# Will Jeffrey Epstein's "friends" face justice?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 4, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242 "2020-08-04T11:49:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2020, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/21 "2020-08-05T12:39:19Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> I mean, if there were tapes and they did come out in court, I imagine that there would be a lot of lawyering done about who those people are, and if it’s not 100% conclusive, they’d argue that it’s another of-age girl, or that it’s not actually , but someone who merely looks like him. Or that the tape wasn’t actually from 2001, or whatever.
>
> It seems to me that in order to get as ironclad of a court case as the prosecution would need in order to not make a deal, they’d have to have all those ducks in a row- who, where, and when would have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Which seems like a tall order to me.
In some ways, having it all come out in court would be halfway justice. These are powerful people, and one would hope that those sorts of revelations would undermine that power. If the best case scenario is admitting “yes, I had sex with a lot of borderline legal girls in drug fuelled parties, but you can’t prove that the ones I slept with in particular were under 18”, well, I don’t think they’d consider that an absolute win.
And I think there is a really good chance that there is a lot more evidence than you’d think. I don’t think they were taking extraordinary steps to conceal their tracks because they didn’t think this was THAT bad. These girls were 15, 16, not 8. They were sorta trashy. They didn’t matter. So I think there will be more pictures and emails than what you would have gotten for something like securities fraud.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/22 "2020-08-05T16:48:28Z")
> [@griffin1977](#):
>
> This is not tin-foil-hat wearing conspiracy, its documented (in many cases documented in sworn court documents).
The conspiratorial part was the implication that rich people would get off because they’re rich, and that other mysterious rich people would pull invisible strings to make that happen, while a few unfortunates would take the fall for it, or that plea deals would be made that were somehow shady (again due to this conspiracy) and they’d avoid jail time.
I was pointing out that getting convictions _may_ end up difficult, based on what the prosecution will need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and that failing to jail these people in light of that hardly indicates anything fundamentally wrong with the system, just that circumstances were such that the prosecution didn’t have what they needed.
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### Author:  [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/23 "2020-08-05T18:13:39Z")
I’m frustrated by the reporting in this case. I want to know where Epstein got his money. I want to know what the scam was - pure blackmail or something more? I want to know exactly how it worked.
The salacious stuff is interesting and, well, salacious…but I love a good financial/ business crime. And no one seems particularly interested in that part.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/24 "2020-08-05T18:17:57Z")
I agree. That’s the really interesting thing to me here; how did someone become a literal billionaire and yet nobody has any real inkling of how that came to pass? It seems almost unbelievable. Certainly less believable than him having a sex-fiend lifestyle where he liked his girls young.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/25 "2020-08-05T18:25:05Z")
> **[Jeffrey Epstein | Financial consulting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein#Financial_consulting)**
>
> In August 1981, Epstein founded his own consulting firm, Intercontinental Assets Group Inc. (IAG), which assisted clients in recovering stolen money from fraudulent brokers and lawyers. Epstein described his work at this time as being a high-level bounty hunter. He told friends that he worked sometimes as a consultant for governments and the very wealthy to recover embezzled funds, while at other times he worked for clients who had embezzled funds. Spanish actress and heiress Ana Epstein also st...
He was a financier for billionaires, likely also laundering their $ and hiding it offshore.
We have plenty of “inklings”.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2020, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/26 "2020-08-06T10:21:09Z")
It boils down to : **"Does the DA’s Office have the budget to successfully prosecute Billionaires?"**
And the answer is “No.”
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2020, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/27 "2020-08-06T10:59:42Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#):
>
> It boils down to : **“Does the DA’s Office have the budget to successfully prosecute Billionaires?”**
That’s a strange way to look at it. Why do you think they need huge budget?
Obviously the person you’re prosecuting will get the best lawyers, but if you’ve got solid, clear evidence you’ll get a conviction regardless.
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### Author:  [@chappachula1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula1)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2020, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/28 "2020-08-06T11:07:42Z")
There’s another issue that I don’t understand, but it makes me wonder who is hiding something:
Why did Ghislaine Maxwell return to the US and live within easy reach of the FBI?
She has French citizenship, and could have chosen to live in France…where extradition to the US is a very complicated,(almost impossible?), process.
Instead, she chose to make it easy to arrest her.It almost seems to me that (warning–conspiracy theory ahead:) she wanted to get arrested.
Maybe she wants to spill the beans on somebody?
It makes no sense for her to remain in the US.
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/29 "2020-08-06T16:21:08Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> or that plea deals would be made that were somehow shady (again due to this conspiracy) and they’d avoid jail time.
Well that bit is not only not a conspiracy theory, its not even a theory. It absolutely 100% undeniably happened in 2008. The plea deal Esptein got (from Trump’s one-time labor secretary Alex Acosta) was _unbelievably_ shady, and lenient.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2020, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/30 "2020-08-06T23:52:11Z")
BWAH\_HA\_HA!!
Hee-hee-HOOOOO!
That’s HILARIOUS!
Remember the OJ Trial?
Or, Hell, ANY trial with a rich defendant?
Up is down & left is right and the cow jumped over the Moon!
AKA–the Law is where reason & Logic go to die.
Truth, too.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/31 "2020-08-07T01:17:06Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#):
>
> Remember the OJ Trial?
Yes I do and when it comes up I like to ask ‘How many hours of the actual trial did you watch?’
CMC
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/32 "2022-02-19T13:46:16Z")
Not sure if this thread is too old to bump but seemed relevant. Is this coincidence?
> **[Epstein’s Alleged Pimp Jean-Luc Brunel Found Hanged in Cell](https://www.yahoo.com/news/epstein-alleged-pimp-jean-luc-122345548.html?guccounter=1)**
>
> The French modeling agent was accused of procuring girls for the late financier, who died the same way.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/33 "2022-02-19T14:43:22Z")
Ghislaine Maxwell’s former waterfront home in Massachusetts is now on the market for $7.3 mil.
6100 square feet, Tesla charging stations and a dynamite kitchen.
> **[Ghislaine Maxwell’s husband lists their historic mansion for nearly $7.3M](https://nypost.com/2022/02/18/ghislaine-maxwells-husband-selling-mansion-for-nearly-7-3m/)**
>
> Scott Borgerson — who reportedly dumped the British socialite while she was in jail — told the Wall Street Journal that he was selling the Manchester-by-the-Sea mansion he had shared with his ex.…
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/34 "2022-02-19T14:51:18Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Not sure if this thread is too old to bump but seemed relevant. Is this coincidence?
>
> [Epstein’s Alleged Pimp Jean-Luc Brunel Found Hanged in Cell](https://www.yahoo.com/news/epstein-alleged-pimp-jean-luc-122345548.html?guccounter=1)
I hadn’t heard that he’d been arrested.
Good riddance. (Though it would have been nice to get him to rat out others.)
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/35 "2022-02-19T15:03:59Z")
I won’t shed a tear but it seems an attempt at a cover-up for some powerful people. Kill the guy who can spill the beans. Mobster-101
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/36 "2022-02-19T16:15:57Z")
Cue Clinton murder-coverup-emails-Pizzagate clamor in 5. 4, 3, 2…
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/37 "2022-02-19T17:41:55Z")
What’s that saying? Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action?
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### Author:  [@lum\_s\_husband](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lum_s_husband)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/38 "2022-02-19T18:21:17Z")
Now look, people shoot themselves in the back all the time in prisons across the globe. The is no proof that this was anything other than what it appears to be.
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/39 "2022-02-19T18:52:12Z")
Now that Randy-Andy (that used to be his name, right?) has reached an agreement with Virginia Giuffre the Guardian asks similar questions as this thread and the OP:
> **[After Prince Andrew settled, where does the Epstein case go next?](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/19/jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-prince-andrew-loose-ends)**
>
> The prince’s settlement with Virginia Giuffre leaves several loose ends, including whether more in the disgraced financier’s circle could be implicated
I am curious too. On the one hand, the ~~mi~~ billionaires have money, connections and power. On the other hand, a billionaire may have a score or two to settle with another billionaire. And when people die in jail others start to think and weigh options. Justice is slow, but sometimes, just _some_times, it gets done.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-jeffrey-epsteins-friends-face-justice/917242/40 "2022-02-19T22:02:56Z")
It was a clever ricochet!
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