from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Friday, August 1st.

As much as President Trump wants the Jeffrey Epstein story to go away. He seems to only be deepening people's suspicion

that he's hiding something with the way he's been behaving. I'll admit, I first thought the

idea of a client list that would expose prominent people as engaging in the kind of sexual abuse

of minors that Epstein himself was convicted of and charged with was a hoax

being perpetrated by Trump to insinuate that Democrats were on the list and fuel the rage

against elites in general, so-called liberal elites in particular that has helped him so much

politically. I thought the scandal in the announcement by Trump's

Justice Department that basically there's nothing more to see here, the scandal in that was that

Trump got exposed for having perpetrated something he knew was fake for political gain.

But with all the things that have happened since, now I'm wondering if it's more complicated

than that. So as the process of lawsuits and

congressional subpoenas around this continues to take dramatic turns, we thought this would be a good

day to invite two journalists who have deeply covered Epstein's crimes, Epstein's death,

and the circles around them to explain what we actually know and what the legitimate

questions are that remain to be answered and how they might be answered. This will be somewhere

between Jeffrey Epstein 101 and Epstein World Advanced Horribleness Studies, if you know what I mean,

which will include a chance for you

to ask questions. Our guests are Vicki Ward, an investigative journalist who first profiled Epstein

in Vanity Fair way back in 2003. Some of you may have heard Vicki Ward on NPR's Morning Edition

on Monday. She is also a visiting fellow at Oxford, writes a newsletter called Vicki Ward Investigates,

and is the author of books, including a new one just out a few weeks ago,

...