Compact Mag’s Michael Tracey Minimizes, Deflects, Dissembles, Lies about Epstein Horrors

on July 16, 2025 at 4:12 am

Michael Tracey weighs in on the Epstein Horrors, and tries to minimize the entire controversy by saying that Giuffere is a ‘serial fabricator’ and, therefore, the whole thing is faked, for money, and based on minimal evidence.
Plenty of evidence in addition to Giuffere’s statements show that Epstein and Maxwell were engaged in espionage, blackmail, and human trafficking.
Tracey, in interviews with disgraced Richard Hanania, [1] claims that Trump’s supporters are ‘idiots’ and believe in a conspiracy theory that Epstein was acting on behalf of either Israel or the Mossad related to blackmail operations in the United States, despite the significant amount of evidence that shows exactly that.

OUR RATING: Level 1: Journalistic Malpractice, Even Salon.com is ashamed. Total lies.

Indicted Outlet: Michael Tracey | Compact Magazine | Link | Archive | July 10, 2025

The political left has been, so far, largely silent about Jeffrey Epstein and his assorted crimes. Part of that has been due, no doubt, to the large number of left-wing figures and financiers who appear on the various ‘lists’ of associates of Epstein and those who traveled to his infamous island, Little St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. But the left’s silence has also been due to the new party line which prevents the credibility challenge to female sexual assault victims, of which Epstein has many.

So when Michael Tracey wrote this week in Compact Magazine, “The Idiocy of the Epstein Mythology” [2] he had very careful narratives to navigate: he needed to avoid saying dozens of women are lying about their sexual abuse, while also saying that Trump is bad, while also trying to say that there’s little to no evidence of Epstein’s crimes.

Tracey’s interview with Richard Hanania also outlined a great deal of his objections to the current Epstein narrative in the media. [1]

Major Violations:

Opinion as Fact
Cherry Picking
Dishonest Framing
Missing Context
Major Misrepresentation of Source Material
Ignoring Primary Sources
Fact Suppression

Let’s go through Tracey’s basic arguments about the overall Epstein narrative, and then dissect them piece-by-piece.

MICHAEL TRACEY’S ARGUMENTS:

Tracey’s arguments within his article are, generally:

The popular “Epstein mythology” assumes he operated a vast child sex-trafficking and blackmail ring for global elites, often allegedly connected to intelligence agencies.
This mythology is constructed to be unfalsifiable where any lack of evidence is treated as further proof of a cover-up.
The narrative has bipartisan appeal: right-wing audiences frame it as spiritual or satanic evil, while left-wing audiences see it as systemic elite exploitation.
Virginia Giuffre, a central figure in the mythology, has been accused of fabrication, and her inconsistencies are ignored or rationalized by myth adherents.
Giuffre’s civil settlement with Alan Dershowitz, where she admitted falsehoods, is largely disregarded by those promoting the broader conspiracy.
The claim that Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” attributed to Alex Acosta, comes from unverified hearsay and is not substantiated.
The Epstein Victims Compensation Program, Tracey argues, incentivized claimants to exaggerate or fabricate by offering large sums with minimal vetting.
The Ghislaine Maxwell trial did not yield evidence supporting the idea that Epstein trafficked girls to powerful third-party elites.
Political figures like Trump, Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi have used the mythology opportunistically, promising explosive revelations that never materialize.
The mythology undermines democratic engagement by fostering paranoia, fatalism, and the belief that all institutions are irredeemably corrupt.

Most of this is opinion as fact. When Tracey complains that the challenges to this narrative are refusing to believe contrary evidence, he doesn’t bother citing to what that contrary evidence, he just takes it as a given. He provides some arguments in his piece that could be considered contrary points, but most of them are somewhat speculative and not based on fact.

Tracey’s core points are:

Giuffre is not a reliable witness and is a ‘serial fabricator.’
Giuffre was financially motivated, as were other accusers.
Giuffre was forced to settle a defamation suit with Alan Dershowitz.
The Acosta quote is hearsay.
The Maxwell trial did not yield evidence of an elite trafficking ring.

This is Tracey using cherry picking and dishonest framing to understand the Epstein saga of horrors.

To really go through these, essentially three key arguments: attacking Giuffre’s credibility, attacking the Acosta quote, and highlighting a detail from the Maxwell trial, it’s important to go through the volume of evidence for the Epstein horrors.

The extent of the evidence is important because it goes directly to these three points: 1) was Giuffre credible, 2) was Acosta’s quote accurate, and 3) is there evidence of an elite trafficking & blackmail ring?

But it also directly combats some of the core foundations of Tracey’s piece.

Tracey says that Epstein-related files are, “…understood to be sitting in a government repository somewhere, shielded from public disclosure by reprobates in the Biden Administration…” And a simple cursory review of the ongoing FOIA-litigation alone, shows a pending suit involving 10,000 unreleased Epstein-related documents held by the FBI, as part of the Radar Online suit. [3] As well, there are at least three million documents the government had and produced to Ghislaine Maxwell as part of her criminal prosecution. [4, 5, 6] So, yes, there are many Epstein-related documents understood to be sitting in a government repository somewhere that have been shielded from public disclosure by reprobates in both the Biden and Trump administrations. Tracey is either lying or being willfully ignorant here.

There is also a reported over 300 gigabytes of Epstein-related data which has so far been prevented from release. [7]

The Epstein saga spans decades and a wide variety of civil and criminal court cases in both state and federal courts. To date, there have been at least 16 major state and federal cases directly involving Epstein and Maxwell.

THE SIGNIFICANT SPAN OF LITIGATION INVOLVING EPSTEIN, MAXWELL, GIUFFRE

So when Tracey complains that there is an “ever-expanding mythology which cannot be falsified” as a way of saying that these facts are being invented by ‘conspiracy theorists’ online, he is again either lying or being willfully ignorant about the enormous amount of litigation involved with these claims. If these claims were all invented by creative online trolls, why aren’t federal judges sanctioning the attorneys bringing all of these lawsuits?

United States v. Jeffrey Epstein (2008, Florida state court) – Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, receiving a controversial plea deal that shielded him from federal prosecution.
Jane Doe v. Jeffrey Epstein (2008–2010, U.S. District Court, S.D. Florida) – Multiple civil suits filed by anonymous women alleging sexual abuse as minors. Many were settled confidentially.
Giuffre v. Maxwell (2015, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, 1:15-cv-07433) – Virginia Giuffre sued Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation after Maxwell denied Giuffre’s allegations of abuse and trafficking. The case was settled in 2017.
Sarah Ransome v. Epstein & Maxwell (2017, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York) – Civil suit alleging coercion and sexual abuse by Epstein and Maxwell. Settled out of court.
Jennifer Araoz v. Epstein’s Estate & Maxwell (2019, New York State Supreme Court) – Filed under the Child Victims Act, Araoz alleged Epstein raped her when she was 15 and accused Maxwell of facilitating the abuse.
Annie Farmer v. Epstein’s Estate & Maxwell (2019, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York) – Civil suit alleging Epstein and Maxwell sexually abused her as a teenager under the guise of a scholarship retreat.
Katlyn Doe, Priscilla Doe & another Jane Doe v. Estate of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (2019, N.Y. State Supreme Court, No. 453122/2019) – Three women filed under the Child Victims Act alleging trafficking and abuse by Epstein and co-conspirators, including Maxwell .
Multiple Jane Doe Lawsuits v. Epstein’s Estate (2019–2020, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, No. 1:20‑cv‑05678) – A series of lawsuits by numerous anonymous women accusing Epstein of trafficking, abuse, and sexual exploitation as minors.
United States v. Jeffrey Epstein (2019, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York) – Epstein was federally indicted for sex trafficking minors across state lines. He died in custody before trial.
U.S. Virgin Islands v. Epstein’s Estate (2020, U.S. Virgin Islands Superior Court) – Civil enforcement action alleging that Epstein ran a human trafficking ring from his private island through 2018. Led to a $105 million settlement with the estate.
Ghislaine Maxwell v. Estate of Jeffrey Epstein (2020, Superior Court, U.S. Virgin Islands, No. ST‑20‑CV‑00031) – Maxwell sued the Epstein estate to enforce a promise that he would cover her legal defense costs, claiming she acted as his employee and property manager .
Jane Doe v. Epstein’s Estate & Maxwell (Interlochen Case) (2020, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York) – A woman alleged that Epstein and Maxwell groomed and abused her at the Interlochen arts camp in Michigan when she was 13.
United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell (2020–2022, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, 20 Cr. 330) – Maxwell was convicted of federal charges including sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. Sentenced to 20 years in 2022. Appeal denied in 2024.
Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew (2021–2022, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, 1:21-cv-06702) – Giuffre sued Prince Andrew under New York’s Child Victims Act for alleged sexual abuse. The case was settled in 2022 for a reported sum of over $12 million.
Jane Doe v. Estate of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (2021, Florida, Broward County, No. CACE‑21‑000****) – A Broward County woman alleged Epstein and Maxwell trafficked and repeatedly raped her in 2008 when she was a minor.
Jane Doe v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (2022–2023, U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, 1:22-cv-10019) – A survivor sued JPMorgan for allegedly enabling Epstein’s sex trafficking operations by ignoring red flags in exchange for business. The bank settled the case in June 2023 for $290 million.

Many of those cases have involved the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died under odd circumstances in 2025, but many did not. Giuffre’s credibility is important, but there are dozens of other accusers with similar stories. Tracey leaves out that necessary missing context.

GIUFFRE IS ONE OF MANY EPSTEIN & MAXWELL ACCUSERS

Here are the publicly-named Epstein accusers:

Virginia Roberts Giuffre (d. 2025)
Maria Farmer
Annie Farmer
Jennifer Araoz
Sarah Ransome
Chauntae Davies – notably seen in a picture at age 22 giving former President Clinton a shoulder massage.
Courtney Wild – abused starting at age 14
Theresa Helm
Marijke Chartouni
Anouska DeGeorgiou
Rachel Benavidez
Jena Lisa Jones
At least dozens of ‘Jane Doe’ Plaintiffs – who cited abuse from the mid-1980s through the 2000’s.

These witnesses describe systemic abuse happening at the following locations:

34 East 69th Street, Manhattan, New York, NY – Earlier NYC residence (1992–1995) – Before acquiring the 71st Street mansion, Epstein rented and frequently stayed at this townhouse, a former Iranian government building. Maria Farmer worked there in 1996 and described it as the first city home where she experienced his surveillance setup and was shown hidden cameras tied into a monitoring room
9 East 71st Street, New York, NY – Epstein’s Manhattan Townhouse – Site of extensive abuse allegations. Multiple victims said they were trafficked here for sexual exploitation. A July 6, 2019 FBI raid found child sexual abuse material inside. This is the raid where the FBI opened Epstein’s safe, and left the contents for the Epstein defense team to intercept and then later return. The FBI claims that nothing was withheld by the Epstein defense team. Maria Farmer has said the contents of the safe included compromising material on elites. [8 @1:58:00]
360 El Brillo Way, Palm Beach, FL (previously 358 El Brillo Way) – Epstein’s Palm Beach Mansion – Central to the original Florida criminal investigation. Girls were recruited and abused here over many years beginning in the early 2000s.
Zorro Ranch, 49 Zorro Ranch Road, Stanley, NM – Epstein’s New Mexico Ranch – Allegedly used to bring underage girls across state lines. Victims have testified to sexual abuse at this location, including Annie Farmer.
Little Saint James Island, U.S. Virgin Islands (approx. 18.3005° N, 64.8263° W) – Private Island – Known as “Pedophile Island,” this was Epstein’s most notorious property. Flight logs and court testimony detail the transport of minors to this location for sexual exploitation.
Great Saint James Island, U.S. Virgin Islands – Secondary Island – Owned by Epstein later in his life. Although less prominent in court filings, it was reportedly being developed with additional buildings and docks at the time of his arrest.
445 North Parkview Avenue, Bexley, OH – Les Wexner’s Mansion – Epstein lived in this Columbus-area estate while managing Wexner’s finances. Giuffre, Maria Farmer, and others have claimed abuse occurred here, though Wexner denies knowledge of it.

The Justice Department in July 2025 estimated there were over 1,000 victims of Jeffrey Epstein. [9] The memo is not entirely clear as to whether those are ‘in-person’ victims, meaning underage victims who were sexually assaulted, or if those victims are ‘digital’ victims, considering the amount and extent of the child pornography that the DOJ claims were found on Epstein’s devices.

And even though the civil case where Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation was settled and sealed in 2017, litigation by third parties to ‘unseal’ much of the evidence in the case resulted in waves of documents being released to the public.

TRACEY IGNORES GIUFFRE’S LEGAL WINS, IGNORES HER LEGAL WIN ON DEFAMATION AGAINST MAXWELL

As well, there was a prior legal action in 2009 involving a settlement between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre. In that settlement, later unsealed by the court in 2022, Epstein agreed to pay $500,000 in exchange for Giuffre dropping claims against himself, but also dropping any potential claims against Ghislaine Maxwell, Alan Dershowitz, and Prince Andrew. [10] Perhaps Epstein wanted to protect his friends from false claims, or perhaps Epstein knew the full extent of potential liability and wanted his payment to cover all of the prominent abusers.

But it certainly seems odd that Epstein, 10 years before his death, would settle a civil suit with Giuffre with major payouts and gag orders attached, if the suit was entirely frivolous. At a minimum, this is critical missing context for Tracey’s piece.

TRACEY FACTUALLY GETS IRRELEVANT QANON TIMELINE WRONG

It also speaks to the way Tracey attempts to smear those who follow this case, in that he also tries to link the ‘conspiracy theory’ to the QAnon movement from 2016-2020.

Here is what Tracey says: “… Epstein mythology is a successor to the QAnon phenomenon from the first Trump administration…”

This is an example of guilty grouping, and also just not factually accurate. Where Tracey tries to connect the dots between one theory and another with no real causal relationship, but he has his dates wrong. The controversy about Epstein pre-dates the QAnon theories by nearly a decade. There’s no relationship.

Victim Maria Farmer has said in interviews that her abuse at the hands of Epstein and his patron Les Wexner [11] started in 1996. [12]

TRACEY CALLS GIUFFRE ‘SERIAL FABRICATOR’ FOR SETTLING DERSHOWITZ CASE WHERE SHE ADMITTED ONLY MISTAKEN IDENTITY

The Giuffre civil litigation against Maxwell, a defamation suit, was settled in 2017. But Tracey rests almost all of his credibility argument against Giuffre on the basis of the suit she filed in 2019 and settled with Alan Dershowitz in 2022 where she admitted she “may have made a mistake” and both sides dropped their claims against the other, and no money damages were paid by either side. She filed the suit in 2017, the allegations were from 2000-2002.

People settle civil suits for a variety of reasons, not all of them are entirely on the merits of the claims. Giuffre’s statements were somewhat vague: “I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz.”

This is the basis for Michael Tracey to call Giuffre a “serial fabricator.” Tracey is misrepresenting the source and presenting an opinion as fact. He’s also cherry picking this one incident to smear Giuffre as a liar about everything else.

There’s no argument that Dershowitz was close with Epstein, he was part of the 2008 legal team that helped Epstein avoid charges in Florida by getting a sweetheart deal from then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. [13, 14] Dershowitz shows up repeatedly on Epstein’s flight logs. [15]

We may never know the truth of the matter, and why Giuffre dropped the case, but the resolution of the case does not equate to her being a “serial fabricator” as Tracey alleges.

Here is the case information:

Virginia Giuffre v. Alan M. Dershowitz (2019–2022, U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y., Case No. 1:19‑cv‑03377 (LAP)).

TRACEY THEN IGNORES GIUFFRE’S LEGAL WIN AGAINST MAXWELL FOR DEFAMATION

It is also very dishonest framing and double standards to use a settlement in one defamation case to call Giuffre a ‘serial fabricator‘ when she won a defamation case against Maxwell on similar underlying facts, where Maxwell was forced to make a multi-million dollar payout.

TRACEY IMPLIES THERE’S LITTLE EVIDENCE, EVEN THOUGH COURT CASES HAVE ALREADY PRODUCED SIGNIFICANT EVIDENCE

Simply the history of that third party litigation about one of the 16 key Epstein cases, in the Giuffre v. Maxwell civil case, is complex.

In 2018, The Gateway Pundit, Mike Cernovich, and the Miami Herald with reporter Julie K. Brown moved to intervene in the case, seeking to unseal the records under the First Amendment and common law right of access, citing the extraordinary public interest in the allegations. [16, 17, 18, 19] The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York initially declined to fully grant the request, citing privacy concerns, leading to an appeal to the Second Circuit.

In Giuffre v. Maxwell, 928 F.3d 226 (2d Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the Herald, holding that the public’s right to access judicial documents outweighed Maxwell’s asserted privacy interests. The court ordered the unsealing of large portions of the record, including depositions, emails, and internal communications related to Epstein, Maxwell, and various high-profile associates. Following the Second Circuit’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska oversaw the implementation of a phased release process, with redactions allowed only for individuals not publicly accused of wrongdoing. The first wave of unsealed documents—around 2,000 pages—was released in August 2019, followed by additional disclosures in 2020 and 2021.

The most substantial release occurred on January 3, 2024, when Judge Preska ordered the unsealing of over 4,500 additional pages of documents from Case No. 1:15‑cv‑07433. These included previously sealed motions, declarations, emails, contact lists, and excerpts from Maxwell’s depositions, as well as filings referencing over 170 individuals identified as “John Does.”

These releases included, among other items:

Previously unreleased declarations
Flight logs
Witness testimony
Contact lists and phone books
Documents involving over 170 “John Does”, some of whom remained redacted

In the criminal prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell in 2020, (Case No. 20‑CR‑330) the government turned over nearly 3 million pages of documents to Maxwell. The government typically turns over only two types of documents: evidence which is ‘inculpatory’ which tends to suggest guilt of what is being alleged, and ‘exculpatory’ evidence which indicates innocence of the crimes alleged. Maxwell had been charged with six counts by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York in July 2020:

Conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts (18 U.S.C. § 371)
Enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts (18 U.S.C. § 2422)
Conspiracy to transport minors to engage in illegal sex acts (18 U.S.C. § 371)
Transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts (18 U.S.C. § 2423)
Sex trafficking of a minor (18 U.S.C. § 1591)
Perjury (2 counts, charged in a separate indictment related to false testimony in a 2016 deposition)

At trial she was not charged with perjury. She plead not guilty, and was found guilty of 5 of the six county, and found ‘not guilty’ on ‘enticement of a minor.’ Maxwell was sentenced on June 29, 2022 to 20 years in federal prison and 5 years of supervised release, along with a $750,000 fine. Maxwell has appealed her conviction to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, (Case No.  22‑1426) where it was unanimously denied. She then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court (Pet. No. 24‑1073) on April 10, 2025, which is still pending.

TRACEY IGNORES MULTIPLE ONGOING “FOIA” LAWSUITS WHICH COULD PRODUCE SUBSTANTIALLY MORE EVIDENCE

There have also been several lawsuits related to Freedom of Information Act, aka (“FOIA”), lawsuits as well, several of which are still pending.

Radar Online LLC v. Federal Bureau of Investigation (2019–present, U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:19‑cv‑03956; appeal pending, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 24‑1066) – Radar Online filed suit in 2019 seeking FBI records related to Epstein under FOIA. The FBI identified at least 11,571 Epstein-related records as part of this case, and completely withheld over 10,000 pages.[20] After years of partial productions, the district court ruled in favor of the FBI in early 2024, largely upholding its withholdings under privacy and law enforcement exemptions. Radar Online appealed in April 2024; the case remains active at the Second Circuit as of July 2025, with a federal answer due in late July. [Docket: PACER, 2nd Cir. No. 24-1066]
Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (2025–present, U.S. District Court, D.D.C., No. 1:25‑cv‑01119) – Filed in April 2025, Judicial Watch challenged DOJ’s refusal to release certain Epstein-related files, including FBI interview summaries, under FOIA. The complaint alleges unlawful delay and improper invocation of exemptions. The case is pending in the District of Columbia with briefing underway. [PACER: D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01119]
Business Insider FOIA Appeal (unlitigated) (2024–present, U.S. Department of Justice, FOIA Appeal No. 2024‑APP‑0421) – Business Insider submitted a FOIA request in late 2024 seeking Epstein-related materials, including photographs and seized electronics. The request was denied by the FBI. An internal appeal was filed in February 2025, citing the DOJ’s public “Phase 1” release. As of July 2025, the appeal remains unresolved, with the agency requesting extensions. [Source: internal DOJ OIP appeal logs]
DOJ FOIA Logs (Various) (2020–2023, Department of Justice OIP) – Numerous individual FOIA requests were filed with DOJ and FBI for Epstein and Maxwell records. Notable entries include FOIA tracking numbers 14572-22 and 14784-22 (U.S. v. Maxwell trial documents), which were referred or denied in part. These have not led to litigation but establish a pattern of withholding responsive records. [Source: DOJ FOIA Closed Request Logs, July 2022]

Tracey dismisses all of Giuffre’s claims by calling her a “serial fabricator.”

“Perhaps the most glaring omission in the Epstein mythology is any acknowledgement that Giuffre was a serial fabricator.”

The main reason Tracey says this, is because Giuffre settled a defamation suit filed by Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre claimed she was trafficked by Epstein to Dershowitz, which he denied.

TRACEY USES DERSHOWITZ TO INDICT GIUFFRE CREDIBILITY, IGNORES RECENT STATEMENTS WHERE HE CLAIMS TO HAVE SEEN INFAMOUS ‘CLIENT LIST’

It’s interesting that Tracey cites to Dershowitz and his case, when Dershowitz has recently been publicly saying that as part of his suit he saw the infamous “Epstein client list” and, from the names he saw on it, understands why it will never be made public. [2, 21, 22]

Yet even the Dershowitz case Tracey cites was not settled on terms where she admitted being a “serial fabricator.”

In Alan M. Dershowitz v. Virginia L. Giuffre, Case No. 1:19-cv-03377-LAP (S.D.N.Y., filed 2019), Dershowitz sued Giuffre for defamation, alleging that she falsely accused him of sexually abusing her as part of her broader claims against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre filed a counterclaim for defamation, maintaining that her statements were truthful and protected. The case involved extensive discovery and public litigation over credibility, intent, and privileged communications.

In 2022, the parties reached a confidential settlement in which Giuffre acknowledged that she may have been mistaken in identifying Dershowitz and formally withdrew her allegations.

Giuffre was not found to have been a ‘serial fabricator’ she reached a settlement where she said there may have been mistaken identity. This is a major misrepresentation about the source material.

And not only is Tracey misstating the settlement in the Dershowitz case, he is also ignoring recent Dershowitz comments effectively confirming that Epstein was running an elite blackmail ring. In other words, Tracey finds Dershowitz useful when indicting the credibility of victim Giuffre, but not relevant when Dershowitz disproves Tracey’s central thesis that there’s no evidence of a systemic elite blackmail operation.

TRACEY REDUCES GIUFFRE’S MOTIVES TO ONLY MONEY

Tracey says Giuffre “eventually got in on the act” by also implying that her non-profit organization [23] to help trafficked women was false. It is notoriously difficult to properly gauge the effectiveness of a non-profit, [24, 25] but Tracey says that all he can find online is a ‘bare-bones’ website. Yet the absence of evidence here is not evidence, and it’s another situation of Tracey presenting opinion as fact and also assuming bad faith on the part of Giuffre.

It’s also worth noting that many of the accusers, in interviews such as this one with victim Maria Farmer [26], were very careful to separate themselves from whom they suspected were bad faith accusers such as Alicia Arden.

Tracey describes the Prince Andrew legal settlement in the Giuffre case as a “donation” from the Queen, as it relates to her claims against Prince Andrew. He hedges when saying Giuffre’s non-profit “appears to have done little…” which just means he has no evidence either way, and can’t find anything easily online.

This is a major bias and prejudice of most reporters: they assume that everything that happens in the world is documented online. They think that every success by a group or person is written about and well-documented. Lazy journalists want to engage in a superficial investigation by doing web searches.

SOAR board member Dini Von Mueffling was contacted for this piece, [27] but did not respond.

TRACEY IGNORES THE EVIDENCE CONNECTING EPSTEIN TO INTELLIGENCE

Israel has denied that Epstein was connected to either the Israeli government or to its intelligence service, Mossad. [28] The former Israeli Prime Minister has denied Epstein was an Israeli spy. [29] The American government has also denied that Epstein was connected to the American intelligence services, though Pam Bondi’s recent statements are up for interpretation. [30]

Tracey contends [31 @3:45] that the only source for Epstein being linked to intelligence is one article from journalist Vicky Ward in the Daily Beast. [32] Yet this is not the only source for this information.

In Rolling Stone reporter Vicky Ward named a source who was conned by Epstein, Steven Hoffenberg, as having said Epstein confessed to him that he was engaged in intelligence and espionage. [33] Tracey completely ignores this.

There is also a wide number of credible allegations, circumstantial evidence, and patterns that suggest that Ghislaine Maxwell’s father Robert Maxwell was an intelligence agent for multiple countries, including Israel, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, claimed in his memoir Profits of War (1992) that Maxwell had a long-standing relationship with Mossad and used his publishing empire to support Israeli interests, including helping to place intelligence assets in foreign newsrooms. Journalist Seymour Hersh, in his book The Samson Option (1991), claimed Maxwell was involved in Israeli arms deals and acted as a conduit for information. After Maxwell’s death, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir attended his funeral, an unusual gesture, and he was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem with honors. This level of respect suggested strong ties to the Israeli state. The 2003 book Robert Maxwell: Israel’s Superspy by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon argues in detail, based on interviews and intelligence sources, that Maxwell was a key Israeli asset for decades, and that his ties to Mossad were both deep and ongoing and may have been involved in his suspicious 1991 death at sea.

Epstein also had ‘piles of cash’ and multiple passports issued by other countries, some of which were obviously fake. This isn’t proof of intelligence connections, but it is certainly odd and suspicious behavior which is more in line with intelligence practices. [82, 83]

Maria Farmer, one of Epstein’s accusers, has claimed Epstein and Maxwell told her explicitly that both Epstein and Maxwell work for intelligence. She described Ghislaine Maxwell as one of Israel’s most dangerous espionage assets. [34] Farmer has also said on social media that she believes Epstein’s patron Les Wexner was connected to Mossad, and that Ghislaine Maxwell reported to him. [35]

The pattern of high-level, elite, social access exceeds what would be expected of someone merely tied to a wealthy financier, suggesting possible use in an influence or kompromat operation. Ari Ben-Menashe, in interviews and writings, has claimed Ghislaine was a Mossad asset and helped her father and Epstein in operations designed to gather compromising information on Western elites.

TRACEY IGNORES THE EVIDENCE THAT EPSTEIN WAS CONNECTED TO BLACKMAIL OPERATIONS

Rolling Stone’s Vicky Ward also related that Hoffenberg admitted that Epstein utilized blackmail as part of his standard procedure of defrauding the rich while making it impossible for them to retaliate. [36]

Epstein accuser Maria Farmer has also described the series of cameras and taping equipment that she personally observed at multiple Epstein residences. [37] Farmer also described that the video recorded was meant to be compromising blackmail. [38 @1:59:00]

Journalist Whitney Webb has written two books [39, 40], and has written numerous articles on, Jeffrey Epstein and his extensive history and connections. [41] Webb claims that Epstein is best understood as being connected to a global organized crime syndicate that utilizes blackmail in its operations, and not just one individual national intelligence community.

It’s generally believed that the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, utilized compromising information and blackmail [42, 43, 44, 45] in order to get larger budgets for the Department. It’s also believed by some [44] that Hoover, himself, was also being blackmailed with photographs of him engaged in sex with his subordinate Clyde Tolson. This information took decades to emerge and come out, even though it was widely known among DC elites in its time. If there were current blackmail operations against the nation’s elites, would it be reasonable to expect an easy documentary trail to prove it? Of course not.

It will likely take years if not decades for all the related files to come out and be declassified. The Kennedy Assassination files are still not all publicly-available after 63 years by comparison. Tracey calls this the kind of tautological reasoning and says that the absence of evidence does not prove the theory, but there is already a considerable sum of evidence showing the basic claims about Epstein to be well-sourced and well-documented.

In the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, there were over three million pages of documents given to Maxwell’s legal defense team. [46, 47] Radar Online asked the FBI for Epstein-related files in 2017, before his 2019 prosecution and death, and the department related to the court that it had over 11,500 documents related to him, of which, over 10,000 were never released. [48] The government has acted extremely odd and suspicious in both cases, refusing to turn documents over.

TRACEY LIMITS THE EPSTEIN ALLEGATIONS TO SEX, WON’T MAKE OBVIOUS CONNECTIONS TO TRAFFICKING, ESPIONAGE, BLACKMAIL

Tracey limits Epstein’s wrongdoing to “…procur[ing] teenage girls for his own perverse gratification.” This statement completely deflects from the coercion used by Epstein, according to allegations. In particular, Maria Farmer specifically talks about Filipino maids in several Epstein homes who complained about being ‘stolen’ and held hostage against their will. [49] That’s not a matter of simply ‘procuring’ girls who happen to be ‘teens,’ it’s sex trafficking and kidnapping.

Giuffre was not the only one who made claims that Epstein and others were engaged in sex trafficking to elites. She was the most prominent accuser, but far from the only one.

Giuffre accused, among others, these elites of having been involved in using Epstein to have sex with underage girls: Prince Andrew, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, billionaire Glenn Dubin, billionaire Jean-Luc Brunel who also brought girls as young as 12 to the island and ‘farmed them out’, billionaire Thomas Pritzker, MIT scientist Marvin Minsky.

Maria Farmer specifically claims that she witnessed Bill Clinton, on Epstein Island, being “given children” during his stay and she alleges that she has reported these crimes to the FBI, which has chosen to do nothing. [50 @1:15:00]

There are also the Flight manifests from the “Lolita Express” where the FBI seized 2001–2005 logs listing dozens of trips with girls aged 14–17 as “passengers,” often with only a single adult male aboard.

There is also the 2005 Palm Beach Police Report (Case No. 05-005679) where thirty-plus victims were interviewed; detectives documented cash payments of $200–$300 per “massage,” escalation to sex acts, and instructions to “recruit more girls at school.”

There is the 2008 Non-Prosecution Agreement in the Southern District of Florida, wherein ‘Appendix A’ explicitly identifies “numerous minor victims” trafficked across state lines for commercial sex acts; victims were listed anonymously as Jane Does 1–36.

In 2015–2019 in the Giuffre v. Maxwell depositions, Virginia Giuffre (Jane Doe 102) swore under oath she was trafficked to Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Glenn Dubin, Marvin Minsky, Bill Richardson, Jean-Luc Brunel, and others and flight records and receipts corroborate her movements to these men’s residences.

In the 2019 SDNY indictment, 19 Cr. 490, Count One was ‘conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.’ Epstein’s “black book,” Government Exhibit 1, cross-referenced with victim statements to show appointments labeled “massage” scheduled immediately after inbound flights of girls.

There is the 2019 FBI raid on Epstein’s Manhattan mansion where seized nude photographs labeled with victims’ names and dates. The FBI also found a safe containing CDs labeled “[girl’s name] + [VIP name]” referenced in court filing 08/12/2019, 19-mj-03117 (S.D.N.Y. Aug 12 2019), ECF No. 2 (“Government’s Memorandum of Law in Support of Pretrial Detention”), pp. 3–4.

In the 2021–2023 JPMorgan & Deutsche Bank settlements, internal compliance e-mails admitted Epstein was “collecting girls for friends” and flagged suspicious cash withdrawals tied to “school-aged females.”

In Victim Impact Statements from 2022, Sarah Ransome, “Jane Doe 9,” and others described being flown to New Mexico, Little St. James, and Paris for parties with unnamed “foreign dignitaries,” corroborated by passport stamps and Epstein’s pilot logs.

As part of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial exhibits in 2021, Government Exhibit 52 was a ledger showing $100k cash withdrawals on days victims were flown to meet specific men. There was also testimony from “Kate,” “Carolyn,” and “Jane” that Maxwell personally escorted them to hotel suites occupied by high-profile guests.

In the documentary “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein” several of the victims, including Virginia Giuffre, describe the abuse and being trafficked to elites. While Giuffre is the only one who ‘names names’ in the case of elites having sex, the others do not contest or deny that fact. And given the extensive litigation Giuffre went through, it’s not unreasonable that the other women were unwilling to name, and subject themselves to potential lawsuits for defamation, for naming specific people. [84]

Epstein consorted with a variety of suspect individuals, including several who were individually, separately, accused of child abuse and molestation. One, profiled recently by the Gateway Pundit, was Tyler Grasham. Grasham, who appears on the Epstein flight logs and whom Hollywood Executives report were aware of both his connection to Epstein and his serial abuse of young boys whom he was representing. Grasham, Hollywood Executives report, was not a particularly successful film agent, but he was close friends with Epstein. [51] Out of 20,000 estimated film agents, one who was a child predator seems to be close to Epstein. It certainly suggests, but does not prove, that Epstein was interested in people who could procure underage boys for sex with others.

TRACEY IGNORES EVIDENCE OF OTHER ‘ELITE PEDOPHILE NETWORKS’

Tracey says in his piece, “Belief in the ubiquity of elite pedophilia networks is a constant in the right-wing imagination…”

Yet there is considerable evidence and accusations of elite pedophilia and underage sex networks spanning the past 40 years.

In the 1980s, there was an allegation that a child prostitution ring involved local and national elites, as part of what was called the Franklin Credit Union scandal. [52] Witnesses gave grand jury testimony but the claims were dismissed as a hoax.

In the 1990s, in Belgium, Marc Dutroux [53] was convicted of abducting, raping, and killing young girls, some as young as 8. 20 witnesses in the case died under suspicious circumstances. Dutroux gave an interview after the allegations were made public where he openly mocked the idea that he would ever be caught or sentenced because, he said, of his social and political connections to powerful individuals. The police searched Dutroux’s home and heard the yelling and voices of young girls, but did not investigate where the voices were coming from, the girls, Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, later died of starvation. The extreme leniency given to him sparked nationwide legal reforms in Belgium due to public outrage.

In 1993, Heidi Fleiss was charged in state court, and federal charges followed a year later, for running a sex trafficking ring that catered to elites. [54] Fleiss was convicted of trafficking minor girls to elites. [55]

In 2008, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned and was nearly prosecuted for engaging the services of an Israeli-owned escort agency that catered to New York’s elites. [56] One of the girls involved, who went by the name “Kristen” and whose real name was Tania Nicole Bann, age 23, told at least two friends she was worried about being killed and it made to look like suicide. She was later found dead and her case file was sealed.

In 2012 in the United Kingdom, British media personality Jimmy Savile was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of children, some as young as 5, over decades, and was protected due to his status and relationships with the nation’s elite. [57]

Another such network was operated by Keith Allen Raniere, [58] who from 1998 through 2018 operated the “NXIVM” network, [59] which had 700 members at its height, including celebrities and financial elites. [60, 61]

In 2020, near billionaire Peter Nygard [62, 63] was prosecuted and ultimately sentenced to over 11 years in prison. Nygard was accused of running a sex trafficking ring for elites.

In 2022, the Larry Ray / Sarah Lawrence cult was prosecuted. While most victims were college-aged, some of their underage friends and relatives were underage and forced into prostitution. [64] Ray was convicted in the Southern District of New York of 1) Sex trafficking of a minor, 2) Forced Labor, 3) Extortion, and 4) Racketeering conspiracy, [65] and sentenced to 60 years in prison. [66, 67]

In 2023, details about “SNCTM”, an elite high-end sex club, [68] emerged where the founder, Damon Lawner, was banned from his own group after admitting President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member. [69] Allegations from 2018 claimed that Lawner wanted staff to procure underage performers for this elite, $75,000 per year, club. [70]

In 2025, Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted by federal prosecutors for operating an elite network with “freak-off” parties, drug-fueled orgies, which allegedly included celebrities, [71] underage participants, [72] from the 1990s through the 2020s. [73]

Most of these allegations have certain commonalities as well: elite membership, and at least the tacit allowance from local and federal law enforcement who decline to prosecute prostitution, trafficking, assault, charges against these powerful individuals and organizations.

TRACEY MISSTATES EVIDENCE, IGNORES CONTEXT, OF ACOSTA STATEMENT ABOUT EPSTEIN BEING ‘OF INTELLIGENCE’

Tracey identifies that the source of this specific quotation is one article from the Daily Beast. And while the Daily Beast is a noted left-wing fabulist on many issues, on this, the story has never been challenged on the record. Simply indicting the credibility of the outlet because the significance of the story is not compelling. As well, the Daily Beast used specific quotations, not paraphrasing, again suggesting that the quotation was from a source with knowledge.

But Tracey says this is “pure hearsay” and that the entire claim “falls apart” upon scrutiny. For support, he points to the Department of Justice’s internal OPR report on the Acosta plea deal with Epstein from 2007.

Tracey also spins his own conspiracy theory that Steve Bannon is the source for Vicky Ward’s quotes in the Daily Beast about Epstein and Acosta’s quotes. [74 @4:18] His basis for this was because Ward was writing a book trashing the Kushners at the time. Tracey claims [75 @5:09] that Acosta denied by the Justice Department’s investigators as part of the Office of Professional Responsibility’s investigation into the matter.

What Tracey leaves out, and what Megan Kelly has noted, is that Acosta was questioned by journalists in 2019 about this quote, and gave a non-answer answer. [76] Given the chance to correct the record, Acosta remained mum and deflected.

The ‘sweetheart deal’ that Acosta gave Epstein in 2007 [77] as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida makes no sense otherwise. Why would Epstein be given such incredible leniency in the face of multiple credible accusers? All of this is ignored by Acosta.

To recap, the Department of Justice’s OPR report makes clear that the original 60 count potential indictment was reduced to pleading guilty to only two state crime violations of prostitution, a 2 year sentence which was reduced to 18 months in the County Jail, where he was on ‘work release’ for half the time volunteering at a non-profit he created and operated out of his attorney’s office, the “Florida Science Foundation,” and was given “gain time” so that he served less than 13 months. In addition, Acosta gave immunity to his co-conspirators, including Ghislaine Maxwell, and that blanket immunity agreement is the basis from which Maxwell appealed her 2022 conviction to the Supreme Court three months ago.

The OPR report [78] does not clarify that it asked Acosta about his alleged quote that he was told to back off of Epstein because he “belonged to intelligence” but, instead, makes quite clear that it thinks Acosta utilized “poor judgment” [79] in dealing with Epstein’s defense team. This is far from the exoneration Tracey contends it is. Tracey is misrepresenting a source to say that Acosta’s alleged statement that Epstein is connected to intelligence is disproven by the OPR report.

Tracey also contends that, when asked, Alex Acosta denied that Epstein was connected to intelligence. That question came from the Associated Press at a July 10, 2019 press conference, [80 @46:15, 81] and here is the exchange:

Richard Lardner from The Associated Press: Mr. Secretary, will you ever made aware, at any point your handling of this case, that Mr. Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?

Then-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta: So so so so there has there has been reporting to that effect and and let me say there’s been reporting to a lot of effects in in in this case… not just now but over the years… and and again I would I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact this was a case that was brought by our office it was brought based on the facts and and I look at that reporting and others, I can’t address it directly because of our our guidelines, but I can tell you that that a lot of reporting is just going down rabbit holes.

Acosta isn’t denying anything. He’s saying effectively… nothing. He says reporting isn’t all to be taken as fact. He doesn’t deny a link to intelligence, he says all reporting is suspect on this case. Again, Tracey is wildly misstating the record and is misrepresenting a source.

It is very hard to explain why a U.S. Attorney would give such preferential treatment to someone for whom they had multiple allegations of sexual crimes, in addition to evidence to support a 60 count indictment.

CONCLUSION

Michael Tracey’s boldest claim is that Giuffre is a “serial fabricator.” That claim is entirely false, though it is true that Giuffre dismissed her claims against Alan Dershowitz while claiming it was a case of mistaken identity. Giuffre’s other claims hold up across large amounts of litigation, civil and criminal, state and federal.

Tracey ignores the other accusers, but dismisses them all as financially-motivated. Yet the justice system does not have a remedy to give litigants other than the pursuit of financial awards. This indictment of their motives, because they sought financial compensation, is not valid. Tracey knows this, he’s just trying to smear them by indicting their motives.

Tracey also points to a lack of named elites, yet the Epstein accusers have been quite clear in accusing very high-level elites as having been part of the operation. Tracey is either ignoring these people altogether, or being willfully ignorant here.

Michael Tracey is using a wide variety of selectiveness, cherry picking, and sophistry, in order to defend a well-known sexual trafficking operation involving underage children. His article is trash, his reasoning is unsound, and his methods are obviously bad.

OUR RATING: Level 1: Journalistic Malpractice, Even Salon.com is ashamed. Total lies.

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Compact Mag’s Michael Tracey Minimizes, Deflects, Dissembles, Lies about Epstein Horrors

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