Jeffrey Epstein: Stinkreich

No matter their reasons for being in that situation these girls were minors and are victims of two deeply conniving and charismatic psychopaths.

What an evil creep Epstein was, and this documentary covers the rise of this sleaze-ball reasonably well. Where it is lacking is in not EXPLAINING well enough how he got away with so much - several times he was credited with being a great salesman, but that can't be all. There are several disappointing omissions. To name a few:-

• How did he get the teaching job at Dalton (from AG Barr's father, no less - not mentioned here. Why?)?
• No real explanation for the sweetheart deal he got from Acosta in Florida. Incredible deal, that even gave immunity to all his associates! There is a book just in that deal.
• his death. Probably, they were just about finished with the documentary when he died, so the end feels rushed. They cover the doubt about his "suicide" (virtually no one believes it was). Could they have done more digging?
• they didn't really dig deep enough into all his enablers. It was hinted he had "kompromat" on lots of people he provided girls to (they said his house was extensively covered by CCTV, inside & out)
• "collaborators" like Dershowitz were allowed to give their version virtually unchallenged

Very well made, but the analysis & investigation seemed to pull their punches. Were they afraid of lawsuits?

This documentary is full of hypocrisy and distractions, it doesn't tell the full story and uses Jeffrey Epstein as a scapegoat when there was clearly a whole operation around him, including many people who haven't been named or charged. It's clearly a distraction from the other people responsable for his power.

A big disappointment.

Allowing the victims to speak their truth is invaluable and thus is an incredibly important service the filmmakers have done buuuutt ... there should be a different category for these than, 'documentary'. This film, the R. Kelly one, the Michael Jackson one are all just basically 5 hour long victim impact statements. To me the term, 'documentary', means someone does the arduous work of zooming out through research research research and more research and then more documents and more research and then presents the facts without an emotional heavy hand leaning one way or the other. It documents. Victim impact statements are one of the most important parts of any story but I'm not sure it should be considered the whole story or 5 hours of it. Overall though, this is impactful and definitely worth watching.

FIrst, I really didn't learn anything about Epstein. There was a little discussion about how he got his money by blackmail and charm but how does one get the Billions that he had? The obvious conclusion is that powerful people will pay a lot of money for sex with the under aged - and they did. I want to know exactly who. But, there was no investigation of how it came to be that Epstien was untouchable. I guess James Patterson doesn't want to end up dead.

Second, I can see why the US Attorney did not prosecute the 2008 case. The bottom line is that many of the victims were not too bright and many took money either via "employment" or just taking cash for what they did. They lack credibility. One goes on about after having being raped she chose to go back again and then introduced her 17 year old younger sister to the gang -- she says, never thinking anything bad would happen to her. I mean, come on, these women would have been destroyed on the witness stand.

I appreciate that Alan Dershowitz came on to explain the legal proceedings and defend himself.