'You know what I like': Epstein files reveal disgraced financier's routine abuse of girls

[Uncle Joe]

Released documents detail the assembly line-like process with which Jeffrey Epstein procured underage victims

By the mid-2000s, Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teen girls was routine. From 2002 to 2005 alone, the late financier victimized “dozens” of underage teens by luring them into sex acts for payment under the auspices of massage work, some as young as 14, prosecutors said.

Epstein leaned on a coterie of employees and associates – including British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell – to secure a “steady supply of minor victims”. He also enlisted his victims to recruit other girls under the false pretense of providing massages, prosecutors said.

(snip)

These documents – released over the past week by a Trump administration under intense political pressure from both Democrats and Republicans – also make clearer how girls and young women were perceived as commodities: mere bodies meant to serve a predator’s twisted predilections – and possibly those of his associates.

(snip)

“Cant just bring girls he doesn’t like,” the interview apparently recounted. “Told her keep looking for girls.” At one point, someone witnessed Epstein “asking for ID to girl wanted to make sure under 18 b/c he wasn’t believing them b/c [redacted] messed up by bringing more older girls”.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/28/epstein-files-reveal-routine-child-abuse

[ScoutHikerDad]

1. I Keep Wondering?

Where were the parents when their underage daughters were being recruited for "massages?" I always felt that if any predator tried anything with one of my kids, they better hope I didn't get to them before law enforcement did!

[Uncle Joe]

2. Epstein and Maxwell's MO was targeting vulnerable girls and young women

mostly of lower income and in many cases already victims from sexual abuse making them extra vulnerable.

They were also threatened by Epstein that if they spoke of what was happening their families would be targeted.

P.S. Add to that the power dimension just from Epstein's visible connections to the wealthy and powerful making an emotional uphill fight all the steeper for the survivors.

[ThreeNoSeep]

3. I keep wondering?

Where the heck were all those responsible people with power, including the current dollar store antichrist, who knew what was happening and did nothing?

Blaming the parent is distracting from the friggin' fact that people in power today knew then, at the very least, and perhaps participated in, this terrible poison that has reached the roots of our own government.

[Attilatheblond]

4. Part of the 'recruitment' was likely screening for girls whose parents weren't the most attentive

And adolescents often want to feel independent but lack the experience to help them make good decisions. Seems the recruiters knew what to look for besides just physical beauty.

[walkingman]

5. I wonder the same thing....(concerning parents) but we have to remember that these types of predators

come is all sorts of flavors. From the wealthy (which many people seem to worship) to religious leaders (which many people seem to worship) and everything in between.

I'm sure in some cases there was parental consent (looked the other way) and in some cases the children's relationship with their parents was distant or rebellious.

[Wiz Imp]

8. Stop victim blaming (yes, blaming the parents is a form of victim blaming-especially in a case like this)

Last edited Sun Dec 28, 2025, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1017968999/jeffrey-epsteins-victims-speak-out-in-perversion-of-justice-by-julie-k-brown#:~:text=He%20essentially%20groomed%20them%20to,want%20to%20be%20a%20model?

He had enough money to get the finest prostitutes that he wanted, but he didn't want that. He wanted scared, young girls. That was all part of his fantasy. So it just grew from that. And unfortunately, there were probably hundreds of girls that were victimized by him. ...

It was two to three times a day. It was like a revolving door. And the more girls that he had, the more girls he wanted to recruit, because he also wanted new girls all the time. He wanted fresh, young girls all the time. So was it just enough for him to have like three that he took advantage of all the time; he wanted a continuing parade of young girls.

He essentially groomed them to believe that he was going to pull them out of the misery of their lives. Many of them had very difficult [lives]. Some of them were in foster homes. Their parents were on drugs. There were all kinds of circumstances that they came from. But the thread was that they really didn't have a strong family life at home. And he knew that. He studied them. He asked them questions about their life. So he found out exactly what their Achilles' heel or their vulnerabilities were. And he would say to them, "You want to study this? You want to be a model? I'm going to help you be a model." And then they look on the walls of his home, and he has pictures with Bill Clinton and all kinds of famous, powerful people. And they really believe that he was going to help them. ... They came to depend on him. They didn't have family life at home, a strong anchor in their own lives — and he became an anchor for them.

[The Blue Flower]

6. There are over a million files

That didn't happen overnight. Someone was watching this unfold for a long time. What does that tell us?

[Cirsium]

7. The Penn State football program

It was amazing how thoroughly the decades-long systematic abuse of children was covered up or ignored at the highest levels of the university and how quickly it was all disappeared for the sake of the damned football program.

[FakeNoose]

10. Joe Paterno looked the other way

... and he didn't participate in the abuse as far as we know. He just shrugged and said it wasn't his problem. But really it WAS his problem when he failed to fire the coach that was doing it.

[Cirsium]

12. That IS participating

Looking the other way is a way to participate. Dozens of people from a wide range of organizations and institutions looked the other way for years and years, as did the PSU AD and the entire administration. But hey Saturday football $$$$ must go on, and what do the kids matter?

[William Seger]

9. [redacted] was obviously an accomplice, not a victim -- why was that name redacted? (nt)

[FakeNoose]

11. Several of the victims started out in their early/mid-teens

Once they hit 18 or 19, Epstein thought they were "too old" but he did keep them on the payroll if they brought in younger girls for his enjoyment. Yes it was exploitation of a different kind. Most of these girls were runaways and high school dropouts who depended on the money Epstein paid them. The older girls recruited younger ones to take their place, and Epstein hired them out to extremely wealthy clients. It went on for years.

[ScoutHikerDad]

13. All Enlightening Responses, Thanks!

Even as a high-school teacher for my entire career with a lot of training in these issues, you forget just how sophisticated these predators can be in finding and grooming vulnerable kids because our minds don't naturally work that way. Thanks for the more considered perspective.

Edit to add that after considering all the glaringly obvious complicity of all the powerful people who protected him (along with the veneer of sophistication he lured the most vulnerable into), it is heartbreaking how many people just allowed such evil to exist right in their midst. I have no more words.