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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump 'authorized' Epstein's death, brother told FBI
"It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

Bombshell report reveals Epsteins brother told FBI Trump 'authorized' his death
by Sarah K. Burris
Alternet.org, December 23, 2025
The documents in relation to the investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are slowly being released by the Department of Justice. One of those documents is the bombshell revelation that Epstein's brother, Mark, believed President Donald Trump "authorized" the death.
Mark Epstein met with the FBI in 2023 and told them that his brother was about to start revealing names of the men who knew about his trafficking, The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday.
The tip sent to the FBI came in on February 22, 2023.
Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in his jail cell, it reads. I have reason to believe he was killed because he was about to name names. I believe Presient [sic] Trump authorized is [sic] murder.
The documents detailing whether Mark Epstein spoke directly with the FBI haven't been uncovered yet.
Source w. links: https://www.alternet.org/msn-uk/trump-epstein-2674825370/
H2O Man
(78,504 posts)I've watched a number of interviews with the brother. He understands.
Easterncedar
(5,418 posts)H2O Man
(78,504 posts)I was just watching five deer enjoying a meal out on my lawn. I don't have bird-feeders, so I just pour a pile of food out there. It has been a cold December, and I try to make sure there is food enough for everyone.
Katcat
(526 posts)But where I am, WV, its in the 50s at 10 p.m.
Kid Berwyn
(22,721 posts)
To be fair, Tartaglione denied making the marks on Epsteins neck when the presidents friend was found unresponsive in his cell the first time. Barrs DoJ was surprised to hear the news and moved Tartaglione to another cell.
Perhaps this under-reported story is why many today think Epstein tried to kill himself.
https://yonkerstimes.com/dirty-westchester-ex-cop-is-epsteins-cell-mate/
The assignment of a violent psychopath as a cell-mate makes one wonder if Barr really had Epsteins safety in mind. Otherwise, somebodies high up in the MAGANAZIGOP might have wanted to shut Epstein up permanently before there had been a trial, let alone a conviction.
Recently, Tartaglione told Rupert Murdochs New York Post that Epstein confided in him that the Feds offered Epstein a deal in exchange for dirt on Donnie Dipshit. Tartaglione added that Epstein told the Feds he barely knew Trump, that they didnt like each other, but Dipshit was nice to females, and that he knew nothing about Trumps politics. Right-o.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/18/us-news/feds-offered-jeffrey-epstein-a-deal-for-dirt-on-trump-ex-cellmate/
PS: Might've been Epstein's last cell mate, too.
H2O Man
(78,504 posts)This fellow was on the payroll of the local Russian mob. He had an assignment.
Kid Berwyn
(22,721 posts)by Craig Unger
WhoWhatWhy.org, November 26, 2025
Excerpt...
But at least one chapter of Witkoffs life has not been explored by the mainstream media namely his ties to the Russian Mafia. In 2013, The Real Deal, a trade publication that covers the real estate industry, reported that Witkoff submitted a recommendation for indicted Russian mobster Anatoly Golubchik several years earlier when Golubchik applied to live in a condominium building at 971 Madison Avenue.
The recommendation is of special interest because, according to indictments in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Golubchik played a key role in a high-stakes gambling ring based out of Trump Tower. According to Poker News, a trade publication for the gaming industry, the poker game was often attended by a glitzy clientele that included Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon. (The story behind it was later made into a movie called Mollys Game, starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba.)
The gambling ring was busted in April 2013, when police burst into an apartment on the sixty-third floor of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, just three floors below Donald Trumps penthouse.
With its 24-karat-gold faucets, alabaster walls crafted by Portuguese artisans, and $350,000 bathroom floor made of amethyst imported from Tanzania, the apartment was one of the most ostentatious apartments in what was already one of the most ostentatious buildings in America.

Semion Mogilevich, FBI, wanted poster
More importantly, it was also populated by a number of colleagues of mobster Semion Mogilevich. A multibillionaire mafioso known as the Brainy Don, Mogilevich was one of the most powerful figures in the Russian Mafia and a one-time denizen of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted List. He ran drug trafficking and prostitution rings on an international scale; in one characteristic deal, he bought a bankrupt airline to ship heroin from Southeast Asia into Europe. He used a jewelry business in Moscow and Budapest as a front for art that Russian gangsters stole from museums, churches, and synagogues all over Europe. He has also been accused of selling some $20 million in stolen weapons, including ground-to-air missiles and armored troop carriers, to Iran. He uses this wealth and power to not only further his criminal enterprises, the FBI says, but to influence governments and their economies.
Snip...
Now that Witkoff has come up with a peace plan that gives Putin everything he wants, his ties to the Russian Mafia are of particular interest because, in Russia, the Mafia has long been a de facto state actor serving the FSB, the state security service that is the successor to the feared KGB.
Continues...
https://whowhatwhy.org/international/who-is-steve-witkoff-and-why-is-he-in-charge-of-negotiating-ukraines-future/
The pros likely have this all on tape for Putin, ready for public release as needed for blackmail, etc etc etc. It's just another coincidence, I'm sure.
H2O Man
(78,504 posts)I watched a few Watergate documentaries last night. Always a holiday favorite! And thinking of how long the White House was able to stall and cover up. We are seeing something very similar, though on a grander scale.
electric_blue68
(25,615 posts)markodochartaigh
(4,904 posts)it's own post.
yellow dahlia
(4,281 posts)Beartracks
(14,312 posts)==============
Wiz Imp
(8,744 posts)Trueblue Texan
(4,153 posts)It says Epstein didn't appreciate waking up to find Tartaglione's hands around his neck, then later it says Tartaglione denied making the mark on Epstein's neck when he was found unresponsive in his cell the first time.
Does this mean Epstein may have been assaulted by Tartaglione more than once before they moved him to another cell? Otherwise, it's not really a believable account.
Easterncedar
(5,418 posts)Kid Berwyn
(22,721 posts)Newly released emails show the late convicted sex offenders extensive network of foreign contacts, whom he corresponded with about Trumps policy decisions.
By KYLE CHENEY and NAHAL TOOSI
Politico, 11/12/2025
Nearly a month before President Donald Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Jeffrey Epstein attempted to pass a message to Russias top diplomat: If you want to understand Trump, talk to me.
I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me, Epstein wrote in a June 24, 2018, email to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway who was leading the Council of Europe at the time of the exchange. Lavrov was an apparent reference to Sergei Lavrov, Russias longtime foreign minister.
In the email exchange, one of hundreds released Wednesday by congressional investigators, Epstein indicated he had previously talked about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russias forceful ambassador to the United Nations, before Churkin died in 2017.
Churkin was great, Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, wrote. He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.
Continues
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/12/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-russia-emails-00648919

Above, Lavrov in the Oval Office. You call it 'Leverage.' We call it, 'Blackmail.' Whatever. It works.
3catwoman3
(28,484 posts)yellow dahlia
(4,281 posts)milestogo
(22,449 posts)You could die at any time.
Kid Berwyn
(22,721 posts)Michael Wolff says Trump talked to Epstein about MURDERING HIS WIFE IVANA after finding out Marla Maples was pregnant:
"Trump said, 'what if I pushed her down the stairs?'"
BOSSHOG
(44,601 posts)Im reminded of a line from the maid in Paper Moon talking to Tatum ONeal. once I tried to push her out a window in a Little Rock.
FakeNoose
(39,999 posts)... or Michael himself may get pushed down the stairs. I hope it doesn't happen, but he has put the word out that he has a shit-ton of interview material on Epstein, going back many years. I'm sure he'll do a book on Epstein, but he might be waiting until Chump has his meeting with the Grim Reaper.
B.See
(7,634 posts)Kid Berwyn
(22,721 posts)There was no reason for him to take his own life. Had he been convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, then a suicide is understandable.
Well never get his testimony or hear his side of story on the reasons why DOJ redacted the names of strong, powerful, prominent and rich men would have been mentioned at his trial.
malaise
(292,232 posts)as we suspected for eons
More Christmas cheer
🎄🎄🎄
Response to Kid Berwyn (Original post)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Botany
(76,247 posts)Both guards just happened to fall asleep @ the time and the video monitors went out too.
You cant blame the guards either. Hey, Mr.Guard here is a nice picture of your home and family.
Shame anything might happen to the house and people.
PCIntern
(27,947 posts)K and R
lamp_shade
(15,342 posts)KS Toronado
(22,898 posts)canetoad
(20,076 posts)When trump and Epstein fell out, ostenibly over the purchase of a Palm Beach mansion that trump eventually purchased, two weeks later Palm Beach police received a tip that young women had been seen entering and leaving his house.
...snip
'He's a real creep'
It is unclear when Trump learned of allegations that Epstein was preying on teenage girls. In a 2002 interview, he gave no indication of concern, telling New York magazine that Epstein enjoys his social life.
It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side, Trump said.
On Nov. 28, 2004 less than two weeks after the mansion auction Palm Beach police fielded a tip that young women were seen coming and going from Epsteins home, then-Police Chief Michael Reiter said in a deposition. Reiter declined to comment.
Did trump dob him in? I'll bet he did, even though tsf 'won' the auction, we've all seen the extent of his spite and retribution. This is a 2019 article from WaPo, although I've seen it mentioned elsewhere in archived articles.
FakeNoose
(39,999 posts)However the falling out you mention happened because Chump screwed his old friend Jeffrey out of a prime piece of property. I don't believe Chump had the motive to make the call. Jeffrey might have had a motive, and he eventually did tell many of Chump's secrets to Michael Wolff, but it happened almost 10 years later when Chump was running for President.
canetoad
(20,076 posts)But you never know what goes on in tsf's mind. Whether Epstein aggrieved him by wanting the house or something else. We will never know what transpired between those two.
TheRickles
(3,122 posts)UTUSN
(76,698 posts)Mme. Defarge
(8,880 posts)in NYC later that night. Maybe searching Epsteins New York residence for incriminating evidence on his clients?
fujiyamasan
(1,127 posts)Its becoming less and less likely this was just a suicide. There are too many convent coincidences in this whole twisted drama for them to be just that. Too many ties between the players. Epstein clearly had leverage on Trump and likely on Barr as well (and Barr had it on Trump too; thats probably why he hasnt been indicted yet even though trump hates him).
I have a feeling thats also why Barr didnt side with Trump on contesting the election. He knew this would all spill out at some point and he wanted out. Barr was Trumps bagman. He knows where the bodies are buried. Like any bagman, hes also not stupid. He knew the job was done and by dragging things out he was going to implicate himself at some point. Notice his name hasnt really come up recently. I dont think thats just luck.
I think the real concern for Trump was this would be out in time for the 2020 election, which he was possibly on track to winning until COVID.
Im usually not one to entertain conspiracy theories, but sometimes conspiracies arent just theories.
barbtries
(31,096 posts)I've never thought the man killed himself. always thought Barr arranged the murder, whether or not it was on a direct order from krasnov. I thought it was maybe something like "will no one rid me of this man who has the ability to destroy me?" and someone did.
FakeNoose
(39,999 posts)... that's a sure thing. Whether he can point out who murdered Epstein or not ... well that remains to be seen.
Mime
(32 posts)Barr's father Donald was the Headmaster of the Dalton School in NYC when Jeffrey Epstein was hired as a math teacher.
Donald Barr also wrote a book in 1973, Space Relations, science fiction about a planet ruled by oligarchs who engage in child sex slavery.
barbtries
(31,096 posts)I know it will probably never come out, but I think that's what happened. barr did the dirty work - not the actual murder, but setting it up, making the payments, etc.
Cheezoholic
(3,508 posts)Just as his disgusting sex ring was an intersection for the most vile aspects of power, not just sex.
reACTIONary
(6,950 posts)....by golly, it must be true.
mucifer
(25,501 posts)Totally Tunsie
(11,529 posts)It must get tricky trying to keep track of who you own and who owns you. Make one mistake or underestimate just one point or two and the house of cards comes tumbling down on top of you. No wonder Dozing Donnie can't get a good night's sleep. His mind - what's left of it - must be doing spirals whenever he closes his eyes. It's not enough to look over his shoulder. He must tie himself in knots at times trying to avoid the landmines in his life. BOOM!
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy!