NOT SATIRE. I searched the Epstein Files. For real. This is not satire. Please note, of course, that there are millions upon millions of files and none of the findings here suggest any wrongdoing. Here are the real results:
First, I searched the Epstein files for the word “Mennonite” or “Mennonites.”
There were 3 results, only one of which is of any real interest.
- One is a campaign letter, presumably sent to many people, from Lois Herr, a Democrat running for congress. Included in the letter is a mention of Mennonites:
- “Herr respects the values of her family and its history in this area – Mennonite immigrants who fled persecution and came to America in 1710 seeking religious freedom, and bringing with them a sense of community, stewardship of the earth, and a commitment to peaceful co-existence with others.”
- An email from Gregory Brown to undisclosed recipients called “Greg Brown’s Weekend Reading,” a 20-page document about American history with reference to the Harlem Globetrotters and this mention of Mennonites:
- “Eisenhower was the son of pacifist Mennonites who fretted about his love of military history.”
So far, nothing of interest. However, there was one result that involved direct communication with Jeffrey Epstein.
- An email to Epstein with the sender’s name redacted. It is an email about a trip to Belize and Guatemala, with the subject line is “Greetings from Belize..”
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“Hi hi! Today we took a canoe ride through a cave..it was really cool! We had to drive about 1.5 hours to get to the entrance through a Mennonite town.”
- Epstein later replied to this email. In the reply email the name is not redacted, but simply listed as Sarah K. His reply to the email: “great”
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Then I decided to search for famous and wealthy Mennonites. And, to be honest, it was hard to find anything. I searched every Mennonite politician or businessperson I could think of and I’m sure they’ll all be relieved to know that I found virtually nothing. All I found was this:
- There is a legal document, which mentions in a footnote “see also Rojas v Loewen Group” a reference to a lawsuit against the famous Loewen funeral home group. (That company’s legal troubles were later depicted in the film Burial).
Then I started looking up Mennonite post-secondary institutions. Thankfully, nothing. Then I tried town names. Still there wasn’t much. Though, this one indirect inclusion of Steinbach is kind of intriguing:
- There is a photocopy of a page from what is clearly a 2017 Steinbach Credit Union calendar, as you can tell from the three address printed on it. This is a calendar distributed each year for free to customers. I’m sure I even had a copy of it back in 2017. Anyway, the second page of the file contains receipts for “bus” and “parking.” The header of the first page says the date and time and the address of “71st Street.” The calendar, too, has “W 71st” written on it for several days and then times like “5:00 AM 10:00 PM.” I then Googled Epstein’s New York City address and found that it was: 9 East 71st Street. East not West. But maybe the W in “W 71st” doesn’t mean West. Who knows? Anyway, it appears to me like someone, perhaps a driver, was tracking their hours for tax purposes. How this calendar made its way to New York City, I have no idea. A better (ie. real) journalist will have to look into this more closely, but you can look at the file for yourself. This file is listed as: EFTA00282974.pdf. Or if you want to see the original files, just search for “Steinbach” yourself and you’ll find it:
That’s it so far … of course there are millions more redacted and unreleased files.