Epstein Was Just the Tip of the Iceberg: How Blackmail Subverts Democracy

Blackmail is a weapon used by intelligence agencies with the purpose of destroying reputations, protecting criminal activities of the powerful, attacking activists, and influencing policies and laws.

Update, 3/9/25: At its best, the #MeToo movement sparked a powerful cultural awakening, exposing patterns of sexual abuse that had long been covered up—particularly in the entertainment industry. Yet despite its important impact, #MeToo stopped short of confronting the most egregious forms of sexual abuse at the highest levels of power.

At WantToKnow.info,we are dedicated to shining a light into the darkest corners of the world, bringing us together in service to the greater good and collective transformation on this planet. We've archived over 800 stories of verifiable sexual abuse scandals—exposing cover-ups in the Catholic Church, government agencies, the medical establishment, the military-industrial complex, Hollywood’s pedophilia networks, and beyond. We’ve also created a dedicated news category archive on Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring, where hundreds of underage girls were trafficked to the rich and powerful for decades. When undeniable evidence of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring was brought to light in court in 2008, the whole system shielded him and his associates from the gravity of his crimes.

The fight for transparency in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case is intensifying as Attorney General Pam Bondi recently revealed her office has received a "truckload" of new evidence, promising to release the full files to the public. Despite previous claims that all files had been handed over, Bondi now alleges that thousands of pages have been withheld by the FBI and the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. While some documents were released recently, it largely consisted of flight logs and a heavily redacted contact book.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, tasked with overseeing the declassification of Epstein files, slammed the recent Epstein document release as a distraction that obscured key evidence, revealing that her declassification task force was neither provided nor allowed to review the files. She also stated that while she and her panel have demanded the full Epstein client list and all related documents, they do not have classification authority. This leaves the decision to release key files solely in the hands of the attorney general.

This consolidation of authority in the attorney general's office raises serious questions, especially in light of the other powerful government officials who over the years protected Epstein, a convicted child sex offender. Below, we present the best of our research connecting Epstein's sex trafficking network to a long history of sexual blackmail operations involving the highest levels of power.

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Starting from the late 70s, wealthy lobbyist and socialite Craig Spence ran a sexual blackmail operation in D.C. involving underage boys where "call boys" would go on "midnight tours" of the White House. According to obtained credit card records, clients included key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, US military officers, businessmen, lawyers, bankers, congressional aides, and media stars.

Many of these parties also took place at Spence’s house, which was bugged and had secret two-way mirrors used to spy on guests. According to Spence's body guards and various associates, Spence provided cocaine and secretly filmed people in compromising sexual encounters with the intent of extortion and blackmail.

When the ring was exposed, Spence died under mysterious circumstances. Similar to Epstein’s death, Spence’s death was quickly ruled as a suicide.

Shortly before his death, Spence told associates and reporters that he worked for the CIA, and that the call-boy operation was being investigated by federal authorities as a possible CIA front. Spence admitted that the CIA was using the service to compromise federal intelligence officials and foreign diplomats. He told them that "his life was over" now that the sex ring was exposed, and that "Casey’s boys are out to get me," referring to then-CIA director William Casey.

According to Boston detectives handling the investigation, next to Spence’s deceased body was a newspaper clipping detailing efforts to initiate legislation that would give protection to CIA agents called upon to testify before the government.

What you have to understand, John [DeCamp], is that sometimes there are forces and events too big, too powerful, with so much at stake for other people or institutions, that you cannot do anything about them, not matter how evil or wrong they are and no matter how dedicated or sincere you are or how much evidence you have. That is simply one of the hard facts of life you have to face. You have done your part. You have tried to expose the evil and wrongdoing. It has hurt you terribly. But it has not killed you up to this point. I am telling you, get out of this before it does. Sometimes things are just too big for us to deal with, and we have to step aside and let history take its course. For you, John, this is one of those times. – Former CIA Director William Colby, The Franklin Cover-Up

After serving as a Nebraska State Senator, lawyer, and decorated Vietnam War veteran, John DeCamp dedicated himself to investigating the Franklin Scandal. His book The Franklin Cover-Up investigates the 1988 shutdown of Omaha's Franklin Community Federal Credit Union, where $40 million was discovered missing under the management of multi-millionaire businessman and former chair of the Nebraska Black Republican Council Lawrence E. "Larry" King.

This financial scandal became part of a much larger conspiracy that involved a nationwide child abuse ring, pornography, drug trafficking, and credible allegations of ritual murder. The Franklin scandal was a series of official investigations involving the Nebraska State Legislature, state and federal grand juries, disturbing court testimonies, and sealed records. It was discovered that many of the children involved came from the foster care system, and were flown across US and sexually abused by officials and elites at the highest levels of power. In his book, DeCamp discovered a network of CIA sexual blackmail operations, some of which connected the Franklin Scandal to Spence's blackmail ring through credit card records.

More than a dozen people investigating the Franklin case died under mysterious circumstances. State and federal grand juries concluded that the allegations were unfounded, labeling them a "carefully crafted hoax." Alleged victims who came forward with their stories of abuse were not only dismissed but sentenced to 9-15 years in prison for perjury.

If the allegations were baseless, why did a civil court find Larry King liable and award Paul Bonacci $1 million in damages due to the sustained abuse and psychological trauma he endured involving organized child abuse, sex trafficking, and satanic rituals?

Below, DeCamp recalls his interaction with Judge Enbody, a Nebraska Supreme Court appointee for these hearings. DeCamp later learned that Judge Embody had just been appointed to the Court of Appeals, a very substantial advancement in his career that likely ensured the case was handled in a way that protected certain individuals.

"I do not understand it, Your Honor," I kept repeating. "As God is my witness, I do not think that there is a judge or other person involved in this case who does not know that horrible injustice has been done. Your Honor, a person has to be deaf, dumb, blind, and totally dishonest, not to know that some of this state's and nation's top businessmen and public officials have engaged in the worst crimes possible, which are now being covered up. And these kids, instead of being honored and protected for exposing these things, are being sent to prison. Why? Why? Why?"

Judge Enbody looked at me. Slowly, his voice shaking, he began to talk. "I am just a man. I am not a god. I wish I were. I have no choice in what I have done. I am just a man, just a man, not a god," Judge Enbody concluded. He appeared even more shaken and upset than I was.

What they all have done, and will continue to do: Protect the "system" at all costs. The "system" is the only ultimate sacred cow-not any particular law or constitution, but only "the system." Because, ultimately, it is the system which makes certain that the individuals functioning within it-from judges to lawyers, to prosecutors, to politicians, to businessmenhave their places and positions, and opportunities and pecking order, and future."

And Then Comes Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein was a shadowy billionaire who trafficked hundreds of young women and minors for the rich and powerful — from politicians, royal family members, celebrities, former presidents and world leaders, scientists, business tycoons, and other power elites. According to Epstein’s close associates, Epstein managed money for clients with mega-fortunes and claimed to be a "high-level bounty hunter" for governments and wealthy clients around the world. For decades, dozens of girls as young as middle school age were lured, groomed, and paid in cash for sex with Epstein and his clients. These girls were instructed to recruit other vulnerable girls, many of them at-risk and/or homeless.

Epstein’s ties to the rich and the powerful seems to have allowed him to continue to rape and sex traffic teenagers. Transcripts show that the grand jury heard testimony that Epstein, who was then in his 40s, had raped teenage girls as young as 14 at his Palm Beach mansion. [A] teenager ... told detectives that she was 17 years old when she was approached by a friend who said she could make $200 by providing a massage at Epstein’s home. Epstein told her that he would pay her if she brought other “girls” to his home. “And he told her, ‘The younger, the better,’” [Palm Beach Police Det. Joe] Recarey said.
—"Florida prosecutors knew Epstein raped teenage girls 2 years before cutting deal," CNN

When undeniable evidence of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring was brought to light in court in 2008, the whole system shielded him and his associates from the gravity of his crimes. What would’ve been a federal indictment for life in prison turned into one of the most lenient deals for a serial child sex offender in history, landing him only 13 months in county jail. Most shockingly, his sentence would shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes.

The person who signed off on this "sweetheart deal" for Epstein was Miami’s top federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta. It was revealed that he was told "Epstein belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Years later, Acosta would become the US Secretary of Labor from 2017-2019, whose purview included combating human trafficking.

After Epstein's conviction in 2008, Epstein continued his sex trafficking operations until his arrest in 2019.

Major news outlets, including ABC News, suppressed key evidence in the Epstein case, with journalist Amy Robach admitting her network "quashed the story" after pressure from the British royal family and powerful figures like Alan Dershowitz. Epstein used legal threats, intimidation, and even a $30,000 donation to a New York Times reporter’s nonprofit to influence coverage.

What could possibly be behind such powerful government protection of a convicted sex offender? After he became a convicted sex offender, why was Epstein meeting with high-level officials including CIA director William Burns and former White House counsel under President Barack Obama? Could it be that Epstein was running a sexual blackmail operation similar to Spence's?

According to court papers, "Epstein wired his mansion with hidden cameras, secretly recording orgies involving his prominent friends and underage girls. The ultimate purpose: blackmail." Former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that Epstein was running a sexual blackmail operation on behalf of Israeli military intelligence.

Blackmail is Embedded in Our Political Machinery

Blackmail has always been used as a weapon by intelligence agencies. It's a method of coercion used to control events from the shadows, providing a window into how elites exercise influence over each other.

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee recently alleged that many House members were deciding to vote based on "compromising material about them held by powerful interests," both foreign and domestic. American political commentator Jesse Watters speculated that any criminal information found on Hunter Biden's laptop could provide leverage for blackmailing President Joe Biden.

Blackmail typically involves collecting information that could expose affairs, drug use, sexual abuse, or other illicit activities. By threatening to expose damaging information, blackmailers force their victims to do their bidding.

Blackmail subverts democracy by compromising government officials, making it impossible for them to serve the interest of the people or perform their duties correctly. Instead, they’re forced to serve the interests of the blackmailer. Checks and balances can't apply to blackmail.

When government agencies gather intelligence for reasons of national security, we’re told the purpose is to protect us. Our research suggests otherwise. High-level NSA whistleblowers revealed how mass surveillance is primarily used for political blackmail with the purpose of deceiving the public, destroying reputations, protecting criminal activities of the powerful, attacking activist movements, and influencing policies and laws.

NSA and CIA: Spying and Sexual "Honey Traps"

The CIA secretly monitored and spied on the Senate intelligence committee, who were tasked with overseeing intelligence agency activities and reigning in abuses of power. The NSA stockpiled sexually explicit images of ordinary people and spied on people’s porn habits as part of a plan to discredit "radicalizers."

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the scope of illegal, state-sponsored mass surveillance programs (although the covert capability to monitor all communications existed long before Snowden’s revelations). Investigations by the Washington Post found that the intercepted communications of ordinary, everyday people with no connection to extremism far outnumbered legally targeted foreign entities. As former NSA intelligence official and whistleblower William Binney articulated, "The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control."

Former NSA analyst and whistleblower Russ Tice suggested that surveillance of high-ranking officials was a common procedure to collect intimate information capable of destroying reputations, inluding former president Barack Obama.

I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. They went after lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House–their own people. They went after antiwar groups. They went after U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs that–like the Red Cross, people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. — Russ Tice on the Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs podcast (Sibel Edmond was a former FBI staffer and National Security Whistleblowers Coalition founder)

Snowden’s files revealed the existence of the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Unit, a top secret British spy unit that worked with the NSA to spread false material on the internet in an effort to discredit or destroy reputations. One of the top ways they did this was the use of sexual "honey traps" to snare, blackmail, and influence their targets.

Next thing you know, you’re in a hotel room with them, naked. Next thing you know, you’re about to make a key vote, and what happens? Some well-dressed person comes up and whispers into your ear, ‘Hey, man, there’s tapes out on you. Were you in a motel room on whatever with whoever?’ And then you’re, like, ‘Uh-oh.’ And they say, ‘You really ought not be voting for this thing.’ — Rep. Tim Burchett, "GOP Congressman Stands By Accusation Some Fellow Members Have Been Compromised"

Operation Midnight Climax was a sub-project of Project MKULTRA, the unethical CIA mind-control research program that began in the 1950s. Prostitutes on the CIA payroll were instructed to lure clients, including US and foreign diplomats, back to CIA-run safehouses in New York and San Francisco. They were slipped LSD, and monitored and filmed behind one-way glasses. This program ran for 10 years, with a purpose to research the power of sexual blackmail, surveillance technology, and the possible use of mind-altering drugs in field operations. CIA agents would later blackmail diplomats into becoming informants.

They do not give a damn about the law or the Constitution or the Congress or the Oversight committees except as something to be subverted and manipulated and lied to. They ruin their detractors and they fear the truth. If they can, they will blackmail you. Sex, drugs, deals, whatever it takes." — Former CIA officer and Iran-Contra whistleblower Bruce Hemmings

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI's Blackmail Campaign

J. Edgar Hoover was the first director of the FBI, and served in office for 48 years. Having been blackmailed himself, allegedly by organized crime figures, Hoover understood the power of blackmail intimately.

While he was in power, he was given the green light to engage in unconstitutional, unchecked activities and crimes that involved spying on and collecting intimate information about America’s most powerful. Hoover surveilled politicians, presidents, at least 12 Supreme Court justices, and all types of activists and citizens who he deemed as enemies of the United States. An official count found Hoover had 883 files on senators and 722 more on congressmen.

Every president that Hoover served as FBI director was aware of his illegal activities. President Truman once wrote in his diary that a secret police or Gestapo wasn’t necessary for protecting establishment power because the FBI’s aggressive surveillance campaign was "dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail."

When activists broke into an FBI field office and discovered the top-secret COINTELPRO FBI program, it was confirmed that the FBI was spying on and infiltrating civil rights, anti-war and progressive groups to limit their political effectiveness. Senator Frank Church, who headed the first committee to investigate intelligence agency abuses, couldn’t have said it any better: the purpose of COINTELPRO was to destroy lives and ruin reputations.

Covert action is nothing more than a semantic disguise for murder, coercion, blackmail, bribery, the spreading of lies, whatever is deemed useful to bending other countries to our will. — Senator Frank Church

Hoover had a particular obsession with taking down Martin Luther King Jr., who was seen as a communist because of his passion for transforming economic inequality and ending the US war machine. Soon after Hoover began his vicious surveillance campaign against King, a blackmail letter was sent to King along with a tape allegedly recording his extramarital affairs.  The letter denounced him as a "a colossal fraud . . . and a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile ... Your 'honorary degrees,' your Nobel Prize (What a grim farce) . . . will not save you ... You are done ... There is only one thing left for you to do," the letter said. "You know what it is . . . There is but one way out . . . You better take it before your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self is bared to the nation."

Anthony Summers, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, wrote a biography on Hoover based on hundreds of insider interviews and secret documents. In his book, he wrote about Senator Edward Long, a Democrat from Missouri, who was going to conduct hearings on the FBI’s warrantless wiretapping activities.

A senior Hoover aide came to call, and the conversation went as follows: "Senator, I think you ought to read this file that we have on you. You know we would never use it, because you're a friend of ours… We just thought you ought to know the type of stuff that might get around and might be harmful to you… They handed him the folder… Long read it for a few minutes. [Then] they went on their way. The next thing I knew we had orders to skip over the FBI inquiries." — Anthony Summers, "The secret life of J Edgar Hoover"

An important final note

The risks and dangers of bribery are well understood in politics, yet the risks and dangers of blackmail are hidden and may be much more significant. Most of us want to believe that our government is run on democratic values. Yet so often, these values take a backseat to the hidden agendas of special interests seeming to be above the law.

When evidence of crime is used for blackmail purposes, the victims of these crimes—including sexually abused children—are irrelevant to the blackmailers. By failing to report these crimes and instead using them as leverage for blackmail, blackmailers make a mockery of justice. We believe in a better version of humanity, and good government is a critical part of that.

We can’t shift the chaos we’re in until we name it clearly. When we can recognize what’s pushing us — in our personal lives and as a society — we already have a degree of freedom from it. Disturbing information like this can paradoxically remind us of the greater good. It is the courage of the people and the love for the common good that bring these injustices to light—fueling uncensored dialogue and constructive action.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
― Howard Zinn

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WantToKnow.info is a nonprofit news information service founded by White House whistleblower Fred Burks in 2003, after he testified in a high-profile terrorism trial about how U.S. government officials repeatedly lied to the international press during his time as a language interpreter for presidents and top government officials around the world.

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