A top magazine editor who knew both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the height of their power has recalled the outrageous moment she was invited to a party she dubbed the ‘Predator’s Ball.’
Tina Brown, the former editor of The Daily Beast, said when she first began reporting on Epstein’s crimes in the 2010s, he was just ‘some guy on the rich circuit nobody really knew.’
‘At the time that we published, Epstein wasn’t that well known. It was kind of an insider social story… how times have very much changed,’ Brown, who also ran Vanity Fair, told The New York Times.
The articles she ran on Epstein after his 2008 conviction for solicitation of prostitution with a minor made such little noise that after he had been convicted, she received a call from a publicist inviting her to a dinner at his house.
Brown recalled being asked: ‘Tina, I want you to come to this great dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house, and the other guests are Charlie Rose, Woody Allen and Prince Andrew.’
She said to this day, a journalist who worked for her at The Daily Beast at the time still refers to her furious response to the phone call.
‘I yelled into the phone: ”What the hell is this — the Predator’s Ball?”’ she said. ‘I was outraged that she hadn’t seemed to have read our pieces.
‘I’ve printed pieces about this guy. No, thank you very much. I decline. I don’t want to have dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house.’
Tina Brown (pictured) shouted at a publicist who tried to invite her to a ‘Predator’s Ball’ at Epstein’s house after he was initially convicted
Brown said she ‘wouldn’t be surprised at all if on his way out Trump does pardon her, when MAGA no longer counts. Pictured: Donald Trump with Melania, Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago Club, February 12, 2000
Brown said her later interactions with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of procuring girls as young as 14 for the late pedophile financier, took place after ‘Epstein was slightly in her rearview mirror’
The term Predator’s Ball was well known in New York circles in the ’90s in reference to a glitzy annual gathering for aggressive investors and financiers, immortalized in Connie Bruck’s 1988 book The Predators’ Ball.
Brown said her later interactions with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of procuring girls as young as 14 for the late pedophile financier, took place after ‘Epstein was slightly in her rearview mirror.’
‘I didn’t really know about that background with Epstein until I read about it later,’ she said. ‘I didn’t understand their relationship at the time because you never saw Epstein with her.’
Despite that, it was clear to Brown that Maxwell ‘was an abused figure herself.’
‘I think with Epstein, she was mad about him. And the only way she felt she could get into his good graces was to participate in — and in the end, curate — his abuse of young women,’ she said.
Brown said Maxwell’s associates – those who dealt with her in passing at parties – ‘never would have known’ what she was doing behind closed doors with Epstein.
‘She deserves to rot in that prison for a very long time,’ she added.
Despite that, Brown said she ‘wouldn’t be surprised at all if on his way out Trump does pardon her, when MAGA no longer counts.
Brown said she was told Prince Andrew would be attending the dinner party at Epstein’s house after his conviction. (L-R) Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell
‘But I think if he did it now, there would be a real uproar.’
Maxwell is hopeful Trump will pardon her and is reportedly preparing a commutation application for approval by the Trump administration, according to House Judiciary Committee Democrats.
Trump shocked journalists around the nation earlier this month when he revealed he would consider the request.
‘You know I haven’t heard that name in so long, I can say this that I’d have to take a look at it… I will speak to the DOJ about it,’ Trump said when asked about Maxwell’s plea.
Trump is facing mounting pressure regarding the Epstein scandal after a trove of emails were released last week, including one from 2011 from Epstein to Maxwell which claimed ‘Virginia [Giuffre] spent hours at my house with’ Trump.
Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year, was recruited by Maxwell while employed as a spa attendant at the Mar-a-Lago Club in 2000. She was 16 years old.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the email dump a politically-motivated ‘smear’ campaign and repeated Giuffre’s former statements about Trump in which she absolved him of any wrongdoing.
‘The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,’ Leavitt said in a statement.
The publicist reportedly told Brown: ‘Tina, I want you to come to this great dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house, and the other guests are Charlie Rose (left), Woody Allen (right) and Prince Andrew’
Brown said Ghislaine Maxwell ‘deserves to rot in that prison for a very long time’
‘The “unnamed victim” referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and “couldn’t have been friendlier” to her in their limited interactions.’
Trump expelled Epstein from his club around October 2007 ‘for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,’ Leavitt said.
In an email dated April 2, 2011, Epstein wrote to Maxwell: ‘i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virignia [sic] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there.’
Maxwell replied: ‘I have been thinking about that…’
In another email from Epstein in January 2019, the convicted sex offender refers to his expulsion from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
‘Trump said he asked me to resign,’ Epstein wrote, adding, ‘never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked to Ghislaine to stop.’
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails, and he has not been charged with any crime in relation to Epstein or Maxwell.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls.
In another email from Epstein in January 2019, the convicted sex offender refers to his expulsion from Trump’s Mar -a-Lago Club
A month later he was found dead in a New York jail cell in what investigators described as a suicide, which conspiracy theorists had contested.
In July this year, the FBI and the Justice Department announced that that Epstein had killed himself, that a ‘client list’ that Attorney General Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, and that no additional documents from the high-profile investigation were suitable to be released.
The announcement led to outrage from conspiracy theorists and Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government cover-up.
That expectation was driven in part by comments from officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who, before taking their current positions, had repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent people were being withheld.
Patel, for instance, said in at least one podcast interview that Epstein’s ‘black book’ was under the ‘direct control of the director of the FBI.’
Faced with fury from his base, Trump sought to quickly turn the page, shutting down questioning of Bondi about Epstein at a White House Cabinet meeting and deriding as ‘weaklings’ supporters he said were falling for the ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.’
On Monday, Trump said that he was ‘all for’ signing the for the release of the Epstein files on Monday should the bill pass his desk.
A House vote on releasing files could take place as early as Tuesday as lawmakers move quickly this week.
The bill would require the Justice Department to release all files and communications tied to Epstein, including materials related to the investigation into his death in federal custody.
