Few journalists have dug as deeply into the Epstein files as Tanya Lukyanova. She has watched thousands of Jeffrey Epstein-related videos in the possession of the Department of Justice (DOJ), and she showed Free Press viewers—and readers—how “they paint the most vivid picture yet of Epstein’s dark world: his lavish lifestyle and twisted worldview, his mannerisms and quirks, his sense of humor—and sense of impunity.”
Earlier this month, Tanya also told the story of a woman named Liza Grinenko, who discovered her own name in the Epstein files. It turned out that someone she believed was a close friend had, in fact, tried to recruit her into Epstein’s web. That “friend,” Svetlana “Lana” Pozhidaeva had been one of his assistants for over a decade. But last week, The Wall Street Journal wrote a story portraying Pozhidaeva as an Epstein victim rather than an enabler. Tanya has since spoken to Pozhidaeva, and done more digging. Here is her latest report.
—The Editors
I recently received a LinkedIn message from Svetlana “Lana” Pozhidaeva.
“Hi Tanya, I’d like to connect with you,” it said. “I am planning a public interview next week—to tell everything that happened to me. Can I add you on [S]ignal please?”
Two days earlier, The Free Press ran my article “She Was Nearly Recruited into Epstein’s World—by Her Closest Friend.” Pozhidaeva was that “closest friend” from the headline. The former Russian model had worked for more than a decade as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s longest-serving and most trusted assistants. She now told me the reason she had not responded to my previous request for comment was because she had lost access to her social media accounts. I was, of course, eager to hear what she had to say.
Pozhidaeva appeared hundreds of times throughout the Epstein files. She was one of many women whose names had not been initially redacted, so I was able to read years of her email communications with Epstein. In those exchanges, she came across less as a victim, and more as a central member of Epstein’s staff, a trusted assistant who helped recruit young women for her boss.
If all the women in Epstein’s orbit are cast as victims, regardless of their role, it devalues the meaning of the word. . . . The real victims stand to lose the most, while their perpetrators dodge accountability.
But before I had a chance to speak with her, The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy profile of Pozhidaeva, now 42 years old, presenting her explicitly as an Epstein victim—“one of several women Epstein sexually exploited under the guise of ‘assistant’ roles.” The WSJ article offered no additional details, supporting facts, or corroborating evidence. It didn’t even define what “sexually exploited” entailed when it came to Pozhidaeva.
Pozhidaeva had begun working for Epstein in 2008, and remained with him until his arrest in the summer of 2019. At that point, she was at least 34 years old. Yet in the WSJ article, based on an interview with Pozhidaeva herself, she is portrayed as a powerless subordinate, pressured into carrying out her boss’s orders without fully grasping their criminal nature. “Confusion about how sex trafficking works and who qualifies as a victim has compounded the problem,” the article explained.
Having written a piece in which Pozhidaeva was attempting to recruit her friend, Liza Grinenko, for Epstein—even describing her in one email as “very sweet and might be naughty too”—I was taken aback to see Pozhidaeva portrayed so sympathetically.
So before I spoke to her, I decided to go back and take a second look at both what was already known about Pozhidaeva and what I learned about her from the Epstein files.
