Interesting and possibly relevant. Or possibly not.
If he was reticent about Tesla, he was more at ease discussing his interest in young women. He said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable. He pointed out that homosexuality had long been considered a crime and was still punishable by death in some parts of the world.
Mr. Epstein then meandered into a discussion of other prominent names in technology circles. He said people in Silicon Valley had a reputation for being geeky workaholics, but that was far from the truth: They were hedonistic and regular users of recreational drugs. He said he’d witnessed prominent tech figures taking drugs and arranging for sex (Mr. Epstein stressed that he never drank or used drugs of any kind).
That’s from a New York Times piece by a reporter who had spoken to Epstein last year.
Silicon Valley orgies are an open secret. That said, if those orgies were of the Epstein kind, they might have brought down or locked up some of the country’s wealthiest men and most powerful companies. What might some of those men have done to silence Epstein if they thought he might be a threat?
Who knows.
But Epstein was always one part con artist. And like a lot of successful networkers, he strived to create the impression that he knew more than he did and had more connections than he did. At least that’s what the Times piece implies.
Still the Tesla link is intriguing because of a piece I had recently done.
And on a fine spring evening, a “sex party” was held at the home of Democrat dot com donor, Steve Jurvetson.
“Sex party” would become a term of contention. The official title was either an “Afterthought” party or a costume “party on the edge of the earth” at Casa Jurvey by the Sea. Steve Jurvetson was there in a “feather vest and hat” and Google co-founder Sergey Brin was “bare-chested in a vest”.
A year earlier, Barack Obama and his notoriously scandal-free administration had named Jurvetson a “Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship”.
But in the spring of ‘17, a different kind of diplomacy was taking place in Half Moon Bay.
“Photos reveal a group of men and women lying close together, kissing and massaging one another,” on the pillows and white faux fur blanketing the room, Emily Chang wrote in Brotopia. A venture capitalist in a bunny suit offered the anonymous female correspondent a bag full of powder. She tasted some of the Molly and began making out with the dot com VC in the bunny suit while his wife watched.
Chang’s reporting bookended the end of Steve Jurvetson’s time in his firm. Rumors percolated about extramarital affairs and sexual harassment. Karla, Steve’s wife, filed for divorce. And started writing big checks to Democrats.
Steve Jurvetson is on the board of Tesla and a close Elon Musk ally.
Back to the Times piece.
I kept trying to steer the conversation back to Tesla, but Mr. Epstein remained evasive. He said he’d spoken to the Saudis about possibly investing in Tesla, but he wouldn’t provide any specifics or names. When I pressed him on the purported email from Mr. Musk, he said the email wasn’t from Mr. Musk himself, but from someone very close to him. He wouldn’t say who that person was. I asked him if that person would talk to me, and he said he’d ask. He later said the person declined; I doubt he asked.
As usual with Epstein, there are more questions than answers.
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