The Dubins Exit Mount Sinai as Old Epstein Questions Resurface (Part 1) (10/26/26)

Epstein survivors have publicly challenged Lesley Groff's testimony before Congress, arguing that her portrayal of herself as someone who knew nothing about Epstein's abuse operation is fundamentally incompatible with their experiences. During her June 2026 testimony, Groff described Epstein as a "master manipulator" who kept his criminal conduct hidden from her and insisted that she never knowingly scheduled appointments for minors or witnessed abuse. But several survivors told CNN and other outlets that Groff was far more deeply involved than she admitted, alleging that she arranged logistics, handled payments, possessed identifying documents that would have revealed victims' ages, and was present during key moments in Epstein's operation.

Prince Andrew’s Epstein scandal was not something that simply happened to him; it grew out of a series of decisions he made himself. He maintained a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein even after Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2010, and was photographed walking with him in Central Park during that same visit. Those choices destroyed any plausible claim that Andrew had been unknowingly caught in Epstein’s orbit before the financier’s crimes became public. He then compounded the damage with his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, where his explanations for his relationship with Epstein and his responses to Virginia Giuffre’s allegations were widely viewed as evasive, implausible and astonishingly tone-deaf. Instead of ending the controversy, the interview intensified scrutiny and turned Andrew himself into one of the central figures in the Epstein fallout.

Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested by the FBI on July 2, 2020, at a secluded property in Bradford, New Hampshire, nearly a year after Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody. Prosecutors alleged that Maxwell had played a central role in Epstein’s abuse operation during the 1990s, accusing her of helping identify, recruit, groom and transport underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. The indictment charged her with conspiracy and transportation-related offenses involving minors, as well as two counts of perjury stemming from testimony she had given in an earlier civil case. Her arrest ended months of speculation over her whereabouts after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death, during which Maxwell had largely disappeared from public view.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) concluded that former Barclays CEO Jes Staley misled regulators about the depth of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The FCA determined that Staley “recklessly approved” misleading statements in a 2019 letter sent by Barclays, which downplayed his contact with Epstein and suggested their relationship had ended long before his tenure at the bank. In reality, correspondence revealed an ongoing relationship that continued for years after Epstein’s first conviction. The FCA ruled that Staley’s conduct demonstrated a lack of integrity and transparency expected of senior banking officials and issued a penalty totaling £1.8 million alongside a ban preventing him from holding any senior management or key function roles in the UK financial sector.

In December 2010, Prince Andrew was photographed taking a casual stroll through New York’s Central Park alongside Jeffrey Epstein—just days after Epstein had completed a 13-month jail sentence for soliciting sex from a minor. The image, captured by a paparazzo and later published globally, showed the Duke of York walking shoulder-to-shoulder with a convicted sex offender, deep in conversation. The timing of the meeting and the relaxed nature of their interaction sent shockwaves through Buckingham Palace and ignited a public firestorm, as it contradicted any attempt to downplay the depth of Andrew’s relationship with Epstein. Far from a mere social encounter, this post-prison rendezvous strongly implied that Andrew maintained ties with Epstein even after his crimes were widely known.