Sheldon Whitehouse

"https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/"

"' recently reported on an alleged classified U.S. intelligence document claiming that, "Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor... was drawn into Moscow's orbit thanks to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which the allegedly used as a route into the British establishment.""

"Epstein struck up a relationship with , Russia’s former deputy minister of economic development and a graduate of the FSB, Russia's intelligence academy. Epstein introduced him to contacts like Peter Thiel... who would... give $10 million to the super PAC that helped elect now-Vice President J.D. Vance to the Senate in 2022."

"Epstein had a series of Russian visas between 2011 and his death in 2019. Epstein's crimes left a long money trail, and that trail winds back to Russia. ...One filed by ... shows that between 2003 and 2019, Epstein conducted 4,725 wire transactions totaling over $1 billion. And that’s just one bank. Epstein used multiple banks."

"He is delusional."

"John McCain used to say that Russia is a gas station, run by gangsters with an army."

"It doesn't make sense that the President of the United States, who... insists on being dominant... is so submissive to... Russia's dictator, Vladimir Putin."

"So what is it about Trump and Russia, and could it have any connection with Trump's close friendship with the deceased pedaphile, Jeffrey Epstein?"

"[T]he survivors... and the millions of emails released... through the... have shed... light on the operation of the... global pedaphile ring, and over and over, it touches Russia."

"When recently asked... about the Epstein files, Trump said... "It's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax." ..."[H]oax," the word he used for when something is true, but the most telling... is that Trump's mind, [when] asked about Epstein, immediately went to Russia."

"According to Steven Hoffenberg... [Douglas] Leese introduced Epstein to Robert Maxwell. Ghislaine Maxwell, who became Epstein's... sex trafficking accomplice after her father's death, was Robert Maxwell's favorite daughter, and he involved her deeply in his work. ...Robert Maxwell had complex shifting ties to British, Soviet and Israeli intelligence. Initially bankrolled by , he accepted secret payments from the through his Soviet friendly publishing company, and... traversed both sides of the ."

"In 1992... The Sunday Express wrote that a secret document, signed by the head of the ... showed that Maxwell was a political and intelligence asset for the Soviet Union... [and] that Soviet leadership had instructed the KGB to protect Maxwell's reputation and business activities."

"Maxwell's UK foreign office file... described him as.., "a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia.""

"wrote... in Rolling Stone magazine in 2021.., "Hoffenberg told me that Epstein had said he'd worked on several projects with Robert Maxwell, including solving Maxwell's 'debt' issues." ...Maxwell ...[had] stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the pensions of his employees. The story continued, Epstein... had... told Hoffenberg, that via Maxwell and [Douglas] Leese, he was involved in something that Hoffenberg described as national security issues, which he says involved , influence trading, trading information at a level that is very serious and dangerous. The story concluded, "Four separate sources told me on the record that Epstein's dealings in the arms world in the 1980s had led him to work for multiple governments, including the .""

"[I]n the 1980s Epstein struck up a friendship with... Donald Trump. ...Michael Wolff has said.., "They shared everything. They shared their airplanes. They shared women... They shared constantly business and financial advice." ...There are many photos of the two men together on the New York and Palm Beach party circuits throughout the 1990s."

"Trump... said in 2002, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy! 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.""

"Alan Dershowitz told the The New York Times in 2019.., "In those days, if you didn't know Trump and you didn't know Epstein, you were a nobody." Dershowitz... served both on Epstein's defense team when he was charged with having sex with minors... in 2006, and on Trump's impeachment defense team in 2020."

"The president of Trump's Atlantic City Hotel in the late 1980s said he saw Trump and Epstein together so frequently that he believed Epstein was Trump's best friend. ...[He] described the incident where Trump brought Epstein a 19 year old girl to the casino gaming floor."

"Epstein once took a model to , where she says Trump groped her while laughing with Epstein. She remarked that it seemed like a twisted game between the two men."

"Epstein claimed to have given... some insight on Trump to the Russians. Epstein met on many occasions with , Russia's representative to the United Nations in 2006, until Churkin's death in 2017. Epstein wrote in an email, "Churkin was great, ...He understood Trump after our conversation. it is not complex, he must be seen to get something its that simple.""

"Epstein roped many Russian and East European girls and women into his trafficking operation. The New York magazine profile... in 2002 reads, "...at a party at Maxwell's house, her friends say, one is just as apt to see Russian ladies of the night, as one is to see Prince Andrew.""

"There are few things that enrage the American public more than crooked, dark money political spending. If you tried to get a dark money political spending bill through the Senate, you couldn't do it. If you tried to get it through the House, you couldn't do it. If you put the Senate and House under Republican control, you still couldn't do it, but if you have captured the Supreme Court [...] then a decision that is as unpopular and enraging as this decision comes your way, and they pulled it off in plain daylight."

"Behind Trump’s fog bank and pretexts, he and his un-elected co-president Musk are simply stealing from the American people to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. It’s gangster government."

"If Trump were purposefully doing Russia's bidding, it is hard to see what he would be doing differentlty."

"Despite documented warnings from their own scientists dating from the 1970s, ExxonMobil pursued a campaign of deceit, denial, and delay. They may soon have to face the consequences. History will not look kindly on their choice."