Armie Hammer: Why Was He So Reckless?

My question to psychologist and trauma survivor Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD, is: why would Armie Hammer, or indeed anyone, risk everything by creating a digital record of his inner thoughts? Why are people willfully blind about the vulnerability of phones and laptops?

Listen to our conversation at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Jared Kushner’s Little Brother is Richer than Both Him And Trump.

So, last week it was reported that Jared Kushner’s younger brother, Josh, 37, sold a stake in his venture firm, Thrive Capital, to a group of big-name investors, who paid $175 million; the deal valued Thrive at $5.3 billion – which makes Josh’s personal wealth worth $3.7 billion. It makes him richer than Donald Trump, whose net worth is estimated at $2.6 billion and also richer than his brother, Jared whose fund, Affinity is much smaller even after the Saudis, controversially, invested $2 billion in it.

Unlike Jared, Josh is known for hard work and “keeping his nose clean” and staying out of the press. Except in one regard: he’s married to the supermodel, Karlie Kloss. But, as supermodels go, Kloss is exceptional. She’s a highly successful entrepreneur, reportedly an extremely decent person, and the only gossipy thing known about her is that, perhaps, she does not see eye to eye politically with her sister-in-law, Ivanka Trump.

I phoned around Wall Street this week to ask about what people thought of the deal and valuation and the universal view was that Josh Kushner has hung onto good people and deserved his success. Although, It’s important to remember that a valuation of $5.3 billion, is only a paper valuation. “Instacart was at 40 billion a year ago and now it’s at nine. Nobody got out at 40,” said one senior investment. “Josh Kushner is so young, there’s plenty he’s never seen.”

Still, a few years ago I met Josh Kushner and I did find him thoughtful, ambitious and quietly impressive. He seemed authentic. I needed to look up my own 2019 book to remember the exact details of what I’d reported on him. Turns out his upward trajectory was long predicted.

An excerpt from my 2019 book, Kushner, Inc, on “Vicky Ward Investigates”

“People Will Lose their Jobs Over this!”

Murdaugh Trial: Week Two

So, one person is not pleased by the increasingly gripping testimony we’ve heard so far at the double murder trial of South Carolina attorney and scion, Alex Murdaugh. That person, I gather, is Mark Keel, the chief of SLED. (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division).

Monday night, Keel was described to me by a source in law enforcement as being “unglued” because of how badly he felt both SLED and Colleton County Sherriff’s Office had come off so far in the courtroom, where the trial is into its second week.

One of his agents, Katie McAllister, who was part of the team who examined the grisly murder scene, was visibly in tears Monday evening, says an eye witness who spoke to her. According to my source, she described Keel as “giving them so much hell that he says there will be people losing their jobs over this.”

Even if you haven’t been paying close attention to what’s been going on so far inside the South Carolina court room, the increasingly eye-popping headlines out of what we’ve seen so far in the trial, raise important questions about what happened on the night of June 7 2021.

Remember that’s the night the bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot dead, felled by two separate guns, at Moselle, a family hunting estate owned by the Murdaugh family, a dynasty of lawyers who had effectively ruled South Carolina’s Low Country for around a century.

Read on at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Inside An FBI Sting on Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Yesterday I reminded you that, yes, I once danced with the santioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has found himself, once more, in the headlines because a retired FBI agent, Charles McConigal, has been charged with taking money from him. A spokesperson for Deripaska told the New York Times that Deripaska did not hire McConigal for any purpose.

Over the weekend I phoned around to try to find out a little more about Deripaska’s VERY complicated see-saw relationship with law enforcement in the US.

Briefly, it’s emerged the FBI tried to hire him as informant in 2014-2016. They wanted inside information on Russian organized crime and Russia’s involvement with the Trump campaign (he said there was none).

And, before all this, back in 2009, the FBI had a working relationship with him–of sorts. He spent $25 million in helping the FBI try to find an American spy who was kidnapped by the Iranians, and has not been seen in years.

So when I started hitting the phones on this, I knew I’d find something because I know people who know Deripaska. But I didn’t think I knew someone who wore a wire for the FBI in a sting operation of which Deripaska was the target. But, that’s why you should always cast a wide net when phoning sources…

Read about the details of the sting at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

My Dance Partner, Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska is Back in the News

I feel that no sanctioned Russian Oligarch gets more attention from the US and its media than Oleg Deripaska.

Last week retired FBI agent, Charles McConigal, was arrested and charged with allegedly violating US sanctions by taking money from Deripaska (who is sanctioned). According to the indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, Deripaska paid McConigal to research the activities of another Russian Oligarch. A spokesperson for Deripaska told the New York Times that Deripaska did not hire McConigal for any purpose.

And in September 2022, as I reported, Deripaska and his girlfriend, Ekaterina Lobanova (who, according to the Daily Mail has used the alias Lizzy Sex Relax) and two others were indicted by the Justice Department for violating the sanctions against him and his businesses, because he’d allegedly organised for Lobanova to fly over and have their first baby here and were planning to repeat the experience for baby #2.

I’ve been doing some reporting over the weekend so stand by for fresh news from me this week of Deripaska, or “OVD” as some people refer to him.

But, for now, to set the backdrop, I want to remind you of a passage I wrote in March of last year. It explains partly why I am interested in Deripaska, having had an unusual and memorable few moments with him on his yacht and on the dance floor back at a friend’s birthday party in Montenegro in 2011.

It is not your typical journalistic encounter with a Russian Oligarch…

Read the story at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Murdaugh Trial: I sat down with Murdaugh defense attorneys

It’s been a fascinating week at Colleton County Courthouse where the trial of South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh is finally underway. Murdaugh, 53, is charged with the double homicide of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Prosecutors argue he killed them to try in a vain attempt to stave off growing attention on his finances, and, subsequently, his alleged financial crimes (it’s alleged he has stolen around $8 million). The defense argues that they were likely killed by a third party who was seeking revenge on Paul, who was facing criminal charges at the time for having drunk-driven his boat into a piling one dark night, resulting in the death of a beautiful 19-year-old, Mallory Beach.

This week, the court heard how Murdaugh greeted officers at the scene with no trace of blood on him. Yet he told them he’d checked the pulses of each of the bodies. As they arrived, we heard that he also launched, involuntarily, into an explanation as to why they’d been killed. Paul had been getting threats.

Local lawyers have told me they expect a hung jury at the end of this, given the lack of hard evidence and the clout of Murdaugh’s defense team. I guess we shall see.

But I have met Murdaugh’s defense lawyers. Dick Harpootlian, the colorful state senator, and his quieter, more earnest colleague, Jim Griffin. I first met the duo in Harpootlian’s offices in Columbia, South Carolina, in the Fall of 2021. Alex Murdaugh had been involved in a second incident, soon after the murders of his wife and son: he’d been shot, roadside, while changing his tire. At first, he said he did it himself. Later he changed the story and said that Curtis Eddie Smith, a relative, had shot him at his request (allegedly for the insurance money) – and missed.

So, as I sat with Harpootlian and Griffin nearly 18 months ago, I expressed my astonishment that Smith had fired and missed. Whereupon Harpootlian, who was sitting across the desk from me, opened a drawer, took out a small handgun, passed it to me, and said something like: “OK, if it’s so easy, you try.”

That sort of thing doesn’t typically happen when I interview people. I handed the gun back to Harpootlian, without accepting his offer. Was he for real?

I’d soon discover that both lawyers are, in fact, considered heavyweights. Harpootlian has been on both sides of many murder trials. Griffin: Just one. Which was on Court TV. And which caught the attention of soft-hearted women everywhere, who started to mail in cash for Griffin to hand on to his client, Thomas Grover Rye. It was a fascinating idiosyncratic case, that I struggle to imagine could have taken place anywhere other than in South Carolina.

Read what happened at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Why no mention of Qatar, Mike?

I have skimmed through the memoir of Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and former Secretary of State—and now presidential candidate. Two things jump out. His son, Nick, wrote the (unctuous) introduction. I’m not sure what the point is of having your non-author, non-public servant son write the introduction, but it made me think I should be very nice to my adult sons just in case I run out of options for my own books.

More seriously: Qatar.

I keep pressing the search function on my Kindle looking for any mention of the blockade of Qatar….and none.

This is completely fascinating. Why?

In Kushner, Inc, my own 2019 book, I have a whole passage on how Pompeo was caught in the middle between Trump and rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In April 2018, Trump wrote a letter to Saudi Crown Prince MBS, which he gave to Pompeo to hand-deliver, telling MBS to knock off the blockade of rival Qatar, which the US, who has an airbase there, would no longer support.

You can read my account of what happened at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Prince Andrew’s Strange Settlement with Virginia Giuffre

Last March, I wrote about why Prince Andrew might want to settle with Virginia Giuffre and thus avoid going to a public trial. Here’s the transcript of that Q&A with former AUSA for South Florida David S. Weinstein about why he thought Andrew settled.

So, what might have have happened to make the Prince reportedly want to reverse this deal that put him into exile?

I checked in with Weinstein to get his take. I still am waiting to hear from both the Prince’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, and Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies. And I will let you know when/if I hear.

Take a listen to our audio Q&A on “Vicky Ward Investigates”

Ghislaine Maxwell Claims the Prince Andrew Photo is Fake

It’s going to be a very busy week.

Tomorrow, I am booked to talk to Britain’s Piers Morgan on Talk TV about an exclusive interview with British TV host, Jeremy Kyle, given by Ghislaine Maxwell from jail in Florida as she waits for an appeal.

What’s been reported so far about the interview is that she says that the famous photograph of herself with Prince Andrew and his arm around Virginia Roberts Giuffre, then 17, is, as far as she knows, a fake.

She told Britain’s Daily Mail:

‘I have no memory of them meeting. And I don’t think that picture is real.

‘It is a fake. I don’t believe it is real for a second, in fact I am sure it is not.

‘There has never been an original, there is no photograph’

OK. So I explained in my Audible Original podcast, Chasing Ghislaine, that that photograph is arguably more responsible than anything else for putting Epstein and later Maxwell behind bars–and for Prince Andrew’s subsequent disgrace. I also know that the photograph’s authenticity has long been a question mark for Maxwell and her siblings. A source close to the Maxwells told me weeks ahead of her trial at the end of 2021 that no one they knew had glimpsed the original.

So, In April, 2021 I asked Dawn Schneider, the spokesperson for David Boies, Giuffre’s attorney, about the whereabouts of the original photograph. She responded on email:

“i just confirmed. Virginia gave the photo to the FBI. it and other docs remain with the FBI.”

At the same time, I asked the editor for the Mail if anyone there had seen the original. Spokesperson Robyn Kelly emailed me:

This one is very straightforward: we did see the original photograph.

We had a photographer present at the interview with Virginia Roberts in Australia. During the interview, Virginia produced an envelope with photographs in it, including the one of her with Prince Andrew. The photographer then took a photograph of the photograph (which we still have), to send to the picture desk.

Since then, however, there appears to have been uncertainty about where that original is now. Last year, after Prince Andrew’s lawyers asked to see it, there was a rash of media reports suggesting that, in fact, the FBI has a mere copy in its files, and that Roberts has “lost” the original. (Today, I reached out to Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, and his spokesperson, Dawn Schneider. And to Prince Andrew’s lawyer. I’ll let you know when/if I hear back).

The reason that photograph matters: Jeffrey Epstein was not a household name in 2011 when that photograph, allegedly taken at Maxwell’s London home in 2001, was first published in the Mail on Sunday. Nor were Ghislaine Maxwell or Virginia Roberts Giuffre. But Prince Andrew definitely was. It was his celebrity that sparked international interest in Giuffre’s claims–and her subsequent civil lawsuits against Epstein and, later, Maxwell and Prince Andrew. The depositions in the civil suits became critical catalysts for the criminal suits subsequently brought by prosecutors against both Epstein and Maxwell. And those, in turn, were the catalyst for Giuffre’s civil suit against Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew is now reportedly considering trying to roll-back the settlement he made last March with Giuffre after she sued him for sexual abuse. It was a settlement that resulted in him being stripped of his HRH title, military titles, and Royal patronages.

Andrew’s U-turn, according to British newspaper reports, started when Giuffre’s long-time suit against law professor and former Epstein pal, Alan Dershowitz, whom she had claimed abused her several times, was dropped last year. Roberts said she “may have made a mistake” in identifying Dershowitz.

I asked Alan Dershowitz what he thought. Turns out that one of Prince Andrew’s attorneys, Blair Berk, is a friend and former student of his. Interesting!

And I also turned to David S. Weinstein, the former assistant US attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida to ask about possible risks for Maxwell in speaking to the press.

What to make of this?

Listen to both interviews at “Vicky Ward Investigates”

“Alex Murdaugh might be in jail. That doesn’t mean his tentacles stop at that cell door.”

In the past 18 months, I’ve spent a great deal of time in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, talking to people about the bizarre, gothic tragedy and mystery of the Murdaugh family. Alex Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at a hunting lodge. His trial starts Monday.

The Murdaughs have effectively “ruled” over the five counties comprising South Carolina’s Lowcountry for nearly a century. They’ve held the position of “Solicitor”–equivalent to District Attorney–AND had a lucrative private law practice…yes, it’s a conflict. But this is South Carolina. In Yemassee, a town close to Colleton, where the trial will take place, I’ve spent six or more evenings in the only bar/restaurant and found that no one–and I mean no one–wants to discuss the family. If something about them flashes up on the TV above the bar, the channel gets switched to something else. Given their extraordinary fall and straitened circumstances, I found this a little weird.

I spoke this morning with Susanne Andrews, whom I met during my reporting. Susanne lives in Columbia, South Carolina’s capital. She’s a friend of the family of Stephen Smith, a young gay man whose roadside death in 2015 is being re-investigated in connection to evidence found around the Murdaugh murders. We discuss trial expectations and why justice may yet be perverted in the next few weeks. Like I said: this is South Carolina.

Listen to our conversation at “Vicky Ward Investigates”