RedHanded - ShortHand: The Epstein Files

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Jeffrey Epstein – the billionaire financier-turned-serial-sex-trafficker – is back in the news, in another new guise that no one saw coming: political football.So let's take a look at what we know (and, more pertinently, what we will never know) about the so-called “Epstein files”.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello. Hello. Welcome to Shorthand. If you are listening to this, that is what the show is called. Shorthand. And it's a weekly show for all of our Wondry Plus subscribers. And we started Shorthand a few years ago to cover all sorts of fascinating things that didn't quite fit on the red-handed main feed. So essentially, Shorthand is just a show about things we think are interesting. And it is a lot of fun. Usually, not today. It's going to be horrible today. But normally we cover all sorts of things in the last few months have been quite the wild ride. We've looked at the absolutely amazing and absolutely taker of zero shit Hawaiian queen

done her in the last couple of months. We have. We've also done the truth behind foreign accent syndrome which was probably one of my favourite episodes we have done in a long time. It's basically a rare brain disorder where people wake up speaking in a totally different accent. And also the entirely bonkers

but not disproven theory that the earth is hollow and there are aliens living inside it and if the earth isn't hollow and if the core is molten lava which is what we're all expected to believe why is the ocean cold questions all questions we kind of answer on that short hand on the hollow earth theory and of course it might still feel like summer certainly does in this studio that we're currently recording but it is nearly october and october means spooky things over here at red-handed and on shorthand we will be diving into all sorts of creepy, weird, fascinating and very, very dark topics. And one I'm particularly excited for that we've got coming up in October is hell in different cultures,

because when it comes to suffering and damnation, we're really good at imagining things. It's great. And we actually have, if you have not listened to shorthand before, 150-150, 150, 150,000 episodes in the back catalogue for you to binge right now. You can listen to all of them with a free trial. Listen exclusively and ad free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app. Free trial right now. So let's get into it because we've got a lot to discuss this particular short hand. We're going to be talking about none other than Jeffrey Epstein.

Hello? Yes. Welcome to the last ever shorthand that we might record if we get bumped off. Well, I'm actually a bit worried because I'm going to America soon. Oh, so you are. I don't know. I don't know why anyone would murder us for saying the things that are in here because it's just speculation. I'm less worried about getting murdered and more worried about not making it through immigration.

Well, find out. because I just had to redo my Esther and the last time I did it they had changed the form so you had to put social media handles and that was me and then this one same questions I thought okay done all of these before and then it was like have you been

since 2011 have you been to Yemen Iraq Iran North Korea or Cuba and I have haven't I so I've had to declare Cuba that I went to Cuba And I'm like, do I need to, should I have said that I've also gone to the DMZ?

Have you also been to a farm recently? Well, maybe. I just like, I think it's wild to put Cuba and North Korea in the same sentence. So if I don't come back from California, that's why. Or if you don't get in at all. Well, right. Well, we'll have to wait and see. And if you do, maybe you can go there and do a little, I don't know.

I say, like, can you do some intel hunting on this? No, you can't. Don't think I can. Are we going to get murdered? Probably not, because, like, we're not important enough. Oh, no, no one's going to murder me. No one's going to murder us. But we have got a Jeffrey Epstein update.

So let's talk about it. Six years after his death, Jeffrey Epstein has exploded back into the headlines. Thanks to a bizarre, undated, unsigned memo that was released by the DOD, this month, July 2025. And it basically stated, with regards to everything Epstein, there's nothing to see here. Move along, please. They're quite good at that. And jaws across the world, including mine, dropped in disbelief.

After all, Trump had said that he would release the files. And the likes of Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director, Cash Patel, and Deputy Director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, all seemed to have been hinting four months that there was indeed some there there. So why all of a sudden had there been such a public 180? It was shocking, especially when this memo was followed up with 11 hours of supposedly raw video footage

taken from outside of Geoffrey Epstein's cell on the night he died. But it turned out that this video was not in fact raw at all. We'll come back to this though. And so, over the past, of weeks, it has been like watching straw after straw fall on the back of an already pretty crippled camel of conspiracy theories. Now, before we move on, I do want to say, please do not take my usage of the phrase conspiracy theory to mean that I do not believe that there is a lot more to see with regards to Epstein, because I sure as fuck too. And I am still

convinced, as I was in 2023, that he's not dead. Well, I will believe anything at this point. Me too. So we did already cover this in 2023, so for the full two-parter, go and listen to episodes 181 and 182 of red-handed butt. What we need to know here is that this man had inexplicable levels of wealth, incomparable connections and a catalogue of nefarious charges levelled against him over the years, And in 2019, before he died, he was about to stand trial for sex trafficking minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He was a man who's safe, the FBI drilled into and found 300 gigabytes of video evidence. For context, a feature-length film is about one gigabyte.

And this video footage included confirmed child sexual abuse material and not just a child. stuff Epstein had downloaded off the internet, as some people are now saying, but see some that he had created. So are we really going to believe that Epstein was the only abuser present in hundreds of hours of video footage? Especially when we know that these videos of abuse had people's names included in the title. There was also a massive cache of physical evidence, including photos and fake passports.

And then there was his death, if he believed that he died at all. Jeffrey Epstein apparently took his own life on the 10th of August 2019 in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center. He'd already made attempts on his life, according to the records, and should have been on suicide watch. But he was taken off this list in the days before, and his roommate was conveniently moved out. And Epstein managed to take his own life,

while two guards seemingly slept outside, and the cameras around his cell were either switched off or broken. After all this, we're now being told that there's nothing more to see here. And for all intents and purposes, it's case close. So how does any of this make any sense? Well, it doesn't. And this is the shorthand, update edition. So let's get into the latest on Geoffrey Epstein.

For years, there have been dozens of crucial unanswered questions making waves online about Jeffrey Epstein. And for many, it seemed unbelievable that despite the man having been first arrested 18 years ago, we still know so little. But that all looked set to change because Trump had signalled during his campaign for re-election that he might be willing to release the missing Epstein file. In 2019, after Epstein's arrest, Trump said that he wasn't a fan. But he had known him, because everyone had known him in Palm Beach back in the day. Trump also implied that he believed that the Clintons were up to their necks with Epstein, because let's not forget that while Bill Clinton was president, Jeffrey Epstein visited the White House a whopping 14 times,

and we've all seen the portrait. Yeah, I think the whole Bill Clinton angle is quite interesting. I think we did talk about this. I'm sure we did talk about this in our two-parts. I do have to fact-check myself as I was rushing here on the train. I was like double-checking these numbers and it was actually 17 times that Jeffrey Epstein visited the White House while Bill Clinton was the president. And also, flight logs exist of 26 flights that Bill Clinton took on Jeffrey Epstein's planes,

most of the time, without Secret Service present. while he was the literal president of the United States. So, unusual, quite unusual, you might say. So yeah, let's continue with our timeline of sort of Trump's public statements about all of this. As Hannah just told you, kind of says, I'm not a fan of the guy, but I knew him, everyone knew him. And then he points to the Bill Clinton. He's like, look over there. And then in 2020, after Epstein died, Trump made a statement that he thought it was weird how the cameras at the prison either hadn't been working or hadn't been recording.

and, you know, he was like, that screams of some sort of cover-up. And he suggested that he also believed that Epstein had been murdered and not taken his own life. And this absolutely fed the fuel of the theories that were circling around Epstein's death at the time. Because it finally looked like, here was a politician who was willing to ask the tough questions, say the things that we were all saying. But then in 2003, Trump walked back this statement, saying that Epstein probably did kill himself. And then in 2024, Trump did an interview with Fox. Let's have a little listen to that.

Americans have lost a lot of trust in institutions. And I think there's been a lot of discussion, especially online and especially with young people. How do we rebuild that trust in institutions? The CIA, the FBI, all those institutions. You're right. Some people think that one way to build trust is to declassify things that everyone's talking about. I know you just talked earlier about, I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist. So if you were president, would you declassify, you can answer yes or no to this.

Would you declassify the 9-11 files? Yeah. Would you declassify JFK files? Yeah. I did a lot of it. Would you declassify the Epstein files? Yeah, yeah, I would. Just pretend you just heard him say, I think so.

So this clip went viral. And within the MAGA base and far beyond, people were very excited. Finally, it was an opportunity for the rich and powerful to be held accountable for rape, sexual abuse and exploitation, and if you're a part of the very specific Q-Anon movement, then satanic child abuse to boot. There was even talk of a list, a client list, or a blackmail list of compromised high-profile people who had visited Jeffrey Epstein's so-called Lolita Island. And people who had maybe been recorded while they were there up to no good.

And it was all going to apparently be released. So, yeah, as you can see, with Trump saying, yeah, yeah, I think I would. Seemed like they were all going to get what they wanted. But I do have to say that Fox did a sneaky little cut there because this is what Trump actually said. Would you declassify the 9-11 files? Yeah.

Would you declassify JFK files? Yeah. I did. I did a lot of it. Would you declassify the Epstein files? Yeah, yeah, I would. All right. I guess I would. I think that less so because, you know, you don't know. You don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there

because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would, or at least... Do you think that would restore trust? Help restore trust? Yeah, I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the other. Certainly about the way he died. It would be interesting to find out what happened there because that was a weird situation

and the cameras didn't happen to be working, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one. The other stuff I would. So, yeah. I think they clip it with just saying, yeah, yeah, I would. That goes viral. Everyone's like, he's going to do it. And then he does continue to, you know, hint at the fact that he's going to release these files.

But I think even then you can see. And remember, that clip is taken from 2020 immediately after Jeffrey Epstein pretty much dies. And already Trump seems quite reluctant to commit to the Jeffrey Epstein files being released. He says he's happy to release everything else. but not so hard and fast on this. And, yeah, I think worth just sharing that full clip because it didn't come out for a while after that initial clip that Fox trimmed went viral.

And we also have Trump just 10 months ago on the Lex Friedman podcast. There's a moment where you had some hesitation about Epstein releasing some of the documents on Epstein. Why the hesitation? I don't think I had it. I mean, I'm not involved. I never went to his island, fortunately. But a lot of people did. Why do you think so many smart, powerful people allowed him to get so close?

He was a good salesman. He was, you know, a Halen Hardy type of guy. He had some nice assets that he'd throw around, like islands. but a lot of big people went to that island but fortunately I was not one of them it's just very strange for a lot of people that the list

of clients that went to the island has not been made public yeah it's very interesting isn't it probably will be by the way so if you were able to you'll be

yeah I'd certainly take a look at it now Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago you know They do that for danger, too, because, you know, endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera. So Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing. But, yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein.

I'd have no problem with it. That's great to hear. I said in our JFK series that we just did. Whenever American politicians start talking about JFK, it's the equivalent of, politicians debating fox hunting in this country, it's because they're doing something else and they want to distract you. There is fuck all in the JFK files that they can release that will affect anything or anyone because everyone's dead. And that's what he just said. Yeah. He literally says

it's interesting because it happened so many years ago. Why is that interesting? That's the opposite of interesting. Exactly. It's like he's using the wrong adjective, interesting, and saying the quiet pit out loud, which is take a look at the JFK file. that I release. But I would argue then, as many people have, you know, there's a lot of, like, argument about how vociferously Trump was saying that he was going to really see Jeffrey Epstein files. Before I took a big look into like this update, I also believe that he had been like campaigning hard saying, I'm going to release these files, I'm going to really, he never really did that. He sort of stoked the like fuel of the flames by talking about things like thinking

that Jeffrey Epstein had been murdered, that he hadn't really taken his own life. and, you know, pointing at the Clintons, pointing at other people, that kind of thing. But he never, like, really screaming and shouting about it. And the other things that he said he was going to do during his campaign re-election, wherever you think of Trump, he has been doing them. He did release the JFK files. There's nothing really in there, but he did release them. He's been following through on the things he said he was going to do about things like immigration.

So for a lot of his base, this stands out. The lack of Epstein files being released stands out as something he said he would do, according to them very, very strongly, according to me, not that strongly, that he hasn't delivered on. And people are asking a lot of questions as to why. I think that's what the Trump administration does very well, is doing just enough to get his electorate rolled up. But he doesn't actually fully follow through. He does enough to make it look like he has.

But really doesn't do the whole hog. Certainly not with this, that's for sure. And yeah, there's none of that, like, bombastic energy that you're used to with Trump when he gets done. going about things that he's particularly passionate about. He seems very subdued, I would say, in that part of the Lex Friedman interview where he's talking about Jeffrey Epstein. It doesn't seem particularly, you know, his usual flavour.

So you do have to wonder why, when presented with the perfect opportunity to grow support by being even more transparent, why does he seem to lack his usual enthusiasm? They're going against the political norm. Why isn't he draining the swamp? No. And it was apparently only in May 2025. Well after these interviews, so the one with Fox and the one with Lex Friedman were given,

that Trump was apparently informed by the FBI, by the intelligence service, whoever it might have been, that his name was included in Epstein's records. And look, we don't have exact clarity over in what capacity they are included, but apparently there are, again, flight logs, there's records of his name coming up in there. And, you know, this wasn't at all surprising to hear. We've always known that Trump and Jeffrey Epstein knew each other, there's pictures of them together at parties, and they were,

as far as we can see, at least at some point, friends, acquaintances, people who are involved in each other's lives. But Jeffrey Epstein also made it his business to be connected with anyone and everyone worth connecting with. And to be clear, we don't know in exactly what capacity Trump's name appears. the Wall Street Journal has reported that over a hundred names of prominent high-profile individuals appear in Epstein's records, including Trumps. Who are these other people? And what are their connections with Epstein? They could be linked in a business capacity.

Epstein was also known for advising countless, very, very wealthy people on their taxes. But of course, some portion, maybe all of, maybe only a few of, we don't know. some of them will obviously though surely be linked to the sex trafficking charges because remember that was what Epstein was going to stand trial for and as a charge please correct me if I'm wrong Hannah as a charge by its very nature does trafficking not imply that Epstein was doing it with or at least for other people not always I take your point he could have just been moving all of these children across state lines in order to abuse them himself yes the The trafficking versus transportation for prostitution under the law is very specifically about the human being, being coerced or being a minor. It's not just about the exchange of money. Doing it for other people is racketeering. So my question with that is, okay, let's say that the trafficking itself doesn't prove that he was moving these people for other people to abuse. a thousand girls

because that's the number that the FBI comes out with Oh I believe you It's just isn't the charge It's definition No but a thousand girls Is what they claim It's very vague

They don't say that he trafficked A thousand girls They say he harmed a thousand girls A thousand girls We'll come back onto this But that is a bit that makes me feel like You Just you

Just you One man Did that Did you That seemed like a lot. My other point about the Epstein files that I don't know

I feel like we should just obviously get to the heart of is that none of this is new to the government. We are hearing about dribs and drabs, updates coming out now, but the Epstein files have been in the possession of successive governments for years. This like treasure trove of evidence, 10,000 documents that the FBI has

has been in the hands of the government for years. So a question I have is why didn't Biden, who had the files before Trump took power again, release them then? If the information in there is that damning against Trump, and if it is there, it's in there, you can bet your ass that Biden or Obama or someone else in the Democratic Party

would have used it, leaked it, sent it out somewhere, knowing how important the topic of Epstein is. Even if you don't give a fuck about Epstein, knowing how important the idea of a president who was involved in this kind of situation around the sex trafficking of minors, especially would have been to Trump's base. The fact that they didn't release this surely tells me one of two things. Either that the Epstein-Trump connection is there but maybe not that particularly interesting or the Democrats and other powerful people linked to the Democrats are also implicated in

something that is in there. Personally, I think they are all in this Because really if you say that the only two options are There's loads of names in there But none of it's really interesting Or there's loads of names in there There is interesting things in there But both sides are implicated

And that's why no one is willing to start throwing mud Because mud sticks to everyone Yeah, of course it does I just think they all have to be in it And maybe not necessarily themselves as individuals But I think it's because powerful people are in there linked to something fucked up and these powerful people have a hold over these politicians

and these intelligence agencies or they're involved in some way I don't know what it is but be sure that the authorities know they cannot just go after one or two perpetrators if they have a list of a hundred names let's say that's what the number is like a hundred names is what they have

they can't just be like okay who do we not like on this list let's go after these one or two people because the authorities know to you know mix my sayings if they open that can of worms the whole house of cards is going to come falling down

and I just don't think that any of the elites are incentivised to do that they've all got too much to lose exactly I think the problem is I've been thinking about this a lot because of flesh and code and how everything we do

as humans everything we invent everything we think about is in an attempt to make our existence easier. And we've always been like that. So I'm just, have really been sitting on that, like, technology changes. Humans stay the same. We've always been like this.

Politicians have always been doing this shit. They all know that. Everybody knows in Downing Street, in the White House, in any sort of high-level political situation, they all know that this stuff has been going on forever. What is different now is that we are more able to know about it than we ever have been before. It's harder for them to hide it now, and that's why they're panicking. Absolutely. And we'll come on to this later about why I think this is blowing up in quite the way that it is. I also think it's because the phrase conspiracy theorist has lost its meaning and its power.

But those words are losing their power because people are like, well, if you're going to call me a conspiracy theorist anyway, now I just think you're hiding something. And I think those words that maybe could have controlled people in the past, I think they've just, they just, poof, doesn't mean anything anymore. I agree. I don't care if anyone comments on this calling me a conspiracy theorist because I'm like, how can you look at this and think there is nothing there? Oh, totally. And while Trump is seemingly reluctant to commit to the actual release of the files, it's a bit confusing because his administration seemed very open to the release. But once they actually got their hands on the files, they changed their mind.

Yeah, it does seem, again, if you follow that timeline, Pambondi, Pat Cash, and Dambongino all seem very, very like, yeah, there's something here, there's something here, we're going to release it, we're going to do something about it. They genuinely seemed enthusiastic about that. and then it's just like a who once they like seem to find out what was actually in there and is it that they find out there's nothing there and they're like or is it that they find out there's loads in there

and they cannot go anywhere fucking near it I would say the latter me too so let's go through it first there was Bindergate which was when back in February 2025 earlier this year Attorney General Pam Bondi

invited a load of influences to the White House and handed them binders binders full of volume one of the Epstein files. These people left the White House waving those binders like they won the lottery, but it soon became clear that all of the information in those binders was already in the public domain, which is exactly the same shit they pulled with JFK. But left us with more questions. If there was volume one, there would imply the existence of volume two, so where is it?

And the fucking rest of it. Where is all of it? Hmm. Where's the list? And where were the arrests? Now, Pam Bondi also said in a press conference pretty much straight after the re-election that she had it, it on her desk. Now, there's a lot of like back and forth about this, but basically the journalist asks her about the list, about the list, the client list, the blackmail list. And she says, it's on my desk.

Pam Bondi now says that she was talking about the file. She says, when I said, it's on my desk, I meant the file is on my desk. And maybe it's confusing. a lot of people are asking her questions, but the way it sounds is the journalist goes, Pam, Pam, where's the list? And she goes, it's on my desk. She says, it's not the list because the list doesn't exist.

I was just talking about the file. I don't know. But like, she also, let's like park that. Let's park that. Let's say it was just a sloppy comment, you know, from the attorney general, only the most powerful like law enforcement authority in the country. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt that that's all she meant.

but she did also go on national television and say that there were going to be names. She said that. No one made you say that, Pam. You said that. And then, within a month of taking office for the second time, suddenly the Trump team put the kibosh on the release of the Epstein files. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?

This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have, all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. It just seems like a desecration. After the very obvious backlash, Trump began posting on socials, acting like he was baffled as to why everyone was so obsessed with Epstein in these files and the list that doesn't exist,

which further inrated people because he absolutely allowed them to believe that he would release the files. And he used the public's rightful obsession with Epstein and who else was involved to propel himself into power. And now he's seemingly shutting the doors to the transparency that he himself into that. So yeah, now people are obviously furious with some usually Trump-friendly commentators and his own base, at least some portion of them now seeming to turn on him. Others are still standing by Trump, though, saying, well, if he says there's nothing to see, then there's nothing to see. Though I would say they are very much in the minority of people who are saying that.

Now, the rest of the mainstream media seems to be falling in line with the narrative that Trump must be implicated and that's why he won't release the files. Which, like, yeah, I can totally believe that that's the case. I can totally believe that his name is in there, just like Bill Clinton's is. My question is, why did the media not seemingly give a single fuck about any of this for absolutely years? Because the media was busy, you know, calling everyone who was asking questions about this saying, you know, give us more information, release the Epstein files, like let's see what's in there, give us some names, calling all those people conspiracy theorists. That's what the media spent so long doing, especially when Biden was in power, had the power to release the files and people were saying that and they were just like, this MAGA conspiracy theorist. It's Q and on bullshit. No one, nothing to see here, no one cares.

Then when Trump has power and he refuses to release the files, now they're like, oh, well, it's a conspiracy theorist because Trump's name is in the list. And I'm like, they're both doing exactly the same thing. They're doing the exact same thing. It just seems like the media is only jumping on it now that it's politically expedient to do so because a man that they despise is in power. Why were these questions not being asked before? So, yeah, please, as they always love to say, hold truth to power.

But how about holding truth to power, regardless of whoever is in power? How about that? They can't. Because their political system would collapse. Yeah. The economy would crumble overnight if they did that. So let's have a little look at the DOJ memo. In the note, it says, we did not uncover evidence that could.

predicate an investigation against third parties. But then, a couple of lines later, it contradicts itself. Because it also says that their review into the evidence confirmed that Jeffrey Epstein had harmed over a thousand children. And we are supposed to believe that he did that all by himself. Now, look, you might argue that that's not a contradiction. They are saying we didn't find any evidence to go after uncharged third parties. maybe it's my not maybe it is obviously my analysis of that that that seems contradictory

when you then say that he harmed over a thousand children i just feel like that seems bonkers yeah if it's if the DOJ is saying a thousand children and if that is true that he harmed a thousand children and he did that by himself then that would make him the most virulent of serial sex offenders in history. Have we come across anyone who has done that? No. Has the appetite to do that? Has the ability to do that.

That is unbelievable. And there are 300 gigabytes of video evidence that you found. And they're telling us that in 300 gigabytes of video evidence, there is not one other uncharged third party present that they can identify. Fuck off. I cannot believe that. No, me either. An Epstein was charged with trafficking and Gilaen Maxwell is in prison for trafficking.

And again, I take your point that trafficking doesn't automatically imply a third party. It could have been just the two of them. But seriously. I mean that only in a very black and white legal sense. Absolutely. And I only know that because of Diddy and him being charged with transportation for prostitution. which he was convicted of and then trafficking is the one he got away with and it's because of the consent angle that is makes it very specifically legally absolutely and look this is a very

very confusing messy case and we should try absolutely to be accurate in what we're saying so I don't want to misinform people and say that the legal terminology of trafficking automatically implies there's a third party for me logically if you're going to say these two people galane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein one who is in prison for trafficking one who is in prison for trafficking one one person who was about to stand trial for trafficking before he died, before he killed himself, and they harmed over a thousand children. And that's from the FBI, that it just boggles the mind that no other third party was involved. I agree.

You're listening to an episode of Shorthand, our weekly show for Wondry Plus subscribers. Listen exclusively and ad free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app. Right. Now we've got that out of the way. Let's talk about the client list. This drives me fucking mad because all of the commentary on this is like, do you believe a client list exists or not? My point is, who fucking cares? Literally not me. It doesn't matter.

This obsession with this like golden, golden fleece. This like golden goose like white elephant of a specific client list is such. an irrelevant distraction. Because basically some deniers have hung on to this because the memo says there's no client list, right? The memo says, there's no client list, there's no blackmail, we found no evidence of blackmail. Okay, fine.

So fucking what. Let's say we believe the memo and that investigators found no evidence of blackmail. Does that mean it wasn't happening? No, it does not. And even if it wasn't about blackmail. What about all of the rest of the fucking evidence?

The evidence of trafficking that they obviously felt so strongly about that they put a person in prison and were trying to put him in prison, allegedly. What about evidence of procuring those victims? Because we know that that's what Galane Maxwell had been doing. And what about evidence of those people who are abusing a thousand girls? Once again, I point you to the fact of the question of, do we really believe it was just Jeffrey Epstein abusing a thousand girls? I don't know. We also know that there were people who are flying out to Lolita Island. I know that's not the official name of the Island, but that's what Geoffrey Epstein called it.

Or is that what he called? The plane was called the Lalita Express. The plane's called the Lolita Express, right. Pedophile Island was what he called. Well, I don't know if he... People call it Peterfile Island. It's called Little St. James, but the fucking airline that's taking there is called the Lolita Express.

And these people are going there to do God knows what. I'm not saying every single person that went to that fucking island was there to rape little girls. No, I think Cocoa the gorilla probably didn't do that. But like, the people who were, because they definitely... were. There were definitely some people who were going out there to do that, see the testimony of all of these girls who said that that's what happened to them. Like, the people who are going there are already very rich and influential, powerful, wealthy. They don't need someone

like Galane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein to procure girls for them to abuse. I would argue. What they're using them for, what they're doing this for is the secrecy and the discretion that Jeffrey Epstein is promising them. Surely, if you are, you know, Mr. fucking Billy, big bollocks enough to get away with this. Why'd you need a man like Jeffrey Epstein to get you a random masseuse girl that you can rape? You can do that yourself. The point is, you're doing

this without getting your own hands dirty and you're doing this because they are promising you, hey man, look at this other list of people who are here. We promise the utmost discretion and secrecy. Surely that is what it is there for. It has to be. So, I don't know, just because they didn't find a blackmail list,

Firstly, does it prove that no one was being blackmailed? No. Does it matter? It wasn't written down in a fucking list? No. It's a distraction to distract you from the fact that they found 10,000 fucking pages of evidence. And once again, 300 gigabytes of video evidence. With people's names on it.

With people's names in the titles. Whose names are in the titles? I know. I know whose names are in the titles. Yeah. It's everyone you ever seen on town. television. That's who's being put on those titles. Yeah. And some people are saying, oh, you know, maybe they're the victim's names and that's why

it can't be released. Oh, come on. I do not think for a second. 10,000 documents worth of like information with regards to this case. Of course there's victims names in there. Don't release them. They don't need to be seen by anybody. You know, victims should have the choice, but whether they come forward, but do not tell me that all of the names on all of these fucking videos of abuse. Confirmed CSAM, by the way, are just the victim's names. Why would that be the case? Why would that be the case? They're not important to these people. Guys, I'm going to have a fucking aneurysm. Where's my drink? So, after the memo came out, people went nuts online. And in a very stupidly naive attempt to calm the situation, the Trump administration

released some video footage from the prison on the night that Epstein died. And it was immediately obvious that something was wrong because there is a whole minute missing from that video. Just before midnight back. Also, just be clear, the video footage like doesn't show into Jeffrey Epstein's cell. It just shows... No, so yeah, I've seen it. It's incredible. It just shows like the walkway outside of his cell.

And basically their point is, look, we obviously can't see that he did it because this video doesn't show. But trust us, he definitely killed himself. But this shows that nobody walked in and out of his cell. But also, I've seen Alice talk about as well as I'm like, no, it doesn't. It just shows nobody walked in from this specific angle. Apparently, the other angle that is not included in this scope of the video footage would have been the way people would have walked in if another

a prisoner had walked in from like the prison floor or like from another cell. So how easy would it have been for just another prisoner to have been, like, had their door left unlocked and allowed to walk into Jeffrey Epstein's cell. That would have never been caught on this video footage anyway. This is how stupid they think we are. Yeah. Oh, it gets worse. It gets worse.

When in question, Pam Bondi said that there was always a minute missing every night. Just around the witching hour. What is that, Pam? In a prison? Don't I am. And yet, you see people who are being like, the way our prison service is run, the underfunding, the lack of resources, I could totally believe that. Sure. But my thing is, as it always is when we do cases on red-handed, it's about the totality of evidence. If this was the only thing, then sure. I would be like, maybe. But it's not even slightly the only thing, is it? And it got worse when a wired article stated that there was actually nearly three minutes missing. And the metadata showed that. the video had been processed and edited. It was also from, according to some experts,

two different sources. And if you watch it, you can see that the aspect ratio shifts. And then, of course, there are the accusations that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't just some, you know, random paedophile who was doing this for his own, you know, self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, you know, as like some sort of hobby. but that he was actually an intelligence asset for the CIA, MI6 and or Mossad.

Who knows? Let's chuck it in there, right? And basically the theory is that he was being like funded and groomed and honed and owned by one or more of these intelligence agencies to run sex blackmail operations on this island and basically they were like official honeypots. those things have existed. Of course they have honeypots, sex blackmail operations have existed. That is true. Was Jeffrey Epstein doing that?

I don't know. Maybe. It could go a long way to explaining like all of this unaccountable like enormous wealth that he has? Because he's just from like a working class family, right? And yeah, he like gets a job at Bear Stearns, this kind of thing. But like he has island money. Yeah. private plane money. He owns, I believe at the time, the single most expensive residential

property in New York City. How has he got that much money? And yes, of course, that naturally leads people to think that he was being funded by an intelligence agency to run this kind of thing. Other things that we obviously talk about in our two-parter on this was, of course, Alex Acosta, the then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He said, in a fucking recorded, like, press conference when he's being asked about this he says that he had been told that Jeffrey Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave him alone.

This was reported about quite widely and he basically then the next day said something along the lines of I basically I take it back and I can't talk about this and it's like you fucking said it. But then I'm also like if he was told that did that person who told him then not follow up with

and by the way if you say anything to anybody were going to murder you and your entire family because why is he saying it? And then the next day has somebody come around and be like, oh Alex, I really should have said you shouldn't have said that. Now you need to go out and say that like that's not true and that you can't talk about it

because I should have mentioned this before but I will murder you if you keep talking about how Jeffrey Epstein is an intelligence asset. Like I don't get it. I don't get it. It's just, it's so, so fucking weird. Really, really strange. But yeah, I don't know.

I think he just slipped up. I think this. is the thing like in the paradigm I now possess because they're lying all the time you're going to make mistakes quite possibly and obviously there is the whole stuff about the connections about like the first school that Jeffrey Epstein works in that the whole connection with Bill Barr his dad like go listen to our two part on it because we go into it in depth over there so yes was he a CIA asset who knows? But what I do know, having listened to experts talk about this, is that Pam Bondi could right now, today, do a CIA name search. And she would be able to find out if Jeffrey Epstein was a CIA asset or not. But she hasn't done that. She hasn't even said that she would do that. She hasn't even brought that up. But she already fucking knows. Yes. Why? Exactly. She already knows. She obviously already knows. She's the attorney general. She knows.

So if he was an intelligence asset Running secret sex blackmail operations Then we should probably know about that But we're not going to be ever told If that's the case or not So yeah In three generations time when we are long dead They will be like

Okay we'll release the Epstein files Someone will be using it like the JFK files Exactly mark my fucking words Oh And look Let's just let's just let's just keep going with this whole CIA asset thing for but a moment more. Because if Trump was someone that Epstein had been blackmailing using secret sex operations, you know, secret

tapes that were recorded on paedophile island, surely the CIA would know about it. And if they did know about it, surely the CIA might have leaked it to have Trump removed from office, especially with all of Trump's attacks on intelligence agencies over the years, because he has gone very hard. After the CIA, he has made no secret that he is interested in working with. them, he doesn't like them and they don't like him by all accounts. Though again, you could argue that maybe the CIA couldn't do this without revealing who else is implicated. I don't. No. I think it's a double bluff. Like, I think it's very easy to, as a politician, be like, fuck CIA, blah, blah, I wouldn't even dare. Because they're just

an amorphous blob, aren't they? There's no like Mr. CIA. Like, you can't actually pinpoint them and therefore you can't not work with them because they're everywhere in everything and so I think the CIA probably love Trump I don't know what the fuck's going on

honestly this whole case this whole update this whole situation nothing has made me feel more like just confused and crazy and stupid because even some of the things I'm saying I'm like sound fucking nuts

but I'm like I don't have enough to disprove any of this. And there's too much here that makes me think, oh, there's nothing here. So I have to say it, but I also have so few facts that I feel a bit unhinged. But I can only tell you guys what is out there so far. And the rest is just speculation. And, you know, everyone can believe whatever they want to believe, right? Because this case is truly like some sort of Roushberg test.

You can hold it up and it's like, you see what you see. So whether you want to call it a list or not, A record exists. And there will be people in there who just worked with Jeffrey Epstein in a business capacity. Yeah, I don't believe that every single person he ever met was like, you've got some girls I can rape. Yeah, like, some people are just going to be like, can you help me save loads of money on my taxes? He's like, ugh, I don't want to do that. Thanks.

Pedophile Island. No, thanks. And victim's names also are going to be in there. So, yeah, they probably shouldn't release all 10,000 pages of the Epstein files to the public. What should happen is that it should be gone through with laser-like precision, and the names of people who, Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell trafficked for should be extracted, reveals and charges should be brought against them. That's what the authorities would do in any other situation. But not this time.

Yeah, they keep being like, oh, we couldn't possibly release all this information. That's fine. Like we said in the JFK house, I don't think we should know everything. I don't think they should just release everything. Why should all of the names of people who Jeffrey Epstein just ever had a conversation with or a meeting with or be released to us? We don't need that. What people want to see is that the authorities are going through this massive amount of evidence that they seem to have collected from Jeffrey Epstein's house and that they are bringing charges against people whose names they found.

And they can't do what they do with JFK, which is like, oh, no, national security risk. Because the second, because that's a legal thing, that's a clause they can use. And they do all the time. So can't release it, national security risk. They can't do that this time because if they say that, they are proving that there are important people in there. And possibly proving that he was some sort of intelligence asset. Because a question people ask is, what the fuck does child rape have to do with national security? And that is where you can start making the connections to either, as Anna said, prominent, powerful people being involved in this, who, you know, downfall would create some sort of absolute catastrophe in the world of like public trust, as if it could be even worse than it is now, possibly bring down absolute political powerhouses, political dynasties that have ruled in the US for God knows how long, and or it's because he was an intelligence asset.

And then they can use the argument or they could tell themselves the argument of it's a national security. threat. I don't know. So yeah, smoke everywhere as far as the eye can see. But not quite sure what or where the fire is, but it's big. And it's just not something that can be skirted over, no matter how hot they try. It's just another one in a long list of situations in which the public in the West has been lied to by the ruling class and it compounds people's outrage. Absolutely.

I think it's just, like I said at the start, it's just like a straw and. top of straw on top of straw, and people are just like, where does this end? And look, take things like, and I've got lots of examples here, Hunter Biden's laptop, when that whole situation came out, dozens, literally dozens of retired intelligence officers signed a document saying it was just a Russian hoax. And the mainstream media reported on that

without doing one iota of fact-checking on the situation. Turns out, wasn't a fucking Russian hoax. It was Hunter Biden's laptop, and yes, he was up to no good. Then look at the recent revelation in the year, UK of a super injunction that the Tory government took out here so that they could hide the truth about how many tens of thousands of Afghans they had secretly relocated to the country. A super injunction, just so you know, means that you can't even talk about the fact that the government has taken out an injunction. That is how fucking secret it was. So nobody was

allowed to talk about this. And then, for those who are bizarrely, I'm seeing the most strange hot takes out there on the internet, who are bizarrely saying that things like mass rape and trafficking of girls could never be and would never be covered up by the state, people saying that with a fucking straight face, may I direct you to the rape gangs of the UK? Ah, it's just so, so, so bizarre to me how anybody can make that claim. We literally have a like-for-like example of it. I'm honestly, I'm just completely confused. And it is much like the rape gang situation in the UK, the things.

with Jeffrey Epstein, up until now, where it seems to be politically expedient for the mainstream media to cover it, it is one of those things that was very, very interesting and very, very important. Do you really think that nobody was interested in this incredibly salacious, incredibly, like, unbelievable case? Do you really think no one was interested? So then why was no one covering it? Why was no one talking about it? Because they're not incentivised to do so. They only now seem interested in talking about it, because if you literally just Google Jeffrey Epstein now. It's all like, Trump connections, Trump connections, Trump connections. I'm like, of course, but what about everybody else? Are we just not going to talk about that? I don't know. I'm just like, who are they worried about taking down or exposing everyone? I don't know. It's, do I sound nuts? Maybe. Maybe, but I'm glad because this is what JFK did to me. So now we're on the same page. We're both mental. Both be busted cases together. So the narrative currently in the world on the interwebs is either you believe that what the memo says or you're a conspiracy theorist.

Or maybe perhaps do you believe that Trump and Trump alone is implicated or are you just a tinfoil hat wearer? Those seem to be the only options. It's either you're like, yes, I believe the memo or you're a conspiracy theorist or the other side is like, well, Trump and Trump alone is. And they don't say alone, but they say Trump is implicated, ignore everything else. you're a conspiracy theorist. It's just like, oh my God. And this is why nobody is engaging with the mainstream media anymore. This is why people are going on the internet and listening to people like us. I'm not here to push a specific angle of like who I think is involved and who I think isn't. I think they're all involved. And this is the danger I also appreciate because this is going

to become the like scarlet letter of the future for like decades in politics where people are just be like, your name is on the Jeffrey Epstein files and you're implicated and why it's never been released. And it's like, I don't know where this ends, but nowhere good. Oh, we'll be in the ground. And it just is a complete microcosm for politics in the West. It feels current because it's happening now, but it's always been like this. And we're just figuring it out now.

the Western press is not free and it never has been and you need to know that but with the absence of real information people will just believe more and more radical things and you can't blame them

institutions have become increasingly politicised and we are constantly being right to and those in power who fuck us all again and again and again face no consequences I think even if you look back pre-COVID or during COVID, right?

At the time, anyone who questioned where the virus had come from outside of this supposed wet market in Wuhan, anyone who questioned the safety of MRNA vaccines, anyone who questioned the logic of repeated lockdowns was called a conspiracy there is. I remember we talked about the whole Wuhan, that lab leak situation that the Chinese government there were like messing about with these coronaviruses. had accidentally created one that could pass from bats to humans, and then somebody had got themselves infected and left? Do you remember the backlash from that kind of thing? It's racist. It's racist. And I was like, what exactly is racist about that? There are lab

leagues all over the fucking well. I won't say the Chinese did it because they're Chinese and incompetent. No one fucking said that. Like, what a bizarre thing to say? And then it was like, your race because you're pretending that the Chinese government is covering it up. Do you think any government who had done that and then caused a worldwide pandemic would not have covered that up? Like, the whole thing was so bizarre, but you were immediately branded a conspiracy theorist. People were de-platform, left, right and centre. Anybody who questioned anything about the science was immediately called a conspiracy theorist. Only for a multitude of people's suspicions and questions still later have been proven to be accurate. Now,

the lab leak theory is like, yeah, yeah, it was that. So, of course, this is another reason why institutions lost trust and absolutely alienated the public. and Gillane Oh, let's talk about Galane or Gis Lane or Gilles Lane all of the names I've heard over the past week

Is to be fair doing what anyone would do in this situation using this uptick in interest to try and get herself out of prison Yeah, you would I would Sure

She's trying to appeal her conviction based on the fact that when Epstein was given that disgustingly light sweetheart deal by the special prosecutor which included the clause that anyone involved with Jeffrey Epstein would also be given immunity. She's challenging why her conviction still stands if that was the case for him. And that's why anyone was given immunity, isn't it?

Well, it's just like, why the fuck was anyone given immunity? Why was that a part of the fucking sweetheart deal in the first place? Like, oh, I don't know. Why was that a part of the sweetheart deal at all? That is my question. What was the point of the sweetheart deal if you were, giving immunity the other people involved. You know the answer to that question.

Galane says that she gave the FBI over a hundred names that we don't know. Nope. Obviously. The New York Times wrote an article naming six of the other pimps that Epstein worked with. You can literally go read that New York Times

article and read the names. There's like Galane Maxwell and then five other people. They have named. They have named. note and they're just out. They're just free. Why? So yeah, of course Galane's like, why am I sat in fucking prison? She's the only one.

There could be indictments on the way. They could do that tomorrow. They could fucking do that tomorrow, but they're not doing it. There could be indictments like now, but they're not doing it. Why are they not bringing indictments against those five other pimps? Why? We know their names.

I don't get it. I don't get it. Crucially, though, Galane's not going to get out because she was prosecuted in New York under state law the immunity deal was federal so it doesn't affect state law

it's a different system and yeah the latest in terms of Galane because she's obviously not going to stop this like I said she's not going to win I don't think in her appeal because New York State can do what they want but her defence team

are now saying that they are going to be lobbying Trump for a full pardon for Galane Maxwell. Trump has said that he's not interested in doing that. He hasn't thought about doing that. But we have heard that before, before he has pardoned people. I want Gailene Maxwell to start doing Jake Ruby-style fucking interviews, where she's just looking down the barrel of the camera being like, I know where you live.

Yeah. So, I don't know. Maybe a pardon is on the way for Galane Maxwell, courtesy of Trump. Who knows? So where are we now? No way good, yes, absolutely nowhere good. And look, the fire circling Trump around this whole situation is not going to die away any time soon. He made the mistake of stoking the flames of this situation saying that he was going to release the files

and talking about how he didn't think Jeffrey Epstein had been killed, blah, blah, blah. And I only say mistake in the sense of for himself, right? Because then he didn't release the files. He hasn't released the files. I think once he got into power and he looked at the files, he either saw something in there that he was like, oh, I can't really fucking release this, going to bring down all my top donors or a top donor or me.

But then I wonder why he ever brought it up at all, if he was implicated in there with like some sort of blackmail tape. I don't know. It could also be just the courts are stopping him because Trump is now saying that he wants to at least release all of the grand jury, evidence, grand jury testimony. Because if you remember Jeffrey Epstein, the case was handed over to the special prosecutor, the special prosecutor had a grand jury. The grand jury decided not to indict. All of that evidence exists. Why can't we see that? We can't see that because it's very

unlikely that a court is going to allow grand jury testimony to be revealed publicly. So I think Trump is once again going to find that that evidence is not going to be allowed to be released. But everything that happens, people aren't going to accept. The courts won't let me reveal the grand jury evidence because he stoked the flames of this, he is going to look to his base and to other people like he's covering something up. Now, the Democrats in the mainstream media, all of whom seemed totally disinterested in this when the Democrats actually have the power to do anything about releasing the files, will absolutely now pile on and add to that and say that Trump is implicated and that's why he's not releasing the files. And look, he may well be. Like,

I'm not saying that he isn't. I'm saying I think they all fucking are. Because I doubt that he is the only one. Because if he was the only one, again, why would the Democrats who had this information previously not have released it themselves when they had it? And Trump isn't helping the confusion either by one minute saying that there is no list, because that's what the DOJ memo says, and then saying various Democrats are on that list that supposedly doesn't exist. So basically, all of them are doing the exact same thing. Either it's a conspiracy or it's totally true and only the other side is implicated. I am less, I don't care who's on the list.

I know who's on the list. I don't need that to be proven to me. I need to know who Epstein was working for. Yes, that's the question. That's the question. Because the question is, and that's the one they don't want us to ask. Absolutely. Because the question is always, who's on the list?

Who was he blackmailing? The real question is, who was he blackmailing these people for? Exactly. Because he's not doing it for himself, right? And look, you can say, that's where the wealth came from. And he's always described as the wealthy finance share. And it's like, okay, I'm like, how fucking wealthy? Like to have an island, the most expensive home in New York City at the time.

He had that fucking ranch. He had so much. It's so much money. I think when he, like two days before he died, it was something like $53 million was moved into that secret, like, trust or whatever. Like, it's a lot of fucking money, right? And I guess people's accusations will be like, That money must have been coming from somewhere. Either it was genuinely coming from, him doing it all for himself

and he's blackmailing all these incredibly wealthy people. I mean, Les Wexner, you know, he admitted that Epstein's still like upwards of $14 million from him, but he didn't tell anybody because he was to embarrass us. So it's kind of like, did the money genuinely just come from him, tricking people, manipulating people, and he was all just doing it for himself? My question is, what one man needs to blackmail that many people? How much money do you fucking need? And maybe that's just very naive of me.

Maybe he genuinely was just like, there is no limit. But it feels like it makes a lot more sense that somebody was orchestrating this above and beyond Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah. That's how the world works. And now the only reason they're scared is because they think we're going to figure it out.

And then there'll be a revolution. And then we'll all die. Viva revolution So yeah I don't know guys I don't know what's going on here but

don't believe either side because I genuinely when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and this kind of thing take the whole left versus right

with a pinch of song they're all in the same club we're the ones who are on the outside and that's it I know I said this in JFK but I'm going to say it say it

the Pentagon have never passed a tax audit. Not one. Not once. Oh, there you go. And they made script revisions on Top Gun Maverick. We should do a whole shorthand on the military's involvement in big Hollywood films. Oh, yeah. Let's do that.

But this short hand has to end here. So that's it, guys. That is the update that we can give you on what is going on. needless to say I'm confused but I've never been less confused in my life well there you go either you're confused or you're now totally clear on what is going on I'm radicalized and that's it and we will see you next time for another short hand To listen to short hand every week, start your seven-day free trial with Wondry Plus, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or in the Wondry app.