JPMorgan executives blame each other over keeping Epstein, depositions show
Washington Post
The Facts
JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank, has reached a tentative agreement to settle a class action lawsuit by victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, claiming that the bank enabled its former client’s crimes.
The reported $290M settlement came just before a Manhattan US District Court judge ruled that the case could proceed as a class-action lawsuit. While the settlement did not include an admission of liability from the bank, JPMorgan publicly stated it regretted its association with the late Epstein.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Hopefully, Monday’s agreement is an end to at least part of JPMorgan’s ongoing lawsuits involving its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The bank has publicly admitted it deeply regrets keeping such a monster as a client and has worked to compensate Epstein's victims as best as possible. The entire media circus that has been present since Epstein’s 2019 arrest and suicide has done more harm than good, and hopefully this settlement can put Epstein and his terrible crimes in the rearview mirror for JPMorgan and many others.
Establishment-critical narrative
JPMorgan may have settled one of its cases with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, but there’s a lot more under the hood when considering Epstein’s relationship with the bank, its former employee Jes Staley, and the sworn testimony of CEO Jamie Dimon. JPMorgan worked with Epstein for 15 years — many of those years after his first arrest for sex crimes. Now bank executives are claiming to not know Epstein at all. Just like many other wealthy and powerful people, this is just the tip of the iceberg in the Epstein saga.