The Honey Trap on East 71st Street | Hacker News Reader

The Honey Trap on East 71st Street

ericmargolis.com

47 pointsyasp11 comments

NYMag has some comments from hedge fund managers about Epstein. He claimed to be a hedge fund manager. But, “not one institutional trading desk, primary or secondary, had ever traded with Epstein’s firm.” “I don’t know anyone who’s ever invested in him; he’s never talked about by any of the allocators.”[1] So, whatever he was doing to make money, it wasn't running a hedge fund.

"Given this puzzling set of data points, the hedge-fund managers we spoke to leaned toward the theory that Epstein was running a blackmail scheme under the cover of a hedge fund."

[1] http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/hedge-funders-have-so...

I read that a while ago, and found it compelling, but had talked myself out of it -- if he was really blackmailing presidents, the CIA would have stepped in at some point, had GRU not gotten in there first.

The Mossad route taken in the parent article provides other possibilities

There's nothing in the article to corroborate the most scandalous accusation here: Epstein, an American born in Brooklyn, was a secret Israeli agent operating a honey-trap in a plush Manhattan apartment.

The truth is boring. He's just a rotten guy who used his rotten predilection to further his influence.

I was expecting lizard people and magic glasses by the end of this. Don't think this belongs on the front page.

> All sang the praises of Israel.

Did you miss this part?

Israeli? Why because he's Jewish? He reportedly has a Saudi passport (expired) in his safe. He allegedly entrapped Ehud Barak. Do you think for a second MI6 had no idea of his close association with Prince Andrew? Do you think US CI didn't know about Clinton's express travel? You have no idea how that world works. Angleton called it a wilderness of mirrors for a reason.

> Do you think for a second MI6 had no idea of his close association with Prince Andrew? Do you think US CI didn't know about Clinton's express travel?

I mean, all related intelligence communities massively dropped the fucking ball by letting any of these VIPs hang out with him in the first place though, whether or not he was someone else's asset.

Qui Bono? Seriously, speculative fiction is good, but speculative news reportage always begs the question why the story flies, who benefits, and who doesn't want it said?

I wondered this about the 'how stuxnet happened' story too: Who really benefited from the release?

Though it is not always useful, "who said it" comes to the fore. When an independent channel says it, verifies it, it becomes bigger. when its just one voice, unknown, its hard to know how to judge or weight the likelihood and impact

It is cui bono and Epstein gets views and there are enough inconsistencies to warrant speculation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com