In putting together this week’s episode of More To The Story, one thing became abundantly clear: Years after his death, Jeffrey Epstein still permeates the lives of so many, making messy work of getting to the truth.
Our team has been talking about producing an Epstein episode since last year. When two batches of heavily redacted files were released by the Department of Justice in December and January, journalists—including many from our own newsroom—combed through millions of pages of information, and names began to appear: Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson, to name a few. As our host Al Letson says in our interview, it was a cabal of the rich and powerful, with Jeffrey Epstein at the center.
To help us make sense of the Epstein Files, I reached out to journalist Vicky Ward, who in 2003 wrote a profile in Vanity Fair called “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” Not much had been written about the mysterious New York City millionaire up to that point, and Vicky had a blank slate to start her reporting. I thought it would be fascinating to get her read on all the new information that had resurfaced since the Epstein files were released.
But as I did more research, I realized that Vicky knew a terrible truth about Epstein far before most of us. And the story about why that truth wasn’t revealed in 2003 is layered and complicated. This episode morphed into a story about Epstein’s influential circle of soft power, the struggle of his survivors to have their stories told, and the failings of journalism in a time before the MeToo movement. I hope you’ll take a listen.
—Kara McGuirk-Allison
