On January 20, 2003, financier Jeffrey Epstein celebrated his fiftieth birthday. I imagine it’s hard to shop for a man with the means to possess everything. In 2003, Epstein was on top of the world, two years before an investigation began in Palm Beach, Florida, after a parent accused Epstein of sexually abusing her 14-year-old daughter. That investigation ultimately identified 36 girls, many of them minors, who allegedly had been abused by Epstein. In a sweetheart deal, negotiated by U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, he was only charged with procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. Acosta later served as the Secretary of Labor in the first Trump administration.
Epstein was arrested again in July 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. Unlike his first arrest, where he served 13 months, including extensive work release to his own office. Epstein was facing a litany of charges and committed suicide by hanging at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.
However, in 2003, Epstein was literally flying high, traveling around the world in his private plane, nicknamed the Lolita Express. Many of those flights were to his private island near the Virgin Islands, where, in addition to his New York penthouse, New Mexico ranch, and Palm Beach estate, Epstein entertained his friends, allegedly supplying some of them with girls. As one famous friend noted about the girls Epstein surrounded himself with, “many of them are on the younger side.”
Epstein enlisted his friend and lover, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, in the recruitment of these girls. Maxwell often handled Epstein’s social calendar, using her contacts to introduce him to Prince Andrew, with whom she attended university in the UK. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Maxwell was famously seen in a 2001 photograph featuring herself, Prince Andrew, and Virginia Giuffre, who was 17 at the time.
As Epstein’s 50th birthday approached, Maxwell thought it a great idea to get Epstein’s friends to submit letters to Epstein, which she compiled into an album. One such letter in the news was from Donald Trump, whom Epstein had claimed was his “closest friend” for ten years.
Epstein had a lot to say about Trump. He said the first time Trump slept with model Melania Knauss was on his plane. He also said Trump enjoyed cuckolding his friends by sleeping with their wives. Epstein alleged Trump was a serial cheater in his marriages and loved to “f — the wives of his best friends. He also claimed that while Trump has friends, he was at heart a friendless man incapable of kindness. And he alleged that Trump had undergone scalp reduction surgery for baldness and called himself “The Trumpster."
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the letter Donald Trump sent to Epstein for his birthday. It described a drawing of a naked woman with Trump signing his name “Donald” in a representation of the woman’s pubic hair. The letter refers to the pair having a “lot in common” and ends with Trump saying, “May every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump had denied writing the letter, suggesting someone planted the letter in 2003 to bring him down 22 years later as President. The media is focused on Trump and his relationship with Epstein, but what about the dozens of other Epstein pals who wrote letters to Epstein, described as “bawdy” by The Wall Street Journal?
The whole point of demanding the Epstein files and a “client list” is to reveal and prosecute the pedophiles who have been protected since Epstein’s first arrest in 2005. Some of these bawdy letters may show complicity with Epstein in the trafficking and sexual abuse of young women. These letters may not prove guilt, but they will provide some names of people worthy of investigation.
Hundreds of girls/women have provided statements to law enforcement over the years, including the Palm Beach County Sheriff and the FBI, yet has anyone other than Epstein ever been investigated? All the men who abused young girls have presumably continued having sex with underage women because nobody dared to stop them. Epstein didn’t hide what he was doing, sometimes bringing underage girls to Trump’s casino in Atlantic City. Epstein often recruited girls at venues including Mar-a-Lago. The friends close enough to have letters included in the album were close enough to at least know what Epstein was doing.
The media should get to the bottom of Trump’s relationship with Epstein, but it should also pursue all the men who wrote letters to Epstein and make them public. Stop protecting the pedophiles and those who knew and looked away.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.