I got up this morning, checked the news, and saw this awful face staring out at me. Auggh.
Plumbing the Epstein files is like diving into a sewer. Another name that keeps coming up is Ken Starr, the evil prude who prosecuted Bill Clinton, and became good buddies with Epstein.
Starr, who died in 2022, was a close personal friend and professional contact of Epstein, and was the key lawyer who helped Epstein clinch a plea agreement in 2008, which is how Epstein avoided federal sex-trafficking charges and served a reduced sentence.
On 23 August 2018, Epstein appeared to ask Starr about a report that was to be released about Kavanaugh and the Starr investigation. Starr responded: “No writing for now. The release should be a non-event for Brett. I get criticized in one portion of the report, but no finding of illegality.”
Too bad we can’t dig him up and kick his corpse around. But Brett Kavanaugh is still around, unfortunately, and his name gets thrown around in the Epstein files quite a bit.
Jeffrey Epstein sympathized with Brett Kavanaugh during the then-supreme court nominee’s contentious 2018 confirmation and even suggested Republicans should have been harder on Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Epstein called the pending judiciary hearing “a trap!”, adding “Iye [sic] been through many of these. MANY!! She will cry, make sordid allegations. Say she feels bullied, fearful, traumatized. Every thing bad in her life was s result of the rape attempt. Suffered anxiety! Her relationships with men etc. this is a very special skill set needed.”
His suggestion was that even more intense defamation of the victim was necessary. He identified with Kavanaugh, and said that he had also been through MANY!! similar accusations (I wonder why a serial rapist and pedophile had such frequent experiences…). One has to wonder about the similarities, though.
Those of us who opposed his nomination to the Supreme Court are further vindicated, at least. Now, how can we get this mini-Epstein thrown off the court for good?
Send zombie Ken Starr to strangle Kavanaugh? Then both of them can spend eternity sanitizing the Love Canal pollution site.
“how can we get this mini-Epstein thrown off the court for good?”
Trebuchet.
Wanna bet the 6 Justices, including Clarence Thomas and that overtly religious lady, are all in the Epstein/Trump files?
Can we encourage the worst ones to start a “battle royale”?
Hint that one of them has tapes he/she is willing to give to a state prosecutor in return for amnesty? (Sidewalk goes “Splat!” as judges accidentally fall from high rise windows). If space Karen feels threatened they might even get hit by orbital junk.
It is odd to me that people (men) in power seem to have a thing about sex with boys and it goes back thousands of years, most recently with:
* Jimmy Savile et al
* Franklin child prostitution ring / Boys Town with a tangential connection to Reagan
* Epstein et al
I find it telling that the central players all end up dead
soc25, I’m scratching my head a bit about your comment. Epstein’s victims seem to have all been women, unless you know something I don’t.
Jimmy Savile’s victims were mostly women, but he wasn’t picky, occasionally abusing boys. He also claimed to have committed sexual acts on the recent deceased, but there’s no way of proving that.
And Savile was 84 when he died, so it’s rather unlikely he was murdered, if that’s what you’re implying.
FWIW Owen Jones linked here on Choimsky being inthe Epsttein files hence the previous thread on that hyperlinkage* :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/02/06/jeffrey-epstein-thought-he-was-mostly-innocent-so-did-noam-chomsky/comment-page-1/#comment-2293372
.* Hyperlinkage / hyperlinks still the term like extrasolar planets for exoplanets or getting too outdated? Becoz that might or might not matter mebbe? Is adding links to links to stuff “hyper” these days..Why “hyper”not “uber”or “super” or “ultra” or.. other possibly superfluous suffixes? Needless to say or is it? A-n-y-h-o-w..
I woke up to Brett’s scowl first thing this morning, too, and then to see the not surprising news that he’s in “The Files” because he was messaging E-man about covering up his rape charge.
What a bunch of idiotic gross perverts.
I posted about Ken Starr to the previous thread — he was the primary author of the essay that PZ thought had been written by Epstein writing about himself in the third person. That attribution was incorrect.
Reposting with a more linear timeline (see the previous thread for more links):
2018-12-11, the Miami Herald published their big expose of Epstein:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article222912360.html
2018-12-13: JE requested the essay (the destination publication of the essay changed in the course of the e-mail exchanges — law journal / newspaper op-ed, maybe two versions of the article? )
.
I think this is the earliest draft there is — it’s a bit confusing, because it doesn’t have the first e-mail with Ken Starr’s draft alone (searching only brought up this with several responses added on)
https://epstein-emails.sfo3.digitaloceanspaces.com/docs/HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030255.pdf
2018-12:15: Ken Starr sent the first draft.
2018-12-16: The essay was then edited by Kathy Ruemmler. Martin G. Weinberg also suggested some edits. The Op-Ed was to be published with Ken Starr’s and Martin Weinberg’s names
2018-12-21: JE told the legal team of writers/editors to hold off publishing it for the time being.
More shit hit the fan for JE in early 2019, and therefore:
2019-03-04: A substantially modified op-ed was published in the New York Times.
Despite the changes in wording, the general idea of “JE didn’t do anything that bad, and served his time, and should be left alone now” still remains. It was signed by Kenneth W. Starr, Martin G. Weinberg, Jack Goldberger, and Lilly Ann Sanchez
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/opinion/letters/jeffrey-epstein.html
JE also solicited opinions from other people , Frex:
2018-12-15: Joi Ito received a copy of Starr’s first draft and generally approved of it.
2018-12-18: Steve Bannon received a later draft , with the question of whether it should go to the wash post (didn’t see a reply to that one).
2018-12-29: The Chomsky query and response thread
2019-02-01: JE emailed a draft to Michael Wolff. only crediting Ken Starr
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01028639.pdf
Also germane to Ken Starr — If you go to jmail.world , you can see that Ken Starr has a contact link that you can just click on to see his e-mail exchanges with Epstein (once I found that, it made the research a lot easier).
You probably don’t want to know that Ken Starr, freely and of his own volition, often closed out his e-mails to Jeffrey with “Hugs”. Yeah. That’s a thing.
You probably also don’t want to know that Starr has an e-mail exchange with Jeffrey about Christian theology, not too long before writing that essay.
What comes to my mind is Lavrentee Beriya, a Soviet spymaster and sexual predator.
The Soviet leadership got rid of him eventually (after Stalin died), but not before he had committed horrific crimes.
Beria was a capital M Monster.
The Soviets killed him soon after Stalin died for a lot of reasons. Not least because if they didn’t kill Beria, he was very likely to kill them.
Beria was responsible for the various purges and terrorism of the Stalin regime. He directly ordered the deaths of over 100,000 people and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people.
We have our own version of Lavrentiy Beria. Or rather several versions of Lavrentiy Beria.
I can’t count them all but a good start would be Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Steve Bannon, and Elon Musk.
“He identified with Kavanaugh, and said that he had also been through MANY!! similar accusations (I wonder why a serial rapist and pedophile had such frequent experiences…)”
You also have to wonder who helped Epstein to make sure those many accusations went away.
Other people who will not be missed:
HIV denialist Peter Duesberg is dead. Good.
I heard a jazz singer read lyrics for a song titled “When That Man Is Dead and Gone”. She made a few changes to modernize it a bit. The original was written in 1941 by Irving Berlin about another giant asshole stalking the world stage.
“We have our own version of Lavrentiy Beria. Or rather several versions of Lavrentiy Beria.”
No we [you] do not. That is hyperbole, raven. Unhelpful.
He personally tortured, raped, and murdered people.
Are you seriously accusing “Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Steve Bannon, and Elon Musk” of that?
Chill out a bit, John — raven said we have “versions” of Beria, not “equivalents” or “exact copies.”
Raging Bee, I could not be more chill.
— who was known for openly pulling women off the street for raping, for personally torturing people, for personally murdering people.
For you:
Ken Starr was not a prude. He was a self-serving rat who used whatever argument best suited his need to shore up Republican power.
He used arguments that Trump should not be impeached directly contradicting arguments he used when prosecuting Clinton. He defended Epstein and, indirectly, Krauss. He was President and Chancellor of Baylor during a string of rapes that the college refused to investigate or take action to stop. Not the actions of a prude.
Owlmirror @11,
“You probably don’t want to know that Ken Starr, freely and of his own volition, often closed out his e-mails to Jeffrey with “Hugs”. Yeah. That’s a thing.”
My theory is not just some of his clients, but Epstein himself, was bisexual and didn’t mind who gave him massages. There were million dollar settlements with male victims too, after all.
You probably don’t want to know that Ken Starr, freely and of his own volition, often closed out his e-mails to Jeffrey with “Hugs”. Yeah. That’s a thing.
Yeah — a thing I wish I could unsee…
In the news (video): https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cpqw2p1z19vo
(Catchphrase: ‘The Palace has declined to comment’ × lots)
I must print a T-shirt with “The Palace has declined to comment” on it.
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2026/feb/19/police-arrest-former-prince-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-sandringham-latest-updates
↓
Police open investigation into misconduct in public office
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is in custody after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Searches are being carried out at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk, Thames Valley Police said.
Guardian: Which police forces are investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to the UK and why? Mostly but not all related to Andrew-formerly-known-as-Prince.
Next question: what did brother Charles and the recently apotheosized Godess Elizabeth know, and when did they know it? Let’s not forget that Charles has in common with Trump a long friendship with a prolific sexual predator – in Charles’s case, “Sir” Jimmy Savile, the UK’s answer to Epstein – also a pal of Margaret Thatcher and given a Papal knighthood to go with his UK one.
Ugh.
Brockman joked with Epstein about literal infant girls. Yeah, stay classy JB.
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01756604.pdf