Saturday, February 28, 2026

So, Precisely What Was Epstein's Grift?

Rep Anna Paulina Luna asks a good basic question in the video embedded above, which I'll interpret as, "Precisely what was Epstein's grift?" She suggests it was an intelligence operation, but so far, Alan Dershowitz's informed view is that if Epstein had actually been a spy, he never would have gone to prison.

But Rep Luna raises the issue of what Epstein's various women associates were there for, and that's a question worth pursuing. She lists four names, all of which I've covered in past posts here, Lesley Groth (December 14, 2021), Nadia Marcinkova (December 13, 2021), Adriana Ross (December 15, 2021), and Sarah Kellen (December 12, 2021).

But there are other names that belong on the same list, like Eva Birgitta Andersson-Dubin (covered here on May 14, 2021) and Melanie Walker (covered here on May 23, 2021). All these women appear to have had complex, ambiguous relationships with Epstein over a period of years in which on one hand they were lovers, on the other Epstein appears to have pimped them out to influential people, but slso, they served as recruiters. In the latter two cases, Epstein appears to have been able to get them into medical school and then get them degrees.

As I said in 2021, I would not let either one of them get close to me with a scalpel. Kathy Ruemmler appears to have been a latter-day member of that same group.

In light of recent revelations about Bill Gates, I note that in my post on Melanie Walker at the link, she became Epstein's "science adviser" after graduating from medical school, later went to work for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and according to the UK Daily Mail "became an intermediary between Epstein and the Microsoft co-founder". But that's not all:

Dr Walker, then 28 years old, seems to have been an important pivot in the tycoon's burgeoning relationship with the Duke [Prince Andrew].

In June 2000, the neurosurgeon attended — according to the guest list — the 'Dance of the Decades' party thrown at Windsor Castle by the Queen to mark a number of royal birthday milestones, including the Duke's 40th and Princess Anne's 50th.

She then conntinued to socialize with Andrew at various Epstein-sponsored events, including a visit to Epstein's New Mexico ranch. At that time, Andrew's protection officer referred to her as Andrew's "girlfriend".

But the big name among Epstein's women was, of course, Ghislaine Maxwell. In addition to Andrew's apparent liaison with Melanie Walker, he was conducting an affair with Ghislaine as well during this same period. According to the UK Daily Mail,

Prince Andrew gave Ghislaine Maxwell 'unrestricted access' to Buckingham Palace as part of their close friendship, a former royal police officer has claimed.

The relationship between the Duke of York, 62, and Maxwell, 60, who has been jailed for 20 years for grooming young women for Jeffrey Epstein, is being scrutinised publicly.

It is said that Maxwell was waved in by Palace police when she visited the Duke, being allowed to enter 'at will', to see him.

While these meetings took place in the early 2000s, Maxwell was able to visit Andrew at Buckingham Palace as late as June 6, 2019, a month before Epstein's arrest in New Jersey.

PRINCE Andrew secretly met Ghislaine Maxwell inside Buckingham Palace — two weeks after her paedo ex Jeffrey Epstein was placed under new investigation by US cops.

The Duke of York admitted in his “car crash” Newsnight interview that he saw Maxwell during the summer, but denied discussing Epstein.

. . . A source said: “The Duke and Ghislaine met at the Palace. She brought four other people with her.

“They were all smartly dressed and looked very official, very serious and business-like. There was no way it was a social occasion. They stayed for about two hours.

“Looking back now it seems very likely they would have been discussing the fallout from Epstein’s misdemeanours and what they planned to do about it.”

Although Ghislaine and Andrew apparently met at Oxford in the 1980s, their serious relationship appears to have begun around the time she and Epstein visited Balmoral at Andrew's invitation in 1999. Then,

February 2000: At the start of the year, Epstein is with Andrew at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. They are photographed together; also in the photo are Melania Trump and Gwendolyn Beck (see above).

April 2000: Maxwell and Andrew go to lunch in New York City. The duo are spotted holding hands at Nello’s, but not photographed together. Andrew is snapped leaving the restaurant:

June 2000: Epstein and Maxwell go to a 40th birthday party for Andrew, hosted at Windsor Castle by Queen Elizabeth.

. . . The same month, Andrew attends the Royal Ascot with Epstein and Maxwell

December 2000: Prince Andrew throws a shooting weekend for Maxwell’s birthday, and Epstein is in attendance. (Andrew denied it was a birthday party in the Newsnight interview, saying it was “just a straightforward, a straightforward shooting weekend.”)

2001: Andrew allegedly sexually assaults Virginia Giuffre in London.

. . . 2006: Epstein attends Princess Beatrice's 18th birthday party at Windsor Castle.

Epstein was one of the guests at Princess Beatrice’s Victorian-themed birthday party at Windsor Castle on July 15, 2006; in 2019, the Sun published a photo of Epstein, with Harvey Weinstein and Maxwell, at the party. Eight days after Beatrice’s party, on July 23, Epstein was arrested in Palm Beach, on a single charge of soliciting prostitution.

. . . 2008: Epstein is sentenced to jail.

. . . 2010: Prince Andrew and Epstein go on a walk together in Central Park.

. . . Epstein and Andrew are photographed on a walk in Central Park during the trip. As photographer Jae Donnelly later said, "Without that photo they would have the chance to deny any knowledge of knowing each other. And that photo, for them, sadly exists." The photos ran in News of the World in February 2011.

Andrew said he had no contact with Epstein following December 2010; e-mails released in 2025 later proved this was not true.

2011: Sarah Ferguson admits Epstein helped pay off her debt.

And so on. It's significant that the "humble address" from Parliament seeking documents relating to Andrew's 2001 appointment as UK trade envoy, a position he held until his ties with Epstein became public in 2011, relate to precisely this period. In fact, the relationship among Andrew, Epstein, and Maxwell around the time of his appointment comes off as a particularly squalid menage, even leaving aside the concurrent relationship among Epstein, Andrew, and Melanie Walker.

And that leaves aside whatever was going on among Epstein, Walker, and Bill Gates. Just this past Sunday, I posted on the news that Gates's relationship with Epstein was much deeper and lasted much longer than previously reported. The current line is that the relationship between Gates and Epstein began in 2011, but the Kevin Bass timeline derived from the final tranche of Epstein files shows meetings as early as 2009 --but even then, it omits that Melanie Walker and Boris Nikolic were members of both Gates's and Epstein's inner circles from about 2000 and are generally characterized as "intermediaries" between both.

As far as I can tell, we're only beginning to glimpse what appear to be extremely complex interrelationships among a fairly large number of parties, apparently involving sex, mutual favors, and whatever else, quite possibly inside information. What was the grift? The best we can say is there was something in it for everyone, but nymphets will turn out to be little more than a footnote and a distraction. When figures like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton say they saw and did nothing wrong around Epstein, all they're basically saying is they didn't schtup minors, but everything else was perfectly OK.

posted by test @ February 28, 2026   0 Comments