Of all of the documents that have come out here, the strangest and most suggestive and in some way most revealing is the birthday book, which is 2003. So it’s prior to his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. But what is so remarkable about it and what makes it, will make it forever just incredible fodder — I want to say conspiracies, but there’s clearly something here, so I don’t mean that pejoratively, but you have some of the most powerful people in the world. And so many of these entries, these notes to Epstein, combine an extreme lewdness, a deep incaution, like, I’m surprised to see these people writing and talking this way, with a reference to mystery, secrets, something that cannot be told or shared. I want to read the one from Donald Trump, which is framed by an outline of a woman’s body. And I should note, Trump says this letter is fake. He denies signing it. But what appears to be Trump’s signature is a woman’s pubic hair. And it reads: “Voice-over. There must be more to life than having everything. Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is. Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is. Donald: We have certain things in common. Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it. Donald: Enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday. And may every day be another wonderful secret. Donald J. Trump.” What do you make of it? There’s been this whole attempt by people who were caught up in various levels and durations of friendship with Epstein, too. The only defense is “I didn’t know; I met him after this point.” Or “I only met him here.” I didn’t know. As you made the point with Tina Brown and others, there was enough to know. But what the birthday book shows — and you just read one, Donald Trump’s — but there was messages like this from various — a lot of people. And again, Republicans, Democrats, all kinds of people. And they were consistent. Exactly. They painted — one has to assume that on a technical level, everyone there knew different facts and different amounts of things. And yet if you were to read them as a text together, then it’s a book. There’s a cloud of common sense about who this guy is. That’s what’s so interesting. It’s contained in that. And maybe it is a coincidence that they all talk about him and women. Maybe he was equally interested in classical music and they all just forgot to mention it. Maybe when Donald Trump talks about enigmas never aging, maybe it had nothing to do with the age of girls. Maybe, could be. I don’t believe that. But sure, possible. You have to really strain yourself to argue that the people around him in these financial, political, legal, academic and other institutions shouldn’t have known better than to consort with and enable him. And fast-forward to years later, when he’s convicted in 2008, and then after that time he comes back and tries to rehabilitate himself and these friends who, if they had access to Google, as you and I did in 2009, had reason to know who he was. These stories are developing, and I really want to stress this. They’re not just failing to vet someone properly; they’re befriending him or sustaining friendships with him. They’re allowiug him to give to their university. They’re allowing him into these worlds, enabled future predation. This was not only about what had happened before that. Getting the reputational stink off allowed him, made it easier for him to move through the world and do it again and do it more. And I think that this was not about an earlier phase of criminality. And then some reputational cleansing after the reputational cleanse allowed this to keep going.
