00:00I'm just guessing you've had a busy week. This story is blowing our minds. Tell us about the
00:05DE investigation into Jeffrey Epstein a few years ago.
00:10It was, yeah, it was in 2015. So I spent about a month on this. And in January,
00:15when the Justice Department released all of these Epstein files, millions of pages,
00:20there was a document, a few documents that caught my eye. And it was heavily redacted,
00:27but it showed that there was an investigation into illegitimate wire transfers involving illicit
00:38drug and or prostitution in the U.S., Virgin Islands, and New York City. So this document was
00:47essentially showing how the DEA was working with an organized crime drug enforcement task force out
00:55of the DOJ. And I basically spent the past month understanding what was behind these redactions.
01:02The operation was called Operation Chain Reaction. And this part that involves Jeffrey Epstein
01:09and 12 other individuals and two businesses that we revealed were named as part of this investigation,
01:18what we ultimately found out is that off of a tip from an informant, the DEA suspected Jeffrey Epstein and
01:31others of being involved in the funding and distribution of ketamine, ecstasy, and other
01:40methamphetamines. And again, it grew out of this larger investigation. And what was also
01:48stood out in this document was after Jeffrey Epstein was released in 2009, there were multiple law
01:58enforcement agencies that were following his every move, more or less. They were tracking him,
02:05following his money, going into the National Crime Information Center database and trying to get
02:13some background on him. We were able to see how the Secret Service White House division in August 2014
02:21did a search on Jeffrey Epstein for background information. Now, you'd only do that if you would
02:29be, if you're coming into contact with a Secret Service protectee, like the president or a protected...
02:35What year was that, Jason?
02:37That was in August 2014.
02:42So who could have... I mean, I don't want you to speculate, but who was in the Obama administration?
02:48That was during the Obama administration. But there are a lot of people who are protected by
02:51Secret Service. Sorry, go on.
02:54Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of people protected by Secret Service. But I mean, a Secret Service
02:58protectee when you have the White House division, that's different.
03:01Yeah. So maybe a former president?
03:05It could be a former president, but that's a different... Again, that's a little different.
03:12Okay.
03:12Because it's a different division. So we did try to uncover what that was all about.
03:21And essentially what the Secret Service was ultimately looking at.
03:30But that more reporting will be revealed there. But this was just an unbelievable
03:36investigation. And fortunately, because not all the files have been released by DOJ,
03:42it remains to be seen how it ultimately shook out, how it ended. What we do know is that none
03:49of the
03:49individuals, which includes Jeffrey Epstein's brother, his accountants, his lawyers, and there were women
04:01on there as well whose names we withheld because it's unclear whether they're victims, none of them
04:06were charged. So it remains to be seen exactly what happened here.
04:13Jason, what blows my mind, again, thanks to your reporting, is just a reminder of how much scrutiny
04:20Jeffrey Epstein was under by so many, in this case, government agencies and entities for years and a long
04:30time ago.
04:32Yeah, I mean, that really, really stood out to me. Even the State Department's Diplomatic Security
04:38Service, you know, they were looking at, they had an investigation that seemed to center around
04:47non-immigrant visas. Now, the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service also does investigate
04:53transnational crime. And that's the key here. This was not a small investigation involving,
04:59you know, just Jeffrey Epstein and one agency. This was a task force investigation, the Organized Crime
05:07Drug Enforcement Task Forces, which linked up with the DEA to conduct this far-reaching investigation.
05:18And like I said, it grew out of, you know, one that started in 2010 into organized crime,
05:25but then ended up on, you know, on Jeffrey Epstein.
05:30Hey, Jason, just got about 45 seconds left here. Does it feel like they had a lot there and then
05:38they dropped the ball or TBD? Because as you said, that there's still missing case files that have not
05:45yet been released. Yeah, TBD on that one. I mean, it's starting to look like it may have informed
05:53another investigation, or excuse me, the 2019 prosecution. But I'll come back at you with
05:59additional reporting on that, Carol. All right. And maybe next time we could talk to you about that
06:03latest DOJ drop too. I went through all of them, by the way. I went through everything that they just
06:09released. Is there anything we need to know real quickly? There are some interesting emails in
06:15there, more from Leon Black. There's a prosecution memo. There's a document there that after Epstein
06:24died, they were going to charge, they were looking to bring a prosecution against a corporation.
06:30Looks like one that was associated with Epstein. But there's some interesting new details there.
06:36All right.
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