Epstein’s Birthday Book Triggers Difficult Memories

I spent Tuesday reading and re-reading Epstein’s birthday book.

Yes, as others have pointed out the whole package is misogynistic and lewd, and it beggars belief that the alleged Trump artwork, is not by Trump.

But it’s the jokes about my 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein by Alan Dershowitz and Leon Black – and I suspect a veiled allusion to it by Mort Zuckerman – that are personally triggering.

They bring back memories I have long tried to suppress, about a truly hideous time in my life, when I worked night and day to get to the bottom of something I could sense was evil, only to get outmaneuvered by Epstein, who was supported, it turns out, by a cabal of guys, who joked about my efforts to expose him and his crimes.

The pages took me back to a wintry morning in early 2003 when I decided to take a cab uptown to the hospital because I hadn’t been able to sleep. I felt a throbbing pain in my lower back, and I felt unwell in general. But I’d felt so unwell in general in this pregnancy, stressed and overwrought for months, mostly because of harassment and threats from Jeffrey Epstein, that this day didn’t feel much different. My babies were not due for another two and a half months.

But by the time I got to the hospital, I was screaming.

Next thing I knew, I was in a ward, surrounded by an army of doctors and nurses who were shouting at each other. “Do this,” “Do that,” “Someone hold her still. She’s got to get an epidural…”

“Can’t you give me an injection to stop the labor?” I asked someone… “It’s too late,” I was told. “You are fully dilated and I see a head.”

My husband arrived just as someone told me, “We are cutting you now.” He grabbed my hand. I’ve never felt so relieved and afraid at the same time. This couldn’t be happening, I kept thinking. But it was.

I glimpsed Baby A, who looked like a little martian, and then Baby B, who I already knew was way, way too small. Then they were gone. I had no idea where. Seconds later, I threw up and passed out.

When I woke up, I was hooked up to drips, in a small dark room off of the labor ward and I looked straight into the anxious face of my doctor, Robert Sassoon, who had lived too far away to get there in time for the birth.

“Oh My God,” I said to him. “What a fuck up.”

In that moment, I realized two dismal things simultaneously:

I had just given birth in a dramatic and completely horrifying manner at just 30 weeks, to two tiny babies, weighing 2lbs and 3lbs respectively, who now faced an uphill battle to survive. I did not know if they would make it, and, if they did, in what shape.
Jeffrey Epstein had won. He had told me he’d curse my unborn children – and, it now seemed, he had done so successfully. What else might he now do to harm them further?

You are not supposed to feel terrible despair when you give birth. But that’s what I felt.

Read the rest of the article on Vicky Ward Investigates.

Trump’s Reaction to The Epstein Survivors’ Press Conference Was Way Weirder Than You Think

What was Donald Trump thinking when he responded so truculently to a reporter’s question about yesterday’s poignant, powerful and non-political Epstein survivor press conference and called it a “Democrat hoax”?

It’s baffling.

And not just because nothing about yesterday’s proceedings was remotely partisan or political. In fact, I’d posit that it’s hard to think of a more uplifting display of unity on the Capitol steps, even if the impetus behind it stemmed from unfathomable abuse and suffering.

But what’s a far bigger head-scratcher in my mind is that Trump has a personal history – in a good way, as far as I know – with the first Epstein survivor to speak: Anouska De Georgiou.

De Georgiou, 48, is the dazzling, articulate British-born blonde who runs the Kintsugi Foundation, a transitional residential facility in Los Angeles.

Yesterday, she described not only how she suffered abuse from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for over a decade but how she was then followed, stalked and threatened – even with death – if she ever talked about what happened. Giving birth to her daughter, she said, was what ultimately gave her the courage to turn around and fight.

Yesterday marked the first time that De Georgiou has said publicly that she has “testified’. I’ve been given permission to explain that she was one of the four key witnesses in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial in which she testified under the pseudonym, Kate. She alluded to this yesterday, because she has very good reason, given recent events:

Read the rest of the article on Vicky Ward Investigates.

Joy Ann Reid Responds to MAGA’s Rage, Tears, and Hysteria After She Called Out Right-wing Mediocracy

Thank you Zev Shalev, Ellie Leonard, Cathy R. Payne, Pamela, Noble Blend, and many others for tuning into my live video with THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali and Joy-Ann Reid! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Watch the whole conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.

Should Vanity Fair Put Melania Trump On The Cover?

Hey Everyone,

I was thrilled to chat today with new substacker, Kate Brower, the author of many books, including the New York Times bestseller: The Residence (now a major Netflix TV series) and First Women.

We discuss the peculiarity of Melania Trump’s letter to Vladimir Putin; and the possibility that the First Lady is much more influential in this administration than polls suggest. Is she an “accidental feminist?” asks Kate, citing the significance of the fact that Melania broke with tradition and refused Jill Biden’s invitation to tea.

We also get into this President’s micromanaging of the re-design of the Rose Garden and the White House, which is so extensive parts of it won’t be finished by the time his term ends. (Or, perhaps I should say, this term ends, because, as you know, that’s a question).

And, we debate the controversy supposedly raging at Vanity Fair: should the new editor, Mark Guiducci put Melania on the cover? (Some of the staff have reportedly threatened to walk out if he does).

Watch the rest of the conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.

“Steve Witkoff is the new Lev Parnas”

Hey Everyone,

Many of you know I have a soft spot for Lev Parnas, whom I met when I was working at CNN in 2019, soon after he’d been arrested for campaign finance violations. It emerged that Trump and a bunch of cronies, including Rudy Giuliani, had told Parnas to go to Ukraine and try to dig up dirt on the Bidens as part of a “shadow diplomacy”. Yet, when Lev was arrested, they suddenly had amnesia about it and hung him out to dry.

“Lev who?” was the party line – until, it emerged that the canny Lev had got photographic and video evidence of being in rooms with “the Big Guy” as he once called Trump. He had recorded a conversation in which he talked about trying to oust the then US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch as part of the campaign to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

I remember feeling very sorry for Parnas, who is immensely charismatic, as you can see in this video – and who was just as sunny when he was under a lot of pressure.

I remember watching him in court, his pregnant wife Svetlana by his side, as his lawyer tried, unsuccessfully, to get him out of house arrest while on bail. He wound up being sentenced to 20 month in prison. But in all that time, in his many conversations with me, he never lost his sense of humor or his verve for life.

Watch the full conversation and read the full write-up on Vicky Ward Investigates.

Mikhail Zygar: “This Was A Major Win For Putin…”

I was hoping for an upbeat conversation.

I was hoping that Mikhail Zygar, one of the few journalists who understands how Putin thinks, would come bouncing on to our live video chat and tell me that he was hopeful that, like Trump, he could see peace in Ukraine around the corner…

But sadly, no.

His read of the last four days is that Putin’s trip to meet Trump in Alaska brought him exactly what he wants, which is more stalling time so he can continue the forever war.

And, that the European leaders who flew into DC to flank Volodymyr Zelensky in his meeting with Trump, came cynically just for the “photo opp,” to massage Trump’s ego, and, yes, also to bolster Zelensky, but without any expectation that the talks would get anywhere practically.

Further, Mikhail asks: what happens when we get to October? “I am really scared…”

Watch the conversation and read the full write-up on Vicky Ward Investigates.

“Jeffrey Epstein Claimed Putin Was A Client” — I Discuss And Cross-Examine Findings With Former CBS News Producer Zev Shalev On Epstein’s Money And Intelligence Ties.

Hey Everyone,

I was about to write up an account of today’s interview with the host of Narrativ, Zev Shalev, when I saw he’d already done an excellent break-down on his newsletter.

So, with apologies to Zev, I am saving time and copying and pasting his below. But please, do also go to his newsletter, Narrativ, and see the excellent deep dives he’s put together, particularly this one about Robert Maxwell, which spurred me to re-listen to Chasing Ghislaine, my 2020 podcast series about Ghislaine Maxwell, her father, and Epstein. I discovered that certain things leapt out at me this time, that I hadn’t thought much about five years ago:

Here’s Zev’s write-up of our conversation, which you can also watch above:

Read Zev’s write-up and watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.

VICKY WARD: I’ve felt the darkness that consumed the Idaho ‘killer’ and it raises a terrible thought – could it drive my own sons to such evil, too?

Some Personal News!

Hi Everyone,

So, I can now talk about by next book project.

James Patterson and I are teaming up again. We have signed with Little,Brown, the publisher of The Idaho Four, to write a book about the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson.

Here’s what we said in the press release that went out this morning:

“This is a story about the American Dream Gone Wrong. It’s also a story of one young man’s descent from Ivy League graduate to notorious accused killer to so-called political martyr. The Idaho Four was inspired by the photo of the four tragic victims. Like millions around the world, Vicky and I were riveted by coverage of the five-day manhunt from Midtown Manhattan to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” said James Patterson.

“This story touches all of us. It goes to the heart of the social, cultural and political issues dividing the US right now. Nothing is more of a reviled black box than the health insurance industry, and it’s time to open it up, through a crime that has caught the attention of the country,” said Vicky Ward.

Read the rest of the Substack article at Vicky Ward Investigates.

“How Do You Reconcile Yourself To Facing Evil?”

Thank you, Steve Schmidt, author of The Warning, for a very deep, thought-provoking discussion that forced me to pull back and think hard about the bigger picture:

Why do I choose to pursue the dark people and dark topics that I do?

What’s it like for me emotionally going down dark rabbit holes?

And how do all the dark rabbit holes connect?

And, yes, most often, they do…

Watch the video of our live conversation above.

And a reminder: You can buy The Idaho Four here.

Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.