Biggest Winner in "Fuhgedaboud Epstein" Push.

[Kid Berwyn]

His dad hired Epstein.

[leftstreet]

1. He needs to put a stem cap on that forehead valve

[Kid Berwyn]

3. If he drives a Beemer, it's gonna cost him an arm and a leg.

Of course, Uncle Sam will be invoiced for the work, Capitalism’s Invisible Army and all.

Bill Barr: The “Cover-Up General”

"At the center of the criticism is the chief artic­ulator of Bush's imperial presidency," we reported in 1992, "the man who wrote the legal rationale for the Gulf War, the Panama invasion, and the officially sanctioned kidnapping of foreign nationals abroad"

by FRANK SNEPP
The Village Voice, APRIL 18, 2019

Snip...

For the next two years, as chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Coun­sel, Barr played a key role in shaping Rich­ard Thornburgh’s stormy tenure as attorney general. In a job that was essentially politi­cal, he helped maintain the administra­tion’s ideological purity by screening out judicial candidates who weren’t conserva­tive enough. He also drafted two key docu­ments rationalizing the U.S. invasion of Panama and the seizure of General Manuel Noriega.

Snip...

In mid 1990, as Thornburgh’s own prob­lems with Congress deepened, Barr was tapped to run interference, and was named deputy attorney general. The appointment came just in time for him to draft another landmark tract for the administration, the legal pretext for the undeclared war against Iraq. It would have made any Nixonite proud. Explaining it later to Congress, Barr said he believed there was a “gray zone” between a declared offensive war and an emergency defensive action where “there is latitude for the president, if he believes that the vital interests of the United States are threatened by foreign military attack, there is room for him to respond.”

Barr did not make clear how the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait equaled an attack on vital American interests, but to his credit, at the moment of decision itself, he did counsel the president to soften the impact of his unilateral rush to war by seeking a declaration of congressional support. That piece of advice, much akin to Johnson’s leveraging of the Tonkin Gulf resolution, helped to keep the naysayers at bay.

Barr’s service to the administration, how­ever, wasn’t limited simply to such flashes of political savvy. In 1991 he became active in stone-walling the Iraqgate and the BCCI investigations and further gratified conser­vatives by keeping up the tattoo on their favorite hot-button issues. Embracing im­migration policy as his own, he helped craft an exception rule that automatically barred HIV-positive sufferers from entering the country. Civil libertarians charged illegal discrimination and even racism, since many of those excluded were black Hai­tians. Barr assured Congress that the policy was meant only to keep out people who might be thrown back on public welfare.

Flogging another conservative hobby­horse, Barr fought hard as deputy AG to keep federal courts from expanding their right to review state criminal convictions on writs of habeas corpus. As a devout Catholic, he also pandered to the antiabor­tion crowd, even “torquing” the law in Au­gust 1991 to advance their crusade. The challenge came when a federal judge in Wichita issued an order barring anti-abor­tion demonstrators from blocking access to a clinic. The Justice Department inter­vened to try to force a lifting of the ban. Later asked about this by Congress, Barr gave an exquisitely technical rationale, as­serting that though the demonstrators were “lawbreakers . . . treading on other people’s rights,” they “should be dealt with” in state court, not federal court — thus the federal judge’s order was unenforceable.

Continues...

https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/04/18/attorney-general-william-barr-is-the-best-reason-to-vote-for-clinton/

After all, we’re not Communists. We just work for them.

[Scotch-Irish]

2. If there was a truly dedicated journalist, there is so much left to uncover in the Epstein debacle.

I have no doubt that tRump was trafficking with Epstein: it came out early on that Epstein had more entries in his address book for tRump than for any of the other contacts in his book. And when tRump appointed Alex Acosta to be head of Labor, all of a sudden all these young children are disappearing from the border patrol concentration camps.

What a coincidence!

Barr, Guilliani, Lindsay Graham, and McConnell, and no doubt Hannity, are all likely dodging being exposed if they don't stay in line, is my guess. I have no doubt Putin has a video of tRump. Years ago Rush Limpballs was busted renting out little boys orphaned in ....I can't remember now; it was either Dominican Republic or Haiti. It's the republican way.

[jberryhill]

4. Wow

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article221957120.html

Besides sorting through volumes of court documents, the Herald also began the process of trying to locate Epstein’s victims — most of whom were labeled in court documents as Jane Does in order to protect their identities as minors. Reporter Julie K. Brown was able to identify about 80 possible victims, now in their late 20s and early 30s. She located about 60 of them who live around the country and abroad. Eight were willing to talk about the case — four of them on the record. Many of the women said they had never told anyone of the abuse because they were too ashamed and already felt that the criminal justice system had failed them.

The Herald then set about obtaining 10 years of public records connected to the Epstein criminal cases. These included the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office files, the Palm Beach police files, and records from the Florida Department of Corrections, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

More at link... but, yeah, screw those lazy Miami Herald reporters!

[Scotch-Irish]

5. I stand corrected!

Thanks.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Nothing to correct. The Miami Herald WAS ALONE.

Not fake news. US media - with one star exception - whitewashed the Jeffrey Epstein story.

Jeffrey Epstein: how US media – with one star exception – whitewashed the story

The Miami Herald exposed a vast criminal network and a government cover-up – but why the silence elsewhere?

Ed Pilkington
The Guardian, July 19, 2019

EXCERPT...

Reiter warned Brown what would happen were she to continue digging: “Somebody’s going to call your publisher and the next thing you know you are going to be assigned to the obituaries department.”

Brown did not heed his warning. She flung herself at the investigation and eventually persuaded Reiter to go on record. Her resulting, award-winning three-part series last November exposed a vast operation in which 80 potential victims were identified, some as young as 13 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. She persuaded eight to tell their stories.

Brown also exposed a government cover-up in which Epstein got away with an exceptionally light sentence that saw him serve only 13 months in jail. She discovered that a “non-prosecution agreement” had been negotiated secretly in 2008 by the then top federal prosecutor in Miami, Alexander Acosta, that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution.

In 2017, Acosta was appointed by Donald Trump as labor secretary, a post that ironically is responsible for combating sex trafficking.

CONTINUES...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/13/jeffrey-epstein-alex-acosta-miami-herald-media

We likely wouldn’t know squat about Epstein & Associates without the Miami Herald.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. should be a statue of Julie Brown at every university that teaches journalism

[Kid Berwyn]

11. I bet trust funds to donuts that is the reason they are in J School.

They upon graduation are sore surprised to discover their few corporate employers are only in it for the money.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Another Trump Cabinet member tied to Epstein: MNUCHIN

Seems to be a pattern: Epstein-Trump-Barr-Acosta and now Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.

Steven Mnuchin’s Mysterious Link to Creepy Epstein Model Scout

The Treasury secretary’s name shows up on official records for a company formed in the 1980s by Jeffrey Epstein’s close friend, the model scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Emily Shugerman
Daily Beast, Gender Reporter, Updated 09.16.19 7:57AM ET, Published 09.15.19

In the late 1980s—before he was a member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, or even a high-rolling hedge-fund manager—Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin served in an official capacity for a business run by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most infamous associates.

In official records, Mnuchin is listed as the official state point of contact for Next Management Corporation, a company formed in 1988 by modeling-industry insiders Jean-Luc Brunel and Arnaud Brunel. At the time, Jean-Luc Brunel had just been the subject of a 60 Minutes documentary accusing him of drugging and raping at least three models. Later, he would be accused by two women of supplying girls to Epstein to be sexually abused. (Brunel has denied the allegations.)

Records accessed by The Daily Beast list Mnuchin as the New York Department of State process for Next Management Corporation. According to department officials, the DOS process is the person who files a company’s registration papers and receives lawsuits and other official documents on their behalf—usually a lawyer or some other legal representative.

Snip...

Mnuchin’s office did confirm that he was longtime friends with Faith Kates, the owner of the Next modeling agency. The Brunel brothers co-founded the Next agency with Kates in 1989, and their company, Next Management Corp., owned a 25 percent stake in the agency for several years. The address listed under Mnuchin’s name in the state department records is the first address for Kates’ company, Next Management Company.

Continues...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/steven-mnuchins-mysterious-link-to-creepy-epstein-model-scout-jean-luc-brunel?ref=scroll

Exactly, Scotch-Irish. Trump and his crew bigly tie to the sexual exploitation of minors. Flushbo took Viagra to the Dominican Republic.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/rush-limbaughs-dominican-stag-party

[Scotch-Irish]

8. I should've known. Mnuchin.Yuck!

There is no projection like the projection of the republicans. They talk about "draining the swamp". They are the slimeballs that make the swamp what it is.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Toss in Alexander Acosta, then-Secretary of Labor

As such, Alex was in charge of investigating sex trafficking of minors. Which makes it odd to see he asked to slash that budget by 80%.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/09/labor-secretary-alexander-acosta-sex-trafficking-budget-cut

When serving as a US Attorney, former Secretary of Labor Acosta arranged a most lenient plea deal that served to protect child sexual predator Epstein from his accusers and justice.

https://www.vox.com/2019/7/10/20689416/jeffrey-epstein-alexander-acosta-labor-secretary-deal