RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
May 18 to May 24 Featured Investigation: Paradise Lost: Jeffery Epstein’s Legacy Still Clouds the U.S. Virgin Islands In RealClearInvestigations, Lee Fang reports that the Virgin Islands government appears to have enabled and protected Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious businessman who died from suicide in a prison cell after a series of allegations involving sex with underage girls and friendships with prominent figures caused an international scandal. After purchasing Little Saint James in the 1990s, Epstein used the secluded island as a base for sex trafficking, including the rape and abuse of girls as young as eleven. Officials say one 15-year-old victim tried to escape by swimming away. Despite customs agents observing Epstein arriving with underage girls, Virgin Islands authorities took no action. After his 2019 death, those same officials gained control over settlement funds linked to his crimes. Governor Albert Bryan Jr. oversaw the agency that awarded nearly $300 million in illicit tax credits to Epstein’s fraudulent company. He later pushed for a waiver exempting Epstein from the territory’s sex offender registry. Epstein-related legal settlements, totaling nearly $250 million, were intended for victims of sexual assault and trafficking. Instead, Governor Bryan directed the money toward unrelated projects like $22 million in retroactive government wages and a $25 million courthouse renovation – critics in the legislature say his decisions lacked oversight and approval. Attorney General Denise George, who led key cases against Epstein’s estate and J.P. Morgan Chase, was abruptly fired. Her successor settled the J.P. Morgan case for $75 million, far below the original $190 million demand, ending further legal discovery. The law firm Motley Rice is set to receive more than $23 million from the settlement. Legislators and residents question how much money remains and whether it’s being used as promised. “The money is nowhere to be found,” one resident wrote. Legal filings reveal that Epstein placed former first lady Cecile de Jongh on his payroll. She suggested political donations, visa favors, and tax exemptions, allegedly in exchange for loyalty and access. Epstein and his aides funded Delegate Stacey Plaskett’s congressional campaigns and met with her to discuss further donations. She later became the sole defendant in a RICO case filed by Epstein victims, accusing USVI officials of aiding the trafficking operation. In a deposition, Bryan minimized Epstein’s crimes and admitted requesting a sex offender law waiver on Epstein’s behalf. He later fired the attorney general who opposed the move. The sudden resolution of the J.P. Morgan case stopped further evidence from being released about Epstein’s political operations in the territory. Senator Alma Francis Heyliger and others demand full disclosure. “I would rather these things come out… instead of sticking our heads in the sand,” she said. “I am never one that believes you should hide from the truth.” Waste of the Day by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books Trump 2.0 and the Beltway New York Post Last August Paul Sperry reported for RealClearInvestigations on questions swirling around Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician who was the chief medical arbiter of Joe Biden’s fitness to continue as commander in chief after he had dropped his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance. O’Connor, who was a longtime friend and sometime business partner of the Biden family, was stating that Biden is in “excellent” shape to finish out his term. O’Connor’s descriptions of Biden’s health are drawing new scrutiny with reports that the former president has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The New York Post reports that Biden’s team “said the cancer, which has spread to his bones, had been graded a Gleason score of 9, suggesting his form was among the most aggressive.” A handful of medical experts were quick to question how the former president could be diagnosed at such a late stage – especially given that prostate cancer can be detected early with routine bloodwork, which is recommended for men over the age of 50. “It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency,” Dr. Howard Formman said in a post on X. “Gleason grade 9 would have had an elevated PSA level for some time before this diagnosis. And he must have had a PSA test numerous times before. This is odd,” he added. “I wish him well and hope he has an opportunity for maximizing his quality of life.” “The PSA blood test shows the rate of cancer cell growth. For even with the most aggressive form, it is a 5-7 year journey without treatment before it becomes metastatic,” he said. “Meaning, it would be malpractice for this patient to show up and be first diagnosed with metastatic disease in May 2025,” he continued. Other reporting stated that some medical experts do not recommend PSA tests for men over 70 – Biden is 82. The cancer diagnosis was announced as new books are reporting on the efforts by Biden, his family and aides to hide his declining health during his presidency. This week also saw release of the audio of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s October 2023 interview with Biden involving the misuse of classified documents, in which the president appeared to suffer repeated memory lapses and confusion. Other Trump 2.0 and the Beltway Other Noteworthy Articles and Series New York Times Law enforcement officials are connecting the slaying of two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington to a global surge in antisemitic incidents that emerged after Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Across the world, offenses against Jewish people and property have doubled or even tripled since the Hamas attacks and have remained at historically high levels as Israel has waged a 19-month bombing campaign and aid blockade that the Gaza Health Ministry says has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians. Groups that monitor hate crimes around the world said the Hamas attack and the subsequent war had helped fuel tens of thousands of incidents, including cases of verbal abuse, a torrent of online attacks on social media, Nazi-themed vandalism, personal threats and violent attacks resulting in injury and death. … In France, there were 1,570 antisemitic incidents in 2024, down slightly from the year before but still a 260 percent increase over 2022, according to the latest Tel Aviv University report. In Germany, the number of cases involving expressions of hatred against Jews doubled in 2023 to 5,671, the study found, and fell to 5,177 in 2024. Similar trends were evident in antisemitic reports from Argentina, Canada, Australia, Mexico and elsewhere. While antisemitic incidents have increased since the Oct. 7 attack, RealClearInvestigations reported in April that anti-Jewish feelings have been rising around the world for a decade. In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League determined 26% of respondents worldwide were antisemitic; in 2024, that figure was 46%. The ADL also reported a sharp rise in antisemitic attitudes among Americans, finding that 20% held such views in 2022, almost double the figure, 11%, for 2019. Wall Street Journal As the United States has sought to use its leverage on China to address trade imbalances and other geo-political issues, China has been moving to reduce its dependence on America – especially for technology that can be subject to tariffs, embargoes and other restrictions. This article reports that since 2018, when President Xi declared that self-reliance was the best way to “safeguard national economic security,” China has raced ahead in many strategic sectors – and in some cases is catching up with the U.S. Its electric-car companies are among the world’s best. Chinese AI startups rival OpenAI and Google. The country’s biologists are pushing the boundaries of pharmaceutical research, and its factories are being filled with advanced robotics. At sea, Chinese-made cargo vessels dominate global shipping. In space, the country has been launching hundreds of satellites to monitor every corner of the Earth. Beyond frontier technology, Beijing is pursuing greater self-reliance in food and energy, and has bulked up its military. These successes and many others are helping to fortify China and its economy as Xi prepares the nation for an era of sustained hostilities with the U.S., including the continuing trade war. The two sides are entering complex negotiations, with many of the latest tariffs temporarily suspended. This article reports that China is unlikely to ever be fully self-reliant, having imported more than $2.5 trillion worth of goods last year, including $164 billion from the U.S. The sheer size of its population means that in some areas, total self-sufficiency is virtually impossible. Marshall Project Following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, 2020, municipalities across the country advanced a series of criminal justice reforms. Now, this article reports, there are signs of a “national retreat” from policies which advocates saw as overdue but which critics cast as dangerously soft on crime. In Minnesota, the bail fund that gained national prominence during the George Floyd protests is stepping back from its once core mission of paying bail. … In Baltimore, Maryland, the county’s Police Accountability Board – created in 2022 as part of a statewide reform push – is in the midst of an “identity crisis” over whether board members are even legally entitled to read citizen complaints, let alone act on them, reports the Baltimore Banner. A citizen review subcommittee in Champaign, Illinois, operates with similarly narrow authority, lacking the power to initiate its own inquiries or enforce disciplinary outcomes. … Amid calls for prosecutions of officers and increased community oversight of departments, many 2020-era reform advocates also pushed for federal investigations and consent decrees to compel system-level change across entire departments. That strategy is now under threat as the Trump administration has moved to terminate multiple existing consent decrees and generally take the Department of Justice out of the business of guiding police reform. Wall Street Journal After Digital Trends moved out of the U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland, Ore., this article reports, the technology publisher didn’t hold back about why it left. The property, once a premier address in the city, was afflicted with “vagrants sleeping in hallways of vacant office floors.” They were “starting fires in stairwells, smoking fentanyl and defecating in common areas,” according to papers the company filed in a lease-termination lawsuit. The 42-story tower was recently put up for sale. The building affectionately known as Big Pink because of its pink-hued Spanish granite and pink glazed glass has an asking price of about $70 million, according to brokers. That is more than 80% below what the owners paid for it a decade ago. … The troubles at Big Pink offer a potent symbol of what ails downtown Portland. They also serve as a warning for what can happen to once-bustling downtowns if they get caught in the doom loop of losing businesses. … [Even as] many cities across the U.S. are starting to recover from what has been one of the worst office downturns of the past 75 years .. Portland’s commercial real-estate market shows few signs of recovering from the fallout of the pandemic, rise in homelessness and the state’s botched experiment with drug decriminalization. This article reports that Portland’s office turmoil is spilling over to the residential market. A $600 million development including condos, office space and a Ritz-Carlton hotel that opened in 2023 is struggling. A lender is trying to take title to the property, partly because condo sales have been weak. |
