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Uncle Joe

(64,111 posts)
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 12:06 PM 10 hrs ago

'You know what I like': Epstein files reveal disgraced financier's routine abuse of girls

Released documents detail the assembly line-like process with which Jeffrey Epstein procured underage victims

By the mid-2000s, Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teen girls was routine. From 2002 to 2005 alone, the late financier victimized “dozens” of underage teens by luring them into sex acts for payment under the auspices of massage work, some as young as 14, prosecutors said.

Epstein leaned on a coterie of employees and associates – including British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell – to secure a “steady supply of minor victims”. He also enlisted his victims to recruit other girls under the false pretense of providing massages, prosecutors said.

(snip)

These documents – released over the past week by a Trump administration under intense political pressure from both Democrats and Republicans – also make clearer how girls and young women were perceived as commodities: mere bodies meant to serve a predator’s twisted predilections – and possibly those of his associates.

(snip)

“Cant just bring girls he doesn’t like,” the interview apparently recounted. “Told her keep looking for girls.” At one point, someone witnessed Epstein “asking for ID to girl wanted to make sure under 18 b/c he wasn’t believing them b/c [redacted] messed up by bringing more older girls”.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/28/epstein-files-reveal-routine-child-abuse
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ScoutHikerDad

(87 posts)
1. I Keep Wondering?
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 12:31 PM
9 hrs ago

Where were the parents when their underage daughters were being recruited for "massages?" I always felt that if any predator tried anything with one of my kids, they better hope I didn't get to them before law enforcement did!

Uncle Joe

(64,111 posts)
2. Epstein and Maxwell's MO was targeting vulnerable girls and young women
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 12:35 PM
9 hrs ago

mostly of lower income and in many cases already victims from sexual abuse making them extra vulnerable.

They were also threatened by Epstein that if they spoke of what was happening their families would be targeted.

P.S. Add to that the power dimension just from Epstein's visible connections to the wealthy and powerful making an emotional uphill fight all the steeper for the survivors.

ThreeNoSeep

(265 posts)
3. I keep wondering?
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 12:51 PM
9 hrs ago

Where the heck were all those responsible people with power, including the current dollar store antichrist, who knew what was happening and did nothing?

Blaming the parent is distracting from the friggin' fact that people in power today knew then, at the very least, and perhaps participated in, this terrible poison that has reached the roots of our own government.

Attilatheblond

(8,204 posts)
4. Part of the 'recruitment' was likely screening for girls whose parents weren't the most attentive
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 12:57 PM
9 hrs ago

And adolescents often want to feel independent but lack the experience to help them make good decisions. Seems the recruiters knew what to look for besides just physical beauty.

walkingman

(10,275 posts)
5. I wonder the same thing....(concerning parents) but we have to remember that these types of predators
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 01:04 PM
9 hrs ago

come is all sorts of flavors. From the wealthy (which many people seem to worship) to religious leaders (which many people seem to worship) and everything in between.

I'm sure in some cases there was parental consent (looked the other way) and in some cases the children's relationship with their parents was distant or rebellious.


Wiz Imp

(8,817 posts)
8. Stop victim blaming (yes, blaming the parents is a form of victim blaming-especially in a case like this)
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 01:45 PM
8 hrs ago

Last edited Sun Dec 28, 2025, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1017968999/jeffrey-epsteins-victims-speak-out-in-perversion-of-justice-by-julie-k-brown#:~:text=He%20essentially%20groomed%20them%20to,want%20to%20be%20a%20model?

He had enough money to get the finest prostitutes that he wanted, but he didn't want that. He wanted scared, young girls. That was all part of his fantasy. So it just grew from that. And unfortunately, there were probably hundreds of girls that were victimized by him. ...

It was two to three times a day. It was like a revolving door. And the more girls that he had, the more girls he wanted to recruit, because he also wanted new girls all the time. He wanted fresh, young girls all the time. So was it just enough for him to have like three that he took advantage of all the time; he wanted a continuing parade of young girls.

He essentially groomed them to believe that he was going to pull them out of the misery of their lives. Many of them had very difficult [lives]. Some of them were in foster homes. Their parents were on drugs. There were all kinds of circumstances that they came from. But the thread was that they really didn't have a strong family life at home. And he knew that. He studied them. He asked them questions about their life. So he found out exactly what their Achilles' heel or their vulnerabilities were. And he would say to them, "You want to study this? You want to be a model? I'm going to help you be a model." And then they look on the walls of his home, and he has pictures with Bill Clinton and all kinds of famous, powerful people. And they really believe that he was going to help them. ... They came to depend on him. They didn't have family life at home, a strong anchor in their own lives — and he became an anchor for them.


The Blue Flower

(6,315 posts)
6. There are over a million files
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 01:20 PM
8 hrs ago

That didn't happen overnight. Someone was watching this unfold for a long time. What does that tell us?

Cirsium

(3,326 posts)
7. The Penn State football program
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 01:36 PM
8 hrs ago

It was amazing how thoroughly the decades-long systematic abuse of children was covered up or ignored at the highest levels of the university and how quickly it was all disappeared for the sake of the damned football program.

FakeNoose

(40,048 posts)
10. Joe Paterno looked the other way
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 05:35 PM
4 hrs ago

... and he didn't participate in the abuse as far as we know. He just shrugged and said it wasn't his problem. But really it WAS his problem when he failed to fire the coach that was doing it.

Cirsium

(3,326 posts)
12. That IS participating
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 07:13 PM
3 hrs ago

Looking the other way is a way to participate. Dozens of people from a wide range of organizations and institutions looked the other way for years and years, as did the PSU AD and the entire administration. But hey Saturday football $$$$ must go on, and what do the kids matter?

FakeNoose

(40,048 posts)
11. Several of the victims started out in their early/mid-teens
Sun Dec 28, 2025, 05:43 PM
4 hrs ago

Once they hit 18 or 19, Epstein thought they were "too old" but he did keep them on the payroll if they brought in younger girls for his enjoyment. Yes it was exploitation of a different kind. Most of these girls were runaways and high school dropouts who depended on the money Epstein paid them. The older girls recruited younger ones to take their place, and Epstein hired them out to extremely wealthy clients. It went on for years.

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