The Media's Deafening Silence on Mike Bloomberg's Ties to Epstein and Other
Criminals
Billionaire "Democratic" candidate Mike Bloomberg has ties to Leslie Wexner,
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein among other notables like the recently
convicted Harvey Weinstein.
by Whitney Webb
February 28th, 2020
By Whitney Webb Whitney Webb
After his late jump into the Democratic primary and, as critics argue,
purchasing his way into the primary debates, former Mayor of New York City
Michael Bloomberg has received mixed coverage from corporate media, with
many negative critiques of the current presidential contender's history,
conduct and connections.
Yet, despite efforts by other campaigns and more progressive-leaning media
outlets to dampen Bloomberg's chances at the nomination, one clear weakness
of Bloomberg's has thus far evaded meaningful media coverage: his ties to
key players in the Epstein scandal, including Leslie Wexner, Ghislaine
Maxwell and even Jeffrey Epstein himself.
Silence among outlets that largely oppose Bloomberg's candidacy regarding
his connections to Epstein and those in his close social orbit is odd,
especially when reporting on an individual's connections to the
intelligence-linked pedophile are a sure-fire way to generate considerable
negative attention and fodder for rival campaigns. This is particularly
striking given that the numerous accusations that Bloomberg has long stoked
a toxic culture of sexual harassment at his company, resulting in no small
number of non-disclosure agreements over the years, have received some media
attention. Yet, the fact that many of Bloomberg's close friends have been
accused of far, far worse has received hardly any coverage by comparison.
For instance, when it was announced last week that the controlling stake in
the Leslie Wexner-owned lingerie company Victoria's Secret would be sold to
a private equity firm called Sycamore Partners, only one media outlet - The
Intercept - revealed that Bloomberg has at least $136 million of his money
in that firm. The Intercept noted in passing that Wexner - the source of
most of Jeffrey Epstein's supposed fortune, his close collaborator for
decades and alleged rapist of many of his victims - had been pressured to
step down following the scandal, which also hit Wexner-owned companies hard
and had forced the Ohio-based billionaire to seek a buyer for his lingerie
brand and its tarnished reputation. Yet, the outlet did not make the direct
connection that Sycamore Partners-backer Bloomberg is a friend of Wexner's
and has attended Wexner's personal social parties for years prior to the
most recent scandal.
https://twitter.com/wash_cloth/status/1229438126831153155
Yet, even well before this recent opportunity to point out Bloomberg's ties
to Leslie Wexner, there have been plenty of opportunities for the media to
question Bloomberg about his now-infamous picture with Ghislaine Maxwell,
daughter of Mossad-connected Robert Maxwell and Epstein's alleged madam and
co-conspirator.
Bloomberg Maxwell
From left to right, Tamara Mellon, Mike Bloomberg and Ghislaine Maxwell
That picture, taken in 2013 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, has
not been mentioned by mainstream media following the launch of Bloomberg's
candidacy late last November. Similarly, mainstream media have failed to
question Bloomberg regarding why his name and five different telephone
numbers for him appear in Jeffrey Epstein's infamous list of contacts often
referred to as his "little black book."
Bloomberg and the Manhattan Swamp
The extent of the Maxwell-Bloomberg relationship is unknown, though
Bloomberg's deep ties to his former employer Salomon Brothers is a possible
link, given that that firm served as one of the Maxwell family's main
investment bankers in the years prior to and following Robert Maxwell's
mysterious death in 1991. Similarly, Epstein had close ties to prominent
figures on Wall Street, some dating back to his time at Bear Stearns, who
are also close to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg and Epstein also shared close friendships with some of the same
New York media executives like Mort Zuckerman. Media outlets have described
Zuckerman, a former business partner of Epstein's, as Bloomberg's "long-time
enabler." In another example, Epstein's former publicist Howard Rubenstein
is a long-time supporter of Bloomberg and was reported to be the driving
force behind Bloomberg's controversial push to run around mayoral term
limits and pursue a third term as Mayor of New York.
Another mutual Epstein-Bloomberg associate is disgraced media mogul Harvey
Weinstein. Weinstein was part of an investment group with Epstein that
sought to purchase New York magazine in 2003. Another member of that
investment group was frequent MSNBC commentator Donny Deutsch, who has
recently fervently backed Bloomberg's candidacy.
Weinstein was recently convicted of rape and has dozens of accusers, whose
decision to come forward about Weinstein's sex crimes in recent years helped
spark the "Me Too" movement. Weinstein also has ties to former Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, who was a close friend and business associate of
Epstein's, and it was Barak who personally introduced Weinstein to former
Mossad spies that Weinstein hired to intimidate his accusers. In addition to
being Prime Minister, Barak is also the former head of Israeli military
intelligence, the foreign intelligence agency that sponsored Epstein's
sexual blackmail operation involving underage girls in the United States.
Bloomberg's candidacy has yet to be strongly challenged over his ties to
Weinstein, which are considerable. For instance, Weinstein was a major
backer of Bloomberg's mayoral campaigns and even recorded robocalls on
Bloomberg's behalf to boost his election chances. Bloomberg, in turn,
appointed Weinstein to a charity board and Weinstein later praised Bloomberg
for aiding his film company. While Bloomberg's ties to Wexner, Epstein and
Maxwell have gotten the silent treatment, some outlets (mostly
right-leaning) have covered the Bloomberg-Weinstein ties, but there has been
little pressure on Bloomberg from mainstream media to address those ties
directly.
Another close Bloomberg associate who recently has been accused by numerous
women of sexual harassment is hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.
Steinhardt is a long-time fixture in Bloomberg's social circle and has long
appeared at Bloomberg's dinner parties. Steinhardt is also connected to
Leslie Wexner through his membership in the so-called "Mega Group" - an
exclusive group of organized-crime-linked "mega" donors to pro-Israel causes
that Wexner co-founded in 1991. Steinhardt also boasts close ties to the now
deceased founder of Glencore, the Mossad-linked Marc Rich, and Steinhardt -
along with top Israeli politicians and spies - aggressively lobbied former
President Bill Clinton to controversially pardon Rich before leaving office.
"Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are"
The oft-quoted saying "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are,"
seems to hold true for Bloomberg. For instance, his eponymous media
conglomerate has received no small number of lawsuits over the years
alleging rampant sexual harassment and even the rape of female workers, much
of its allegedly egged on by Bloomberg's long history of comments that have
been derided as sexist. Many of those lawsuits ended in female accusers
being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). More recently, The
Nation reported that Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign is making use of
NDAs in such a way "that could prevent staffers from reporting workplace
abuse."
In addition, a 1999 profile of Bloomberg in Wired magazine quoted Bloomberg
as saying "My daughter is tall and busty and blonde. We went to China
together. And what's a 16-year-old going to do on a business trip? So, I got
her dates in every city in China."
Bloomberg, not unlike Epstein and Wexner, also has a history of cozy ties to
the CIA. For instance, during his tenure as Mayor of New York, Bloomberg
actively promoted a controversial post-9/11 program that saw the CIA work
directly with the NYPD to spy on the city's Muslim communities. Even though
the CIA is technically prohibited from spying on Americans not linked to
criminal activity, one of the CIA officers working as part of the
Bloomberg-backed program said he had "no limitations" on what he could do.
Bloomberg has long defended this program and its merging of the CIA with
local police.
In the case of Epstein and Wexner, as MintPress News reported in its viral
series on the Epstein scandal last year, Epstein once claimed to have worked
for the CIA during the 1980s and Epstein and Wexner were the key players
behind the relocation of CIA front company Southern Air Transport to Ohio,
where Wexner's business interests have long been based.
Mike Bloomberg Israel
Rudy Giuliani, left, New York Gov. George Pataki, center, and Mike Bloomberg
during a "Salute to Israel Parade, May 5, 2002, in New York. Shawn Baldwin |
AP
In addition, Bloomberg was also a key player in a controversial initiative
regarding Israel's intelligence-linked technology sector. For instance,
Bloomberg created a $2 billion project that involved opening a Manhattan
campus called "Cornell Tech" that brought together Cornell University and
Israel's Technion, which has close ties to Israel's national security state
and military-industrial complex. Bloomberg personally gave over $100 million
to facilitate completion of that project. That campus is now a partner in
the recent creation of two Israeli-run "cybersecurity" centers in New York
City that are tied to Israeli intelligence and were recently reported on by
MintPress.
Jeffrey Epstein was also involved with Israeli military intelligence-linked
technology companies and, as previously mentioned, Israeli military
intelligence was also the sponsor of Epstein's sexual blackmail operation
that targeted mostly U.S. politicians and public figures for the benefit of
the state of Israel, whose military currently receives $3.8 billion per year
from U.S. taxpayers.
While these aspects of Bloomberg's past have received considerable media
attention as of late, these same outlets have failed to note that
Bloomberg's inner circle boasts many individuals accused of harassment, rape
or worse. With his clear ties to the "Epstein network," the fact that
mainstream media has declined to even question Bloomberg about his social
appearances with Ghislaine Maxwell or Leslie Wexner and having five
different telephone numbers of his in Epstein's list of high-profile
contacts is a damning indictment of the current landscape of both American
media and American politics.
