There were a few moments now and then when we started to wonder whether we were hallucinating Jeffrey Epstein. After all, if the New York Times wasn’t reporting on the story it couldn’t really be happening, could it? This is the paper that printed dozens upon dozens of articles on the Augusta National Golf Club’s exclusion of women—complete with howler headlines breaking non-news such as “CBS Refuses Not To Show Masters”—and if they’ve got room for that sort of thing, surely at some point over the summer they might have found room to print one story about the prostitution charges against the mysterious money manager. The only explanation could be that it wasn’t really happening.
So you can imagine our relief Sunday morning when we woke up to discover that we had been right all along. The Jeffrey Epstein story is happening. It is news worthy. It is fit to print. And we know all this because it is, finally, in the New York Times.
Questions of Preferential Treatment Are Raised in Sex Case Against Money Manager [New York Times]

The ickieness of Jeff Epstein crept quietly into New Mexican politics but it’s now being loudly kicked out. New Mexico’s Democratic Land Commissioner candidate Jim Baca announced earlier today in DealBreaker’s comment section that he will donate to charity the money his campaign got from Epstein. Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano—who got $2000 from Epstein—has decided to make $1000 donations to two local charities, despite the fact that his primary campaign left him in debt. Both men have reportedly denied ever having met Epstein.

Baca to return billionaire’s cash [The New Mexican]
Sheriff Greg Solano’s DealBreaker Comment [DealBreaker]

Jim Baca’s DealBreaker Comment [DealBreaker]

The short answer: because being sheriff makes him poor.

Steve Terrell, political reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican called me tonight to get my comments on the indictment. He asked me whether I would be returning the money he donated to my campaign. I received the $2000 donation in August of 2005 and used it for the June 2006 Primary Campaign. I completed the June Primary having spent all donations and actually ending the campaign over $2000 in debt. That debt means that the remaining money was paid out of my pocket. So the short answer is there is nothing left to return. It is now nearly a year since I recieved the donation and the campaign for Sheriff is over and done. As I have no Republican opponent I will not have to wage a General Election Campaign. I did not plan on any further fundraising although some who read in my campaign reports that I had ended with a debt offered to raise some additional money to clear the debt. If I did have the money I probably would return it or give it to a charity as the $2000, returned to Mr. Epstein who is a billionaire would probably not mean much to him.

Billionaire Donor In Palm Beach Sex Scandal [Sheriff Greg Salono Blog]

Jeffrey Epstein has some powerful friends but it seems he’s made some pretty vocal enemies as well. Last night Bill O’Reilly apparently delivered his “Memo” on the subject of the Epstein prosecution—charging prosecutor Krischer with political bias. The gist of it is that Krischer was the prosecutor responsible for bringing charges of drug abuse against Rush Limbaugh, but now seems to be going easy on Epstein. You get the picture—tough on Republicans, easy on Democrats. Here’s O’Reilly on the Epstein situation.

Politics does play a role in local prosecutions, no question about it. And when you examine how much time and effort state attorney Krischer put into trying to ruin Rush Limbaugh as opposed to what he’s doing now in the far more serious case of Jeffrey Epstein? Many, many questions come to mind and none of those questions reflect well on Barry Krischer.

Ugh. We hope this isn’t what is going on. There’s nothing more boring than a debate about political biases.
Another Outrageous Legal Situation in Florida [FoxNews.Com]

It’s tough to tell from our safe remove in lower Manhattan exactly what’s been going on down in Palm Beach between the prosecutors and the police. The Florida prosecutors didn’t charge Jeffrey Epstein directly—perhaps because Epstein’s legal dream team intimidated them convinced them that the girls police had interviewed were not credible witnesses—and the grand jury chose only to indict Epstein for solicitation. While that charge is still a felony, it is far less serious than the sex with minors charges police had sought. What’s more, the grand jury neglected to charge Epstein’s assistant Sarah Kellen, who is alleged to have had an instrumental role in setting up the sessions with underage girls, with anything at all. Frustrated with the local prosecutors, the police have now turned the case over to the FBI in an attempt to have federal prosecutors bring more serious charges.
So, of course, Epstein’s lawyers have gone beyond smearing the girls who allegedly spent time nearly naked rubbing lotion into the money manager while he rubbed one out into a towel. They are also attacking Palm Beach Police Chief Epstein, Michael Reiter, 53. They’ve referred to the chief’s pursuit of Epstein as “craziness,” and characterized his dispute with prosecutors as “childish.” Someone has also been spreading rumors that Reiter is involved in a “messy divorce”—which is disgusting non-sequitur that seems clearly intended to intimidate Reiter into back off the case.
As we said, it’s tough to tell exactly what is going on from this remove. But the Palm Beach Post, which is one of the few mainstream newspapers covering this story in any detail, recently printed a story that seems to refute the smears against Reiter. It paints as a well-respected professional. Oddly enough, however, the prosecutor Reiter has sought to have removed from the case, State Attorney Barry Krischer, also seems to be well respected. As we said, it’s hard to tell what is going on down in the world of Palm Beach.
But what’s not hard to see is that the Epstein defense has developed a pattern—painting everyone accusing Epstein of crimes as disrespectable.

Police chief’s reputation helps discredit attacks [Palm Beach Post]

Stick another pin into your map tracking the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. The governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is donating the campaign contributions he got from Epstein to local charities, a New Mexico newspaper is reporting.
Epstein is said to own one of the largest private home in New Mexico, a 26,700-square-foot hilltop fortress mansion on his Zorro ranch.
Epstein’s been pretty active in New Mexican politics. He reportedly donated $50,000 for Richardson’s 2002 campaign and another $50,000 to Richardson’s re-election campaign this year, $15,000 to attorney general candidate Gary King, $10,000 to state land commissioner candidate Jim Baca and $2,000 to Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano. King says he’ll dump the Epstein tainted money, Baca said he is discussing it with his campaign manager and Sheriff Solano says he has already spent the money and doesn’t have any to return.
A note to King and Baca—you might think twice about actually giving the money back to Epstein. As we noted before, who knows what he’s going to use it for. Better to follow Richardson’s example—and we’re not saying he picked up the idea from DealBreaker but we secretly suspect he did—and give the money to charity.
Governor to dump cash from billionaire [The New Mexican]