SIX DEGREES

It's time to play Six Degrees of Jeffrey Epstein!!! 

(Announcer) Jack Lang! Come on down and play six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein! 

Emcee: You were France's cultural minister when your family had financial dealings with JE.  Johnny, tell our contestant what he has won.

Announcer: You will be resigning from your current position as head of the Arab World Institute which you have headed since 2013. (Who knew the Arab World had an institute?). And you will be CANCELED and are currently facing at 86 a criminal investigation. 

Our next contestant, Mona Juul, come on down and play six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein! 

Emcee: You were Norway's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq when it was revealed that your husband had financial dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. Johnny, tell our contestant what she has won.

Announcer: You are being forced to resign and quit any participation in Norway politics. You and your husband are now being investigated for criminal wrongdoings. 

Moroslav Lajcak come on down and play six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein! 

Emcee: You were the national security advisor to Slovakia's prime minister when you exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein about young girls. Johnny, tell our contestant what he has won.

Announcer: You have been forced to resign and are being ostracized in your home country. 

Peter Mandelson come on down come on down and play six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein! 

Emcee: Peter you were a long-time fixture in British politics and were ending your stellar career with an appointment by current PM Keir Starmer as His Majesty's Ambassador to the United States where weekly parties and high-end dinners and socializing with the top politcos in DC was in your future. Johnny, tell our contestant what he has won. 

Announcer: You have been forced to resign and end your career in shame. 

And finally, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor come on down and play six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein! 

Emcee: Andrew MW, your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has cost you all your English Titles, a Lordship, several peerages, your home, all of your honorary military titles, and you are now an ostracized figure upon whom scorn is heaped by your fellow countrymen. You have been exiled to a rundown farmhouse where most of the servants that are employed as caretakers have refused to work there if you are living there. 

And that is today's edition of Six Degrees of Separation with Jeffrey Epstein. Don't miss our special upcoming editions where former President Clinton and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be testifying before congress about their encounters with Jeffrey Epstein including the former president's trip to Africa on Air-Epstein. 

HERE WE GO

 This just got very interesting very fast. 

elonmusk (@Elon Musk) posted: Time to drop the really big bomb:

@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT! https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930703865801810022?s=66

Was there any doubt that this bromance was destined to get ugly? 

Update: 

The Empire  Strikes Back: 

MURDER MYSTERY AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Jeffrey Epstein Murder Mystery: The plot thickens. No conspiracy theorists we, but a Rumpolian look at the evidence yields the following: 1) Mr. Epstein was taken off of suicide watch two weeks before his death when his attorneys told officials at MDC that the injuries to his neck resulted from being attacked by a murderous thug (former police officer) cell mate; 2) Epstein's last cell mate was removed from his cell a day before his death. In violation of procedure, he was left alone in his cell; 3) The corrections officers did not check on Epstein  for hours before his death. Two of three officers on duty were not actual corrections officers but other employees trained to fill in when needed; 4) The day before his death Epstein was reported to be in good spirits and telling his lawyers he felt the 2nd Circuit would order his release and that his double jeopardy motion would be granted. He told his lawyers he was looking forward to seeing them the next day; 
AND NOW THIS: 
The NY Times reports today here  that the Medical Examiner has currently listed Epstein's death as "unclassified" AND that the hyoid bone in Epstein was fractured. Long time and careful readers of the blog know that in his younger days Rumpole liked nothing more than a good murder and developed a bit of expertise in the manner and method of untimely deaths. While Hyoid bones are known to fracture in suicide hangings, especially in individuals over sixty, they are almost always fratured when death is caused by strangulation. Indeed the fracture of the Hyoid bone is a signature event in a strangulation (something a young medical examiner was forced to admit during an uncomfortable hour under the cross examination by your blogger many years ago in a successful murder defense in a galaxy far far away).

Former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara tweeted shortly after Epstein's death that there should be a full video of Epstein killing himself. He should know. To date there has been no discussion of the video. Does it exist? Have people, including the ME seen it? If the ME has seen it, there would be no reason not to classify the death as a suicide. 

Rest assured that Rumpole is taking a second and harder look at Mr. Epstein's demise. 

JUDGE FABER NEW ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE FOR CRIMINAL COUNTY COURT
That white smoke you saw in the hallways of the REGJB recently wasn't some santeria ritual. It was the signal that the Judges had decided that Judge Robin Faber, long head of the jail division of county court, a blog reader and blog Fantasy Football participant, will don the scarlet robes (not really, but they do it in England and should do it here) and take over as head honcho of the criminal county court judges. Talk about a thankless job! And he has big shoes to fill with Judge Sam Slom retiring on Halloween. 

JUDGES VIE FOR CHIEF JUDGE SPOT
For reasons not entirely clear yet, Judge Soto will not be up for chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit (Motto: "Call us Dade-County, not Miami or Miamahh por favor") when her terms expires in about a year (the timing is also not clear yet). To be clear, we did NOT say she is retiiring from the bench, only that she cannot (or has decided not to)  stand for another term as Chief Judge. 

Two candidates have thrown their electronic hats into the ring via email: Judge Nushin Sayfie, currently chief Judge of the felony criminal dvision, and Judge Scott Bernstein, recently honoured with a judicial award. 
Predictably the fault line has appeared between criminal and civil. 
You think the democratic presidential nomination is hotly contested? To quote Ronald Wilson Reagan "You ain't seen nothing yet!". 
Judges Sayfie and Bernstein are both excellant choices. Well respected and quite able, each will be able to lead our gagle of Judges into the future.  We have more experience with Judge Sayfie who we have seen lead the criminal court judges through thick and thin, and a few scandals that she was on top of and handled admirably. We can always use a voice at the top that understands the trials and tribulations of an REGJB lawyer. However, that is not a blog endorsement. There is a lot of time between now and the election, and a week is a lifetime in politics. 

JUDGE SINGHAL NOMINATED TO FEDERAL BENCH
Mr Markus' federal blog, which has uncomfortably been dabling recently in state court toipics, broke the story yesterday that Judge Raag Singhal, who serves in Broward, has been nominated by POTUS to an open spot on the Southern District Of Florida. The nomination has long been rumored and is well deserved. 

IN MEMORIAM: JEFFREY EPSTEIN

The suicide death of Jeffrey Epstein disappointingly brought out the worst in our criminal defense brethren.  Social media was full of “good riddance” posts. We expect that from the unenlightened, uneducated deplorables who sit around swilling beer, scratching, and cursing life’s unfairness. Also from Republicans.

But we do not expect such expressions from dedicated criminal defense attorneys. So we rise, once again, pushing, pulling, prodding and treading where only the brave dare perambulate. 


We wonder whether Epstein's death will highlight the deplorable conditions  the government holds  defendants pre-trial. Mr. Epstein literally could not survive his incarceration while awaiting trial. How could he and his lawyers be expected to prepare for trial? 

Most federal cases are extensively investigated before indictment, generating tens of thousands of documents. It’s nearly impossible to master these docs in the comforts of a penthouse office (some atop garages across from federal court). It is nearly impossible to discern the key to freedom cleverly tucked  into  the pile of refuse, whilst confined in jail.

But we have bigger fish to filet. 


Mr. Epstein unrepentantly supported his belief in sex with young women, many still juveniles. He was recently quoted in a newspaper interview from a year ago comparing such laws to prior prohibitions on sodomy and same sex relationships.

Mr. Epstein’s views were repugnant, ill-advised, selfish, self-deluding, harmful to others, and downright wrong. He was by all accounts a sexual predator who used his wealth to prey on vulnerable young girls. That is why he needed strong, hard, unbending defense, in life and in death. To defend Jeffrey Epstein is to defend an Al Qaeda Jihadist,  Nazis who want to march in Skokie. Illinois,  and all those who hold views that the majority deem repugnant.

Who could defend enemy occupying soldiers wrongfully killing Americans on American soil? John Adams, future president of the United States. 


Our strength is not in the easy cases. The Constitution is built on the steel girders of the hard cases; the defense of the un-defendable- the Jeffrey Epsteins of the world. The Constitution is strongest when turned loose to defend those accused of the darkest of deeds.


All criminal defense attorneys proudly recall the first “how can you defend that person?” moment at a family meal or a party. And yet, when Mr. Epstein killed himself in despair, criminal defense attorneys from across the United States piled on, trashing Epstein, celebrating his death, murmuring conspiracy theories. 


Epstein’s death is a missed opportunity. We have a chance to highlight to the world the horrific conditions under which our clients are incarcerated. Federal detention centers are designed to force pleas.  The abatoir system of indictment and pleas undermine our most cherished and important right- to force the government to prove its case. We already labour under the (wink*wink) no trial tax system, where prosecutors in the blink of a “no” go from recommending one year to twenty, and judges follow along, trying to keep a straight face while denying that the defendant was punished for going to trial and losing. 

And yet in the face of this trial tax, a few brave souls solider on, forcing the government to trial, fighting for their client, and often winning. But sometimes the unbearable burden of pre-trial incarceration proves to be too much. 


Inhumane pre-trial incarceration is the real lesson of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide. The #metoo movement has nothing to do with how this case ended. All victims have the right to be heard, listened to, respected, and believed when the evidence is credible. And this includes the victims of incarceration in the Gulag United States. 


No one else is brave enough to say this, so we will: rest in peace Mr. Epstein, the legal system failed you. The government has your blood on its hands, and we are sorry.