Julie K. Brown: Hiding the Truth in the Epstein Files
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What recent developments in the Epstein case are being discussed?
Hey everybody, with all of this Epstein stuff that's been coming out over the holidays, it's been kind of tough to process everything and like understand what's really going on. And I assume for some of y'all, like you've been relatively new to the story and not been following it minute by minute over the past decade. And so it's a little bit head swirling. So I wanted to bring on Julie Brown, who has been covering the Epstein case for from the jump, having written the critical story that led to his second indictment. And so I want to grab her to talk about these recent files, but also just kind of take the lens back for everybody and kind of rewind back to that period from 2015, 16, 17, 18, when
the attention started to come back on to Epstein. He had been first, he was first in front of some of the 90s, and then he first got that sweetheart deal and the aughts, and then the story comes back into focus thanks to Julie Brown and the teens. So I wanted to kind of start there and give everybody a little bit of a timeline, a little bit longer lens perspective on this, and then we get into the news as well. So So much has been happening for Julie. She's so busy right now. I appreciate her taking the time to talk with all of us about that. I hope you enjoy it. Up next, Julie K. Brown.
Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Could not be more delighted to welcome to the show someone I've got to know a little bit over the past few years. She is a writer for the Miami Herald. She wrote the Perversion of Justice series and a book on all the things related to Jeffrey Epstein. It's Julie K. Brown. How you doing, Julie?
Hi there. I'm doing good.
You know, sometimes in podcast land, you glaze the guests a little bit. You know, you want to make them feel important and seem important to the audience. So you kind of talk about their highlights. I don't know that that's necessary here for you. And your role in the Epstein Files was just so significant. And as we were kind of looking through various things that came out, there's this one email that caught a couple of people's eye that I wanted to read about the significance of your work in that perversion of justice series at the Miami Herald.
How did Julie K. Brown's investigation impact the Epstein case?
We'll get into all the redacting. They're redacting who these emails are from and to for some reason, but it's an internal DOJ email. And one person emails to someone else, are we open on this? Can we be? Like, are we open on investigating Epstein? And then it has a link to your story. And then the person replies, yes, we're open as of today. It's on the DL for now. And so, you know, this is a guy that had been investigated many years prior, got out, was dormant for a decade. And then you begin this series and it kind of starts this cascade, including the investigation that ends up getting him arrested. I assume you knew all that at some level, but that was pretty remarkable to see. And I'm just wondering if you could kind of take our listeners back before we kind of get into the new stuff to that period.
And like what was happening at that time that got you back into the story?
Well, there were a lot of things. Donald Trump was running for president for the first time. And I saw an article that had been written about this woman who had filed a lawsuit against him and Epstein accusing him of, you know, raping her, essentially.
This was Katie Johnson.
This is Katie Johnson's case. Yes. And. It sort of just brought it up again in my head. It wasn't like I said, oh, I'm going to investigate the Katie Johnson story. I sort of thought, I remember reading about this guy and that he had sexually assaulted all these underage girls in Palm Beach. And whatever happened to this guy? I mean, it seems like he's still out there. And so I just started sort of looking into, you know, what had happened. And it just seemed... You know, like, why did this guy get away with this? If he raped all these girls and there seemed to be just tons of information and court records that showed that they had a lot of evidence to convict him.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What recent developments in the Epstein case are being discussed?
0:00–2:26
2
How did Julie K. Brown's investigation impact the Epstein case?
2:26–4:18
3
What role does Ghislaine Maxwell play in the Epstein scandal?
4:18–6:41
4
What are the implications of the DOJ's document release?
6:41–8:46
5
How are victims reacting to the ongoing Epstein revelations?
8:46–11:04
6
What connections exist between Epstein and political figures?
11:04–13:45
7
What are the controversies surrounding Epstein's death?
13:45–16:11
8
What future developments can we expect in the Epstein case?
16:11–47:01
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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