Why I Passed on a Jeffrey Epstein Book Deal

The Case Is Even Murkier Than You Think

After the reported suicide last week of key Jeffrey Epstein witness Virginia Roberts Giuffre, I was asked again if I were interested in collaborating on a book about Epstein’s life and death. Again I said no. One reason I withdrew is that I no longer trusted Giuffre’s testimony. Her death would make finding truth even more elusive.

In the way of background, in addition to writing books on my own, 17 and counting, I have collaborated quietly on twice as many others, usually with people more prominent than I. These collaborations range from editing to book doctoring to ghost writing. In each case, I keep my name off the book cover and out of the “acknowledgement” section.

To protect the author’s reputation, I never speak publicly of my role. In the case of the proposed Epstein book, I would also be protecting myself. That said, after considerable research, I withdrew from the Epstein project less out of fear for my life than out of fear for my bank account. Epstein’s world is even more litigious than it is dangerous.

Here is what we know about the final days of Jeffrey Epstein, the century’s most notorious child sex trafficker. On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested for the second time and placed in the in the Secure Housing Unit (SHU) of New York’s Metropolitan Correction Center’s (MCC).

MCC assigned prisoners to the SHU deemed too vulnerable to mix with the general population. Epstein was the most vulnerable of all. Even behind bars, Epstein had more incriminating intel than he had in 2008 when he struck his sweetheart deal with the Feds, the notorious “non-prosecution agreement.” By 2019, he had accumulated a decades worth of additional dirt, all the more threatening to his friends in high places.

Although the MCC Psychology Department determined that Epstein needed to be housed with an appropriate cellmate, the first cellmate was transferred out on July 22, 2019. On July 23, Epstein allegedly attempted suicide for the first time.

Approximately a week after he was placed on suicide watch, a new cellmate was transferred in. But that cellmate was transferred out early on the fateful day of August 9. Epstein died that evening, the 50th anniversary to the day of the Manson family’s attack on the home of actress Sharon Tate. There is some evil symmetry afoot here. Charles Manson also trafficked in young girls.

Early Saturday morning, August 10, guard Michael Thomas discovered Epstein’s lifeless body when he attempted to deliver breakfast to Epstein’s cell. The author of the proposed book, I should note, is convinced Epstein was murdered. The author claims to know the identity of the person who orchestrated the plot and the details of that plot. The author, whose judgment I trust, moves in a world that intersected with that of Epstein and had interviewed him in the past. The proposal was serious.

Fortunately for a would-be killer, the MCC, now shuttered, offered a nearly perfect environment for a conspiracy to unfold. The relevant security cameras malfunctioned, and the underpaid staff were incompetent, easily corrupted, or both.

Bureau of Prison policy requires SHU staff to observe all inmates at least twice an hour and that lieutenants conduct at least one round in the SHU each shift. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that SHU staff did not conduct any 30-minute rounds after about 10:40 p.m. on August 9 and that none of the required SHU inmate counts were conducted after 4 p.m. Epstein’s body was not discovered until 6:30 a.m. on August 10.

The OIG found that several staff falsified records relating to inmate counts and rounds and lied during their OIG interviews. Two MCC New York employees, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, were charged criminally with falsifying Bureau of Prison records.

For all the foul-ups what was most striking about prison security was the brass’s seeming indifference to the consequences of an unnatural death of their highest profile prisoner. They may have had good reason to be confident. No heads rolled, and charges against Thomas and Noel were soon dropped.

The Epstein case calls to mind Agatha Christie’s classic novel, Murder on the Orient Express. In the book—and film of the same name—American businessman Samuel Ratchett is found dead one morning in his compartment on the Orient Express, a luxury train stalled in a Croatian snowstorm. On board the train, as it happens, is detective Hercule Poirot.

Poirot soon discovers that Ratchett is actually a gangster named Cassetti, wanted in America for an unspeakable crime involving a young girl. In time, Poirot comes to see that almost everyone on board is a suspect in Cassetti’s stabbing death for one very good reason: each of them wanted him dead.

Although no one is known to have died on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane, the so-called, “Lolita Express,” its flight logs hold as much intrigue as the passenger list of the Orient Express. Many of those who flew with Epstein, a man guilty of unspeakable crimes with uncountable young girls, had reason to wish him dead. One of them may well have succeeded.

What is undeniable is that Epstein played politics at the highest level. A generous donor to Democratic causes and candidates, he dirtied the reputations of Republicans as well. On September 17, 2007, after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was fired, the new US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, took over the Epstein case for reasons of political expediency.

His boss, President George W. Bush, had a much cozier relationship with Bill Clinton, whose wife was running for president that same year, 2008, than he had with 2008 Republican nominee, John McCain.

By allowing Attorney General Mukasey to broker Epstein’s lenient plea deal and 2008 non-prosecution agreement, US Attorney R. Alex Acosta shouldered the blame for Epstein’s continued predations. In 2019, after Epstein’s arrest, Acosta was pressured to resign as Trump’s Secretary of Labor.

When Donald Trump became president, mainstream media reignited the Epstein case in an effort to link Trump to Epstein’s multiple crimes. The fact that Trump’s friendship with Epstein ended after he publicly cancelled Epstein’s Mar-a-Lago membership in 2005 and cut off all relations after his first arrest did not dissuade the industry. This effort would soon enough boomerang on mass media’s Democratic allies.

All of the likely suspects in Epstein’s demise are Democrats or fellow travelers. Were Poirot on the job, he might begin by listing those men who breathed easier upon hearing the news of Epstein’s demise, all of whom interacted with Epstein after 2008 knowing full well he was a convicted sex trafficker.

At the top of that list would be former president Bill Clinton, who took at least 26 flights on Epstein’s Boeing 727, five or more of them unescorted by his Secret Service detail. In June 2010, two years after Epstein’s initial conviction, Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton’s intimate wedding in upstate New York.

No one has fared worse from being a friend of Jeffrey than Prince Andrew. In 2019, hours after a calamitous interview with the BBC, Andrew was stripped of his patronages and removed from all royal duties. In 2021, Andrew was forced to pay millions of dollars to settle a civil sexual assault case with Giuffre, who accused the Prince of sexually assaulting her in London when she was 17. Andrews denied any wrongdoing, but the photos suggest otherwise.

For decades the private lives and business relationships of Epstein and Les Wexner, a long time friend and patron, were linked in a bacchanal of high-living and secret dealings. A month after Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Wexner sent a letter to the Wall Street Journal accusing his protégé of stealing “vast sums of money,” $46 million to be precise. Two days after the Journal published the Wexner letter, Epstein was dead.

Until his death in 2019, Epstein wielded extraordinary influence at JP Morgan. Working through Jes Staley, the head of investment-banking, Epstein pushed the bank to do deals with China and the United Arab Emirates among other shady players.

What Staley allegedly got from Epstein were girls, money, and plenty of high-powered introductions. In November 2023, a federal judge approved a settlement of a class-action lawsuit in which JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $290 million to some 200 Epstein victims who claimed that the bank ignored warnings about the disgraced financier.

Numerous other high profile men turned to Epstein, more provably for donations or connections than for sex. These included the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Bard College President Leon Botstein, former Harvard President and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and celebrated MIT linguist and political activist, Noam Chomsky.

The one name on the likely suspect list that troubled me was Alan Dershowitz. In a 2016 deposition, Giuffre claimed she had sex with Dershowitz on "at least six" occasions. To prove his innocence, an outraged Dershowitz demanded that the files be opened. They were. In 2022, in the settlement of a suit, Giuffre conceded, “I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz.”

Once Giuffre was discredited, there was little reason to have her killed. Her final days were confused and confusing. Living in Western Australia, she was involved in a collision with a bus on March 24, 2025. She put out the message that doctors had given her four days to live, a prognosis so odd it caught my attention.

On April 24, she was found dead on her Australia farm. “Everything just accrues on top of one another,” her sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, told People. Roberts claimed the weight of all of Giuffre’s burdens “was too much to carry.” In sum, Giuffre was a more likely suicide victim than Epstein.

The problem that a book publisher faces is daunting. Epstein’s medium of exchange was the massage. Some had “happy endings.” Some did not. Some of the girls were underage. Many were not. Some of the girls were reliable witnesses. Some, like Giuffre, were not.

For an author to name names prior to an arrest of a suspect would invite defamation suits from individuals with deeper pockets than the publisher. Even to list individuals as suspects would invite reprisal. Unable to name names, I saw no structure on which to build a narrative.

The FBI has more freedom to maneuver. Chasing the perverts on Epstein’s list makes sense as a strategy only if the chase leads to the man who orchestrated Epstein’s murder, presuming, of course, that Epstein was murdered.

But I suspect someone has already whispered it Patel’s ear, “Forget it, Kash, it’s Chinatown.”

Each week, as a special bonus for paid subscribers, I will be rolling out in serial form my current book-in-progress: THE EMPIRE OF LIES: THE LEFT’S 30-YEAR WAR ON TRUTH, 1994-2024.