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The Daily Beast Podcast

How Creepy Epstein Tried to Keep His Crimes Secret

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News

4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tina Brown joins Daily Beast Executive Editor Hugh Dougherty to revisit the scandal she helped break wide open—Jeffrey Epstein—and how it now threatens to fracture MAGA from within. Brown, co-founder of The Daily Beast and former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, reflects on commissioning the explosive 2010 Epstein exposé that first named names like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Larry Summers. She recalls Epstein’s chilling intimidation tactics—including showing up uninvited to her office—and explains how he leveraged social status, political donations, and kompromat to shield himself for decades. Brown also reveals that Ghislaine Maxwell was more socially visible than Epstein in the 1990s and how her husband exposed Robert Maxwell as a crooked businessman years earlier. As new revelations emerge—including that an FBI source warned Epstein “would never make it to trial”—Brown unpacks why this scandal still haunts Trump, whose bond with Epstein spanned 15 years. She describes how Trump’s recent meltdown on Truth Social, dismissing his base as “weak” and “stupid,” signals a dangerous rupture. And with MAGA obsessed with pedophilia conspiracies, Brown warns: this may be the one scandal Trump can’t shake—because for once, his base might not let him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I asked him what he thought about the Epstein arrest and he said,

0:03.6

Jeffrey Epstein will never make you to trial.

0:05.9

There are towels in there.

0:11.1

Welcome to the Daily Beast podcast.

0:13.1

I'm Hugh Docty, an executive editor of The Daily Beast.

0:15.8

I'm sitting in for Joanna Coles, who is on a well-deserved vacation.

0:19.8

She is not on vacation, however, from reading your comments, and she's been texting to say

0:24.5

just how well-informed, how engaged, and how many there are.

0:28.7

Thank you to everybody who has commented.

0:31.2

We are going to have so much for people to comment on today, because we are delighted

0:36.7

to welcome Tina Brown.

0:38.8

Tina is, of course, legendary journalist, a brilliant magazine editor, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker,

0:46.2

a best-selling author, and for us at The Daily Beast, the visionary co-founder with Barry Diller

0:51.5

of our site.

0:53.5

She is now the hottest author on Substack.

0:57.4

Her diary, Fresh Hell, which is out just about every week, sometimes more often, is absolute must-read.

1:05.3

And that is the reason why she is joining us today.

1:10.2

Tina, it's an absolute honour to have you at The Daily Beast.

1:13.3

Oh, it's fun for me to be back.

1:14.5

Welcome back to this building.

1:17.3

We still, we live in your vision.

1:20.2

You created this site and that is exactly what I want to get into with you.

...

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