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COMMENT: On Sat­ur­day, July 18, it was Dave’s plea­sure to host long­time broad­cast­er, pod­cast­er and licensed Pri­vate Inves­ti­ga­tor Ed Opper­man. In his capac­i­ty as a licensed P.I., Ed has been on the front­lines of the inves­ti­ga­tions.

In the talk, Ed dis­cussed many aspects of the case, many of them answer­ing ques­tions raised by the bril­liant Pter­rafractyl, the con­tribut­ing edi­tor to the Spit­firelist web­site.

The ques­tions:

* Ed has talked about the remark­able claims by Vic­to­ria Drake about Efrain Reyes still being alive and liv­ing in a apart­ment com­plex owned by Pao­lo Zam­pol­li.  It’s a claim that, if true, rais­es an intrigu­ing ques­tion:  where was Reyes liv­ing when he ‘died’?  And accord­ing to reports, he died in his moth­er’s Bronx apart­ment.  Would his body have been by chance ‘processed’ by the same coro­ners office that cer­ti­fied Epstein’s ‘sui­cide’?  Is that infor­ma­tion pub­licly avail­able?

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2021/may/1/covid-19-kills-jeffery-epsteins-former-cellmate/

* Michael Reit­er, the for­mer head of the Palm Beach police depart­ment who led the ini­tial police inves­ti­ga­tion in Epstein that was launched back in 2005, recent­ly gave an inter­view to the Mia­mi Her­ald that includ­ed some pret­ty remark­able details.  The inter­view gives of the most detailed account yet of what led to the ini­tial inves­ti­ga­tion into Epstein over sex traf­fick­ing.  Reit­er also describes how he was sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly thwart­ed in his attempts to get first state pros­e­cu­tors, and then fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors, to pur­sue Epstein at all.  In fact, it was Reit­er who first went to the FBI in an attempt to get fed­er­al author­i­ties to inves­ti­gate Epstein after it became clear local pros­e­cu­tors weren’t going to do it.  Intrigu­ing­ly, it sounds like one of the ear­li­est tips to the Palm Beach police about Epstein’s sex traf­fick­ing came at the end of Novem­ber 2004, with a com­plaint for an unnamed indi­vid­ual about young women com­ing and going from Epstein’s Palm Beach man­sion.  It turns out Trump and Epstein were in the mid­dle of a bit­ter real estate dis­pute — one that appears to have end­ed their friend­ship — just two weeks before that tip.  It was March of 2005, when a par­ent came to the police about their daugh­ter being molest­ed by Epstein, that the inves­ti­ga­tion got under­way.  And in July of 2006, Reit­er claims Trump called him, implor­ing him to con­tin­ue the inves­ti­ga­tion into Epstein.  Trump also claimed that every­one in New York and Palm Beach knew about Epstein’s activ­i­ties.  Trump also report­ed­ly described Ghis­laine Maxwell as Epstein’s “oper­a­tive” and that “she is evil and to focus on her” : https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftrs-1379–1380-team-trump-takes-the-field-parts-5-and‑6/comment-page‑1/#comment-388222

There’s long been sus­pi­cion that the 2004 real estate dis­pute was what ulti­mate­ly end­ed Trump’s and Epstein’s friend­ship which is only solid­i­fied by Reit­er’s account.  Does Ed have any thoughts regard­ing all of that, and in par­tic­u­lar why it is that Trump has­n’t been tout­ing his own appar­ent role in push­ing for that inves­ti­ga­tion?  What’s hid­ing under that rock?

* Late last month, we got reports about the ongo­ing dis­pute involv­ing alle­ga­tions by “Jane Doe 4”, one of the few Epstein vic­tims to direct accuse Don­ald Trump or abuse.  In her case, it was in the 1980s, when she was 13–15 years old.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/alleged-epstein-victim-trump-accuser  We are told the woman was inter­viewed four times by the FBI in 2019 and is, today, “stay­ing off the grid” and lives in fear of retal­i­a­tion from the Trump admin­is­tra­tion.  The legal dis­pute involves the release of the Jus­tice Depart­men­t’s files on those FBI inter­views, which have yet to be released.  Back in Jan­u­ary, the for­mal FBI “302” report of one Jane Doe 4 inter­view was released.  Back in March, in pres­sure, the DOJ released files on three more inter­views with Jane Doe 4.  But the inter­view notes have yet to be released and a judge ordered the DOJ in late June to release the inter­view files, as part of a law­suit by Katie Phang.  We are told the FBI nev­er brought charges against any indi­vid­ual in con­nec­tion to Jane Doe 4’s alle­ga­tions and there is no indi­ca­tion the FBI inves­ti­gat­ed Jane Doe 4’s claims after con­clud­ing its inter­views in August 2019 and that the woman has cut off con­tact with the FBI and gone into hid­ing.  Does Ed have any insights into the claims of Jane Doe 4 and her para­noia about gov­ern­ment harass­ment?  Have any oth­er Epstein vic­tims expressed sim­i­lar fears of gov­ern­ment harass­ment?

* Regard­ing the ongo­ing ques­tions of whether or not Epstein was active­ly engaged in the black­mail of his many asso­ciates, there was an inter­est­ing claim made by Bill Gates recent­ly dur­ing a con­gres­sion­al tes­ti­mo­ny.  Gates claimed to have nev­er rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed with Epstein’s desire for a per­son­al friend­ship with Gates, a claim that stands in con­trast to all of the evi­dence that Gates was indeed very chum­my with Epstein, includ­ing emails where Epstein claims he facil­i­tat­ed “illic­it trysts” with “mar­ried women” for Gates, that Gates had con­tract­ed a sex­u­al­ly-trans­mit­ted infec­tion (STI) from what Epstein called “Russ­ian girls”, and that he “helped Bill get drugs” to treat it.  As we’ve seen, Gates report­ed­ly hung out at Epstein’s Man­hat­tan home dozens of times in the 2011–2014 peri­od and even referred to Epstein’s place as a ‘men’s club’ escape from his mar­riage: https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-1029-the-will-to-create-man-anew-eugenics-past-present-and-future/#comment-360939

Dur­ing his con­gres­sion­al tes­ti­mo­ny, Gates went on to allege that “Epstein was work­ing to use infor­ma­tion about my infi­deli­ties — in addi­tion to many lies that he lay­ered on top — to pres­sure me to re-engage with him.”  So that’s at least one pow­er­ful per­son who claims Epstein was black­mail­ing them over their “illic­it trysts” he arranged.  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jy8v0ge66o

Is Ed aware of any oth­er claims by Epstein asso­ciates about Epstein attempt­ing to black­mail them?

Also regard­ing the sce­nario of Epstein black­mail­ing his asso­ciates, it’s worth keep­ing in mind that Epstein was vul­ner­a­ble to counter-black­mail­ing over his own crimes.  Except, of course, Epstein could point to the 2008 fed­er­al ‘sweet­heart’ deal as evi­dence that he was a pro­tect­ed indi­vid­ual who could get away with things oth­ers could­n’t.  Is there any evi­dence that the fed­er­al deal actu­al­ly enhanced Epstein’s rep­u­ta­tion among the elite cir­cles he moved in?  He was­n’t quite untouch­able, but pret­ty close.

* There was a recent CBS News report on the role Epstein played in help­ing Edmond de Roth­schild bank in resolv­ing a US Jus­tice Depart­ment inves­ti­ga­tion, with Epstein get­ting paid $25 mil­lion for his ser­vices.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-kathy-ruemmler-swiss-bank-settlement/

It sounds like the bank was fac­ing a poten­tial fine of $556 mil­lion, but Epstein man­aged to get it down to $45.5 mil­lion!  The pay­ment scheme was Epstein was as fol­lows: If the fine was $150 mil­lion to $200 mil­lion he’d receive $5 mil­lion; if it was $100 mil­lion to $150 mil­lion, he’d get $10 mil­lion; and under $100 mil­lion, his fee would shoot up to $25 mil­lion. It’s the kind of sto­ry that under­scores how lit­tle we still under­stand about the role Epstein was play­ing as a kind of finan­cial advi­sor for the elites.  It sound­ed like Epstein played a direct role in nego­ti­at­ing the the set­tle­ment for the bank in 2015, which is all the more remark­able giv­en his own 2008 sweet­heart deal.  Is any­thing known about how Epstein was able to nego­ti­a­tion these set­tle­ments?  Are there oth­er exam­ples of Epstein serv­ing as a kind of nego­tia­tor with the DOJ on behalf of a client?

* That recent CBS News report also dis­cuss­es the con­gres­sion­al tes­ti­mo­ny of Kathy Ruemm­ler, who served as the Edmond de Roth­schild bank’s Amer­i­can lawyer and was a cen­tral fig­ure in work­ing out that Epstein-nego­ti­at­ed set­tle­ment: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-kathy-ruemmler-swiss-bank-settlement/

Intrigu­ing­ly, we’re told that Ruemm­ler first met Epstein in the sum­mer of 2014 when he cold-called her and offered to arrange a meet­ing with Bill Gates.  It’s the kind of detail that shines indi­cates just how close Epstein and Gates were dur­ing this time.  Ruemm­ler left her role as White House coun­sel in May of 2014 and had pre­vi­ous­ly been a pros­e­cu­tor at the DOJ.  But we’re then told that it was Epstein who first intro­duced Ruemm­ler to Ari­ane do Roth­schild, head of Edmond de Roth­schild bank, in Sep­tem­ber of  2014, which result­ed in a friend­ship and an agree­ment to work togeth­er.  By Octo­ber 2014, Ruemm­ler was lob­by­ing the DOJ on behalf of the bank.  As Ruemm­ler’s friend­ship with Epstein blos­somed, Epstein “opened doors and pro­vid­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties to meet some of the rich­est and most influ­en­tial peo­ple in the world includ­ing Gates, Peter Thiel and for­mer Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ehud Barak,” accord­ing to the report.  Are there oth­er reports of Epstein serv­ing as a kind of elite match-mak­er, offer­ing to intro­duce peo­ple to fig­ures like Thiel, Gates, and Barak?

* With Kathy Ruemm­ler now part of this sto­ry, it’s worth recount anoth­er fig­ure with an incred­i­ble num­ber of Epstein par­al­lels who Ruemm­ler was also involved with:  George Nad­er, anoth­er elite ‘Inter­na­tion­al Man of Mys­tery’ who was arrest­ed by US author­i­ties for child sex traf­fick­ing IN JUNE OF 2019, lit­er­al­ly weeks before Epstein’s arrest.  Recall how Nad­er clear­ly worked with the US gov­ern­ment on sen­si­tive mat­ters going back to the 80s and was repeat­ed­ly caught with child pornog­ra­phy and yet kept get­ting lenient sen­tences (includ­ing a light sen­tence by the Czech gov­ern­ment). Nad­er was described as a trust­ed mid­dle-man who vol­un­teered to act as a line of com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the US and Mid­dle East­ern gov­ern­ments https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/politics/george-nader-robert-mueller/index.html But back in June 2019, Nad­er sud­den­ly faced new child porn charges over a dis­cov­ery inves­ti­ga­tors made the pri­or year:  https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-967-update-on-ukrainian-fascism-the-russia-gate-psy-op-and-the-possibility-of-a-third-world-war/#comment-323496 .  Nad­er pled guilty to child sex traf­fick­ing and pos­ses­sion of child pornog­ra­phy in Jan­u­ary of 2020 on charges.  The porno­graph­ic images includ­ed tod­dler-aged boys: https://www.courthousenews.com/trump-campaign-adviser-pleads-guilty-to-child-porn-sex-trafficking/

But it was the 2016 cam­paign and sub­se­quent ‘Rus­si­a­gate’ inves­ti­ga­tions where we repeat­ed­ly saw Nader’s name pop up.  Recall Nader’s work as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the UAE and Saud­is dur­ing the Sey­chelles ‘back chan­nel’ meet­ing between Erik Prince, Kir­ill Dmitriev, and Nad­er:  https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-967-update-on-ukrainian-fascism-the-russia-gate-psy-op-and-the-possibility-of-a-third-world-war/#comment-159438

Nad­er and Prince also made the August 3, 2016 trip to Trump Tow­er with Joel Zamel, the CEO of the Israeli pri­vate intel­li­gence firm Psy­Group, in order to inform the Trump cam­paign that the crown princes of Sau­di Ara­bia and the UAE want­ed to help Trump win and pitched a social media manip­u­la­tion cam­paign to be run by Psy­Group. But as we learned, Nad­er had actu­al­ly start­ed approach­ing the Trump cam­paign in ear­ly 2016, dur­ing the pri­maries, with offers of UAE assis­tance for Trump. Nad­er also report­ed­ly held numer­ous meet­ings with Trump cam­paign offi­cials in the final weeks of the cam­paign, which cer­tain­ly sug­gests that the Trump team did indeed accept the offer of PsyGroup’s help even though that’s nev­er been admit­ted.  And as we saw, Ruemm­ler was George Nader’s lawyer back in 2018 when he was fac­ing var­i­ous ‘Rus­si­a­gate’ relat­ed ques­tions:

https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-946-in-your-facebook-a-virtual-panopticon-part‑2/#comment-189773

Nad­er end­ed up work­ing close­ly with Elliot Broidy, the for­mer finance chair for the RNC, when Nad­er hired Broidy to lob­by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion and US con­gress on behalf of the gov­ern­ments of Sau­di Ara­bia and the UAE dur­ing the first Trump admin­is­tra­tion: https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-967-update-on-ukrainian-fascism-the-russia-gate-psy-op-and-the-possibility-of-a-third-world-war/comment-page‑1/#comment-168665

While we don’t have evi­dence that Nad­er was traf­fick­ing under­age boys to oth­er elites the way Epstein seemed to be doing, it’s hard not to notice the incred­i­ble par­al­lels between Epstein and Nader’s sto­ries.  Includ­ing the remark­able over­lap in the tim­ing of their 2019 arrests.  And, in turns out, includ­ing tires to Kathy Ruemm­ler.  And yet, giv­en the incred­i­ble lev­el of atten­tion on Epstein in recent years, we’ve rarely heard Nad­er men­tioned.  It seems like learn­ing more about George Nad­er, and his own long-stand­ing mys­te­ri­ous rela­tion­ship with the US gov­ern­ment, could be very use­ful in gain­ing insights into the Epstein sto­ry.  Has Ed ever heard about George Nader’s name pop­ping up in rela­tion to the Epstein inves­ti­ga­tion or net­works?  Are there oth­er fig­ures beyond Nad­er with Epstein-like par­al­lels we should be look­ing into?