Events these days move so quickly that the next sensational headline tends to obliterate the current political scandal. Memories are short, so we move on to the next lurid account of political or sexual chicanery without so much as the blink of an eye.
Anyone even remember how Donald Trump elevated a Miami U.S. attorney to the position of labor secretary after the federal prosecutor approved a plea deal that let serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein off the hook with virtually no punishment? Anyone remember that Epstein reached financial settlements with dozens of one-time teenage victims?
Anyone happen to remember that Donald Trump’s name was linked to trips to Epstein’s Island hideaway – along with several other prominent people, including Bill Clinton and England’s Prince Andrew, among others, and that Trump himself was accused of having sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl in Epstein’s presence? Ever really wonder about Epstein’s “suicide”?
For that matter, does anyone recall the name Steven Hoffenberg, the man who, until Bernie Madoff came along, ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history ($450 million)? He was sentenced to 20 years in prison back in the 1990s and upon his release, he (a) got MARRIED (for the third time) in a ceremony conducted in front of Trump Towers where he had lived prior to his arrest, (b) pledged $50 million of his own money in an effort to raise $1 billion on behalf of Trump’s 2016 candidacy, and (c) launched “Christ Card,” a special “Christian” credit card he tried to peddle to some 700,000 U.S. churches.
Hoffenberg died in 2022 and the “Christ Card” appears to have died a quick death as well; we could find no references to any such card today.
He very well might have gotten away with that huge Ponzi scheme a lot longer had it not been for the herculean work of publisher of a tiny weekly newspaper up in Ruston.
The late John Martin Hays, editor/publisher of The Morning Paper, which started out as a tabloid scandal sheet written on an IBM Selectric typewriter was the object of scorn and ridicule when it debuted back in the 1970s, but Hays and wife Susan stuck with it and the paper would up being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the Hoffenberg story.
Though much about Trump and his connection to Epstein and Hoffenberg has been forgotten in the crush of stories since then, LouisianaVoice first told you about the connection and Hays’s journalistic expertise five years ago. Thought you might like a refresher. If so, go HERE for the details. Want more? Try this LouisianaVoice STORY from eight years ago, on June 21, 2016 or THIS ONE from just two weeks later, on July 6, 2016.
Louisiana Voice 
Couple of points from New York pov. I had lunch a couple of months ago with a first time acquaintance. Turns out he had done a year locked up at the detention center with Jeffrey Epstein. Tax evasion. He sold subscriptions to some unsavory publication to “working girls” who wanted to advertise their availability. Apparently didn’t pay his taxes. According to the rock guitarist the girls short timed him as well. To the point-his contention was unequivocal that Epstein DID commit suicide.
It was through John Hays bringing Hoffenberg and his partner-parking lot mogul-who had bought the New York Daily News and thereby located Hoffenberg that John notified Sen. Ervin from North Carolina head of the Justice committee and thereby brought Hoffenberg to justice-that I met John. I called him after reading about him in the New York Times.
He taped recorded me since I was part of The Partnership For Responsible Drug Information. His skepticism ultimately resulted in his publishing a piece advocating drug policy reform. But I digress. I subsequently interviewed Hoffenberg in jail for Prison Life Magazine.
I’d be pleased to have a similar opportunity to interview Trump while incarcerated. A Most Happy Felon. John Hays is a legend. It was through Hays that I met Aswell. I was looking for someone in the region to cover the Gov. Don Siegelman miscarriage of justice perpetrated-it is alleged-by Karl Rove & cohorts in Alabama. Hays who was living with cancer said of Aswell “He’s the best I’ve got.”