Patterns of Abuse and Survivor Solidarity

She has alleged that when she was at this pageant, that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her, groped her after this beauty pageant in nineteen ninety three, and then claims that he threatened her afterwards, warning bad things can happen to you if you speak out. She says a lot of the women who have made similar allegations and then there were twenty eight of them we count have made allegations against Donald Trump in this regard have also received threats. So she says that she fears for her life a lot of the time for speaking out Ii'm Jonnic Coles. This is the Daily Beast Podcast. and today we have a fascinating conversation for you It's by our correspondent Tom Latram, who is the author of Punch up Suback newsletter. And this week he's written a three part series with the most alarming allegations against Donald Trump brought by a former Miss Switzerland, a beauty pageant queen who ran into Donald Trump while she was summoned to meet Donald Trump when he was running the pageant. of course Jeffrey Epstein was also involved. Anyway, it's a really fascinating story. Before we get to it, I just want to remind you the reason we can bring you these independent conversations is because we are independent media. We appreciate your support. We would love you to subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts and you can become a friend of the Daily Beast has all sorts of canantalising membership perks. So subscribe away and now let's get into it with Tom Latcham. om For those who haven't yet subscribed to Punch Up, and I'm sure by the end of this conversation, they will have What can they expect? What have you been writing about? Just explain it people? Yeah Why haven't you subscribed? That's the big U we've been going for three months or yeah, three months now. and The ambition was Simon I've done everything in the media, but my more recent hat is being an investigative journalist. doing a punch up. I don't want to say get to the weeds because that sounds boring and it's not boring. The entire point is it isn't boring. It's called punch up for a reason. And the reason is we punch up to power We punch up to authority. And we like a punch up. I am based in the UK. I'm trying to bring some of the skkills that I learned tabableoid journal which I have been for twenty years on Fleet Street Better qualities of those skills rather than some of the nefarious ones which I know that the Sleetot can be famed for, but those skills that are seen as the best in the world for For rightfully, I think Bring it to an American audience and doing it good and representing the people, the American taxpayer who are getting ripped off by this government Okay, so Tom You've got a three part series on punch up on Substack this week. Why don't you explain It's actually about because it's a riveting story So We obviously want people to go and read it, so I'll try to be not give too much away, but we dropped the first one on Monday and then the second part on Wednesday and then the final part. today on Friday. And it's an interview with a woman named Beatrice Cld and she was a former have Miss Yt rununner up, Miss Switzerland in the early nineteen nineties, but also a banking executive. and she had a very brief foray into the world of Geffrey Epstein Donald Trump and others in that world, as we know Yeah Donald Trump used to put on beauty pageants. Well, he owned the Miss Universe contest, right? A lot of it was held in Donald Trump's hotel in the plaza. And she's previously spoken out actually She's one of twenty eight women who've made in the past, or I think the Tally is twenty eight who have made allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump He has denied all of them But he has not sued any of them. which I find intriguing. So Tom What is it that Beatrice Cooool is actually alleging? She was a former Miss Switzerland. She was a runner up as Miss Europe. She met Donald Trump as part of the Beauty pageant world. What is she alleging exactly Well, she has alleged that when she was at this pageant, that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her, groped her after this beauty pageant in nineteen ninety three and then claims that he threatened her afterwards, warning bad things can happen to you if you speak out. But she now is shes in the fifties and she says that she's faced similar threats since from anonymous sources where people For instance, when Virginia Jefrey died, she received a message from an AI spoofed phone number with a spoothed message saying we know where you are and we're going to get you. We're not suggesting that Donald Trump initiated that. She says a lot of the women who have made similar allegations, and then there were twenty eight of them we count have made allegations against Donald Trump in this regard have also received threats. So she she says that she fears for her life a lot of the time for speaking out And what kind of an assault was it? And of course, the irony is you've been running The story this week, the very week that the Supreme Court throughout Donald Trump's accusations against Egene Carroll for having defamed him Yeah, she says that he told she was summoned to his room by an aid and Donald Trump was there and he groped her and she made a big fuss, screamed, kicked off and was only able to get away, she felt because she she's a banking executive. So she's got a different life. She's not a particularly vulnerable woman or she wouldn't regard herself as such And so she says that in a different me or a different person might well have U J not done anything, but she didn't. She made a fuss, kicked off and then was she claims was told by him that you keep quiet about this, effectively, you keep quiet about this or bad things will happen to you. And then said The show must go on. So he says to her the show must go on. So he's She alleges, groped her, sort of grabbed her, She fights him off because she's not looking to make a future as a beauty queen. This is something that she does in her spare time. She's actually a banking executive. So she fights him off, she's screaming, she's making a lot of fuss. and he goes, nevermind, the show must go on What did that signal to her? felt to her as though this wasn't the first time we've done it. It was easy. It was an easy thing. It's like, Well, show must go on, just as though This was not his first rodeo, so to speak When these allegations were first brought, Caroline Levitt said that they were fake allegations. So why is Beatrice Cool speaking out to you now? I mean, you've got a lot of detail here she has been heartened by Michael Wolf, for example, and feels that his evidence around Epstein has led to an empowerment among survivors like her of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, etcetera eter And she feels the more people that speak out, the more likely it is that it's going to elicit other people to speak out. And she feels like a damn will burst. There will come a point where a dam will burst. I admire her optimism. I hope that there are more answers for these people. but all we can do as reporters is report their stories and their testimonies and hope that it does do that So Beatrice said that she understood this was happening to other young women who were beauty pageant contestants too, right Yes, she doesn't feel like she was the sole target of any of this. No And she saw that contestants were picked out from one particular project called the American Dream Pageant and they were moved on to private gatherings men that they barely knew by Jeffrey Epstein, who at this point was one of Donald Trump's close friends Yeah she says that nothing so she's a beauty pageant veteran. So she's been to plenty of beauty pageants that were reputable in the past. We talk about Missa, Miss Switzerland etcetera, et ccera U, but She says nothing about this was normal There was it wasn't a normal And you talk about you know being picked out going to private things. even her own story, about being asked to go to the suite with Donald Trump by an aid N normal. That isn't normal. That isn't what happens at Beauty Pageants. And she she said that it just felt iffy and off At the time, I don't think she necessarily realized what was going on because she was twenty She was coming from a normal beauty pageant background and this wasn't. But now in retrospect, she feels like there was, I mean, certainly Jeffrey Epstein was using them to target and prey upon young women whether or not Donald Trump knows, Donald Trump has denied any involvement in any of this. She alleges after she was gped, you're talking about that, you know, Donald Trump is saying the show must go on, et ccetera. One of the questions He asked her, she says is have you spoken to Jeffrey? by which of course,herman Jeffy Epstein is not a common name There was a time where most of us could agree on the basic facts. Now, one headline says one thing, another says the exact opposite, and somewhere in between, you're left wondering who to trust That's why I like ground news. Instead of telling you what to think, it lets you compare how the same story is covered across the political spectrum Take a recent story I've been following, haven't we all? Donald Trump's plans to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. On ground newews, I can instantly compare how different outlets are covering the same story. It tracks which outlets are reporting on what stories, which angles are being emphasised, and just as importantly, which stories might be getting ignored altogether Ground News features a helpful buyas bar that highlights a publication's political lean, ownership and reliability ratings giving you the context that is so often missing from today's news feeds. If you're tired of outrage, algorithms and endless confusion, Ground News offers a smarter way to stay informed. Go to ground dot newews forward slash beast for a better way to stay informed ground. news forward slash beast. Subscribe for forty percent off the vandage plan Unlimited access to world news coverage through my link Do you think that Jeffy Epstein was trying to frotits her as he had done Gillen Maxwell to his network. Yes, she said he felt like she felt like she was prey to Jeffrey Epstein. Fresh meat. These girls are fresh meat pray they they're the sort of words that Beatrious' pretty incendary words U but words that I, you know that she genuinely believes applied to her. So what did Beatr tell you about Jeffrey Epstein. What did she say about? Well, she said that he'd introduced himself backstage at that beauty contest in New York as, quote, Don's best friend And she says that he invited her to a party at Trump's Mari Laga resort and promised I'll take care of you. I mean, she thought he was gross. She thought Jeffrey Eppson was absolutely gross. notot interested in the slightest in him. She said he was a complete chancer he felt like a he was a bluffer And everything he said was a bluff. because she's from a world in which people That' supp in banking as well. say old things and don't mean it. she's like, I know what a bluffer is. I can tell what a bluffer. he's saying he can do this for me, do that for me, do that for me. And it was just a sales patter. justust a sales patter to get me to his parties. And she said I was ha a none of it So in today's substack, you make an astonishing allegation Um reporting what Beatrice said about the involvement of Ivana Trump Can you tell us a little bit more about that? I mean, obviously, we want people to go and read it in context in the substack, but this was an allegation that M I hadn't come across before. No. So Ivana's from Eastern Europe, of course, originally She's from Czechoslvakia. And Ivana Trump, of course, we should just remind people is Donald Trump's first wife Yes, and she is dead, so she can't defend herself. and that's important to say as well. But she was from Czechoslovakia. of the women who were trafficked were from Eastern Europe and around the world. They weren't justic young American women, many of the complainants. U and she says that Ivana had a role. And I won't say much more than that because I would like to go to read the story, but The story is pretty explosive and I think it's worth a read And it's interesting how women have a role in the recruiting of other women and Beatrus felt that Jeffrey Epstein might be trying to recruit her for that. I mean, she wouldn't know at this point the extent of his network But she felt there was something more to him than just I'll look after you at a party she thoughtelt it was weird, right? But she's twenty three. She has no experience of anything like this before, but she's not stupid, she's not daft. And then as time went by and more and more of this stuff starts coming out, I mean she won't have known who Jeffrey Epstein is. I mean, he's not exactly a high profile figure, is he? He's just a bloke in, you know a badly dressed bloat that says he's Donald Trump's best friend. You'd be like, I don't know this guy is, but when time comes out and you put then you see and survivors start coming forward and see m wolves work, etcetera, etcetera She's like, oh hang about Yes, okay, that makes complete sense and it brings it into clarity. And she now is working with other survivors as well. You know, they all talk to one another and discuss the many overlaps and similarities in their testimonies and stories. And often, you know when people are building you when police are building cases, it're very, very difficult to build these cases, right against people when it's comes to sexual assaults because they are innately private. But so what they tend to do is they look at patterns. And so she is talking to these people and she's seeing these patterns now thirty years ago But now they obviously have a huge resident in and she was, you know, she really came to stress in a large part because of Michael Wolf's tapes and Michael Wolf's work. So that's why she thinks more and more people are beginning to speak out because they being they're being believed now And you need see the Egene Carrool stuff we were talking about earlier People feel like they're more likely to be believed now But whether or not they think that it's worth the risk that they might get threatened forance for instance, as she says she has been regularly through these dodgy phone calls for the last year or so, the most recent being about a month ago whether they' worth doing so is another master and that would obviously would be a great shame So what else is Beatice planning to do with this, Tom? I mean, she came out two years ago and talked about it, she's talked to you What else does she want to do to get the story out there and to keep the pressure on the authorities to do something Well she's writing a book, which is with her lawyers now, in which I believe as I understand it, she will go further than she has with what. what she has with us, what that is I'll leave that to her, that's her story to tell. But just anything that she can do, and this is why she was so keen to do this with me, I think she probably would be interested in doing the podcast as well at some point because she does want to get that story out. as many people that can hear about this better she thinks, because as I mentioned earlier, she feels like there's a dam going to break and the more water or survivors or voices or whatever it wanted to be will burst that dam. And you think we definitely love to talk to her and her story is resonant of a story with Stacey Williams, who we've interviewed a few times on the podcast and who's been a very articulate survivor talking about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who she alleges took her to Donald Trump's apartment in Trump Tower, where Donald Trump then groped her in front of Jeffrey Epstein and afterwards she realized that the whole thing she thought or she alleges, had been set up in advance They you talk about the overlap show. That is the overlap. So, you know, you talk about overlaps, that's a partart to take Jeffrey Epstein out of that story. That story is almost exactly the same. So and she's been again, Beatrice has been heartened by seeing Stacy on your podcast. So in a way, that sort of that's the sort of the proof of the pudding that by speaking out and being a voice and being regular and talking about it and you know, having no shame, there's no shame attached to any of these women for what they're saying and what they've been through that more will feel hardarted to come out or someone will hear something and they'll go, it'll spark another thought because of course it'll be just cool Was her thought was sparked by Michael Wolf's story two years ago. So it's all just these little interconnecting parts and just becomes a sort of ground swell that will hopefully lead to well What does she want justice For everybody And Iing to be living in Switzerland and watching the story from four thousand miles away Yes but still doesn't feel safe which is Fascinating, I think Right. And we had another of Epstein's friends actually on the podcast, Cleo Glyidee, who was also a model who had sort of fought him off on his plane when he'd come ono her, but didn't take him seriously as a sexual threat. So spent a lot of time tooling around with him, enjoyed the fact that he had access to important people. She enjoyed sort of being in that power circle of his while remaining eyes open as to the kind of guy he was and then He also took her to Donald Trump's apartment where he wanted her to dress as a nurse. And in fact, he took another of her friends, so the two of them trotted down fif Avenue, each of them on Jeffrey Epstein's arms to Trump's apartment. So again, another synergy with the story that Beatrix Cool is telling And at all It doesn't it seem to be. L to be honest, like many things that we might even talk about in a minute about the other things I'm doing with Punch up So much of it relates to money doesn't You know, it's people show people are attracted to wealth, they're attracted to money, they're attracted to power and it makes people act in ways that they might not otherwise. So Tom What else can we expect to see from Punch upp this week? You had another story here about Who is Richard Lance Sroyer? Please tell us. He's your new Iice director, ladies and gentlemen. He is the latest pick to replace Todd Lyons who left in at the end of May. So a lot of the stuff that you'll see on Punch Up I've done I do plenty on the White House on Donald Trump, but a lot of things that I do are related to DHS. So H this guy Shwya was announced by Donald Trump on I think last Saturday. And so I immediately hit my contacts and said, who is this guy? And everybody said, ye, we don't know why. Turns out he's Martt Wayne Mullin's old mate. He used to be on his personal security detail in Oklahoma. and in fact we was so close that Mart Wayne Mullin would invite him in for dinner, I found. So that's just a very small vignette insider, a much greater article that I've written The biggest and most interesting part of the article that I've written details the sort of p plays that are going on inside the White House is that it had blindsided and that is a quote from a source, but this is multiple sources have told me, it had blindsided both Tom Homan, who is Donald Trump's bordersar But more than that and more intriguingly than that also a blindsided Stephen Miller, who is his deeputy Chief of staff and immigration lead. Now If that's true My sources say that that is very much giving the distinct impression that Stephen Miller is being quotes boxed out of the White House So this is Mark Wayne Mullin's friend from Oklahoma, who it should be said, does have a law enforcement background because he was a former highwayman Yeah, but no he's no man management experience. He's got he's never managed a massive budget like this. You know, you're talking like tens of millions of dollars in budget. They've got thirty two thousand I think thirty two thousand staff. So you know, he, this is and a complete other level. and all my sources say that senior agents on the ground, senior officials on the ground agents are Livid that this guy is coming into m He's a former highway patrolman He's like a trooper, yeah. And he's got no experience with the I think they're called the two hundred eighty seven s, which allows law enforcement people to work with with IC. he's got no experience of that, which is a big deal in that world. And they and it's causing mutiny inside DHS and actually not only that The prediction is is that it'll cause a mass exodus. People will quit IC from, you know, throughout from top to bottom because of it because they think that he's going to make them look like idiots Well they can't look more like idiots than Greg Bavvino made them look in Minneapolis. Well, we'll be watching Shroyer U as he progresses in the job, Richard Lance Schreyer It does suggest that Stehen Miller's power is on the way inside the White House And that's why' Tom, that will definitely be one to watch. Thank you so much for joining us. And again, we're just referring people to your substack punch It's full of details. No one as you have pointed out, no one has contacts like you do inside the Department of Homeland Security. We thank you for your reporting, and we look forward to tracking the new head of IC, Richard Lance Schroyer. Me too Well, I, for one, am very curious to know what else Beatrice Cool has to say, and I really recommend Tom Latcham three part series on sububstack. We're going to flash up a QR code so you can subscribe to it from here and of course more of Tom's reporting on Richard Lance Schreyer. the former Highway patrol man now in charge of Iice. If you have been, thank you for joining us. donon't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast, become a friend of the Daily Beast And you can join me in thanking our esteemed production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passa, Heather Posaro and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many bebeast tier members now. There are too many names to read out, and we really appreciate your support