All language subtitles for Surviving.Jeffrey.Epstein.S01E01.Lured.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BLOOM_track3_[eng]

It's still something
that I'm getting used to...

the term "survivor."

This is a way to face my fears.

I felt like

I could keep it a secret,
and it was.

It was my dirty little secret.

I didn't want to share this
with anybody.

I would have taken this
to my grave.

Being abused
by Jeffrey Epstein

had a toll
on the rest of my life.

The trauma that I endured
from him is a life sentence.

Mark.

- Tape two.
- Marker.

Every day is unpredictable.

One day it can be okay,
and the next day,

it's just brutal.

Today, we announced
the unsealing

of sex trafficking charges
against Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein allegedly abused
dozens of minors

at his homes in Manhattan
and Palm Beach, Florida.

He was completely obsessed
with young girls

and sex with them.

Prosecutors are now
looking to properties

in New Mexico
and the Caribbean.

- The charges detail
- Epstein's scheme

to systematically create
the vast network

of underage girls to abuse.

Jeffrey had a particularly
elaborate seduction system.

He had women around him

that he trained to understand
what he was looking for.

He always had you
introduce friends

and the friends introduce
more friends.

There was times
where I brought

two and three girls in a day.

The recruiters
put themselves in places

where they would find young,

innocent potential victims

who were malleable.

I call it a pyramid scheme,

and the pyramid scheme
started with

Jeffrey
and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ghislaine was
fantastically charming.

Her British accent
and her connections

served her well
in recruiting young girls.

I genuinely thought that
she really did care about me,

and so it was a giant blow
to learn

that she was in on all of it.

They knew exactly how
to pull you in to trust them.

I went from one person
to the next

just like a human baton
being passed along.

He groomed me
to be a personal sex slave

that brought him
underage girls.

What is it that you were
told you would have to do?

By the time
of the sexual assault,

they were tricked.

I really didn't want to.

I don't know.

The more I kept trying
to resist,

the more fun he was having.

As soon as he reached for me,
I was already frozen.

I was 14.

I was never the same
after that.

Some breaking news
right now.

Disgraced financier
Jeffrey Epstein

has taken his own life
while he was behind bars.

I was just really angry at
how this could have happened.

This guy has never
been held accountable

for anything he's done.

He wins every time.

Any co-conspirators
should not rest easy.

The victims deserve justice,

and they will get it.

You kinda want
to ask Ghislaine,

"What the hell
were you thinking?"

These young women
need to be believed.

When they told their story
to the police,

nobody did anything about it.

Their voices didn't
have value.

That has to change.

I just gotta dig deep
and take back my power

'cause that's the only way
I'm gonna heal.

I'm not
a young girl anymore.

I'm gonna fight back.

I'm just gonna keep on
speaking the truth.

We need to get to the bottom

of everybody
who was involved with that.

The truth has a funny way
of showing its head

and I'm not stopping
till it does.

- The FBI arrested
- Ghislaine Maxwell

around 8:30 this morning
in Bedford, New Hampshire.

They say she helped
the now-dead millionaire

sex traffic young girls,
abuse them,

some as young as 14 years old.

- I mean, it's so dark.
- He's dead.

He's mysterious.

People like myths.
People don't like truth.

But the survivors
have a story to tell.

It was, like,
the summer of going

from eighth to ninth grade.

I had braces
on half of my teeth.

I was, uh, young, 14,

awkward little girl.

My friend told us about

this really cool guy
on Palm Beach Island

who we could make $200 from.

He just wanted a massage.

$200 was huge to me,

and she kind of
played it off like,

"Oh, you know,
it's really no big deal.

This guy's super nice.
He has a super nice house,"

and then she ended up
taking me.

When you drive over the bridge
to go on Palm Beach Island,

you could just feel, like,
the money and power.

I was brought to his house.

It's, like,
the end of the street,

the last house.

Everything's, like,
super secluded

and super private.

And it's a beautiful mansion,

and we walk in,
and there's the chef,

and, you know, his secretary,

and these gorgeous women,
barefoot models,

and here I am 14,
and I remember thinking,

"Why do they want me?"

Please raise your right hand.

Do you swear from the testimony
you're about to give

will be the truth,
the whole truth,

- and nothing but the truth?
- Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

- Can you give us your name?
- Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Epstein,

how long have you been
sexually attracted

to underage minor females?

Are you kidding?

On the multiple times
that I saw him,

he always appeared
as though he felt

he was the smartest one
in the room.

I assert
my fifth, sixth,

and 14th amendment rights

to the United States
constitution.

He had this smirk on him
and carried himself like,

"I am powerful.
I am wealthy.

Who are you
to be questioning me?"

That was the air about him.

To really understand
the psychology

of what happened here,
you have to understand

Jeffrey Epstein
was a master manipulator.

He used whatever it was that
that young person needed

in order to force them
to do the things

he wanted them to do.

Palm Beach is a very
interesting place.

You have a very wealthy
segment of the population,

one of the wealthiest
in the United States,

and by Palm Beach,

what I'm talking about
is the island,

and the island is very
different than the mainland.

So you go from millionaire
and billionaire row

on the island
to then a little further west,

which is more middle class,
to then even further west,

which is a much lower
socioeconomic group

living out
in the western communities.

This was the pool
of young girls

that he preyed upon the most.

If you approach a 14,

15-year-old
private school girl

that has a Gucci handbag,

and she hears about
some old guy

that wants a massage
for a couple hundred dollars,

they're not gonna respond
to that.

Take that same proposition

to a young girl
that's barely getting by.

That's a different
proposition.

The easiest prey
is the weakest in the group,

and that was his method.

That was his modus operandi.

- I grew up in
- West Palm Beach, Florida.

My mom was a single parent.
She was also my hero.

You know, she was my mom,
my father.

She was everything.

She was a superhero
in my eyes,

but pretty much every time
she got a new boyfriend

or a new job,
we would move,

and every time we moved,

it meant that I was moving
a different school,

so I was constantly having
to try to make friends.

It was really, really hard
a lot of the time.

My mom had been doing drugs
and drinking for a while,

and she kind of fell off
the deep end.

I started rebelling more.

I started acting out
against her,

and I knew she wasn't
paying attention.

Our whole lives changed then.

When I was in middle school,

in sixth, seventh,
and eighth grade,

I was a straight A student.

I was captain
of the cheerleading squad.

I played first chair trumpet.

Once I hit teenager years

is when my life
kinda got rocky.

My mother dealt
with addiction,

and we went from having
a house, an apartment,

to basically living in hotels
and stuff like that.

This is when

I went to Jeffrey's
for the first time.

Me and my friend walk in,

and you just feel elite
walking into the room.

My friend brings me upstairs,

and she's setting up
the massage table

and putting the towels,

and then we sit and wait
for him to come in.

When Jeffrey comes in,

he just kinda acted like,
"Oh," you know,

"Hey, hi.
How are you?"

And laid on the table

like he just knew what
we were gonna do, you know?

We gave him a massage
for, like, 30 minutes,

and then he asked my friend
to go downstairs.

It's like going over
the railroad tracks.

Like, your stomach...
you know, that feeling,

and you just know
it's not right.

He called me over,
asked me to, um,

take my bra and panties off,

to get completely naked.

All I could think of is I
was just looking at the clock,

like, "Okay, when is this gonna end?

How long is this gonna take,
and what is happening?"

It quickly transitions
to him molesting me.

I just went along with it
because it's like,

I'm just, uh,
you know, a child.

I remember walking down
the staircase after.

I'm given the $200,
and I'm like,

so upset and disgusted
and just feeling like,

"I'll never come back here
ever again."

And then, you know,
after a week went by,

I just, like, downplayed
the situation myself.

It was like, you know,
"Maybe it wasn't so bad,

and I could go back
because I do need more money,"

and it was just, uh...
it was just this sick cycle,

and that's what happened,
you know?

I was working in
the North Palm Beach area.

The case came to my firm
originally

from the first young girl
that actually went to police.

The reason why
I wanted to talk to you

is I am conducting
an ongoing investigation.

You're a witness,
possibly a victim.

She had been
enticed over there

because it was
quick, easy money

to give this older man
a massage.

We start hearing these
unbelievable stories

of numbers and numbers
of young girls

from her high school
that had gone over there.

You solemnly swear
to tell the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

And initially we said,

"This is too gruesome
and too awful

to be even true...
or close to the truth."

Tell me from the beginning
how you met this gentleman.

What is it that you were told
you would have to do?

At any point did he ask you
to remove your clothes?

Did he touch your breasts?

Did he touch your
vaginal area?

And did you have intercourse
with him?

Almost every single one
of the young girls

were in high school,
and most of them

were under the age of 18,
some as young as 14.

All of these young girls
were children,

and a lot of them
were afraid.

Just take a deep breath.

You're not the only person
that he's done this to.

Okay?

- I've talked to a lot of girls.
- Uh-huh.

Almost 40 girls.

As we learn more and more
about the case

and the breadth of it,

it goes from,
"I can't believe this,"

as an attorney,
to, "Oh, my God.

I can't believe
this is actually happening."

People ask why
victims of Jeffrey Epstein

went back to his house
after the first assault.

Jeffrey Epstein knew exactly
what he was doing.

He took the time to groom them
and to figure out

what about
that particular individual

he could exploit
to fill a void

maybe that wasn't being
filled elsewhere.

I think I had a job
at, like, Miami Subs,

but, you know, I definitely
didn't have any money.

I thought Jeffrey
was my saving grace.

He's just, you know,
trying to help me out, really,

and he's gonna pay me $200
for this massage, like,

so when he,
you know, came in,

I acted like I was comfortable

and that I was okay
with everything,

and I'm not really sure why...
how or why that happened.

A perpetrator who has
a propensity for children

tends to understand that
they won't get what they want

from fear,

so they tend to use seduction.

The hook was money in exchange
for a simple task...

to do a massage.

Preying on Courtney's
financial vulnerability,

Jeffrey Epstein made
another offer, which was,

"Any person
that you bring to me

"that's of the same age as you,

I'll pay you
a $200 finder's fee."

And Courtney then began,
when she was at school,

when she was at
social gatherings

with other
14, 15, 16 year olds,

when she was at the mall,

making the same offer
that had been offered to her,

which led to Courtney
probably bringing

30 other minors
to Jeffrey Epstein's house.

His type was basically
very young,

white teenagers.

Once I got comfortable with,
like, approaching girls

and kind of finessing them
in a way to, like, say,

"Oh, it's just a massage
and you just have to do this,"

and making it sound
oh-so-good for them to go,

there was times where
I brought two and three girls

in a day.

He groomed me to be exactly

a personal sex slave that

brought him underage girls.

You know, these are my friends
that I brought.

It wasn't just the way
that the girl looked.

It was the whole set up.
It was the whole manipulation.

It was the whole trickery,

and he was manipulating

vulnerable
and alone individuals,

girls that he knew wouldn't
have any adult in their life

who would stand up for them,
either,

and I think
that is part of the deviance

for Jeffrey Epstein.

When this was all happening

and I went
to Jeffrey Epstein's house,

my mom was in jail
or had just gotten out of jail.

One of my friends had asked me
if I wanted to come stay

the weekend with her,
and she's like,

"I have this one girlfriend

and we can go over there
and hang out."

It was in a trailer park
in Palm Beach County.

There was about
four or five other girls

just talking about stuff
like teenage girls do,

and then someone started
making jokes about Jeffrey.

"He just likes young girls
to give him a massage."

They're, like, giggling,

and making fun
pretty much of him

and just how easy it was
to make $200.

The main girl dressed me
and did my makeup

and did my hair.

I felt kind of pretty because I
was getting to wear her clothes

and she was pretty,
and she was...

what seemed to be popular.

She was giving me attention,

which I really needed
at that time.

She seemed so comfortable with
going like it's no big deal.

I just thought,
you know,

it couldn't be too bad

if these other people
have done it.

It was the first time
that I had been on the island.

I'd never really been
in that type of money.

We shopped at Walmart
or Target.

Just the boats alone as
you're going over the bridge,

it's straight out
of the movies.

You're like,

"Who the heck can ever afford
something like this?"

Mr. Epstein, is it true you
were born January 20th, 1953?

- Yes.
- Where?

- New York.
- Where in New York?

Brooklyn.

Jeffrey Epstein was a kid
from a working class family.

He grew up in Coney Island.

His dad worked for the New
York City Parks Department,

and his parents instilled
in him and his brother

that education was the key
to get on.

Epstein is very gifted.

Skips two grades,

graduates at the age of 16,
and he gets accepted

into a very difficult
to get into college

called Cooper Union.

What'd you study?

Physics.

And, uh, why did you
leave college early?

I intend to respond
to all relevant questions

regarding this lawsuit.

He didn't actually
finish his degree.

He dropped out,
and then in 1974,

he somehow gets a job
teaching at Dalton,

which is an exclusive school

on the upper east side
of Manhattan,

where very wealthy,
very powerful people

send their children.

Jeffrey was part
of the math department.

He was young.

About 20 years old.

This is not your typical
Dalton teacher.

Usually, they did not
sport wide lapels,

gold chains,
and open shirts,

exposing a certain amount
of chest.

Straight out
of "Saturday Night Fever."

He came from
a different social class

to a school that attracted

a number of very,
very affluent families.

For Epstein,

this was a really important
first step

on his ascendancy to the world
in which he wanted to live.

If he didn't have the money

to be those kind of people
just yet,

he was gonna rub shoulders
with them.

He was gonna make connections,

and that's exactly
what happened.

It's very possible that
he encountered a student

who was related
to the management

at Bear Stearns that provided
him with a stepping stone

to his Wall Street career.

- After two years on the job,
- Epstein left.

He claims that he wanted
to go on to Wall Street,

but there was also
the suggestion that

he was fired because his
performance wasn't improving.

You're seeing the first
of many myth-making moments

where there's some dispute
about how he exits somewhere.

Jeffrey went to work
for Ace Greenberg

at Bear Stearns after Dalton.

Greenberg had this term

for people he was looking for
to work at Bear Stearns.

PSDs...

poor, smart,
and desperate to succeed.

Epstein very much
fit that mold.

Epstein skyrockets there.

He starts at 23.

In four years,
he's a limited partner.

1980, he's actually

a "Cosmopolitan"
Bachelor of the Month.

He says that
he only talks to people

if they make a million
or more per year.

1981,
there's a suspicious trade,

which later became
an insider trading case,

and Epstein resigns
not long after the trade.

Again, there's some dispute
over what actually happened.

Epstein says
he wanted to leave

and start his own company.

As with Dalton,

there's sort of two pictures
that emerge...

Epstein's story
and then the official story,

which perhaps paints
a different picture.

When Jeffrey Epstein met me,

it was 1987.

I was the CEO
of a company that did

a billion and a half dollars
a year on collections.

It was Epstein
that had the vision

to make it
a major Ponzi company.

He was open and transparent
in telling me

that he had no moral compass.

Steven Hoffenberg
ran a company

called Towers Financial.

Legitimate business,

but you can get rich a lot
quicker doing a Ponzi scheme,

assuming you don't get caught.

But it got caught.

Only one person takes the fall
for the Towers scheme.

I spent 18 years
in federal prison.

Even though
according to Hoffenberg,

Epstein was at the absolute
center of this operation,

he wasn't prosecuted.

Jeffrey Epstein
created an entire method

of how he would seduce people.

A true seductive person

has the ability to understand
what you're thinking,

and Jeffrey Epstein
was a king...

a master of seduction.

He felt he had protection
from the rule of law.

He was not concerned.

His behavior
really was sociopathic...

manipulativeness, superficial charm,

uh, lack of anxiety,

and predominantly,
lack of empathy.

He made a choice to act on
these sexual impulses

in the way he did,

and he made a choice

to exploit
vulnerable individuals.

I definitely
looked the youngest

out of a lot of my friends.

They would joke around and say
that I was Virgin Mary.

I was scared to do
any of that stuff, like,

to have sex or anything,
so, um...

and embarrassed
of my body, too.

The fact that
he viewed them as untouched,

unsullied virginal
was a big part of it for him.

That's why he's going
to a middle school

or a high school.

I was nervous.

Once I entered the house,

the nerves were there.

The girl that had
brought us there

took me right upstairs.

She said that he was gonna
come in in a few minutes,

uh, and kinda left me.

The biggest thing
that I remember

is his, like, smirk smile.

The way that his mouth
cuts into the sides

reminded me very much so
of, like, a clown smile.

He laid belly down
on the table.

He asked me to get undressed
and just stand in my underwear.

He was just very adamant,
almost like a parent.

Like, "Pick up your shoes."

Like, you know
they mean business.

They're not gonna get loud.

They're not gonna
tell you again.

You're just gonna do it.

It made me feel
very uncomfortable,

but I did as I was told.

He was... he was the adult,
and I was a child.

As soon as he reached for me,
I was already frozen.

Almost numb
to what was going on.

Like, a frozen state
of shock.

And he kept touching
around my underwear

and under my underwear

and I finally told him
to stop.

He told me, "I'll stop if you
just take your underwear off

so I can look."

He started with
asking for a massage

and then he asked
for a massage

with a girl in her
bra and panties,

and then he progressed
from there.

Inoculating a victim

is part of the process
of grooming them.

Once somebody
has participated,

they almost universally
feel like used goods.

They feel damaged.
They feel dirty.

They feel worthless.

He had told me
that I looked so pure

while he was touching me.

It felt weird for him
to call me that

as he was touching me.

I was afraid.

I was very afraid
of what was gonna happen.

He definitely had the control.

I was in his house.

He took his towel,

wiped himself off,
got up off the table,

and walked out of the room.

Once we walked out of the door
to go get into the cab,

I was instantly in tears.

My friends didn't
say anything to me,

and the other girl told me
to shut the up

and threw $200 at me.

He took girls who already
had problems with self-esteem.

They go along with it.

They feel even worse
about themselves,

and that perpetuates it.

"I am worthless.
I am dirty.

"Why should I bother
to treat myself

"any better
than he's treating me?

Because, yeah, this confirms
what I feel about myself."

One sexual assault
can completely change

the quality of life
for the victim for years.

They push that reality
as far away

from their conscious mind
as they can.

They use drugs.
They use alcohol.

They may use sex so that
they don't think about it,

so that they don't feel it.

When high school started,

I was going to school
and skipping

and getting picked up
by truancy.

I'm probably about
16 years old about this time.

This is when I start, like,
dabbling with drugs.

Any time before I go
to Jeffrey's house,

I take Xanax to, you know,
calm down

and not have to feel anything.

I end up dropping
out of school

and it just, like... my life
just spirals downhill.

Before I got to him,

I was starting to go through
a rebellious stage.

Typical teen stuff,

but after the whole situation
with him,

with how the girl that brought
us there treated me,

I was different.

I was angry at myself
about this...

putting myself
in that position.

How stupid could I have been?

I started spiraling
a little bit more

and definitely being
more promiscuous.

It felt like, you know,

someone had already tooken
something from me

that maybe I could have
more control over

if I was making the calls,

and when you think that way,
you really don't have control.

You're making hasty decisions
because you're hurting so bad.

I was never the same
after that.

The '90s and the 2000s

are the glory days
for Jeffrey Epstein.

It's when he becomes
what he really wanted to be,

which is a member
of the billionaire class.

He was still rough
around the edges.

You know, he was still
this kid from Brooklyn.

He still had
his Brooklyn accent.

He was ascending,

but there was still
society in New York.

You had to know how to behave,

and you had to know
how to know people,

and, you know,
there was a club,

and Jeffrey was interested
in being in that club.

It's sort of like
"The Talented Mr. Ripley."

He was appropriating
an identity,

trying it out.

I was surprised
to find myself

in Jeffrey Epstein's
little black book,

but nearly everyone
in that book it seems

was a great friend
of Ghislaine.

Ghislaine Maxwell
is a British socialite,

and she was basically born

with a silver spoon
in her mouth.

- The first time
- I met Ghislaine was in 1999.

We met through a bunch
of mutual friends

who'd been at Oxford with her.

I wrote afterwards,

"She's full
of wicked good fun."

I'd like to know
how many of you

would like to fly on a plane

if only 15% of planes were
talking to air traffic control.

Anyone?

She was highly intelligent,
and spending time with her,

you're so completely aware
of how well-connected she is.

She is the youngest daughter
of Robert Maxwell,

who was
a British newspaper tycoon.

Ghislaine was doted on
by her father

and he named his yacht
Lady Ghislaine after her,

but in 1991,

Robert Maxwell, sailing around
the Canary Islands,

died in
mysterious circumstances.

When he died,

we learned
that he'd been stealing

from the pension funds
of his workers.

Hundreds
of working class people

lose their retirement income

because of Maxwell's
financial fraud.

Suddenly, all the money had vanished.

Her family were plagued
by scandal.

They were hated in the UK,

so under this huge cloud,
Ghislaine moves to America.

Lots of people are still
trying to figure out

how Ghislaine and Jeffrey met.

I wish I knew,
but it just seemed like

Jeffrey had very quickly
taken the place of her father.

- At the time,
- Epstein was on the rise.

Ghislaine's kind of
on the way down

and they meet in the middle.

Both of them had something

that the other one
desperately needed.

He was her boyfriend,

but she was also
his gal Friday.

She leapt to the occasion
when there was anything

that he needed
that she could provide,

and she hugely expanded
Jeffrey's social universe.

She opened doors for him
to people like the Clintons,

to Prince Andrew.

You know, she introduced him
to high society.

He was starting
to get the money,

but he didn't have
the finesse,

the class,

and that's what Ghislaine
gave him.

You would agree,
would you not,

that Ghislaine Maxwell
shares your sexual obsession

for underage minor females?

- Argumentative.
- Speculation.

Ghislaine Maxwell
was intricately

involved with Jeffrey Epstein.

The two of them created
this world that allowed

Jeffrey Epstein to abuse
so many young women.

Mar-a-Lago spa
is Donald Trump's place

in Palm Beach.

It's just gorgeous.

I'd only been at my job
with Mar-a-Lago

for a couple weeks,
but it didn't take me that long

to realize, like,
this is where I wanna be.

This is what I wanna do.

My duties there were
in the spa area,

so I would hand out
fresh towels.

I loved working,
just, with these, you know,

beautiful massage therapists
and they'd come

and talk to me all the time
and I was really interested.

So I went to a library.

I rented a book
on massage therapy.

Ghislaine Maxwell
approached me at the spa area.

She was, like,
this really bright,

Mary Poppins kind of a...
a figure and she said,

"Oh, you're reading
a book on massage therapy,"

and, you know,
we started talking.

And she goes,
"Oh, you know what?

"I know this guy.

"There's an opportunity, actually.

"If you wanna become
a real massage therapist,

"we can get you trained.

"You can come
for the interview tonight,

"and if he likes you,
then you'll be a real masseuse.

"And you'll get
to see the world.

And you'll get paid
$200 per massage,"

and it... like,
no alarm bells went off

because it was
this proper English lady

who just looked so nice.

And when I asked her why,
and she said,

"Oh, we're like
philanthropists.

"We like to go out
and help people

and make people's
lives better."

Epstein's victims
have talked about

how they weren't sure
who this guy was,

but because Ghislaine
seemed so proper,

surely it's gotta be legit.

Her posh upbringing
and her accent

gave this veneer
of respectability.

Coming from a woman,

I think that was
incredibly manipulative,

and I think it was
absolutely critical

in Epstein's operation.

Jeffrey wasn't
my first abuser.

At seven, when I started
getting abused

by a family member,

my childhood
was quickly stolen from me.

I just started
kind of imploding.

I would, you know, run away.

I would be on the streets
for days at a time.

So I was pretty vulnerable by
the time I get to Mar-a-Lago.

When you are sexually
assaulted as a child,

you are not learning
about yourself

and your own agency

and what you do
when you find yourself

in uncomfortable
circumstances.

And you don't know
the appropriate roles

between different individuals
because everything is twisted.

Jeffrey Epstein knew
how to manipulate those

who were especially
vulnerable.

It was probably
a five-minute drive

from Mar-a-Lago
to El Brillo Way.

My dad brought me over.

When he shakes hands
with Ghislaine,

she promises that
she'll take good care of me

and she will have someone
drive me home.

She led me up the staircase

and we made a right
into Jeffrey's room.

And then you go curve around,
see his bathroom...

And Jeffrey laying naked
on the massage table.

Jeffrey lifts his head up,
looks at Ghislaine,

Ghislaine looks at him,

and I call it
the Cheshire Cat grin

because his face
just went like this,

and it was like
a nod of approval.

Ghislaine got me quickly
into, like,

"Here's the lotions.
Here's the oils.

"We're gonna each take
half of his body

so you can follow
my instructions."

It just looked like
a legitimate massage.

Then they also started asking
me questions about my life.

I really, really
wanted this job,

so I opened up to them.

I said, "Look,

"this is an opportunity
of a lifetime for me.

I've been on the streets.
I've been abused."

And, um,

that's the worst thing
that I could've done

'cause I just let them know
that I'm vulnerable,

and, um,
I'm their perfect type.

Whenever Ghislaine
spoke about Jeffrey,

there was a kind of flash
of excitement in her eyes.

She seemed utterly
fascinated and thrilled

with the life
that he offered her,

and it seemed like she would
go to any kind of length

to satisfy his whims.

She'd been dating him
for a little while

when she asked me to write
a song for his birthday.

I barely knew him,

but Ghislaine
was very specific

about certain phrases
and information

that had to be in the song.

Jeffrey was turning 40,

so I figured it would be
a big party.

Turned out there were only
six guys wearing black tie.

Les Wexner was the dean
of the Harvard Business School

and Itzhak Perlman
the violinist was there,

smoking cigars and
drinking brandy after dinner.

It felt like kind of
a convention

of masters of the universe.

She asked me
to knock on the door

at the appointed hour,
walk in,

sit on the floor,
and perform the song.

"Poor Jeffrey Epstein is 40.
Oy vey.

"Life must be tough.
His hair is already so gray.

"He sure looks older,
but it's clear from his smile

"the older he gets,
the more juvenile.

"Ghislaine is lavishing him
with her affections.

"She claims he has
24-hour erections.

"Sounds like he's busy.
Now, ain't that berserk?

How does he find the time
to get off to work?"

God, I feel so...

it seems so creepy
reading it now, I'm afraid.

Um...

"He wakes when the cock crows
while everyone slumbers.

"He rivals Einstein
when crunching those numbers.

"Taught math at Dalton.

"The naughty boy blushes
to think of school girls

and all of their crushes."

You know, kind of snickers
in the room,

and it seemed like
that was something

that was known about him
at the time,

that he liked younger girls.

It's that odd thing
of something that seems

tongue in cheek, but that
you have no real sense

of how utterly depraved
his intentions were.

I was told by Jeffrey
and Ghislaine

during my very first
so-called interview with them

that they had homes
all over the world.

New Mexico,
New York,

they were getting
one in France,

and the Virgin Islands.

So you're instantly aware
that these were

rich and powerfully
persuasive people,

and so,
the fear of that's like,

"What happens if I do say no?"

The massage seemed legitimate
at first.

Ghislaine grabbed one foot,
I grabbed the other,

and she says, "You always
wanna keep one hand

on the body when
you're massaging somebody,"

and then he turns over
and the entire thing changed.

They said,
"Take off your clothes."

I had these
little girl undies on,

like, little hearts on them,
I remember,

and they were laughing at that
because they liked that.

The younger you look,
the better it is.

So I... I stripped down.
Ghislaine stripped down.

It turned in...
it turned very sexual.

Um, it was abuse right away
from both of them.

Stuff that I knew had...
that I had already known, um,

because I'd been abused before,
and it felt just like that.

My new happy brain
just shut off,

and this old survival brain
came back in.

It's a completely
different person,

the person that takes over.

You know, very scared
of saying the wrong thing,

doing the wrong thing,

and you do
disassociate yourself

from who you know you are,

but who you have to be.

Afterwards,
Ghislaine left the room

and Jeffrey was telling me
I did a good job,

and I'm gonna go really far,
and he's gonna get me educated,

and he was, like,
really, really happy.

I mean,
the cat that got the milk.

I got paid $200,
and the butler drove me home.

They acted very normal
about the situation.

They tried to validate
what had happened.

From the outside perspective,

you understand
the grooming involved

and what transpired
in that room...

paying her heftily

for the work
that had been done,

making it seem like
it was appropriate,

what had transpired,

and then inviting
her back again.

The shame was immediate.

I remember sitting
at the bottom of my shower

and crying my eyes out.

I'd been on the streets
and I thought, you know,

"Well, maybe this is
the lesser of two evils."

I had the promise
of an education,

and maybe this is just
how the world works.

If abuse is so prevalent
in my life,

maybe that's just what it is.

That's just life.

For individuals who've been
sexually abused as a child,

this confirms that
they don't have any meaning

beyond giving pleasure
to somebody else.

Of course,
you'd expect them to go back,

especially if there is even
a glimmer of hope that

maybe something good
will come out of this,

because it's a really
devastating feeling

to be nothing.

Within the next few weeks,

Jeffrey and Ghislaine told me
that I need to quit my job

with Mar-a-Lago because
I'll be traveling with them

as their traveling masseuse.

You know,
you ask yourself, like,

if I could talk to that
16-year-old girl again,

what would you tell her?

Bloody hell, I'd tell her,
"Run for your life,"

but at 16, you just...
I don't know, yeah, I was...

I was very intimidated
by these people.

What I call it
is invisible chains.

I mean, no,
these girls were not tied up,

and people will say,
"Well, they kept coming back.

Why did they keep
coming back?"

These were not people
to be crossed.

These were very
significant people

with the ability,
the power, the wealth

to destroy a life
if they wanted to.

The first official complaint
was in 2005.

Once the police started
uncovering the number

of young girls that were
involved in this network,

the investigation snowballed.

They put him
under surveillance,

watching his house,
seeing girls going in and out.

They execute
a search warrant on the home,

even did a trash pull
to investigate

what was being thrown out.

The shocking thing
was the amount of evidence...

things like Amazon receipts
for books about sex slavery,

flight logs,

message pads that had
message after message.

A little girl calling in.

"I can bring this friend
tonight for a massage."

"I can't go because my grandpa
has a birthday."

Things that shock
the conscience.

What you had
in this investigation

was a rock solid
prosecutable case

against
a serial sexual predator.

I come home,
it's super late at night,

and I turn on the TV,
and I hear,

"Local Palm Beach billionaire
arrested."

I don't, you know,
think anything of it.

Well, then, that's Jeffrey
Epstein's face on the TV.

So I instantly just call
Jeffrey Epstein's assistant,

and she tells me,

"Everything's okay.
Don't worry.

"Jeffrey only spent, like,

"a couple hours in jail
and he's out.

"We have you an attorney,
and basically,

if you don't say anything,
you'll be taken care of."

There are numerous victims,

they've got
compelling evidence,

but Epstein lawyers up.

He gets a dream team
of lawyers.

His first call was
to Alan Dershowitz,

tenacious attorney
who fights cases

in the media all the time.

The job of
a criminal defense lawyer

is always to get
the best result

you can get ethically
and legally.

And what they do
according to lawsuits

filed by the victims
and court papers

is essentially begin
a campaign of harassment

and intimidation
of the victims.

I mean, you don't
put this attorney

at a local sports bar.

The things he's saying are,
like, belittling towards me,

making it sound like
I'm this prostitute.

I'm just 18 years old
at this point.

I remember telling him, "Oh,
I have to use the bathroom,"

and I just left.

They certainly had
private investigators

following the young girls
and pulling information.

There's a letter
from Alan Dershowitz

to the prosecutors about

the little girls'
Myspace pages,

saying he should pay attention

'cause this person's
on drugs and alcohol.

It was really a takedown
of the victims.

How do we make them
seem not credible?

It's completely appropriate

to investigate
complaining witnesses.

The complaining witnesses
are fair game.

When I found out
that they were calling

the young girls prostitutes,

I was worried that other
people were gonna think that.

Were they gonna
consider me a victim,

or were they gonna
consider me a prostitute?

Well, it's kind of
a hard thing to swallow.

What went wrong
with this case

is that Barry Krischer,

the state attorney
for Palm Beach County,

essentially just didn't
believe the victims.

Barry Krischer seems
to have said to himself,

"I believe the rich guy who
lives in Palm Beach instead."

The Palm Beach police chief
protested vigorously

when
the State Attorney's office...

citing racy,
suggestive web sites

created by some of the girls...

charged Epstein
with a misdemeanor,

a solicitation
of prostitution.

The case, however,
did not go away.

It was referred to the FBI.

So it, then, at that point,

becomes a federal investigation.

I was so confused
on what was happening.

The feds are coming
to my house.

They're knocking on my door.
They're showing up at my job.

They're, like,
being super aggressive.

I don't really know
what to think

'cause by this time, I'm 18.

I'm like, "Am I gonna
go to prison for this?"

I was just trying
to duck and dodge them.

I don't even wanna
talk to them.

So they end up dropping, like,

papers off
on my front doorstep,

and it turns out
it's all the victims' reports

of the first time they went
to Jeffrey's house,

and what happened
and how they felt.

It immediately brings me back
to the first time

I went to Jeffrey's,
and it was like...

A flashback.

If I could describe how I felt
and everything that happened

the first time I went,

it was this paper
that I didn't write,

somebody else did.

And then I start
looking through the box

and I see all these names
of, like,

girls that I personally
brought to him,

and it was just devastating.

For two days, I think I just
stayed in my house

and cried about it.

For anybody that I recruited,
like, I'm so sorry.

The guilt and shame
in how I feel about

basically I lied to them
and lured them in

to go see this guy...

I don't know if it's something
that I'll ever,

really fully get over.

And at this point
in summer 2007,

Epstein's lawyers realize
this is bad news

because once you start
getting the FBI involved,

the potential penalties
for that client

are much more serious.

They start negotiating
a plea deal in secret.

So I comply with the feds,

but when I called
and I asked,

"What's happening
with this case?"

Nobody can give me an answer.

They're transferring me,
transferring me,

hanging up on me.

Nobody ever calls me back.

Shortly after,
I find Brad Edwards.

Courtney walked in
and she was very direct

and said, you know,
"I'm Courtney Wild.

"I've been cooperating

"in a major federal
investigation

"against Jeffrey Epstein,
but I'm calling now

"and nobody's answering
my questions.

So can you help?"

So I really thought I'm gonna
call the US Attorney's office,

they're gonna tell me, "Look,
it's a massive investigation.

He's probably going
to plead to a life sentence,"

and instead,
the lead prosecutor

gave me the impression
something weird was happening.

There was a very significant
cover-up going on,

unbeknownst to the victims.

And that would turn out
to be one of the most

outrageous aspects of the case.

It made absolutely no sense.

When things like that
don't make sense,

the first thing you look at
is money,

power, and influence.

The reality was
this was a well-oiled

sex trafficking operation,

which had been going on
across much of America,

across different countries
for years,

and he'd basically
gotten away with it.