Epstein Files Special: Prince Andrew Arrested, Global Network, Mythology, Reid Hoffman Files

**David Sacks** (0:00)
Okay, everyone, by popular demand, we're doing an all-Epstein show today. My besties are all on vacation for ski week, so I'm taking this on solo. We have three different guests on who all have very different interpretations and opinions of the Epstein story. Saagar Enjeti from Breaking Points believes that the Epstein story shows that there is a quote unquote Epstein class that operates above law and accountability. He views the story as an indictment of our ruling elites. Michael Tracey is skeptical about many of the most delicious claims about Epstein and questions whether they meet any kind of evidentiary standard. He has criticized the media-feeding frenzy over what he has called Epstein mythology. And finally, Kevin Bass, a citizen journalist, has been tracking the release files and posting his findings on X, specifically in regards to Reid Hoffman, perhaps the figure in tech most closely associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Some of it gets heated, but hopefully you'll come away with new perspectives and great information. I felt like it was important to showcase a range of viewpoints on this issue. I'm trying to keep an open mind, and I'll describe my own point of view at the end of the show. And with that, here we go. Saagar, let me start with you. What is the import of the arrest of Prince Andrew in the UK this morning? I mean, is this a case of show us the man and we'll tell you the crime? I mean, obviously it seems kind of coincidental that he's not being arrested for misconduct in the Epstein affair. He's being arrested on mishandling, I guess, trade secrets or public documents. So obviously the timing of this is not coincidental.

**Saagar Enjeti** (1:36)
No, it's certainly not coincidental, but I do believe that the facts do matter in this case. And unfortunately, you know, for Prince Andrew, for Lord Mandelson, the former ambassador to the United States from the UK as well, it is pretty clear cut that they did violate their official duties. We should remember that the crux of this case involving Andrew is not just about some of the accusations that were made, although that is the genesis, let's say of the investigation of the interest. This is about Prince Andrew serving as a UK trade advisor and forwarding non-public information to Jeffrey Epstein has been released that's currently in the file. Some of it is involving scheduling. However, Gordon Brown this morning said that he had actually shared some new information with Scotland Yard in the police. So none, it's not exactly just what's in the file, but it could potentially be other material that Gordon Brown and the chancellery were able to investigate as to what Prince Andrew was sharing as part of a broader probe into Lord Mandelson and the tip off that he gave to Jeffrey Epstein about an upcoming bailout. And I do think that this does reveal quite a lot about Jeffrey Epstein. The next is the genesis of his rise to power, his wealth and his influence. Something that involved, let's say even some of the co-hosts, let's say on this very podcast, which is a deep financial knowledge of money laundering networks, of trying to be at the very forefront of moving money across the globe, which I believe is his real power and his influence, which is what enabled much of the behavior that much of the public is now horrified by.

**David Sacks** (3:05)
Okay, wait, I can't let that just go by. What do you mean by involving co-hosts of this podcast?

**Saagar Enjeti** (3:09)
Well, I'm talking about Jason. I actually thought that the Jason email was very interesting. So you'll see that in 2011, that Jeffrey Epstein is contacting Jason about Bitcoin. This is by, I saw, I watched your discussion. I'm not implicating him in any crime. I'm saying if you watch and look at that email very closely, you are watching Jeffrey Epstein, a master money launderer and financial mastermind himself, be at the forefront of the Bitcoin technology and wondering about it in 2011, which as Jason even pointed out in the last episode that you guys did about this, when Bitcoin was some $1 and some sort of open source project. Like to me, that shows how at the forefront he was of new technology and new ways to move money surreptitiously across the globe, which is what I believe was his real strength and his basically, his raison d'etre for being so useful to all of these different foreign governments and intelligence assets including ours, Russia, Israel, various different Israeli or various different intelligence networks across the globe.

**David Sacks** (4:14)
Yeah. Let me just for viewers this episode who didn't see that episode, let me just summarize what exactly happened there because I want to just make sure that Jason's reputation is not unfairly impugned. And I don't think you're doing that, but just to be absolutely clear about it. What happened was that Jason hosted an episode of This Week in Startups roughly, I think in 2011 with a couple of the Bitcoin Core founders. And then Epstein reached out to him for an introduction to those people. I thought, and one of my takeaways from that was, like you said, Saagar, that Epstein was extraordinarily early to Bitcoin. He clearly had a nose for putting himself in the middle of things. I think 2011 is when I discovered Bitcoin. So that was relatively early. I thought it was almost comical the way that Jason was trying to warn Epstein, oh, you don't want to meet these guys.