A Disturbing New Report Reveals the Extent of Trump and Epstein’s Twisted Relationship

4 min readOn Monday, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a report that, by all rights, should have fitted this president, his administration, and its congressional enablers for a shroud. It presented evidence that the president of the United States, in partnership with the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly was quite the sex criminal himself. From the report:A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it.For the first time, a systematic case for the prosecution is presented. Many of the allegations revolve around a dubious beauty pageant system concocted by the president and Epstein with the assistance of a passel of tawdry hustlers including Paolo Zampolli and John Casablancas during the go-go 1990s.It is well known today that Jeffrey Epstein used the fashion and modeling industries as a pipeline to recruit, traffic and exploit young women and girls. One foreign model recruited by Epstein from overseas told reporters: “He said he’d make my dream come true, but he turned it into a f**king nightmare.” A series of interlocking relationships among prominent men who owned modeling agencies, including Donald Trump, John Casablancas, Jean Luc-Brunel, and Trump fixer Paolo Zampolli, bolstered and cemented Epstein’s sinister criminal design, becoming a “f**king nightmare” for all the girls entrapped in it.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, certain unregulated “talent agencies,” empowered by the absence of any labor protections and driven by extreme power imbalances based on gender, wealth, age, and class, turned the New York modeling industry into a system of organized sexual assault, exploitation, and human trafficking. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of girls, some as young as 14, were caught up in the tentacles of this criminal network. As Carrie Goldberg, a Brooklyn lawyer who represents victims of child sex abuse, observed, the problem for young models during this time was “they weren’t seen as children, but legally they are, and they were.” This predatory culture—like other institutionalized systems of sexual assault in churches, schools, and universities—depended on silence. As one former model stated, “there are repercussions for speaking out. I look back at my career, and it’s so sad, but I was a child who said, ‘No, don’t rape me anymore,’” and because of that “I didn’t work. I was taken out of the game.”That culture proved to be catnip for men like Epstein and the president.The next year, in 1991, real estate mogul and businessman Donald Trump began hosting Elite’s “Look of the Year” competition for young models between the ages of 14 and 19. Trump’s involvement in the “Look of the Year” pageant has long provoked skeptical questions. As The Guardian put it, “Why would a man in his 40s, whose main business was real-estate development, want to host a beauty contest for teenage girls?”...The “Look of the Year” pageants were plagued by accusations of sexual exploitation. Contestants as young as 14 recalled being forced to dance for Trump, Casablancas, and other men on a yacht. One model recalled that “Every time we changed, it was like Trump would find a reason to come backstage.” Another model recalled Trump entering the dressing rooms: “He’d come by and say, ‘Hey girls, are we ready?’”In the report, we are introduced to Beatrice Keul, a former Miss Switzerland whose story is more than a little chilling.In November 1993, Beatrice Keul, a young Swiss model and financial services professional, was recruited by a woman named Jill Harth to attend the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant for 16- to 22-year-olds in Atlantic City and New York. According to an interview with Committee Staff, at a press luncheon at the event in then-Trump-owned Plaza Hotel, Donald Trump approached Keul and introduced himself, saying “Finally we meet Ms. Keul,” mispronouncing her last name as “cool.” During their at least 15-minute introductory conversation, Trump promised Keul that he would arrange a visa for her, stating that “Paolo”—a reference to Paolo Zampolli—would “take care of that.” Trump further stated that he personally would ensure her acceptance into New York University (NYU). And he repeatedly offered to take care of her and arrange her travel, insisting either “I will take care of you” or, when she said she could handle her own visa, “No no, my friend Paolo will take care of that.” According to Keul, after Trump stepped away from their conversation, Epstein immediately approached her saying “I’m Jeffrey, Don’s best friend.” Epstein then spent at least 10 minutes talking to Keul, all the time looking over and grinning at Trump, who had remained in the room and was watching their conversation from afar. If it reminds you of buzzards circling, you're not alone.Later that day, Donald Trump’s representative invited Keul to go upstairs at the Plaza Hotel to meet with Trump. Believing this meeting to be a lucky break for the purpose of furthering her career and education, Keul accompanied Trump’s representative upstairs. He ushered her into the suite, where upon entering, Trump reportedly grabbed Keul from behind and forcibly raped her; in the process, tearing her dress and causing bleeding and bruising on multiple parts of her body. Keul described the rape as “brutal.” Following the assault, according to Keul’s report, Trump sat her on the edge of the bed, repeated his promises to arrange for a visa and NYU admission, and made her promise she would keep quiet, saying, “[T]he show must go on.”I don't think even Attorney General Todd Blanche has a big enough shovel to bury all of this.