Last night, I had the unfortunate responsibility of informing Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon that he had been taken in by a right-wing hoax. Gannon posted, on Bluesky and Instagram, a screenshot of a 2011 itinerary – featuring a meeting with then-Minister for Justice Alan Shatter – supposedly from the Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice. The screenshot was accompanied by a statement calling for full transparency around this alleged meeting between Epstein and Shatter.
That itinerary, a screenshot of which I’ve reproduced below, is in fact from the September 2011 calendar of former US Attorney General Eric Holder:
Gannon immediately deleted both posts when I informed him of his error.
For the avoidance of doubt: there is absolutely zero evidence that Alan Shatter and Jeffrey Epstein have ever met or had contact of any kind, and Alan Shatter’s name does not appear anywhere in the Epstein Files. This is easily checked as the Epstein Files are searchable on the US Department of Justice’s website and have been made even more searchable on a variety of third-party platforms, my favourite of which is JMail. You can also find Eric Holder’s speech at the IIEA online.
Continue reading “Alan Shatter is Not in the Epstein Files (Obviously)”
Left in the Lurch 