REPORT: Martin Sheil on How a Non-Politicized DOJ Would Handle Ghislaine Maxwell
Retired IRS criminal investigator Martin Sheil follows the Jeffrey Epstein money and network connections that Donald Trump would prefer you forget
***Please take out a membership to support the light of truth.***
Author’s Note: I have been studying how political technologists have turned politics into performance art, a political reality show where all the players perform their parts — spectacle and cruelty, outrage and depravity — designed to take us to the gutter with them. I investigated Trump’s ties to Epstein a decade ago so none of this is new for me — how best buds Trump, Epstein, and Tom Barrack were dubbed the ‘nightlife muskateers’. Barrack, you’ll recall, recommended Paul Manafort to the Trump campaign in 2016. In 2016, I wrote about the rape charges against Trump and Epstein — the accuser was 13, at the time — and no matter how much investigative reporters exposed, mainstream media was wed to spectacle and misogyny — ‘but her emails! Lock her up! Build a wall! Russia, if you’re listening’… reality was shapeshifting.
Now, we report each day from the gutter, as conspiracy and depravity take us further away from all that is decent, kind, and generous, and the political technologists churn out projection and deflection — mind toxins on a media conveyor belt.
Here to offer us some brass tacks clarity is Bette community member Martin Sheil — a retired IRS criminal investigator who has led many of our Happy Hour events. Today, Marty takes a deep dive down memory lane to reveal the Epstein connections that Trump is trying to obfuscate.—hsc
How Would a Non-Politicized DOJ Handle Ghislaine Maxwell?
by Martin Sheil
The Donald is teeing off on one of his new golf courses named after his mother in Scotland, while escaping the Epstein furor his DOJ provoked in the states. The furor was sparked from their amateur hour political mishandling of the infamous pedophile files allegedly on the desk of Trump’s handpicked Attorney General that were promised to the public. This became just another broken promise from the convicted felon now in his second presidential term. The Scots have some questions of their own for the Trumpster, which I will include with my own list weaved below.
I have to wonder what Trump’s mom, the Scottish born Mary Anne Macleod, would make of her son’s affiliation with the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy clientele and the abuse of very young girls?
Trump held a brief press conference before departing for Scotland and denied contemplating a pardon for Epstein’s chief co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in return for her cooperation. The Donald attempted to deflect all questions with regard to his affiliation with Epstein by suggesting the media focus on ex-President Clinton and ex-Harvard President Larry Summers’ association with Epstein as well as multiple hedgefund owners that Trump said he could list.
In a complete departure from professional practice, Trump dispatched Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche, who once personally represented the Donald, to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a twenty-year prison sentence in a federal prison in Tallahassee for her conviction regarding facilitation of human trafficking relative to Epstein.
The normal practice would be for a line attorney (prosecutor familiar with the evidence) to depose a prospective cooperating witness and do so in the presence of a federal agent, who would document the interview with a written memorandum called a 302.
This did not happen.
The line prosecutor most familiar with the case — daughter of the ex-director of the FBI, Jim Comey — was unavailable since she had been fired a week ago. While it is reported that Maxwell provided information to Blanche under limited immunity regarding 100 clients of Epstein, it is not known what if any promises Blanche made to Maxwell and what if any corroborating information Blanche or Maxwell may possess.
Any potential prosecution targets emanating from Maxwell’s cooperation will require immense corroborating evidence of Maxwell’s testimony. Epstein died by suicide in 2019.
Some of the more prominent and well known evidence that came out in the Maxwell trial in SDNY, as well as the prosecution in the US Virgin Islands of the Epstein estate, that an experienced line prosecutor would wish to pursue:
Epstein’s infamous little black book containing cllients names and telephone numbers
Thousands of bank wire transfers representing hundreds of thousands of dollars wired into Epstein accounts. Note Diddy was successfully prosecuted for human trafficking and some of the most damming evidence was the financial receipts documenting the transportation and lodging of the girls that Diddy trafficked. In other words — follow the money — something that has to be on the mind of many Scots, who are still wondering where The Donald got the money to put down on the acquisition of two professional golf courses in Scotland Aberdeen and Turnberry in the mid aughts.
Memory Lane
Trump had just processed his fifth casino bankruptcy in 2005 when he somehow came up with tens of thousands of dollars to buy Aberdeen from Emirati owners and then poured even more money into upgrading the courses.
The authorities were so concerned about the Trumpster’s financing that serious consideration was given to the filing of an UWO — unexplained wealth order — to allow for an investigation of The Donald’s wealth. It is not known whether the UWO was ever initiated and what the results may have been.
The Scots were not the only ones concerned about Trump’s finances.
Deutsche Bank had a rollercoaster financial relationship with Trump.
Sometime around 2008, Deutsche Bank started coming after Trump for the $40M in loans he had personally guaranteed…
He purchased a mansion in Palm Beach for around $40M - splashed some paint on it and then flipped it to the Russian oligarch fertilizer king and Putin confidant Dmitry Rybolovlev, who paid in excess of $90M for the mansion.
That little maneuver got Trump out of hot water with Deutsche Bank, but according to the author Michael Wolfe, Trump really pissed off Jeffrey Epstein. Wolfe’s book Fire and Fury as discussed on a CNN interview this past week with Wolfe, outlines a scenario wherein Epstein was in the market for a Palm Beach house and asked his buddy Donald to come over and scope out a Palm Beach mansion that Epstein was considering buying.
Trump allegedly took one look at the mansion and placed a bid on it higher than Epstein’s. Epstein allegedly told Wolfe that Trump was just fronting for a Russian oligarch.
Rybolovlev would not be the only Russian that Trump engaged in business with nor was he the only Russian Epstein knew.
One name that sticks out in Epstein’s little black book was Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
When Trump has been asked in the past how the idea of doing business in Moscow came about he has written that he was seated next to a Russian ambassador at a luncheon in NY hosted by Leonard Lauder the older brother of Ronald Lauder, a childhood friend of The Donald.
Trump noted that before long his conversation with the Russian ambassador started to focus on the possibilities of Trump building a hotel in the heart of Moscow proximate to the Kremlin (oy vey)...
Hmmm. What could Ghislaine Maxwell tell the FBI about the Russian ambassador’s relationship with Epstein?
Then there is Tom Barrack’s name listed in Epstein’s little black book. Barrack was Trump’s campaign manager during the lead up to Trump’s first administration and in that role solicited campaign contributions from the wealthy and elite circles that also became clients of Epstein.
Michael Wolfe describes Barrack, Trump and Epstein as Musketeers of Manhattan nightlife in his book Fire and Fury.
Let’s not forget when Kushner was in need of financing that Deutsche Bank would not provide, he reached out to a large Russian commercial bank led at the time by ex-KGB officer Sergei Gorkov. The bank in question? Vnesheconombank (VEB).
Kushner’s business was commercial real estate and that is a business that requires much financing as The Donald knows all too well.
There came a time when Kushner got a little over leveraged with regard to a mid-town NYC building he had invested in and a large business conglomerate by the name Apollo Management led by CEO Leon Black came to Kushner’s rescue subsequent to a White House meeting between Black and Kushner, as the story goes.
The final details of the bailout were arranged in another meeting between Kushner and Black at the business of Tom Barrack.
Well, it seems that Leon Black is also present in Epstein’s little black book.
More than that, it seems FinCen has loads of suspicious activity reports with regard to thousands of dollars of wire transfers from Black to Epstein’s bank accounts located in the US Virgin Islands.
Black reached a cash settlement with authorities when they came knocking on his door with regard to all his payments to Epstein, some of which were styled as payments for tax consultations.
What would Ghislaine Maxwell say with regard to these wire transfers should an experienced prosecutor familiar with the evidence ask? What else could Black be queried about?
Black was solicited to be a consultant to the Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF — Russian Direct Investment Fund) associated with Kirill Dmitriev, who famously met Erik Prince in the Seychelles Islands for ‘a beer’ a couple of months after Trump’s first presidential campaign victory. It’s worth nothing that the Russian sovereign wealth fund is tied to the large bank VEB tied to Kushner, and VEB had a cooperation agreement with Deutsche Bank.
Final contextual comment here:
Putin first asked past president of Deutsche Bank, a guy by the name of Josef Akermann, to be the first head of the RDIF. He declined, but later left Deutsche Bank to become the head of the notorious Bank of Cyprus — infamous for money laundering for many Russian oligarchs, as well as assisting Paul Manafort in moving some of his Ukraine pay offs.
Remember Dmitry Rybolovlev — referenced earlier as the Russian oligarch Trump allegedly fronted for when Epstein got outbid for the Palm Beach estate he wanted but Trump obtained — you know, the Russian fertilizer king? He became the major stockholder of the Bank of Cyprus, but you knew that.
Wilbur Ross, Trump’s first secretary of commerce, became the vice principal exec of the Bank of Cyprus. Ol’ Wilbur had played a key role in navigating the multiple casino bankruptcies that Trump endured, and that must have impressed Akermann enough to hire him.
Steve Schwarzman — CEO of Blackstone — a major financial conglomerate, was also listed for a time as a consultant to RDIF.
Schwarzman is also listed in Epstein’s little black book. Oh my.
Back to Black… Leon accompanied Trump on one of his jaunts to Moscow. Along with some close Trump friends, who were corporate executives with Vector, a New York real estate firm that also employed an individual by the name of David Geovanis.
It was on this Moscow visit that Trump made the acquaintance of a young lady by the name of Masha Kalina, who Geovanis was tasked with ensuring did not embarrass The Donald.
So we can deduce that Trump is acquainted with any number of corporate executives and business owners who are associated with Epstein, and we will just have to wait and see how Todd Blanche and the DOJ play the Ghislaine Maxwell card.
I THINK THE READER CAN CLEARLY SEE MULTIPLE LINES OF INQUIRY TO PURSUE. MAGA OF COURSE IS DESPERATE TO PURSUE NOTABLE DEMOCRAT LEADERS E.G. BILL CLINTON. BUT IT IS JUST AS CLEAR THAT MANY NOTABE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS ARE ALSO AT RISK GOING ALL THE WAY BACK TO ‘RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA’ AS TRUMP WOULD EXCLAIM.
We pretty much know how Trump will play FileGate.
He will try to get Blanche to get Maxwell to issue a statement totally exonerating Trump from any Epstein stain in return for a pardon.
There will be an outcry, as well there should. But one question still to be answered in the present is just what is Vice President Vance’s position on EpsteinGate?
The answer to this question rises in importance should the impossible somehow become possible and Trump must deal with impeachment.
Vance naturally supports the President’s current position… whatever that position is…
Consider, for a moment, that one of Vance’s chief political supporters and financial campaign contributors is tech titan Peter Thiel of PayPal and Palantir fame.
Mr. Thiel’s name is also found in Epstein’s little black book.
We don’t know for sure if Thiel was a client of Epstein’s human trafficking scheme.
We do know that Epstein invested some $40M into a Thiel business venture called Valar Ventures
What might a motivated Ghislaine Maxwell be able to say about Peter Thiel’s relationship with Epstein? Might Vance be just a little embarrassed?
He should be but nowhere as near embarrassed as Mary Anne Macloud would be if she were still alive.
An experienced prosecutor could/should debrief Maxwell under limited immunity and follow the evidence with particular emphasis on the money trail, wherever it takes them. A special prosecutor might be in order.
An aggressive investigation could possibly get Congress energized enough to consider impeachment.
—Martin Sheil, Retired Supervisory Special Agent, IRC, Criminal Investigation
****
****
Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members.
I expose the corruption of billionaire fascists, while relying on memberships for support.
Thank you in advance for considering the following:
Share my reporting with allies
Buying my ebooks
A private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous/gmail. 🥹
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
🤍
Begin each day with a grateful heart.
🤍