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Not Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein tried to snap the nib of Vanity Fair

Jeffrey Epstein attempted to silence Vanity Fair from exposing his sexual endeavours.

Published on: Jan 6, 2024, 07:14:14 IST
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In 2002, Jeffrey Epstein stormed into the office of Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief, Graydon Carter, in an effort to stop the magazine from exposing his sexual crimes — which it ultimately did not.

Jeffrey Epstein's Vanity Fair office visit aimed at silencing truth. (Vanity Fair archive)
Jeffrey Epstein's Vanity Fair office visit aimed at silencing truth. (Vanity Fair archive)

The magazine had been working on a profile of Epstein, the notorious paedophile financier with powerful connections, and had interviewed two of his accusers, sisters Annie and Maria Farmer, who had revealed his depraved behaviour.

Maria Farmer, then a 25-year-old art student, had been hired by Epstein as an art scout. She recounted to reporter Vicky Ward how Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell had molested her at the Ohio mansion of billionaire Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, in 1996. Maxwell had even held her hand during the assault.

ALSO READ| 2011 email suggests Bill Clinton ‘threatened’ Vanity Fair not to write about his ‘good friend’ Jeffrey Epstein

Annie Farmer, who was only 16 at the time, had also been abused by Maxwell, who had groped her breasts and taught her how to massage Epstein’s feet.

‘The Talented Mr. Epstein’

Despite their harrowing testimonies, the Farmers’ allegations were omitted from the final version of the article, which ran in March 2003 under the title- “The Talented Mr. Epstein.”

The reason for the omission became clear on Friday, when a trove of previously sealed court documents was released, showing that Epstein’s most famous victim, Virginia Giuffre, had accused former president Bill Clinton of trying to intimidate Vanity Fair into silence.

In an email, Giuffre wrote, “When I was doing some research into VF yesterday, it does concern me what they could want to write about me considering that B. Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex trafficking articles about his good friend J.E.”

Ward and Carter both denied that Clinton had ever visited the magazine’s office. “This categorically didn’t happen,” a spokesperson for Carter, who left Vanity Fair in 2017, quoted to the New York Post.

Guess ‘who just appeared in Graydon’s office?’

Ward, who now runs Vicky Ward Investigates, said, “I never heard about Bill Clinton coming into the office. I think that Jeffrey Epstein got conflated by the time it reached Virginia.”

“Jeffrey Epstein, while the piece was going through fact-checking, appeared in the office. A fact-checker named Mary Flynn emailed me and said that Jeffrey Epstein was standing in Graydon’s office.”

ALSO READ| Jeffrey Epstein list: Third set of documents connected to notorious paedophile released

The email reads, “Bless you – guess who just appeared in Graydon’s office? Jeffrey Epstein.”

Epstein’s visit was part of his aggressive campaign to prevent the truth from coming out in Vanity Fair.

The magazine also dropped the ball on Epstein in 2007, when he was first investigated by federal authorities for preying on underage girls, according to John Connolly, a writer who spoke to The Post in 2020, before his death in 2022.

  • Tuhin Das Mahapatra
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Tuhin Das Mahapatra

    Tuhin Das Mahapatra is a key member of the US Team at Hindustan Times, crafting compelling narratives on politics, US visa, Hollywood, esports, anime, and beyond. This erudite literature student, if not penning down a narrative with his modest yet trusty pen, is deeply contemplating 'what the purpose of journalism is?Read More

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