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Julie K. Brown: In Pursuit of Justice

Introduction to Julie K. Brown. 1:39 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Videography: Lee Skye. Music: Jahzzar. Recorded 11/21/2021. Miami Book Fair.

JULIE K. BROWN is an investigative journalist for the Miami Herald, best known for pursuing the sex trafficking story surrounding multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. She is the recipient of several awards including two George Polk Awards for Justice Reporting.

Epstein was first arrested and convicted in 2008, but received a lenient prison sentence brokered by U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, which also provided anonymity to Epstein’s powerful friends like Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton. However, when President Trump nominated Acosta for the position of Secretary of Labor, Julie Brown, who was raised by a single mother in Philadelphia and had her own share of adolescent troubles, decided to dig in, find some of Epstein’s victims, and uncover the truth. Brown’s empathy for the girls, “I could have been one of them,” motivated her to surmount the dangerous barriers that Epstein and his minions erected.

“Brown’s resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes and then turning them into recruiters.” – Amazon

Arrested again on July 6, 2019, Epstein was expecting to spend the rest of his life in jail. On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell under mysterious circumstances. When the medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, Epstein’s brother hired a well-known outside medical examiner who came to a different conclusion.

After going into hiding, Epstein’s accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested on July 2, 2020, and was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Julie Brown’s book about the Epstein case and her investigative reporting, “Perversion of Justice,” was published by HarperCollins on July 20, 2021. It reads like “All the President’s Men.”

“Julie K. Brown’s important book offers not just a definitive account of the Epstein case, but a compelling window into her own experiences as a dogged reporter at a regional newspaper, facing off against powerful interests set against her reporting.” —Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Catch and Kill

The videos below are organized by success factor, and run between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 0:50 sec.

Throughout “Perversion of Justice,” your book about Jeffrey Epstein, I got the sense that you were implying that when you were a teenager, you could have been one of his victims.

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: o:55 sec.

Did your experiences of a troubled adolescence, and your empathy for Epstein’s victims, make you doubly determined to pursue his story and get it right?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:01 min.

Do you assume that Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed the powerful, wealthy people he cultivated??

EMPATHY: 2:11 min.

We have seen that the problem of famous, powerful, wealthy older men having sex with vulnerable young girls is much more pervasive than we realized — a problem spotlighted by the Weinstein case and the #metoo movement. What are your thoughts about that?

RESILIENCE: 0:43 sec.

Did you ever get physically close to Jeffrey Epstein, and how did that impact you?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:38 min.

Do you think that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in prison?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 1:21 min.

Why does the media continue to refer to Jeffrey Epstein’s death in prison as a suicide when most people believe he was murdered?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:27 min.

Do you think that Ghislaine Maxwell’s life is in danger in prison? Or do you think they would never murder her because the public would demand a full investigation of her death?

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 0:58 sec.

At what point did you decide to write a book about your pursuit of the Jeffrey Epstein story?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:38 min.

How do you account for a woman like Ghislaine Maxwell, who mixed with the top echelons of society, becoming so deeply involved with Epstein’s version of sex trafficking? Was she a sex addict?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:12 min.

There were many people who interacted with Epstein, but you avoided following too many trails in your reporting.

COLLABORATION: 1:26 min.

One of the elements of your book that I especially like is your portrayal of the videographer who became your teammate.

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 1:09 min.

Another high-profile person who became part of Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit was Alan Dershowitz. I know some of his Harvard law students who revered him. How could he be so morally bankrupt?

DEVELOP A VOICE: 0:47 sec.