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  1. The Bill for the War Comes Due at the Checkout Counter
  2. A State Spends Its Force Abroad and Its Patience at Home
  3. The Security State Turns Its Tools Inward
  4. The Iran War Keeps Exporting Its Costs
  5. Power Turns on Its Witnesses
  6. A Government That Performs Power
  7. Firing Squad Meant to Be Watched
  8. The War Is Now the Economy
  9. War Abroad Party at Home
  10. Guardrails Left a Map
  11. Who Decides Who Pays
  12. Pressure Campaign Reaches Brazil
  13. Record Caught Up
  14. Machinery Pointed Inward
  15. Bond Market Prices the Deficit
  16. Three Ways an Argument Disappears
  17. The Machinery Keeps Running
  18. The War Is Now a Domestic Story
  19. Who Counts Not Who Votes
  20. No to a Map Yes to a Database
  21. Power Was Visible Accountability Was Not
  22. Records Landed Claims Did Not Hold
  23. Projected Power Argument at Home
  24. Washington Is Rationing What the Public Sees
  25. Who Gets to See What Power Is Doing
  26. Power Moves in Days
  27. Four Institutions Four Judges
  28. The Loud Fight Ends
  29. The Bill Came Due
  30. Six Institutions Said No
  31. Saying Stop Is Not Stopping
  32. AI Slowdown Accountability Gap
  33. Cost Arriving Channel Narrowing
  34. The Question Is Who Pays
  35. Washington Offers a Check
  36. Dividend Promise Failing Election Machinery
  37. War Automated Faster Than Accounted For
  38. Nineteen Months
  39. The Election Is Now a Docket
  40. The Rule Is Not the Safeguard
  41. The Price Walked Into an Election
  42. Outrunning Review
  43. Machinery of Who Counts
  44. War's Real Bill Arrives Far From the Gulf
  45. The Legal Justification Comes Last
  46. A Price, Not a Front
  47. The Price of a War Nobody Calls a War
  48. War's Second Front Is Economic
  49. Three Instruments, One Method
  50. Fight Over the Machinery
  51. Documents Caught Up With Statements
  52. Capacity Without Checks
  53. The Machinery Is Not Failing
  54. Coercion Is the Policy
  55. You Cannot Sue a Bond Market
  56. War Washington Cannot End
  57. Blockade and Bond Market
  58. The Bill Comes Due
  59. Money Lost, Surveillance Won
  60. Government Stopped Showing Its Work
  61. Routed Around, Not Repealed
  62. Enforcement Turned Inward
  63. Past the Point It Can Hold
  64. What It Cost to Lose
  65. Who Holds the Veto
  66. Risk Moves Down
  67. The Government Rents Its Surveillance
  68. The Powers Expand, the Checks Sit Empty
  69. The Promise Was Only Worth the Pressure Behind It
  70. The Senate Traded Away Its Leverage
  71. Two Orders and a Shrinking Stockpile
  72. What Money Bought
  73. Money Lost Michigan, Won Missouri
  74. Change the Accounting
  75. Two Clocks
  76. Who Decides What Counts as a Threat
  77. The Claim Arrives First

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In the thread Zorro Ranch Operations

The SpaceX Lunch

On February 25, 2013, Jeffrey Epstein met Elon Musk for lunch at SpaceX headquarters. Epstein's executive assistant had told the SpaceX team that Epstein would arrive with three non-US-citizen "assistants": two Russian and one South African. Passport clearance was coordinated four days in advance.

SpaceX headquarters, Hawthorne, California (December 2021).
SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, photographed in 2021.Photo: Priwo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Documents
2
documents
Citations
14
citations
People
2
people
Pages of record
5
pages of record
Reading time
4
minutes to read
Source discipline

12 primary, 2 corroborating, 0 tertiary. 14 citations in all.

  • T1 Primary
  • T2 Corroborating
  • T3 Tertiary
People in this piece
  • Jeffrey Edward Epstein, Principal, Deceased
  • Lesley Groff, Enabler, Immunity recipient
Reading key
Miami HeraldSource 14reportingSarah KellenResearch Vault referenceEditorial essayargumentargument or opinion

The invitation started with a ranch visit. On February 21, 2013, Jeffrey Epstein's executive assistant Lesley Groff emailed Mary Beth Brown, a senior staffer at SpaceX, with an invitation on Epstein's behalf:

"Hello Mary Beth...Jeffrey wanted to extend an invitation to Elon to visit him at his ranch this Sat. Feb. 23rd or Sun. Feb. 24th...his ranch is in Sante Fe, New Mexico... Otherwise, he says he will meet him at 1pm for lunch at Space X!" EFTA00395118EE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Brown replied a few hours later. Musk had LA commitments over that weekend. The Zorro Ranch offer was declined. The SpaceX lunch was confirmed for Monday February 25, 2013 at 1:00 p.m.

The Passport Scans

On February 22, Brown wrote to Groff with the visitor check-in protocol. For US citizens, a government-issued photo ID was sufficient. For non-citizens, the process was different.

Groff's reply is the passage this article turns on:

"Thank you for the specifics below. Jeffrey is a US citizen but he will have assistants with him who are not (2 Russian and 1 South African). They all have passports and proper paper work. I'm pretty sure he will bring them all with him. Will this be ok?" EFTA00395118EE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Brown's answer: "Yes, I need a scan of everyone's passport asap for security clearance and original passports must be brought onsite for check in."

The record shows Epstein walking into SpaceX on February 25, 2013 with three accompanying personnel, each a non-US citizen whose passports had been scanned for SpaceX security clearance four days in advance. Two Russian. One South African. 4 years and 7 months after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to procurement of a minor for prostitution and completed a 13-month work-release sentence under the Non-Prosecution Agreement.

A Fourth Name in the Thread

A fourth person, not counted in the "2 Russian and 1 South African" group, identified themselves separately inside the thread. They wrote to Brown:

"Mary Beth just to let you know my citizenship and the passport I hold my visas in is actual British. Do you need the names of anyone who may accompany Jeffrey? I will be with him on the trip so please contact me at any time if you need any further information." EFTA00395118EE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

The British-passport-holder's name is redacted in the indexed version. Groff's earlier note had described Epstein's party as Epstein plus 3 non-US-citizen "assistants." This fourth person was separately on the trip. Whether they were a fourth "assistant," a staff member traveling with Epstein, or something else is not resolved by the document.

What the Record Does Not Show

Who the three non-US-citizen "assistants" were. Whether they entered the SpaceX building on February 25. What business, if any, they had at the lunch. Whether Musk was aware of their citizenship status before Epstein arrived. Whether the SpaceX security check-in records of February 25, 2013 still exist. None of those questions is answered by the verified primary source.

Several Items Remain Open

The names on the passport scans, if SpaceX preserved them. Any additional Epstein-Musk correspondence in the EFTA corpus across 2013 to 2019. Whether the Zorro Ranch visit Groff initially proposed for February 23 or 24 was ever rescheduled. A complete retrieval is the next step.

Documentary artifact

The 4-day clearance, interactive

4 events.

From invitation to walk-in

The advance coordination between Epstein’s executive assistant and SpaceX. Passports scanned four days before Epstein walked through the door.

“Hello Mary Beth…Jeffrey wanted to extend an invitation to Elon to visit him at his ranch this Sat. Feb. 23rd or Sun. Feb. 24th…his ranch is in Sante Fe, New Mexico… Otherwise, he says he will meet him at 1pm for lunch at Space X!” Brown replies within hours. Musk has LA commitments that weekend. The ranch offer is declined. Monday lunch confirmed for 1:00 PM.

Source, tier 1.EFTA00395118, at justice.govEE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

Brown walks Groff through the visitor check-in protocol. US citizens need a government photo ID. Non-citizens need advance passport scans and on-site original passports for check-in.

Groff confirms the composition of Epstein’s party: two Russian citizens, one South African, all with passports and “proper paper work.” Brown: “Yes, I need a scan of everyone's passport asap for security clearance and original passports must be brought onsite for check in.”

Source, tier 1.EFTA00395118, at justice.govEE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

The fourth party to the thread is a separate accompanying person. Their identity is part of the record; the article lands on what the record does and does not establish about who was at the lunch.

Source, tier 1.EFTA02146170, at justice.govEE, EFTA02146170 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document

4 years and 7 months after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to procurement of a minor for prostitution, and finished a 13-month work-release sentence under the Non-Prosecution Agreement, he walks into SpaceX for lunch with the then-future CEO of Tesla and a three-person entourage whose passports had been cleared through the SpaceX visitor system in advance.

Source, tier 1.EFTA00395118, at justice.govEE, EFTA00395118 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document