OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A journalist who says he spent years researching and investigating Jeffrey Epstein has posted a lengthy Twitter thread in response to SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk’s call over the weekend for the media to publish the names of Epstein’s victims and client list.
Adam Davidson’s responses came after Musk on Saturday tweeted a meme that said, “Things I’ll never see in my life,” along with photos of a fire-breathing dragon, a unicorn, a dinosaur, and the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell client list.”
“Only thing more remarkable than DOJ not leaking the list is that no one in the media cares. Doesn’t that seem odd?” he noted in the meme tweet.
Only thing more remarkable than DOJ not leaking the list is that no one in the media cares. Doesn’t that seem odd? pic.twitter.com/JEK4TErABB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2022
Davidson answered Musk in his threads, explaining why he can’t publish what he knows about these powerful friends and clients of Epstein and why some victims won’t come forward. He also said friends and associates all knew even about the sex even if they didn’t participate in it, adding that a court can presume them innocent but no one else should.
He noted:
I wrote something provocative about how I know stuff about Jeffrey Epstein and can’t publish it. I’ll do my best to explain and reveal here. It provides, I think, a good lesson in why it is hard to publish stories about bad things done by the rich and powerful:
Just about everything I know has been published somewhere. It’s in books or articles or interviews with victims or revealed in depositions.
First: Just about everything I know has been published somewhere. It's in books or articles or interviews with victims or revealed in depositions.
And, I think, our podcast, Broken, https://t.co/bmqxq3LzOB went further than many in revealing scumbaggery.
2/
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) June 4, 2022
And, I think, our podcast, Broken, went further than many in revealing scumbaggery.
But, yes, there are things I believe, with good evidence, to be true that I feel I cannot publish.
These fall into a few categories:
Category 1: Protecting the victims.
We spoke to dozens of Epstein’s victims and dozens of their lawyers.
Many are, simply, terrified and don’t want to talk at all.
Others are willing to talk off the record and will confirm things others said, but beg us not to reveal their names/info.
Others are represented by lawyers who want to win settlements and don’t let them all.
We chose to respect any victim’s decision.
We had to rely on the very few victims who were willing to talk publicly. This is why
@VRSVirginia is so brave. Pretty much every thing she told us was confirmed by others, off the record. But she is rare in being public. [Editor’s note: This is Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim who has accused Britain’s Prince Andrew after being trafficked by Ghislaine Maxwell.]
The biggest issue is the victims we never spoke with.
The biggest issue is the victims we never spoke with.
Epstein reportedly raped up to 3 girls a day for years. Most came once or just a few times. Their names are not known by anyone.
That's thousands of victims who are invisible.
6/
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) June 4, 2022
Epstein reportedly raped up to 3 girls a day for years. Most came once or just a few times. Their names are not known by anyone.
That’s thousands of victims who are invisible.
The next circle of sources are the enablers. Over the decades of abuse, Epstein had hundreds of staffers–pilots, house staff, chefs, assistants–the vast majority will never speak or will offer weak denials or will only speak through lawyers.
We covered one of those enablers, Adam Perry Lang, quite well, I thought: he was Epstein’s chef for years and has become a Hollywood celeb chef, best friend of Jimmy Kimmel.
A few of these enablers would confirm details off the record.
Then there is a huge group of people–those who witnessed Epstein and fancy functions. They saw him with teenagers at scientific conferences or sitting on his knee at dinner parties.
There are countless people like this.
A few did talk to us–totally off the record.
Lastly, there are the people who (allegedly!) either had sex with children or were around when others were doing so.
They are all rich and powerful and simply deny and refer to their lawyers often with clear insistence that they will sue.
The result of all of this is that for most of the claims, there is one witness willing to go on record. That witness, more often than not, is @VRSVirginia
I have full confidence in her recollections. We spent ~two years checking everything she said and never found a lie.
But courts and the public are not kind to single-source he-said/she-said cases.
Virginia has already faced down and won against some very powerful people.
But this is an absurd amount of weight to put on one person’s shoulders.
So, I am not protecting the men who (I feel fairly confident) raped children or watched as others did so. Fuck those guys.
I am honoring their victims’ requests.
Like all of you, I have hoped it would all come out by now. I’m shocked it hasn’t.
But here is what I feel confident in saying:
If someone spent any amount of time with Jeffrey Epstein, at a minimum they saw him physically touching girls in provocative ways and rather gleefully showing off his ability to do so.
More than likely, they were offered sex with whatever their preference was (Epstein did employ, abuse, and traffic women who weren’t underage). And many did have sex with girls or women.
So, ALL the people who spent real time with Epstein were–at best!–witnesses to the almost certain rape of children.
And had a high likelihood that they engaged in illegal sex acts.
Courts can presume innocence.
We all should presume guilt.
They saw him with those children. They saw naked photos on his walls and many saw naked children around his pool.
They knew. Yes, of course, many participated. But ALL knew.
I am not able to say the names of people I think participated without betraying victims.
But these men should not be invited into polite society.
They should not be celebrated on TV shows as experts on Covid or international relations or whatever.
But these men should not be invited into polite society.
They should not be celebrated on TV shows as experts on Covid or international relations or whatever.
19/end
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) June 4, 2022
