NEW: DOJ just turned over to @BuzzFeedNews and I and CNN nearly 300 pages of the supplemental material attached to the FBI 302s from the Mueller probe. @a_cormier_ and I are going through the records now but here's a sample
NEW/DOCUMENTS: Sorry for the delay! Here's our story on these amazing emails and text messages sent and received by Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and more that were scooped up as part of Mueller's investigation buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Roger Stone email to Steve Bannon August 28, 2016 just released
“Trump can still win — but time is running out. Early voting begins in six weeks. I do know how to win this but it ain’t pretty. buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Here is an email from Jared Kushner to Manafort and Lewandowksi describing his meeting with Kissinger and the guidance Kissinger provided to the Trump campaign buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Michael Flynn email to Steve Bannon December 19, 2015 about steps that need to be taken to defeat ISI, which included engagement with Russia
"Also, I met with President Putin last Thursday in Moscow. We actually sat at dinner together.” buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
This is an email a person from Cambridge Analytica sent Corey Lewandowksi about entering into a contract with the Trump campaign buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Here's an email from Barbara Ledeen addressed to "Ms Herridge" about a big story: “material we have found on the deep and dark web regarding stories you have been pursuing.” buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
This is an email from Ivanka Trump to Trump 2016 campaign co chair Sam Clovis saying Don Jr can "also be helpful in terms of thinking about military advisors on the civilian side." buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
NOTE: It took DOJ three years to turn over these documents to us, even after we sued under #FOIA. Although they relate to activities that took place 5 years ago, I believe they are important historical records and newsworthy
Someone from Wikileaks reached out to Michael Flynn on behalf of Julian Assaange requesting an interview with Flynn's camp responded: "do we really want the General associated with this gentleman?"
DOJ is STILL withholding records from the Mueller probe citing ongoing law enforcement investigation as well as other #FOIA exemptions
Sebastian Gorka sent Corey Lewandowksi and the 2016 Trump campaign a national security memo: Russia and the US National Interest.
"Putin has turned Russia in a criminal enterprise that threatens stability in Europe and the Middle East."
George Papadopoulos emails to Corey Lewandowksi: Messages from Russia and Russian outreach
Someone forwarded an email to Michael Flynn a week before election day 2016 from a person who wrote that they had a declassified FBI document they wanted help with. "It apparently involved a contract to investigate the servers."
Flynn: "Get me a number."
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🚨 NEW/EXCLUSIVE: The FBI turned over dozens of emails to me in response to my #FOIA request that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the discussions involving the review and redaction of the Epstein files
The records I got also reveal the number of hours the FBI devoted to the project, which required some agents to work nights and weekends. The FBI paid personnel from various divisions, including counterintelligence and international operations, $851,344 in overtime for working on the Epstein files between March 17 and March 22, according to the documents. FBI personnel clocked in a total of 4,737 hours of overtime between January and July. Of that, more than 70% occurred during the month of March while personnel reviewed the Epstein files, the documents show.
The emails reveal the special training given to FBI personnel working on what it called the “Epstein Transparency Project.” In some instances they referred to it as the “Special Redaction Project.” The training entailed PowerPoint slide presentations and video instruction on how to review the files.
NEW/EXCLUSIVE: A French branch of HSBC closed a bank account maintained by Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 after compliance officers flagged transactions for suspicious activity, including payments tied to a modeling agent later accused of rape & sex trafficking
The previously unreported closure, which HSBC officials announced to Epstein in a letter dated Dec. 21, 2007, is the only known instance of a major bank closing one of his accounts before he pleaded guilty to sex offenses in Fla. in 2008.
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This is part of a series of stories based on emails sent to and from Jeffrey Epstein's private Yahoo account obtained by @business. Emails and attachments from that account weren't included in more than 20,000 pages of documents that a congressional committee released publicly on Nov. 12.
An HSBC spokesman declined to comment. But two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the bank closed Epstein’s account because employees in its compliance department raised red flags. Their concerns included financial transactions involving young women associated with the French modeling agency MC2 and its owner, Jean-Luc Brunel.
When investigators were closing in on Jeffrey Epstein, he thought about saying sorry. Merrie Spaeth, a sought-after crisis strategist who once served as the director of media relations for Ronald Reagan’s White House, helped him pick his words.
As some of the country’s best-connected lawyers were defending Epstein and elite academics were catering to his intellectual interests, media professionals worked to protect his public image. His publicists and consultants, according to the emails, included veteran executives Howard Rubenstein, Dan Klores and Mike Sitrick. Peggy Siegal, who held sway over some of Hollywood’s biggest movie premieres, emailed after the 2006 indictment to flag a Vanity Fair story.
“Can only assume Jeffrey does not want me to talk to this reporter,” she wrote his team, “not unless he wants certain things said on his behalf.” (Like Dershowitz and Sitrick, Siegal also did work for Harvey Weinstein.) Rubenstein died in 2020. Sitrick said he was retained by Epstein’s lawyers for a fairly short period. Klores and Siegal didn’t return messages.
NEW: In Oct 2016, when a new book about Jeffrey Epstein came out, he bought 17 copies. A few months after that, he picked up 6 books about narcissism. In 2019, in Epstein’s last weeks of freedom, he made his final purchases for his Kindle: a guide to raising children, though he wasn’t known to have any, The Annotated Lolita and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy
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Epstein has been one of the most scrutinized figures in contemporary America, and his crimes among the more notorious. Just this week, a congressional committee released a trove of documents from Epstein’s estate, which shows him saying President Donald Trump “knew about the girls”—a claim Trump has repeatedly denied—and hobnobbing with powerful figures from politics, academia and the media. Even so, much about Epstein’s life remains an enigma.
But a separate cache of more than 18,000 emails obtained by Bloomberg News offers another window into the mind of a sex offender who federal officials say harmed as many as 1,000 people.
🚨 EXPLOSIVE NEW investigation: We uncovered previously undisclosed details about an 18-month money laundering investigation into Jeffrey Epstein that took place alongside the 2007 federal sex crimes probe, according to emails & docs @business obtained from Epstein's personal Yahoo account & source familiar
The lead prosecutor requested that a grand jury issue subpoenas for “every financial transaction conducted by Epstein and his six businesses” dating to 2003, the emails show. Prosecutors also subpoenaed major banks for records about Epstein’s accounts and financial activity, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified to discuss a sensitive investigation.
Marie Villafaña, who was an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the time, even contacted Epstein’s longtime wealth-management client, Les Wexner, the billionaire businessman behind the brands Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, about the investigation, according to the documents and emails.
🚨 EXPLOSIVE NEW report based on the 18K emails @business obtained from Jeffrey Epstein's personal Yahoo account: new details about the academics, attorneys and media specialists who helped him—in different ways and to varying degrees
When investigators were closing in on Epstein, he thought about saying sorry. Merrie Spaeth, a sought-after crisis strategist who once served as the director of media relations for Ronald Reagan’s White House, helped him pick his words.
She sent Epstein three versions of a public apology in February 2008, according to emails obtained by @business.