Julie K. Brown, a Miami Herald investigative reporter who has been covering the alleged sex trafficking crimes of Epstein for the past several years, joined MSNBC Sunday morning to discuss the evidence against Epstein and the "rogues gallery" of rich, powerful, and famous people who are suspected to have used his services.
"Have you seen that nexus of power come to bare as you have reported this, and in the aftermath of your reporting," MSNBC host David Gura asked Brown.
"I've felt a lot of pressure," Brown answered. "Needless to say, these are very powerful people and I think that they're sweating a little bit, especially today. We don't know how much, how deep this went, how far-reaching it went in government, but there have been a lot of names that I could see on these message pads [listing clients] on a regular basis as part of the evidence."
Brown continued: "These message pads where they would call and leave Epstein messages, such as, 'I'm at this hotel.' Why do you do that, unless you're expecting him to send you a girl to visit you at your hotel? So there are probably quite a few important people, powerful people, who are sweating it out right now. We'll have to wait and see whether Epstein is going to name names."
Next, Gura specifically asked Brown about Epstein's Palm Beach neighbor Donald Trump, where Brown said Epstein had a "friendly" relationship with Trump.
"They went to dinner parties at each other's houses," Brown continued. "Trump was also on his plane, probably not as much as a lot of other people because, you know, Trump had his own plane. But they had a lot of social relationships. And the other interesting thing is Trump had a modeling agency, and Epstein also had a stake in a modeling agency, which they suspect he used to bring in underage girls from overseas."
"There is a comment in one of the court files where Epstein is quoted as saying, 'I want to set up my modeling agency the same way Trump set up his modeling agency.' I don't know what that means, but it is curious he was trying to do something similar to Trump." Brown said.