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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
George Gibney extradition imminent, with Dublin court appearance expected this week
The extradition of former Irish Olympic swimming team coach George Gibney from the United States to the Republic is imminent. He could appear in court in Dublin in the next 48 hours, The Irish Times understands. Sources stressed the precise timing of the extradition and the court appearance could change. However, according to plans currently in place, it is possible Mr Gibney will appear before a Dublin court as early as Tuesday, or very shortly thereafter. He has been in custody in Florida, where he has lived for years, since his arrest there last month on foot of an extradition request from the Irish authorities after being charged with 79 sexual offences. The fact the DPP had approved charges over two years ago was a closely guarded secret that only emerged when he was arrested last month. The extradition request was sent last October by the authorities in Ireland to American law enforcement, via the Irish embassy in Washington. Mr Gibney was arrested in Florida on July 1st by US Marshalls and has been in custody there for the past three weeks. READ MORE Ten days ago he withdrew his request for a detention hearing and also consented to being extradited to the Republic. The extradition process involves Garda members accompanying him on a flight from the US to Dublin, where he will be arrested on arrival and taken to court.
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Irish Times
An accuser's story suggests Trump might appear in the Epstein files
It was the summer of 1996 when Maria Farmer went to law enforcement to complain about Jeffrey Epstein . At the time, she said, she had been sexually assaulted by Epstein and his long-time partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Farmer, then in her mid-20s, had also learned about a troubling encounter that her younger sister – then a teenager – had endured at Epstein's ranch in New Mexico. And she described facing threats from Epstein. Farmer said that when she discussed her concerns with the New York Police Department, then with the FBI, she also urged them to take a broader look at the people in Epstein's orbit, including Donald Trump , then still two decades from being elected president. She repeated that message, she said, when the FBI interviewed her again about Epstein in 2006. In interviews last week about what she told the authorities, she said she had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Epstein's associates. But she said she was alarmed by what she saw as Epstein's pattern of pursuing girls and young women while building friendships with prominent people, including Trump and Bill Clinton . READ MORE Investigations like the ones that targeted Epstein often explore a wide range of tips, evidence, recollections and relationships, little of which ends up being used in court records or as the basis for criminal prosecution. Epstein's voluminous investigative file contains many records that have not been made public, but that became the focus of claims, long stoked by Trump's allies, that authorities might have covered up the involvement of other rich and powerful men. Now, after his attorney general and FBI director abruptly abandoned their earlier promises to reveal everything about the Epstein files and said, in effect, that there was nothing to see, Trump's ties to Epstein are under renewed scrutiny, leading to questions about what so-far-undisclosed appearances he might have in the investigative record. The story of Farmer's efforts to call law enforcement attention to Epstein and his circle shows how the case files could contain material that is embarrassing or politically problematic to Trump, even if it is largely extraneous to Epstein's crimes and was never fully investigated or corroborated. And it underscores the complexities of opening up to scrutiny all the leads that investigators pursued, the evidence they gathered and the interviews they conducted, little of which ever went before a judge or jury. Law enforcement agencies have not accused Trump of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and he has never been identified as a target of any associated investigation. Trump last week called for relevant grand jury testimony in the prosecution of Epstein to be publicly released, and has repeatedly dismissed any notion that he has something to hide. Even if that testimony is released, it is unlikely to shed much light on the relationship between the two men, which did not figure prominently in Epstein's criminal cases. Farmer said she has long wondered how law enforcement agencies handled her complaints in 1996 and 2006. And she said she has been wondering in particular whether federal authorities did anything with her concerns about Trump. She said that he raised his name both times, not only because he seemed so close to Epstein but because of an encounter, which she has previously described publicly, that she said she had with Trump in Epstein's New York office. [ Ciarán O'Connor: Donald Trump could be swallowed up by an Epstein conspiracy he helped create Opens in new window ] The encounter with Trump, Farmer said, occurred in 1995 as she was preparing to work for Epstein. She said she told the authorities that late one night, Epstein unexpectedly called her to his offices in a luxury building in Manhattan, and she arrived in running shorts. Trump then arrived, wearing a business suit, and started to hover over her, she said she told the authorities. Farmer said she recalled feeling scared as Trump stared at her bare legs. Then Epstein entered the room, and she recalled him saying to Trump: 'No, no. She's not here for you.' The two men left the room, and Farmer said she could hear Trump commenting that he thought Farmer was 16 years old. After her encounter with Trump, Farmer said, she had no other alarming interactions with him, and did not see him engage in inappropriate conduct with girls or women. The White House on Friday night contested Farmer's account and cited Trump's long-ago decision to end his friendship with Epstein. 'The president was never in his office,' said Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, referring to Epstein. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.' [ Maureen Dowd: Maga fans turn on Trump as he turns murky over Epstein files Opens in new window ] Farmer, an artist, worked for Epstein in 1995 and 1996, initially to acquire art on his behalf but then later to oversee the comings and goings of girls, young women and celebrities at the front entrance of his Upper East Side town house. In 1996, Farmer said she went to stay at Epstein's estate in Ohio in a complex developed by Leslie H Wexner, the chief executive of the company that owned Victoria's Secret. Epstein and Maxwell came that summer. Farmer said that after she was asked to give Epstein a foot massage, he and Maxwell violently groped her until she fled the room and barricaded herself in another part of the building. Farmer was an artist who did work on nude figures, and she also reported that partially nude photos she had of her two younger sisters were missing from a storage lockbox. Over the years, Farmer has been attacked by people who questioned whether she could be trusted. She was not called to testify when Maxwell was prosecuted and convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to sexually exploit and abuse girls. (Her sister Annie did testify in the case about how Maxwell had massaged her bare chest after she had been invited to Epstein's estate in New Mexico.) But Farmer's mother said she remembered hearing in 1996 about the Trump encounter around the time it occurred, and that Maria Farmer had first gone to the FBI that year. Annie Farmer also said she remembered Maria sharing that she had told the FBI about Epstein and powerful people such as Trump and Clinton. In her first interviews with the New York Times in 2019, Maria Farmer said that before she talked to the FBI, she first spoke to the Precinct of the New York Police Department. Police records show that she had done that in August 1996. Law enforcement agencies have not released records of any FBI report Farmer made in 1996, but handwritten notes from the interview agents did with her a decade later match her account, including that '6th precinct told MF to call FBI'. The portions of those FBI records that have been released do not mention Trump, but much of the account remains redacted. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. Epstein was indicted in 2006 and later pleaded guilty to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges. In 2019, he was charged again, accused of trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. He was later found dead in a jail cell, and officials have said he hanged himself. It is unclear whether federal investigators pursued a deeper examination of Trump's relationship with Epstein or whether the authorities documented what Farmer said she told them about Trump. Trump's friendship with Epstein has been captured in videos of them partying together and comments the men have made, and his name appears in some previously released case records, including Epstein's flight logs. Trump was quoted in 2002 as calling Epstein a 'terrific guy'. He has since said that he is 'not a fan' of Epstein, and has emphasised that he broke with him two decades ago. In recent years, Trump's allies have pressed for further release of federal files related to Epstein. But after initially promising full disclosure, Attorney general Pam Bondi suddenly backtracked this month, saying that a review of the case found nothing to indicate that anyone else should be charged. Amid a backlash from his supporters in recent days, Trump has assailed those still calling for more disclosure. After The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Epstein had received a sexually suggestive birthday greeting from Trump in 2003, Trump called the report a hoax and sued the news organisation . This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
Donald Trump could be swallowed up by an Epstein conspiracy he helped create
Like others before him, Donald Trump has learned that there's really just no arguing with people who believe the world is run by cannibalistic, child-sacrificing paedophiles. It is ironic that Trump – who himself rose to power and has governed through use of conspiracy theories, including 'birther' lies about where Barack Obama was born – is coming face to face with a conspiracy culture he helped cultivate. Earlier this month, Trump's Department of Justice announced that disgraced financier and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein did not keep a client list of co-conspirators , undermining one of the foundational myths that has supported Trump's presidency. This has enraged the president's Make America Great Again base and might signal a moment of fracture for the movement. Conspiracy theories about Epstein are based on the belief that he kept a list of hugely powerful people who had engaged in sex with women and underage girls that he trafficked. This group of individuals, so the conspiracy goes, orchestrated his death in custody in August 2019 to conceal their identities. To many in Trump's Magaverse, Epstein was a key to understanding how deeply corrupt and perverse the world's elites truly are. The 'Epstein files', as they exist in the fevered imaginations of Maga diehards, include a list of names of those who must be exposed. READ MORE These narratives share their DNA with QAnon , the all-consuming conspiracy theory that first originated online in 2017 and claimed Trump was secretly fighting the 'deep state': a Satanic cabal of (primarily Democrat) paedophiles running the US government. From fringe sites, QAnon metastasised across the web, pulling in millions who likened Trump to a messianic saviour. QAnon signs began to appear at Trump rallies and supporters evolved into a highly radicalised core of his base. [ Epstein files are a new crisis for Donald Trump, as supporters blowtorch their Maga caps Opens in new window ] QAnon was one of the first mega-conspiracies to mature entirely in the internet age. Communities were formed on Reddit, documentaries went viral on YouTube and pro-Trump groups on Facebook became incubators for new threads in the conspiracy web. At the centre of it all was the narrative that the entire US government was hiding the truth from the people and holding the country back. In July 2019, after Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. QAnon discussions skyrocketed: research from my colleagues in the Institute for Strategic Dialogue documented how, throughout July and August, when Epstein died, he ranked only second to Trump in mentions within QAnon communities on the web. Trump and Epstein were very close in the past, with the president once calling him a 'terrific guy' in one interview. More recently, Trump has been careful to distance himself from claims about Epstein. Yet, ever the opportunist, at times he has indulged some narratives. In 2019, Trump shared a tweet that claimed Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in Epstein's death. In 2024, when Trump was asked about Epstein's 'list of clients' during a podcast interview, he said he'd have 'no problem' releasing it. QAnon faithful pointed to Bill Clinton's journey on Epstein's jet, dubbed the Lolita Express, Epstein's donations sent to Democrat politician Chuck Schumer and lists of celebrities who allegedly visited Epstein's Caribbean island. [ Trump's name on 2003 birthday letter to Epstein, Wall Street Journal reports Opens in new window ] Over time, as QAnon's prophetic day of reckoning never arrived, energy shifted towards calls to reveal all in Epstein's supposed client list. In the words of conservative writer David French , 'on the right, the Epstein story became the thinking man's version of the QAnon conspiracy theory'. This was red meat for Trump-aligned media and politicians courting audiences from his supporters. Before Trump picked him as director of the FBI, Kash Patel told one Maga podcaster that members of Congress should 'put on your big-boy pants and let us know who the paedophiles are'. Before that, he claimed Epstein's 'black book' was 'under the direct control of the director of the FBI'. Dan Bongino, a pro-Trump podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, built a career out of assertions that federal files on the Epstein investigation contained the answer to the 'deep state'. Pam Bondi, Trump's attorney general , told Fox News in February that the client list was 'sitting on my desk right now', firing up the wildest hopes of the Maga world. Each of these individuals leant on sensationalist narratives about Epstein's connections to elites, painting a picture of mass corruption about to be uncovered. They followed a blueprint designed by Trump on his path to power: embrace fringe theories, gesture vaguely towards cover-ups and make wild promises to reveal hidden truths. And then, when appointed, each was forced to row in behind the Department of Justice's announcement that Epstein did not keep a client list, and that no more files related to his sex-trafficking investigation would be made public. A predictable backlash followed. The Epstein files have become a purity test for Maga diehards and, unable to substantiate the claims they campaigned on for years, these political figures have found themselves cast as the villains they once promised to oust. Trump has tried to direct the anger of the madding crowd towards old foes in a series of posts on Truth Social; he claimed the 'Epstein hoax' was engineered by 'Obama, Crooked Hillary and criminals of the Biden administration'. Then, faced with growing Maga ire, he said the Justice Department should release all 'credible' information from its probe on Epstein. Whether or not the list exists, the files relating to the Epstein investigation have been used as cynical props by Trump and his acolytes to curry support with his base. The Maga right has used conspiracy theories as a political tool but they created a voter base that now demands ever more revelations, more exposures and more secrets unveiled. Now, when asked to peel back the curtain on one of the most persistent conspiracies he helped spread, the president baulks. In another recent post on Truth Social, Trump lamented that his administration is being criticised about 'a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it's Epstein, over and over again'. Late on Thursday Trump said he had directed Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury testimony relating to Epstein's sex-trafficking case, citing 'the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein'. As Trump is learning, conspiracy theories are elastic, self-sealing and practically impossible to disprove. This may be one storyline he's finally lost control of. Ciarán O'Connor is a researcher and journalist who focuses on extremism and technology
