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The Epstein Files with Sam and Amy
The Epstein Files with Sam and Amy
Author: Amy Nelson and Samantha Ettus
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© 2026 Amy Nelson and Samantha Ettus
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A daily chat about the Epstein Files between two friends - Sam and Amy - who don't know any more than you do about the truth but who know many, many people who've played a role in the saga. Sam is a best-selling author and entrepreneur. Amy is a litigator and VC backed founder. Drink your coffee and tune in as we run down our take on the ever-evolving world of Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes.
7 Episodes
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We spent hours in the Epstein files. Here's what we found.Not what you'd expect. Not what the headlines tell you.After reading through emails, documents, and court filings, one thing became undeniable: we are not playing the same game as the people in these files. We're not even playing by the same rules. The distance between ordinary life and the world Epstein occupied isn't just financial. It's structural. It's the difference between a system built to protect you and one built to protect them.In this episode, Sam and Amy dig into what the Epstein files actually reveal, including the mechanics of how someone like Epstein operated, who he connected, and why it took this long for any of it to see daylight.What we covered:Epstein wasn't just a predator. He was a fixer. He brokered access to elite schools, private islands, and power brokers at the highest levels of government and finance. He earned $25 million negotiating a settlement between a Rothschild bank and the U.S. government. The abuse and the legitimacy were never separate. They were the same operation.The list of names connected to Epstein is long, but Sam makes an important point: this is a minority of the wealthy and powerful. Most people aren't part of this. The danger is letting the scale of the scandal collapse into cynicism, where we assume everyone at the top is corrupt and stop demanding accountability for the ones who actually are.The conversation got heavy when Amy raised the question of statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse. Her position is clear: there shouldn't be one. Most victims are too young to report before the window closes. The law, as written, protects perpetrators. That's not an accident. It's a choice.And the cultural piece matters here. If Epstein had faced real consequences years earlier, the network doesn't grow the way it grew. The silence wasn't just individual. It was systemic.Where things stand now:Heads are starting to roll. Figures connected to Epstein's network are facing real scrutiny for the first time. Casey Wasserman is already in the crosshairs. The accountability that should have come decades ago is arriving slowly, imperfectly, and with enormous resistance from people who have a lot to lose.But it's arriving.This episode is not a conspiracy theory. It's not a celebrity gossip breakdown. It's a serious look at what happens when power goes unchecked, why victims don't come forward, and what it will actually take to change the systems that made all of this possible.
Goldman Sachs just let their chief legal counsel resign in five months. She called Jeffrey Epstein "Uncle Jeffrey."Kathy Ruemmler was the White House Counsel under Obama. She was the Deputy Attorney General who prosecuted Enron executives for lying. She famously said of them: "They could have chosen to tell the truth. They chose to lie."And then she spent years lying about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.Over 10,000 emails just dropped. Not a "loose professional relationship" like she claimed. He bought her shoes. A Hermès bag. They signed emails "XOXO." He counseled her on her love life, her career decisions, whether to give up her $10,000-a-month New York apartment to become Attorney General.Goldman Sachs stood by her. Until yesterday. When she "resigned."But here's the thing: She doesn't leave until June 30th. Five more months. Five more months of her salary. Five more months representing Goldman Sachs. And CEO David Solomon said he "reluctantly accepted" her resignation, calling her a "mentor" whose departure is "such a huge loss."We've spent years watching powerful institutions protect powerful people while the rest of us beg for basic accountability. And this moment feels different. Not because it's worse than what came before. But because they're not even pretending anymore.They're looking at us and saying: "We know. We don't care. What are you going to do about it?"In this episode, we break down:The Goldman Sachs debacle:Why a Fortune 500 company is defending someone with 10,000 emails to a child traffickerWhat it means when a board of directors (including the former Starbucks CEO) unanimously backs this decisionWhy "she resigned" is the corporate crisis playbook when accountability would cost too muchThe scope we're just discovering:Ohio Senator John Husted took over $100,000 from Epstein co-conspirator Les Wexner months before voting to block the Epstein filesColumbia University gave Epstein's girlfriend a spot in their dental school (impossible to get into for anyone else)The former Norwegian head of state is facing criminal charges while American institutions circle the wagonsThe Doug Band revelation:Who was sharing a Blackberry with President Clinton in the early 2000sWhat 10,000+ emails actually reveal when you read them carefullyWhy powerful people believed the truth would never come outWhy this is a watershed moment:Europe is prosecuting. America is protecting.The corporatocracy isn't hiding anymore. They're standing there telling us no.What happens when every institution we're supposed to trust is compromisedThis isn't partisan. It's Trump. It's Clinton. It's Goldman Sachs and Harvard and Dartmouth and the Olympic Committee. It's Casey Wasserman still running LA's Olympic bid despite documented ties to Epstein. It's Les Wexner's name still on Ohio State buildings.We are going to keep covering this until the victims get justice. Not because we think the DOJ will deliver it. But because the rule of law only exists to the extent we enforce it. And right now, enforcement means removing people who abuse power from positions of power.The wave is starting to grow. A bipartisan coalition (Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie) is refusing to let this go. They're willing to lose their seats over it. That's what it takes.So no, we're not "over this." People are just beginning to understand the scope. And we're not stopping until there's accountability.
Casey Wasserman is overseeing LA's $7 billion Olympic project while his name appears in Epstein flight logs. We need to talk about who gets a pass in America.In this conversation, I sit down with Samantha Ettus to discuss something most people won't touch: Casey Wasserman's documented connections to Jeffrey Epstein, his current role leading the LA Olympic Committee, and what this tells us about accountability in America.We're not speculating. We're reading from court documents. Flight logs. Sealed records that paint a picture no one wants to see.Here's what we cover:The Wasserman Question Why is a man whose name appears in Epstein documents leading a $7 billion public project? Who decided this was acceptable? And why aren't more people asking these questions?The Accountability Gap From the legal system to corporate boards to Olympic committees, we examine who gets held accountable and who gets a pass. Spoiler: It's not random.The Epstein Network We discuss the broader implications of the Epstein case, the institutions that protected him, and the moral responsibilities of those who knew—and those who know now
In this episode, we dive into the shocking revelations from the recently leaked Epstein files and examine the web of powerful figures connected to this devastating case. We explore the bipartisan Epstein Transparency Act led by Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey, discuss the troubling complicity of those who remained silent, and question the media's role in holding power accountable. From high-profile names to everyday enablers, we confront the uncomfortable truths about systemic abuse and why transparency matters now more than ever. This isn't just a political issue—it's an American issue demanding justice for victims.
This episode explores the disturbing revelations from the Epstein files and examines how wealth, power, and status have led some influential figures to make morally compromising choices. We discuss the complicity of those who turned a blind eye to serious wrongdoing to protect their positions, the normalization of unethical behavior among elites, and why accountability remains so elusive. While not everyone in power is guilty, the silence and inaction of many raise critical questions about our values and what it takes to protect the vulnerable. Join us for an unflinching look at power dynamics, moral responsibility, and how we can demand better from our leaders.
In this explosive episode, Amy and Sam dig deeper into the newly released Epstein files, examining why powerful institutions continue to protect perpetrators while exposing victims.We start by revisiting Melinda Gates' final interview before her divorce was announced — the one we recorded with her on What's Her Story. When asked what she and Bill last argued about, Melinda carefully answered "time" and who would spend it on what. Now we understand the full context: Bill's connections to Epstein, the Russian escorts, the STDs. The impossible position she was put in as spouse to someone implicated in the files becomes heartbreakingly clear.Then there's the Amy Robach problem. Remember when she was caught on hot mic saying she had the Virginia Giuffre story three years before it aired? ABC killed that interview because they didn't want to lose access to Will and Kate. The network chose a royal photo op over exposing a pedophile. Now that Amy is an independent journalist with her own platform, where is that evidence? If she gave it to DOJ, it probably fell into a black hole. If she gave it to victims' lawyers, it'll likely disappear under an NDA. Either way, there's no public accountability.The New York Times has its own reckoning to face. Former publisher Arthur Sulzberger appears in the files, with Brad Karp (the now-disgraced former chairman of Paul Weiss) and journalist Michael Wolff discussing how Sulzberger could be their "silver bullet" — their leverage, their way to kill stories and prevent transparency. How can the Times report on any of this when their own leadership is implicated? And how does their current CEO, a woman, live with herself knowing her boss and his family were in bed with Epstein?This brings us to the larger question: why won't DOJ prosecute? We're approaching 20 years of failure to hold powerful men accountable, going back to the original Florida investigation. The feds stepped in, gave Epstein a sweetheart non-prosecution deal that covered him and all his co-conspirators — an agreement so broad that Ghislaine Maxwell could legally argue she should never have been charged. The same pattern played out with Diddy: federal Rico charges that are notoriously hard to prove, when state charges could have been devastating. It's almost like someone is intentionally choosing the path of least resistance.But here's what gives us hope: the children are watching. Ronan Farrow became the journalist who took down Harvey Weinstein perhaps because he watched his father — Woody Allen — continue to operate freely in Hollywood after marrying Ronan's stepsister. Ronan saw the world welcome Woody into rooms, including dinners with Jeffrey Epstein, and he said enough. He held the grownups accountable when no one else would. The next generation won't stay silent about what their parents' generation allowed. Your children will know what institutions you chose to represent, what cases you chose to take, what stories you chose to kill.The uncomfortable truth is this: the rule of law only exists to the extent we're willing to enforce it. When powerful men at law firms, media outlets, and government agencies protect each other, they're telling the rest of us the rules don't apply to them. And they're right — unless we demand accountability. The silence ends when we refuse to be complicit.#EpsteinFiles #Accountability #PowerAndPrivilege #InvestigativeJournalism
Samantha Ettus and Amy Nelson interviewed Melinda Gates on their podcast, What's Her Story with Sam and Amy. It turned out to be Melinda's last pre-divorce discussion. We asked her what she and Bill fought about - and Melinda did NOT say Jeffrey Epstein. But now we know. With this as a starting point, Sam and Amy invite you to join their daily dive into the Epstein Files. From the salacious to the tragic, this saga never seems to end. Who will it catch next




