Less than two months<\/span> before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was on top of the world\u2014at least going by his iMessages.<\/p>\n Over the course of three days in May, he fired off more than 60 texts to his powerful besties. A self-appointed expert on any topic, Epstein sparred<\/a> with a cocky Steve Bannon over Trump\u2019s first-term trade war with China<\/a> and discussed Bannon\u2019s recent trip<\/a> to Norway.<\/p>\n For reasons we\u2019ll perhaps never know\u2014Bannon didn\u2019t get back to me\u2014their banter turned to the political leanings of a mass killer. <\/p>\n \u201cDid you tell Norwegians that the child murderer was a lefty radical?\u201d Epstein asked Bannon\u2014presumably a reference to Anders Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people<\/a> in the country in 2011, most of them teenagers. \u201cYes yes yes,\u201d Bannon replied. \u201cWent over well!!!\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein noted<\/a> the killer \u201cgave<\/a> a Nazi salute\u201d and claimed he\u2019d also made an antisemitic crack comparing Jews and pizza: \u201cThe pizza doesn\u2019t scream when you throw it in the oven.\u201d<\/p>\n This joke, if you can call it that, isn\u2019t about pizza, not really. But it is one of nearly 1,500 mentions of \u201cpizza\u201d\u2014literal, figurative, or just plain strange\u2014across more than 10,600 pages culled from the Epstein files that are breathing new life to an old conspiracy. Internet sleuths have seized on the appearance of the word \u201cpizza\u201d in the files as code for children, just as they did during Pizzagate, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that spun the WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta\u2019s emails into false claims that Democrats ran a child-sex ring out of Comet Ping Pong, a D.C. pizzeria. The use of \u201ccheese pizza\u201d in those emails was first suggested by a 4chan user<\/a> to be coded language for \u201cC.P.\u201d or \u201cchild porn,\u201d while \u201cpizza\u201d itself was used to mean girls, alongside other supposed shorthand terms tied to pedophilia.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n This has convinced some readers<\/a> of the Epstein files that Pizzagate was \u201cright this whole time<\/a>\u201d and that Epstein was involved. Tucker Carlson tweeted<\/a> that \u201cit looks like Pizzagate is basically real.\u201d Talking about the Epstein files, the world\u2019s biggest podcaster, Joe Rogan, complained<\/a>: \u201cWhat the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert asked<\/a> Secretary Clinton during a House Oversight Committee hearing about whether she had examined links between Epstein and Pizzagate. \u201cComet Ping Pong Pizza, used as code, possibly?\u201d she pressed. Clinton was withering: \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019re even referencing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Madam Secretary, I can take things from here.<\/p>\n Using the A.I. tool<\/span> Claude Co-work, I pulled every \u201cpizza\u201d reference from the Justice Department\u2019s searchable Epstein website, then reviewed and labeled them\u2014bank statements, emails, spam, legal filings, text chains\u2014flagging duplicates along the way.<\/p>\n What\u2019s in abundant evidence is that Epstein\u2019s crimes were horrific and far-reaching, and left scores of victims still seeking justice. The vast trove released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act has already toppled prominent figures by revealing the international conspiracy of silence that enabled his abuse\u2014sparking new investigations here and abroad.<\/p>\n But a pizza<\/em> conspiracy? Not so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n On that front, the big finding in my analysis was pure ubiquity. Americans adore pizza, after all: More than one-in-ten<\/a> are eating pizza on any given day. Epstein and his crew, well, they loved pizza too. Seen this way, it\u2019s no surprise that pizza appears throughout a trove that reconstructs everything that touched Epstein\u2019s life over a decade, another lens through which to view his personality and his crimes. Or if you\u2019re a Pizzagate proponent, distract you from them.<\/p>\n It appears in a 2001 Bear Stearns statement tied to a shadowy Epstein trust, which records the sale of 500 California Pizza Kitchen shares<\/a> through another entity later run by<\/a> Epstein\u2019s lawyer, Darren Indyke\u2014who is now in the process of settling a case<\/a> brought by Epstein\u2019s victims, alleging Indyke facilitated sex trafficking. (Indyke\u2019s lawyer said in an email he agreed to settle to \u201cachieve finality\u201d and \u201cdid nothing wrong.\u201d) Pizza appears again in about $2 million worth of Domino\u2019s Pizza stock trades<\/a> in April 2012 for a firm associated with the husband of Lesley Groff, Epstein\u2019s longtime executive assistant. It appears in the text logs and transcripts<\/a> of federal agents, and petty-cash logs<\/a> for Epstein\u2019s staff, and menus across Manhattan and West Palm Beach. In Little Saint James, a.k.a. Epstein Island, staff proposed<\/a> paying a popular \u201csailboat pizzeria<\/a>\u201d for extra water-borne security to deter unwanted visitors. \u201cBetter than pizza,\u201d claims Massage for Dummies,<\/em> a book that is excerpted multiple times<\/a> in the files because Epstein gave the book to victims<\/a> he paid to massage him. It\u2019s what Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, then 17, said she ate<\/a> after he sexually assaulted her during a massage on her first trip to New York\u2014slipping out of the mansion for a \u201cgiant slice of pepperoni pizza\u2026 the best I had ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n Pizza also provided social grease, bringing the rich and powerful together inside Epstein\u2019s lavish Manhattan mansion throughout the decade when the deceased financier was rebuilding his social circle after his first arrest and incarceration\u2014dishing out slices just as he did favors and money. To aid in such dinner parties, Woody Allen\u2019s wife Soon-Yi Previn once sent Epstein\u2019s staff in 2015 a prim dinner-party tutorial<\/a>\u2014flowers on the table for height, never forget salad plates nor candles for \u201cromantic mood\u201d\u2014scolding them for serving pizza from the Mark Hotel<\/a> last instead of first. Previn didn\u2019t return my emails; faux pas experts can debate.<\/p>\n Food chat was overlaid with the coordination of Epstein\u2019s Stendra medication for erectile dysfunction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Nearly half of all pizza references I analyzed in the files are found in personal emails and texts, Epstein\u2019s and those of various figures in his multiverse. Plenty of the Pizzagate-style sleuthing has centered on correspondence involving Epstein\u2019s urologist, Dr. Harry Fisch, in which Fisch repeatedly used the phrase \u201cpizza and grape soda<\/a>.\u201d Fisch didn\u2019t respond to my email or texts asking if there was anything more to these pizza references. But the references were among many texts about snacks and treats. They discuss Jewish deli food, like kasha from 2nd Ave Deli<\/a>, pastrami, kishkas, and Chinese cookies<\/a>. \u201cGreenberg\u2019s bakery<\/a> just started making pop-tarts,\u201d Fisch enthused; Epstein set a date to go. Fisch shared photos of the food he mentioned throughout, including one of literal pizza and actual grape soda. All this food chat was overlaid with dinner invites to hang out with Woody Allen, and the coordination<\/a> of Epstein\u2019s Stendra<\/a> medication for erectile dysfunction.<\/p>\n In August 2017, Epstein wrote<\/a> an email berating financier Leon Black, with whom he was falling out, for ignoring his acumen: \u201cLEON You are not running a pizza place, a pilates studio in queens or an internet start up. you have a 6 billion operation.\u201d Asked if this mention was a Pizzagate euphemism, a spokesperson for Black said, \u201cThis is ridiculous. There is no other interpretation than another of the many derogatory comments by Epstein about the way Mr. Black\u2019s family office was being run which along with his constant demand for more in fees is among the reasons Mr. Black fired him.\u201d<\/p>\n In August 2018, Microsoft\u2019s first CTO Nathan Myhrvold wrote<\/a> to tell Epstein he was off to Italy to research a book about pizza\u2014what would become Modernist Pizza<\/em>: three hardcover volumes, 2021 retail price $425<\/a>. Epstein forwarded a chain email<\/a> listing discounts at pizzerias (\u201c10% off\u201d for the over-sixties) to his partner-in-crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, and then to Jean-Luc Brunel, the deceased modeling honcho who took his own life<\/a> while awaiting trial for sex crimes in France in 2022. \u201cDon\u2019t lose the list,\u201d Brunel replied<\/a>. \u201cYoou [sic] <\/em>might want to use it one day.\u201d Todd Meister\u2014the ex-husband of Hilton heiress (and Paris\u2019s sister) Nicky Rothschild\u2014forwarded Epstein flyers<\/a> for a secretive, invite-only roving strip night known as Saint Venus Theater<\/a>, featuring complimentary pizza at 11 p.m. \u201cA gift,\u201d he wrote. Neither Myhrvold nor Meister got back to me.<\/p>\n These are just a few of the many strangely revealing pizza mentions in the pile. But it\u2019s one man\u2019s unrivaled love for a New York slice that dominates roughly a third of all the pizza correspondence I uncovered.<\/p>\n Bobby Slayton is a retired<\/span> stand-up comic once billed as the \u201cPitbull of Comedy.\u201d When he toured New York City, Epstein offered him an apartment at 301 East 66th Street, the complex where he also housed models<\/a> and, at times, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing I\u2019m guilty of is being friends with that idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n When I spoke to Slayton recently about Epstein, he was impassioned. \u201cI never saw any of this shit with the young girls,\u201d he said. \u201cI just wanted this in writing\u2014that I was never a witness, or a party to his repulsive activities, okay? I mean, the only thing I\u2019m guilty of is being friends with that idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n Slayton told<\/a> Mother Jones <\/em>in 2020 that \u201cJeffrey was a giant comedy fan, huge.\u201d And Slayton told me that he was willing to indulge Epstein because he was thrilled by the free apartment, which he dubbed \u201cChez Slay\u201d in scores of emails<\/a>. \u201cIf an apartment is empty it will save me a ton of dough!\u201d he wrote<\/a> to Lesley Groff, in May 2014. \u201cThen I can afford to take JE out for pizza!\u201d Could that be code? In the screenplay version of their email relationship, Slayton\u2019s standing offer to take Epstein out for pizza would be a running gag. He got his wish, at least once, in October 2013, when the records show they met<\/a> at Arturo\u2019s Pizza<\/a>, one of Slayton\u2019s favorite haunts.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m kind of known as a foodie and a pizza freak,\u201d Slayton told me. \u201cIt\u2019s right there in front of you: I\u2019m really talking about fucking pizza, goddamn it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On this point, the evidence is incontrovertible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Across a six-and-a-half-year arc during which Epstein was living as a convicted sex offender\u2014January 2013 to May 2019\u2014Slayton chronicled his pizza exploits to Epstein and Groff with the dedication of a battlefield historian. \u201cWalked 65 blocks in fucking FREEZING weather to the Village for pizza,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in one of the earliest exchanges. \u201cGonna TRY to walk back and conk out by 9PM like the old Jew I am.\u201d After three of his four Long Island shows were cancelled the following month, Groff offered<\/a> Epstein\u2019s apartment so he \u201ccan hole up and write, drink wine, eat pizza and sleep!\u201d In May 2013, he wrote<\/a> that he \u201cwalked 50 blocks to East Harlem Patsy\u2019s for pizza,\u201d delighted<\/a> by the money he\u2019d saved on lodging: \u201cMoney I can spend on pizza AND wine!!!!\u201d An August 2017 trek, Slayton claimed<\/a>, spanned 300 blocks and hit Rao\u2019s, John\u2019s, Joe\u2019s, and Pasquale Jones\u2014all New York institutions. \u201cHow do you stay fit with all that pizza!?\u201d Groff marveled<\/a> at one point. \u201cWait, you are probably walking there from the apartment.\u201d In one of his last pizza dispatches, he\u2019s practically giddy, describing Christmas at Spago, where he ordered the off-menu \u201csalmon pizza with caviar\u201d\u2014\u201cWolfgang Puck\u2019s signature pie,\u201d he raved<\/a>. \u201cHe used to call it the \u2018Jewish Pizza!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad YOU like the jew pie!\u201d Groff wrote<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll stick with a plain cheese!\u201d (In actual fact, Groff once picked up a Lean Cuisine vegetable pizza<\/a> from a Food Emporium in New Canaan, Connecticut: $3.89.)<\/p>\n His infatuation with \u201creal pizza, an honest-to-God pizza,\u201d he told me, was \u201cnothing to do with children or pedophilia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA real fucking pizza. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s it. On my mother\u2019s life!\u201d<\/p>\n Slayton\u2019s ties to Epstein weren\u2019t only about pizza. Epstein introduced him to Woody Allen. \u201cHe wanted me to bring comedians over\u2014and the comedians wanted to meet Woody Allen,\u201d Slayton told me. He recalled a few dinners at Epstein\u2019s townhouse. \u201cThey\u2019d put out a sumptuous meal, and [Epstein] would sit there with Oreo cookies and a grilled-cheese sandwich,\u201d he said. \u201cHe ate like a five-year-old, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Still, all that pizza diplomacy paid off: Slayton landed a small role in Allen\u2019s 2016 Amazon miniseries, Crisis in Six Scenes<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Receipts themselves show<\/span> why pizza is everywhere in the Epstein files.<\/p>\n The Epstein Pizza Economy was geographically vast. Nearly 30 percent of the pizza mentions I found appeared in financial records\u2014bank statements, cash ledgers, and food orders. I identified more than $2,400 in pizza charges on Epstein\u2019s own accounts<\/a>. By dollar amount, his favorite spot was Pizza Al Fresco<\/a>, a palm tree-studded courtyard restaurant about a mile from his Palm Beach compound. Records from his local New York joint, Pizza Park Pizzeria<\/a> on Manhattan\u2019s East Side, go back even further\u2014to 2004, when he picked up orders for $8.50<\/a>.<\/p>\n Seamless deliveries for Karyna Shuliak, Epstein\u2019s last known girlfriend, suggest pricier tastes: Burrata Pizza from Lavo<\/a> ($30.05); Fresh Margherita from Mediterraneo<\/a> (with apple pie and tiramisu, $45.80); Funghi Pizza from Bella Blu<\/a> ($30.05); Reginella Pizza from Numero 28 UES<\/a> ($20.51).<\/p>\n Financial documents gathered during the 2000s also include extensive petty-cash logs<\/a> meticulously tracking daily expenditures for groceries, gas, and travel for Epstein\u2019s staff. The logs appear to have been compiled by Epstein staffer Janusz Banasiak, who was subpoenaed to give evidence against his boss. From 2005 to 2006, I found about 40 charges for Papa John\u2019s pizza at $12.77\u2014the price of a large pie at the time, including tax.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember that you see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed at you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Scroll a little further into this file, beyond the hundreds of dollars worth of pizza orders, and be reminded that you don\u2019t need to hunt for code to find Epstein\u2019s darkness. In this case: a \u201chousehold manual\u201d for his Palm Beach estate at 358 El Brillo Way. \u201cRemember that you see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed at you,\u201d it reads. The manual was dated Valentine\u2019s Day 2005, exactly one month before a Florida couple<\/a> came to the Palm Beach Police Department alleging \u201csome kind of sexual relationship\u201d between their 14-year-old daughter and a local older man\u2014sparking the initial investigation against Epstein.<\/p>\n As federal investigators<\/span> pursued leads into Epstein\u2019s crimes, his death, and Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s conduct, Pizzagate conspiracism inevitably bled into the case files. Days after Epstein\u2019s arrest in 2019, emails<\/a> from a redacted sender apparently caught in the blast radius, complained that \u201cthings have really revved up.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI have found myself at the center of the QAnon conspiracy,\u201d the writer said, referring to the Pizzagate-offshoot theory that Donald Trump was secretly fighting a global, deep-state cabal<\/a>. \u201cIt has become a very distressing situation,\u201d they added, reporting that Q followers were posting \u201cviolent messages daily.\u201d Fearing for their safety, they wrote that they hoped the FBI was doing something about Pizzagate.<\/p>\n The files reveal the methodical work of investigators pressing ahead regardless, the ubiquity of pizza visible every step along the way. The day after Epstein died in New York City\u2019s Metropolitan Correctional Center, text logs between federal agents show the logistics of gearing up for raids. As one crew flew to St. Thomas, another agent placed an order for 19 pizzas<\/a>. After Epstein\u2019s apparent suicide, investigators soon interrogated the on-duty prison guards, seizing their bank statements (and bringing more pizza orders<\/a> into the files), and they canvassed a pizzeria<\/a> where, according to the documents, a correctional officer met another individual. It was fruitless: \u201cThe pizza establishment did not have working cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n In May 2021, two federal agents concluded an interview with a practicing psychotherapist and reflexologist about her work at Epstein\u2019s Zorro Ranch between 1999 and 2008\u2014an hour occasionally interrupted by her dogs, Irvin and Stella, according to the transcript<\/a>. Before the recorder clicked off and the agents hit the road, something appetizing wafted through. Cue small talk.<\/p>\n \u201cSmells like somebody\u2019s bakin\u2019 bread,\u201d the subject said. After a beat, she corrected herself: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. I think the place next door is a pizza place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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