Tag Archives: Jeffrey Epstein

legal news

Verdict: Maxwell is a sex trafficker too!

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Just about the time you think we might have a hung jury unable to deliver a verdict in a high-profile trial … we get a verdict in a high-profile trial.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the one-time girlfriend and accomplice to the late millionaire sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is now a convicted sex trafficker herself.

A jury delivered the news to Maxwell today after five days of deliberation.

Is this the right verdict? Based on what I know — which admittedly isn’t much — it looks as though justice has been delivered. Jurors accepted the testimony that Maxwell assisted Epstein in his quest for young girls with whom he had sex or who he peddled for sex with others.

It was ghastly and gruesome testimony to be sure. As USA Today reported: The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.

Epstein, who was jailed a couple of years ago on sex charges, hanged himself in his New York City jail cell. The world is better off without him staining it with his presence.

Maxwell faces a lengthy prison sentence. My hope is that she gets the maximum.

Oh, and unlike the reaction delivered by Donald Trump when he heard about her arrest in 2019, I do not “wish her well.” I wish her nothing but misery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Who’s he calling ‘nasty’?

This mini-photo gallery showed up today on my Facebook feed and I thought it to be worth a brief comment here.

The three “nasty women” from the top down are Hillary Rodham, former first lady/U.S. senator/secretary of state/Democratic presidential nominee; Elizabeth Warren, a current U.S. senator and former presidential candidate; and Kamala Harris, another current senator and the pending Democratic nominee for vice president.

The guy on the left, of course, is … well, you know who it is. He has thrown the “nasty” epithet at all of those distinguished women.

Oh, the fourth woman? That’s Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend/confidante/alleged “recruiter” of victims for the late millionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile and sexual assailant who hanged himself in a New York City jail cell.

Donald Trump said he wanted to “wish her well” as she faces charges of being an accomplice to Epstein’s hideous behavior with underage girls.

Where I come from, Maxwell’s (alleged) conduct is way beyond “nasty.”

However, this social media illustration does speak volumes about the principles and what passes for a moral compass that drives Donald J. Trump.

May we ponder this for just a moment while we think about who we want sitting in the Oval Office?

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He embodies mercurial temperament … or much worse

These three images of Donald Trump alongside other individuals of some note tells me plenty about why I consider him unfit for the office of president of the United States.

He wanted to toss former quarterback Colin Kaepernick “off the field” because he chose to protest police brutality by “taking a knee” during the National Anthem at pro football games.

Trump led rally crowds in “Lock her up!” chants when email controversy swirled around Hillary Rodham Clinton during her run for the presidency in 2016.

Donald Trump then spoke of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and confidante of the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and wished “her well,” even as she stands accused of providing underage girls for Epstein to rape.

I should say that Kaepernick hasn’t been charged with a crime. Nor has Hillary Clinton. Ghislaine Maxwell? She could go to prison for the rest of her life if she is convicted of doing what has been alleged.

Do you get my point? It is that Trump’s presidential temperament is, shall we say, nonexistent. He doesn’t demonstrate an ounce of nuance. A pro athlete of color becomes the target of vulgar epithets; a political opponent who testified for hours before Congress should be locked up for reasons that Trump never specifies; a woman who’s a friend of Trump who has been accused of conspiring with a despicable sexual animal gets “well wishes.”

The man needs to get the boot from our White House.

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Hey … what about the victims?

The depths of Donald Trump’s heartlessness has yet to be discovered.

Consider this bit of nauseating information: When a reporter asked him recently about Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend/confidante of convicted sexual assailant Jeffrey Epstein, he said he wanted to “wish her well.”

Maxwell, I hasten to add, is accused of finding underage girls for Epstein to rape. Epstein, of course, hanged himself in a New York jail cell a few months ago. Maxwell now is the premier character in this hideous act.

So, what about the victims of Epstein’s lecherous behavior? Don’t they deserve “well wishes” from the president of the United States?

Trump has yet to offer a single public word of horror over what happened to these people at Epstein’s demand. He has yet to condemn anything his old friend did.

Oh, no. He offers Ghislaine Maxwell his good wishes and hope she is “well.” How can the president remain silent on the ghastly accusation that has been leveled at her and then offer the lame, tepid and moronic statement that “I wish her well”?

national news

He wishes her ‘well’

Donald Trump needs to follow the news, as in the real news … not the “fake news” that floods right-wing cable TV and talk radio.

He might, then, understand why his “well wishes” for a suspect accused of sex trafficking seems so stunning.

Today, Trump said he wishes Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend and confidante of notorious sexual assailant Jeffrey Epstein “well” as she fights the charges being leveled against her. Epstein hanged himself in his New York City jail cell.

Just to refresh your memory, Maxwell is accused of recruiting underage girls for Epstein to pleasure himself. I know she’s entitled to a presumption of innocence, but the allegations seem so very credible to many of us.

According to USA Today: Trump said he had met Maxwell “numerous times” over the years because he lived in Palm Beach. But he said he knows nothing about the charges against her, including an allegation that she arranged an assignation between a young girl and Prince Andrew of Great Britain.

Still, Trump wishes her “well”?

Let’s not forget, too, that there appear to be plenty of pictures of Epstein and Trump … along with a few shots of the two of them with Ghislaine Maxwell.

Trump today wished Maxwell “well.” I wanted to gag the moment I heard him say it.

crime news

How about an independent probe into Epstein death?

Jeffrey Epstein was under the “watchful eye” of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was being held in a Manhattan jail cell. He was arguably the most notorious criminal in federal custody, a guy who needed the DOJ’s relentless and unblinking attention.

Then he hangs himself. The DOJ is denied the opportunity to put a known pedophile on trial for allegations of sex trafficking underage girls.

The multimillionaire also had two high-profile relationships, with Bill Clinton and Donald Trump … a former and current president of the United States.

Now we hear from Attorney General William Barr blasting to smithereens the security detail at the Manhattan jail. He has called Epstein’s death a monumental failure.

Really, Mr. AG? Well, who is responsible for that failure? I contend that the AG himself is to blame. This happened on Barr’s watch.

The medical examiner has reportedly determined Epstein’s cause of death. There appears to be no evidence of “foul play,” or so we’re led to believe. I won’t join conspiracy theorists who have ideas and notions aplenty about what happened to Epstein.

However, does the DOJ investigate itself? Does the Justice Department look deeply into this a**hole’s death?

I don’t know how the DOJ does that. Nor do I accept that the department can peel away all the layers to expose the truth behind what happened to this guy.

Epstein was put on suicide watch in late July after he was found unconscious in his cell; he reportedly had ligature marks on his neck, suggesting an attempt at hanging himself. Then they removed the suicide watch. Then we hear that the security staff was overworked and didn’t keep an eye on this bastard at all times, allowing him to string himself up inside the jail cell.

That sounds like incompetence. I believe the incompetence goes far beyond the walls of that correctional facility.

Attorney General Barr needs to step aside. He needs to find an independent investigator to take over and determine how such a high-value, high-profile and infamous prisoner can kill himself while he’s in the hands of a federal agency charged with keeping him alive while his notorious case works its way toward adjudication.

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POTUS wants to ‘investigate everything’? Really?

Kellyanne Conway might be the worst liar since, oh, perhaps Donald John Trump.

The president’s senior policy adviser made some talk show appearances today and got asked about Trump’s decision to retweet that ghastly rumor that Bill and/or Hillary Clinton had a hand in killing financier Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly hanged himself in that Manhattan jail cell; Epstein was awaiting trial on charges that he engaged in sex trafficking of young girls.

Conway said the president merely wants to “investigate everything” in connection with the death of his former friend, Epstein — who also happened to be pals at one time with the former president, Bill Clinton.

So, Conway would have us believe that to further the search for the whole truth he chose to defame the former president and perhaps his wife — who happened to be Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent — by spreading that ghastly rumor of alleged complicity in the death of Epstein.

Who in the world does Conway think she’s talking to? I mean, does she think all Americans are rubes and blind loyalists like so many of those who comprise the president’s fervent “base” of voters?

Let me give you my spin on it.

Donald Trump deals in innuendo. He doesn’t possess the necessary inquisitiveness that seeks the truth into anything. He has traded for longer than he has been in political life on stabbing others in the back.

Was he looking for the truth when he suggested that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father might have been complicit in President Kennedy’s murder? Or when he fomented the lie that Barack Obama was not constitutionally qualified to run for president of the United States?

This individual is a liar and a fraud. He has surrounded himself with fellow liars and frauds. That includes Kellyanne Conway.

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Conspiracy theories live forever and ever

They will never die. Not ever. They will live far beyond all of our time on Earth. They’ll outlive my sons’ time, too.

What are “they”? Conspiracy theories! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Jeffrey Epstein’s death in the Manhattan, New York City jail cell has spawned ’em by the dozens. Already! You see, Epstein was supposed to stand trial after he pleaded not guilty to charges that he peddled young girls for sex.

Epstein had some high-powered friends. Two of them became “former friends” for reasons that aren’t exactly clear. Their names are Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. 

Now that Epstein is dead, the conspiracists have developed some hideous notions that Clinton might have been involved in killing him. Others have suggested Trump played a role in murdering Epstein.

These theories are going to take root. Their roots will run deep.

We’ve had our share of eternal conspiracy theories.

  • President Kennedy’s murder in Dallas couldn’t possibly have been committed by a lone rifleman.
  •  The 9/11 terrorist attacks were the work of those within the George W. Bush administration looking for reasons to go to war.
  •  President Barack Obama was born in Africa and was not qualified to run for the office to which he was elected twice.
  •  Those pictures from the moon’s surface were shot in a studio somewhere on Earth.
  •  Good grief, there are those who have suggested that President Roosevelt goaded the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor.

And so they have gone. They’ll go on forever.

Indeed, conspiracy theories already exist involving former President Clinton. They involve bogus allegations of people with dirt on the president and his wife ending up dead. Indeed, those phony rumors are thought to be the source of the latest defamatory rumors surrounding the death of the miserable pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Are there questions that need answering? Surely, yes.

However, I believe I can predict today that no matter how thorough the explanation, or how much evidence they produce to back whatever conclusions they draw about Epstein’s death, there will be those who will purport to disbelieve what they see and hear.

They will trade on conspiracy theories. What’s worse is that there will be those who are willing to take the bait.

Disgusting.

national news

Running out of ways to describe POTUS’s behavior

It’s more or less official: I have run out of words to describe the depths of despicability with which to refer to Donald J. Trump’s behavior.

His one-time pal Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in federal custody in a Manhattan jail cell over the weekend. The president then decided to retweet something posted by someone else that suggests that Bill and Hillary Clinton orchestrated Epstein’s murder.

Yep. That has come from the president of the United States.

Epstein was facing justice over an accusation that he engaged in human trafficking of underage girls, reportedly for sexual purposes. He used to be friends with Trump … and with Bill Clinton.

The president of the United States has decided — yet again! — to abuse a social media outlet to spew filth. He has done this in an unfathomable number of times over the years.

Without a scintilla of evidence, he has chosen to implicate by retweeting someone else’s message that a former president of the United States might have committed a terrible crime.

This isn’t just disgraceful. Or despicable. Or distasteful.

It is dangerous behavior!

This is how you “make America great again”? This is how “tell it like it is”? This is how you “put America first”?

Unbelievable.

crime news

Trump takes despicable behavior even lower … honestly!

I thought maybe I was reading a joke. Or something from The Onion, the satirical “newspaper” that prints spoofs in such a believable fashion.

But no-o-o-o. It was real.

Jeffrey Epstein, the accused sex trafficker, died in a Manhattan jail. The former pal of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump supposedly hanged himself.

So, what does the president of the United States do? He retweets a bizarre notion that the former president and his wife, former U.S. senator and secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, are complicit in Epstein’s death.

I am going to presume a couple of things might be in play. One is that Trump actually believes it. Another is that he is so filled with hatred for Hillary and Bill Clinton that he would smear them in this manner. Still another is that POTUS might have some sort of political death wish. OK, the last thing is the least likely.

Hatred runs deep

I am inclined to think that Donald Trump hates the Clintons to a degree that he would do anything on Earth to defame them.

For the president to do what’s been reported is about as despicable an act I can imagine.

This man has no shame. Or decency.