More accusations added to federal sex trafficking case against Alexander brothers
An added count against Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander brings the total to 10 counts against Oren Alexander, Tal Alexander and Alon Alexander.
They pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The brothers appeared in hand and leg shackles, wearing olive-colored prison attire. They greeted their parents on their way in and out of the brief arraignment.
Federal prosecutors have accused the men of working together to drug, sexually assault and rape dozens of victims between 2009 and 2021. The charges allege that the brothers promised women luxury experiences to lure them to locations where they were sexually assaulted and raped. Seven victims are included in the indictment, including a minor.
Federal prosecutors have said they have spoken to more than 60 alleged victims of the men.
The new count alleges that Alon and Oren gave a drug, intoxicant or another substance to a woman without her knowledge to cause her to engage in a sex act while on a Bahamian cruise ship that departed from and arrived in the United States.
An attorney for Alon, Howard Srebnick, said that his client had not drugged a woman to have sex with her.
"On January 13, 2025, a retired FBI polygraph examiner tested Alon while in jail. Alon was asked if he ever had sex with any woman he knew had been covertly given drugs, which Alon denied," Srebnick said. "The polygraph examiner opined that Alon passed the lie detector test, there were 'no significant reactions indicative of deception' by Alon."
Attorneys for the other men either declined to comment Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, attorneys for the three brothers appeared at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to appeal their detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where they have been held since last December.
"They did not agree to provide sex in exchange for the travel or accommodations,' defense attorney Deanna Paul for Tal Alexander wrote in a dismissal motion filed Monday in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
"The alleged travel and accommodations were not conditioned expressly, or implicitly, on the victims' participation in the sex acts; and the travel and accommodations did not represent compensation for the sex acts,' the motion states, citing four separate federal court decisions on the sex trafficking law requiring that connection to hold up.
Their next hearing is set for Aug 19.
The Alexander brothers filed a defamation lawsuit this week against The Real Deal, a real estate publication, seeking $500 million in damages for what they say has been a 'smear campaign' against them that 'has relentlessly published articles containing false and misleading statements'.
The Real Deal strongly rejected those allegations.
"Let's be clear: this lawsuit is not about justice. It's an attempt to stop investigative journalism and bully a newsroom for doing its job,' founder and publisher Amir Korangy said in a statement Tuesday. 'The Real Deal's reporting was fair and conscientious, and we are confident the courts will see this for what it is — a frivolous and cynical attempt to weaponize the legal system."
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The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
What does Ghislaine Maxwell really know and why the Epstein files go deeper than you think
The conspiracies began circulating before the proverbial ink was dry. Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier and convicted child sex offender, 'dead after 'apparent suicide' in New York jail', ran the headline in The Washington Post on 11 August 2019 (single quote marks theirs). The Boston Globe too described it as an 'apparent suicide'. 'Epstein's jail death gets US scrutiny,' said The Philadelphia Inquirer. When FBI agents arrested Epstein after his private jet landed in New Jersey a month earlier and charged him with sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York, his victims waited to learn the truth. After his death, the voices clamouring for transparency got louder. As did those claiming conspiracy. A year on, when his former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested by the FBI at a secluded property in New Hampshire, they didn't stop. And they didn't quieten when Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Over the years, conspiracy theories have abounded of deep state coverups, speculation that rich and powerful men had been involved in an elite sex-trafficking ring, and that Epstein had been murdered so their identities would never be revealed. Donald Trump, on the presidential campaign trail in 2024, fanned the flames further when he announced he'd seek to open the government's 'Epstein files' should he be elected. When he did win the presidency, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, spoke of an Epstein 'client list' sitting on her desk. We knew that a cast of celebrities and politicians were in Epstein's black book — names like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Tony Blair, Bill Cosby, and Woody Allen. But how many of those were just recipients of Epstein's political donations, friends, acquaintances? What incriminating evidence lay within the thousands of documents the FBI had assembled in the course of its investigation? Finally, it looked like we were about to find out. Then, earlier this month, Trump's justice department and the FBI suddenly released a two-page unsigned memo concluding Epstein hadn't maintained a client list after all – and what's more, it wouldn't be releasing any further files related to its sex trafficking investigation, despite the promises by Trump and Bondi who had pledged to release a 'truckload' of bombshell FBI documents. Nobody could have foreseen a fissure in the Maga ranks to appear so quickly and prominently. Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George Bush, said we were witnessing what happens when conspiracy collides with reality. 'For years,' he said, 'Trump raised questions about Epstein… After assuming the presidency a second time, Mr Trump was obligated to deliver.' When he didn't, 'Many in Maga reacted with incredulity and anger.' Tucker Carlson, once Trump's most vocal cheerleader, turned on him, accusing the administration of betraying its base and of dismissing legitimate questions about Epstein. Each day, the saga seems to unravel further. The Wall Street Journal published a story describing a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump's name and was included in a 2003 album given to Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump vehemently denied writing the letter, calling it 'false, malicious, and defamatory'. He then proceeded to sue the paper and its owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. While Trump announced he asked Bondi to release 'pertinent' files on the criminal investigation of Epstein, 'subject to court approval', further intrigue was stirred on Wednesday when the WSJ reported that Bondi had informed Trump during briefing back in May that his name appeared in Justice Department documents related to Epstein. The White House pushed back, dismissing the WSJ story as 'fake news'. But an unnamed White House official told Reuters they were not denying that Trump's name appears in the documents. Then, also on Wednesday, a judge rejected the Trump administration's request to unseal transcripts from grand jury documents relating to Epstein from 2005 and 2007 because they did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public. A day later, an official at the Department of Justice met with Maxwell inside an office in a Florida courthouse. In a statement ahead of that meeting, Deputy attorney General Todd Blanche said: 'If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.' Their first meeting was described as 'very productive' by Maxwell's lawyer, but for now at least, it's unlikely we'll hear exactly what Maxwell told him. Meanwhile, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and fierce Trump critic, took issue with the fact that Trump sent Blanche, his former personal lawyer turned federal prosecutor, to interview Maxwell ahead of her potential public testimony. 'The conflict of interest is glaring. It stinks of high corruption,' he said on X. It's important to understand what, exactly, the Epstein files are – and how they differ from the court documents Trump is now asking to be released. Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, says that the grand jury testimony at issue is very limited and has little to do with the two-decades-long sex trafficking operation that Epstein ran. He says the US attorney at the time, Geoffrey Berman, went in front of a grand jury and presented just enough evidence to successfully bring an indictment. 'And that indictment was very narrow in its content – for the sexual abuse of minors from 2002 to 2005 at Epstein's homes in Palm Beach and New York,' Levine says. 'If you look at the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, that prosecution was extremely narrow also in terms of the specific allegations against her.' Maxwell was convicted on five sex-trafficking-related counts. Levine said if these court documents are released, they're going to tell us very little in addition to what we already know. 'It's basically a sliver of the information that's contained in the actual FBI files.' Those files – the 'real' Epstein files, if you like – are, Levine says, incredibly detailed. The FBI files cover every aspect of Epstein's crimes and his life over two decades, including extensive interviews with victims and information that goes all the way back to the original FBI investigation in 2006. Epstein was already a convicted child molester when he was arrested in 2019: in 2008, he pleaded guilty to a state charge in Florida of procuring a minor for prostitution. Back then, a federal investigation into his crimes resulted in a 'non-prosecution agreement'. Alexander Acosta, who was then the US attorney responsible, said he offered a lenient plea deal because he was told Epstein was an intelligence asset. As Levine said, 'We don't know if it was US intelligence or a foreign role as an intelligence asset.' If, indeed, Epstein was an intelligence asset at all. By all accounts, he had a grandiose image of himself as an 'international man of mystery'. The FBI file on Epstein, which dates back to that time, is 300GB. 'That translates to enough information to fill perhaps 100,000 books by some estimates,' Levine says. We don't know if there has ever been any criminal investigation into Trump's conduct as it relates to Epstein. 'But,' Levine said, 'that doesn't necessarily mean that there [aren't] details about Donald Trump in the file because they were friends for 15 years. He was Epstein's wingman after [Trump's] divorce from Ivana Trump; they hung out a great deal. They were still friends during his marriage to Marla Maples and even up to the time when Trump was courting Melania.' Trump and Epstein were friends before, according to the president, they fell out in the early 2000s. By not allowing full disclosure of the Epstein files, Trump has ignited what Levine said is the most infighting within the Maga movement he's ever seen. 'There's a raging inferno in the Maga ranks that Trump has, for the first time in his political career, been unable to put out, and we're seeing individuals who have worshipped him like a God now speaking out against him. It really is fascinating.' So what does Ghislaine Maxwell really know? According to journalist Julie Brown, whose investigation into Epstein for the Miami Herald in 2018 was credited with the FBI re-opening the sexual abuse case against him: everything. 'I think [the DOJ] are trying to get her to say Trump wasn't involved. I think that's the aim of this,' Brown says. 'They're not aiming to expose anybody else who was involved. They're just aiming to clear up any misconceptions around Trump … So far there's been no evidence he was involved with Epstein's crimes at all, but nevertheless, the idea that he shut the investigation down so solidly without even saying, 'we're going to look at this a little bit more' I think makes a lot of people wonder…' Brown, whose 2021 book Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story has recently seen a surge in demand, selling out both in shops and online, says it's unfortunate the way the Trump administration has handled the Epstein Files. 'For a long time, they promised transparency with this case … And I think there was some hope on the part of both the public and the survivors that they would get some answers. Here was a man who abused hundreds of young girls and women over two decades. And he essentially got away with it. 'We don't know why they're not releasing it. It's a little bit disturbing to be announcing all over television that you're going to release these files and then all of a sudden on the Friday after the Fourth of July holiday, when nobody's really paying attention to the news, to issue this statement that basically says there's nothing to see here and we're not going to open the files.' Brown says there are likely a lot of other people involved in Epstein's crimes that haven't been brought to justice; so many, she says, who have avoided prosecution. Epstein was trafficking underage girls for sex over the course of two decades. Because of that, his co-conspirators could number as many as 100, Brown believes. 'He had so many different people work for him at different times – people who helped arrange his 'schedule' in quote marks, lawyers who helped arrange the visas for models that he would bring from overseas, pilots. He had a huge staff of people. The list goes on and on.' As Barry Levine says, we know from the attorney general in the Virgin Islands who investigated Epstein's operation there that 'Epstein was using international fixers to bring women in from all different countries, like Russia and elsewhere.' When Palm Beach police conducted a search of Epstein's home there in 2005, they confiscated hundreds of notepads, the contents of some of which have been made public in civil lawsuits. 'On those, you'll see messages from powerful men who called him,' Brown says. 'They'll have their name, and then it'll say 'I'm at this hotel'. Now, that's not enough to say they were doing anything with underage girls. 'But I know from talking to some of the attorneys representing these survivors that there were powerful people who would come to Palm Beach and basically call to tell Epstein 'I'm here'. And the unspoken or unwritten message was: you can send somebody to me.' Brown believes that it's unlikely Maxwell will ever reveal what is in those files. At her trial, her main line of defence was that it didn't happen – 'that these girls were all making it up to get money out of a very wealthy man.' The truth is, Brown said, Maxwell knows exactly what's in the Epstein files. 'She knows everything. … And she used her motherly way, her nurturing way, to lure these women into this orbit.'
Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Unassuming Arizona woman helped Kim Jong-un fund North Korea's nuclear weapons
A woman duped more than 300 companies by stealing the identities of 68 US citizens and passed them on to North Korea - Christina Chapman raised millions for Kim Jong-un's country A woman has admitted to stealing the identities of 68 US citizens to pass them on to North Korea. Christina Chapman was jailed for eight and a half years after her elaborate scheme investigators called 'staggering'. The ruse saw Chapman stealing identities for foreign workers to pose as Americans and gain employment from October 2020 to 2023. From her home in Minnesota and Arizona, Chapman ran a 'laptop farm' using computers issued by US companies. Such was the scale of her operation, Chapman, 50, even employed two people to help her. In photos shared by prosecutors, rows of laptops were stacked on shelves with notes stuck to them which revealed the company and identity being used for each device. This gave the appearance of the North Korean workers being in the US. More than 300 separate companies were caught out by the scheme, with funds totalling over £12.5 million being generated which were sent back to North Korea and used for its nuclear weapons programme, officials said. A total of 309 companies were caught out, including Nike and other members of the Fortune 500 list. Officials have issued a stark warning to companies, advising them not to be duped by the scheme. US Attorney for Washington DC General Jeanine Pirro said North Korea is an 'enemy within' and is 'perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies, and American banks'. She added that North Korea used the cash it generated to 'to buy munitions to be used against us'. She continued: "The call is coming from inside the house. If this happened to these big banks, to these Fortune 500, brand name, quintessential American companies, it can or is happening at your company… You are the first line of defense against the North Korean threat.' The FBI, which aided the investigation, said North Korea has pocketed 'millions of dollars for its nuclear weapons program by victimizing American citizens, businesses, and financial institutions". It added: 'However, even an adversary as sophisticated as the North Korean government can't succeed without the assistance of willing US citizens like Christina Chapman.' Following her May 2024 arrest in Arizona, Chapman was handed a prison sentence of 102 months on Thursday after the 50-year-old pleaded guilty in February to aggravated identity theft, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Three North Koreans who were also charged had ties to the Munitions Industry Department in their home rogue state, the BBC reported. Chapman, whom prosecutors said insisted her work was "legitimate", pocketed the equivalent of over £131,000 for her part in the scheme. She was ordered to pay back, as well as around £211,000 that was profit destined for North Korea. Prosecutors said Chapman claims she did not know she was working with North Koreans. But this was disputed by officials, who revealed she sent 35 packages to the city of Dandong in China, which is on the border with North Korea. Packages were also sent to the UAE, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Ghislaine Maxwell could reveal the truth about Trump's encounter with 14-year-old Epstein victim who testified at her trial
Ghislaine Maxwell could hold explosive new information about Donald Trump 's encounter with a 14-year-old Jeffrey Epstein victim, can reveal. This comes as senior officials from the President's Department of Justice met with Maxwell yesterday, and resurfaced transcripts from her 2021 trial reveal that Trump was once introduced to the underage girl. The victim, who testified under the pseudonym 'Jane,' claimed she was repeatedly raped and abused by Epstein - and that he brought her to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in the mid-1990s, where the introduction occurred. At the time, Trump and Epstein were allegedly close friends, with the future president having flown multiple times on Epstein's private jet. This emerges as the White House scrambles to contain a bombshell report that Pam Bondi warned Trump months ago his name appears 'multiple times' in the Epstein files and House Oversight members support subpoenaing the disgraced heiress. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who met Maxwell at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, has said he is seeking 'all credible evidence' from her. Blanche has said: 'If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say'. And Maxwell wants to talk too, according to a source who told 'she would be more than happy to sit before Congress and tell her story.' 'No-one from the government has ever asked her to share what she knows. She remains the only person to be jailed in connection to Epstein, and she would welcome the chance to tell the American public the truth.' Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein have come under renewed scrutiny since July 7, when the Department of Justice and FBI issued a memo stating that no further charges would be filed and no additional information about the case would be made public. The announcement triggered backlash from the president's own supporters, who accused him of backtracking on his campaign promises. Even members of the president's own party on the House Oversight Committee are risking his ire to hear Maxwell's testimony, with the push to subpoena her led by Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett and backed by Chair James Comer, Anna Paulina Luna, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene. 'The Committee will seek to subpoena Ms. Maxwell as expeditiously as possible,' an Oversight spokesperson said. 'Since Ms. Maxwell is in federal prison, the Committee will work with the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons to identify a date when the Committee can depose her.' In response to the backlash, Trump has expressed support for releasing grand jury transcripts related to the arrests of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, and Ghislaine Maxwell. Fueling the outrage is a bombshell Wall Street Journal report claiming that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump months ago that his name appears 'multiple times' in the Epstein files - the same day she advised against releasing all documents. According to sources, Bondi urged the administration to withhold the remaining files due to the presence of child pornography and sensitive information about victims, after Trump gave her final authority over the decision. There is no suggestion that Trump participated in the abuse of 'Jane' - the victim who testified she was recruited by Epstein and Maxwell when she was just 14 years old. And just because the president is named in the files, it does not implicate him in any wrongdoing or connect him to Epstein's child sex trafficking crimes. During her first encounter with Epstein, he took her to the pool house of his Palm Beach home, pulled down his pants and masturbated on her, leaving Jane 'frozen in fear', she recalled. The abuse continued for several years, and Jane said she flew with Epstein and Maxwell around 10 times, sometimes to New York or his ranch in New Mexico. Referring to Epstein and Maxwell, prosecutors asked Jane 'What names do you recall them mentioning to you when they would tell you about their social circle?' Jane replied: 'Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Mike Wallace', referring to the late CBS 60 Minutes journalist. Prosecutors asked if Epstein 'introduced you to Donald Trump' and she replied: 'Correct.' Jane confirmed that was 'correct' and confirmed that it took place when she was 14. Prosecutors asked: 'You met Donald Trump there; correct?' Jane said: 'Correct.' According to Jane, she also took part in a teen beauty pageant in the 1990s that Trump ran. Looking back, she called it 'embarrassing' and said she wasn't sure if Epstein gave her a $2,000 dress to take part. In total, Trump's name came up 13 times during the 18 days of evidence in Maxwell's trial. A second victim, who testified as 'Kate', told the court how Maxwell, a British socialite, would brag about her famous friends to her. Kate said: 'Well, she seemed to know everybody. And she told me that she was friends with Prince Andrew, friends with Donald Trump, friends with lots of famous people. 'And sometimes their names would just come up in conversations or she might be talking on the phone about them with me present.' Among the others who brought up Trump was Juan Alessi, Epstein's house manager at his Palm Beach home. He told the jury about seeing photos of 'important people' around the house - including Trump - as well as photos of nude girls and a naked Maxwell. Alessi said: 'I think there was a photograph with Mr. Trump. Photographs with - if I remember, I think there was a photograph with the Pope. I think there was a photograph with Fidel Castro. 'There were many photographs with females topless. Usually, they were kept at Ms. Maxwell's desk.' Maxwell was convicted in early 2022 of luring underage girls to Epstein, who repeatedly abused and raped them. A jury found her guilty of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence at FCI Tallahassee, where DOJ officials flew to meet her. Trump and Epstein were friends for more than two decades and a video of them in Mar-a-Lago in 1992 shows them laughing together while leering at women. In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, the President called Epstein a 'terrific guy.' He said: 'He's a lot of fun to be with. 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' More recently, Trump has tried repeatedly to contain the fallout from the Epstein scandal resurfacing. He has called it a 'hoax' created by the Democrats and called his supporters who believed the story 'weaklings'.
