Yesterday afternoon, we talked with the veteran investigative journalist, editor, and author Vicky Ward, who has spent much of her career delving into the networks of power behind the politics of our era, about the Jeffrey Epstein emails and the Epstein class — that network of “transactional chancers,” who fly at 40,000 feet, uninterested in looking down on the rest of us. Ward has been on the Epstein beat since 2002 and was even threatened by him over her reporting for Vanity Fair on Annie and Maria Farmer, the first two women to file criminal complaints against Epstein. We talked to her about:
The mysterious origins of Epstein’s wealth and how he put together the Rolodex he inherited from Robert Maxwell, with an innate genius for manipulation, to build an empire
Why it’s impossible to separate Epstein’s sex crimes from his network of influence, and why those who looked the other way were acting out of deep-seated misogyny
What Epstein did to pressure the media to drop negative coverage — and why Ward, after publishing her profile of him, hired security guards to protect her newborn children
How Epstein’s typo-heavy messages weren’t a sign of stupidity, but part of his strategy of manipulation, telegraphing how busy he was to his clients even as he extended care and saw to their needs
And why, above all else, Donald Trump fears being exposed as just another rich guy who can look away from everything because he doesn’t care about anyone, which is why the Epstein story has vexed him like no other issue
You won’t want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.
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For more background, read Anand’s essay about the Epstein emails in this past weekend’s New York Times (or start with the excerpt at the link below).
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Join us today, Wednesday, November 26, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll meet with The Ink Book Club (and we’ll reveal our December pick).
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