The Epstein curse continues to plague Gates.
We have been reporting here on TGP on how Bill Gates’ ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are causing him problems that go beyond the mere reputational damage and family breakdown.
Today, it arises that billionaire investor Warren Buffett will not make his usual mid-year donation to the Gates Foundation for the first time in 20 years.
Buffet reportedly awaits more details about the charity’s links to Epstein.
On February 8, 2026, the advocacy group World Without Exploitation launched a 40-second public service announcement during the Super Bowl featuring Jeffrey Epstein survivors demanding the full release of federal files related to Epstein’s sex trafficking network.
The Epstein survivors held up pictures of themselves when they were initially abused by Epstein as minors or young women. “After years of being kept apart, we’re standing together,” they said.
The background was pitch black, and the music was haunting.
The PSA ended with the following: “Stand With Us. Tell Attorney General Pam Bondi IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH.”
As a longtime advocate for justice in the Epstein case, the PSA felt like a supernova. I felt an eruption of gratitude. But as my elation faded, I wondered how World Without Exploitation could afford the PSA.
The co-founders of World Without Exploitation, Lauren Hersh and Rachel Foster, have certainly generated remarkable fanfare. In fact, they’ve even been hailed as two of Time magazine’s most influential 100 people of 2026.
I’m the director of Epstein Justice, a 501(c)(3), and our raison d’être is an independent congressional commission to investigate the Epstein case. Like many nonprofits, we struggle to find funders. So, I’ve marveled at the success of World Without Exploitation, which was founded in 2016. By 2019, the Atlanta Jewish Times reports, World Without Exploitation was the “umbrella group of 140 organizations.” The landing page of its website states: “Our 175+ member groups are working to end exploitation.”
But I started to hear whispers about World Without Exploitation that were less than stellar. Let’s dive in.
On paper, Hersh would appear to have impeccable credentials to be the director of an organization dedicated to ending exploitation. She joined the Brooklyn (King’s County) District Attorney’s office in 2004 after graduating from Brooklyn Law School, then transitioned to the domestic violence bureau before joining the rackets division, where she ultimately became “chief” of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Sex Trafficking Unit. Yet Hersh’s last case as a Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney would be marred by apparent prosecutorial misconduct. The case involved the alleged trafficking and rape of a young woman by four men.
On March 31, 2010, a 22-year-old Brooklyn woman told NYPD officers that Damien Crooks took her to a party, where she was raped and beaten. She said that she managed to escape her abusers and phoned her best friend. Her friend took her to the police, and she was then sent to the hospital. A June 2, 2012, New York Times article reports that at 6:30 AM the following morning, the young woman talked to an NYPD detective and filed a formal statement, discussing rapes, beatings, and Crooks pimping her out. She said she was “afraid for her life.”
By 10:45 AM, however, she was interviewed again by a second NYPD detective and recanted her prior statements. She informed the detective interviewing her that she was a prostitute, was not forcibly raped by Crooks, and had had consensual intercourse with him several times over the preceding years. The detective wrote that the accuser promulgated her allegations, because one of the men at the party had sex with her, and he hadn’t worn a condom and hit her. The following day, the NYPD terminated its investigation – a turn of events that would prove integral to Herch’s prosecutorial problems.
But the woman’s allegations were not without foundation. She lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has been a melting pot for both Orthodox Jews and African Americans. Crooks lived in the house directly behind her family’s house.
The young woman said she’d been molested by a family member. She also said her teenage nightmare continued when her brother asked her to purchase marijuana from Jawara Brockett who lived nearby. As her brother waited for her downstairs, she said she was forced to have oral, anal and vaginal sex with three men that included purported perpetrator Jawara Brockett.
The alleged victim claimed that she quickly became immersed in a double life. Women at a neighborhood hair salon remembered a teenager regularly ducking into the salon’s bathroom, where she disrobed from long dresses and slipped into clothes suited for working the streets.
There is a picture of the alleged victim donning a crimson dress – surrounded by black men, including one she named as a perpetrator. Like the men, her hand is rounded into a “C,” which law enforcement asserts is a signal for Crips. One of her alleged perpetrators, Jamali Brockett, would ultimately be sentenced to 24 years in prison on unrelated federal charges for sex trafficking women and minors.
Police records reveal that when she was 13 and 14 years old, in 2004 and 2004, she phoned the police at least four times to report assaults and provided her address. The NYPD said that one arrest was made because of the alleged victim’s complaints in 2003, but the responding commanders didn’t remember meeting her father, who claimed that the police never visited their family home. Her best friend also said that she approached police officers on the street as a teenager, but they had a callous attitude: “You put yourself in this situation, you get yourself out.”
In September of 2004, the alleged victim said a tipping point occurred: a “client” stabbed her. By the time she made it home at 3:00 AM her sweatshirt was drenched in blood. Her panic-stricken parents met her at the front door – and would eventually place their teenage daughter in a psychiatric hospital. She was discharged in 2006, finished high school, and enrolled in John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The young woman maintained that Crooks’ threats against her sister drove her back into a life of prostitution.
Bill Gates told lawmakers in a recent interview that Jeffrey Epstein threatened him subtly over his affairs but did not overtly blackmail him, according to a transcript released on June 23.
Epstein in 2013 “made some veiled references that made me wonder whether he had become aware” of one of the affairs, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on June 10.
Epstein later sent a reimbursement request to Gates, according to Gates. The request was for expenses that Epstein said he paid for one of the women with whom Gates had an affair.
“I viewed it as a tactic to reengage with me,” Gates said. “I’d never asked him to do anything with respect to the person we’re discussing, so I was rather surprised. That was the first time I knew explicitly that he’d become aware of that affair.”
Gates said he directed staff members not to pay Epstein.
Still, Gates maintained that Epstein did not blackmail him.
“He never blackmailed me, but looking at these emails, it raises a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me,” Gates said, referring to documents released by the Department of Justice in January.
Gates also said: “He never sent me anything that I would call blackmail. As I’ve said, he made veiled references to things like we should all want to be friends.
“Now that I see the January release of documents, it appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me.”
Gates had said through a spokesperson in 2023 that Epstein tried to “leverage a past relationship” to threaten him, without providing details.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.
Gates has said he met with Epstein multiple times from 2011 through 2014, and that he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding that Epstein could not deliver on claims that he could raise billions for global health efforts.
Gates said in his opening statement that he should have never met with Epstein in the first place but that he never witnessed any indication Epstein was involved in criminal conduct.
Interactions between Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre and Australian police prior to her death will be reviewed, Western Australia’s police commissioner has confirmed.
Giuffre, 41, died by suicide at her semi-rural property north of Perth in April of last year.
The investigation will focus on officers’ handling of a dispute between Giuffre and a former partner, commissioner Col Blanch said.
Giuffre was at one point charged with breaching a restraining order in relation to the dispute.
She had long alleged she was trafficked for sex to former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and others when she was a teenager.
Giuffre was one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers and was an advocate for survivors of sex trafficking.
The review would be carried out in response to a letter sent by Giuffre’s family, Blanch said.
“We respond to over 100,000 family violence incidents every year,” he told a Western Australia parliament hearing on Wednesday morning.
“I’d love to give assurance on every single one, but I can’t — but that one will be subject to a review.”
The state’s coroner and ombudsman could also launch investigations, he said.
Members of Giuffre’s family have called for a coronial inquest into her death, which has been backed up by a group of domestic violence experts.
An open letter signed by 16 experts in domestic violence, family violence and violence against women was sent to the WA coroner earlier this month.
“Virginia Giuffre spent much of her adult life in courageous pursuit of accountability for the abuse she suffered, taking significant personal risk to expose a network of exploitation and in doing so helping to protect other women,” the letter read.
“It would be a profound injustice if the question of whether systems failed her in her final months were not examined with equivalent rigour.”
It said she may have been a victim of domestic violence in the lead up to her death, and cited a 2022 WA Ombudsman investigation that found 56% of women and children who died by suicide in the state had previously been identified as victims of domestic and family violence.
“Her public profile means there is an unusually detailed record of her final months – and what that record shows is deeply consistent with what our research tells us about how these deaths occur, and how they are too often overlooked.
“Conducted with full attention to the domestic and family violence context of her death, such an inquest has the potential to generate findings and recommendations that reach far beyond this one case and that could prevent future deaths.”
When the Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, survivors, advocates and lawmakers quickly raised questions about an apparent discrepancy: the DOJ had said it collected more than 6 million pages of material during its investigation but was only releasing half that number.
The Justice Department tells CBS News it “has released every document required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” and maintains that those unreleased 3 million documents were either duplicative, unrelated to Epstein or protected by legal privilege.
But concerns persist about evidence that important documents are still being withheld. CBS News has analyzed the archive not only for what has been disclosed, but also for documents that appear to be absent. Our key findings include:
The Government Accountability Office recently announced it was launching an investigation into the way documents that were released had information blacked out. That move comes at the request of several members of Congress.
Authorities in Bibb County uncovered a child sex trafficking ring involving at least ten victims that has been happening for at least two years in an underground storm shelter.
Officials are searching for at least 15 additional suspects; eight suspects have already appeared in court.
The investigation, which was announced on July 19, 2025, but began months earlier in February, has led to the arrest of eight suspects. More arrests and charges expected.
The Department of Homeland Security is assisting in the investigation, including looking into possible gang ties and the immigration status of the suspects.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years, and this is absolutely the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen when it comes to the victimization of children. I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there was a limit to it, I think we’ve reached it,” said Sheriff Jody Wade.
The storm shelter contained chairs, beds, and other items used to restrain and drug the children.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Jones described the scene inside the storm shelter, saying, “there were chairs and beds and things of that nature and the children were drugged by Mr. Trejo and tied to the bed, into the chair, into a pole. And then people would come and pay money to have sex with these children.”
A photo of the storm shelter has been released to help trigger the memory of victims who may have been drugged.
“There are some allegations with individuals that we will have a hard time identifying, just because we don’t know their names. And the children were drugged, according to one of the co-defendants. And so they may not be able to recognize or be able to identify anyone,” Jones said.
The woman, identified only as “Michele” at her family’s request, was 22 years old when she left her mother’s home in Germany in early September 2015 with a suitcase.
She has not been heard from since.
Michele’s name emerged in emails contained in the Epstein files released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The emails involve Daniel Siad, a Swedish-French modeling scout who appears extensively in the documents, more than 1,000 times in some batches.
According to a report from Speigel International, her family only recently learned that her name appears multiple times in U.S. Department of Justice documents connected to Epstein.
In 2014, one year before Michele disappeared, Siad sent Epstein photos of the young German woman.
In one message, he referred to her as “the girl you missed from Germany” and wrote, “You will love her.”
According to reporting by Der Spiegel, Michele had met Siad in Dubai in 2012. She allegedly worked for him as an escort. Siad positioned himself in communications with Epstein as someone who recruited or “caught” young women across Europe for the financier.
Michele had dreams of becoming a famous model and frequently traveled internationally.
According to her family, it was not unusual for her to leave suddenly.
In early September 2015, she told relatives she was heading out but provided no details about where she was going or when she would return.
German authorities treated the case as a standard missing-person report at the time, but did not launch a major investigation.
Nearly 11 years later, Michele would be 33.
Her mother, Annett, told investigators from Der Spiegel and German public broadcaster ZDF that she now fears the worst.
“I think she’s no longer alive,” Annett said. “That something was done to her.”
Her father has expressed hope for answers while urging German police to reopen and expand the investigation.
Siad has come under increasing legal pressure in Europe. He is currently under investigation in France for human trafficking and related allegations.
Multiple women have accused him of grooming and procuring them for Epstein or his associates, even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Siad has denied any wrongdoing. He has claimed his interactions were professional.
Kavankumar Patel, an illegal migrant from India, has been sentenced to a ten-year prison term for participating in a child sex-trafficking ring in Omaha, Nebraska, the Department of Justice announced.
The 27-year-old native of Gujarat, India, was convicted on two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, and handed a ten-year sentence with no chance for parole, the DOJ said in a press release.
The DOJ added that he will be deported immediately upon completion of his sentence.
Police in Omaha had initially been contacted over a case of theft that Patel was allegedly involved in, but upon investigating that case, police realized that there was something more sinister going on. They brought in the Homeland Security Task Force and a joint investigation revealed two young girls, 15 and 16, who had been brought to an Omaha motel for sex.
The girls told investigators that they had been forced to allow hotel employees to have sex with them to get cheaper hotel rates. DOJ says that several hotel employees later admitted engaging in sex with the girls. Patel was one such employee and in court admitted that he schemed to “harbor, obtain, and maintain the minors in the hotel.”
Many U.S. hotels are owned or operated by Indians from the large Patel clan. This coast-to-coast Indian enclave also uses a large inflow of cheap-labor illegal migrants — mostly from India — who are believed to be more likely to facilitate other crimes, including prostitution and drug crimes.
United States Attorney Lesley Woods said:
The United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will never tire of working as hard as we need to work to protect the most vulnerable victims in our communities. The Homeland Security Task Force rescued these children from a living nightmare, and anyone with knowledge or suspicion of human trafficking in our communities should reach out to state or federal law enforcement immediately to report those concerns and to be part of the effort to free all of Nebraska’s victims of human trafficking.”
Five other migrants were also charged in the sex-trafficking scheme.
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, a former Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times reporter turned bestselling novelist and independent investigator, announced her plan to flee the country in a post on her Substack last week.
The reporter claims the attacks left her with symptoms matching “Havana syndrome” and forced her to abandon her New Mexico residence immediately.
“Okay, folks. It appears my home has been located by, well, whomever is unhappy about my reporting about Zorro Ranch and the local cover up here and the military intelligence roots of the child sex trafficking operation Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were running here in New Mexico,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote.
The post continued, “This morning, I was hit in my home office by two episodes of what I later learned were likely Direct Energy Weapon attacks. Look up Havana Syndrome. My symptoms are consistent with such attacks, and entirely new. We wasted no time in leaving the house, for good. We will be staying in safe houses while we finish plans to permanently relocate abroad.”
“The hardest part will be transporting our pets. It is very expensive. I am going to set up a gofundme to help cover that expense and a security detail until we are out of the USA. Yes, it has come to this. We kind of figured it might,” the post concluded.
The U.S. Department of Defense defines DEWs as systems that use concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, or personnel.”
The U.S. has researched DEWs since the 1960s, with billions invested. The first operational U.S. DE weapon was a 30 kW laser installed on the USS Ponce in 2014.
Other nations, including China, Russia, and Israel, are also actively developing DEWs.
Valdes-Rodriguez wrote in a later post that the attacks may have involved a “backpack-sized” device placed on or near her roof by “private military contractors” and a second incident from “the back of a large semi truck that parked across from my house.”
“These are the most cowardly weapons ever created. They attack you at your most vulnerable and trusting, in your home, in bed, and do not kill right away,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote.
No police report or independent verification of the attacks has been made public.
Valdes-Rodriguez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and built a respected career in mainstream journalism before transitioning to fiction and, more recently, independent investigative work.
Earlier this year, after the Department of Justice released millions of pages of previously unseen Epstein files, Valdes-Rodriguez began systematically combing through the documents with a laser focus on Epstein’s 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch, now renamed Rancho de San Rafael, located roughly 30 miles outside Santa Fe.
Key elements of her Zorro Ranch investigations include claims that Epstein hired Bradbury Stamm Construction, New Mexico’s largest industrial contractor, known for building facilities at the state’s nuclear weapons labs to construct the remote ranch.
The firm’s phone number appeared in Epstein’s personal contacts.
Valdes-Rodriguez linked this to Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, and alleged Israeli intelligence penetration of U.S. nuclear programs in the 1980s.
Additionally, she reported on a still-active private microwave communications license at the property and its strategic location forming a near-perfect triangle with the two top-secret nuclear labs. She has alleged the ranch may have been used for surveillance operations.
Drawing on FBI tips and DOJ files, she has reported on allegations of buried victims, “two foreign girls,” young girls allegedly raped at the ranch, and possible disappearances of American scientists tied to the area.
Valdes-Rodriguez also reported that former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John J. Kelly served as Epstein’s personal power of attorney for the 1993 purchase of the ranch from then-Governor Bruce King.
Kelly has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and called the insinuations “categorically false.”
She also highlighted the Zorro Trust’s $85 million Oklahoma Lottery win shortly after Epstein’s 2008 prison stint.
Rep. Thomas Massie on Sunday said that he plans to read the names of Epstein’s clients on the House Floor before he leaves Congress in January 2027.
While speaking to Kirsten Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, Massie vowed to use his speech or debate immunity and read the names. Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution provides that, with the exception of Treason, Felony, or Breach of the Peace, Representatives “shall not be questioned in any other Place,” prosecuted, or sued over “any Speech or Debate in either House.”
Massie previously threatened to name the names of Epstein’s coconspirators in September 2025.
Massie told Welker on Sunday that he will read redacted names from the Epstein Files in the coming weeks and months, adding, “There’s still millions of files they haven’t released.”
“Todd Blanche is violating the law,” he said with reference to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last November, forcing the DOJ to release all files related to the Epstein investigation.
Massie continued, “I don’t think it’s possible to get to convictions with Todd Blanche at the top and with the FBI Director, Kash Patel, at the top because they’ve effectively both perjured themselves by saying that there’s nobody else in the files.”
Hellbound and Down 
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