by Dylan Howard
According to author Martin Dillon, his favorite daughter Ghislaine, then thirty, wasn’t buying it either.
“She was the one who felt that he had been murdered,” Dillon, author of Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy, told our team in an exclusive interview.
“Maxwell wasn’t the kind of guy who just sort of fell into the water because he was standing in the back of the boat.”
So, who did it?
Dillon points to evidence that he claims is clear: “The evidence that Maxwell was working with Mossad is the evidence of people like Rafi Eitan. Rafi Eitan was one of the most famous of all the Mossad agents, so he went on the record to say that Maxwell was an agent—much against the wishes of his former colleagues at Mossad, but he did. And he wasn’t the only one. We had some very, very important people make the same claims. Since our book was published, other people have come up with other evidence, and the British knew that Maxwell was working for the Mossad.”
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh also alleged in his book The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy that Maxwell was tied to the Israeli Mossad. Hersh was sued for the allegation, but later received an apology.
Even more convincingly, files from the British Foreign Office released in 2003 reveal that British intelligence had reason to believe Maxwell was a spy. In a file titled “Captain Ian Maxwell,” a British intelligence officer called the boorish publishing baron “a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia.”
Intelligence officer Digby Ackland wrote in one 1959 report, “Capt. Maxwell’s questionable activities have been brought to the notice of the Foreign Office on several occasions over the past 10 years.”
Maxwell’s son Kevin denied that the reports were legit, but Maxwell family friend Laura Goldman insists that the mogul was a double or even triple agent.
“Robert Maxwell traveled in very rarefied circles. He had information about government ministers, about scientific discoveries, about Internet and data information. I think that was valuable to many governments,” she told Marc Lupo, a reporter who worked with these authors on Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales. “My feeling is that he probably was an agent to the Russians, the Israelis, and the British. I believe that Ghislaine continued his work.”
According to Dillon’s sources, that’s a valid belief.
“If I was running Mossad operations I would want Ghislaine Maxwell on my payroll,” he said. “I would want her working for us, because she has access to the kind of people whose views are very important in terms of the way in which the world functions.”
Soon, Epstein was part of the mix as well. (By 2004, documents obtained by this team reveal, he was the custodian of correspondence and files belonging to Robert Maxwell, which were stored at his Palm Beach home.)
Although it has been reported that he first encountered Ghislaine after her father’s death in New York, one insider—a former high-ranking official for the organization that is said to have killed Maxwell—has insisted their connection came far earlier.
Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy and alleged “handler” of Robert Maxwell, said of Epstein: “Maxwell introduced him to us, and he wanted us to accept him as part of our group.”
Ben-Menashe claimed that Epstein and Ghislaine were already dating in the late 1980s, and that Maxwell Senior grew fond of the young upstart.
“Epstein was hanging around with Robert Maxwell and the daughter was hanging around there too, and that’s how they met,” he told our team’s James Robertson in an interview from Montreal. “Just two young souls, they met.”
“Maxwell sort of started liking him, and my theory is that Maxwell felt that this guy is going for his daughter,” Ben-Menashe said. “He felt that he could bless him with some work and help him out in like a paternal [way].”
According to the former spy, the ultimate order to embrace Epstein and involve him in the ongoing arms deals came from “the bosses” at Israeli intelligence headquarters.
“They were agents of the Israeli Intelligence Services,” he told Robertson.
“Later on [Ghislaine] got involved with Israeli intelligence together with him. But not in this arms deal with Iran business,” Ben-Menashe also told Zev Shalev, former CBS News executive producer and investigative journalist for the website Narativ.
“These guys were seen as agents. They weren’t really competent to do very much. And so they found a niche for themselves—blackmailing American and other political figures.”
In closing, Ben-Menashe told Robertson, “Mr. Epstein was the simple idiot who was going around providing girls to all kinds of politicians in the United States. See, fucking around is not a crime. It could be embarrassing, but it’s not a crime. But fucking a fourteen-year-old girl is a crime. And he was taking photos of politicians fucking fourteen-year-old girls—if you want to get it straight. They would just blackmail people, they would just blackmail people like that.”
Even in the early years, the Maxwells surrounded themselves with bold-faced names.
Two years before media magnate Maxwell fell to his death from the Lady Ghislaine, he made Donald Trump the guest of honor at a May 1989 bash, we were able to confirm. Also present was Maxwell’s cherished daughter Ghislaine.
Did the men compare super-yachts? Maxwell had bought his from Saudi Arabia’s Khashoggi family: the relatives of arms dealer Adnan. Trump, meanwhile, had purchased his from Adnan directly—a purchase that was reported the very same year as the Maxwell party, 1989, in The Superyachts by Boat International.
Perhaps taking a cue from Maxwell, Trump named his yacht after his daughter as well: Trump Princess. Daughter Ivanka was then just eight years of age.
For Trump, the purchase was a strange one. “I’m not into [boats],” he once said. “I’ve been on friends’ boats before and couldn’t get off fast enough.”
So why make the purchase for nearly $30 million? Whatever the reason, it linked Trump to two of the most powerful—and dangerous—men in the world: Maxwell and Khashoggi. Later, those same connections would lead Trump down a shady path to Epstein.
The Maxwell family’s connections were just as strong across the political divide.
According to a 1992 New York Times article, then-Governor Bill Clinton’s close friend Howard Paster moved from Clinton’s gubernatorial campaign to become the head of Hill and Knowlton, a publicity firm representing Maxwell’s firm, Maxwell Communication P.L.C. Other clients of Hill & Knowlton included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Adnan Khashoggi, and the controversial Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Ghislaine would later become close friends with the Clinton family, working in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative, vacationing on a yacht with Chelsea Clinton in 2009—and even appearing as a guest of honor at Chelsea’s 2010 wedding to Marc Mezvinsky.
Had Ghislaine and her father established themselves as Epstein’s handlers in order to blackmail prominent Americans, including the Clintons?
In the meantime, Ghislaine and Epstein had their eyes on even more targets.
CHAPTER 5
THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK AND THE LOLITA EXPRESS
“People think intelligence is just about tracking down terrorists, but if you could get into the company of people, former presidents, people who are working on some of the newest software and scientific developments. . . . That’s what intelligence really is.”
—Espionage expert Martin Dillon
When Robert Maxwell died in 1991, Ghislaine hopped a plane and moved to Manhattan. Many people we spoke to believe she was ready to continue her father’s legacy. Guaranteed $100,000 a year from her father’s trust for the rest of her life, she found easy entrée into Manhattan society and was soon rubbing shoulders with billionaires and beauties in the City of Big Shots. So much so, Maxwell family friend Laura Goldman said that Ghislaine made social climbing her full-time job.
In the nineties, I spent a lot of time in New York, and I met Ghislaine Maxwell at
several parties, openings. Basically, if there was an opening, she was there. She is one of the most intelligent people I met. She’s lively, energetic.
I never quite understood what she did for a living, or if she did anything for a living. But she was a nice person.
What people don’t understand about the Maxwells, though, is they’re very Upstairs, Downstairs. If you’ve seen Downton Abbey or other British dramas, they’re very upstairs and there’s a big separation. I really think she was raised not to worry about the other people. They were a means to an end.
Ghislaine saw something of value, however, in Jeffrey Epstein.
Said Goldman, “Ghislaine Maxwell was nice to every lady in the room. But she only had eyes for one person, and that was Jeffrey.”
I think it’s kind of apparent that they’re kindred souls. I believe that they definitely slept together, I just don’t believe they really dated. I think that the connection between them was that he had the cash and she had the connections.
Most of what I know about Ghislaine’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein came from her sister Isabel. Isabel really thought that her sister couldn’t quit him, could not quit Jeffrey Epstein. She loved him and wanted to marry him.
When you’re someone who’s dealt with abuse, you always think if you do one more thing right, that person will marry you, love you, and whatever. He wasn’t going to do that. But I really believe that she loved him, she cared for him, and wanted to marry him—and would do anything to make that happen.
Just how far would Ghislaine go?
Seemingly overnight, Ghislaine became Epstein’s closest confidante, best friend, and, eventually, something more. Meanwhile, Epstein’s new relationship with the European heiress drew the attention of the movers and shakers in the kingdoms of New York and Palm Beach.
With Ghislaine by his side, Epstein had his passport to a whole new world. Now no longer just another flashy Wall Street nouveau riche hopeful, he was beginning to be seen as a serious player with serious influence.
Under Ghislaine’s guiding hand, Epstein threw lavish dinner parties with exclusive guest lists at his Upper East Side mansion, and more raucous affairs at his Palm Beach mansion. At first, the purpose of these early dalliances was to win friends and business connections. But darker elements were bubbling beneath the surface.
While Ghislaine and Jeffrey posed happily for the cameras at exclusive events, they went even further to cultivate an inglorious secret social set behind closed doors—on Epstein’s private jet, later known as the Lolita Express.
A three-engine 727 jetliner, the Lolita Express was actually a commercial liner retrofitted for personal use. Photos of the interior suggest what kind of use Epstein had in mind.
Plush and carpeted on almost every surface, the jet looked more like a 1970s adult film set than a mode of transportation, as our exclusive photo insert shows.
Rather than individual seats, banquettes lined the wall or curved together in cozy semicircles. The floor was padded.
In the back, there was a suite with a bed and secret shower.
The jet could host twenty-nine people comfortably, but Epstein and Maxwell more frequently hosted intimate affairs in the sky.
Flight logs we obtained in 2015 read like a who’s who of early 1990s society. From Hollywood, there were actors Kevin Spacey, comedian Chris Tucker, actor Ralph Fiennes, magician David Blaine, singers Jimmy Buffet and Courtney Love. Media moguls Charlie Rose and Bill Wallace make an appearance. From the world of tech, Bill Gates. Political leaders such as Tony Blair, Ehud Barak, and conservative scion David Koch.
Then, there was President Bill Clinton.
Clinton is never named in Epstein’s little black book of contacts, although his close friend and counselor Doug Band is, along with a listing for “42.” (Clinton was the forty-second president.)
In the flight logs for Epstein’s Lolita Express, however, there was no such obfuscation. According to the logs, Clinton first hitchhiked on Epstein’s infamous Lolita Express in February 2002. They were joined by Ghislaine, her “assistant” Sarah Kellen, four members of the Secret Service, and five people identified only as “male,” “female,” or by their initials.
According to the three-letter airport designations in the documents, the private jet flew from Miami International Airport to Westchester County Airport in New York State, where the Clintons have lived since 1999. On paper, it seems like an innocuous trip made by powerful men accustomed to brokering political and financial deals in unusual settings. But that notion changes when put into context.
President Clinton has claimed that he only traveled on Epstein’s Lolita Express on four occasions.
Epstein and Clinton actually buddied up for six trips between 2002 and 2003, to Europe, Africa, and Asia. On their “humanitarian trips” to Africa, Clinton went without his usual security detail, and without chaperones. The men, it seemed, had hit it off.
“Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of 21st century science,” Clinton said at the time, oozing his trademark characteristic sincerity. “I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/AIDS.”
Although Clinton referred to a single “trip” in his statement, in truth, they flew on Epstein’s jet thirteen times during that eight-day overseas outing. What’s more, they were routinely joined by controversial characters, like Hollywood actor—and accused pedophile—Kevin Spacey, who joined them on three of those flights, and Epstein’s “personal massage therapist” Chauntae Davis, who got onboard in Cape Town and flew with them to Paris. Davis has since come forward with tales of Epstein’s sexual abuse. (Spacey has denied all allegations of impropriety against him.)
“On almost every trip that I did go on, there were young girls around,” Davis claimed.
In total, Clinton actually made twenty-seven trips with soon-to-be registered sex offender Epstein.
Clinton’s press secretary would later insist that all of their flights were taken “in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation” and that every leg included the applicable staff, foundation supporters and members of the secret service. Clinton denied that he ever knew of anything untoward happening on board.
At least one person, however, was suspicious. Cameron Humphries was director of the Santa Fe airport, just miles from the 10,000-acre Zorro Ranch, which Epstein purchased in 1993. He told reporter Katy Forrester, who collaborated on this book, that many people suspected how the Lolita Express had earned its name.
“When I was the manager there, it wasn’t unusual to see large private aircraft flying. You know, Santa Fe is a destination, and a lot of people fly in with a private aircraft,” Humphries said.
He continued:
What is unusual is to have somebody fly in with a large commercial type of aircraft that’s been converted into their own private aircraft. I remember distinctly one afternoon there was a 737 that was sitting on a ramp. It was obviously a private aircraft and I was just curious, and so I asked one of the employees from the fixed base operator there.
A fixed base operator is a company that handles private aircraft instead of the commercial aircraft. They take care of the fueling and all of that. I asked one of the employees if they knew who owned it, and they had said “Jeffrey Epstein,” and I had never heard the name before. This employee said, you know, “There’s a rumor that he has a ranch here in New Mexico and that he flies in prostitutes. Some of them may not be of age of consent.” Young girls was kind of the implication. He made it clear to me that it was a rumor, but I was really just appalled by this idea, if it were true.
I didn’t know anything about him. I’d never heard the name before, so I didn’t know if he’d been in prison or not or whatever, but I was so appalled by this idea that I called our airport law enforcement liaison officer and I s
aid, “Hey listen, this is just a rumor, but there’s this guy named Jeffrey Epstein that flew his private aircraft in, and apparently he’s also flying in underage women to his ranch.” I didn’t know the guy, I’d never met him before, but you know, I was just so upset about this idea of this man flying around the country with that kind of impunity that I felt like I needed to tell somebody, so I reached out to our law enforcement officer.
He said that he had heard the rumors as well, and that it was his understanding that there was a federal investigation ongoing. That there was probably not much that they could do locally, but that he would certainly report it up. That was kind of the end of it for me, you know? After reporting it, knowing that that at least I had said something. I’ll tell you, it was frustrating because it’s a bit of a black hole, right? You report it, and then what?
The rumors were out there, so people knew it. And not only did people know it, there were people that were complicit in it. Why did it take so long?
Meanwhile, Epstein’s escapades were also starting to raise eyebrows on the East Coast.
There, his team of drivers questioned why he had so many young girls as passengers.
Speaking here for the first time in print, Epstein’s longtime chauffeur.
“I came forward in the hopes that I could help somebody, in the hopes that this doesn’t happen to somebody else, in the hopes that these girls that are now seeking justice could find something,” the chauffeur, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “My story may help, but I’m still afraid of what could happen.”
From 2001 to 2011, this professional driver made more than five hundred runs for Epstein, his girls, and his associates.
“Back then, before 9/11, we used to actually pull up to the plane,” the chauffeur recalled. “There were times when you’d have five cars outside of the plane and he would get in one and Ms. Maxwell and the girls would get in another, and then people I didn’t recognize would get in other cars because it just seemed like he wanted to keep everybody separated.”