From Question Everything: The Epstein Files

10 snips

Nov 24, 2025

Guest

Vicki Ward

Vicki Ward, an investigative reporter known for her early work on Epstein, David Enrich from The New York Times, journalist Tara Palmieri focusing on survivor stories, and MAGA commentator Eric Abinante engage in a frank discussion about the Epstein case. They explore the intertwining themes of power, money, and class injustice. Ward and Enrich delve into Epstein's mysterious finances and ties to elite institutions, while Palmieri highlights survivor experiences. The conversation challenges journalistic norms and considers how upcoming revelations may shift the narrative.

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INSIGHT

A Multidisciplinary, High-Stakes Story

The Epstein story combines money, power, sex, secrecy, and possible espionage into a sprawling reporting challenge.
Reporters call it the "decathlon" of journalism because it tests many beats at once.

ANECDOTE

Early Reporting And A Cut Allegation

Vicki Ward met Jeffrey Epstein while reporting a 2003 Vanity Fair profile and developed firsthand impressions of him.
Her reporting included two sisters' abuse allegations that were ultimately cut from the published piece.

ANECDOTE

Survivors' Reluctance To Speak

Tara Palmieri has spoken regularly with many survivors, sometimes four to five per day, and met over a dozen in total.
She found younger survivors are less likely to speak publicly due to trauma and fear.

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This week we bring you an episode from Question Everything, another KCRW podcast. Host Brian Reed brings together the reporters who know the Jeffrey Epstein case best – along with one of their Trump-supporting producers – for drinks and a candid, no-holds-barred conversation. They compare notes, challenge each other’s assumptions, and reveal what it really takes to separate fact from rumor in a story that has tested the limits of journalism.

It’s one of the most provocative and confronting discussions Brian’s ever hosted about power, accountability and what’s at stake when the media goes up against billionaires and their networks.

Check out the Question Everything Substack, by the way, where we get into juicy behind the scenes details and other good stuff from our episodes.

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Drinking and fact-checking don’t always go hand in hand, so clarifying and correcting a few statements from the conversation here – which honestly in themselves give a sense of just how many crannies of global power the tendrils of the Epstein story reach into.

We reached out to Anouska De Georgiou to see if she wanted to comment, but we didn’t hear back.

Leslie Wexner is not the founder of Victoria’s Secret – he bought the company in 1982, and he said Jeffrey Epstein had stolen $46 million from him, not $60 million. Meanwhile investor Leon Black paid Epstein $170 million for supposed tax advice – not $160 million.

Virginia Giuffre sued Prince Andrew as an individual, not the Crown itself. Tara Palmeri’s reporting that Elon Musk dm’d Virgina Giuffre saying Trump would release the files is based on Virginia telling her this – Tara didn’t see the DM.

At one point, Eric says that in 2015, Roger Stone called Epstein’s island a “democrat orgy island.” Really, Stone wrote a book excoriating the Clintons called The Clinton’s War on Women, and there’s a chapter in there called Orgy Island, which highlights Bill Clinton’s friendship with Epstein. So Roger Stone didn’t call Epstein’s island a democrat orgy island. Just “orgy island.”

And last, but not least: the pope who was in a picture with Jeffrey Epstein, which was displayed on Epstein’s credenza, was John Paul II.