Crouere: Brunel’s suicide certainly seems like a convenience

Published 11:08 am Tuesday, February 22, 2022

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Financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in a Manhattan prison in August of 2019 under very mysterious circumstances. He was awaiting trial on additional charges when he supposedly committed “suicide” by hanging himself, although he told a prison psychologist, he would never take his own life.

To make matters even more suspicious, the video of his cell during the time of his death was conveniently “lost.” The prison guards on duty that night were reportedly playing video games and asleep, unaware that the most high-profile inmate in prison history was taking his own life.

Since these revelations, speculation has been rampant that Epstein did not commit “suicide” but was killed. The theory is that powerful individuals wanted Epstein dead so he would not talk. His “black book” reportedly contained the names of well-known celebrities, as well as business and political leaders who were involved in his worldwide underage sex ring.

This convenient “suicide” has now been followed by another one less than three years later. This time, the scene was an infamous prison in Paris, France. The inmate, Jean-Luc Brunel, was a fashion and modeling agent and close associate of Epstein, who allegedly invested “up to a million dollars” with Brunel to launch his business. On Saturday morning, Brunel was found dead in his cell, the victim of another mysterious “hanging.”

What is particularly interesting is that prison officials did not consider Brunel a suicide threat, so he was not housed in a high-risk section of the penitentiary. Prison officials have opened an investigation into the death, but sources tell the Daily Mail that “Early evidence points to suicide.”

As in the Epstein case, there is no video footage to officially document what happened to Brunel. In this case, there were no video cameras in the vicinity of Brunel’s cell. Is this another example of an inmate being killed to keep him quiet and protect powerful individuals? As we know, “dead men tell no tales.” Thus, the public may never know the truth.

Brunel had been in prison awaiting trial since December of 2020, when he was arrested on charges related to criminal conspiracy, human trafficking, sexual assault, and rape of an underage girl. At the time of his arrest at the airport in Paris, Brunel had a one-way ticket to Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa.

In September of 2021, Brunel was officially indicted on a charge of drugging and raping a 17-year-old model in the 1990’s. Virginia Giuffre, who also filed a sexual assault civil suit against another close Epstein associate, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, claimed that she had sex with Brunel multiple times when she was only 16 years old.

According to Giuffre, Brunel recruited girls as young as twelve years old for modeling and to “farm out to his friends, especially Epstein,” who forced them to participate in his sex ring. Giuffre said that Epstein bragged that he had “slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls.”

The two were introduced by Epstein’s “pimp” Ghislaine Maxwell, who spent years working with Epstein and was accused by multiple victims of recruiting and grooming girls for his sex ring. Last December, she was convicted on five of six federal charges related to sex trafficking and conspiracy.

Obviously, Brunel’s “suicide” has alarmed Maxwell’s family. They are concerned for her safety. She is in a Brooklyn prison on “suicide watch,” being awakened every fifteen minutes at night. Her family contends she is not a suicide risk and will not kill herself. Maxwell is scheduled to be sentenced in June of 2022.

Epstein was close friends with plenty of powerful business leaders, celebrities such as actor Kevin Spacey and U.S. politicians such as former President Bill Clinton, who reportedly traveled on his plane over two dozen times and visited his private island.

One of Epstein’s most famous friends, Prince Andrew, recently struck a $16.3 million settlement with Giuffre over charges that he had sex with her when she was only 17 years old. In the deal, Prince Andrew admitted no guilt and was spared the humiliation of a trial during the Queen’s platinum jubilee year celebrations.

In a statement released at the time of the settlement, Prince Andrew vowed to “make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.” He also affirmed that he “never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character” and recognized that she “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.”

Prince Andrew also acknowledged that “Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years.” He expressed his regret about “his association with Epstein” and praised “the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.” Remarkably, he vowed “to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.”

In effect, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, admitted his guilt in the matter and handsomely paid his victim to end this royal family nightmare. One thing he cannot do, however, is restore his reputation, for it will be forever tarnished.

In a recent Sun editorial, Andrew was labeled a royal who was “finished — undone by his insufferable arrogance, entitlement and staggering naivety. He must retreat entirely from public life and live out his retirement in ignominy.” To make matters worse, it is not known if the settlement will be paid from Andrew’s personal funds or whether it will be taken from the public treasury. If the government is paying for Andrew’s settlement, media specialist Mark Stephens believes it “threatens to have wider implications for the Royal Family.”

Even with this settlement, the convictions, and the controversial “suicides,” the full extent of Epstein’s depraved activities has not been revealed in the media. There are powerful forces that want to prevent further disclosure. How far will they go to keep the public in the dark about this illegal operation? Only time will tell.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs nationally on Real America’s Voice Network, AmericasVoice.News weekdays at 7 a.m. Central Time and from 7-11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.