In 2002, journalist Vicky Ward—then a writer for Vanity Fair magazine—was assigned to investigate a mysterious New York City financier named Jeffrey Epstein. During her reporting, she stumbled upon sexual abuse allegations against Epstein by Maria and Annie Farmer, whose account was ultimately cut from Ward’s piece, titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” That decision sparked recriminations between Ward and then–Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that have continued for more than a decade.
In previous interviews, Carter has claimed that Ward’s reporting didn’t meet Vanity Fair’s editorial standards and that the allegations came too late in the editing process. But Ward says the magazine left out the Farmer sisters’ account after Epstein personally pressured Carter to remove it.
Following our interview with Ward, we reached out to Maria and Annie Farmer for comment. Portions of their response appear in this week’s episode, and their full comment can be read here: “We trusted Vicky Ward with our firsthand accounts of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes. She chose to omit our experiences and instead, in 2003, published a Vanity Fair article that sanitized, shielded and even enhanced his reputation. She then published another glowing profile on Epstein in 2011. Articles like Ward’s allowed Epstein and Maxwell to continue targeting other young women and girls with the same abuse for decades afterward.”
Why this is in politics:
She alleged that Trump had stood over her, in a way that she described as “imposing,” and that he had looked at her “like he was in on some secret or something.”
“I felt threatened, so I made an ugly face,” Farmer says in the interview.
She then states that Epstein said “Oh no, no, no,” and added, “She’s not here for you,” before escorting Trump out of the room.
In the interview, Farmer also alleged that “Trump had made a really vulgar comment.”
“He made a joke to Epstein. ‘Oh, I thought she was 16,’” she said.
She continued: “I didn’t think it was funny.”
Vicky Ward spiked it because her husband was in the orbit, according to Maria Farmer’s interview on YT.