Joel Rubin’s Expert Analysis On War With Iran
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Today Bill Clinton is answering questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Unlike yesterday’s farcical hearing with Hillary Clinton, which she rightly turned into an own goal for the Republicans, given that she’d never met Epstein, this hearing matters.
Clinton has insight into how both Epstein and Maxwell wormed their way into the lives of the global elite, which wound up protecting him (consciously or not) from facing justice for decades. He needs to be pressed on all aspects of his relationship with both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – because, based on my reporting, he was closer to the latter than the former.
However, there’s one new aspect of their relationship that is bothering me: the role of a Clinton aide, Jim Kennedy, in discrediting the Farmer sisters (and me).
I had never heard of Kennedy until a few weeks ago.
But I have discovered that in 2002, when Epstein went behind my back to my then boss Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the person advising him and Maxwell on strategy, and even composing “letters’ to me and the magazine was Jim Kennedy, a former aide to Clinton’s White House Counsel, who went on to work for the Clinton Foundation.
WTF? ……
Read the full article on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Hey Everyone,
Last night Joel Rubin and I went on a whistle-stop world tour, taking stock of where the US is positioned, for better or worse.
We kicked off, of course, with Iran, because that’s the cliffhanger of the moment. As I type this Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are in Geneva for talks with both Iran – and Ukraine.
Joel’s analysis of how we got to this moment and what the problems are, is worth listening to. I was particularly struck by his comparison to the daring military capture of Nicolas Maduro in the middle of the night in Venezuela. “That was a clean win,” he explained.
But, he says there is no possibility of a “clean win” in Iran. The likelihood of the Iranians agreeing to give up every nugget of nuclear possibility is almost zero.
“Then what?” asks Joel. What will that Armada sitting on Iran’s doorstep do?
Also, the US is alone in picking this fight. We do not have the support of the other members of the UN Security Council.
He also reminds us that Witkoff and Kushner are not experience Iran experts. Unfortunately the Trump administration didn’t see the point of keeping any of those around, it seems.
We move on to discuss the latest news out of Israel: The US embassy is providing services for US citizens in West Bank Settlements – a first.
We get to Marco Rubio’s speech in Munich and its meaning.
And the lack of emphasis on Ukraine in Trump’s State of the Union Speech.
I was about to get to Epstein and the fallout around the globe that’s happened following the release of the Epstein files and suddenly I was cut off the chat!
I had high-speed internet, so I am getting to the bottom of why. My apologies. It was very annoying.
Joel and I will be back! Fear not! And I will give you an updated Epstein report shortly. You can read Joel’s substack here.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is the first member of the British Royal family to be arrested since 1647, when King Charles I was arrested. He was executed two years later.
We’ll have to see what trajectory this Royal arrest follows.
Meanwhile:
Adam and I get into it.
Standby for more analysis from us as the story unfolds.
Remember you can subscribe to Adam’s substack All Rise News, here.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Hey Everyone,
This interview was a breath of fresh air for me.
Instead of discussing Jeffrey Epstein, I discussed some of the things I have learned as I’ve gotten older with Gretchen Rubin, an old friend, and very successful writer and sociologist.
Her most recent book is called “Secrets of Adulthood,” as is her substack, which I highly recommend.
I always learn something when I chat with Gretchen. No one has studied the modern human condition more.
My two secrets are:
“Your friends are your family, too.”
and
“If a project scares you, you should probably do it.”
I hope you enjoy!
And, fear not, I’ll be back with more Epstein news. I have found some more revealing documents in the Files….
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Hey Everyone,
Thank you for tuning in.
Adam and I were stunned that we had so many viewers: 2,800.
We greatly appreciate your support.
For those who missed our conversation, you can watch it above.
We drill down on what was so very wrong with AG Pam Bondi’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee.
Where was her humanity? Why did she not once turn to acknowledge the brave Epstein survivors sitting behind her? Why not promise them that she will do everything in her power to ensure that the system never allows what happened to them to happen again?
There’s something very galling about watching a woman in power not just ignoring women who have suffered unimaginable injustices, but using her platform to avoid answering valid questions about the Epstein files and instead instead hurling personal and political insults that she’d appeared to memorize ahead of time.
Adam and I also get into what we each are looking for in the Epstein Files.
We discuss what’s there that we’ve found interesting. And what’s interesting about documents that appear to be missing.
Adam is looking into the sham marriages that Epstein used to bring women into the country. I can’t wait to read his findings on that.
We are both following the money trail and Epstein’s tentacles into foreign governments.
As always, I am so grateful to Adam for his intelligent, knowledgeable and careful insights. Do subscribe to his substack All Rise News, if you have not already.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Yesterday, I had a terrific conversation with “Mo” – Mosheh Oinounou – creator of the uber successful Mo News brand, here and on other platforms.
We talked about my experience of dealing with Jeffrey Epstein in 2002, when I was working for Vanity Fair, before Epstein was a bold-faced name. I also focus on how these latest documents show what a brilliant manipulator he was, not just of young women and girls, but also of wealthy men interested in his vast network and the insider knowledge of markets and much else he could give them. But what this latest tranche of Epstein files also has shown is surely that very few of them can plausibly deny knowing what Epstein was up to in his private life.
I also talk about what’s missing from the Epstein timeline in the Department of Justice document releases. An addendum on this: I mention that I couldn’t find anything on Epstein’s one time beneficiary Les Wexner. But I now see that according to the New York Times, there’s a draft email from Epstein to Wexner that is both threatening and emotional, harking back to when “You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years,”. A spokesman for Mr. Wexner told The Times that he never received the letter, and that it “appears to fit a pattern of untrue, outlandish, and delusional statements made by Epstein in desperate attempts to perpetuate his lies and justify his misconduct.” He and Epstein reportedly severed ties in 2007 shortly before Epstein went to jail in Florida.
But Epstein’s language triggers memories of allegations made by a local journalist, Bob Fitrakis, who maintained to me, both in 2002, and years later when I made the podcast and docuseries, Chasing Ghislaine, that the kind of control and influence that the Wexner/Epstein partnership was wielding was indeed mob-like. Fitrakis mentioned the expansion of New Albany’s huge development project in Ohio, as an example. And also the alleged use of planes to ship lingerie that were previously linked to Iran-Contra arms smuggling. He even referenced the murder of lawyer, Arthur Shapiro, who represented The Limited. I thought some of this was a little far-fetched at the time…now, of course, nothing seems completely off the table.
I get into why I think President Trump is not so much embarrassed by the Epstein Files as ticked that they are a bigger story than he is; and why it’s unlikely Epstein was working for the CIA or Mossad, as conspiracy theories have suggested. Epstein didn’t need to be an asset for a foreign government. We can see from the emails, that he had tentacles into the leaders of countries all around the globe. He was his own intelligence operation, all by himself. Not an entirely dissimilar business model from that of Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine, who traded information between multiple governments.
Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.
I was trawling through the Epstein Files last night and I stumbled on the fax Jeffrey Epstein sent to me back in December 2002, regarding questions put to him during our fact-checking process at Vanity Fair about allegations of abuse by Maria and Annie Farmer. (Earlier this week, I showed you the missive he sent to Graydon Carter, my boss at the time, also trashing me. And, as we know, it was effective. Without consulting me, despite everything I’d gone through with Epstein, all the harassment and threats to me and my unborn children, the Farmers were cut from the article, and were left exposed to the predators they’d tried to expose. It was ghastly. I note that in his uber-boring memoir, Carter makes no mention of the fact that Epstein came to visit him in his office at this time.
But, at least the latest tranche of Epstein Files has vindicated my version of events. In subsequent years, Epstein regularly refers to Graydon in emails as someone he believes to be on-side.
Here’s Epstein’s garbage invective – sent to me during our fact-checking process. The redacted names are those of Maria and Annie Farmer.
Read the rest of the article on Vicky Ward Investigates.
Thank you all for tuning in for a great conversation with Julie K. Brown who wrote the Miami Herald’s excellent series “Perversion of Justice”, which was critical in getting the Justice Department to finally focus on Epstein’s crimes – and then those of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Our 30 minute chat, above, touches on the things that we have round striking about this latest release of Epstein files.
Julie’s been interested in the highlighting of Maxwell’s role in Epstein’s crimes, something she thinks most people still don’t really understand.
We are both curious about redactions, omissions, pages suddenly pulled from the site.
I’m wondering why there isn’t more on Les Wexner, Epstein’s benefactor for so many years.
And I also wonder why Melanie Walker’s name is redacted. She’s the Epstein protege who went on to become a neuroscientist, a World Bank board member, and the partner of Steve Sinofsky, the former number two at Microsoft. As I reported for Rolling Stone, she talked up Epstein in Gates’ world. So, Gates’ advisor, Boris Nickolic went to meet with Epstein after he got out of prison. And Nikolic, in turn, suggested Bill Gates meet with him. Something, one suspects, Gates is no longer grateful for, given the draft email that’s just turned up in the finals and whose contents he has robustly denied.
We get into the role that the victims’ lawyers have played in a larger context; we anticipate Maxwell will plead the fifth amendment next Monday when she testifies to Congress. And we take a wager on whether or not Trump will pardon her when he leaves office.
That, and much more.
Watch!