Going by the pseudonym Patrick Kessler, self-described ‘hacker’ said he had “thousands of hours of footage from hidden cameras<\/strong>” from Epstein’s multiple properties, which included\u00a0former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and Prince Andrew<\/strong>, along with three billionaires and a prominent CEO, according to the\u00a0Times.<\/em><\/p>\n It has been long speculated that Epstein\u00a0recorded his high-profile guests<\/a>\u00a0as part of an\u00a0international blackmail operation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Armed with\u00a0nothing more than blurry photos<\/strong>\u00a0of what he claimed were high-profile individuals in compromising situations, Kessler approached lawyers representing several Epstein accusers,\u00a0 John Pottinger and David Boies – the former of whom suggested that billionaire Sheldon Adelson – an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – might pay for the alleged footage of Barak.<\/p>\n According to excerpts viewed by The Times, Mr.\u00a0Pottinger and Kessler discussed a plan to disseminate some of the informant\u2019s materials<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 starting with the supposed footage of Mr. Barak. The Israeli election was barely a week away, and Mr. Barak was challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.\u00a0The purported images of Mr. Barak might be able to sway the election<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 and fetch a high price. –New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After several weeks, the attorneys invited the\u00a0New York<\/em>\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0to speak with Kessler in mid-September.\u00a0Then things got even more unbelievable<\/strong>. Following a mid-September meeting with\u00a0The Times\u00a0<\/em>in the Boies Schiller offices, Kessler went rogue – contacting the paper and accusing Boies and Pottinger of an\u00a0extortion plot<\/strong>\u00a0against the subjects of said tapes.<\/p>\n Barely an hour after the session ended,\u00a0the Times reporters received an email from Kessler: \u201cAre you free?\u201d He said he wanted to meet \u2014 alone. \u201cTell no one else.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n Kessler complained that\u00a0Mr. Boies and Mr. Pottinger were more interested in making money than in exposing wrongdoers<\/strong><\/u>. He pulled out his phone, warned the reporters not to touch it, and showed more of what he had. There was a color photo of a bare-chested, gray-haired man with a slight smile. Kessler said it was a billionaire.\u00a0He also showed blurry, black-and-white images of a dark-haired man receiving oral sex. He said it was a prominent C.E.O<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “At one point, he showed what he said were classified C.I.A. documents<\/strong>,” writes the\u00a0Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n Weeks after the meeting, the lawyers struck a deal with the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0during the last Friday in September. They would send a team overseas to download Kessler’s evidence from his servers (and had alerted the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan of their intention to do so), and would then share all the evidence with the paper\u00a0on the condition that they would have discretion over which men could be written about, and when<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Separately, Kessler had arranged to give the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0his evidence using a convoluted series of steps. On the day the data was to be transmitted,\u00a0Kessler canceled at the 11th hour, claiming ‘a fire was burning’ and he had to flee to Ukraine.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In early October, Kessler said he was ready to produce the Epstein files.\u00a0He told The Times that he had created duplicate versions of Mr. Epstein\u2019s servers<\/strong>. He laid out detailed logistical plans for them to be shipped by boat to the United States and for one of his associates \u2014 a very short Icelandic man named Steven \u2014 to deliver them to The Times headquarters at 11 a.m. on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n Kessler warned that he was erecting a maze of security systems<\/strong>. First, a Times employee would need to use a special thumb drive to access a proprietary communications system. Then Kessler\u2019s colleague would transmit a code to decrypt the files.\u00a0If his instructions weren\u2019t followed precisely, Kessler said, the information would self-destruct.<\/strong><\/p>\n Specialists at The Times set up a number of \u201cair-gapped\u201d laptops<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 disconnected from the internet \u2014 in a windowless, padlocked meeting room. Reporters cleared their schedules to sift through thousands of hours of surveillance footage.<\/p>\n On the morning of the scheduled delivery, Kessler sent a series of frantic texts. Disaster had struck. A fire was burning. The duplicate servers were destroyed. One of his team members was missing.\u00a0He was fleeing to Kyiv<\/u>.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Except two hours later,\u00a0<\/strong>Kessler contacted Pottinger and didn’t mention any emergency. Instead,\u00a0he asked Pottinger to formulate two schemes\u00a0<\/strong>for prying up to $1 billion from potential targets with the footage which the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0suggested may have been a trap.<\/p>\n Pottinger obliged, describing two options for capitalizing on the evidence. The first, a “standard model” for legal settlements, would include splitting the money among Epstein’s victims, a charitable foundation, Kessler, and the lawyers – who would get up to 40%.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/epstein%20house_0.jpg?itok=-bKjdWYR\")
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