Latest Epstein Files Release Reveals More Details About Sex Trafficker
The U.S. Justice Department released over three million pages related to the deceased child sex trafficker and financier Jeffrey Epstein, shedding further light on his connections to the global elite
Warning: the following story discusses the sexual abuse of minors
On Jan. 30, the U.S. Justice Department released millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire child sex trafficker who died in 2019. Epstein was a financier in New York City and was known to be a friend of numerous rich and powerful people, including U.S. President Donald Trump, and he had been accused of procuring minors for some of them to abuse. He also had numerous links to global intelligence networks.
Epstein was known for hosting lavish parties for his friends and associates. He kept several properties, including a mansion in New York City and a private island in the Caribbean. That island, Little Saint James, is known by many as Epstein Island and was one of the central points of abuse. Numerous powerful individuals, such as Google co-founder Sergei Brin, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, are known to have visited the island.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 under extremely mysterious circumstances. Officially, he hung himself in his cell, despite numerous jail protocols being violated that cast doubt on the events. Ever since his death, people have been asking questions about who he knew, and which of the many powerful people he associated with were aware of or participated in the sexual abuse of minors. Epstein himself is known to have abused thousands of women and girls. Much of the abuse was coordinated and facilitated by Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend and accomplice. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her involvement with Epstein, though there has been major criticism of the cozy treatment she is getting behind bars.
He was first arrested for sex crimes in Florida in 2005 when a woman contacted the Palm Beach Police Department and said Epstein had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old stepdaughter. This led to a 13-month police investigation that was taken over by the FBI. The FBI identified up to 40 minors who had been victimized by Epstein. A 2018 Miami Herald investigation found 80 victims. However, prosecutors cut a deal with Epstein and in 2008 he pled guilty to soliciting one minor, who was 17 at the time, for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail but served just 13 months and was allowed out for work release for 12 hours a day, six days a week just three and a half months into his sentence.
Alex Acosta was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the time and allegedly said he was told that Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and to “leave it alone”. Acosta went on to become Labor Secretary during the first Trump administration.
This was the second document release since the U.S. Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. That law required that the U.S. government release all the information it had within 30 days, but the first documents released on Dec. 19 were incomplete and heavily redacted. Over 550 pages were entirely blacked out. This was precipitated by September releases of documents, including around 18,700 emails obtained and published by Bloomberg and 33,295 pages of documents released by the House Oversight Committee.
The Jan. 30 release contains far more information. It has over three million pages of documents, mainly emails that Epstein sent to and from various powerful individuals. It also contains 2,000 videos and 180,000 images that show Epstein and his associates together, and in many cases with underage individuals. The identities of victims or potential victims are redacted for their privacy, but many are clearly children.
Reporters are still working their way through the millions of documents and putting pieces of the puzzle together slowly. The Justice Department has made the files searchable in a database online. The database can identify individual words or phrases, though it only allows for a rough search, making the process take a very long time. This article contains a brief overview of some of the most important discoveries in the files so far. More coverage will follow in the coming weeks and months.
Another challenge is that many people mentioned in the files have nothing to do with Epstein or his crimes. For example, the name “Mark Carney” appears 69 times, but almost all of these are from articles Epstein was sharing while Carney was Governor of the Bank of England, or he was a keynote speaker at a major public event Epstein was considering attending. “Kevin O’Leary” appears three times, including once in a screenshot of an article which has a link to another article about him.
While there are numerous mentions of Trump, so far very little of the information suggests more criminality on his part than what was already publicly known. Trump and Epstein were friends for more than a decade and Epstein was known to frequent Trump’s club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Trump, the two had a falling out in the mid-2000s about Epstein’s practice of trying to lure girls working at the club into his network. They apparently split after Epstein lured Virginia Giuffre, a teenage masseuse working at the club. Giuffre was one of Epstein’s most famous victims and a central figure in bringing his crimes to light.
Epstein’s social network was vast, complex, and constantly shifting. Many of the people he associated with would be his friend at one time and his enemy later on, including apparently Trump. Another person he had a major falling out with was Bill Gates.
Gates is the founder and former CEO of Microsoft who was for a long time the world’s richest man. Gates’ friendship with Epstein has been known publicly for some time, and a 2019 New York Times article explained that they became friends in the mid-2010s, following Epstein’s conviction. Gates apparently wanted Epstein’s help in winning a Nobel Prize and Epstein connected Gates with Thorbjørn Jagland, the former Prime Minister of Norway who was chair of the Nobel Committee at the time. Jagland was also Secretary-General of the Council of Europe at the time. Gates also met with Epstein numerous times, though he maintains that these were all business meetings and that he never attended any parties. None of Epstein’s victims have accused Gates of wrongdoing.
The new documents paint a very different picture, though Gates denies their claims. Included in the documents are numerous draft emails Epstein wrote detailing specifics of his relationships with people like Gates. It is not clear whether Epstein actually sent the email to Gates or anyone else.
In the email, Epstein claims Gates sought his help in acquiring antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his wife at the time, Melinda Gates. According to Epstein, Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) from “Russian girls” Epstein had organized dates with for him.
“From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls , to facilictating his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro bridge tounianint,” Epstein wrote in one of the drafts. Epstein’s emails are replete with spelling and grammar mistakes, and Tripwire is preserving their exact format in full, as well as the spelling and grammar of other correspondence.
Gates is vociferously denying the contents of the draft emails. He says he, like many people, regrets his association with Epstein and says he apologizes to victims. He says he never had anything to do with “that kind of behaviour”, referring to Epstein abusing minors.
“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. The email is false,” Gates said in an interview with 9News’ Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher. “I don’t know what his thinking was there… Was he trying to attack me in some way? Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that.”
While Bill Gates is denying the allegations, his ex-wife Melinda Gates is saying Bill needs to answer for them. Bill and Melinda Gates were married from 1994 to 2021, and their marriage reportedly ended due to Bill’s continued association with Epstein. Melinda Gates says she told Bill repeatedly not to associate with Epstein, but he refused. She expanded on this recently in an interview with NPR’s Wild Card.
“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” Gates said. “Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,” she said. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”
Norwegian police have launched an investigation into Jagland over his connections with Epstein. He is suspected of “aggravated corruption” and whether any gifts, loans, or travel he received were connected to his various government and diplomatic positions. Jagland’s lawyers have said he plans to fully cooperate with the investigation.
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Jagland is not the only Norwegian facing scrutiny over their Epstein ties. Crown princess Mette-Marit has apologized for her friendship with the American sex offender as well. The two exchanged numerous friendly emails, many of which indicated that Mette-Marit was at least partly aware of his aggressive pursuit of young women. In another case she asked him: “Is it inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper ?”
“I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing,” Norway’s Royal Palace said in a statement.
Coincidentally, one of Mette-Marit’s sons is on trial for his own criminal charges, and was just arrested for assault as well. Marius Borg Hoiby faces 38 total charges, including four counts of rape, six counts of filming people without their consent, and attacking and harassing a former partner. He has pled not guilty. Hoiby is 29, meaning he would have been 15 when Mette-Marit sent Epstein the wallpaper email in 2012.
Peter Mandelson Case Blows Up U.K. Politics
The case is roiling U.K. politics as well as Norwegian. King Charles III stripped now-former Prince Andrew of his titles and station, reducing him to a private citizen. Now a top Labour politician is facing a criminal investigation in a case that could bring down the government.
Peter Mandelson is a long-time British politician. He is a member of the House of Lords with a Life peerage—or he was until he resigned on Wednesday as a result of the newest Epstein files release. He had also served as British Ambassador to the U.S. until Sept. 2025, when he was removed after the first tranche of Epstein documents were released by the Justice Department. The 72-year-old politician was also the MP for Hartlepool from 1992-2004 and served as First Secretary of State under Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown from June 2009 to May 2010.
Mandelson was friends with Epstein from at least 2002 to 2011, which is beyond Epstein’s 2008 conviction. While their friendship has been publicly known for some time, the new information contained in the latest release is extremely damaging. Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party entirely in addition to giving up his peerage. He is also the subject of a police investigation.
According to the latest release, Mandelson leaked sensitive government information to Epstein in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis while he was First Secretary of State. On June 13, 2009, he allegedly sent Epstein a memo from that day proposing the sale of £20 billion of assets and detailing the government’s tax policy plans. This sensitive insider information would have allowed Epstein to make trades and other financial moves with knowledge not available to the general public, a major crime. He also told Epstein that J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon should “mildly threaten” Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling to change the government’s policy regarding a bankers’ bonus tax.
In March 2010, Mandelson sent Epstein minutes of a conversation between Darling and the director of the U.S. National Economic Council, Larry Summers. Summers happens to be another Epstein associate and resigned from his teaching position at Harvard and role on the OpenAI board of directors last year due to his own connections. The discussion was about banking regulations and tax policy Summers wanted implemented. Mandelson also sent Epstein the minutes of his own conversation with Summers the day after. In both cases he forwarded the information within a few minutes of receiving it.
In 2010, he gave Epstein advanced notice of the EU’s €500 billion planned bailout of the Euro. He also appears to have given Epstein advanced notice of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s resignation in May 2010. He is also accused of lobbying the U.S. government to change its banking regulations on behalf of Epstein and his friend and ally Jes Staley. Staley worked at J.P. Morgan at the time and was known as Epstein’s “chief defender” at the firm.
Their relationship was social as well. Mandelson allegedly stayed at Epstein’s New York mansion in 2009 while Epstein was in jail. He also sent a letter to Epstein for the infamous “birthday book”.
The birthday book is a collection of personal messages, many of them lewd and implying criminal sexual behaviour, that Maxwell collected for Epstein’s 50th birthday. In his 10-page letter, Mandelson referred to Epstein as his “best pal” and finishes by saying “Happy Birthday Jeffrey, we love you!!”. The letter describes Epstein entering and leaving one’s life unexpectedly, “Leaving you with some ‘interesting’ friends to entertain instead...”. It includes several images, including one of Epstein’s mansions where Mandelson said some might meet him “in one of his glorious hones he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)”.
“I feel a tremendous sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his [Epstein’s] behaviour and his illegal criminal activities,” Mandelson said in an interview with British journalist Harry Cole in September. “And, secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done… and I regret very, very much that I fell for his lies.”
Mandelson said Epstein lied to him about the details of his 2008 conviction and referred to him as a “charismatic criminal liar”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is calling Mandelson a liar. He says Mandelson was asked multiple times about his relationship with Epstein during the vetting process to become ambassador and he repeatedly misrepresented it, portraying Epstein as someone Mandelson barely knew. Starmer said he plans to provide the House, and presumably the public, with all the information the government has about Mandelson and Epstein. Starmer, who is already deeply unpopular, is facing calls from many MPs, including some of his own, to step down.
“Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament, and my party,” Starmer told the U.K. House of Commons. “He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now he would never have been anywhere near government.”
U.S. Government Response Far More Muted Than European
While there are criminal investigations into Epstein-related cases in both the U.K. and Norway, the same is not true in the U.S. So far, only two Americans have faced any consequences for their association with Epstein at all. Brad Karp, the chairman of the prestigious law firm Paul Weiss, stepped down after emails between him and Epstein were released, many of which pertained to Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Dr. Peter Attia, a celebrity doctor who emailed with Epstein regularly and at one point said “The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul” is in danger of losing a new position at CBS. Coincidentally, CBS’s new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and her wife Nellie Bowles were also friends with Epstein.
There is currently no known criminal investigation of anyone associated with Epstein in the U.S. The work on releasing the files is being led by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche was asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about whether there would be any criminal charges coming and he suggested that it would be unlikely.
“Well, look, I’ll never say no, and we will always investigate any evidence of misconduct, but as you know, it’s not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein,” said Blanche. “So as horrible as it — it’s not a crime to email with Mr. Epstein. Some of these men may have done horrible things, and if we have evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will. But it’s also the kind of thing that the American people need to understand that it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”
In addition to Trump, numerous members of the administration are implicated in the files. The new documents have concerned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick more than anyone else so far. Before joining the government Lutnick was a major figure on Wall Street at the same time as Epstein. He was also Epstein’s neighbour in New York City.
Lutnick has previously confirmed that he met Epstein at his house and claimed that that was the only time the two met. He told the New York Post in October that he visited the house with his wife Allison in 2005 and Epstein showed him the large, infamous massage room where a lot of abuse allegedly occurred.
“I say to him, ‘Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?’” Lutnick said in the interview. “And he says, ‘Every day.’ And then he gets, like weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”
Lutnick says he and his wife quickly found an excuse to leave after that moment. He said that on the short walk home “my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again”. He also said he believed Epstein was recording massages in the room and that he was deliberately putting powerful people in incriminating positions to generate compromising material about them.
“And what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video,” Lutnick said. “This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever.”
The new emails show that Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein was far larger and more complex than that. Not only did Lutnick buy the mansion from Epstein through an entity called Comet Trust in 1998, but the two maintained several other business dealings for years. Lutnick, his wife, and their four children, along with another family with four more children, visited Epstein’s island in 2012. The two men appear to have been in regular contact until at least 2018, including Epstein donating $50,000 to a dinner honouring Lutnick. Lutnick has yet to respond to these new revelations.
While Blanche is saying no one will face criminal charges for their relationship with Epstein, Republicans are zeroing in on the Clintons. Former President Bill Clinton was known to have been friends with Epstein and flew aboard his jet, the “Lolita Express”, numerous times. Epstein visited the White House numerous times while Clinton was president. Clinton has been accused of rape and sexual assault numerous times; however, these were by adult women with no connection to Epstein. Their relationship appears to have wound down in 2003, before Epstein’s conviction.
House Republicans are summoning both Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton to testify before the House Oversight Committee on their connection with Epstein. The Clintons resisted testifying for months before agreeing in the face of potentially being held in contempt of Congress and arrested. They are demanding that the proceedings be made public. Rep. James Comer, who leads the committee, is so far refusing this request. This would be the first time ever a former U.S. President is compelled to testify to Congress under subpoena.
“Let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, James Comer, let’s have it—in public. You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on,” Hillary Clinton posted on X on Thursday. “We will be there.”