A new trove of about 3 million files related to the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released on Friday, offering new details about his network and interactions with wealthy and powerful figures and the federal investigations into his crimes.
The release follows legislation passed in November by US lawmakers that mandated the disclosure of all Epstein-related documents.
Here are some of the key findings so far:
Files shed new light on relationship between Epstein and Peter Mandelson
RM Block
Mandelson’s relationship with the financier was professional and personal – intimate even – with the boundaries between the two blurred to the point of being non-existent.
When the Labour peer seemingly believed that his then-partner, now husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva had gained access to his text messages in March 2010, it was to Epstein that he turned for help.
“I have had v bad setback with R who has somehow got into my texts,” wrote Mandelson, who by then was already number two in the UK government. “What shall I do? You may need to help. How does he see them?”
Epstein responded: “This email is probably compromised as well, lets talk.”
On buying a new house and wondering whether he should borrow £4 million at a 3 per cent interest rate, it was again Epstein’s advice that he sought.
Then there were consultations about how to build his business career when Labour lost the 2010 election. Would taking a place on the board Facebook be a good move, he asked. Got me any “deal(s) yet” he wondered in July 2011.
Epstein responded: “Spent the day with Gates, in Seattle, having monstrous fun.”
It was, by any measure, an intense friendship.
“Need to talk, feeling confused,” Mandelson wrote in April 2009. “Where r u? I miss you”, he emailed on December 22nd, 2010.
The drip-feed of revelations in recent months about the extent of this relationship has cost Mandelson the job he loved and the status he craves. On Monday, the most damning email yet became public.
Mandelson appears to have leaked a sensitive Whitehall document to Epstein, who was still under house arrest at the time, detailing the UK government’s tax plans and intention to sell £20 billion in assets.
He forwarded the document in June 2009 with the comment: “Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.”
Emails had already emerged over the weekend that suggested Mandelson had received three payments of $25,000 each from Epstein when he was a backbench MP in 2003 and 2004. Others showed that his partner had received thousands of pounds in 2009 and 2010 when he was business secretary.
In a statement, Mandelson reiterated that he had been wrong to believe Epstein and continue his association with him, adding: “I deeply regret doing so and apologise unequivocally to the women and girls who suffered.”
Epstein lawyers discussed possibility of co-operation days before his death
Less than two weeks before Epstein died in jail in 2019, the files show that his attorneys met with Manhattan federal prosecutors and discussed Epstein’s potential co-operation.
A FBI document titled Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline states: “On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s co-operation.”
Another document titled Jeffrey Epstein Significant Case Notification, which closely resembles the FBI memo but is not attributed to a specific agency, notes that “defense counsel did not make a specific proposal, and they did not indicate what the nature of Epstein’s co-operation might be, if any.”
“It was suggested that defense counsel contact SDNY [southern district of New York] if Epstein was prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct and/or they had a specific proposal for a resolution of this case,” it added.
FBI received allegations about Trump
One document in the newly released tranche is a summary that FBI officials appear to have compiled last summer, of more than a dozen tips received by the agency involving Trump and Epstein.
It is unclear why the investigators put together the summary, and it does not say when the tips, which include unsubstantiated claims of sexual abuse, were received. The document also does not include any corroborating evidence or indication that the tips were verified.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. In response to a request for comment from the New York Times, the White House referred to a statement from the justice department on Friday, which stated that the new tranche of documents “may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos”.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the DoJ statement added. “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised against President Trump already.”
Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known
Emails show Musk and Epstein exchanging cordial messages, and on two separate occasions, in 2012 and 2013, the two making plans for Musk to visit Epstein’s private island. The communications suggest that the trips did not occur due to logistical issues.
Musk told Vanity Fair in 2019 that Epstein was “obviously a creep” and claimed that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island” but that he had “declined”.
A representative for Musk and his artificial intelligence company, xAI, did not return a request for comment about the emails. On Friday night, Musk repeated his previous claim on social media, and stated that he had “very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island”.
Howard Lutnick made plans to visit Epstein’s island
The files show that Lutnick, now serving as US secretary of commerce under Trump, arranged to visit Jeffrey Epstein’s island in 2012.
Last year Lutnick said in an interview that he had been neighbours with Epstein in New York, and that he had cut ties with Epstein around 2005, calling him “disgusting”.
A spokesperson for the commerce department told the Wall Street Journal that Lutnick had limited interactions with Epstein and has never been accused of wrongdoing.
Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace
Emails suggest that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace following Epstein’s release from house arrest in 2010.
In 2008, as part of a negotiated deal, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor, and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. He was released in July 2009, and began serving a house arrest sentence, which ended in August 2010.
In a September 2010 email exchange between Epstein and “the Duke” – believed to be Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York – Epstein said he was in London and requested “private time”.
Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have replied: “We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.” Two days later, he followed up by saying: “Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600ish.”
It is unclear if the meeting took place. But three months later, the pair were pictured walking together in New York’s Central Park. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously claimed he had travelled to the US to end his friendship with Epstein in light of his conviction.
The documents also show that days after Epstein’s house arrest ended, Epstein offered to arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a “clevere [sic], beautiful and trustworthy” 26-year-old Russian woman. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be “delighted” to meet the woman. In that email exchange, he also asked Epstein if it was “good to be free?”
Additional files include photos showing Andrew appearing to be crouching over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.
Richard Branson and Epstein exchanged emails
The files show an email exchange from 2013 between Branson, the British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group, and Epstein.
In an email on September 11th, 2013, Branson wrote to Epstein, “It was really nice seeing you yesterday” and added: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”
A representative for Virgin group told the New York Times that Branson had sent the email shortly after hosting Epstein at a group business meeting on the private island Branson owns in the British Virgin Islands.
The spokesperson said that Epstein arrived at the meeting with three adult women, whom he referred to as his “harem”, who did not attend the meeting.
“Any contact Richard and Joan Branson had with Epstein took place on only a few occasions more than 12 years ago, and was limited to group or business settings,” the representative said in a statement. “Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.”
Files show emails between head of LA Olympics committee and Ghislaine Maxwell
Emails from 2003 between Casey Wasserman, head of the Los Angeles Olympics organising committee, and Ghislaine Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes – appeared in the files.
The exchanges include a message from Wasserman telling Maxwell: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
In an April 2003 email, sent to Wasserman, who was married at the time, Maxwell offered to give him a massage that can “drive a man wild”.
Wasserman said on Saturday he “deeply regrets” his “correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” which he said took place “long before her horrific crimes came to light”.
“I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” he added. “As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch exchanged emails with Epstein
Tisch was mentioned several hundred times in files released on Friday, and in some emails exchanges from 2013 it appears that Epstein connected Tisch to several women.
In a statement, Tisch he said that he and Epstein had “a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments”.
“I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island,” he added. “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Hollywood film-maker Brett Ratner appears in image with Epstein and two women
A newly released photo from the files shows Ratner, who directed the recently released Melania Trump documentary, sitting on a sofa hugging a woman, next to Epstein, who is sitting with another woman. Both women’s faces have been redacted.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the undated photo appears to have been taken in Epstein’s New York town house.
Ratner reportedly told the Journal in 2023 he did not know Epstein and had never met him. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Ratner declined to comment to the Journal. – The Guardian
