John Scalzi found himself in the Epstein files. (It was a reference to his "Lowest Difficulty Setting" essay in an article included there.)
It occurred to me to look up Tolkien, because I'm historically beholden to look up Tolkien in everything. And besides a couple of references in clippings included there, he's quoted in an e-mail sent to "undisclosed recipients" by someone named Will Ford. I don't know who that is; probably not William Clay Ford Jr. of the eponymous motor company, as according to Wikipedia he's called Bill, not Will.
Anyway, it's from a daily "tidbits & quotes" e-mail, and among the entries is: "The road goes ever on and on..." - J.R.R. Tolkien. Probably one of his better-known lines (the poem it comes from has been set to music an amazing number of times), but what it means in this context I can't say.
As you might already have noticed, searching the files for "Will Ford" brings up 161 responses. I looked over about 30 of these (starting from the end and working backwards), which dated from 2011 to 2017. Almost all appear to be emails containing news stories and inspirational quotes sent by Will Ford to a list of "undisclosed recipients." Often they have the subject line you mention: "tidbits & quotes." Sometimes the subject line is the title of the shared article. Many of the emails have a financial angle, e.g., "Byron Wien's 20 Lessons Learned Throughout His Investing Career".
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Epstein's executive assistant, Lesley Groff, is CC'd on most of these. Sometimes Ike Groff is CC'd. I assume that's Lesley's husband. He seems to work in finance. What confuses me is why these are in the Epstein files if Epstein himself doesn't appear in them. Was he one of the undisclosed recipients? But if so, why were the Groffs explicitly copied? Do the files include all of Lesley Groff's emails even if her boss wasn't looped in? And what to make of the few emails I saw that were to Ford rather than from him? One, sent to Ford by a Jenny Rogers in February 2015, has tips for an upcoming trip to Alaska. That one doesn't mention Epstein or the Groffs, but there is a BCC line with one or two redacted* names. Presumably the government wouldn't redact Epstein's name, and in the other emails they don't redact the Groffs, so what gives?
It's very weird, and I started to wonder if "Will Ford" was a pseudonym for Epstein himself, and he was the one sending out the periodic finance and life tips to a list of friends. But I could not find any other suggestion he ever used that name. The only alternate name for Epstein that I'm aware of is Marius Robert Fortelni, which, as was reported late last year, was found on a fake and long since expired Austrian passport that Epstein had acquired years earlier.
Continuing through the files, I found a 2016 email from Ike Groff to two or three redacted* recipients, the message of which is simply "this is who I met," and which forwards another email from a redacted* correspondent apparently sent BCC to someone (there is no recipient line at all) and which notes that Groff had lately made the acquaintance of a financial planner named Deric Senne, "a colleague of Will Ford at Lehman prop many years ago." And to my knowledge, Epstein never worked at Lehman, so I guess Ford is someone who works in finance.
There's also a pair of August 2013 emails, with both sender and recipient redacted,* which includes this passage: "Did you speak with will ford? I just don't want you to forget. [Redacted] has asked me several times if we can all go ice skating this weekend. I said I would check into it. We have no other plans."
*As many people have noted, a lot of the redactions appear to violate the law that led to the files being released.
Since Lesley Groff was named as a conspirator in Epstein's 2007 non-prosecution agreement, and as a suspected co-conspirator in 2019 after Epstein's death, it makes a certain degree of sense that her emails would be included.
DeleteI searched the files for "hobbit." There are 85 results. Some are news clippings (or even just references to news, e.g., headlines on a "More from Reuters" list), including those that also mention "Tolkien," already referenced by you. Among the rest are:
ReplyDelete--More than 30 appearances in various transcripts and reports on the transcripts of an interview with the man who was Epstein's cellmate at the time Epstein reportedly first tried to kill himself; this man apparently used the word "hobbit" just once, as part of a longer epithet to refer to a guard he doesn't like.
--In correspondence sent to Ghislaine Maxwell in prison by an apparent fan, a recommendation of "the newest Hunger Game," about which the correspondent says, "If you haven't read the series, you can start with it, it's the Hobbit of the trilogy".
--A July 2014 email chain between Epstein and a redacted correspondent who asks if Epstein would like to come to LA with him or her "to continue celebrating my birthday." (He said no.) The person adds a parenthetical note: "( hobbit is going to be in Europe ;))". That wouldn't be a reference to Peter Jackson's third "Hobbit" movie, which wasn't released until December, so I think it's either the correspondent's nickname for someone or a typo for "husband."
--An "investor book" from 2017 for a proposed French film titled "Alaiss, Freer or Lives" based on a novel by one Geny Laffitte, which lists the 50 highest grossing movies to that date (not adjusted for inflation), among which all three of Peter Jackson's "Hobbit" movies appeared.
--Two budgets for construction or renovations of a number of buildings or rooms, I presume on Epstein's island, including $25,000 for renovation of a "Hobbit Space."
--Approximately twenty emails or email chains, mostly from 2011, between Epstein and apparent contractors, about electrical, networking, and other work being done at "LSJ" (Little St. James, which was Epstein's island) that reference the "Hobbit" space, including a quote from a refrigeration company that refers to it as the "Hobbit hole".
--An 2013 email from a newsletter called "This Week on Houzz" including a link to an article titled "Discover a Hobbit House Fit for Bilbo Baggins" about a home somewhere in the Rockies.
--A "Movie Log 2013," which lists more than 60 films, among which is Warner Brothers' "The Hobbit." I think this is not a list of films seen but of media acquired, because in a few cases, the column with titles has an additional reference to the number of copies, e.g., "Silver Linings Playbook (5 copies)," and the third column is titled "Lent Out Information," with the apparent names of current borrowers. The second column is film studios. Was Epstein receiving awards-season screener DVDs from them?
--A 2014 email chain between Epstein and Joi Ito, then the director of the MIT Media Lab, about meeting with Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel at Thiel's home. I don't know if Hoffman has confirmed this particular meeting, but I know that he says he did visit Epstein on his island at Ito's urging in an attempt to raise money. (Epstein in a 2015 email urges Hoffman to "come to island, ranch" and adds "lets play".) Describing the meeting at Thiel's house, Epstein tells Ito he "received a lecture on hobbit ancestry".