Journal of Trauma & Dissociation – The science and politics of false memories

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation – The science and politics of false memories

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Volume 23, Issue 2 (2022)
The science and politics of false memories

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjtd20/23/2

False Memories And The Science Of Credibility: Who Gets To Be Heard?: Journal of Trauma & Dissociation

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299732.2022.2028219

The guest editors are Michael Salter and Ruth Blizard.

Editorial
False memories and the science of credibility: Who gets to be heard?
Michael Salter and Ruth Blizard

“Consistently, and persistently, theories of false memories have been aptly available for the exculpation of the wealthy and the powerful. This point is illustrated by a brief overview of some of the cases where prominent false memory researcher Professor Elizabeth Loftus has appeared: in the defense of a Bosnian-Croatian soldier for aiding and abetting the rape of a Muslim woman, to exculpate a senior aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney for misleading investigators regarding the leak of the name of a CIA operative, to question the credibility of Professor Christine Blasey-Ford when she complained about an alleged sexual assault as a teenager by current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for the defense team of the convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein and for accused child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Most recently, in Australia, allegations of false memories were revived when it emerged that a woman known only as “Kate” (who, sadly, died by suicide in 2019) claimed to have been sexually assaulted by the Australian politician Christian Porter (and, at the time of the allegation, Attorney General) when they were both teenagers (MItchell et al., 2021). Porter, like Kavanaugh, vigorously denied the allegation. There was no court case but instead a journalist speculated that Kate suffered from “recovered memories,” on the basis that she had apparently read Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score prior to her allegations becoming public knowledge (Hardaker, 2021). By this logic, merely reading a book that mentions child sexual abuse could be the trigger for a false allegation; never mind that Kate diarized the alleged assault while still a teenager, or that she had described the incident to friends decades prior to reading van der Kolk.

In a sign of how much has changed since the 1990s, the response to this argument was not agreement but outrage. This outrage was evident across social media but also from within journalism itself. The media outlet who ran the original piece quickly assigned another journalist to cover the story from a more sympathetic angle, while Australian media outlets ran multiple pieces rebutting the false memory proposition. One journalist wrote about his own diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stress disorder and its impact on his capacity to recall traumatic events and correctly label them as harmful (Morton, 2021).

Undoubtedly, the emergence of the false memory movement three decades ago had a negative effect on professional and social understandings of trauma and dissociation. However, it also provoked researchers, practitioners, survivors, and advocates to redouble their efforts to develop the evidence base for trauma therapy. Reinders and Veltman’s recent editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry laid out the cumulative neurobiological evidence for the trauma model of DID. The diagnosis that the FMSF insisted, a quarter century ago, was a passing fad with no scientific foundation is now out of the shadows (Reinders & Veltman, 2021). Meanwhile, the forms of betrayal, abuse, and violation that false memory syndrome sought to explain away as mere confabulations are now recurrent features of media and policy commentary. Multiple criminal cases and public inquiries have substantiated the seriousness of child sexual abuse and exploitation, institutional tendencies toward denial and cover-up, and the inadequacies of the current policy response.”

Commentary
The Power of False Memory Rhetoric
Lynn Crook

Articles
Hyping Hypnosis: The Myth that Made Capturing the Friedmans Persuasive
Ross Cheit

The Policy Alignment of the British False Memory Society and the British Psychological Society
Ashley Conway and David Pilgrim

The history and politics of ‘false memories’: The Australian Experience
Kate McMaugh and Warwick Middleton

Attachment and Memory Stability
Paula Thomson and S. Victoria Jacque

“The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried.”
—Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Supreme Court Turns Away Jeffrey Epstein Victim’s Petition on Dead Predator’s Infamous Non-Prosecution Agreement

The Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday left in place previous lower court rulings that dismissed a lawsuit from a woman who claims she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein when she was a minor.

Courtney Wild has, for nearly a decade, sued various federal defendants over the sweetheart deal the federal government extended to the now-dead pedophile back in 2007. Authorities say Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019.

That 2007 plea deal, crafted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, atypically included a non-prosecution agreement for any and all accused co-conspirators and was entered into without any input from the dead financier’s numerous minor victims.

At the same time, the victims were repeatedly told by U.S. government attorneys that prosecutors were obligated to confer with them if, and when, an agreement was reached. The victims trusted those assurances; their faith, of course, was misplaced.

As a result of the bargain, Epstein spent 13 months in prison but was allowed to leave most days, going to and from his office to work. He also was allowed to see and entertain female visitors — including at least one minor who was allowed to visit him 90 times.

The lack of victim participation in the deal that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to relatively minor state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation in exchange for a federal case never being filed by Alexander Acosta’s office was cited by Wild as a violation of the Crime Victims Rights Act of 2004 (CVRA)….

In August 2021, Wild appealed to the nine justices of the nation’s highest court.

“The CVRA promises crime victims in federal cases a right to confer with prosecutors,” her petition to the Supreme Court said. “Yet in this case, one of the most infamous child sex traffickers in this country’s history — Jeffrey Epstein, a man with wealth, power, and political influence — was able to negotiate a secret non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. The resulting tragedy was that the child victims who bravely came forward to report their sexual abuse were, as the en banc (11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) decision below acknowledged, ‘left in the dark — and, so it seems, affirmatively misled — by government lawyers’ as to why Epstein was not being federally prosecuted for his horrific crimes.”

The Biden administration, in a brief, argued the court should not entertain Wild’s “tragic” lawsuit — in part because it said the federal government had learned some lessons over the past decade.

“The Department engaged closely with victims in both its 2019 prosecution of Epstein in New York and its recent successful prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell,” a filing by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued. “And the Department recently embarked on a review of its guidance to prosecutors regarding victim and witness assistance.”

In two curt lines, the nation’s high court allowed a concerned third-party to file arguments in the case while simultaneously denying the case a hearing.

“The motion of Child USA for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae is granted,” the high court wrote in their orders list dated Feb. 22, 2022. “The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.”

In other words, the third-party filing is on the record — but the high court is not hearing  the case.

SMART Ritual Abuse Newsletter – January 2022 Issue 162

SMART Ritual Abuse Newsletter – January 2022 Issue 162  

The newest issue of our ritual abuse newsletter is at: https://ritualabuse.us/2022/01/issue-162-january-2022/

Topics: Ghislaine Maxwell conviction Jeffrey Epstein (Clinton, Trump, Woody Allen, Prince Andrew) Elizabeth Loftus  Bessel van der Kolk

Survivorship Webinar 2022 for clinicians with Alison Miller https://survivorship.org/survivorship-webinar-2022-healing-the-unimaginable-a-ten-session-course/ 

Survivorship Online Conference May 2022  https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-2022-conference/

Wendy Hoffman’s new book After Amensia and During https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/books/after-amnesia-and-during-a-memoir-by-wendy-hoffman 

Information in this issue includes: Name Index for Ritual Abuse Mind Control Trauma and Dissociation, Eileen Aveni, Bennett Braun, Neil Brick, Wendy Hoffman, Ellen Lacter, Elizabeth Loftus, Alison Miller, Douglas Misicko, Lucien Greaves, Douglas Mesner, Grey Faction, Satanic Temple, Randy Noblitt, Michael Salter, Valerie Sinason, Bessel van der Kolk, Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple”, Daniel K. Buntovnik, Elizabeth Loftus – Ethics Complaints, Survivorship Webinar 2022, Healing the Unimaginable, Alison Miller, Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Virginia Giuffre, the death of Jeffrey Epstein, Alan Dershowitz, Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow, Babi Christina Engelhardt, ‘False Memory’ Expert, Jerry Sandusky, Ted Bundy, Paul Shanley, Sarah Ransome, Little St James in US Virgin Islands, international sex trafficking ring, paedophile island, Bugs Bunny,  Bessel van der Kolk Md, The Body Keeps the Score, Working with Traumatic Memory

Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case, Epstein’s death, Epstein’s Famous Friends

Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case

– Ghislaine Maxwell Is Found Guilty of Aiding in Epstein’s Sex Abuse  

– 60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..Dr. Michael Baden: The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging. I hesitate to make a final opinion, until all the evidence is in.”  

Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances

– “Flight logs that put Clinton on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” 26 times between 2001 and 2003.”

– “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in a 2002 profile of Epstein. “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.”

Woody Allen  The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 7, has made several appearances with Epstein over the years. Allen attended a dinner party for Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, he was pictured walking around the Upper East Side with him in 2013, and his photo is displayed in Epstein’s study. Babi Christina Engelhardt, a former personal assistant to Epstein, also alleged in a Hollywood Reporter profile that she and Allen had an eight-year relationship, beginning when she was 16 and he was 41.”

Prince Andrew   The Duke of York, Prince Charles’s younger brother, is a longtime personal friend of Epstein’s and has been directly accused of having sex with at least one underage girl.    

Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case
Associated Press
TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER
December 29, 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.   The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.   Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts….   During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes — a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case. A housekeeper testified he was expected to be “blind, deaf and dumb” about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul.  

Pilots took the witness stand and dropped the names of luminaries — Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump — who flew on Epstein’s private jets.

  Jurors saw physical evidence like a folding massage table once used by Epstein and a “black book” that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading “massages.”   There were bank records showing he had transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell, his longtime companion — one-time girlfriend, later employee.   But the core of the prosecution was the testimony of four women who said they were victimized by Maxwell and Epstein at tender ages….  

They said the script would darken when Maxwell coaxed them into giving massages to Epstein that turned sexual, encounters she played off as normal: After one sexual massage, Kate, then 17, said Maxwell asked her if she’d had fun and told her: “You are such a good girl.”   Carolyn testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to give massages in exchange for $100 bills, which prosecutors described as “a pyramid of abuse.”….  

During their two-day presentation, they called as a witness Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California Irvine professor who has testified as a memory expert for defense lawyers at about 300 trials, including the rape trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein….  

Maxwell still awaits trial on two counts of perjury.   Lawsuits involving the abuse allegations also continue, including one in which a woman not involved in the trial, Virginia Giuffre, says she was coerced into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Andrew has denied her account and that lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for many months. https://www.aol.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-jury-must-years-161625990-220054892.html

Ghislaine Maxwell Is Found Guilty of Aiding in Epstein’s Sex Abuse Dec. 29, 2021   Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring with him for at least a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls.   A federal jury in Manhattan found Ms. Maxwell, 60, the daughter of a British media mogul, guilty of sex trafficking and four of the five other charges against her. She was acquitted of one count of enticing a minor to travel across state lines to engage in an illegal sexual act.   Ms. Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the courtroom reckoning that Mr. Epstein never had….

Ms. Maxwell’s conviction closed another chapter in the saga of Mr. Epstein, whose lurid exploits, dealings with the criminal justice system and cast of famous friends made him — and, by extension, Ms. Maxwell — the subject of intense public scrutiny for years.   In her trial, the government called four accusers — two used pseudonyms and one only a partial name — who testified that they had been served up to Mr. Epstein to be sexually abused. Ms. Maxwell was present for some of the abuse, according to the testimony, and played a role in enticing and grooming some of the victims….

  “Ms. Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” a prosecutor, Alison Moe, told the jury in closing arguments last week. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”…  

Mr. Epstein’s name surfaced repeatedly during Ms. Maxwell’s trial, and her lawyers spent much of their time trying to distance her from the man who was once also her boyfriend and is now seen as one of the most notorious sex offenders in modern American history….

  Jane testified how Ms. Maxwell, “a tall, thin woman” with a “cute little Yorkie,” strolled up to her, followed by Mr. Epstein, as she sat with friends at the age of 14, eating ice cream at a summer arts camp in Michigan. That chance meeting led to an invitation to Mr. Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Fla., and what prosecutors said was years of sexual abuse…..  

“This case is about Ghislaine Maxwell, the crimes she committed,” another prosecutor, Maurene Comey, said in a government rebuttal. “It’s about the children that she targeted, the steps that she took to serve those children up to be abused. It’s about her own participation in that abuse.”   Ms. Farmer, one of the accusers who testified against Ms. Maxwell, said in a statement that she was “relieved and grateful that the jury recognized the pattern of predatory behavior that Maxwell engaged in for years and found her guilty of these crimes.”   “She has caused hurt to many more women than the few of us who had the chance to testify in the courtroom,” Ms. Farmer said….   https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/29/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-verdict

60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein

January 5, 2020   In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. On August 10, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).   The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging, but a forensic pathologist who observed the four-hour autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother, Mark, tells 60 Minutes the evidence released so far points more to murder than suicide in his view. Dr. Michael Baden’s key reason: the unusual fractures he saw in Epstein’s neck….  

Federal prosecutors say surveillance video “makes clear” that the guards “search[ed] the internet” and “appear to have been asleep” on their overnight overtime shift. One thing the video may not show, according to sources, is Epstein’s cell door and the doors of the other inmates on his unit tier. Sources say the camera that should have captured those angles was corrupted the night of Epstein’s death. Epstein’s cell was about 15 feet away and up a set of stairs from the guards’ station, with a single locked gate between them.   As 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told Lindsay in their interview, the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death seem almost unbelievable.   “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..  

Dr. Michael Baden: The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging. I hesitate to make a final opinion, until all the evidence is in…. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-jeffrey-epstein-kill-himself-60-minutes-investigates-2020-01-05/

Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances
By Adam K. Raymond and Matt Stieb July 10, 2019   After Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest on sex-trafficking charges over the weekend, the Miami Herald reporter behind the paper’s dogged investigations into the wealthy money manager said he isn’t the only prominent person this scandal is likely to ensnare.   “There are probably quite a few important people, powerful people, who are sweating it out right now,” Julie K. Brown said on MSNBC. “We’ll have to wait and see whether Epstein is going to name names.”  

Over the years, Epstein has counted some of the country’s most powerful political and business leaders among his friends. They’ve visited his private island, flown on his private jet, and had him as a guest in their homes. Most of the well-known figures linked to Epstein have not been accused of any wrongdoing, but a few have been accused of participating in his sex-trafficking ring. Here are some of Epstein’s most prominent connections:  

Bill Clinton Clinton and Epstein grew close in the first few years after the former president left office. According to a statement from Clinton this week, he took “a total of four trips” on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003, traveling to Europe, Asia, and Africa. At the time, Clinton told New York that Epstein is a “highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist.”      

In this week’s statement, Clinton said he knew nothing of Epstein’s “terrible crimes” and that the two hadn’t spoken in a decade. But the picture of their relationship painted by the former president doesn’t square with flight logs that put Clinton on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” 26 times between 2001 and 2003. Or with Gawker’s 2015 report on Epstein’s little black book, which included “21 contact numbers and various email addresses for Clinton.” Alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre also claimed in a 2015 affidavit that Clinton visited the financier’s private island, though Clinton denies it. The claim has never been corroborated, and there are no Epstein-related allegations of sexual misconduct involving Clinton.

Donald Trump   “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in a 2002 profile of Epstein. “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.”   Trump’s comment about Epstein’s taste in women has gotten a lot of attention in the past few days for obvious reasons. But it’s not the only thing connecting the two men. Epstein and Trump lived near each other in Palm Beach, ran in the same social circles, and records show Trump flew on the “Lolita Express.”

Four years ago, Giuffre alleged that while working as a towel girl at Mar-a-Lago, she was recruited by Epstein’s longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell to become one of his sex slaves. The year was 1999, and Giuffre was 16 years old. In court documents, Bradley Edwards, an attorney who represented several of Epstein’s alleged victims, said Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago because he “sexually assaulted an underage girl at the club.” The claim has not been confirmed.   Trump has also been accused of assaulting a woman on Epstein’s property.

During the 2016 election, an anonymous California woman filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump and Epstein raped her at the latter’s New York City mansion in 1994, when she was 13. Several journalists expressed confusion or skepticism after looking into the story. Trump denied the allegations and the woman dropped her suit weeks before the election.   When Gawker published Epstein’s “little black book” in 2015, a Trump spokesperson told the site, “Mr. Trump only knew Mr. Epstein as Mr. Trump owns the hottest and most luxurious club in Palm Beach, [redacted], and Mr. Epstein would go there on occasion.” But media reports from the early 2000s show multiple interactions between the two in social settings. Trump also called Epstein twice in November 2004, according to message pads seized from Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.  

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump and Epstein were the only two guests at a 1992 “calendar girl” competition at Mar-a-Lago. Businessman George Houraney said he arranged the party at Trump’s request….

Alan Dershowitz Two different women have said they were trafficked by Epstein and “directed” to have sex with the prominent Harvard law professor. Giuffre says that after she was recruited to be a masseuse for Epstein and coerced into having sex with him, she was told that she had to have sex with other men, including Dershowitz. Separately, Sarah Ransome, who sued Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for alleged sex trafficking, says she was directed to have sex with Dershowitz. The attorney has denied the claims from both women….  

Leslie Wexner The 81-year-old CEO of L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, was once the “main client” of Epstein’s money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. The billionaire began working with Epstein in the early ’90s, and in 2003 Epstein said that people had suggested the two men shared one brain. “Each has a side,” he said….

  Prince Andrew The Duke of York, Prince Charles’s younger brother, is a longtime personal friend of Epstein’s and has been directly accused of having sex with at least one underage girl. In 2015 court documents, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, seen here in a photo with Prince Andrew, said she was coerced into having sex with the British royal. She also said she was forced to participate in an orgy with other underage girls and the Prince. Buckingham Palace has denied the claims.  

Tom Barrack In Fire and Fury, his first book on the Trump administration, Michael Wolff reported that Trump, Epstein, and private-equity manager and Trump campaign senior adviser Tom Barrack were a “set of nightlife musketeers” in the ’80s and ’90s, managing a phrase that is both ambiguous and terrifying.

  Mort Zuckerman Media mogul, billionaire, and former owner of the New York Daily News and the Atlantic Mort Zuckerman invested with Epstein in the gossip magazine Radar in 2004, spending around $10 million to get the first issue up and running. According to Gawker, Zuckerman promptly bailed on the project when he found out about allegations against Epstein, and the magazine shut down just 14 months after its inaugural issue in 2005.  

Woody Allen The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 7, has made several appearances with Epstein over the years. Allen attended a dinner party for Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, he was pictured walking around the Upper East Side with him in 2013, and his photo is displayed in Epstein’s study.   Babi Christina Engelhardt, a former personal assistant to Epstein, also alleged in a Hollywood Reporter profile that she and Allen had an eight-year relationship, beginning when she was 16 and he was 41.  

Larry Summers Former Harvard president and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers connected with Epstein mostly for fundraising purposes for the university….  

Stephen Hawking

Steven Pinker According to flight logs of Epstein’s plane, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker hitched a ride on the “Lolita Express” in 2002. Pinker was also pictured at a dinner in which Epstein was in attendance in 2014, along with Lawrence Krauss.

Roger Schank Artificial intelligence expert Roger Schank visited Epstein in jail in July 2008 when he was a professor at Northwastern University….   In 2003, Primedia Inc. was looking to sell New York Magazine, and Mort Zuckerman and then-media columnist Michael Wolff rounded up some investors to purchase the property. The group included TV personality and businessman Donny Deutsch, billionaire Nelson Peltz, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein. (The movie producer, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, is set to be tried on five counts of sexual assault, including rape.) The group’s bid of $44 million was the second-lowest out of four, and investment banker Bruce Wasserstein scooped up the title. (The Wasserstein family still owns New York Media.)

Other Epstein Acquaintances   The breadth of Epstein’s social reach was staggering, but most of his famous contacts have never been linked to any of his crimes or alleged misdeeds. Epstein’s 92-page address book, which was published by Gawker, has entries for Alec Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes, Ted Kennedy, David Koch, Courtney Love, and former New Mexico governors Bill Richardson and Bruce King — though it’s unclear what, if any, connection he had to these celebrities and political figures.   Guest lists for dinners at his Manhattan townhouse also give a picture of his influence: In 2010, a dinner for Prince Andrew included Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Chelsea Handler, and Woody Allen. Another dinner reported on by New York featured billionaire Mort Zuckerman, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, magician David Blaine, Donald Trump, Les Wexner, and a former British Cabinet member Peter Mandelson. Another cabinet member, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, also reportedly socialized with Epstein shortly after his release from prison in 2011….

  Vicky Ward, the journalist who wrote the 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein, told Slate that “You got the feeling that his friends weren’t real friends — he owned them — that he was the kind of man who collected information about people and then used it over them.” Ward has also offered a more scathing assessment, saying, “What is so amazing to me is how his entire social circle knew about this and just blithely overlooked it … all mentioned the girls, as an aside.” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/jeffrey-epsteins-rolodex-famous-friends-and-acquaintances.html

Miss Sweden and Bugs Bunny add up to a bad day in court for Ghislaine Maxwell – Elizabeth Loftus

 Miss Sweden and Bugs Bunny add up to a bad day in court for Ghislaine Maxwell https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/18/miss-sweden-and-bugs-bunny-add-up-to-a-bad-day-in-court-for-ghislaine-maxwell

The third witness was Professor Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist and specialist in false memory. An expert witness in perhaps as many as 300 trials, she asserted that fake facts could be implanted in people: “False memories … can be very vivid, detailed. People can be confident about them, people can be emotional about them, even though they’re false.” She told the jury “emotion is no guarantee that the memory is authentic”.

Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz noted that Loftus was being paid $600 an hour by the defence and that she’d written a book, Witness for the Defense.“You haven’t written a book called ‘Impartial Witness’, right?” said Pomerantz, whose voice is so high-pitched she sounds like a very scary bat.“No,” said Loftus, glumly.

Pomerantz moved on to Loftus’s research. She got the professor to cite the catchphrase of a figure in one of her studies– “What’s up, Doc?”. Loftus had shown that 16% of people said they’d seen Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, a false memory because the fictional rabbit is a Warner Bros character, correct? Correct, the witness had to agree. Hanging in the air was the thought that 84% didn’t see Bugs Bunny at the wrong theme park.

 Next, we were on a second study, where Loftus and co had tried to implant the false memory of people having had a rectal enema. No one did so, the point being that people remember trauma clearly. False memory did not have a good day in court. No wonder Maxwell seemed distraught.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense calls ‘false memories’ expert to testify in sex abuse trial

Luc Cohen December 16, 2021

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense lawyers on Thursday called a psychologist who studies “false memories” to testify at the British socialite’s sex abuse trial, part of their effort to undermine the credibility of Maxwell’s accusers. 

  Elizabeth Loftus, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, has previously testified in or consulted for hundreds of trials, including those of Harvey Weinstein and O.J. Simpson. 

  Maxwell, 59, is accused of recruiting and grooming teenagers for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys have argued that the memories of the four accusers who testified as prosecution witnesses have become corrupted over the years….

Loftus was the third witness called to the stand by Maxwell’s defense. The prosecution rested its case last Friday, following two weeks of emotional testimony from four women who said Maxwell set them up for abuse by Epstein when the women were teenagers. 

https://www.aol.com/news/ghislaine-maxwells-defense-sex-abuse-110414283-182905132.html

Information on Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Loftus

– A Brief History of the False Memory Research of Elizabeth Loftus
– Ethics Complaints Filed Against FMSF Board Member Elizabeth Loftus
– “Lost in a Shopping Mall” A Breach of Professional Ethics
– Quotes: Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.
– The Alleged Ethical Violations of Elizabeth Loftus in the Case of Jane Doe

Epstein’s island: What really happened there?

Epstein’s island: What really happened there? Accusers say billionaire’s private paradise of Little St James in US Virgin Islands was centre of international sex trafficking ring
Io Dodds San Francisco 12/7/2021

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/epstein-island-little-st-james-maxwell-b1970539.html  

  The guests came from across the world, and from the highest ranks of society: celebrities and scientists and members of royal families, touching down in a private jet and then boarding a helicopter to the island. Its owner liked to call it “Little St Jeff”; locals called it “paedophile island”.   But what is the truth about Little St James, the 75-acre private paradise in the US Virgin Islands that billionaire sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein once called home?   The island is now at the centre of a web of lawsuits and criminal investigations seeking to untangle the life of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 at the age of 66 in what authorities claimed was a suicide.

A criminal complaint from the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands, which is attempting to seize Little St James as government property, described it “the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault”.   On this island, the compaint says, “Epstein and his associates could avoid detection of their illegal activity from Virgin Islands and federal law enforcement, and prevent these young women and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping the abuse.”….   It was in the Virgins that Epstein registered as a sex offender in 2010, following his first conviction for child prostitution in 2008. He also based his shell companies in a small unmarked office in a seaside strip mall on St Thomas, alongside a Sam’s Mini-mart and a salon called Happy Nails.   In 1998, he bought Little St James from venture capitalist Arch Cummin via a shell company, reportedly paying just under $8 million (£6 million). The new owner quickly scoured away all the native vegetation and replaced it with 40-foot palm trees.  

Starting in 2007, Epstein began a massive programme of building and remodelling that drew suspicion from local officials. His main compound nearly doubled in size, sprouting into a plush mansion with an outside terrace connecting the master bedroom and the swimming pool, along with a desalination system. Satellite photos show a sprawling network of terraces, cottages, beach houses, swimming pools, docks, utility buildings, a helipad, a tennis court, slipways, some kind of enclosed lake or lagoon, and various huts of unknown purpose, all connected by palm-lined roads where golf buggies ferried guests from place to place (a journey across the island reportedly took about five minutes)….   Who did Epstein host on his island?   Of course there were always guests. Among the famous names reportedly hosted by Epstein were theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel laureate Lawrence Krauss, comedian Chris Tucker, actor Kevin Spacey, Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner, model Naomi Campbell, former Tony Blair aide Lord Peter Mandelson, and Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.   It has been claimed that Bill Clinton was also a guest, though he denies ever having been there. Donald Trump reportedly flew on one of Epstein’s private jets, but it is unclear if he visited the island. The magician David Copperfield is even said to have proposed to supermodel Claudia Schiffer there….

Didn’t anyone notice Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking?   Certainly they did. From the start, locals on St Thomas whispered darkly about Epstein’s activities, calling his private jets “the Lolita Express”. When scuba divers swam near the island, security guards would reportedly appear to patrol the edge of the water.   At one point, Epstein was ferrying about 200 workers back and forth every day to build his projects. “When he was there, it was keep to yourself and do your thing,” one of them told the Associated Press, adding that the mogul would sometimes give away old material or surplus material.   Airport staff on St Thomas could see who Epstein was bringing with him on the Express. “On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children,” a former air traffic controller told Vanity Fair….   Another airstrip employee said: “There’d be girls that look like they could be in high school. They looked very young. They were always wearing college sweatshirts. It seemed like camouflage, that’s the best way to put it. “I could see him with my own eyes. I compared it to seeing a serial killer in broad daylight. I called it the face of evil…. it was like he was flaunting it.” Sometimes the girls would be carrying shopping bags from designer brands such as Gucci and Dior.  

The Alexanders also grew suspicious. “They looked like they had stepped out of an underwear catalogue,” Cathy told the Mail. “They walked around with very few clothes on or lounged around by the pool with nothing on. It was like that most of the time. I was concerned about their ages. A few of them looked very young and I couldn’t help but wonder if their mothers knew where they were.”     Miles Alexander added that he had sometimes had to refuse Epstein’s requests to smuggle in female guests by boat without logging their names and passport numbers with the government of St Thomas…. What really happened on Epstein’s island?   That is the subject of multiple ongoing court cases, but the accusations are shocking. According to a lawsuit filed by Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, Little St James was the centre of a worldwide grooming scheme in which recruiters working for Epstein targeted young women who were open to abuse and manipulation, played on their hopes and fears, dazzled them with “displays of vast weath and power”, and then force them to have sex with clients while keeping them in line with threats and blackmail. Ms Giuffre says that Prince Andrew sexually abused her on Little St James when she was 17, which the prince “unequivocally denies”.

The Virgin Islands attorney general’s office makes similar claims, saying: “Between 2001 and 2019 the Epstein Enterprise transported underage girls and young women to the Virgin Islands, who were then taken via helicopter or private vessel to Little St James where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labour… “To accomplish his illegal ends, Epstein formed an association with multiple defendants and others (both companies and individuals, who were willing to participate in, facilitate, and conceal Epstein’s criminal activity in exchange for Epstein’s bestowal of financial and other benefits, including sexual services and forced labour from victims.”…   The complaint also alleges that Little St James served as a prison for the victims, with Epstein controlling all communication with the outside world. It says one 15-year-old tried to escape by swimming, but Epstein organised a search party, recaptured her and confiscated her passport. “Remember, he owns a whole island,” said attorney general Denise George in 2020. “So it wasn’t a situation where a child or a young woman would be able to just break away and run down the street to the nearest police station.”   One alleged victim told CBS News that she had been raped in Epstein’s office in St Thomas, and that he had a gun strapped to the bedpost in his bedroom on Little St James. The complaint says Epstein kept a computerised list of underage girls in or near the Virgin Islands who could be brought to the island….

Jeffrey Epstein survivor Sarah Ransome details being groomed by Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Once you’re there, you can’t get out’

Yahoo Life Pop Culture BRITTANY JONES-COOPER December 7, 2021

All eyes are glued to the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the accused co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly recruited the young and underage girls that he sexually abused.   For Sarah Ransome, who counts herself as a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, Maxwell’s trial is long overdue. “I’m following the trial every single day,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I just pray every day that she’s found guilty because she needs to be taken off the streets so she can’t hurt anybody else.”  

In her new book, Silenced No More, Ransome recounts how her tumultuous upbringing in South Africa led her straight into the dangerous web of Jeffrey Epstein. Ransome’s parents divorced when she was a child, leaving her to be raised primarily by her mother, who struggled with alcoholism.

At the age of 11, Ransome was raped by one of her mother’s boyfriends and stayed silent about the attack. At 14, she experienced a second rape at the hands of a 17-year-old boy, whose wealthy parents paid local police to make the case disappear. Both attacks left Ransome feeling vulnerable, bullied and blamed.   “I came from a broken home,” says Ransome. “I needed people to really understand my family upbringing, which effectively, almost groomed me to be a target for predators like Ghislaine and Jeffrey.”  

In 2004, Ransome attended university but struggled to balance her classes, work and past traumas. With no family financial support, she scraped by with a waitressing job, but she soon discovered that she could make more money working as an escort. Today, she takes full accountability for her choices but remains resolute that her past life in no way warrants the abuse she would eventually suffer at the hands of Epstein.  

“I was a survival sex worker because I couldn’t even afford a cup of hot soup. I couldn’t even afford a meal. I had to make a really hard choice. And the reason why it was important to be honest and open is because that does not excuse being raped and trafficked,” says Ransome.  

Two years later, Ransome packed her bags and moved to New York City in search of a fresh start and a new life. Low on money and staying with a friend, she started applying for modeling jobs and networked with other models who helped her to book gigs. A few weeks into her new life, she met a woman named Natalya at a nightclub, and the two bonded on the dance floor. Natalya plied Ransome with compliments and cocaine while asking her personal questions about her upbringing and career ambitions. A few days later, Natayla called Ransome and revealed that she knew a man who could help her pay the tuition she needed for fashion school.

His name was Jeffrey Epstein.   “I was approached by a girl my age, who very quickly and deliberately found out where I was from my family, what I was doing in New York, my dreams, my aspirations, the fact that I just come from an abused relationship,” says Ransome. “I didn’t know a single soul. I didn’t know anybody. So I just wanted a female friend to go for coffee with, or go for lunch or go for a stroll through Central Park.”  

Instead, Natalya invited Ransome to the movie theater, where she was met by 10 young women about her age and Epstein. “When I met Jeffrey, he was charming,” she recalls. A few weeks later she was invited on a girls’ trip to his private island, and her personal nightmare began.   “As soon as I arrived on my very first trip on the island, my cellphone’s taken away, my camera’s taken away, my passport’s taken away, and lo and behold, that’s where it started. It was that very first trip on the island where I was told, ‘You will never escape me,'” says Ransome.   As Ransome recounts in the book, Epstein raped her on the second day of that trip. The attacks continued for the duration of her stay, sometimes up to two or three times in the same day.  

“Jeffrey’s island was designed for rape and trafficking,” said Ransome. “And once you’re there, you can’t get out.” For Maxwell’s part, Ransome says that she was aware of the abuse. In one case, she says, Maxwell forced Ransome into a room where Epstein raped her. In another, Maxwell saw Ransome crying after a brutal attack and smirked but offered no support.   “Ghislaine would break you down to such a point, but as soon as she broke you — like a Jekyll and Hyde — she would almost be motherlike and maternal, and caring. And that was effectively done to build a trauma bond,” says Ransome.

Even with the abuse, it would take months for Ransome to free herself from Epstein’s world. With no money and no family, she agreed to stay in an apartment that Epstein offered her. The sexual attacks continued, as did the emotional and verbal abuse. Ransome says Epstein threatened to kill her family if she told authorities or tried to run. Financially, he kept her compliant by promising to help her pay for college and help her to attain a visa.   He never kept his promises, though, and in May 2007, after months of abuse and manipulation, Ransome fled to London to reconcile with her mother. She was free, but she would spend the following years looking over her shoulder, fearful that Epstein would track her down….

  “Don’t be silenced, stand in your truth, be brave, and you’re not alone. I’m with you in spirit and you’re in my prayers, but never be silenced and never live in fear,” says Ransome.  

https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/jeffrey-epstein-survivor-sarah-ransome-180021811.html

Accuser testifies Jeffrey Epstein brought her to meet Donald Trump when she was 14; no wrongdoing alleged

Accuser testifies Jeffrey Epstein brought her to meet Donald Trump when she was 14; no wrongdoing alleged

By Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, CNN  December 1, 2021 

A woman who said she was sexually abused by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago testified in court Wednesday that she met Donald Trump when Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old.

The woman, identified in court under the pseudonym “Jane,” also testified that she flew on Epstein’s private plane several times along with Prince Andrew, celebrity chef Adam Perry Lang and Epstein’s mother and brother.

She did not accuse the former President or any of the other plane passengers of wrongdoing. She also testified Epstein never asked her to recruit other girls or asked her to be involved in sex acts with anyone else. CNN has reached out to Trump for comment.

Her testimony came during Maxwell’s criminal trial on six federal charges, including sex trafficking of minors, in what prosecutors say was a scheme to lure and recruit underage girls for Epstein’s sexual purposes. The trial has already illuminated some of Epstein’s connections to high-profile figures like Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew….  In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” adding that Epstein had a reputation for young women….

In opening statements Monday, prosecutors said Maxwell and Epstein created a “pyramid scheme of abuse” to lure underage girls into sexual relationships with Epstein. Her defense, meanwhile, said she was a “scapegoat” for Epstein’s actions and attacked the memories and motivations of the women who say they were sexually abused.

Epstein’s private pilot was the prosecution’s first witness in the trial and testified that Maxwell was Epstein’s “go-to person” for non-business related issues. The pilot, Larry Visoski, name-dropped a series of powerful men who flew aboard the plane. Visoski also testified he never saw any sexual activity on board….

Woman testifies Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein started sexually abusing her when she was 14
Then the abuse began, she said. She described incidents of sexual abuse with Epstein that Maxwell would at times join in on, both in Palm Beach and Manhattan when she was 14, 15 and 16 years old. She testified that Epstein would masturbate on her and molest her, and Maxwell would sometimes be involved, touching her and Epstein. At least once, Maxwell “instructed” her how Epstein liked to be massaged while the three were in Epstein’s “massage room,” she testified.

In cross-examination on Wednesday, Jane named several women she recalled being involved in the group sexualized massages she categorized as “orgies.” She said she could likely recognize them if shown photos, but acknowledged that no law enforcement ever reviewed any photos with her to identify….
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/us/ghislaine-maxwell-trial/index.html

Judge Lets Ghislaine Maxwell (Jeffrey Epstein’s associate) Call Elizabeth Loftus to testify https://ritualabuse.us/smart/elizabeth-loftus/

 

Judge Lets Ghislaine Maxwell Call ‘False Memory’ Expert Involved in Robert Durst, O.J. Simpson, and Harvey Weinstein Cases   Adam Klasfeld Nov 22nd, 2021

(Information on Elizabeth Loftus:  https://ritualabuse.us/smart/elizabeth-loftus/  – A Brief History of the False Memory Research of Elizabeth Loftus

– Ethics Complaints Filed Against FMSF Board Member Elizabeth Loftus
– “Lost in a Shopping Mall” A Breach of Professional Ethics
– Quotes: Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.
– The Alleged Ethical Violations of Elizabeth Loftus in the Case of Jane Doe

Information on Paul Shanleyhttps://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/   “Shanley was accused of sexual abuse in the 1960’s, the 1970’s, the 1980’s and the 1990’s. His church personnel records indicated he was transferred from parish to parish despite allegations of abuse. The Boston Herald (4/9/02) printed that Shanley “spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a formative 1978 meeting in Boston of the “Man Boy Lovers of North America” and that he “admitted openly to raping and sodomizing minors when confronted by church investigators under Boston’s two past archbishops, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros and Law.”)  

Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in false memories, testifies in Paul Shanley child abuse trial

Exactly a week before the anticipated start of her sex trafficking trial, Ghislaine Maxwell received permission to call a “false memory” expert relied upon by Harvey Weinstein, Robert Durst, O.J. Simpson and hundreds of other criminal defendants seeking to undermine the credibility of their accusers.

In the words of a New Yorker profile on the controversy surrounding her expertise, Elizabeth Loftus has “Changed the Meaning of Memory,” and her life’s work has collided with the #MeToo movement’s moment of cultural reckoning. In particular, Loftus has questioned the reliability of memory and how she believes suggestion can mold it. She also has testified about her research during the trials of Jerry Sandusky, Ted Bundy, and Paul Shanley, a now-deceased priest who served 12 years in prison following his conviction for raping a child.

In a two page order on Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan granted Maxwell permission to call Loftus—subject to certain limitations that are currently under seal. The threadbare order states only that the government’s motion to block her testimony is denied in part and granted in part.

A fuller explanation of the order may be released if the prosecutors and defense team propose redactions agreed upon by the judge….

Maxwell has been accused of grooming minor girls for Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual predation and participating in the abuse herself. Epstein’s scheme allegedly operated through what a Palm Beach detective described as a “sexual Pyramid scheme,” built upon recruiting minor girls to give him massages for money, and prosecutors claim Maxwell was a top procuress of victims. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, multiple violations of the Mann Act, and other offenses. Though her latest indictment lists four minor victims, she has noted that one of them attained the age of consent during the time of the alleged conspiracy.https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/ghislaine-maxwell/judge-lets-ghislaine-maxwell-call-false-memory-expert-who-testified-as-defense-psychologist-for-robert-durst-o-j-simpson-harvey-weinstein/