Accused intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein‘s actual property developer, Mark, has provided his personal insights into the data contained in a trove of presidency recordsdata on his sibling, hours earlier than President Donald Trump signed an government order approving the discharge of the paperwork.
Mark, 71, who started his profession as an artist earlier than pivoting into property growth, spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Nov. 19, shortly earlier than Trump revealed in a put up on his social media web site Fact Social that he had “signed the invoice to launch the Epstein recordsdata.”
Throughout his look on the present—which he phoned into—Mark addressed a number of vital sources of hypothesis surrounding the Epstein recordsdata and Trump’s obvious reluctance to launch them, alleging that there are “issues in there [the president] does not need individuals to see.”
Addressing Trump’s private relationship together with his brother, Mark refuted a number of claims made by the president about his dealings with Epstein, together with that he had thrown the financier out of his Mar-a-Lago membership as a result of he was “a sick pervert.”
Mark alleged that he had listened to recordings of interviews that happened between his brother and former Breitbart Information government Steve Bannon, by which Epstein “clearly said that he stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a criminal.”
“That’s a direct quote from Jeffrey,” he added.
Moreover, Mark challenged Trump’s declare that he had not spoken to Epstein since 2004, claiming that the president had phoned his brother not lengthy after claiming victory within the 2016 election.
“Jeffrey advised me that it was after the election, Trump known as him and it was type of like ‘Are you able to imagine this?’ As a result of no one believed Trump was going to win. Trump was type of stunned himself that he received,” he mentioned.
“They used to fly in one another’s planes,” Mark added. “They are saying Donald was on Jeff’s aircraft like, seven occasions, however have they checked Donald’s flight logs from these days to see what number of occasions Jeffrey was on his aircraft?
“I do know Jeffrey advised me on various events that he flew up or flew down with Donald… they had been good associates, everyone round knew that.”
In an extra interview with The Advocate, Mark additionally addressed solutions {that a} character referred to solely as “Bubba” in emails despatched by his brother about Trump is actually former President Invoice Clinton, insisting that there is no such thing as a reality to those rumors.
He declined to disclose any additional details about the person, solely stating by way of his spokesperson that Bubba is “a personal particular person who just isn’t a public determine.”
The interviews mark the newest in a line of public appearances that Mark has made in latest months to debate the allegations in opposition to his brother—who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019, whereas he was awaiting trial on a number of fees of intercourse trafficking.
Previous to his dying, Epstein had pled not responsible to the fees levied in opposition to him and had been getting ready, in keeping with Mark, to place up “what would have been the very best bail in america’ historical past” in a bid to safe his freedom.
Epstein’s July 2019 arrest shone a really vivid highlight on his relationship together with his brother, who was his solely remaining shut relative and who provided to place up a $100,000 Florida apartment as collateral in his sibling’s bail plea.
Mark’s private fortune and enterprise dealings had been the main focus of many information articles, together with an August 2019 piece printed in The Wall Avenue Journal, by which the supply of his wealth was described as a “thriller.”
The piece known as consideration to 1 vital actual property funding that linked the brothers professionally: a 200-unit apartment constructing on the Higher East Aspect of New York, which had been bought from Victoria’s Secret mogul—and Epstein’s former shopper—Les Wexner.
That constructing had been bought by “a former affiliate” of Epstein’s funding agency, J. Epstein & Co., for which Mark had beforehand served as president.
Nonetheless, when approached by Crain’s New York Enterprise in July 2019, Mark denied that there was any enterprise connection between his brother’s investments and his personal actual property dealings.
These actual property dealings developed later in life for Mark, who had initially begun a profession as an artist, after attending the non-public New York-based artwork college, Cooper Union.
Like his brother, Mark spent a lot of his reside in New York, having been raised in Sea Gate, Brooklyn.
In accordance with The Every day Beast, Mark launched a “enterprise silk-screening T-shirts” as certainly one of his first ventures and even tried his hand at modeling, per Enterprise Insider.
Nonetheless in 1990, he turned to actual property funding with the launch of his personal firm, Ossa Properties, which as soon as owned near 500 renter-occupied flats unfold throughout 4 co-op tasks in New York Metropolis, The New York Instances reported in 1993.
One of many properties that Ossa had a majority stake in additionally had very shut ties to Epstein: an residence constructing at 301 East 66th St., which Mark’s brother allegedly used to accommodate associates, girlfriends, staff, and even companies.
The constructing is positioned only a few blocks away from a lavish Higher East Aspect townhouse that when served as Epstein’s main residence within the metropolis—and which just lately underwent an in depth renovation, 4 years after it was bought by a former Goldman Sachs government who vowed to fully make over the dwelling “bodily and spiritually.”
In accordance with the New York Put up, the Higher East Aspect property’s proprietor, Michael Daffey, has accomplished a million-dollar transform of the seven-story townhouse, with photos obtained by Realtor.com® suggesting that he has already begun internet hosting occasions contained in the historic abode.
Photographs taken outdoors the house on Oct. 18 present a number of employees eradicating what seem like packing containers of staging tools from the dwelling, indicating {that a} large-scale occasion had been held there the earlier night time.
It’s unclear whether or not the occasion was hosted by Daffey, who bought the townhouse for the discount value of $51 million again in March 2021, two years after Epstein died by suicide inside a New York Metropolis detention middle, the place he was awaiting trial, having been charged with a number of counts of intercourse trafficking.
When Daffey bought the house—which had initially been listed for $88 million—his spokesperson mentioned that the previous financier deliberate to hold out a “full makeover,” which metropolis information point out value a complete of $925,000, per the Put up.
Nonetheless, whereas he could have spent tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in an effort to take away all proof of Epstein, the dwelling’s sordid historical past seems inescapable, having as soon as once more been thrust into the headlines amid the publication of late Epstein sufferer Virginia Giuffre‘s posthumous memoir, “No one’s Lady.”
Within the guide, which was printed Oct. 21, Giuffre made a number of horrifying allegations concerning the torture she claimed she was subjected to inside the house, which is now understood to be price upward of $66 million.
Giuffre, who died by suicide on April 25, accused each Epstein and his madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, of subjecting her to sadomasochistic abuse inside a therapeutic massage room within the dwelling, which she known as “The Dungeon,” alleging that she was chained up and crushed till she “prayed [she] would black out.”
She additionally described a few of the extra sinister design particulars within the dwelling, together with a “blood pink carpets” and a taxidermy tiger, in addition to a “hidden black staircase” that was adorned with “carved eyeballs that stared at you as you gripped them.”
“The message was clear: ‘We’re all the time watching you,'” she wrote.
Moreover, she claimed that the property had been outfitted with an intricate digital camera system that unfold to virtually each single room of the house.
Talking to the Put up, a number of neighbors and fellow Higher East Aspect residents expressed their horror on the concept of ever residing inside a house with such a horrifying historical past, with one, Henry Francois, describing the dwelling as a “darkish, darkish, bizarre place.”
“Would I reside inside? No, I don’t assume so,” he added. “Not that I imagine in ghosts, it’s simply horrible. It’s like whenever you stroll round at night time and have a bizarre feeling. You continuously really feel on edge.”
Nonetheless, Daffey seems to have finished his utmost to fully eradicate all proof of Epstein contained in the townhouse, which was initially constructed in 1910 and is positioned only a few minutes’ stroll from Central Park.
The outlet reviews that renovations have been carried out throughout 5 of the house’s seven tales, together with the demolition of a number of partitions in an effort to open up every of the flooring.
The so-called “dungeon” that Giuffre refers to seems to have been one of many rooms that had its partitions torn down in an effort to add more room to an current bed room.
Epstein’s kitchen has additionally been enlarged by knocking by means of into his former workplace, in addition to a breakfast room and toilet.
All of Epstein’s chosen lighting fixtures, wallpapers, and different design particulars—together with crown molding and built-ins—have additionally been stripped from the property.
Within the mid-Nineteen Forties, the house turned an extension of the St. Claire Hospital, earlier than being remodeled into the Birch Wathen Faculty 20 years later.
Epstein is believed which have bought the property in 1989 for $13.2 million.
Along with the New York Metropolis dwelling, the late financier additionally owned a unprecedented property in Palm Seashore, FL. It was demolished in 2020 by developer Todd Glaser, who paid $19 million for the mansion in March of that 12 months.
He then bought the vacant lot to enterprise capitalist David Skok for $25.8 million in 2022.
