Watch the replay of our discussion about the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, her involvement with the late Jeffery Epstein, and the couple’s nefarious connections.
CN Live! host Elizabeth Vos interviewed journalist Whitney Webb and former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe about the world of Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested by the FBI on July 2. Will her arrest mean that Epstein’s powerful friends might be exposed?
Update: Ghislaine Maxwell was denied bail, and her case won’t be heard until July 12, 2021.
Thank you for your coverage of this story, Whitney — do you think it’s helping to create pressure on our justice system to appear that it’s actually functioning against someone from the wealthy and powerful? If so, how does this reflect on the dynamics of U.S. cooperation with Mossad?
hXXps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHLjm9kHFe8
John Chuckman I have the respect for you, I will check out your blog. I’m here to learn and state my opinions something al, Americans, if they cannot do currently desperately need to start doing.
I also have a MAJOR character flaw, I’m stubborn and don’t k ow quit!
Thank you John for caring enough to respond!
The kabuki is ramping up.
Ghislane Maxwell’s attorneys now claim that the sweetheart, questionable (even patently illegal) plea deal given Epstein in Florida, with its blanket “immunity” for any and all co-conspirators, “named or unnamed”, is Maxwell’s “Get Out Of Jail” card.
Should the U$ “Justice” system accede to permitting this “out”, then one cannot help but wonder how just much lower trust in the U$ government’s legitimacy can go?
As we watch Judge Sullivan seek to scuttle the ability of the DoJ to
drop charges against Flynn, and see the liberal-Russiagate outrage over Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence, even as the elite media attempt to sell the “last gasp” of Russiagate with the evidence-free accusations about Russia paying “Bounties” to kill U$ military in the “Middle East”, just so the U$ Military will “Never Leave”, it must be difficult for the most dedicated or committed of believers to swallow the idea that Ghislane Maxwell might walk simply because Epstein was “intelligence” (although that cannot, ever, be mentioned BY the MSM or its propaganda pundit puppets)
Either the claim will have to be made that the “intelligence” connection is merely conspiracy theory, on the face of it, or that far too much harm to statesmen, pillars of society, or the “natural nobility” will result if poor Ghislane, who assures us (ah, the Disney Kabuki) that she “is not Cruella de Vil”, is not given the merest tap on the wrist and allowed to go free, to continue lavishing her wonderful upscale and exclusive gifts upon the world, since the poor thing is, obviously, a victim, not just of Epstein, possibly Mossad, but, most definitely, of the veryworst kind of squalid envy found in those not enamored of the “lifestyles” of the rich and famous.
Has she not suffered more than enough?
And, what of those other poor souls accused of such awful things, things that truly superior people should never mention and certainly never dare accuse their betters of engaging in.
How could a royal prince, famous politicians, revered attorneys, or billionaires of stellar repute and lingerie secrets, ever be openly suspected of such vile and despicable hanky panky?
No, it must end.
Now.
If Assange is to face life in prison for revealing war crimes, then it is only proper, just, and fitting that Ghislane walk free and that the dark clouds of suspicion hanging over the most illustrious, most ambitious, most powerful, and most very important people be swept righteously away, that there may be a new morning of respect and appreciation in the world.
Hillary Clinton once said that we ought thank Gawd for the rich.
Therefore, let us simply petition that they be just a wee bit nicer.
How would that be?
Considering how very awful it would be were there no Rich and Famous people to serve as best example for the rest of us.
I am certain that you all must realize what such a horrible world as that, would feel, look, and be like.
It would, most horribly, lack class.
From my perspective, Mark Thomason, the “two sides” are wings of the same war and money party, or faction, and they use their power to control the narrative against us.
The apparent “fight” between them is theater, kabuki nonsense, designed to create the illusion that the “factions” represent different things.
However, beyond cultural dog whistles, about which neither faction gives a fig (or, more colorfully, a rat’s ass), their only real contention is controlling the spoils, which has been the functional purpose of political parties, or factions, from the moment of their creation.
Please note that since Kennedy, and even before, overarching policies of imperialism and splendid little wars continue, despite whichever wing sits on the throne, and since Clinton, neoliberal austerity has ruled economics while, since Johnson, neoconservatism has determined foreign policy.
The resurgent “Cold War” is fully bipartisan, as is shoveling money to the oligarchic elite who actually own the political system (there is no democracy, nor ever really has been, only cynical pretense), own the media, and academia, as well as control the economic system which the trillion$ bailout of the banks made blatantly, if obscenely obvious;when, previously, for years, the many were told there simply was no money for universal healthcare, rebuilding the infrastructure, bettering education, or providing food and shelter for everyone, even as jobs were “off-shored” for corporate profit and major portions of the nation were turned into “economic sacrifices zones”.
All of that, as well as forever war, the “factions” happily and totally agree upon.
Thus, the people have NO effective “representation” in a system owned and controlled by the wealthy and powerful, just precisely as was intended.
The people, by the way, are taxed to pay for the bailouts, and for what Ray McGovern terms the MICCI MATT (“it rhymes with Mickey Mouse.”)
Just as the people are taxed to pay for the police, the prisons, and the “Justice” system which is premised upon money (meaning that, if you haven’t Money, you haven’t much chance of Justice) and, as well,has the ready “remedy” of “standing” to disappear anything that threatens the $tatu$ quo, like Dred Scott would have threatened the “peculiar institution”.
Chief Justice Rodger Taney of SCOTUS, presided over that trial where Scott was told that, not being a full human being, he had not the “standing”, the legitimacy, in the eyes of blind justice, to challenge the fundamental engine of early U$ wealth production.
In the U$, it may be reasonably suggested that the federal government, from its inception, as “first principle” … (regarding the people, has sought) … “never to inform them of anything that might have to do with their welfare,” as Gore Vidal once put it.
And, since this nation became the “national security state”, the factions have found deceit, propaganda, and secrecy extremely effective means of ensuring that the people have precious little idea of what things, from “collateral murder” to secret wars, are pursued and enacted in their names.
How clever of the masters, to use myth to convince the many that they are supremely privileged to live in, and to serve, the greatest nation and democracy in the history of civilization.
Neoliberal economics can really be dated to Ronald Reagan in the US, and Margaret Thatcher in the UK.
Indeed, Reagan and Thatcher were the architects of neoliberalism.
However, it took Clinton, in the U$ and Blair in the U.K. to fully implement its most dire consequences.
Clinton gutted Glass-Stegall and Blair “normalized” austerity.
Both Clinton and Blair moved their political parties to the right and toward sucking up to the financial elite.
Giving credit where credit is due, the effort, in both nations was, and remains, fully bipartisan.
DW
CN comment on Neo-liberal economics:
Laissez-faire economics. It seems to me the OSS and CIA latched onto the primary definition of the phrase when it came to their own funding schemes, and then totally perverted the secondary meaning, that part about non interference in the affairs of others. They have carted off the farm or at least have been trying and may now have almost succeeded.
I think it’s about time we all come to grips with the fact that especially early on OSS and CIA had their own “THING” going on.
OSS _ see the story of Daniel Dennette, The Crash of Flight 3804 January 1947, who belatedly has a star placed on the wall at CIA HQ as an early hero of theirs. Connection oil in the middle east.
The JFK murder that bought them time, then LBJ, Nixon,Water Gate, the Church and Pike hearing and the CIA getting away pretty cleanly actually,then the Safari Club, with the help of GHW Bush, Richard Helms and one Billy P Barr.
By the time Reagan showed up the republicans had shown their colors and the reason we can date Neo-cons to Ronnie, & Co is because they were brazed enough to go public. They had us just where they wanted us, God was on their side and middle American bought it and hasn’t been the same since. And all we got out if it was fleeced by the MIC again.
All that is needed to convince is checking out the careers of the cast of players.
As far as being clever, when your interests own the Department of Justice you can appear faultless while in truth Justice had been rendered powerless and they took over.
Then came the Mango Mussolini shaking thing up and their grip slipped.
Thanks CN
“Wild Bill” Donovan’s OSS certainly had a few shortcomings, when compared to the CIA funding streams and actual power, robert e williamson jr.
Remember that the OSS had no control over all foreign intelligence “activities” and, essentially, was modeled on the Brit MI6 which played a major role in setting up the Office of Strategic Services.
Such limitations were effectively done away with by the “National Security Act” of 1947.
Certainly the CIA has evolved very effective revenue sources quite safe from
oversight, just as are the vast bulk their “activities”.
However, Hollywood and popular culture have succeeded in putting a most glamorous image around the agency and both the media and academia are loath to dare tarnish that image.
It was of great interest to me, when I learned about the role played by the OSS in Vietnam during WWII, and its very close working relationship, throughout most of the war, with Ho Chi Minh. That is, until higher-ups within the agency came to understand his power, in terms of breaking away from French domination and seeking independence for Vietnam.
Your assessment of CIA activities in promoting U$ economic interests, in the most neoliberal sense, are spot on.
The tactics used were brutal and still resonate, very destructively, in many nations and parts of the world.
DW
I don’t want just one political faction to be smeared, with the information released under the control of the other.
I want them all to come down together. They are all slime together.
How to do that? First, prevent her murder. But then, the information must get to a third party. That is where something like Wikileaks is needed. This is exactly why Assange is so persecuted. He threatens the power to control information, the power to pervert it to use of one side against the other.
Some interesting additional items:
“Four more women accused of supplying young girls for him to abuse face probe as it’s revealed Ghislaine Maxwell moved house 36 times in a year before she was caught”
hXXp://www.stationgossip.com/2020/07/epsteins-other-recruiters-four-more.html
Was she arrested to access all the evidence just to destroy it ?
Much appreciation to Elizabeth Vos for continuing to emphasize the “intelligence” connections of Epstein, the Maxwells, and Wexner.
Far too many “alternative” sites continue tiptoeing around these connections and “maintstream” narratives completely ignore them.
Appreciation, as well, to Whitney Webb for her tireless pursuit of the truth and to all those commenters whose comments speak to the “rule of law” presented as farce, to the destruction of evidence, to the entire kabuki being used to shield and protect the elite.
It is heartening to see that so many stellar comments made it through the heavy flak of the timorous moment.
Consortium News is to be much appreciated for its steadfast courage when far too many sites appear to be filtering out perspectives critical to the “owner’s” political allegiances.
DW
I think the nub issue here if feudalism, that is, how can ordinary people (not to say peasants, or ‘trash’ ) hope to enforce the law on people who are far above them socially and economically.
Ah yes, AJD, the “rule of law” as oligarchic farce.
Deplorables are not to notice such things.
To do so, is an effront to decorum, order, and the god in which the nation trusts, to coin a motto.
I repeal my earlier comment on Ari Ben-Menashe. It has been 25 years since I looked at Iran-Contra which Bill Barr Whitewashed.
It is all quite interesting, but it is all a huge mystery we not likely to get to the bottom of because of the big names of those associated.
As was said, why now? What is really going on? That perhaps is the greatest mystery.
It certainly isn’t a sudden burst of conscience in the Justice Department.
Ghislaine had been long associated with Epstein. Photographed and quoted many times.
Her connection through her father, Robert, to Israeli intelligence is central. Her father is said to have introduced Ghislaine and Epstein in 1991.
Her father was given a big funeral in Israel, and a former Israeli Prime Minister said he was their most important spy..
I note Bill Clinton’s name rarely comes up in the corporate press in connection with this, but we know he was close to Epstein. I believe he flew on the “Lolita Express” 28 times according to logs.
Just some of the names involved by various reports: Ehud Barak, Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Bill Gates, Alan Dershowitz.
These are not the kinds of names the Justice Department would prosecute or even embarrass.
The entire island was wired for video, so none of the men involved could go anywhere with the young women without being photographed.
Ghislaine is said to have a copy of the set of videos recorded. That would certainly make a powerful piece of insurance against prosecution.
Maybe she’ll turn them over in a plea bargain, and that will be the end of the entire story.
“Maybe she’ll turn them over in a plea bargain, and that will be the end of the entire story.”
That’s my take.
But I am sure the Israelis also have copies of anything Ghislaine has.
Only a fool would have “just one copy.” The idea beggars the imagination. Of course there are multiple copies of everything.
So, if GM does turn over a set of her material, surely it is only so that the a blackmail “Ronde” is bound to continue.
In fact, the very idea of “plea bargaining” is a form of blackmail not even allowed under some other countries’ justice systems.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Maxwell material were to be used to further partisan political aims or even those of a foreign country. I.e., for the same purpose they were made in the fist place.
Like AIPAC money.
John I believe we are at a point that the truth about the JFK murder may not be withheld much longer.
The longer the perps and their minions deny the truth while the actual facts come out the clearer the picture of the actual events becomes.
We know now, if we choose to open our eyes and look at and see what the data shows us, the story of the CIA and the Warren Commission is a crock of manufactured B.S.
Why do they continue to deny and ignore the truth and fight like the devil to hide the truth?
I’ll tell you way, because so far it has worked for them. For the CIA and the Israelis. They have painted themselves into a corner and they have no other way out. That is of course unless the US gets a true dictator who would pardon them.
What we have with this ruling is a judge from the apparently corrupt Southern District of New York, being activist and not being a seeker of justice. He is obviously protecting or trying to protect individuals guilty of vicious perverted crimes. Why? Because these people are connected to US and Israeli intelligence communities. Something that seems to be pretty obvious. Maybe Maxwell has some films of the both of them and who or what ever engaged in unspeakable acts of depravity, which is actually my best guess,.
CIA’s preferred method of operation is to lie, eliminate witnesses and destroy evidence and now we seem to have proof of this underhandedness as evidenced by a sitting judge who seems to lost both his moral and legal compass. It could be of course that he also fears the digital image
Using a Naval phrase, something very fitting can be said about this judge and his orders, “It’s time to run up the Bull Shit Flag! His actions speak very loudly to the point that something very wrong is happening here and it must stop, now!
See my earlier comment 7-10-2020 @ 15:23
CIA ans Israel have infiltrated the U.S. DOJ and it is killing the country! Lets remember earlier on in his career Bill P Barr was involved in that INSLAW / PROMIS software scandal, Iran Contra, and filtering all documents the Church and Pike committee’s requested and recieved.
Hell Ole’ Billy P, might be fearing the digital image himself for that matter.
Trust me folks if we are to have the ruth we must separate CIA’s umbilical cord to DOJ. They hav forfeited their right to special treatment from DOJ by abusing their power time after time. The result is a compromised DOJ.
Like I keep saying about knowing the difference between shit and Shinola, I damned sure know the difference when I see them. Beside right about now the smell in Southern District of New York is stifling. Pardon the pun – – – gag orders, destroying evidence, you get the idea!
Enough is enough!
Very well, and most necessarily said, John Chuckman.
Elizabeth Vos deserves (as does CN) much appreciation for continuing to stress the “intelligence” connections of Epstein, the Maxwells, and Wexner.
Too many “alternative” sites still tiptoe around these connections and “mainstream” narratives ignore them completely.
To the names you have listed, ought be added; Larry Summers, Leslie Wexner, Bill Richardson, George Mitchell, and Prince Andrew, among others.
In fact, the individual who told Acosta to go easy on Epstein because he was an intelligence asset deserves some rather special recognition as well.
Frankly, as we look at both the Epstein “saga” and the Russiagate deceit, it is rather doubtful that Barr will really permit meaningful accountability in either.
Barr will, very likely (such a pregnant term), do his utmost to ensure that the real architects behind both, and the roles of all high level players, are neither revealed nor result in personal consequence.
To robert e williamson jr in response to your comment on the JFK killing. (Note CN’s comments do not allow for responses to comments).
I was, for quite a while years ago, a student of the assassination, having read most of the worthwhile books.
I had never believed the CIA officially was involved, only that a few of its lower-level people were, those working closely with the Cuban refugees and being General Ripper-style ferocious haters of all things communist, and the matter of Cuba was central to the assassination.
But in light of an important document, I’ve changed my mind. Here is my discussion of the single most important assassination document the government ever released. They released it about at the end of the releases. Most of the releases were a waste of time. You wondered why they had ever bothered to hide them, but not this one. People have to have a little background to appreciate it, as I explain in my comment on it. Check it out on my blog.
Replies are allowed. Click on the “Reply” button on the original comment. The subsequent replies do not have a Reply button.
“…and that will be the end of the entire story”
I say that because the copies Epstein is said to have had undoubtedly were seized and destroyed.
The big shots will all breathe a little easier after that.
the FBI knows already a lot , sufficiently to lock up all the people of the US elite in this sex trafficking ring. But the prisons are for the poor, especially the black American poor . It would be nice to see these white oligarchs behind bars. That would change society for the better. It is long overdue for the multi-criminal Clintons to have an indictment. But the Whasington quagmire (the FBI is part and parcel of it) is so intense that nobody can have a clear sight. And if somebody gives us a transparent look, this person is locked up for several lives (Assange). We the public have their fist deep in our a… It is time to break the chains…
Much appreciation to Elizabeth Vos for continuing to stress the “intelligence” connections (Israeli, Brit, and U$), of Epstein, the Maxwells, and Wexner.
Too many “alternative” sites are still tiptoeing around these connections while pretending that Ghislane Maxwell’s arrest is truly significant.
None of the charges in that arrest present really significant consequences, either for Maxwell, or for Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, Alan Dershowitz, Larry Summers, Leslie Wexner, Bill Richardson, George Mitchell, and many others.
Clearly, Whitney Webb’s concern that this arrest is simply an elite exercise in obsfuscation, intended to reduce Epstein’s activities to being accepted as merely an example of exceptional aberration, confined to bad acting by Epstein and Maxwell, intended to protect the most highly privileged from scrutiny or consequence, is solidly well founded.
There is little reason to consider that Barr and the DoJ will vigorously pursue the prosecution of this case beyond Maxwell, any more than there is any likelihood of expecting that Barr and Durham will expose the architects and upper level operators of the Russiagate deception (and attempted “soft” coup) over the critical time period of the next three or four months.
The kabuki surrounding Maxwell’s arrest and yesterday’s “news” that she has been placed on “suicide watch” suggest that public attention is to begin, and end, with Maxwell.
That a court has ordered evidence destroyed, makes clear the planned “official” trajectory the case is to take.
I sincerely would like to be proven wrong in my skepticism.
However, the levels of corruption and the “players” involved suggest, once again, that the “rule of law” shall be shown as farce and that the “adults in the room” will happily continue screwing the vulnerable many with complete impunity.
DW
” The most serious charge carries a MAXIMUM sentence of 10 years in prison.” – Yahoo News
Does that sound like anything remotely resembling justice for the thousands of victims? Not exactly
Ari’s right, this will end with nothing, those are very powerful people, even Ehud Barak meeting continuously with Maxwell and Epstein. Why?
And the funder of all this, Wexner? Sounds like he’s Al Pacino in “The Devil’s Advocate”
Indeed, Aaron, far more attention must be directed at Leslie Wexner, who appears to be the source both of Epstein’s “fortune” and most of Epstein’s palatial homes.
Wexner’s mansion in Ohio, sounds like a most interesting place, to say the least.
Is it really true that Ohio IS the center of most human trafficking in the U$, as certain investigators have alleged?
It is most interesting that police and prisons, in the U$, are essentially concerned with making certain that the little people are kept on the down and out.
Yet, it must be readily acknowledged, that the Big People, in the U$, are always on the Up and Up.
If only the vast, unwashed, herd were just a wee bit more … “astute”.
Whitey Webb is a real gem , as CN of course .Been following her for a number of years now .Her research is detailed and impeccable .
Thank you CN for putting her on.
I wonder if Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, used team Epstein and Maxwell in 2005 to retaliate against his brother-in-law, William Schulder? Could there be more than one of these vile operations out there known and shared by a certain element of the wealthy to guarantee things go their way? The public should know.
I’d say that the judges decision to order evidence be destroyed is cause for his firing. PERIOD! FULL STOP!
WHY? See Ari Ben-Menashe comment about the Southern District of New York being the Israeli branch of U.S. D. O. J.
History by this point in time will reveal that, this thing too speaks for itself!
It can be explained by many but we cannot understand it for the dissenters. The records are the proof.
Especially in this case.
I agree.
It is one thing for evidence to be deemed inadmissable in a particular action.
It is qute another to order it destroye—when it has not only legal relevance to other ongoing cases, but to history.
People only destroy/shred documents when they have something to hide.
Cf Nixon and the tapes.
Cf. lots of webcam tapes in many situations.
I cannot believe that this ruling is not being appealed. It must be appealed!
Can’t remember if you told me… is there a way to download the audio?
We have the audio of all CN Live! shows downloaded as podcasts. It will appear shortly here: hXXps://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/15015401
Thank goodness for Consortuim News and the courageous women reporters who are shining a light on the Epstein/Maxwell/Wexner pedophile blackmail espionage scandal. Whitney Webb, Julie K. Brown, and others are responsible for some of today’s most influential investigative reporting.
Ari Ben-Menashe is an Iran-Contra Criminal so he isn’t someone to play up.
False. Ben-Menashe was acquitted. He is not a criminal. hXXps://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/29/2-acquitted-of-trying-to-sell-military-cargo-planes-to-iran/2918bfd6-89a7-441a-a124-3b1916e90321/
I am reading Ari’s book now,, its a page turner. I haven’t read anything with this much insider knowledge since the Devil’s Chessboard.
Ari Ben-Menashe was deeply involved in arm’s trafficking for Israel and the Iran Contra affair, but the dirty little secret is that everyone who is capable is playing both sides because of the enormous profits in war. It also illustrates that the official US narrative of good countries vs bad countries du jour is hogwash. Carter was deeply humiliated by his bungling of the Iranian revolution and his administrations refusal to accept the impending disposal of he Shaw and took an unnecessarily hardline stance towards Iran which greatly exasperated the Iranian reaction towards the US. Carter’s actions seemed to have single-handedly gave rise to the black market in arm’s smuggling and black ops slush funds in Israeli intelligence because of Iran’s need for weapons during the Iran Iraq War.
Consortium News Live’s absolute bombshell discussion with the hard-hitting journalist Whitney Webb and the brave truth teller Ari Ben-Menashe will be long remembered as perhaps the major factor in forcing an end to an immensely corrupting, harmful, long-existent global sexual blackmail operation.
Despite the unprecedented COVID-19 paradigm shift and growing controversy requiring serious international investigations, people the world over can at least feel thankful a big time corrupt operation has become exposed, they will have the chance to watch the entirety (including all witness testimonies) of Ghislaine Maxwell’s court trial on their televisions, and altruism-based, honest, moral government is being reinforced in the whole ugly process.
Future generations will express the profoundest of thanks to Consortium News, Whitney Webb, Ari Ben-Menashe, and millions of sympathetic others across the Earth.
Peace.
Between Ms. Webb and Ari Ben-Menashe it seems very little is left to the imagination concerning the conduct of Jeff and Ghislaine.
Ari’s claim that the Southern District of New York is known as the Israeli branch of DOJ is 100% on target. Something started long ago by Israeli infiltration of the U.S. DOJ, something I think the CIA helped foster.
Riveting stuff you will not find other that here.
Thanks especially to Whitney and Ari and special thanks to CN for being the conduit for the type of knowledge that cannot be substituted for!
What would we do without Consortium News helping truth survive? Take care of your precious selves!
These video interviews are a great addition to CN journalism, they add a personality that words alone cannot do. Consortiumnews is becoming the model for new age journalism and that is beyond a good thing… Keep up the great work!
Whitney Webb is a very special treasure.
Her overwhelming depth of facts and connections is a model of superb reporting.
The alleged powerful friends of Maxwell & Epstein ( like the vicious Clinton’s) will never allow that she is going to talk. So she will end up the same way as Epstein = CASE CLOSED !!
If a judge can force Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer to destroy evidence, can a judge force G. Maxwell to destroy evidence that she may have in her possession?
After all, it was all illegally created and acquired.
I wonder whether the Giuffre lawyer will actually destroy the evidence.
Surely there is always a way to make copies of anything and everything.
And, why doesn’t he appeal the judge’s ruling?
All exposing the corruption of the faux justice system in all likelihood due to compromised attorneys and judges which was the reason for being of the Epstein cameras etc.
You content is great but I dont like the layout with one story taking up the whole page. I wish your layout was more like the Intercept where one has a suite of stories to pick from with the latest at the top
If you go to the front page you will see 36 stories to choose from. Just scroll down. You can reach the front. or home page, from any page by clicking on the Consortium News banner above.
Without Consortium News to shine the light on the underbelly of US policy many of us would be in the dark. Thank you for your information.