Epstein was trying to buy a South Florida estate. He brought Trump along to see it one time. A short time later Epstein found out that Trump had gone behind his back and placed a higher and ultimately successful bid on the property. He’d snatched it out from under him with a much higher bid. The problem was that Trump’s entire empire in 2004 was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. It made no sense that Trump was coming up with $41 million to buy this property. Epstein suspected that Trump was acting as a front for a Russian oligarch as a money-laundering scheme. And in fact Trump did purchase and flip the estate two years later to a Russian oligarch named Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, or a profit of over $50 million dollars.

Epstein was pissed for his own reasons (he wanted the estate). But he also suspected the money laundering scheme. So he threatened Trump that he would bring the whole thing out into the open through a series of lawsuits. Right about this same time authorities got a tip about Epstein’s activities which started the investigation that led to his eventual 2008 plea deal.

Two of these points are well-known. The transaction with the Russian oligarch has been written about extensively and was the subject of criminal probes. Of course, Trump denies it was money-laundering. But that part of this story is well-known. It’s also well-known that Trump and Epstein fell out over this real estate transaction. Those two parts of what I’m explaining are established parts of the Trump story. What’s new is the idea that Trump was either the key source who started the Epstein investigation or one of them and that he did this to retaliate against Epstein’s threats and protect himself from being exposed in a money laundering scheme.

I can’t stress this point enough: You can’t tell what you don’t know. This isn’t an accusation. It’s formal logic. So even if we accept the idea that Trump played a role in Epstein’s downfall, it’s not exonerating. It shows what we’ve long suspected: that Trump had known about Epstein’s operation for years and was fine with it. (That’s assuming for the moment he wasn’t a direct participant — it’s the weekend, I’m being generous.) He only made a call when Epstein was threatening to expose a money laundering scheme.

There’s more; do take the time to read the whole thing.

Some of this information comes from Michael Wolff, who interviewed Epstein extensively some time before Epstein’s last arrest in 2019. So he’s got Epstein’s version of the story on tape. Epstein believed that Trump ratted him out, and maybe he did, although he wasn’t the only one, I don’t think. The FBI investigation into Epstein began not terribly long after the falling out in 2004.

Trump is saying now that he stopped being friends with Epstein in 2007, when he had to throw him out of Mar-a-Lago for being creepy toward a member’s daughter. This is supposed to show us that Trump didn’t approve of Epstein’s behavior. But there seems to be no evidence or witness corroboration that this actually happened. It has been widely reported that Trump and Epstein were no longer friends and never spoke after the 2004 blowup, which makes me question the 2007 story. Trump has also claimed that he stopped being friends with Epstein because Epstein was “stealing” his employees, young women like Virginia Giuffre, who were working at Mar-a-Lago. But that was happening much earlier than 2004. Giuffre was caught up in Epstein and Maxwell’s trafficking scheme in 2000, for example.

This also was reported recently, although it probably doesn’t involve Trump.

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge overseeing the case of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to deny a request from NBC News to unseal the names of two associates who received large payments from him in 2018, court documents show. The Justice Department cited privacy concerns expressed by the two individuals as the reason for not making their names public.

The first associate received a payment of $100,000 from Epstein and the second associate received a payment of $250,000, both in 2018, days after the Miami Herald began publishing a series of investigative stories where victims criticized a plea deal he received in Florida in 2008.

As part of the plea agreement, Epstein secured a statement from federal prosecutors in Florida that the two individuals would not be prosecuted.

I can’t say what to make of that, so I’ll just leave it out there.

In other news — the ICE raid on the Georgia Hyundai plant is looking dumber by the minute. The more than 300 South Korean nationals detained in the raid will be returned to South Korea, on chartered planes paid for by the South Korean government. Which is pissed. This is from the Associated Press:

The operation was the latest in a long line of workplace raids conducted as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. But the one on Thursday is especially distinct because of its large size and the fact that state officials have long called the targeted site Georgia’s largest economic development project.

The raid stunned many in South Korea because the country is a key U.S. ally. It agreed in July to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy and make a $350 billion investment in the U.S. in return for the U.S lowering tariff rates. About two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump and Lee held their first meeting in Washington.

Lee said the rights of South Korean nationals and economic activities of South Korean companies must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement procedures. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry separately issued a statement to express “concern and regret” over the case and sent diplomats to the site.

This is from some guy on Facebook that FB won’t let me link to, but I think it’s probably accurate —

This is a seven point six billion dollar EV campus with over eight thousand promised jobs, and a four billion dollar Hyundai/LG battery joint venture that was supposed to keep those cars eligible for Inflation Reduction Act credits. Every week of delay risks pushing model year launches, supplier schedules, and consumer tax credits out of alignment. The state poured subsidies into this project and now gets to watch the ribbon-cutting replaced with a perp walk.

Politically, the contradictions are almost operatic. Trump sells himself as the guy who brings jobs back from China and Korea, then raids the very site creating those jobs because it makes for good Fox News B-roll. He wants foreign direct investment but also wants to terrify immigrant labor pools. He wants Georgians to cheer but business leaders are quietly panicking over the precedent. Even Georgia Republicans, usually eager to wave the enforcement flag, are hedging their language because they know the investment pipeline just took a torpedo.

Seriously, how incompetent are these people?

Also, I am once again rattling the tin cup to raise some money to pay for a dental procedure scheduled for Thursday. All help is appreciated. Here’s the gofundme link, or you can use the donate button at the top of the right-hand column to pay through PayPal.