Law&Crime Sidebar - Will More People Be Charged in Epstein Sex Ring?

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Following Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentencing for procuring girls for her ex-boyfriend, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, serious questions remain about whether more people will be prosecuted for the sex ring by the feds. One person under suspicion: Epstein’s former assistant. Insider legal correspondent joins to discuss the possibility. Plus, the trial of WNBC star Brittany Griner’s trial starts Friday in Russia. She’s accused of smuggling vape cartridges with hash oil into the country. And, Bill Cosby marks the one-year anniversary of his release from prison after his conviction was vacated. Hear from Cosby about how he found out about his release and what he is saying now. GUESTS: Jacob Shamsian, Legal Correspondent Insider Karen Felecia Nance, Criminal Defense Attorney LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:Host - Brian RossYouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Sean BauerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Could more people be facing charges in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal? That question is being asked after Galane Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for her role in the sex trafficking ring. I'm Anjanette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. There are a lot of questions about who was involved in the sex trafficking of these teenage girls with Jeffrey Epstein.

This was a sex trafficking ring. I think a lot of people forget that. We've seen a lot of famous faces and things. famous names associated with this, but there are some lesser-known individuals who have been named as potential co-conspirators. And joining us to talk about that is Jacob Shamsian. He is a legal correspondent with Insider, and he actually wrote a really great story about this and about one of the people who's been discussed in court as having possible criminal liability in this case. Jacob, welcome to a sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed your article. I'm

fascinated by it because we know that there were more people involved in this. So tell us a little bit about Sarah Callan. Right. So Sarah Kellyn kind of joins Jeffrey Epstein's personal office, he could put it that way. In 2002, he had this like his office space on the Upper East side where he had people doing who knows what financial stuff. More often really just like scheduled people to go on flames, see his young woman, kind of like making arrangements. I think at 1.1 victim in the Galen Maxwell trial testified that she mailed, that she was the person who had the return name on mailing her underwear to Florida that Jeffrey Epstein seems to have picked out for her from Victoria's Secret. So starting in 2002, she worked for Jeffrey Epstein.

According to prosecutors and witness testimony, Gillen Maxwell kind of like trained her to take over some of her responsibilities as Jeffrey Epstein's main assistance, which or kind of number two, which she was at the time. And starting in 2007, when Glenn Maxwell, some kind of left Jeffrey Epstein's orbit, although never cut ties with him, Sarah Cullen seemed to become the number two person, according to, as what his testimony indicated in the trial. And, you know, I think a lot of people are wondering, like, what, what happened, why is she not being charged? Her name came up a lot during the trial. She is one of those four people who was in Epstein's infamous 2007 non-prosecution agreements of four prosecutors where he got off on a really like

slap on the wrist for uh you know after an fbi investigation into whether he was sexually viewing young girls so it's kind of it's it's honestly still a really big question like you know the f i this new investigation your prosecutors were looking into this jeffrey epstein gillan maxwell uh sex tracking conspiracy they already have one you know gillan maxwell is now been sentenced And what's going on at Sarah Kellan? Well, and what's interesting about this, Judge Allison Nathan, who cameras are, of course, are not allowed in the courtroom, but from everything I've read, she's no nonsense. And she actually said that Sarah Kellan was criminally responsible.

So you have a sitting judge making that remark during the sentencing of Galane Maxwell. So what is the likelihood that we see more people charged? I think in terms of thinking of who would be charged, you have to remember that prosecutors are seeing this is a criminal conspiracy. And those are the charges that were brought against Gillian Maxwell. She's a criminal conspiracy that involves sex trafficking. And to have a criminal conspiracy, you know, you need more than one person. Now in this case, obviously, Jeffrey Epstein is dead and Gillen Maxwell is still alive. So there's two people right there. But in terms of, but in the sentencing hearing, the judge said, well, look, Sarah Kell and was also

part of his criminal conspiracy and was responsible. There was people who were not necessarily criminally responsible part of the conspiracy, like the pilots who flew, flew girls, I think knowledge and intent is kind of part of it, they testified. But I think with someone like Sarah Kellan, she didn't testify, you know, there's no, like, as far as I know, there's no, like, immunity there. As far as I had seen, there was nothing like, I didn't see any evidence that could have only come from Sarah Kellyn where it was, like, definitely her who provided it, at least in my view of the evidence, and I, you know, tend to the whole trial. So I would like to think that, prosecutors are not done. I did notice that yesterday they didn't like really make any public remarks.

They didn't like come out in front of the camera and say, you know, we got this big criminal, which is what they normally do, which suggests to me that there's some ongoing investigation. But, you know, I, there's no indictment yet. That's all I can say. And Jacob, that's interesting that you said that because typically, and I think this is important for the listeners and the viewers to know, typically the feds would go out and they would have a press conference in front of the courthouse and they would say, you know, we got this done. It happened with R. Kelly's sentencing. The U.S. attorney was out there talking about, we did this and they make a statement. That did not happen. And that to me was a huge red flag. I took notice of that because

that makes me think this is ongoing. So they're not going to comment because there's more to come. I absolutely agree with that. And I also think one thing that has surprised me, I wrote a story about this in February, but the DOJ's internal OIG office, office of the Inspector General, excuse me, when Jeffrey Epstein died, he announced he was going to do investigation into the Bureau of Prisons. How is it the Jeffrey Epstein died in jail? Like, what were the conditions there? And we know from news reports that the Manhattan federal jail where he was held was not run very well. And in fact, it would shut down a couple of years later because it was run so poorly. But we never saw the results of the investigation has never released. And it should

have been released months earlier because there were charges against the two jail guards who failed to watch Jeffrey Epstein and who later cooperated with OIG investigation and had the charges against them dropped. So it suggested to me that once a criminal proceeding was over, we'd see the investigation come out. It hasn't come out. And I kind of wonder if that's because there are are still ongoing investigations related to that, related to other Jeffreyups and stuff that may be holding up this OIG investigation from being released. So between then not speaking to the press conference and so then delaying the release

of this other reports, I think those are kind of two clues that there's still working on something. Oh, and sorry, I should say number three, which is the most important, is that it's the prosecutors who characterize Sarah Kellyn as criminally responsible during the sentencing hearing. They were saying she's one of the criminally responsible participants in this conspiracy and therefore, you know, Gillette Maxwell was, you know, was at the top of the conspiracy, aside that you've seen him for, of course. And if they're saying that about Sarah Kellan, then, you know, I'm sure they have grounds to back it up. Well, and Sarah Kellan is not talking.

Could not be reached by you for comment. And then I saw you link to the Daily Mail article where they had pictures of her and she lives in Manhattan. So she's not talking. Jacob, Shamsian, thank you so much for coming on. Sidebar. We really appreciate it. American basketball star Brittany Griner is in jail, in Russia, awaiting trial. She's accused of smuggling drugs into the country. And joining me to talk a little bit about this case is Karen Felicia Nance. And she's a criminal defense attorney. Karen, thanks so much for coming on. Tell us a little bit more about Brittany Greiner and the preliminary hearing that took place on Monday. Thank you for having me, Antoinette. Well, this happened in February of this year. Brittany is a star basketball

player, six feet, nine inches tall, very well revered in her sport and just very well known. She's married. She has a spouse who's really concerned about her. Well, she's been in custody since March, I'm sorry, since February. And she had her preliminary hearing this morning to see what the outcome of her case was going to be. And there was a decision made. One, she was supposed to be released this Saturday. That was extended another six months. And the trial was set for, it was set for this Friday, July the 1st. And so there has been some negotiation on the part of the U.S. government. Initially, there was a lot of criticism for the Biden administration for not trying to step in and try to help get her released. But now there appears to be some hope.

that the Biden administration will do whatever they can to help her get released. I think this is terrifying. Whenever I hear about these types of things, Americans being arrested overseas, especially in a country like Russia, it just makes me think that possibly nothing good can come of it given, I don't know if you recall Otto Warm Beer. He was somebody from Ohio who was captured in North Korea and ended up being sent home in a catatonic state. So how concerning is this and how likely do you think it is?

that Ms. Griner will eventually be released. It's very disconcerting, and I totally agree with you, Angened, whenever you deal with allegations of crime in another country, regardless if it's people coming to the state, United States, or vice versa. And it's only complicated by the war in Ukraine, right? And so Putin has used this opportunity, and she's been considered a political prisoner more so than as a person

who actually committed an offense because of the amount of drugs that were allegedly seized, and that's still up in question. And so that's another problem is that now she's in a situation, just as Paul Wellen, another person from the United States that's currently serving a sentence in Russia. So she's looking at up to 10 years of convicted. And so the hope is that there is some type of negotiation. It's been proposed in the news I've read that. there is a political prisoner, or Russia considers him a political prisoner, and they want to talk

about an exchange of possibly Brittany and this other gentleman, Mr. Welland, for this political, for this prisoner that's Russian. So we'll see what happens. But it's very tenuous. And I agree, it's really unclear as to how the United States is going to help negotiate this release of both her and this other gentleman. Especially with the things that are going on right now with the war in Ukraine. Obviously, you know, with the NATO agreements and stuff, we aren't on the ground with troops, but we are able to, we are assisting Ukraine. We are supportive of Ukraine. So that, to me, feels like it can only make matters more tense. Absolutely. So it'll be interesting to see there's a gentleman, I believe is Mr. Roy Jones. He has actually dual citizenship. He's a boxer. And so in 2005, he became a citizen. He was born in the United States, but he has close ties, apparently, to Putin. And he's offered to go over and try to negotiate on behalf of Brittany.

And there's a Congressman Alfred who's also trying to help. So I think that now that there's more spotlight on this particular incident in terms of worldwide focus, I think that we might see some changes or possibly her release, which is what we're working toward. So it's really a sad situation. She's caught up in this political war, basically, with Ukraine and the United States' involvement, as you indicated, with Ukraine and with Putin, who doesn't seem to be budging too much in any respect. Karen, Felicia Nance, we'll be keeping a close eye on this. Thank you so much for coming on to talk with us about it.

We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Take care, brother. Thank you. And thank everyone. No problem. That's comedian Bill Cosby exactly one year ago as he was being released from prison. Andrew Wyatt, his spokesperson, posted this video to Instagram to mark the one-year anniversary

of Cosby's release. Cosby recalls how he was notified that he was going home. So how you feel, Mr. C? Well, it's starting to head. I was in the bed in the cot. in the cot. In the car. And they opened the door because it's 1 o'clock.

And about four or five guys yelling, Bill, get up. You're going home. And they put the shoes, my shower shoes, on the wrong foot. And I said, wait, no, no, no, you're going home. No, no, no, you go, you don't understand. You're afraid. Now, you may recall that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated Bill Cosby's conviction for sex crime, saying prosecutors abused their discretion by bringing criminal charges against Cosby. The High Court cited an agreement that Bill Cosby had to sit for a deposition in a civil case involving allegations that he drugged Andrea Konstat in order to have sex with her.

That agreement was with former prosecutor of Montgomery County, Bruce Castor. Cosby admitted to having drugged women in the deposition and settled the case with Constat for more than $3 million. But then a new prosecutor, Kevin Steele, decided to file criminal charges right before the statute of limitations was set to expire. The ruling from the High Court didn't question the evidence in the case, but said Cosby's rights were certainly violated when the prosecutor used his own words against him at trial when he was assured that he wouldn't face charges. Cosby granted an exclusive interview to radio host Frankie Darcell to mark the one-year anniversary of his release, and he reflected on his time in prison.

Prison really saved my life because they found that there was a doctor there who took a somogram, I think. It was of my artery, the carotid artery, left and right, and found that they were both blocked 90 and 88%. So I went to surgery twice while incarcerated. And this doctor Uribe, Uribe is his name, he did a magnificent job of cleaning up the arteries. And I thank, I thank them for that. By the way, with me also was a chaplain, and I think his last name is pronounced, comma T. He allowed me to speak at least four times at a special event called men of valor. And Frankie, what I loved that they came away with what I said to them was never again. Whatever it is that put you in here, never again. Now, since Cosby's released, he has lost a civil

lawsuit in Los Angeles involving Judy Huff. She actually claimed that Bill Cosby's sexually abused her in the 1970s. A civil jury awarded her damages of $500,000, but Andrew Wyatt has told us that Bill Cosby will appeal that judgment. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar. Sidebar is produced by Michael Dininger and Sam Goldberg. Kiera Bronson is our social media coordinator. Our YouTube manager is Bobby Zoki and Alyssa Fisher is our looking producer. I'm Janette Levy, and thanks so much for listening as always. I'll see you next time.