Epstein-gate: Hold everything...!

I've been having second thoughts about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

What if Alan Dershowitz is innocent? What if Virginia Roberts is lying? Or rather, what if she "decorates" an essentially true story with one false charge?

Before you accuse me of hypocrisy, hear me out.

Some of you may recall a strange Jack Anderson column which appeared when the Watergate scandal was running full throttle. Anderson discussed an oddball named Gordon Novel (recently deceased), who somehow inserted himself into all sorts of scandals and controversies over the course of several decades.

Novel told Anderson about a rather wild scheme to save Richard Nixon's butt. Novel wanted to hire impersonators to stage a secretly-recorded phone conversation in which Nixon would give a direct order to E. Howard Hunt to commit the Watergate burglary. When this recording was leaked to the media, everyone would pounce on it as the key piece of evidence. Then the evidence would be exposed as fraudulent. At that point, the entire case against Nixon would lose credibility.

Although there was no attempt to put that scheme into practice, the basic idea is sound. In fact, it has been employed in other operations. (You may want to look into a shady fellow named Oswald LeWinter, who helped to unravel the congressional investigations into the 1980 "October Surprise.")

Sometimes, the best way to hide a chocolate bar is in a bucket of shit.

Sometimes, the best way to hide evidence of wrongdoing is to surround it with fake evidence. The fake stuff will make the real stuff seem fake.

The trick is to get everyone to talk about the ersatz and to ignore the genuine. When the ersatz is shown to be ersatz, an annoyed public will walk away from the entire matter.

With that principle in mind, let's take another look at Virginia Roberts, a.k.a. Jane Doe #3, the young woman who has made accusations against Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew -- and who has hinted of the involvement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.

As I was taking a long walk on this cold and blustery day, one thought kept rattling around my noggin: If Virginia is telling the truth, then why is she still alive?

According to the story, Viriginia was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, the favorite daughter of Robert Maxwell. He was Mossad. So, I'm betting, is Ghislaine. Mossad has an assassination unit called Kidon. It's very formidable. You can read about the men and women of Kidon in Ostrovsky's books.

Maybe you don't want to bring spooks into this business. Maybe you consider the very idea of Mossad involvement to be preposterous.

All right, then. Consider this: Jeffrey Epstein is a billionaire. Everyone knows that if someone poses a serious threat to a billionaire, said billionaire probably knows a guy who can take care of the problem. Or he knows a guy who knows a guy. Professional help is always just a couple of phone calls away.

So let me ask the question again: Why is Virginia still alive?

I have a few more questions. Where is she right now? How did that picture come out? Why haven't we seen the other, more damning photos that we've read about? And how did Politico get hold of a Complaint that (I am told) was supposed to be under seal?

Another important fact to keep in mind: There are literally dozens of other girls who are talking -- behind the scenes -- about Jeffrey Epstein's sleazy operation. We don't know the names of these girls.

All the focus is on Virginia.

You know how magicians work: Misdirection. The magician does what he needs to do to keep your eyes on something other than what you should be looking at.

Alan Dershowitz has issued truly thunderous denials. He insists that he never met Virginia Roberts.

“I welcome a full investigation,” he said, daring the alleged victim, Jane Doe #3, to either file charges or repeat her accusation to the press. He noted she had repeated accusations against Prince Andrew, but curiously not about him.

Even though Dershowitz is a vindictive little piece of shit, and even though nobody I like likes Dershowitz, and even though only the slimiest of lawyers would dig up dirt on the victims of a billionaire sex criminal, and even though Dershowitz has behaved abominably toward Norman Finkelstein and others, I'm now starting to wonder: What if he's telling the truth in this case?

Virginia Roberts claims that she not only had sex with Prince Andrew, she met the Queen.

Virginia Roberts' father Sky said that his daughter was introduced to the Queen in London after the Prince's billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein flew her to London in 2001.

He told The Sun: "She was so excited about meeting the Queen.

"She had been flown to London by Jeffrey. He would fly her all over the world on his private jet."

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace, which denies the allegations, said: “We have no record of such a meeting.”

Frankly, the story about the Queen seems more than a little iffy to me. It takes only one false claim to destroy the credibility of everything else Virginia has said -- not to mention everything said by the dozens of other Jane Does.

You should pay careful attention to the way right-wing conspiracy writers have treated this story. They are zeroing in on Clinton, even though there is no proof (in fact, no claim) that he ever had sex with Virginia Roberts or any other member of the Epstein entourage. 

Both mainstream news articles and "alternative" sources like Alex Jones' Prison Panet have accused Clinton of wrongdoing -- despite a total lack of evidence -- while simultaneously going to great lengths to cover up the name of Ghislaine Maxwell.

Repeat: They don't even want to mention her name. They will tell you that a woman connected to the Epstein case attended Chelsea's wedding, but they won't tell you that this woman was Ghislaine Maxwell.

They don't like to talk about her. And they never talk about Robert Maxwell's ties to Mossad.

(You should check out the Prison Planet segment at the other end of the above link. It's a hoot. Toward the end, the Alex Jonesians somehow link the Epstein scandal to the mythical Great Gun Round-Up that is supposedly a-comin' real soon. Good Christ, what is it with these clowns?)

All of Epstein's real contacts go to the neocon right. We saw the cavalcade of names in our earlier post: Ken Starr, Ghislaine Maxwell, Leslie Wexner, Jay Lefkowitz, the Mega Group, the Project for a New American Century. Why isn't anyone talking about those Epstein associates?

Please understand: I'm not convinced that Virginia is a liar. I am convinced that her lawyers are operating in good faith. They are certainly taking a risk, given Dershowitz' penchant for vindictiveness.

Yes, it is quite possible that I've been over-thinking this whole business. Maybe I'm being too paranoid. Maybe tomorrow I will have an entirely new attitude toward the case.

But let us pause to consider an alternative scenario. Perhaps the purpose of this charade is twofold:

1. Deep-six Hillary's chances, and

2. Destroy the credibility of all the other "Jane Does" in the Epstein case.

Perhaps there will then come a day when Virginia tearfully confesses that she made up some or all of her tale. And perhaps, behind those tears, Virginia will know that a transaction is taking place somewhere in Zurich...a transaction in which a seven-figure sum finds its way into a certain bank account with her name on it. Payment for services rendered.

No, I'm not saying that I believe in this alternative scenario. I'm saying keep the possibility in mind.