I found myself renting a room in Brooklyn from a person who boiled vinegar to expel germs from the apartment. The cat seemed to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome too. Searching for science reporting gigs, I straddled homelessness and fought a relentless depression. Having grown accustomed to 99¢ Key Foods' chicken pot pies, I managed to eke out a subsistence via science publishers and a friend who edited a new age magazine. (I should mention that I will never eat another chicken pot pie ever again.)

I watched the Jeffrey Epstein case unfold from Brooklyn. It seemed to share some legal aberrations with The Franklin Scandal, and I surmised that Epstein may be as malevolent as Franklin. Though my pursuit of the latter had left me impoverished and emotionally decimated, I felt I had to investigate the former, because once more I couldn't shake the apparently peculiar notion that children shouldn't be destroyed with impunity.

Though my finances were tenuous, I flew to Florida in 2011. On my first Florida sojourn, I acquired Jeffrey Epstein's "Little Black Book" and Palm Beach Police Department documentation on the Epstein case. The Little Black Book had the numbers of scores of victims. I started phoning them. Some were willing to talk off the record, and they gave me an idea of the size of the Epstein network. One victim said that she and other girls had been flown to an island. At that time, the media was packaging Epstein as a lone pervert in Palm Beach. But my outing to Florida indicated that he was overseeing a pedophile network. I also contacted former Palm Beach Police Department Chief Michael Reiter. He was reluctant to talk, but our phone call lasted some 15 minutes.

The Little Black Book had scores of names, some of whom were perpetrators. It also had the names and numbers of Epstein's inner circle. Only one of them answered their phone—Sarah Kellen. She wanted me to commiserate with her, because she felt the media had treated her harshly. Given the fact that Kellen was integral to Epstein's child destruction machine, I couldn't muster any sympathy for Kellen. In fact, I couldn't even feign sympathy for her.

I had no idea that my phone calls would be the prime mover of a chain of events that would have ramifications for me 16 years later.

Although my first trip to Florida was a resounding success, talking to victims took an emotional toll on me. I sank into deep depression and wondered if I had the will to investigate a second child trafficking network cover-up. Disinterring victims' nightmares, and the relentless media rejection, had taken their toll on me. But confronting the destruction of children with impunity once again galvanized my will. Fortified with the Little Black Book, I pitched an article on Epstein, emailing many of the editors I'd pitched Franklin to. Only two responded, and both rejected the proposed article. A book publisher offered me $5,000, but I knew that would never cover an Epstein investigation. And, at that point, I didn't have the resources to fund such an investigation.

In 2015, I met John Cook, an editor for Gawker, who was game to publish the Little Black Book, plus the passenger manifests I had acquired in the interim, with accompanying articles. I found it ironic that Gawker, the delinquents of media, had the fortitude to publish my articles on Epstein, when the so-called mainstream media, ostensibly overflowing with journalistic integrity, wouldn't touch an article about the wanton destruction of children by powerful elites.

My Gawker article on Epstein's flight logs garnered 443,620 hits, and the Little Black Book article, 247,520 hits. Yet no one in media contacted me.

Four years later, on July 6, 2019, Epstein was finally arrested for child trafficking. To my astonishment, Vanity Fair journalist Joe Pompeo wrote an article on my involvement in the story, "DECODING JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S MYSTERIOUS, STAR-STUDDED BLACK BOOK." The subtitle read "'A LOT OF POWERFUL PEOPLE...COULD GO DOWN': THE JOURNALIST WHO PUBLISHED JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S BLACK BOOK AND JET PASSENGER LOGS COMES IN FROM THE FRINGE." Pompeo neglected to mention that I had been banished to the conspiracy theory ghetto because of my outlandish notion that children shouldn't be destroyed without retribution. The Vanity Fair article also included quotes from Eamonn Bowles, the president of Magnolia Pictures, which had optioned The Franklin Scandal.

So, when Epstein was arrested in 2019, and I was endorsed by Vanity Fair, I thought my extensive knowledge of the Epstein case, now corroborated by major media, would translate into outlets contacting me. But nary a call or email ensued, and the pitch I wrote was rejected by every magazine I pitched.

I then wrote an article about the case that sought justice for the Epstein victims by calling for the perpetrators to be indicted. I had noticed that the media had been highly effective at digging up salacious dirt on Epstein et al., but I couldn't find a single article that demanded justice for the victims by calling for the perps to be indicted, even though the media and civil lawsuits had named many alleged perpetrators and procurers. The article I wrote was rejected by numerous mainstream magazines and websites. It was finally published by ScheerPost, a website that receives moderate traffic.

Fast forward to January of 2026, and the sweeping release of Epstein documents.

Among the Epstein files is an email in which a redacted individual, who I'm surmising was in Epstein's inner circle, and possibly Sarah Kellen, sent an email to individuals who were in Epstein's inner circle. The subject line states: "journalist calling around." He sent the email issuing a "heads up" because I "was calling around again." Ominously, the email had a picture of me, and it further states: "His name is Nick Bryant. This is what he looks like so you are all aware." The email reads like the sender of the email put out an all-points bulletin on me.

There were two follow-up emails about me from Epstein henchwoman Leslie Groff to Epstein, and both emails were sent on October 11, 2011. At 1:45, Groff sent an email for Epstein to contact me. The subject line of the email: "Alarm - remind JE to call Nick Bryant." A second email from Groff to Epstein didn't have the gravitas of her first email. The subject line was "Call List," and my name was among six names for Epstein to phone.

Unfortunately, Epstein never phoned me. Since I've discovered the emails, I've wondered what a conversation between Epstein and me would've entailed. I've also wondered if he would've threatened me.

I also found a January 23, 2015, email in which Ghislaine Maxwell breaks it to Epstein that his "entire address book" has been published by Gawker.

Epstein was miffed that Gawker and I had published his "address book." And he expressed his umbrage to his crony Peter Thiel in a May 25, 2016, email, because Thiel was in the process of financing a legal team that would sue Gawker into oblivion.

Gawker outed Thiel as gay in 2007, and the billionaire crypto fascist committed himself to financing lawfare that would deliver Gawker into extinction. Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker. The lawsuit was launched by Hogan in October of 2012, because Gawker had posted a clip of Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem, the estranged wife of shock jock Todd Alan Clem, having an amorous liaison that was surreptitiously recorded by Clem. Hogan had been the best man when Clem married Heather.

Hogan sent Gawker a cease-and-desist order to take the video down. But Gawker declined, citing the First Amendment. A judge issued an injunction ordering Gawker to take down the clip, but, again, Gawker refused. Gawker's recalcitrance set the stage for the courtroom showdown—Hulk Hogan v. Gawker in 2012. The Thiel-financed lawsuit ultimately awarded Hogan $140 million. Gawker settled the case for $31 million, declared bankruptcy, and wended into oblivion.

In the previously mentioned email from Epstein to Thiel on May 25, 2016, Epstein offers to help Thiel underwrite the expenditures involved in the Gawker lawsuit: "I would have gladly share your expenses for the gawker suit. . chomsky fri dinner if you are in new"

Because the $130 penalty had already been awarded to Hogan in the Gawker lawsuit, I'm uncertain if Epstein shared in the subsequent litigation that ultimately resulted in the $31 million settlement.