November 25, 2025 • 25 mins
The out‐of‐court settlement by Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts Giuffre dealt the British Royal Family a profound reputational blow by cementing the appearance of guilt and evasion rather than innocence. By choosing to settle rather than fight the allegations in open court, Andrew shifted the narrative from “royal under duress” to “royal who pays to make problems go away.” That kind of optics corrodes public trust in an institution built on duty, integrity and impartial service. It also raised thorny questions about transparency—how much public or private money was used, and whether the monarchy was shielding its own, undermining the notion of equal scrutiny under the law.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Plans this morning on the show. We're going to continue
talking about Prince Andrew, folks, and we're going to continue
talking about the settlement. Now, there are people out there
that are very disappointed that this didn't go to trial,
and I get it. Like I said earlier, I understand
the sentiment. But until you're walking in somebody's shoes, until
(00:23):
you have suffered the trauma that these girls have suffered,
until you have dealt with this nonsense for as long
as they have dealt with it, you really don't understand
what it's like. And when I say you, I mean us,
all of us. None of us know. So when you
have the ability and the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking
(00:46):
somebody else's decision, well, of course it's a little bit easier,
right until you're the one that is in that position,
And when you have, you know, been through what Virginia
has been through all of these years. It's pretty amazing
to see her have the ability to even make this
man capitulate, considering for so long he didn't even admit
(01:09):
that he knew who she was. Now all of a sudden,
he's willing to come to the table, He's willing to
negotiate and all of it. So while it's not what
everybody wanted, right, everybody wanted this dude dragged. Everybody wanted
to see him get exposed by David Boyce or Sabrette
macauley or whoever was doing the interrogation. But that doesn't
(01:29):
look like it's going to be the case, folks. So,
like everything else in life, you have to accept your
reality for what it is, and when all the dust settles,
I think this is going to end up being a
watershed moment for survivors and people suffering abuse going forward.
If somebody like Virginia Roberts, who comes from, you know,
(01:51):
a background of not having much right, her parents weren't
hugely successful or anything like that, if she can stand
up to somebody like the Print of England, what does
that tell other survivors moving forward who might have been
hesitant to come forward, might have been hesitant that nobody's
going to believe them. Well, you can look at this
case and see, at the very least Virginia gets the
(02:14):
validation of this scumbag paying out all of this money.
And of course you can't sit here and we can't
sit here and say, oh, well he's definitely guilty of
all because we didn't see it in a court of law, right,
But all the indicators point to him not wanting to
have to deal with it because he knew that there
was no evidence to present in a court of law.
(02:36):
So Virginia, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks,
if you will, stands up to all of these scumbag predators,
all of these dirt bags that were hanging out with
Jeffrey Epstein, and look at them all falling one by one.
Now they might not be going to prison, but you
gotta take baby steps first before you start running in marathons.
(02:57):
And I said a long time ago that this wasn't
going to be a sprint, folks. This is a marathon.
When you're dealing with people who have so much power,
who have generational wealth, it's very difficult to knock them
from their perch. It's not an easy task. So what
Virginia accomplished here, and what the other survivors accomplished here
is just a monumental blow to scumbags like this. The
(03:22):
men of always have always gotten away with this shit,
and now we're starting to see at the very least,
at the very least they're suffering some sort of punishment.
Now it might not be behind bars yet, but at
the very least folks financially and reputationally, they are ruined,
and you got to start somewhere. So while I do
(03:46):
understand the frustration, and as you all know, I wanted
this to go to trial too. I wanted this to
expose Prince Andrew. But I'm also aware of the fact
that we're not dealing with a movie. We're dealing with
somebody's real life, and what Virginia has went through so far,
I don't blame her, honestly, especially if the number is
what they're saying it is. So today we have an
(04:09):
article from NBC News, and this article is authored by
Andrea Powell, the founder and executive of the executive director
for Karana Rising. So she's a human trafficking expert, somebody
who works with human trafficking victims, and somebody who deals
(04:29):
with this sort of thing all the time. Headline Prince
Andrew's settlement with Virginia Roberts sends a much needed message.
Although he doesn't admit any guilt, the agreement is still
a form of justice and shows many sex abuse survivors
that it is possible to hold people accountable, and I
agree with that message. Right, we have to make sure
(04:52):
that take these victories, even if they're small, and build
on them. That's how you get to have a bunch
of victories, right, a gigantic w You stack the little
ones until you get to the point where it's a big,
gigantic one. And that's what's been going on in this case,
at least since twenty nineteen, since I started covering it.
A bunch of little victories have led us to this point.
(05:13):
And for those out there who think that, you know,
oh well, I'll never get any justice or all I
can say is hopefully the worm is turning. And where
you had nobody there to listen to you before, there's
plenty of people at least willing to listen now. Survivors
of abuse have long had to stand the tallest in
(05:36):
the face of their own injustice. Virginia Roberts settlement with
Prince Andrew is a powerful demonstration that justice is possible, right,
And look again, it's not the justice. You know a
lot of people want, people want prison and all of that,
and I agree, and I understand, but again, dealing with
these powerful people, you have to do it in small increments, right,
(05:59):
how do you eat the yell of one bite at
a time. Some have questioned why she would settle and
aggressively argue that she should have gone through at the trial.
But a settlement is not a compromise of justice. Well,
it's what you're looking for at the end of the
trial anyway, Right, You're looking to settle for a monetary
(06:21):
amount and you're looking for validation of your claims. I
think she got both of those. And of course there's
going to be people that argue differently. There's going to
be people who say, oh, well it doesn't go far enough.
And again, look, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong.
Everybody's entitled to their opinion. I just try and look
at the whole picture, though, and not just what I
(06:42):
want to happen. Right, you got to understand there are
other people involved, the actual people in the story, and
that those people they are real people with real feelings
in real lives. And somebody like Virginia has been through
it for how long? This lady has kids to raise
and shit, a family, a life to live, and if
she can get the validation of not only Epstein's estate
(07:03):
paying her out effectively saying that her accusations against Epstein
were correct. Now getting paid out here as well, and
having the Prince acquiesced to all kinds of requests, of
not ever repeating that he didn't rape her, all sorts
of other things. These are victories. Think about it for
a minute, think about where we started and where everything
(07:24):
is now. Although the carefully worded settlement in which Andrew,
who has denied the allegations, admits only an unfortunate association
with Jeffrey Epstein and pledged to support the survivors of
sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret, does not
admit any guilt, it is a strong statement that sends
(07:47):
a message to survivors that it is possible to hold
people accountable. It certainly is, and it's not an easy
task right as we've seen over the years, but it's
not impossible. And I think that the tide is turning
in society in general. People are tired of this sort
of thing. People are tired of guys like Andrew being
(08:09):
able to manipulate the system, being able to do whatever
they want with no repercussions. Basically, I mean, just take
a look at the politicians in the United States of America.
Look at the way these people conduct themselves. You've got
this clown, Matt Gates, with all of these allegations hanging
over them of human trafficking. And these are the best
(08:31):
people that we can find to represent us. Huh. Robert's
years of fighting for herself now pave away other than
a trial for more survivors to fight and win against
everyone who benefited from their exploitation and abuse. And let's remember, folks,
let's keep it in perspective. Most of the human trafficking
(08:51):
situations are not big organizations like the Epstein Criminal Enterprise.
A lot of times it's a lot smaller than that.
These pimps that you see, You see people that are
forced into jobs, work all kinds of different faces of
human trafficking, and most of the time, the vast majority
of the time, it's not on a scale like this,
(09:14):
But it's happening in every one of our communities. Everywhere
you lookyhere, any place that you live, this sort of
thing is occurring. Interactions with their exploiter or abuser leave
many survivors re traumatized, and the experience of having their
victimization examined and judged can amplify that trauma and fear,
(09:37):
especially when they feel like nobody is listening, especially when
they feel like nobody is going to do anything about it,
and that if they bring it up and they rock
the boat, things are gonna get worse for them. And
a lot of that has to do with the conditioning
that the abuser puts them through, because it doesn't happen overnight. Right,
We've seen how this happens, the grooming, the normalization, and
(10:01):
then before you know it, you're doing things that you
would never expect or think that you'd be doing, and
you think that it's all normal. For many survivors, trials
mean reliving a time in their lives when they were
severely abused. Thus, some never come forward or only do
so years after their abuse. Roberts was willing to stand
(10:22):
up to three of the people she accused of exploiting
her and expose herself to public scrutiny over and over
again four years. Exactly right, And that's what I bring
up all the time. I mean, you know, it's one
thing for us to sit around and the you know
the comfort of our homes or our office or whatever
it is, and have big opinions about what Virginia or
any of these other survivors would do. It's a whole
(10:45):
nother thing to live it right, to walk in their shoes,
look at your children every day, know that they're going
to get, you know, brought up in the media. It
has to be a tough decision, and it's not easy
to stand up to people like this. We know the
kind of power these people. We know that these people
are hanging out with ex presidents and ex prime ministers
(11:06):
and magnates of business in the financial sector, and we
know that they willed great influence. So when you're challenging
people like this, it's not like you're, you know, having
a Twitter fight with some random person from you know,
I don't know Missouri, right. You're dealing with very powerful
people that have a lot of ways to make your
(11:27):
life difficult. At seventeen, she was taken by Epstein to London,
where she alleges she was sexually abused multiple times by Andrew.
According to Roberts, Andrew was among many who sexually abused
her during that time. She is also one of the
dozens of young women and girls lured by Epstein and
(11:48):
Glenne Maxwell who has been convicted of being his accomplice
into the world of sex trafficking. And one thing I'll
take a bit of umbrage with is when they say
dozens of young women and girl allegedly lured by Epstein.
I don't think there's any allegedly anymore, right, I think
it's pretty much clear what Epstein was up to. It's
pretty clear that Epstein did do all of this, and
(12:10):
it's pretty clear that all of these girls were abused
by Jeffrey Epstein. If that wasn't the case, then why
would the estate pay out the money, especially considering we
all know Endyke and Khan are certainly not friends of
the survivors. So if there was any way that they
could have wiggled off that hook and made it look
like Epstein was not responsible, they certainly would have. But
(12:32):
they didn't. So I don't think there's any allegedly in
there anymore. In twenty fifteen, Roberts filed a defamation lawsuit
against Maxwell. In it, she alleged that while she was
a minor, she was forced to have sexual relations with
Andrew in three separate geographical locations. That suit was settled
(12:52):
in twenty and seventeen and now we know in that
that's the suit where the perjury just come from. Right,
that deposition is where the perjury charges that Maxwell's facing
on the back end of all of this, that's where
they originated, because we know she wasn't telling the truth
(13:13):
there either. In twenty twenty one, Roberts filed her lawsuit
against Andrew. He had attempted to throw her case out
and push for an early dismissal. In a statement that
was released on the same day of the settlement news,
he stated that he regrets his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Oh I bet you do, Peal, I bet you do.
But really, like I said yesterday, he doesn't regret the
(13:35):
relationship itself, like every other scumbag. He is just regretting
the fact that he got caught. And how many times
do you see that people who commit these dastardly crimes,
all of a sudden they go to prison. Now they're
a man of God. Oh I found Jesus Christ. Yeah, well,
too little, too late, my friend, of course he does.
(13:57):
This is a high profile case that rightfully brought horrific
allegations about people to light, and he was one of them,
absolutely right, he was one of them, and there's a
lot more. I see a lot of people make posts
like we're the rest of the people that were involved here, Well,
why aren't you pressing the legacy media to expose these people?
Start with Bill Clinton probably a good place to start,
(14:19):
considering how many articles have we seen about his associations
with Epstein and the only response we have seen from
his team is his spokesperson to refer to a post
from like twenty to nineteen. That is an absolute lie,
now that we know for a fact. Oh, he's only
been on the plane four times. Oh yeah, okay, sure, sure,
(14:40):
and I play quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. I mean,
come on, man, and nobody challenges it, right, You got
Hillary Clinton up there yippity appen like she's some kind
of great pillar of the community. It's all absurd. It
is all absurd, and the people that play into it.
I just don't understand the people who propagate their nonsense.
I will just never understand it. Why are you carrying
(15:02):
water for people that despise you? Imagine working on that
Breton all of the frenzy. We should remember that sex trafficking,
like all forms of human trafficking, also exists outside of
high profile circles, and it exists because there is a demand,
regardless of their social status, all perpetrators must be held
accountable if we are to truly see justice for survivors
(15:24):
like Roberts. It's one hundred percent correct, and a lot
of times this is the way we think of human trafficking,
right because this is what the media reports. They don't
want to get down into the weeds and talk about
the real issues that people are facing, and it might
not just be miners. I can drive four miles to
a street called Boulder Highway here in Las Vegas, and
(15:47):
I guarantee you a good portion of those women working
down there on the blade are being trafficked. But there's
no resources to deal with it. There's no a street
team to go out and help these women. Instead, what
they do is they have these dealings with police officers
and they're not going to say shit to the cops
because they don't want to go to prison, right, They
(16:08):
don't want to be called a snitch or anything. So
it's just this revolving door of misery and there's never
no real answers from anybody. There's more scorn people you know,
talk shit. Oh who cares prostitute hookers. Well, these are
real people, folks, Like I always say, someone's aunt, someone's wife,
someone's daughter. Little empathy is probably a good idea, no,
(16:30):
And I think it's telling about people in general. How
you feel about the most vulnerable in society says a
lot about you. Because it's easy to sit around with
your nice, warm cup of coffee in your cozy house,
live in the dream while other people are out there struggling.
It's real easy to judge them, isn't it, until, of course,
you get to a point where you're in a position
(16:50):
where shit goes south. The money, fame, and media attention
associated with the Epstein case can distract from the reality
that human trafficking is based on exploiting another person because
of the sort of the victim's vulnerability. And it goes
for all sorts of human trafficking. Right if you're being
(17:11):
trafficked for work purposes or whatever it might be, it's
the same story. You're vulnerable, you're looking to have a
better life somehow, and you get caught up with pieces
of shit who think that you're not a human being
and that your property to be sold. And it's not
always high profile like this. In fact, it very rarely is,
(17:31):
like I said in the opening, So we have to
be very aware of what's going on in our society.
Many of Epstein's survivors and so many other survivors who
work to advance survivor justice at the nonprofit I lead,
Karna Rising, faced vulnerabilities such as homelessness, prior sexual abuse,
(17:52):
and domestic violence that were used against them. And that
happens too. We've seen how Dershowitz and left Kuwitz ken
Starr they used MySpace profiles against the first accusers of
Jeffrey Epstein in Palm Beach to demean their claims, to
make their claims look less credible because they're on MySpace
(18:14):
talking about how they like boys, or maybe they had
a couple beers smoke a joint, so now they shouldn't
be believed. And it's absurd how many of you out there,
when you were a teenager to smoke the joint, drank
a beer breaking news. I know I did more than
one beer and certainly more than one joint. So does
that make you a bad person because when you were
(18:35):
a kid, you partied. It's so ridiculous that these people
would continue to do this sort of thing. Roberts has
been open about her experiences. She said that after she
was sexually abused by a family member at age seven,
she ran away from home and was on the streets.
At age fourteen, her first trafficker, Ronald Eppinger, was raided
(18:56):
by the FBI, and Roberts was sent to live with
her father, who worked as a maintenance manager at the
Mar A Lago property owned by Donald Trump. And again, look,
it's not easy when you come from a background of
having nothing. It's very difficult life, and a lot of
people can't relate. Just like you know, if you were
born super wealthy and you've never really had these kind
(19:19):
of issues, you know, people can't relate to that. So
it's all about perspective and it's all about environment. But
it's certainly a hard road for somebody like Virginia who
has dealt with a being vulnerable, be the other issues
she was dealing with here. And then on top of that,
you have somebody like Maxwell and Epstein that show up
(19:41):
in your life and promise you all of these grandiose things,
and well we all know how that ended up. Roberts
yourself began to work there and soon was approached by Maxwell,
who offered her a job as a traveling messuse for Epstein.
Soon she was trapped in his set trafficking ring and
was sexually abused by him and a number of his
(20:03):
male associates from two thousand to two thousand and two.
And at some point I really would like all of
those people to be aired out. Virginia's talked about them
a lot. The legacy media really hasn't picked up on that,
But I think it's probably a decent idea for the
legacy media to look into each in one of these
allegations with a fine tooth comb the same way that
(20:24):
they would go after their you know, political enemies or
whoever the du jour of the day boogeyman is. They
should be doing the same thing to Epstein's associates, but
we haven't seen that. At the core, the exploitation that
Roberts and so many more survivors experience is the same.
They were lured with false promises of love or a
(20:46):
better life, abused, and then sold and exploited for profit.
That is a fact, that is exactly what happened here.
When you're selling human beings or trading human beings, like
their baseball cards or a commodity. You're a piece of
shit and there is no prison that is dank enough
for you to sit in. In my opinion, her efforts
(21:07):
to obtain justice reach further than just herself. It also
goes further than that of the dozens, let's say, hundreds
of victims of Epstein's sex trafficking network. There are thousands
of survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation who also
deserve justice. That is a fact as well. They definitely do.
(21:29):
Anybody who has been assaulted or abused by these kinds
of people have been caught up in a human trafficking
ring definitely deserve justice and there needs to be more
resources to go after people who propagate this shit Injustice
for survivors often goes deeper than the abuse of trafficking.
After exiting their trafficking situation, many survivors experience disbelief that
(21:53):
leads to a lifetime of shame and even future abuse.
How many times do people not believe them? How many
times do people show up like the lady Victoya Hovey
and like to punch down all the time? Right, and
when you're one of these women who have come forward
and you know, you leave your trafficking situation and you're
(22:14):
trying to expose it. You got to deal with a
lot of this, a lot of times disbelief, people not
believing what occurred. Many are fearful of courts because they
have been wronged by the very system that is meant
to protect them, including being arrested for things that directly
result from their own trafficking. Like I said in the beginning,
here in Las Vegas, it's a big problem. Las Vegas
(22:36):
is one of the hottest spots in the country for
human trafficking. We have a transient state, we have a
state where people are coming and going all the time,
and it's a hotbed for human trafficking and there's no
resources to deal with it. This is coupled with a
fear of facing exploiters, whose abuse often includes threats of
(22:58):
future harm to them or people love if they come forward.
They use the threat of violence to manipulate and to
have people do what they want them to do. Hey,
if you don't do this what I'm telling you to do,
I'll kill your mom. And for these survivors, well, they've
seen these people be violent with other girls, with other people,
(23:21):
so they know that it's not an idle threat, so
they're they're forced into doing this kind of thing. The
settlement between Roberts and Andrew is more than just about
the money, regardless of the motive. His acknowledgment that she
has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and
as a result of unfair public attacks is powerful for
(23:42):
all survivors whose stories have never been believed or heard.
It does give people a little bit of faith that maybe,
just maybe my story will be believed, and if it
helps one person come forward, even then I think it's
a victory. When people criticize survivors for settling out of court,
(24:03):
it ignores the fact that many survivors never receive this
kind of justice and the people who sexually abuse them
continue on with their lives. Yet those tides are turning.
Efforts to change society's perceptions of what justice should look
like for survivors and to hold everyone who exploited them
accountable are commendable, brave, and necessary. If we are going
(24:25):
to ensure every survivor has access to justice, Robert's settlement
is not just her win, but also a win for
all survivors. Now again, I know a lot of people
out there have a different opinion, but I think we
have to keep everything in perspective right and not look
at things through just our lens, but try and walk
in somebody else's shoes, just for a minute, even to
(24:48):
see what their perspective might be. And when you look
at all of the circumstances and how long this has
went on, I don't know how you can chalk this
up to anything but w for Virginia. All Right, folks,
that's gonna wrap it up for this morning's episode. Tonight,
I'll be back with the evening update, and until then
(25:09):
there will be some context episodes on their way. If
you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com. That's b O B
B Y c A p U c c I at
ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on Twitter
at b O B B Y underscore c A p
U C c I. The link that we discussed can
(25:32):
be found in the description box. All Right, folks, I
will whatever it is
Plans this morning on the show. We're going to continue
talking about Prince Andrew, folks, and we're going to continue
talking about the settlement. Now, there are people out there
that are very disappointed that this didn't go to trial,
and I get it. Like I said earlier, I understand
the sentiment. But until you're walking in somebody's shoes, until
(00:23):
you have suffered the trauma that these girls have suffered,
until you have dealt with this nonsense for as long
as they have dealt with it, you really don't understand
what it's like. And when I say you, I mean us,
all of us. None of us know. So when you
have the ability and the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking
(00:46):
somebody else's decision, well, of course it's a little bit easier,
right until you're the one that is in that position,
And when you have, you know, been through what Virginia
has been through all of these years. It's pretty amazing
to see her have the ability to even make this
man capitulate, considering for so long he didn't even admit
(01:09):
that he knew who she was. Now all of a sudden,
he's willing to come to the table, He's willing to
negotiate and all of it. So while it's not what
everybody wanted, right, everybody wanted this dude dragged. Everybody wanted
to see him get exposed by David Boyce or Sabrette
macauley or whoever was doing the interrogation. But that doesn't
(01:29):
look like it's going to be the case, folks. So,
like everything else in life, you have to accept your
reality for what it is, and when all the dust settles,
I think this is going to end up being a
watershed moment for survivors and people suffering abuse going forward.
If somebody like Virginia Roberts, who comes from, you know,
(01:51):
a background of not having much right, her parents weren't
hugely successful or anything like that, if she can stand
up to somebody like the Print of England, what does
that tell other survivors moving forward who might have been
hesitant to come forward, might have been hesitant that nobody's
going to believe them. Well, you can look at this
case and see, at the very least Virginia gets the
(02:14):
validation of this scumbag paying out all of this money.
And of course you can't sit here and we can't
sit here and say, oh, well he's definitely guilty of
all because we didn't see it in a court of law, right,
But all the indicators point to him not wanting to
have to deal with it because he knew that there
was no evidence to present in a court of law.
(02:36):
So Virginia, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks,
if you will, stands up to all of these scumbag predators,
all of these dirt bags that were hanging out with
Jeffrey Epstein, and look at them all falling one by one.
Now they might not be going to prison, but you
gotta take baby steps first before you start running in marathons.
(02:57):
And I said a long time ago that this wasn't
going to be a sprint, folks. This is a marathon.
When you're dealing with people who have so much power,
who have generational wealth, it's very difficult to knock them
from their perch. It's not an easy task. So what
Virginia accomplished here, and what the other survivors accomplished here
is just a monumental blow to scumbags like this. The
(03:22):
men of always have always gotten away with this shit,
and now we're starting to see at the very least,
at the very least they're suffering some sort of punishment.
Now it might not be behind bars yet, but at
the very least folks financially and reputationally, they are ruined,
and you got to start somewhere. So while I do
(03:46):
understand the frustration, and as you all know, I wanted
this to go to trial too. I wanted this to
expose Prince Andrew. But I'm also aware of the fact
that we're not dealing with a movie. We're dealing with
somebody's real life, and what Virginia has went through so far,
I don't blame her, honestly, especially if the number is
what they're saying it is. So today we have an
(04:09):
article from NBC News, and this article is authored by
Andrea Powell, the founder and executive of the executive director
for Karana Rising. So she's a human trafficking expert, somebody
who works with human trafficking victims, and somebody who deals
(04:29):
with this sort of thing all the time. Headline Prince
Andrew's settlement with Virginia Roberts sends a much needed message.
Although he doesn't admit any guilt, the agreement is still
a form of justice and shows many sex abuse survivors
that it is possible to hold people accountable, and I
agree with that message. Right, we have to make sure
(04:52):
that take these victories, even if they're small, and build
on them. That's how you get to have a bunch
of victories, right, a gigantic w You stack the little
ones until you get to the point where it's a big,
gigantic one. And that's what's been going on in this case,
at least since twenty nineteen, since I started covering it.
A bunch of little victories have led us to this point.
(05:13):
And for those out there who think that, you know,
oh well, I'll never get any justice or all I
can say is hopefully the worm is turning. And where
you had nobody there to listen to you before, there's
plenty of people at least willing to listen now. Survivors
of abuse have long had to stand the tallest in
(05:36):
the face of their own injustice. Virginia Roberts settlement with
Prince Andrew is a powerful demonstration that justice is possible, right,
And look again, it's not the justice. You know a
lot of people want, people want prison and all of that,
and I agree, and I understand, but again, dealing with
these powerful people, you have to do it in small increments, right,
(05:59):
how do you eat the yell of one bite at
a time. Some have questioned why she would settle and
aggressively argue that she should have gone through at the trial.
But a settlement is not a compromise of justice. Well,
it's what you're looking for at the end of the
trial anyway, Right, You're looking to settle for a monetary
(06:21):
amount and you're looking for validation of your claims. I
think she got both of those. And of course there's
going to be people that argue differently. There's going to
be people who say, oh, well it doesn't go far enough.
And again, look, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong.
Everybody's entitled to their opinion. I just try and look
at the whole picture, though, and not just what I
(06:42):
want to happen. Right, you got to understand there are
other people involved, the actual people in the story, and
that those people they are real people with real feelings
in real lives. And somebody like Virginia has been through
it for how long? This lady has kids to raise
and shit, a family, a life to live, and if
she can get the validation of not only Epstein's estate
(07:03):
paying her out effectively saying that her accusations against Epstein
were correct. Now getting paid out here as well, and
having the Prince acquiesced to all kinds of requests, of
not ever repeating that he didn't rape her, all sorts
of other things. These are victories. Think about it for
a minute, think about where we started and where everything
(07:24):
is now. Although the carefully worded settlement in which Andrew,
who has denied the allegations, admits only an unfortunate association
with Jeffrey Epstein and pledged to support the survivors of
sex trafficking as part of demonstrating his regret, does not
admit any guilt, it is a strong statement that sends
(07:47):
a message to survivors that it is possible to hold
people accountable. It certainly is, and it's not an easy
task right as we've seen over the years, but it's
not impossible. And I think that the tide is turning
in society in general. People are tired of this sort
of thing. People are tired of guys like Andrew being
(08:09):
able to manipulate the system, being able to do whatever
they want with no repercussions. Basically, I mean, just take
a look at the politicians in the United States of America.
Look at the way these people conduct themselves. You've got
this clown, Matt Gates, with all of these allegations hanging
over them of human trafficking. And these are the best
(08:31):
people that we can find to represent us. Huh. Robert's
years of fighting for herself now pave away other than
a trial for more survivors to fight and win against
everyone who benefited from their exploitation and abuse. And let's remember, folks,
let's keep it in perspective. Most of the human trafficking
(08:51):
situations are not big organizations like the Epstein Criminal Enterprise.
A lot of times it's a lot smaller than that.
These pimps that you see, You see people that are
forced into jobs, work all kinds of different faces of
human trafficking, and most of the time, the vast majority
of the time, it's not on a scale like this,
(09:14):
But it's happening in every one of our communities. Everywhere
you lookyhere, any place that you live, this sort of
thing is occurring. Interactions with their exploiter or abuser leave
many survivors re traumatized, and the experience of having their
victimization examined and judged can amplify that trauma and fear,
(09:37):
especially when they feel like nobody is listening, especially when
they feel like nobody is going to do anything about it,
and that if they bring it up and they rock
the boat, things are gonna get worse for them. And
a lot of that has to do with the conditioning
that the abuser puts them through, because it doesn't happen overnight. Right,
We've seen how this happens, the grooming, the normalization, and
(10:01):
then before you know it, you're doing things that you
would never expect or think that you'd be doing, and
you think that it's all normal. For many survivors, trials
mean reliving a time in their lives when they were
severely abused. Thus, some never come forward or only do
so years after their abuse. Roberts was willing to stand
(10:22):
up to three of the people she accused of exploiting
her and expose herself to public scrutiny over and over
again four years. Exactly right, And that's what I bring
up all the time. I mean, you know, it's one
thing for us to sit around and the you know
the comfort of our homes or our office or whatever
it is, and have big opinions about what Virginia or
any of these other survivors would do. It's a whole
(10:45):
nother thing to live it right, to walk in their shoes,
look at your children every day, know that they're going
to get, you know, brought up in the media. It
has to be a tough decision, and it's not easy
to stand up to people like this. We know the
kind of power these people. We know that these people
are hanging out with ex presidents and ex prime ministers
(11:06):
and magnates of business in the financial sector, and we
know that they willed great influence. So when you're challenging
people like this, it's not like you're, you know, having
a Twitter fight with some random person from you know,
I don't know Missouri, right. You're dealing with very powerful
people that have a lot of ways to make your
(11:27):
life difficult. At seventeen, she was taken by Epstein to London,
where she alleges she was sexually abused multiple times by Andrew.
According to Roberts, Andrew was among many who sexually abused
her during that time. She is also one of the
dozens of young women and girls lured by Epstein and
(11:48):
Glenne Maxwell who has been convicted of being his accomplice
into the world of sex trafficking. And one thing I'll
take a bit of umbrage with is when they say
dozens of young women and girl allegedly lured by Epstein.
I don't think there's any allegedly anymore, right, I think
it's pretty much clear what Epstein was up to. It's
pretty clear that Epstein did do all of this, and
(12:10):
it's pretty clear that all of these girls were abused
by Jeffrey Epstein. If that wasn't the case, then why
would the estate pay out the money, especially considering we
all know Endyke and Khan are certainly not friends of
the survivors. So if there was any way that they
could have wiggled off that hook and made it look
like Epstein was not responsible, they certainly would have. But
(12:32):
they didn't. So I don't think there's any allegedly in
there anymore. In twenty fifteen, Roberts filed a defamation lawsuit
against Maxwell. In it, she alleged that while she was
a minor, she was forced to have sexual relations with
Andrew in three separate geographical locations. That suit was settled
(12:52):
in twenty and seventeen and now we know in that
that's the suit where the perjury just come from. Right,
that deposition is where the perjury charges that Maxwell's facing
on the back end of all of this, that's where
they originated, because we know she wasn't telling the truth
(13:13):
there either. In twenty twenty one, Roberts filed her lawsuit
against Andrew. He had attempted to throw her case out
and push for an early dismissal. In a statement that
was released on the same day of the settlement news,
he stated that he regrets his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Oh I bet you do, Peal, I bet you do.
But really, like I said yesterday, he doesn't regret the
(13:35):
relationship itself, like every other scumbag. He is just regretting
the fact that he got caught. And how many times
do you see that people who commit these dastardly crimes,
all of a sudden they go to prison. Now they're
a man of God. Oh I found Jesus Christ. Yeah, well,
too little, too late, my friend, of course he does.
(13:57):
This is a high profile case that rightfully brought horrific
allegations about people to light, and he was one of them,
absolutely right, he was one of them, and there's a
lot more. I see a lot of people make posts
like we're the rest of the people that were involved here, Well,
why aren't you pressing the legacy media to expose these people?
Start with Bill Clinton probably a good place to start,
(14:19):
considering how many articles have we seen about his associations
with Epstein and the only response we have seen from
his team is his spokesperson to refer to a post
from like twenty to nineteen. That is an absolute lie,
now that we know for a fact. Oh, he's only
been on the plane four times. Oh yeah, okay, sure, sure,
(14:40):
and I play quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. I mean,
come on, man, and nobody challenges it, right, You got
Hillary Clinton up there yippity appen like she's some kind
of great pillar of the community. It's all absurd. It
is all absurd, and the people that play into it.
I just don't understand the people who propagate their nonsense.
I will just never understand it. Why are you carrying
(15:02):
water for people that despise you? Imagine working on that
Breton all of the frenzy. We should remember that sex trafficking,
like all forms of human trafficking, also exists outside of
high profile circles, and it exists because there is a demand,
regardless of their social status, all perpetrators must be held
accountable if we are to truly see justice for survivors
(15:24):
like Roberts. It's one hundred percent correct, and a lot
of times this is the way we think of human trafficking,
right because this is what the media reports. They don't
want to get down into the weeds and talk about
the real issues that people are facing, and it might
not just be miners. I can drive four miles to
a street called Boulder Highway here in Las Vegas, and
(15:47):
I guarantee you a good portion of those women working
down there on the blade are being trafficked. But there's
no resources to deal with it. There's no a street
team to go out and help these women. Instead, what
they do is they have these dealings with police officers
and they're not going to say shit to the cops
because they don't want to go to prison, right, They
(16:08):
don't want to be called a snitch or anything. So
it's just this revolving door of misery and there's never
no real answers from anybody. There's more scorn people you know,
talk shit. Oh who cares prostitute hookers. Well, these are
real people, folks, Like I always say, someone's aunt, someone's wife,
someone's daughter. Little empathy is probably a good idea, no,
(16:30):
And I think it's telling about people in general. How
you feel about the most vulnerable in society says a
lot about you. Because it's easy to sit around with
your nice, warm cup of coffee in your cozy house,
live in the dream while other people are out there struggling.
It's real easy to judge them, isn't it, until, of course,
you get to a point where you're in a position
(16:50):
where shit goes south. The money, fame, and media attention
associated with the Epstein case can distract from the reality
that human trafficking is based on exploiting another person because
of the sort of the victim's vulnerability. And it goes
for all sorts of human trafficking. Right if you're being
(17:11):
trafficked for work purposes or whatever it might be, it's
the same story. You're vulnerable, you're looking to have a
better life somehow, and you get caught up with pieces
of shit who think that you're not a human being
and that your property to be sold. And it's not
always high profile like this. In fact, it very rarely is,
(17:31):
like I said in the opening, So we have to
be very aware of what's going on in our society.
Many of Epstein's survivors and so many other survivors who
work to advance survivor justice at the nonprofit I lead,
Karna Rising, faced vulnerabilities such as homelessness, prior sexual abuse,
(17:52):
and domestic violence that were used against them. And that
happens too. We've seen how Dershowitz and left Kuwitz ken
Starr they used MySpace profiles against the first accusers of
Jeffrey Epstein in Palm Beach to demean their claims, to
make their claims look less credible because they're on MySpace
(18:14):
talking about how they like boys, or maybe they had
a couple beers smoke a joint, so now they shouldn't
be believed. And it's absurd how many of you out there,
when you were a teenager to smoke the joint, drank
a beer breaking news. I know I did more than
one beer and certainly more than one joint. So does
that make you a bad person because when you were
(18:35):
a kid, you partied. It's so ridiculous that these people
would continue to do this sort of thing. Roberts has
been open about her experiences. She said that after she
was sexually abused by a family member at age seven,
she ran away from home and was on the streets.
At age fourteen, her first trafficker, Ronald Eppinger, was raided
(18:56):
by the FBI, and Roberts was sent to live with
her father, who worked as a maintenance manager at the
Mar A Lago property owned by Donald Trump. And again, look,
it's not easy when you come from a background of
having nothing. It's very difficult life, and a lot of
people can't relate. Just like you know, if you were
born super wealthy and you've never really had these kind
(19:19):
of issues, you know, people can't relate to that. So
it's all about perspective and it's all about environment. But
it's certainly a hard road for somebody like Virginia who
has dealt with a being vulnerable, be the other issues
she was dealing with here. And then on top of that,
you have somebody like Maxwell and Epstein that show up
(19:41):
in your life and promise you all of these grandiose things,
and well we all know how that ended up. Roberts
yourself began to work there and soon was approached by Maxwell,
who offered her a job as a traveling messuse for Epstein.
Soon she was trapped in his set trafficking ring and
was sexually abused by him and a number of his
(20:03):
male associates from two thousand to two thousand and two.
And at some point I really would like all of
those people to be aired out. Virginia's talked about them
a lot. The legacy media really hasn't picked up on that,
But I think it's probably a decent idea for the
legacy media to look into each in one of these
allegations with a fine tooth comb the same way that
(20:24):
they would go after their you know, political enemies or
whoever the du jour of the day boogeyman is. They
should be doing the same thing to Epstein's associates, but
we haven't seen that. At the core, the exploitation that
Roberts and so many more survivors experience is the same.
They were lured with false promises of love or a
(20:46):
better life, abused, and then sold and exploited for profit.
That is a fact, that is exactly what happened here.
When you're selling human beings or trading human beings, like
their baseball cards or a commodity. You're a piece of
shit and there is no prison that is dank enough
for you to sit in. In my opinion, her efforts
(21:07):
to obtain justice reach further than just herself. It also
goes further than that of the dozens, let's say, hundreds
of victims of Epstein's sex trafficking network. There are thousands
of survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation who also
deserve justice. That is a fact as well. They definitely do.
(21:29):
Anybody who has been assaulted or abused by these kinds
of people have been caught up in a human trafficking
ring definitely deserve justice and there needs to be more
resources to go after people who propagate this shit Injustice
for survivors often goes deeper than the abuse of trafficking.
After exiting their trafficking situation, many survivors experience disbelief that
(21:53):
leads to a lifetime of shame and even future abuse.
How many times do people not believe them? How many
times do people show up like the lady Victoya Hovey
and like to punch down all the time? Right, and
when you're one of these women who have come forward
and you know, you leave your trafficking situation and you're
(22:14):
trying to expose it. You got to deal with a
lot of this, a lot of times disbelief, people not
believing what occurred. Many are fearful of courts because they
have been wronged by the very system that is meant
to protect them, including being arrested for things that directly
result from their own trafficking. Like I said in the beginning,
here in Las Vegas, it's a big problem. Las Vegas
(22:36):
is one of the hottest spots in the country for
human trafficking. We have a transient state, we have a
state where people are coming and going all the time,
and it's a hotbed for human trafficking and there's no
resources to deal with it. This is coupled with a
fear of facing exploiters, whose abuse often includes threats of
(22:58):
future harm to them or people love if they come forward.
They use the threat of violence to manipulate and to
have people do what they want them to do. Hey,
if you don't do this what I'm telling you to do,
I'll kill your mom. And for these survivors, well, they've
seen these people be violent with other girls, with other people,
(23:21):
so they know that it's not an idle threat, so
they're they're forced into doing this kind of thing. The
settlement between Roberts and Andrew is more than just about
the money, regardless of the motive. His acknowledgment that she
has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and
as a result of unfair public attacks is powerful for
(23:42):
all survivors whose stories have never been believed or heard.
It does give people a little bit of faith that maybe,
just maybe my story will be believed, and if it
helps one person come forward, even then I think it's
a victory. When people criticize survivors for settling out of court,
(24:03):
it ignores the fact that many survivors never receive this
kind of justice and the people who sexually abuse them
continue on with their lives. Yet those tides are turning.
Efforts to change society's perceptions of what justice should look
like for survivors and to hold everyone who exploited them
accountable are commendable, brave, and necessary. If we are going
(24:25):
to ensure every survivor has access to justice, Robert's settlement
is not just her win, but also a win for
all survivors. Now again, I know a lot of people
out there have a different opinion, but I think we
have to keep everything in perspective right and not look
at things through just our lens, but try and walk
in somebody else's shoes, just for a minute, even to
(24:48):
see what their perspective might be. And when you look
at all of the circumstances and how long this has
went on, I don't know how you can chalk this
up to anything but w for Virginia. All Right, folks,
that's gonna wrap it up for this morning's episode. Tonight,
I'll be back with the evening update, and until then
(25:09):
there will be some context episodes on their way. If
you'd like to contact me, you can do that at
Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com. That's b O B
B Y c A p U c c I at
ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on Twitter
at b O B B Y underscore c A p
U C c I. The link that we discussed can
(25:32):
be found in the description box. All Right, folks, I
will whatever it is
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