Mob Mentality
Welcome to the first Gaslit Nation episode of 2022! Just think, one year ago we were all sitting around in a plague waiting for an attempted coup to happen, and now we are…sitting around in a plague waiting for an attempted coup to happen. And by the same coup plotters, too because mafia state enabler Merrick Garland refuses to hold criminal elites accountable!
While Merrick Garland stays the same failure as always, there have been meaningful developments elsewhere in court cases involving criminal elites. We discuss the guilty verdict for child rape trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, partner of Jeffrey Epstein and daughter of Mossad operative and Russian mafia liaison Robert Maxwell. We do a deep dive on the international relations aspects of the case and discuss why the media is whitewashing her crimes and treating complicit actors like Epstein’s lawyer/client Alan Dershowitz as “objective sources”.
We also discuss Giuliani lackey/convicted felon/coup plotter/9-11 villain Bernard Kerik, his long history of criminality, and the documents he provided to the Jan 6 committee. We then turn to the failure of Cy Vance to hold the Trump crime cult accountable (we warned you!) and what the investigations by Tish James and Vance replacement Alvin Bragg may bring. And we pay tribute to Harry Reid, the only official in office in 2016 who was brave enough to tell the American public the truth about Trump and Russia in real time and try to stop our current horrors from happening. RIP.
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Jill Wine-Banks:
As a prosecutor, here's the difference: These crimes happened in front of our very eyes. Watergate happened in the secrecy of the Oval Office. It was only a year later when we found out about tapes and then eventually obtained the tapes that we knew that there was planning in the White House. We know it now. We've heard conversations in Georgia where the president tried to stop the counting and get a fraudulent vote declared. This is happening in front of our very eyes. And that's why people are so insistent on a quicker outcome than we had. It was fast during Watergate, but not as fast as we need in this time. This is an existential threat to our democracy and we must resolve it before this Congress ends its term, because if in the horrible possibility that the Democrats lose control, this investigation will be shut down.
Jill Wine-Banks:
And one of the other things that was so important in Watergate was the Senate hearings that were in public. It brought people into the picture. Viewers couldn't see it happening. They got to understand the crimes that were committed and what the evidence actually was. So, I think one of the most important things is for the committee—the January 6th Committee—to start public hearings, where people will be able to see what the evidence is, and that maybe even those Republicans who are on the edge may come along to see that violence is not the answer, ever.
[intro theme music]
Sarah Kendzior:
I'm Sarah Kendzior, the author of the bestsellers, The View From Flyover Country and Hiding in Plain Sight, and of the upcoming book, They Knew, coming out this September.
Andrea Chalupa:
I am Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones about Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine.
Sarah Kendzior:
And this is Gaslit Nation, a podcast covering corruption in the United States and rising autocracy around the world.
Andrea Chalupa:
Our opening clip was legal analyst and Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks warning for urgency in the January 6th investigations and ensuring accountability for the sake and continuation of our democracy. Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland, a totally unfit attorney general for this dangerous moment in time, as we have documented in previous episodes—just go to our transcript page on our website, gaslitnationpod.com and do a search for his name and you'll find all the reasons there that he is the wrong person for the job, especially with so much hanging in the balance—Garland, for instance, refuses to act with any urgency, as shown by his complete refusal to indict Trump for the crimes detailed in the Mueller Report, crimes which the former FBI director, Robert Mueller, said the former president could indeed be indicted for. Yet Garland prefers to just ignore that fact and allow Trump to go free, where he's continuing to plot another attempt to overthrow our democracy by pushing his big lie and backing candidates that can seize power for him on the all-important state government level, where elections are certified. Garland will mark the one year anniversary of Trump's attempted coup on our democracy with a speech on Wednesday, which we expect will be a bunch of word salad.
Andrea Chalupa:
When you listen to Garland's empty PR gesture, keep in mind that time is running out and we may soon be ushering in a far-right Congress one year from now. Also, the statute of limitations on Trump's other crimes will run out. So, what is Garland—the Manchin and Sinema of the DOJ—waiting for? And we have an early show for our Patreon subscribers at the Truth Teller level and higher. Sarah and I will be answering questions submitted by our listeners at the Democracy Defender level and higher. We'll also share some of the fun things we watched over the holidays to get us pumped up for 2022 and beyond in our ongoing battle against evil, so sign up for that to get access to all of our Gaslit Nation bonus episodes, exclusive to our supporters on Patreon, where we come together as a community to make sense of everything going on in our rapidly changing world.
Sarah Kendzior:
So, on that note, we haven't done a regular episode in two weeks and it was an extremely eventful two weeks. We're not going to be able to cover everything in this one episode, so again, tune into the bonus for more, and also to get questions answered. One of the things that happened over these two weeks, sadly, was the death of Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who died from cancer on December 28th. And if you are a longtime Gaslit Nation listener, you will know that Harry Reid was someone that we discussed in our very first episode, because Harry Reid was the sole elected official to warn the public about the danger of Trump and his illicit ties to the Kremlin and the threat that they posed to the election months before that election took place. Harry Reid did this by writing two open letters to James Comey, one published in August, 2016 and one published in October, 2016. In the letters, he tells Comey that he must act and inform the public about what the Trump campaign and Russia were doing before people headed to the polls. Comey, as you know, ignored Harry Reid and instead released nonsense about Hillary Clinton's emails.
Sarah Kendzior:
We've covered that many times. I encourage you to go listen to those initial episodes or read our transcripts. I'm also going to reread those letters in a minute because you need to remember what is in them. In an era of rising autocracy, it is crucial to remember who knew what and when, and who was willing to tell you in real time. Harry Reid was, to my knowledge, the only official in office to do his job regarding election security in 2016. He was Senate Minority Leader at the time, but the rest of his caucus failed to match his assertiveness. Every institution failed the American people in 2016; the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ, the Obama administration, and, of course, the GOP. Harry Reid did not fail the American people. He had no qualms about standing up and doing the right thing, which is to speak the truth and do so publicly because American voters have the right to know when their election may be compromised. They have the right to transparency.
Sarah Kendzior:
After the election, many Democratic officials echoed Reid's warnings, but by then it was too late. Reid took a stand when it mattered, and he is a great role model to follow in that regard. And I'm not saying he was some sort of flawless figure, and I generally despise this stan culture that people have built around politicians, but in this particular action—the willingness to speak a very dangerous, very unpleasant truth at the moment that people needed to hear it, the willingness to stand up to power—that is a quality that everyone should emulate. And so I'm gonna read you these letters. The first is from August 27th, 2016. This is, of course, about a month after Trump had asked Russia publicly to get him Hillary Clinton's emails. Harry Reid writes: “Dear Director Comey, I've recently become concerned that the threat of the Russian government tampering in our presidential election is more extensive than widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results.”
Sarah Kendizor:
And I'm just gonna pause and say, holy shit, how did no one follow up on this or cover this? Anyway, going on: “The evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaigns continues to mount and has led Michael Morell, the former acting central intelligence director, to call Trump an ‘unwitting agent of Russia and the Kremlin’. The prospect of a hostile government actively seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War, and it is crucial for the FBI to use every resource available to investigate this matter thoroughly and in a timely fashion. The American people deserve to have a full understanding of the facts from a completed investigation before they vote this November.” Again, interjecting: How standards have fallen. Ugh. Okay.
Sarah Kendzior:
“As you know, Russia's intent to influence the outcome of our presidential election has been well documented by numerous news organizations. For example, it has been reported that your agency is currently investigating the cyber theft of thousands of documents from several Democratic organizations, including but not limited to the DNC and the DCC. Already, a consensus of national security experts concluded that actors of the Russian government carried out these cyber attacks. It is of vital public interest to understand the chain of custody of these illegally obtained documents, from the time they were stolen to the time of public dissemination, including any evidence of complicit intermediaries between the Russian government, those who leaked them in material, and any United States citizen.” And I will, again, interject to say some of those intermediaries included Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who then went on to try to overthrow the government on January 6th. This is what happens when you don't act in time. Reid goes on: “For example, it has come to my attention that last week video evidence came to light of an individual with long ties to Donald Trump in his top campaign aides claiming to be in communication with WikiLeaks, the organization that posted online the 20,000 DNC documents illegally obtained by Russia.”
Sarah Kendzior:
“The prospect of individuals tied to Trump, WikiLeaks, and the Russian government coordinating to influence our election raises concerns of the utmost gravity and merits full examination. Further, there has been a series of disturbing reports suggesting other methods Russia is using to influence the Trump campaign and manipulate it as a vehicle for advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For example, questions have been raised about whether a Trump advisor who's been highly critical of US and European economic sanctions on Russia and who has conflicts of interest due to investments in Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom, met with high ranking sanctioned officials while in Moscow in July, 2016, well after Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee. The same individual recently broke precedent by giving a speech critical of US policy in Moscow. Any such meetings should be investigated and made part of the public record. Indeed, the recent staff changes within the Trump campaign have made clear that the Trump campaign has employed a number of individuals with significant and disturbing ties to Russia and the Kremlin.”
Sarah Kendzior:
And again, I’m going to break in to say this is a reference, in particular, to Paul Manafort, who had had to step down from the campaign right around this time because of his ties to Russian oligarchs and mafiosos. “The foregoing and more has led me to believe this matter should be fully investigated, and the investigation made public. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, Harry Reid.” Alright. So then Comey goes on, proceeds to totally ignore that, and then has to write a followup letter because James Comey did not do his job, at least in the sense that his job should be serving the American public.
Sarah Kendzior:
Okay, I'm now going to review the letter from October 30th, one week before the election, where Comey had riled everybody up by releasing innuendo about Hillary Clinton that proved to be baseless, but nonetheless impacted the election. And Harry Reid told him off. So, here we go. This is October 30th, 2016. Again, before the election: “Dear Director Comey, Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another. I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law. The double standard established by your actions is clear. In my communications with you and other top officials in the now national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government, a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity.”
Sarah Kendzior:
“The public has a right to know this information. I wrote you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information. By contrast, as soon as you come into the possession of the slightest innuendo related to Secretary Clinton, you rush to publicize it in the most negative light possible. Moreover, in tarring Secretary Clinton with this innuendo, you overruled long-standing tradition and the explicit guidance of your own department. You rushed to take this step 11 days before a presidential election, despite the fact that for all,\ you know, the information you possess could be entirely duplicative of the information you already examined, which exonerated Secretary Clinton. As you know, a memo authored by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates-”—Hmm.
Sarah Kendzior:
”-on October 10th, 2016 makes clear that all Justice Department employees—including you—are subject to the Hatch Act. The memo defines the political activity prohibited under the Hatch Act as ‘activity directed towards the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. The clear double standard established by your actions strongly suggests that your highly selective approach to publicizing information, along with your timing, was intended for the success or failure of a partisan candidate or political group. Please keep in mind that I have been a supporter of yours in the past. When Republicans filibustered your nomination and delayed your confirmation longer than any previous nominee to your position, I led the fight to get you confirmed because I believed you to be a principled public servant. With the deepest regret, I now see I was wrong. Sincerely, Harry Reid.” So, you know, applause for that well done.
Sarah Kendzior:
There's so much to learn from those letters, and I realized it took time to read them all, but you should just go and look them up, read them again, think about your expectations of Merrick Garland, think about your expectations of the January 6th Committee, think of your expectations for our political system in general, our media, and how far they have fallen. Think about the valorization of Comey—who is exactly the person who Harry Reid describes—in the aftermath. Think about how conned people are into falling for savior syndrome for this sort of stan culture around officials, this cult mentality, this groupthink, because they are terrified. And when people are terrified, they become more reluctant to stand up to corrupt power when it's more important than ever to do so.
Sarah Kendzior:
One final thing I'm gonna say about Harry Reid—because I didn't know the full extent of this really until this week—is, you may be wondering like, well, what made Harry Reid willing to do this when so many others were cowardly or complicit? And I think there is a number of factors, including a basic desire to protect our elections, our sovereignty, our country, but Harry Reid, because he was an official from Nevada, in various capacities had extensive experience dealing with the mafia and dealing with threats from the mafia, particularly mafiosos who were in the casino business. And I'm sure that's not bringing anyone to mind for y'all. So, you know, I'm wondering whether that's what led him to be so vociferous in warning about Trump, because as we've said many times, what is usually described by politicians as a threat from Russia is actually a transnational crime syndicate in which the Kremlin is a key node and was certainly one of the main driving forces behind Trump.
Sarah Kendzior:
But it's a mixture of organized crime, corporate crime, and political corruption that is so incredibly dangerous, and Harry Reid knew that, because first the mafia tried to buy him off and then they tried to kill him. And so I'll briefly talk about this and then hand the show over Andrea because I've been going on a long time: The main person who tried to murder Harry Reid was a mobster named Jack Gordon, who later married and beat up Latoya Jackson and made her give a press conference in Tel Aviv, condemning her brother, Michael Jackson. That's a whole nother story. Interesting to look at though. Anyway, Jack Gordon, who was a mafioso, tried to bribe Harry Reid in 1978 when Reid was Head of the Nevada Gaming Commission. Reid notified the FBI and allowed FBI agents to videotape Gordon offering the bribe again, and as a result, Gordon was sent to six months in prison.
Sarah Kendzior:
So there you have Harry Reid's experience with the FBI, which likely informed his desire to speak with Comey. In 1981, Harry Reid wife found a bomb under their car, which Reid believed was either placed by Gordon or by Gordon's associate, the casino operator Frank Rosenthal, another mafioso who had threatened Ree\id. And if you don't know who Frank Rosenthal is, if you've seen the movie Casino, that's who it was based on, the Martin Scorsese movie. Reid later stated that “Rosenthal was the only person I was ever afraid of.” And so you have this mafia state culture, a mafia state culture of blackmail, bribes, threats of violence, acts of violence. This is the culture guiding American politics today. It is the culture that Donald Trump was trained in by mafia political liaisons like Roy Cohn. It is the political culture of Russia and of other kleptocracies. It is exceedingly dangerous and American public servants are increasingly being threatened to the point that they either go silent or quit their job. Harry Reid did not go silent. Harry Reid did not quit. And I will always appreciate him for that.
Andrea Chalupa:
Yes, absolutely. I mean, Harry Reid, what a massive contribution to us personally, Sarah, because he was screaming about everything we were trying to scream about in 2016, but he had the power to be heard. And everything he did… I mean, the fact that Comey ignored him will always, always be a stamp on Comey, a heavy judgment of history on Comey, no matter how many books Comey tries to write, to try to write his way out of history's judgment. Harry Reid, with his letters, forever framed Comey as being one of the key players that allowed the Russian mafia to come to power in 2016 and wreak havoc on our democracy that were gonna be the dealing with for decades to come, including allowing a Kremlin asset to pack our Supreme Court with a far-right majority. So thank you for that and thank you to Harry Reid, and all of us should look to him as a model in terms of sticking our necks out, even when it's dangerous, because lives are literally at stake, as we've seen.
Andrea Chalupa:
Alright. So, with that said, may 2022 be a year of justice so that Harry Reid and his warnings can get some sort of vindication by bringing all these elite criminals to face justice. There's been a lot dished out in recent weeks. We just had Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing startup, Theranos, that was essentially a Ponzi scheme. Holmes, of course, fooled some of the most powerful people—like Henry Kissinger and James Mattis—and was found guilty of 4 out of 11 fraud charges, and faces up to 20 years in prison in a case that represents the grift and dangerous Messiah complex of Silicon Valley. And there's a great movie that Sarah and I both watched <laugh>, which we'll talk about in this week's, one of the many things we'll talk about in this week's bonus episode, and it's getting a lot of flack from the media, but it's an excellent film for how it's skewers so many of the monster is plaguing us today, and that is Don't Look Up.
Sarah Kendzior:
Yes, we love it. Gaslit Nation endorses Don't Look Up.
Andrea Chalupa:
It’s Gaslit Nation as a film. It's like all the criminals we go after week after week are just thrown into this movie all together, and it shows how destructive they all are, including Silicon Valley’s Messiah complex. And now we have, of course, fancy lady Ghislaine Maxwell-
Sarah Kendzior:
Sexual predator, trafficker, espionage agent, but go on.
Andrea Chalupa:
Daughter of a notorious-
Sarah Kendzior:
Mossad operative, mafia partner. Sorry. <laugh>
Andrea Chalupa:
Yep, who was a grossly corrupt businessman that fleeced a lot of innocent people. So Maxwell was found guilty of 5 out of 6 counts of trafficking. The “lady of the house” as Jeffrey Epstein's professional groomer and pimp was known to their servants when they lived together, was central and essential to Epstein's pedophile ring, which served the rich and powerful. Maxwell faces dying in prison. That's how long they could put her away for. Her tech entrepreneur husband just left her for a yoga teacher, breaking up with her in what sources are calling a “confrontational” phone call he made to her in prison. So that means Maxwell is clearly likely being monitored by very leaky guards who are friendly with the press, given that hell she will… You know, the big question is, will she give up names to face a lesser sentence?
Sarah Kendzior:
I do not think she will give up names.
Andrea Chalupa:
No, absolutely not.
Sarah Kendzior:
Because she's an espionage agent. Like, one thing that's driving me crazy about the coverage of this case, and I can't even read it, honestly, because there's so many British sycophants who went to school with her in Oxford or who were in her little socialite world-
Andrea Chalupa:
Even Boris Johnson's sister, Rachel-
Sarah Kendzior:
Mmmhmm <affirmative>
Andrea Chalupa:
-wrote a flattering piece about her and what a cool girl she was.
Sarah Kendzior:
It is revolting, and this is how they operated. Maxwell and Epstein inserted themselves into the most powerful circles of the world, in politics and in media, so of course the media coverage is going to be skewed to the point where you have Alan Dershowitz accused in court of raping one of the Epstein/Maxwell victims, and also Jeffrey Epstein's personal attorney, goes on BBC as an “objective commentator” on the case. This is a monstrous, monstrous man and the BBC absolutely knew this. Like, it's impossible to not know this about him, and they did it anyway.
Sarah Kendzior:
It's a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge, “let's normalize all of this.” And, you know, I'll just say a couple things really briefly: Of course people should focus on the fact that this was a pedophile, a trafficker, a rapist, a partner of a rapist, and so on and so forth, and there are real women who are hurting. There are real victims of this crime. And this does not give complete justice, but it's a start, and so we're glad about that. But the broader case is not just a trafficking and rape case. It is an espionage/international relations/money laundering case. And I describe a lot of this in my book, Hiding in Plain Sight. It's one of the few books that delves into the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein,, Robert Maxwell—her father, who, as I said, was a Mossad operative who became a British publishing tycoon and then helped get Semion Mogilevich, the head of the Russian mafia in the 1980s and possibly still the head today, his first passport out of the Soviet Union, allowed him to get to Israel, and then from there, move all over Europe and the United States, setting up transnational crime operations, which included people like Donald Trump and all of his associates, Manafort and so on
Sarah Kendzior:
So this is a very seminal case. There are all sorts of famous people implicated in it as rapists, people like Prince Andrew, Ehud Barak, and so forth. But at the heart, the reason she won't give up these names is because of everything in that network; the organized crime aspect, the elite aspect, the fact that they're all holding blackmail over each other, and the fact that governments are involved in this. We don't know exactly to what capacity. There's a book, I think it's called, like, Israel’s Super Spy or something, it's a Robert Maxwell biography. It has a lot of disturbing information, including about computer technology that was potentially, or was, sold to our government that allowed Israel to spy digitally.
Sarah Kendzior:
The Maxwell family was involved in that. The Maxwell family are tech tycoons. If you look into her sisters- Anyway, I'm going on and on. We've gone into this on Gaslit Nation. Go to our website, gaslitnationpod.com, do a search for Maxwell. You'll find all of this. But yeah, I think there's a real reluctance to cover this as a serious international relations case, espionage case, white-collar crime case, etc. There's a focus on the serious crime of rape and also a lot of focus on scandal, as if this was just some sort of tabloid gossip item. You know, “What is she wearing? Is she drawing the court stenographer? Are her friends turning against her? Did her boyfriend dump her?” Who gives a shit? I care about the safety of the planet. That's my priority here. And I care about the victims who they harmed who still haven't seen full justice. And that's all I'll say on that.
Andrea Chalupa:
Right, and if those victims are to see full justice, they simply cannot stop at Maxwell and Epstein. They have to go after the rich and powerful that their pedophile ring serviced for so long, rich and powerful people who remain defiant and consider themselves above the law, just like Epstein and Maxwell did for so long. And so people are naive—law enforcement are naive—if they think that the pedophile ring will stop with Epstein and Maxwell being gone.
Sarah Kendzior:
Mmmhmm, <affirmative>
Andrea Chalupa:
It's still going in some way, shape or form because these people are sick.
Sarah Kendzior:
Yeah. That is such an important point. I hope everybody just heard what you said, that they need to look into who is continuing this operation and how is it functioning and how does it relate to different governments and how does it relate to different companies and where is the money going and where did the Epstein/Maxwell money go? Look into people like Les Wexner, who's still walking around. Look into Dershowitz, all sorts of partners. But yes, that is an essential point. I'm glad you said that.
Andrea Chalupa:
I mean, that's all of it. That's all of it. Maxwell and Epstein can't be the fall people or the larger global pedophile market. You know, we're talking about the rich elite in the US, in the UK, across Europe who have a proximity to, for instance, Russian mafia interests, Russian oligarch interests. In the UK, for example, you have Russian oligarchs that can buy themselves a lordship that are running newspapers in the UK. We're talking about a part of the world, Russia, the former Soviet Union states that are unfortunately so poor, so corrupt, that they become hotbeds for sex trafficking, where poor girls—children—are lured into these webs and they're trafficked. You know, Trump was there in Moscow in 2013 from the Miss Universe pageant. People in the media couldn't wrap their heads around for so long, what did Trump and Russia have? What was their connection?
Andrea Chalupa:
Birds of feather flock together. These were hyper materialistic wannabe oligarchs that treated the rest of the world like their playground and lived above the law. And part of their corruption and criminality included exploiting young women. So think about that whole pipeline of corruption with these poor girls being brought in and entrapped by this whole elite system. So, please believe, please trust that the pedophilia is ongoing. It's ongoing. Other people, other power brokers, have taken its place. We warned about that when it came to Paul Manafort. We said, Okay, Paul Manafort is facing legal trouble, but look at who the next Paul Manafort is going to be. And lo and behold, Giuliani was in Ukraine making that Russian blood money in Ukraine and trying to cook up fake scandals to frame the Democrats, just like Paul Manort did before him. We warned ahead of time, like several months in advance, that Giuliani was going to take over as the new Paul Manafort, and that is what happened. So, we're now telling you that Epstein and Maxwell's operation in some way, shape, and form is ongoing. The routes of supply they needed? Ongoing. The powerful people that they serviced? Ongoing. All of that is ongoing. So bring it all down.
Sarah Kendzior:
And the blackmail. The blackmail is ongoing. The tapes are still there. The evidence is still there. And we don't fully know who has it, but we know new networks of organized crime, new networks of kleptocracy and an increasingly brazen right-wing extremist movement took over the governments of the United States, of the United Kingdom, of Eastern European countries, central European countries like Hungary and Poland, you know, this is a worldwide web, so to speak. And people are either complicit in it or they are trapped in it. However painful and disturbing these revelations may be about who was involved with Maxwell and Epstein, because, you know, this is what they did. They built this—or participated in this—socialite universe to entrap people in governments and make them do their bidding. And they were very successful. It's still ongoing.
Sarah Kendzior:
My only question is how much more integrated is it into, say, branches of the United States government or various agencies of the United States government? Who possesses this information? We should also remember, of course, that Trump was accused in court of raping a 13-year-old girl who was procured by Epstein and Maxwell, and she was going to tell the press about it the week before the 2016 election, until she and her lawyer were threatened with death threats. And then she went silent. And the media would not cover this, or if they did, they played it down. Chris Cuomo, newly revealed sexual predator, Chris Cuomo, was particularly adamant about the refusal to cover it and defending CNN's refusal to cover it on Twitter. They're all in on it together. I'm not saying everybody I listed was a participant in the sense that they raped or assaulted an Epstein/Maxwell victim, but they participated in the coverup, in the normalization of Epstein and Maxwell, continually referring to him as a philanthropist and her as a socialite. They were predators. They were traitors. They were operatives.
Sarah Kendzior:
They were—and are—extremely dangerous, as is their entire network. And the reluctance to call this out and the placement of people to protect them in high agencies of the US government, like for example, Bill Barr, whose father was the person responsible for introducing Jeffrey Epstein into New York high society, in particular to Wall Street in the 1970s, basically helping kick his role in this whole operation off, you know, they avoid scrutiny of this. We're an outlier here at Gaslit Nation in that we're covering this. I mean, there are other people who have. Obviously Julie Brown of the Miami Herald has covered it, but a lot of folks who are bravely willing to take on Epstein and Maxwell in terms of the trafficking aspect of this are unwilling to look at the international relations aspect of this. And there's some understandable reasons, like when you talk about this, people threaten to kill you. You know, they've certainly threatened to kill me for Hiding in Plain Sight and they've done it to others. But it needs to come out anyway. I mean, we're living in the Don't Look Up era. The comet is coming in, might as well air it all out and, uh, you know, go out honestly. That's my take. Anyway, I'll hand this over to you. <laughs> That’s too bleak.
Andrea Chalupa:
I think the big takeaway is one of the many dangers of income inequality is that when you have such an extreme inequality, as we currently do in the United States—an historic level of inequality—you are producing a population of extraordinarily vulnerable people, including children, who are preyed upon by the rich and powerful who live above the law. That is what is inherent when you have today's levels of income inequality in the United States and in post-Soviet states and elsewhere. Certainly, as we've seen in all the reporting, Epstein and Maxwell's victims were groomed from all over. We're talking about the larger issue of human traffickings, sex trafficking, and how law enforcement generally tend to see the victims of sex trafficking as trash, the same way Maxwell saw them, like their lives do not matter, that that's all part of doing business, that's locker room talk, that's just how the rich and the famous enjoy themselves. Otherwise Epstein and Maxwell would've been brought down long ago, or otherwise it wouldn't be so taboo to have covered them in the press all these years. Otherwise… What is that guy's name who ran vanity fair? Who killed-
Sarah Kendzior:
The guy with the really WASPy name.
Andrea Chalupa:
<laughs>
Sarah Kendzior:
What was his name? Graydon Carter! Graydon Carter.
Andrea Chalupa:
Otherwise Graydon Carter would not have killed reporting…
Sarah Kendzior:
Well Vicky Ward's article was killed, but she also allowed it to be killed. She didn't speak out about the, you know, murder of her article and the revelations in it until it was announced that Jeffrey Epstein was dead, which, you know, I got some thoughts on that. I'm not gonna share them, but yeah, so she is to some degree complicit in this as well. Not as much as Graydon Carter, but, you know.
Andrea Chalupa:
Yeah, Graydon Carter didn't allow in Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair and their fancy Oscar parties that kept together the whole elite power structure of Hollywood, that was the go-to place for Hollywood, that whole system of glamor and power and all of it allowed these children to be victimized and trafficked. And you better believe it's still going on to some, certainly, now. And it took a woman from humble beginnings, the type of woman who would be dismissed by this grossly misogynist society that she was in—the United States—it took a woman from a hard scrabbled background to come up as an investigative journalist and take down Epstein and Maxwell, because she did not see their victims as trash. She saw their victims as human beings, and that is where her power began. And I'm, of course, talking about Julie Brown of the Miami Herald. She is the hero in all this.
Andrea Chalupa:
She was tenacious. She focused on the public service and by giving voice to Epstein and Maxwell's many victims, what she is doing is calling out for justice for not only their victims, but to stop any other victims out there, to protect all the children out there, to end sex trafficking around the world. If you wanna fight corruption, fight sex trafficking, because who do you think is benefiting? Who do you think has it in them to seek out sex with children for any price? The corrupt elite of the world. So, that is a fundamental target to go after corruption generally. And we hope to God that law enforcement wakes up and finally does their job. And speaking of Bill Barr, because you mentioned earlier, as attorney general, he refused to apply resources to combat sex trafficking, pedophilia. He sat on that. He slowed it down.
Sarah Kendzior:
I wonder why. Sorry.
Andrea Chalupa:
Along this thread, there's reporting out of the UK press, the Sunday Times, that the British Royal Family is preparing to strip Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, of his titles and patronage and reduce his other perks should he be found guilty in his civil lawsuit by a young woman who claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew by Epstein and Maxwell when she was a minor. Should Andrew be found guilty—I'm already dropping his title to prepare him for what's coming—should this guy, Andrew, be found guilty, he'll be sent into an internal exile by the British Royal Family where he cannot travel abroad in order to avoid extradition and further embarrassment for the Crown. His public life will essentially be over.
Sarah Kendzior:
Oh no. I’m so sad. I’m weeping tears.
Andrea Chalupa:
I mean, this is all reporting out of the UK press from whatever sources. Of course, the Crown denies it, refuses to comment on this. They're very tight lipped: Never explain, never complain. But if this is all true, of course, it's a cleanup job by the Royal Family, rather than a cooperation with law enforcement to ensure brother Andrew faces justice. Representatives for the crown declined to comment on an ongoing investigation, as I mentioned, so watch out Harry and Megan, because the Royal Family will need a juicy, sensationalized villain to distract from the real one should the Queen's son be found guilty. So lots more signs of justice we've just been treated to, which has been refreshing. Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal account was permanently suspended by Twitter, and her Facebook account was temporarily suspended.
Andrea Chalupa:
There has been movement, but slow as it's been out of the Justice Department, Hugo Lowell of The Guardian US writes on Twitter: “Justice Department has now charged at least 275 rioters connected to the Capitol attack with corruptly obstructing of an official proceeding for which Trump may also be referred by the January 6th Committee.” According to Politico, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is under investigation for his role on the central coup coordinating committee, including his involvement with the coup plotters’ infamous war room at the Willard Hotel, provided several documents to the January 6th Committee in Congress, and a list of documents he would rather prefer not to provide, but at least he named them in a list, including one called “Draft letter from POTUS”—That's President of the United States—”to Seize Evidence in the Interest of National Security for the 2020 Elections.”
Sarah Kendzior:
See, I feel like he's just flaunting, as he always did. Kerik reemerged after… I'll get into his political career in a second, but we first saw him hanging out with the Trump administration at a press conference in August, 2020, notably standing next to Andrew Giuliani, the son of Rudy Giuliani, who was working in the Trump administration. We, of course, saw nepotism all throughout this. Bill Barr’s children worked in the administration. We have Ivanka and Jared. You have Chao and McConnell married, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I just wanna give a little background on Kerick because a lot of folks… I feel like we're in a repeat of the faux Mark Meadows PowerPoint revelation, where we all watched a seditious violent attempted coup on national television, watched it planned for weeks in advance before that, and then suddenly we were told that we didn't actually see any of this, or know any of this, in advance and that Mark Meadows’ PowerPoint was the necessary smoking gun for that.
Sarah Kendzior:
And then, of course, nothing happened after that. And now they have yet another smoking gun ignoring, of course, that the gun is still firing all the time as they plot Coup 2. But anyway, like you said, the new smoking gun is this document from Bernard Kerik. A little brief history on Kerik. If you don't know who he is, he was the NYPD Police Commissioner under Rudy Giuliani from 1998 to 2000, I believe, and got that job for, like, no particular reason other than his closeness to Giuliani. He had no experience. It's very interesting that he showed up around that time. After he worked for the City of New York under Giuliani, he went on to serve as the Interior Minister of Iraq during George W. Bush's illegal post-9/11 war, but became a convicted felon after he accepted a $250,000 bribe from an Israeli billionaire.
Sarah Kendzior:
And that billionaire was Eitan Wertheimer, who Bernard Kerik met when Kerik took a trip to Israel less than two weeks before 9/11. We don't really know why. Allegedly, he was studying police tactics or something like that. Wertheimer is somebody who made his own fortune through defense contracts. So, you know, the post-9/11 aftermath was very beneficial for him and briefly very beneficial for Bernard Kerick until he went to prison.But then, of course, Donald Trump pardoned him. He was on the big list of horrible people pardoned at the end of the administration. It also included Stone, Flynn… I’m trying to think… You know who all these people are; Kushner's father, etc., etc. So that's interesting. And now Kerik is revealing the “truth”. I was bringing up this background because I'm like, whatever Kerik is handing over to this committee is likely a… You know, the way I always say, They cover crime with scandal, they also cover big crimes with smaller crimes. So I would just caution anybody to believe that Bernard Kerik has flipped, is doing anything good, feels threatened in any way.
Andrea Chalupa:
<laughs> The guy’s a Keystone Cop, literally. They carried out their crimes out in the open and even named their documents after their crimes.
Sarah Kendzior:
Mmmhmm (affirmative). They’re flaunting.
Andrea Chalupa:
Yeah, exactly. So, I think the reason why this whole Kremlin Klown Kar is so over-the-top ridiculous in its cartoonish villainy and the reason why people are like, Don't Look Up, that film I keep talking about, is so on the nose is because the monsters that are attacking us are so on the nose. You know, here you have a cop that is cosplaying Keystone Cops with his ridiculous over-the-top ridiculousness.
Sarah Kendzior:
And cosplaying Interior Minister of Iraq. <laughs> Like, what the fuck? Alright, go on.
Andrea Chalupa:
That’s how they get away with it because the fancy set—the starched collars of the inside-the-beltway folks—
Sarah Kendzior:
The savvy set.
Andrea Chalupa:
The savvy set, the white men and women that make up law enforcement in this country, they roll their eyes at them because they don't have that decorum. Like, “Oh, he's so ridiculous. Trump will never become president.” And they just fan the flames of their antics because it makes good cable viewing. It boosts the ratings, it boosts the page clicks, it boosts the advertisement dollars and so forth. And it keeps people coming back from more because it's like you're giving people this morbid entertainment in this reality show political culture that we're trapped in currently. So yeah, so that's Bernard Kerik in a nutshell. And I don't think he's flipped. I think he's doing the bare minimum that he knows that his lawyer advised him to do. And the rest, like the rest of them, he's just digging in his heels. And unfortunately, Congress and the DOJ are not using all the levers of power at their disposal to bring these guys down like they should.
Sarah Kendzior:
Yeah. I just wanna add one quick point on that, which is just that Bernard Kerik is yet another example of why Congress and others should have gone after Trump for abuse of the pardon power, because if Trump had been impeached for that, or removed, or if they had taken the abuse of the pardon power seriously, Kerik wouldn't have been involved in the coup, Flynn wouldn't have been involved in the coup, Stone wouldn't have been… I mean, maybe they would've anyway, because they don't care whether they’re convicted of crimes as long as they're not actually in prison. But all of these people, all these names that you're seeing recurring both with the 2016 election and the 2020-2021 coup attempt are all convicted felons who Trump pardoned. And he had kicked that off in his administration early, pardoning all sorts of people who did not deserve a pardon but from whom he wanted political favors. And he did the same thing and they should have seen it coming and they didn't do shit.
Andrea Chalupa:
Someone who is doing her public service is New York Attorney General Tish James, who is broadening her civil investigation of fraud by the Trump Organization to include Trump's idiot children. The superstar attorney general, who is an important reminder as to why local elections matter, subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Don, Jr. James had previously subpoenaed Donald Trump as well. Her office's civil case into fraud is one of the most reliable investigations we currently have into the Trump crime family, given that Tish James is no Merrick Garland, and thank God for that. The New York AG is also working with the Manhattan DA's office in a criminal investigation into the Trumps’ wiley web of corruption. So far, the Trump children and their mob boss father are fighting the subpoenas. They're claiming the New York investigations are politically motivated and not at all driven by their years of corruption which, of course, includes running Trump Tower like a dorm for the Russian mafia with an apartment/museum of corruption owned by indicted Kremlin political operative, Paul Manafor, as well as a Russian mafia linked gambling den that was broken up by the feds.
Andrea Chalupa:
So as we predicted, outgoing Manhattan DA Cy Vance, Jr. leaves office without prosecuting Trump. The new Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, sued Trump more than 100 times in his work as a prosecutor. 100 times. Let's hope he gets him this time as Manhattan. <laughs>
Sarah Kendzior:
Oh, God.
Andrea Chalupa:
This is an urgent reminder, once again, that local elections matter. The new Manhattan DA was elected thanks to grassroots support. So be sure to elect a strong and trustworthy district attorney and attorney general where you live and make sure your state has a strong and trustworthy secretary of state who oversees elections, and a governor, as well as strong and trustworthy state reps representing you in your state capital. Local elections are the front lines of protecting our democracy. And guess what? That's why Trump and his fascist army are targeting local elections.
Andrea Chalupa:
Winning local elections are what determine the integrity of our overall elections, including the federal ones. Local governments also determine and enforce quality of life issues, from protecting and expanding voting rights and environmental protections and the quality of schools and other public services. So, if you want to be on the right side of history in this crossroads we find ourselves in, fight like hell to clean up your state where you live. Run for local office. Help good people run for local office. Donate what you can to local groups where you live. No step is too small. Join a community or donate to a community where you live. It's as simple as that. And find out where to start on the Gaslit Nation Action Guide on gaslitnationpod.com. By getting involved in even a small way, by setting up a monthly automated donation for whatever you can afford to a local group, you're helping plant powerful seeds that will grow stronger election cycle after election cycle.
Andrea Chalupa:
If you haven't heard our last episode, you absolutely must go back and listen to it. We interviewed the winners of the Gaslit Nation Save Democracy Challenge, where we called on our listeners to share with us in 2020 how they were joining in to help save our democracy. We selected a few listeners from across the country to come on the show and share their stories of fighting for our democracy. Their extraordinary work was so incredibly inspiring. Listening to this interview put the wind back in my sails. Some of our listeners featured on last week's show overcame personal threats to their safety and all kinds of pressures, including having families brainwashed by the Trump cult. These were individuals who had such diverse backgrounds and diverse challenges they were up against that they were carrying with them as they were doing their best to serve their communities, and therefore strengthened our democracy overall.
Andrea Chalupa:
If you need a shot of courage, listen to last week's interview. The episode ran the final week of December, 2021, and is called ‘The Save Democracy Challenge’. We're going to be doing another Save Democracy Challenge heading into the midterms, so listen out for that for your chance to come on the show, chat with me and Sarah about all the important work you're doing to keep your community safe by protecting our communities. We're protecting each other. We're protecting our democracy. No matter where you live, we're all in this together. We're a giant chain of resistance. We're a giant chain holding the line against actual fascism. The fight for the soul of our nation is on the all important local level. If local government wasn't so important, then Karl Rove, the Koch dark money political network, and the Trump fascist army wouldn't prioritize harassing and bullying their way into power at the local level. But they are. They've been working on this for a very long time now. That's how we got gerrymandering at a crisis level in this country. So we must all do what we can to clean up the local governments where we live, and we have a simple, easy to follow Action Guide on gaslitnationpod.com to help get you started. No step is too small to join team democracy. Never forget that we need you. And any act of support for your community can send a powerful ripple effect. Remember, activism is hope in action.
[outro theme music, roll credits]
Andrea Chalupa:
Our discussion continues and you can get access to that by signing up on our Patreon at the Truth Teller level or higher.
Sarah Kendzior:
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Andrea Chalupa:
We also encourage you to donate to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian relief organization helping refugees from Afghanistan. Donate at rescue.org. And if you want to help critically endangered orangutans already under pressure from the palm oil industry, donate to the Orangutan Project at theorangutangprojectt.org. Gaslit Nation is produced by Sarah Kenzior and Andrea Chalupa. If you like what we do, leave us a review on iTunes. It help helps us reach more listeners. And check out our Patreon. It keeps us going. You can also subscribe on YouTube.
Sarah Kendzior:
Our production managers are Nicholas Torres and Karlyn Daigle. Our episodes are edited by Nicholas Torres and our Patreon exclusive content is edited by Karlyn Daigle.
Andrea Chalupa:
Original music in Gaslit Nation is produced by David Whitehead, Martin Vissenberg, Nik Farr, Demien Arriaga, and Karlyn Daigle.
Sarah Kendzior:
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Andrea Chalupa:
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