Writer Claims Graydon Carter ‘Cut a Deal’ With Jeffrey Epstein to Remove Allegations From Vanity Fair Piece
Investigative journalist Vicky Ward claimed Monday that former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter “cut a deal” with financier Jeffrey Epstein to spike allegations he molested a teenager from her 2003 profile of the wealthy financier.
In an interview with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams on his SiriusXM radio show, Ward said that she included testimonials from two sisters, one just 16, who claimed they were molested by Epstein. Ward said that Epstein paid a visit to Vanity Fair’s offices while she was reporting the story, and Carter removed the allegations from her profile.
Ward said the sisters were credible: “Not only did [their] mother corroborate the two sisters’ stories, so did a whole host of people of very good standing in New York.”
“We were ready to go,” Ward continued. But then Epstein visited Carter at Vanity Fair’s offices “and between them they cut a deal to take the women’s stories out.”
“It was explained to me that Graydon felt that [Epstein] was ‘sensitive about the women,'” Ward explained.
Ward also claimed Epstein threatened her unborn children (she was pregnant with twins at the time) over the piece. “I was then so fearful after everything that Epstein had said to me that I had to have 24/7 security on my babies because he had asked where I was giving birth,” she said.
Ward said that she felt Carter wouldn’t get away with spiking the allegations at Epstein’s request today. “I think that it’s journalism that dates back to an era that’s thankfully long gone,” Ward said. “If Graydon Carter had made that same decision 16 years later I think his job would be on the line.”
“What was published was far from the whole story,” Ward also said on Twitter Monday of the profile, “The Talented Mr. Epstein.”
“I have thought often about the fact that if my piece had been published in full — with the names and stories of these women — the FBI may have come after Epstein sooner and perhaps some of his victims would have been saved,” tweeted Ward. “Money and connections bought him the ability to evade justice.”
UPDATE –– 6:27 pm ET: Carter has responded in a statement to Politico senior media reporter Michael Calderone, saying they “didn’t have confidence” in the reporting:
Ex-Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter says "we didn't have confidence in @VickyPJWard's reporting" on Epstein in response to her claim about him cutting accounts of three women from 2003 magazine profile: https://t.co/qc3XhnOj9V
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) July 8, 2019
More from Carter: “We were not in the habit of running away from a fight. But she simply didn’t have the goods.”
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) July 8, 2019
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