Epstein

by Dylan Howard

  “We now know through reporting that at least two cameras were sent to the FBI crime lab because they were supposedly broken or not working correctly. You couldn’t write it better in a crime novel, it just doesn’t make sense. A lot of it doesn’t make sense.

  “It doesn’t make sense how he was taken off a suicide watch. It doesn’t make sense that his one cellmate that he had, that could have possibly prevented anything like this or been witness to something like this, was moved out just a day before the incident occurs.

  “It doesn’t make sense that two guards that are supposed to be watching him are supposedly sleeping and just gone for hours. None of it makes sense.

  “I question, number one, most importantly, is it true? Did he somehow pull off a Houdini and somehow just disappear despite all of the reporting and despite all of the evidence that came out and despite all the information that’s out there?

  “Second, I question . . . who got paid? Because someone clearly, likely got paid off. Someone, somewhere has got some secret account offshore that has a lot of money in it now, that didn’t before he was dead. . . . whether someone actually took him out so that he couldn’t talk, so that he couldn’t tell stories that he knew about people who are powerful, rich, famous, royalty, whatever it may be, we’ll never know.

  “Unless, of course, there are some videos somewhere, again, that exist, that are in the hands of the federal government or the FBI of what happened inside that jail on that morning.

  EPSTEIN FRIEND, ATTORNEY DAVID SCHOEN: “I also don’t believe it was suicide. I don’t believe conspiracy theories either, but I don’t believe suicide for several reasons.”

  Interview after interview, we heard the most respected minds in the country attest that Epstein’s death could not have been a suicide. Except, that is, for one: Epstein’s former attorney and friend Alan Dershowitz.

  We asked Dershowitz point-blank: “Do you believe these conspiracy theories that somebody else came in and killed him?”

  Dershowitz was unequivocal in his response:

  I’m not a conspiracy person. . . . The simplest, most obvious explanation is that he decided he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison. He didn’t think he was going to have a fair shot, and decided to take his own life.

  I think it would’ve been virtually impossible for anybody to get into the prison. If he had been with a cellmate, that might be different. But alone in the prison, locked door, even with sleeping guards, I think the most likely explanation is the most obvious one, that he tried to kill himself and then ultimately succeeded.

  Even Dershowitz, however, had one caveat: “I think you should always second-guess any governmental investigation. I don’t think they’re going to find anything very different about the cause of death. I think that an investigation might, however, find some things about the circumstances that would allow him to take his own life.”

  When it comes to the circumstances of Epstein’s death, the incident bears a striking similarity to the notorious death of one of the twenty-first century’s most famous Mossad agents.

  Ben Zygier was born in Australia in 1976, and reportedly became an agent of the Mossad in the early 2000s, when he was working as a businessman in the Middle East. In early 2010, it was reported that he had been imprisoned in Israel for threatening to expose other Mossad agents. The conditions of his confinement were so secretive that he was known simply as “Mr. X” to guards.

  By the end of that year, Mr. X was dead, via “suicide.” Like Epstein, Zygier had met with his attorneys shortly before his death, and was said to be in good spirits at the time. Despite a history of suicide attempts, he had been placed in a cell that was not suicide-proof, and had no cellmate. Supposedly, he used his sheet to tie a noose to the bars of his window, and killed himself by leaning forward. Members of the rescue crew claimed he had been able to do it out of view of the security cameras that swept his cell.

  Amid public outcry following his death, an Israeli judge conducted an investigation and found “orders had been given to prevent suicide” and “these were not upheld.” The judge also found strange bruises on Zygier’s body and traces of a tranquilizer drug in his system. She ultimately concluded that she “could not rule out the intervention of another person who intentionally caused his death.”

  At the end of it all, the Israeli government reportedly paid his family $1 million.

  Despite rumors that Epstein’s death may have been a hit by the Mossad, the method of his death does not seem to carry the fingerprints of Israel’s secret security force, which tends to prefer simple shootings. In the list of confirmed Israeli assassinations since 1970, there is not one incident of strangulation. (The Israeli government has a policy stating that targeted killings are legal.)

  What about other killer spies? The Kremlin obviously seems to prefer poisoning. The MI6 claims they do not carry out assassinations at all—a lie. The only nation with a history of mysterious deaths by strangulation is one heavily linked to Epstein: Saudi Arabia.

  At the time of this writing, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi—strangled by a Saudi hit squad in an Istanbul embassy—still dominates the headlines. But it isn’t the first scandalous Saudi strangling.

  We have uncovered that way back in 1986, a Saudi Royal Family relative was found strangled to death in a hotel room across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. An AP report at the time said police “had established no suspects or motives in the slaying.”

  In February 2010, Saudi Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison after strangling his aide to death in a hotel room. In 2013, he was flown back to Saudi Arabia, where it was said that he would serve out the rest of his sentence.

  In 2011, well-known Shia spiritual leader Usama Al-Atar claimed he had been strangled nearly to death in prison after his arrest while making a hajj pilgrimage to Medina. Insisting his arrest had been motivated by religious extremism, the Canadian citizen was later freed when his government intervened.

  Epstein’s links to Saudi Arabia during his time as an arms trader in the 1980s and early 1990s—led by Iran Contra kingpin Adnan Khashoggi—are beyond dispute. But new reporting has placed him in Riyadh even more recently.

  Flight data obtained by this investigative team shows that just hours before the United States 2016 election that would elect President Donald J. Trump, Epstein’s jet flew from Paris to Riyadh, where it landed at 6:35 p.m. local time.

  Two days later, at 3:47 p.m. local time on November 9, the same aircraft departed the Saudi capital, flying in the opposite direction back to Paris. At the time, it would have been 8:47 a.m. in New York—not long before Hillary Clinton would concede to Trump.

  Epstein’s friend and colleague, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, was in Riyadh at the time. (Epstein kept a personal photo of him in his Manhattan home.)

  Also in Riyadh over that period was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who met with MBS and advisers on November 9.

  Epstein and Bezos were already acquaintances, having both attended the Edge foundation “billionaire’s dinner” in 2011 and 2014, years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting underage prostitution.

  It’s unclear if Epstein met with any of the men, or what he might have said. What aspect of the Trump/Clinton election would have necessitated an unusual quickie trip to Riyadh?

  What’s more, what aspect of Trump’s unthinkable win made it possible for Epstein to return to Paris?

  If Clinton had been elected, would he have stayed in Saudi Arabia? He did have a fake passport listing his residence as in the Middle Eastern country.

  Was Epstein afraid of the Clintons in the years before his arrest and death?

  Or someone else?

  CHAPTER 15

  ONCE UPON A TIME IN RUSSIA

  In the hours and days following the announcement of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, people across America were watching closely for reports about what exactly had happened.
So, it seems, was the Kremlin, also known as the lair of President Vladimir Putin.

  As the news broke, many social media accounts confirmed to be Russian bots began actively promoting salacious and bizarre conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death. The Russian state television channel, RT, led off one nightly broadcast with some of the more outrageous claims. Even President Trump got in on the action, retweeting a post from conservative commentator Terrence K. Williams that read:

  Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH? Yeah right! How does that happen#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead

  I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!

  RT if you’re not Surprised#EpsteinSuicide #ClintonBodyCount #ClintonCrimeFamily

  Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, confirmed that Russian bots and trolls were actively promoting such outlandish theories.

  “The immediate rush to spread conspiracy theories about someone on the ‘other side’ of partisan divide having him killed illustrates why our society is so vulnerable to foreign disinformation and influence efforts,” Rubio tweeted.

  “It’s sad (and frightening) to see so many Americans on both sides . . . unwittingly helping them,” he continued, adding that Putin “has weaponized our polarization.”

  But why would Putin have a stake in promoting conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death?

  In one interpretation, it could have been a simple smoke screen, meant to obscure the truth. In another, it could have been a deterrent aimed at anyone asking further questions about the nature of his death.

  Who would publicly question the official suicide story when it would mean being lumped in with a bunch of Kremlin bots? Having the courage to do so might require some additional assurance, some inside proof.

  John Mark Dougan, a former Palm Beach County Deputy Sheriff, told our team that he’s certain Epstein was murdered—and he knows why.

  “I don’t believe for one minute it was suicide,” he said.

  The world’s intelligence agencies couldn’t risk the chance of Epstein’s blackmail files ever going public, Dougan claims. Those files are explosive, and he knows. Because he has them.

  Dougan served as a Deputy Sheriff in Palm Beach at the time Epstein was in prison after securing his secret plea deal. Now, he lives in Russia, where he has been granted political asylum.

  Epstein’s prison time “was an absolute shitshow,” Dougan told author James Robertson from the dark streets of Moscow. “I’ll tell you why. He was able to leave jail basically anytime he wanted. Right? This is really unheard of.

  “But he was able to leave jail as long as he had two deputies go with him on an overtime detail. They were paid as an overtime detail. Now, overtime detail, this is Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, by contract are selected out of a random pool. This was different. These deputies that would go with him were handpicked by the sheriff. And there were guys specifically who would look the other way while he was bringing underage girls into his office and into his home. Unbelievable.”

  Palm Beach Police Detective Joseph Recarey had run the initial investigation into Epstein’s crimes. But once in prison, the case was under the jurisdiction of the Sheriffs. Dougan says Recarey gave him full access to everything he knew about the infamous inmate.

  “We basically had the entire case file,” he said. According to Dougan, Recarey also gave him materials that were not in the “official” filings as well.

  When asked if he was aware of any blackmail tapes made by Epstein, Dougan was unequivocal:

  Absolutely. They weren’t tapes so much as DVDs. I don’t know if these were footages or not, but every bedroom in Epstein’s houses had multiple cameras in them.

  He used to keep records of everybody. He used to store everything. So the Palm Beach Police Department, they knew that there were thousands and thousands of these DVDs. Except . . . Now, this is very interesting.

  When they went to search for them, they were gone.

  It’s not really a question of who would have had access. The question you should be asking is: Who had knowledge that the search was coming? And the answer to that is the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Because the State Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office, they’re the ones who have to take the warrants and take them in front of the judge to get them signed off. There were elements within these two organizations that didn’t want to see anything happen to Epstein.

  How far would Epstein’s protectors go to keep their prized asset safe?

  Joseph Recarey, the police officer who had original access to the blackmail files, died suddenly after a “brief illness” at the age of fifty in 2018.

  “It’s funny, because back in May when everything started to happen with Epstein again, when all the ruckus started to get raised again, he mysteriously died,” Dougan said. “I knew this guy, man. He was fit as a fiddle. He was fifty years old. And he died of a sudden illness. That’s what they wrote. ‘He died of a sudden illness.’ It was unexplained.”

  Two years before, Dougan had fled for Russia, taking his own tranche of the tapes with him. He still has them today. Encrypted. Hidden.

  “Do I think that Epstein was probably put up to getting some wealthy people to sleep with some underage women so those people could be blackmailed by Western intelligence agencies? Absolutely I do,” he said.

  Among those targets, Dougan claims, was Prince Andrew. A September 2019 report in Britain’s Times of London revealed that the MI6 were “concerned that Russia may have obtained kompromat, compromising material, on Prince Andrew.”

  Dougan insisted to our team that he is not a Russian asset. But in any case, the Kremlin is likely very happy to have the Epstein blackmail files within their borders.

  After the claims about Prince Andrew surfaced, Dougan released the following statement:

  Although we worked in different law enforcement agencies, former Town of Palm Beach Police Department Detective Joe Recarey, who was the lead detective on the solicitation-of-minors case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, was a friend. I was shocked, as were family and friends, to learn of his unexpected death at age 50 just over a year ago.

  Joe Recarey was very aware of my efforts to uncover breaches of public trust by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office via my award-winning investigative website. In late 2009 or early 2010, Joe asked me to scan all the documents as well as copy hundreds of DVD disks he had on the Jeffrey Epstein case to keep them safe. He had lost faith in Barry Krischer, the Palm Beach County state’s attorney at the time of the investigation. I would meet with him occasionally to get more documents to store, the last time being in 2015.

  I have never looked at what was given to me by Joe Recarey, other than the file names, types, and sizes. The FBI seized my computers in 2016 which had everything Recarey gave me. The FBI and other intelligence agencies may be surprised to have discovered that I kept an off-site backup that was sent to me in 2017, after I was safely established in Russia.

  According to news reports, US intelligence agencies apparently analyzed the files and communicated with British authorities. If Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, has concerns about any ties between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, they got it from their Washington counterparts, not me.

  Of course, this means the FBI has seen everything and has more knowledge of the contents than I do because it was not my business to look deep into the files: I was simply acting as Joe Recarey’s computer “safety deposit box.” It also means that the FBI has the same exact data that I possess and are in a position to know everyone who is implicated in the videos, recordings, and documents. If media reports are accurate, it seems the FBI has knowledge that Epstein files involve Prince Andrew in some manner, since they made it a point to contact MI6 and warn them.

  The Epstein data is encrypted in a TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt container and has been given to a few p
eople. They cannot look at the contents because they do not have the decryption keys. Others have the decryption keys, but they do not have access to the encrypted containers. My contacts are on five continents and do not know each other. The Epstein files stay secure and unreadable to everyone. I do not have a physical copy in my immediate possession, because of security reasons.

  This is to make sure my family and friends remain safe. I have made arrangements that it can only be decrypted in the event of my arrest, if I go missing for an extended time, or in case of my unusual or untimely demise. I have a system in place to connect people with the encrypted containers to those who have the decryption keys.

  I have made elaborate security precautions because of ongoing legal issues, threats, and harassment. The FBI has tried to arrest me twice since I’ve been in Moscow by pushing Interpol via a sealed indictment. Both times they failed. Last year, the FBI sent 10 agents and Federal Marshals to a US company that I do contract work for, unsuccessfully trying to intimidate them.

  I will not be divulging any of the information I may know of or possess, because the secrecy of the data I have access ensures the safety of me and my loved ones. I hope the growing concerns and reports about Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex-trafficking empire, and his relationship with the rich and powerful people like the Duke of York, will generate official and news media investigations which will uncover all the facts.

  Not long after releasing that statement, Dougan took matters into his own hands, inviting journalist Ron Chepesiuk to review the materials and confirm their existence. A longtime friend of Dougan, Chepesiuk flew to Moscow on September 24, 2019.

  There, according to Chepesiuk, Dougan cracked open the Epstein blackmail files for the very first time.

  “He just wanted to verify,” Chepesiuk told our team. “He suggested it and I said, ‘It’s to verify that they have something there.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to show it to you long.’”