Hugh Hefner tried to warn the FBI about Epstein — new docs show they ignored him

https://www.rawstory.com/hugh-hefner-jeffrey-epstein/?l

796 points · 76 comments · view on lemmy.world

76 Comments

the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 247 pts · 2d (27 replies)

The kicker is that Hugh Hefner was a god awful person him self. If someone like him saw red flags with Epstein then they must have been unimaginably horrific.

Montagge@lemmy.zip · 55 pts · 2d (26 replies)

Or he didn't like the competition

JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 172 pts · 2d (24 replies)

Hefner had a very specific type, and it wasn't children. Still a terrible person, just not a pedophile.

Montagge@lemmy.zip · -28 pts · 2d (23 replies)

That type being barely legal?

JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 181 pts · 2d (7 replies)

He had a kink for the blonde bombshells/pinup girls of his youth. Full bodied women with a "girl next door" quality (his gross words, not mine). Epstein and Trump preferred jailbait. Where Hefner liked sex with women he objectified, Epstein and Trump liked to rape, abuse and have power over girls. In my opinion, Hefner was gross, but Epstein and Trump are evil.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm not a fan of Heffner, but to equate him to Epstein and Trump waters down the gravity of what Epstein and Trump did. That's why I make the distinction.

dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net · 25 pts · 2d (6 replies)

Can we not use the term “jailbait?” It connotes a willing-but-underage person, rather than someone who has been manipulated or coerced into an abuse situation.

JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 32 pts · 2d (2 replies)

I don't think "willing" has been a primary defining factor for the word ever since the /r/jailbait thing. That yuck factor is why I chose the word (that place was a cesspool). Regardless, I am very open to suggestions for a replacement. I don't mean that aggressively, I genuinely would love a different word with that much baggage that really puts into perspective how foul men like Trump are.

dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 2d

I appreciate your view that in the context of that subreddit the term connotes a yuck factor, I also bring the context of 70s/80s songs like “Jailbait” implying that young teenage girls were willing participants in what were actually predatory relationships.

I think simply calling them children makes the criminality clear without any questionable connotations.

ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 2d

I’m somewhat in favor of using yucky words for giving nuance as long as the rest of the text implies you’re not one to use the phrases in an earnest way.

I’ve had mixed results on Lemmy with words like “homemaker” when trying to discuss a specific kind of social expectation, and then got immediately told off for using it. I never use it. It was the right word in the moment.

Maybe write “what they’re gleefully call X” instead of “X” and it would keep the yuck factor of putting the word there without seeming like you’re taking the word at face value

pilferjinx@piefed.social · 9 pts · 2d (1 reply)

Is there another word that perfectly encapsulates the specific intent of the abuser. I don't think woman want to be objectified or raped in those terms.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 2d

Children is the word. They enjoy raping children.

nullspace@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d

Posts like this are what activated Trump's voterbase pre-2016.

Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 2d (11 replies)

"barely legal" is such a disingenuous attack.

Is it legal? Yes. What's the problem? Something will always be "barely legal". Even if we decide that it's immoral and make it illegal, something else will still always be "barely legal".

If you think something is immoral, then just say so. If a bunch of consenting adults do something that doesn't harm anyone, mind your own business.

Fawkes@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 1d (5 replies)

Honestly, the obsession with 18 Specifically is also disingenuous. Many countries consider 16 to be an appropriate age. Some consider 18 to be too young. This obsession of "18 okay. 17 A LITERAL INFANT!!!" is just ridiculous. And I would bet money that this comment will have people clutching their pearls and accusing me of being a predator.

underscores@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 1d (1 reply)

it's specifically stupid when it's high schoolers dating, omg one is 18 and one is 17 !!!!!

Fawkes@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 1d

The US has literally charged teenagers for distributing CP, because they exchanged pictures with each other.... The entire country is just fuckin' bonkers.

Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1d (1 reply)

More than that, if the legal age of consent was 40, then 41 would be "barely legal". Why do people use the term negatively (or positively for that matter). It's just so arbitrary.

Fawkes@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 1d

Because it's moral posturing. I saw a post not long ago for an advertisement for alcohol-free beer. Clearly targeted at late teens and early 20's, and it was called "Under-Age beer! Great for driving!" And there were swarms of people complaining that "Advertising beer to children is awful!"

Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d

Believe it or not, most of the US has the age of consent below 18, even before factoring in Romeo and Juliette laws. I'm sure there are some restrictions on making use of that information, use of sex toys being banned being one of them if I recall and making porn being banned until 18 regardless, but 18 is hardly a universal thing even here.

IronBird@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d (3 replies)

i mean...still scouted girls while they were underage/in highschools iirc, the bar to beat is running international pedophile sex-trafficking blackmail ring though so...sure. better than epstein

whereitsat@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 21h (2 replies)

do you have a point here?

if a teenage girl has a choice between college or posing for playboy, the studious teenage girls aren't going to choose playboy, and if they do, it's to fund their college education. the promiscuous, body confident girls are DEFINITELY going to choose playboy.

good for them.

who the fuck cares about this other than annoying, self-righteous fucks who try and speak for every single person? it's their decision. if someone came up to me right now and said 'eat a weeks worth of my turds and i'll give you 100k' i probably wouldn't fucking do it.

posing nude isn't really the same thing as this but you act like it is. the girl who posed nude probably landed some rich husband or possibly gained a modeling career. i doubt many of them ended up on welfare and in the end their path was less exploitative than a typical lower-class life in america, tits or not.

those girls exploited the system with their bodies--something that women give away for far less every single day; your average only fans model makes less than a playboy centerfold.

Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 20h

if a teenage girl has a choice between college or posing for playboy, the studious

You have no idea what you're talking about. Plenty of girls with opportunity and means for a better life get abused and manipulated into joining the sex industry every day. You don't have the slightest understanding of the sex industry and why or why not some girls join.

IronBird@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 21h

i'm just saying there was alot more to rhe playboy empire than just...nudie magazines. plenty of girls were effecticely kept hostage in that mansion

only compared to scale of running international pedophile/rape trafficking ring does what hughe did look good by comparison. he drew the line at raping kids apparently, hardly praise worthy

Montagge@lemmy.zip · -14 pts · 2d

Wow that's really brave of you to admit

postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2d (2 replies)

Barely Legal was published Larry Flynt i think.

Montagge@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2d (1 reply)

Oh you

nomy@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2d

Pornographer and American Hero, Larry Flynt.

the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 2d

Well thats a depressing thought but it sounds plausible.

SGGeorwell@lemmy.world · 98 pts · 2d (4 replies)

Reported to FBI in 2005, didn’t hear back until 2020. So that’s Robert Mueller, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe as directors during those 15 years FBI ignored her. It was three years into Chris Wray’s tenure that she finally got a call back. And a year after the perp DIED. Jesus fuckin Christ

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 45 pts · 2d (1 reply)

Yeah, when it comes to Epstein, multiple presidents from both parties have some splainin to do.

Almacca@aussie.zone · 30 pts · 2d

Not just presidents, the entire justice system.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 2d

they were definitely slow-walking it, under biden too.

LilBobbyTables@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 1d

Yeah it seems the fbi, or someone even higher up, were under Epsteins thumb. Going by the comments in here most people won’t like this, but Trump reported Epstein and Maxwell to the FBI in 2006 as well:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sofiachierchio/2026/02/09/trump-reportedly-called-police-about-epstein-in-2006-said-ghislaine-maxwell-was-evil/

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 95 pts · 2d

"Listen, I'm Hugh Hefner, but that guy is DEPRAVED!"

Buffalox@lemmy.world · 85 pts · 2d (15 replies)

Goddammit, imagine if they had investigated, how much better the world could be!

Witchfire@lemmy.world · 172 pts · 2d (7 replies)

They knew. They didn't investigate on purpose. Fucking conspiracy theorists went crazy thinking there was a child trafficking ring in the basement on a one story pizzeria, but now gobble their cucklord's pedophilic nuts

orclev@lemmy.world · 79 pts · 2d (6 replies)

That's because it was never about the paedophilia, the only reason they worked themselves into a lather is because they thought it was a Democrat run child trafficking ring. Accuse a Republican of literally anything and they don't give a shit but the second you accuse a Democrat of so much as jaywalking and they'll turn it into a national emergency.

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 2d (1 reply)

During Trump's first term it came out that Roy Moore, an Alabama Republican running for Senate, was a rapist and a pedophile (naturally he was Trump's endorsed candidate).

Not only did Moore not drop out of the race, he almost won the election. And he only lost because enough Democrats showed up to vote for his opponent - the Republican voters still mostly supported Moore even after he admitted to going after teenagers.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 2d

i remember that election, it was insane how much support he still had, and the msms immediately shut up about reporting on moore.

sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 19 pts · 2d

Jayghazi

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d

accuse a Democrat of so much as jaywalking and they’ll turn it into a national emergency

Or wearing a tan suit.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 2d

also so many billionaires funding dinos and gop are in to, to expose them would end that money train, thats why they have the MSMs running inteference.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d

Looking at the Instagram of James Alefantis, it most certainly was about paedophilia. He has been protected just like Epstein.

snooggums@piefed.world · 59 pts · 2d (3 replies)

They probably investigated and found out it would impact the ruling class so they dropped it.

BussyGyatt@feddit.org · 20 pts · 2d (1 reply)

my money's on it was a honeypot run by israel to entrap us leaders, was wildly successful beyond the wildest expectations, the fbi caught on to it after a bit and rather than, y'know, doing the right thing, they decided they wanted to also have the dirt on the us leadership.

huey_m@piefed.social · 10 pts · 2d

I've wondered if it's just straight up the latter. Entities like the CIA or FBI going rogue against elected government isn't exactly unheard of...

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 1d

in which the ruling class installed the FBI heads themselves. epstein was more of a liability than ghislaine, because he was the head of the operation.

orclev@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 2d

Trump would be in jail right now.

danc4498@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 2d

This implies they didn’t know what was going on.

DandomRude@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 2d

They still aren't doing that, quite the opposite, in fact, which shows who's really running the U.S. and what a farce this so called democracy is—the very democracy they supposedly always defend around the world. For example, in Israel, which also had the very best connections to Epstein, as evidenced even by the little information that the so-called U.S. law enforcement agencies are willing to disclose.

Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 2d (2 replies)

I despise Hefner usually, this is the first time I can think of where he's been somewhat honorable.

How disgusting is that? Hefner was actually too good to hang out with Epstein, Trump, Clinton, et al

hansolo@lemmy.today · 17 pts · 1d (1 reply)

He's one of those cases where he's 90% horrible, 10% making good points. He fought media censorship for obvious reasons for a long time, and was on the right side of history for that, at least.

cmbabul@slrpnk.net · 12 pts · 1d

We all can and should shit on Hugh Hefner, but one thing he wasn’t was stupid. Apparently another thing he wasn’t was a child rapist.

Good on you Hef for not being the biggest piece of shit alive, at the time, I guess

rumba@lemmy.zip · 45 pts · 1d

I did NOT have that on my bingo card....

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 25 pts · 2d (3 replies)

I think I remember this from a Behind the Bastards episode from way back when, maybe 2020.

Or maybe I'm confusing two BtB stories, in any case in one Playboy helped the abused & exploited woman become independent and also gave emotional support. (or was it You're Wrong About? Damn.)

In any case, the true Epstein story was known for basically ever (even before Q-Anon) and he was just never investigated properly, even though multiple victims came forward ages ago. Which is somehow even more shocking.

His (first) time in jail was a joke btw, he was allowed to go home to do office work every day...

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 2d (2 replies)

Clearly, there was a lot more going on than we've ever been told, and it was well-known at the highest level of our government for multiple administrations from BOTH parties. Both sides covered this up, and are STILL covering it up.

We need to expose ever tiny detail, and destroy whoever gets destroyed. It's time to clean house of many years of accumulated scum, and if it destroys reputations and careers, that's too bad. That's what you get for covering for MONSTERS.

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 5 pts · 2d

it was well-known at the highest level of our government

It was public. Robert Evans could make a well-researched episode about him in 2019, with public sources that reach much further back.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d

Or we can just make your government irrelevant by allowing America's economic, cultural and geopolitical power to collapse. That seems like the more likely option.

Akh@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 2d (4 replies)

Because half the fbi were probably clients of Epstein

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 2d (3 replies)

How much do you think FBI agents are getting paid?

Akh@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 2d (2 replies)

Epstien had two clients, the rich, and those in power

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 2d (1 reply)

That's a handful of top brass, not half the organization.

Akh@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d

You say that, but seems like the entire organization is defending them

NABDad@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d (8 replies)

It's kind of a shame. If only Hugh Hefner knew any journalists or publishers. They could have done an exposé.

Not blaming Hugh for Epstein's crimes, but...did it not even occur to him?

whereitsat@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 22h (1 reply)

why was it his responsibility? he passed the knowledge onto the proper authorities. he did the right thing.

maybe he didn't want to jeopardize an investigation by publishing hearsay. maybe he thought they were investigating.

what a silly comment. lol @ the upvotes.

NABDad@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 18h

I would argue that it was his responsibility as a publisher. Otherwise, what's the point of hiring journalists?

The reason a free press is important in a democracy is to hold the proper authorities responsible when they don't do their job.

kuhli@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 1d (2 replies)

I mean, he probably assumed the FBI wasn't able to get enough evidence or something

NABDad@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 1d (1 reply)

But why wouldn't he just do something like, "Hey Bob (or whoever), put someone on the Epstein story. Someone who can do some digging."

Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 20h

Same reason nobody else really has, they're vicious gangsters, they kill innocent people. If they rape children en masse they have no qualms killing an investigator.

BlaestEgnen@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 1d (2 replies)

I'm not sure people would had respected a piece of proper journalism published in PlayBoy

NABDad@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 22h

I'm very sure you're wrong. From the briefest of searches:

Hugh Hefner’s Playboy did a lot of great journalism. Here are a few highlights.

CalypsoGirl@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 20h

Especially a piece of proper journalism in a sexual impropriety publication, calling someone out for sexual impropriety...🤔 Yeah I'm afraid it wouldn't've landed right.

someguy3@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 2d (1 reply)

I was going to quote parts but it's short and worth just reading.

sem@piefed.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 2d

Here is the text for anyone here in the comments:

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner notified the FBI of Jeffrey Epstein and reported that a Playmate was sexually abused and trafficked by the late financier, according to new court documents reported this week.

The FBI reportedly ignored several of Hefner's tips about Epstein for 15 years, according to NewsNation.

Court records show that Audra Christiansen, a former Playboy Playmate, told Hefner in 2005 that she was an Epstein survivor and asked Hefner to contact the FBI. She suggested that authorities would be more likely to take his call over hers because of his status.

ALSO READ: 'God's money': White House enrages with vow that public cash belongs to evangelicals

Hefner died in 2017 at age 91.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, in her Substack, reported on the legal complaint, which was filed by 34 Epstein survivors against the United States in the Southern District of Florida.

[... ad redacted]

In the court document, the FBI agreed to assist Christiansen and investigate her claims. But Christiansen apparently did not hear from the FBI until October 2020.

"For about fifteen years, the FBI did not investigate Ms. Christiansen’s tips or follow up on her allegations," according to the court documents.

The documents revealed that Christiansen met the late convicted child sex offender, and "before she knew it she was naked and raped by Epstein" and "trafficked for 10 years."

"The complaint alleges the FBI did not investigate the model’s claim and by not doing 'violated mandatory policies and protocols requiring it to investigate claims, like Ms. Christiansen’s, of child sexual abuse and trafficking' and 'failing to investigate credible tips, such as Ms. Christiansen’s allegations, the FBI created a foreseeable zone of risk to future victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise, including Plaintiffs,'" NewsNation reported.

IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 2d

No shit... Espstein is a part of same the FBI and CIA play.

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d

lots of clients in their ranks no doubt