Whether any part of this story holds water can be debated by others. I don't know any of these people or their dealings, but a more interesting question comes to mind; if I were a powerful mogul (or two) and facing a litany of unsavory allegations, how would I manufacture a compelling alternate narrative? What do I need to launder that narrative into the zeitgeist? Are there law firms ready to help me conjure up a strategy? Would they have contacts in the media we can use? What kind of story would they weave? Something boring maybe, like taxes or esoteric financial contraptions? I can only imagine.
That's a really good question. Let me just build on it: I remember reading a lengthy piece about the first Epstein criminal investigation in 2006. There were accounts that the investigators and prosecutors involved were being threatened by people working for Epstein, and that's part of why he got the sweetheart deal that he did.
Now I'm a minor businessman, and I've worked with high-quality law firms before. Most of them are really good at what they do. But if they're handling my criminal case and I say "hey, could I pay you extra to violently threaten the US attorney for me?" I would be shown the door about 3 seconds later. No amount of money in the world would get them to say "yes" to that.
And according to Signe Swenson, who blew the whistle on the protection racket that Rafael Reif was running for Epstein, apparently MIT got some of that $158M through the "Leon Black route"
