement, and that case
Speaker 2: was eventually settled out of court. Jeffrey died earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Her family says the cause of death was suicide. Avid.
Speaker 2: There's more than correspondence here in these emails, as a spreadsheet,
Speaker 2: the kind of details what Jeffrey Epstein is spending money on,
Speaker 2: and that includes gifts of watches, cash transfers, gifts of lingerie.
Speaker 4: This is one of the most fascinating parts of this
Speaker 4: inbox was this spreadsheet. We had heard over the years
Speaker 4: how Epstein lavished gifts upon the victims and associates, but
Speaker 4: this spreadsheet really gives a meticulous insight into how he
Speaker 4: tracked a number of these cashtress and gifts one point
Speaker 4: eight million dollars worth over a three year period. In
Speaker 4: many of the entries, there's a description of the item
Speaker 4: that's been purchased or the amount of money that is
Speaker 4: being wired, and why it's being wired, and who the
Speaker 4: recipient is and the date. Many of the recipients are
Speaker 4: young women, assistants that worked for him, women who would
Speaker 4: go on years later to accuse Epstein of abuse and
Speaker 4: even Maxwell in facilitating that abuse. For example, there is
Speaker 4: purchases from the lingerie chain Vitoria Secrets. There are chocolates there,
Speaker 4: tuition fees for massage schools, cash payments to cover rent.
Speaker 4: For one particular victim, the initials GM appear next to
Speaker 4: about two hundred and fifty entries, suggesting that Maxwell had
Speaker 4: a role in at least helping Epstein distribute some of
Speaker 4: these gifts. We actually spoke to one victim who received
Speaker 4: just over seventy five thousand dollars in gives and payments
Speaker 4: while she was being abused by Epstein, and she really
Speaker 4: described how Epstein weaponized his wealth like this and used
Speaker 4: these gifts to exert control over the young women and
Speaker 4: isolated them so they were completely dependent upon him.
Speaker 2: Jason, there are emails here with the names and ages
Speaker 2: of young women, sometimes even accompanied by photos. Can you
Speaker 2: describe those exchanges, those messages.
Speaker 3: As Eva noted, there were a number of women, young
Speaker 3: women who were working as recruiters for Epstein, and it
Speaker 3: would seem that these recruiters would set out to find
Speaker 3: other young girls for Epstein. And you know, there's one
Speaker 3: email here that is pretty disturbing, and it describes a
Speaker 3: nineteen year old woman who's based in Brooklyn. She may
Speaker 3: be someone that she could bring in to Epstein's orbit,
Speaker 3: and so there's a description.
Speaker 1: She's fire.
Speaker 3: She's a little curvy, pretty face, long brown hair, hazel eyes.
Speaker 3: And this recruiter states that, you know, I already told
Speaker 3: her she could be rewarded for help with her girlfriends.
Speaker 2: Basically, this recruiter thinks she may have found another potential recruiter.
Speaker 2: But first the email notes this new girl said she
Speaker 2: quote needs to try herself to see what it is.
Speaker 3: And Epstein responds to this email, you know, describing her,
Speaker 3: she is too big, but if you think it important,
Speaker 3: you know, I could do it one time in the afternoon.
Speaker 3: So the emails just show how the recruiting essentially kind
Speaker 3: of how it worked, and Epstein's responds to the girls
Speaker 3: that were presented to.
Speaker 2: Him after the break. The powerful people who appear in
Speaker 2: this cache of emails, including former President Clinton and the
Speaker 2: current president Donald Trump. Six years after Jeffrey Epstein's death,
Speaker 2: there is still intense interest in identifying who was in
Speaker 2: his network, the men and women he met with, and
Speaker 2: the friendships he had with prominent politicians and executives and celebrities.
Speaker 2: I asked Bloomberg's ava Benny Morrison, what we can learn
Speaker 2: about Epstein's relationships with those people from the eighteen thousand
Speaker 2: emails Bloomberg News has obtained.
Speaker 4: What we can see is that Maxwell actually plays a
Speaker 4: part in facilitating some of these connections. So in a
Speaker 4: couple of instances, she's passing on greetings from designer Tommy
Speaker 4: hillfigure from Martha Stewart. She's also urging Epstein to host
Speaker 4: Google co founder Sergey Brynn at his private island in
Speaker 4: the US Virgin Islands.
Speaker 2: Representatives for Hillfigure, Stuart, and Brynn did not respond to
Speaker 2: requests for comment.
Speaker 4: In another example, in an email from Maxwell in September
Speaker 4: two thousand and six, just a couple of months after
Speaker 4: news broke about Epstein's arrest on prostitution charges in Florida,
Speaker 4: she sends through a list of fifty one names politicians,
Speaker 4: Wall Street power brokers, and business executives, including the likes
Speaker 4: of former CEO of Best Earns Jimmy Kain and the
Speaker 4: former Barclays CEO Jess Staley.
Speaker 2: Cain died in twenty twenty one. Staley did not respond
Speaker 2: to a request for comment.
Speaker 4: She asked him to review the list and remove or
Speaker 4: add any names that he sees fit Epstein replies and
Speaker 4: tells her to remove Donald Trump's name.
Speaker 2: The email has no subject line or additional commentary, so
Speaker 2: it's impossible to know whether they were planning an event,
Speaker 2: preparing a list of holiday card recipients, or something else.
Speaker 2: Jason picking up on that, how often does Donald Trump
Speaker 2: appear in these emails?
Speaker 3: Great question? He only appears a few times in the emails.
Speaker 3: Trump's name services again around the time where you know
Speaker 3: Epstein and his legal team were trying to get federal
Speaker 3: prosecutors to drop the case against him, And this time
Speaker 3: it's in any email that Maxwell sends Epstein in August
Speaker 3: of two thousand and seven, and just a month before
Speaker 3: he signed this controversial non prosecution agreement. And she says
Speaker 3: in the email, you have to assume they went to
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, and she references other individuals and also notes
Speaker 3: documents in West Palm Beach. It's possible that Maxwell may
Speaker 3: have been referring to reporters who are covering Epstein, you
Speaker 3: know at the time, but it's not entirely clear. And
Speaker 3: you know, we did reach out to the White House
Speaker 3: and ask them to comment on this, and they provided
Speaker 3: us with a statement that they called this fake news.
Speaker 2: Ava says that spreadsheet we talked about earlier, which included
Speaker 2: information about gifts Jeffrey Epstein sent to girls he abused,
Speaker 2: also included details about payment's Epstein made and presence he
Speaker 2: sent to his employees and apparently intended to send to
Speaker 2: some high profile people.
Speaker 4: For example, there is a line item for a thirty
Speaker 4: five thousand dollars watch purchase for dB and when we've
Speaker 4: dug into the emails, we've found some correspondence between Maxwell
Speaker 4: and Epstein talking about purchasing a very nice watch for
Speaker 4: Doug Band, who was a former aide to President Bill
Speaker 4: Clinton and the architecture of his post presidency. In those emails,
Speaker 4: they're discussing the payment of it and making sure he
Speaker 4: gets it for Christmas, and whether the note should be
Speaker 4: just from Epstein or from Maxwell or from both of them.
Speaker 4: And I think the Doug Band reference is particularly interesting
Speaker 4: because it is a window into Maxwell's relationship with the
Speaker 4: Clinton world. I will point out that when we went
Speaker 4: to Doug Band for comment about the watch, a spokesperson
Speaker 4: for him said that he never received a watch from Maxwell.
Speaker 4: There's also a entry for a seven one thousand dollars
Speaker 4: purchase at Alexis Dealership for Alan Dershowitz. Alan Dershowitz is
Speaker 4: a very well known lawyer. He's a Harvard law professor,
Speaker 4: and he was representing Jeffrey Epstein during his negotiations with
Speaker 4: prosecutors in Florida. And when we spoke to Alan about it,
Speaker 4: he said, yes, my wife drove the car. Mostly I
Speaker 4: didn't really like it.
Speaker 2: Dershowitz told Bloomberg that when they'd pick up Epstein on
Speaker 2: visits to Martha's vineyard, he didn't like the fact that
Speaker 2: their old car didn't have air conditioning, so he bought
Speaker 2: them a new one. Dershwitz says it was part of
Speaker 2: his legal fees. Bill Clinton's name came up during that
Speaker 2: interview in July between Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and
Speaker 2: Julane Maxwell. She said the former president was actually her friend,
Speaker 2: not Epstein's.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because she seems to kind of like claim
Speaker 4: over that connection, and in the emails there's several references
Speaker 4: to her updating Epstein on having lunch with Clinton. Today.
Speaker 4: I'm in Mumbai waiting for Clinton I'm somewhere else waiting
Speaker 4: for Clinton. She doesn't specify in the emails Witch Clinton
Speaker 4: she is referring to, but it's very clear from the
Speaker 4: emails that she did have her own relationship with the
Speaker 4: Clinton world, and this adds to the public reporting out
Speaker 4: there already that she also had a close relationship with
Speaker 4: Chelsea Clinton.
Speaker 2: A spokesperson for Bill Clinton said the Clintons knew nothing
Speaker 2: about Epstein's horrific crimes and quote learned about them when
Speaker 2: the rest of the world did. Jason, let me close
Speaker 2: with a big picture question. So, as you've noted, we
Speaker 2: get a sense of Jeffrey Epstein's voice through these emails,
Speaker 2: kind of lays bare this contradiction between what Jilane Maxwell
Speaker 2: has said about her relationship with him and what it
Speaker 2: seems like it actually was. How do you think about
Speaker 2: the significance of this corpus of emails, especially on that
Speaker 2: note of that contradiction that her relationship with him might
Speaker 2: have been closer and more enduring than than she said publicly.
Speaker 3: I think these emails are hugely significant and incredibly important
Speaker 3: as it relates to a narrative around Jeffrey Epstein, Julane
Speaker 3: Maxwell and what their world looked like. It adds so
Speaker 3: much to this narrative because even with all the books
Speaker 3: and news stories and court documents and the fights that
Speaker 3: are taking place within the administration right now about releasing
Speaker 3: Epstein files, it underscores that there is still so much
Speaker 3: to learn about their relationship. There is still so much
Speaker 3: to learn about the way in which Epstein operated this
Speaker 3: network that resulted in the abuse of according to the
Speaker 3: Justice Department, more than one thousand girls young women, and
Speaker 3: the emails add so much now to that narrative. There's
Speaker 3: quite a bit more that we now understand about his
Speaker 3: operation their partnership as a result.
Speaker 2: This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Burra.
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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.