Prime Democrat Requires Congressional Probe Into Ties Between Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to plague the Trump administration, and on Wednesday, a outstanding Democratic senator referred to as for Congress to analyze the monetary ties between the lifeless intercourse felony and a bunch of monetary organizations and other people, together with tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

A lot of the talk in regards to the “Epstein information” has centered round what information the Justice Division could have on his illicit intercourse crimes however, in accordance with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the extra vital information may very well be on the Commerce Division, the place proof of the lifeless financier’s monetary actions appear to attach him to all kinds of rich and influential individuals and establishments.

A kind of individuals, in accordance with Wyden, is Thiel, whose enterprise capital agency is reported to have beforehand taken a big amount of cash from the lifeless financier. In June, the New York Instances reported that in 2015 and 2016, not lengthy earlier than his loss of life, Epstein invested some $40 million with an organization that Thiel had co-founded, Valar Ventures. Like lots of Thiel’s different corporations, Valar takes its title from J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythos.

The information that Thiel’s firm loved a not insignificant relationship with Epstein was attention-grabbing, on condition that, in public, Thiel has tended to discuss Epstein in pretty summary phrases. Whereas Thiel has admitted that he met Epstein a couple of instances, he has at all times given the impression that he didn’t know him very properly. Final 12 months, Thiel went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and spent a major period of time speaking about Epstein, albeit largely to emphasise the lifeless financier’s ties to quite a few outstanding, left-leaning tech executives—corresponding to Microsoft mogul Invoice Gates and LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman. He additionally tried to tie Epstein’s crimes to the world of “leftwing philanthropy.”

On Wednesday, Wyden introduced legislation that will pressure the federal government to supply paperwork associated to Epstein’s monetary actions. Wyden’s workplace introduced:

Following new revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s deep and long-running relationship with J.P Morgan, Senate Finance Committee Rating Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., right this moment launched the Produce Epstein Treasury Information Act (PETRA) to compel Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to show over Epstein-related Treasury information to Senate investigators. Finance Committee employees reviewed a big portion of these information in particular person on the Treasury Division in 2024. Senator Wyden has sought to acquire the whole set for additional investigation, however Bessent has repeatedly refused to supply them to the committee and downplayed their significance.

Thiel and Valar Ventures are solely two of dozens of individuals and entities that Wyden has instructed be investigated over their monetary ties to Epstein. The record contains a number of banks (together with outstanding Western ones like HSBC, Citibank, and Wells Fargo, and Russian banks like Alfabank and Sberbank), personal fairness billionaire Leon Black (who, Wyden has repeatedly identified, gave $170 million to Epstein for “tax recommendation,” which the Senator calls “an irregular quantity to pay for tax recommendation”), and Jean-Luc Brunel, a vogue trade mannequin scout who in 2022 was, like Epstein, discovered lifeless in a jail cell, apparently having hanged himself.

On the time of his loss of life, Brunel was being held on suspicion of getting supplied Epstein with underage ladies. Additionally included on the record is Alan Dershowitz, the high-powered legal professional, who previously represented Epstein, and whose title seems within the infamous Epstein “birthday guide.”

Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has spent the final a number of years making an attempt to get the federal government to probe Epstein’s money trails. He started his probe into Epstein’s monetary paperwork in 2022. In June, Wyden wrote to Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, asking why it had not adopted by means of on Trump’s marketing campaign promise to be radically clear when it got here to the Epstein information: “This Administration started with reassuring guarantees that the Epstein case would obtain the eye and diligence it deserves … Quick ahead to the current, the place the launched part of the Epstein information incorporates little related or groundbreaking data, with some pages completely redacted,” the Senator wrote.

In July, Wyden laid out what he referred to as a “blueprint” to “follow the money.” This blueprint could possibly be utilized by the Justice Division to analyze Epstein’s monetary relationships, he argued. DOJ prosecutors and FBI investigators might begin by probing the Commerce Division’s data on “hundreds of wire transfers and greater than $1 billion {dollars} flowing out and in of Epstein’s accounts, all of which advantage additional investigation.”

The Justice Division has, after all, finished none of this. As an alternative, it recently declared war on “radical gender and racial ideology” in America’s public colleges. Gizmodo reached out to Thiel by means of his agency Palantir, in addition to to the Commerce Division and the Justice Division.