A Convenient Death

by Alana Goodman

  “I had the Prince’s upmost attention. Moving his hands across the curves of my body, not to shy away from the fact that he was in public, he was whispering sweet nothings into my ear and kissing my neck. I would just giggle not really knowing how to reply to an aging man with a bad smile and terrible moves,” she recalls. “He was the most incredibly hideous dancer I had ever seen.”

  The prince was dripping with sweat after an hour and wanted to go someplace quieter. They returned to Maxwell’s house—as had been arranged. While back home, Giuffre and Prince Andrew posed for a photo that would one day become infamous when the Daily Mail published it in 2011. The smirking prince captured in a private home, with a provocative hand on the girl’s bare midriff, which had been left exposed between her tiny pink top and her embroidered jeans.

  Giuffre started a bath and seductively stripped her clothes, and they kissed as they entered the bath. “He was adorning my young body, particularly my feet, caressing my toes and licking my arches,” Giuffre says, remembering that she laughed at the royal’s apparent fetish.

  “We dried off from the cold and retired to my bedchambers for the longest ten minutes of my life. Moments later and without any real emotional attachment, he burst in ecstasy, leaving me to my own feelings of dismay,” she writes.6

  Upon returning to the United States, Giuffre would be paid extra by Epstein for taking such good care of the prince. Though in private the two laughed at the royal’s fetish.

  Nevertheless, Giuffre felt enslaved. The money she earned would be spent on alcohol and pills, anything to help her mind feel less pain from the continuous experiences she could not escape.

  Giuffre has claimed that the next day Ghislaine Maxwell, who herself once dated the duke, praised her for sexually gratifying the royal. “Ghislaine said, ‘You did a really good job’ and pats me on the back and says, ‘You made him really happy,’” Giuffre has said.

  This wouldn’t be her only encounter with Prince Andrew; she recounts in detail another meetup in New York City at Epstein’s home.

  Prince Andrew denies all of Giuffre’s claims, telling the BBC in 2019 he has “no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.”7

  His denials caused much snickering, especially in light of the photograph, which has long been released publicly. Prince Andrew concedes the man in the photo is indeed himself and stops short of saying that it’s doctored, though he questioned whether that’s his “hand” in the snap.

  The royal claims that night he was with his children at Pizza Express, which he remembers nearly two decades later because it was such an “unusual thing” for him to do.

  But the line that resulted in the most ridicule for the royal was this one: “There’s a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time.”

  It did not take long after Prince Andrew’s sweating defense for photographic proof and testimonials to be published online that would undercut his denials.

  * * *

  —

  A friend of Prince Andrew’s has said that the royal defended his friendship with Epstein by claiming to be loyal.

  “You cannot have a relationship with Jeffrey. You can’t do these things,” the friend claimed in a Vanity Fair interview that he told the duke after Epstein’s guilty plea.

  “Stop giving me a hard time. You’re such a puritan,” Prince Andrew reportedly told his friend.

  A screaming match ensued, and finally Prince Andrew had had enough. “Leave me alone,” the royal said in a huff. “Jeffrey’s my friend. Being loyal to your friends is a virtue. And I’m going to be loyal to him.”

  But publicly, Prince Andrew tells a much different story. He maintains he visited Epstein in New York City to break up in 2010. “Look, you’ve been convicted, it would be incompatible for me to be seen with you,” the duke claims to have told his buddy during a stroll through Central Park.

  The problem with that version of events is that it seems implausible. The duke did not simply meet up with his buddy to deliver the devastating news. No, he once again slept at Epstein’s New York City mansion, having a four-night slumber party instead of a perfunctory breakup, as if that were even needed.

  “I could easily have gone and stayed somewhere else but sheer convenience of being able to get a hold of the man was . . . I mean he was in and out all over the place. So getting him in one place for a period of time to actually have a long enough conversation to say look, these are the reasons why I’m not going to . . . and that happened on the walk,” Prince Andrew rather remarkably now claims.

  The royal was “even spotted kissing a glammy brunette on the doorstep,” the New York Post reported in 2011.8

  It was on this visit that Epstein once again tried to use Prince Andrew for his own gain—to help him get back into the good graces of New York’s media class. He threw a dinner party with Katie Couric, Charlie Rose, Woody Allen, Chelsea Handler, and George Stephanopoulos all in attendance. Two of those guests (Rose and Allen) would later face sexual misconduct allegations of their own. The group of under twenty guests would feast on lasagna. Epstein would entertain wearing his usual jeans, gussied up with $500 velvet Stubbs & Wootton slippers.

  Epstein’s longtime publicist, the New York socialite Peggy Siegal, facilitated the party, according to reports. “Multiple sources say the event was organized by Siegal, who presented it as an opportunity to meet the prince at the largest single-family dwelling in New York City. Given that it was less than two months after Kate Middleton and Prince William’s engagement, interest in the royals was running high,” The Hollywood Reporter would explain.9

  And yet it is a perfect example of Epstein’s opportunism, using his high-profile friends to better his own standing—by bringing in high-profile media luminaries, who the press now claims were roped into the meeting under false pretenses.

  The personal cost for Prince Andrew would be astronomical. A decade later, after Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death, he’d be kicked out of Buckingham Palace by his mother, the queen of England.

  “It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support,” Prince Andrew said in a 2019 statement after his monumental BBC interview was so roundly roasted.10 “I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein.”

  But no matter his relation to the royal family nor Epstein’s death, it may not be over yet for Prince Andrew. Giuffre has been seeking justice through the American court system for years and will likely continue to do so. Even the FBI is hot on his heels.

  In a bizarre and out-of-character move, American law enforcement authorities made a public plea, of sorts, to shame the British royal into cooperating with the investigation into Epstein. Indeed, the public statement was delivered practically on Epstein’s stoop.

  “The Southern District of New York and the FBI have contacted Prince Andrew’s attorneys and requested to interview Prince Andrew, and to date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,” the Manhattan U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, intoned into the microphone at a press conference.11

  The comment was obviously meant to shame the royal into cooperating—a pledge he’d made in that BBC interview. He “publicly offered, indeed in a press release, to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,” Berman said.

  “Jeffrey Epstein couldn’t have done what he did without the assistance of others,” he added. “And I can assure you that the investigation is moving forward.”

  But for whatever reason Prince Andrew never appeared to be shamed. The public preaching fell on deaf ears. Perhaps it was because he knew Epstei
n could not speak from the grave. Others closer to home might not have been feeling so confident.

  12

  The Politician

  Bill Clinton’s Active Retirement

  [He] had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead. I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!

  A RETWEET FROM DONALD TRUMP, AUGUST 10, 20191

  Jeffrey Epstein was fascinated by Bill Clinton’s Oval Office sex scandal. He told friends he was perplexed at why the president would throw away his reputation to carry on an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a woman who Epstein believed was too unattractive to sleep with. On a trip to Africa with Clinton, Epstein finally got his answer.

  During the flight, while Clinton was still on the plane, one good friend remembers receiving a phone call from a highly amused Epstein. “Guess what I learned?” Epstein asked his somewhat befuddled friend, according to an interview.

  “What?”

  “I never understood the whole Monica Lewinsky thing, so I asked,” said Epstein. “[Bill’s] answer was, ‘The government shutdown. She was the only girl at the White House!’”

  Epstein’s connections to the Clintons were long-standing and have been the source of intense speculation. Why did that powerful couple put up with Epstein despite his misdeeds?

  The Clinton-Epstein connection first became known on September 21, 2002, when they traveled to Africa together. Flying high on Epstein’s Boeing 727, along with Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, the two really got to know each other. They visited Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, and South Africa.

  The 2002 trip would serve as a coming-out party of sorts for Epstein, resulting in Page Six items in the New York Post and a monster puff piece in New York magazine. Titled “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,” the New York article by Landon Thomas Jr. asked, “Who in the world is Jeffrey Epstein?”2 The question was asked because, well, no one really knew who this guy was.

  The article would be a seminal piece—defining him by his money, access, and predilection for young women. It was there where Donald Trump made his now infamous quotation stating, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy . . . He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

  Of course that aspect of his life would go unexplored for years to come. Instead, the focus at the time would be on his profession and his big heart. (Both things the author would basically get wrong.)

  “What attracted Clinton to Epstein was quite simple: He had a plane (he has a couple, in fact—the Boeing 727, in which he took Clinton to Africa, and, for shorter jaunts, a black Gulfstream, a Cessna 421, and a helicopter to ferry him from his island to St. Thomas). Clinton had organized a weeklong tour of South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, and Mozambique to do what Clinton does. So when the president’s advance man Doug Band pitched the idea to Epstein, he said sure. As an added bonus, Kevin Spacey, a close friend of Clinton’s, and actor Chris Tucker came along for the ride,” the article stated.

  “While Epstein got an intellectual kick out of engaging African finance ministers in theoretical chitchat about economic development, the real payoff for him was observing Clinton in his métier: talking HIV/aids policy with African leaders and soaking up the love from Cape Town to Lagos.”

  * * *

  —

  When Bill Clinton left the White House, he did so as a broken man. Though he remained popular, he was an impeached ex-president who had, by some measures, squandered his credibility as leader of the free world by chasing a young intern, instead of focusing on the policy platform that got him elected and then reelected by historically slim margins.

  At fifty-four years old, Clinton was still young. He was not ready to retire to the golf course or stay home alone as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, served the people of New York as its junior senator. But he was also toxic.

  The 2000 election was deeply humiliating—and not solely because his vice president, Al Gore, lost in a direct rebuke to Clinton and his impeachment. Worse, Clinton was not wanted on the campaign trail. The master politician who had redefined the Democratic Party was a pariah. Few wanted to be seen with him or near him. And that was before his last-minute pardons of family and friends that Republicans would savage for years to come.

  Clinton was depressed for the first few months after moving to Chappaqua, New York. He was living outside government housing for the first time in nearly two decades. Restoring his image was his top priority, and so he focused his attention on his presidential library, the Clinton Foundation, and later the Clinton Global Initiative. But he also focused on getting paid.

  He was, after all, broke. The legal bills he faced from the impeachment process landed him millions of dollars in debt, and he needed to pay up. His position was made more difficult by the fact that he lost his law license as a result of a settlement he reached on the sexual harassment claim levied against him by Paula Jones.

  Privately, he also worried about building up enough money to take care of his family’s legacy. Men in Clinton’s family tended to die young, and he worried he would follow this trend.

  “The next two or three years, I want to spend roughly half my time making money,” Clinton told his longtime friend Taylor Branch during one of their last conversations at the White House on January 8, 2001.3 “I’m coming off two terms, a two-term presidency with high public ratings, and rating still rising, and contacts all over the world . . . I know where to find this money, I think I can find it, so that’s what I want to do.”

  So he sought opportunity—and people—who could help solve his problems. Enter Jeffrey Epstein.

  Epstein’s early forays into politics coincided with the rise of Clinton’s political star. In the 1992 election cycle, he gave $2,000 to the charismatic young Arkansas governor in his successful effort to unseat George H. W. Bush, according to federal election disclosure records. But he also gave $1,000 to Bush, perhaps a sign that he was not as interested in ideology as he was in access.

  John Glenn, the Democratic senator from Ohio, received decent donations too. On one of those $1,000 donations Epstein listed his employer as Limited Inc., one of the brands owned by his friend and patron, Leslie Wexner.

  He also gave to Bob Packwood, where he listed his employer as Wexner Investments. Packwood, a Republican senator from Oregon, would soon resign his Senate seat in the wake of detailed sexual assault and harassment allegations. Epstein would also give to Eliot Spitzer, though much later, who as governor of New York would resign after it was revealed he had frequented high-end prostitutes.

  In sum, Epstein is believed to have given $184,276 directly to politicians, with a heavy lean toward Democrats ($147,426 versus $18,250 to Republicans, with the rest going to independents).4 Many hundreds of thousands more went to other party functions and fund-raisers.

  With the slew of donations, access came easily. Around 1993, Epstein donated $10,000 to the White House Historical Association, contributing to the Clintons’ efforts to redecorate the residence with gold drapes and other lavish decor. In return, Epstein received a perfunctory thank-you letter from the association and an invitation to a donor reception with the Clintons. He brought Ghislaine Maxwell as his date, according to White House records obtained by the Daily Beast. That reception was the first known meeting between Epstein, Maxwell, and the Clintons.5

  But his real introduction to Clinton, according to one of Epstein’s former lawyers, was through Lynn Forester, a striking blond telecom executive and New York socialite who later married into the Rothschild family. Forester was in her early forties at the time and newly divorced from her second husband, the New York City councilman Andrew Stein. She was smitten with Epstein and became an evangelist for his financial services, introducing him to her elite circle of friends.

 
; So it was no surprise that when Forester had a chance to talk to Clinton during a dinner at Senator Ted Kennedy’s house in 1995, the two ended up chatting about Epstein instead of the social policy she had intended to discuss.

  “It was a pleasure to see you,” Forester told Clinton in a 1995 letter.6 “Using my fifteen seconds of access to discuss Jeffrey Epstein and currency stabilization, I neglected to talk to you about a topic near and dear to my heart. Namely, affirmative action and the future.” Clearly she thought enough of Epstein to relegate her personal “near and dear” topics to the follow-up, rather than the actual conversation, in order to sing his praises.

  Epstein was also cultivating other members of Clinton’s inner circle around the same time. Also in 1995, a dinner was held at the Palm Beach home of Ron Perelman, the billionaire investor behind the cosmetics giant Revlon. It was a three-hour intimate affair, The Palm Beach Post reported at the time.7 Jeffrey Epstein was in attendance along with Jimmy Buffett, Clinton’s college friend Arnold Paul Prosperi, and Diandra Douglas, who was then married to the actor Michael Douglas. The cost to get in: a $100,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee. The New York financier would also visit an aide to Clinton multiple times at the White House, the Daily Beast would later report.

  After Clinton left the White House, the ex-president’s relationship with Epstein would grow much, much closer. For Clinton, Epstein had it all. Money, power, and his own fleet of airplanes. Plus the helicopter (used to reach his private island) and many, many vehicles. The former president had another ulterior interest in befriending Epstein, but that wouldn’t become clear to Clinton’s inner circle until later.

  So they took their relationship to the next level. They began hanging out together and traveling.

  Flight logs indicate that Clinton flew from Miami to Westchester, New York, on February 9, 2002, with Epstein. The logs further reveal Clinton traveled from New York to London on March 19, 2002. He returned home March 21, 2002. He also traveled May 22, 2002, from Japan to Hong Kong. On May 23, he flew to Singapore, leaving May 24 for Bangkok. On July 12, 2002, he and his daughter, Chelsea, attended the royal wedding of King Mohammed VI with Lalla Salma in Rabat, Morocco. On July 13, 2002, he flew home to New York, with a brief stop in the Azores.8