Power, secrets and lies: The making of Epstein
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A self-made financier, a master manipulator or a fraud hiding in plain sight? Jeffrey Epstein’s story begins in Brooklyn. He was the son of working-class parents and left university without a degree. Yet somehow he talked his way into elite classrooms and, eventually, the highest tiers of Wall Street.
On today’s Daily T, Camilla and our writers Mick Brown and Robert Mendick trace Epstein’s ascent from a maths-savvy teenager and eccentric teacher to a powerful operator entrusted with billions. They explore his carefully constructed persona, the influential connections and the troubling behaviour that followed him long before his high-profile crimes came to light.
Who was the real Jeffrey Epstein and how did he get away with it for so long?
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Producer: Lilian Fawcett
Senior Producer: John Cadigan
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Editor: Camilla Tominey
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph |
| 0:07.0 | How did Geoffrey Epstein go from very humble beginnings to becoming the world's most prolific sex offender? |
| 0:17.0 | We unpacked the web of lies and manipulation that saw Epstein sacked as a schoolteacher |
| 0:21.6 | and turn himself into a Wall Street dynamo. |
| 0:25.0 | And we examine how he cultivated the rich and famous |
| 0:28.2 | and got away with his crimes for so long with our reporters Mick Brown and Robert Mendick. |
| 0:34.5 | They've written a definitive piece headlined Epstein, The Making of a Monster. |
| 0:39.8 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tominy. |
| 0:52.9 | The Epstein files, two Eiffel towers full of information and the two telegraphed journalists that have had the lucky task of going through them all and constructing the most extraordinary nearly 12,000 word piece trying to answer the question of who was Epstein, what motivated him and how |
| 1:14.5 | an earth did he get away with it? Are Rob Mendik, our chief reporter and our interviewer and |
| 1:19.7 | feature writer extraordinaire, Mick Brown. Welcome both of you. |
| 1:24.2 | Thank you. When I was a cub reporter, I remember being handed the roller decks, |
| 1:28.1 | a copy of the roller decks, Rob, we all were. |
| 1:30.3 | Everyone in Fleet Street had this roller decks. |
| 1:32.6 | Who would have thought that all these years on, |
| 1:35.2 | we are still talking about this bloke? |
| 1:38.2 | And what I find staggering is, |
| 1:40.2 | as you have both traced him from cradle to grave, we do see very interesting patterns emerging |
| 1:48.3 | very early on in his very ordinary life that perhaps does give us some indication as to the |
| 1:54.1 | monster he became. But can we go back to a young Geoffrey? And what's so startling about his humble beginnings is just how ordinary |
| 2:04.3 | they are. |
| 2:05.7 | Mick, what did you discover? |
... |
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