Protesters in Houston, Texas, in July demanding for the Jeffrey Epstein files to be released. Photo / AFP
United States President Donald Trump and members of his Administration teased us with the prospect of making public Jeffrey Epstein’s FBI files. Instead, we got zilch.
Trump then ordered the Department of Justice to seek the release of some grand jury testimony — a request that a federal judge in Florida denied yesterday.
But even that information, though it might have filled in some gaps in the Epstein story, would have been only a sliver of what’s in the FBI files — which include a mind-boggling “300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence”, according to the Department of Justice and the FBI.
The American people — and above all, the victims of Epstein’s crimes — deserve answers to outstanding questions about how he operated, with whose help, and in whose service.
With the exception of redactions required to protect the innocent and materials that must be withheld while under court seal, the complete FBI files should be released.
Here are nine unanswered questions about the Epstein case — ones that a curious, non-conspiracy-minded citizen might have — that the files might help answer:
1: How did Epstein make his money and how did he finance his sex-trafficking over two decades?
At the time of Epstein’s death in 2019, his estate was worth an estimated US$600 million ($990m).
He worked briefly on Wall Street and built his wealth with the help of several billionaires, including the L Brands founder Leslie Wexner and the Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, for whom Epstein provided consulting, tax advice and other financial services. But it’s still not clear how Epstein amassed such a large fortune — or how he was able to fund such a complex trafficking scheme.
Neither Wexner nor Black has been accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement in connection to Epstein’s crimes, and both men have said that they did not know about his criminal behaviour.
In addition to trafficking underage victims within the US, Epstein imported young women and children from Russia, Belarus, Turkey, and Turkmenistan, according to an investigation conducted by the office of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. This trafficking was presumably expensive.
Treasury Department files reviewed by Wyden’s staff members detail, among other things, 4725 wire transfers adding up to nearly US$1.1 billion associated with just one of Epstein’s bank accounts.
We need to follow the money. The FBI files may reveal more about the funding and other financial mechanics of Epstein’s operation.
2: Did Epstein have any ties to spy agencies?
Some have speculated that Epstein may have been acting as an intelligence asset.
One suggestive comment was apparently made by Alexander Acosta when after the 2016 presidential election, he was being vetted for secretary of labour in Trump’s first administration.
Back in 2008, as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acosta agreed to a lenient — and heavily criticised — plea deal that ended a federal investigation into Epstein.
When asked in 2016 to explain that decision, Acosta reportedly said: “I was told Mr Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone”.
Attorney-General Pam Bondi said this month that she did not know whether Epstein was an intelligence asset. “To him being an agent,” she told reporters, “I have no knowledge about that.”
The FBI files could help resolve this matter.
3: Are there references to Trump in the files that add to our knowledge of his relationship with Epstein?
Trump has acknowledged being friendly with Epstein for about 15 years, ending with a falling out over a real estate matter in 2004. Trump has not been accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, but his relationship with Epstein has come under scrutiny.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, a model named Stacey Williams accused Trump of groping her in the presence of Epstein at Trump Tower in 1993 — a claim his campaign denied. The New York Times recently reported that one of Epstein’s victims, Maria Farmer, said that in 1996 and in 2006, she urged the FBI to investigate Trump and others who had been in Epstein’s orbit.
Yesterday, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi told Trump this northern spring that his name appeared in the Epstein files. The context in which his name was raised remains unclear.
4: What about Bill Clinton?
Collecting famous friends seemed to be integral to Epstein’s business model — and Bill Clinton was the most famous.
In a contact book, Epstein listed 21 different phone numbers for Clinton.
The two men met decades ago, most likely through Epstein’s close friend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The Daily Beast has reported that she and Epstein attended a reception hosted by Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1993.
After he left office in 2001, Clinton flew on Epstein’s private jets for 26 flights from 2002 to 2003, according to flight logs.
Virginia Giuffre, the first of Epstein’s victims to go public, once claimed that Epstein told her that Clinton “owes me a favour.” Clinton has denied having a close relationship with Epstein and has said that he knew nothing about the crimes that Epstein was accused of.
A full accounting of the FBI’s Epstein files might help clarify the nature of Clinton’s relationship with Epstein.
5: Who were the clients implicated in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation?
The lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who joined Epstein’s legal team in 2005 when Epstein was first under investigation, said that young women or girls interviewed by the FBI claimed to identify several of Epstein’s clients. Dershowitz wrote recently that their identities “should be disclosed but the courts have ordered them sealed”.
He added: “I know who they are. They don’t include any current officeholders. We don’t know whether the accusations are true.”
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, said that Epstein trafficked her to multiple men — including Dershowitz. Dershowitz denied her allegation and sued Giuffre for defamation. Giuffre later said she may have made a mistake in accusing him.
Others she accused, including politicians in the US, have denied wrongdoing. Prince Andrew of Britain, whom she also accused, denied wrongdoing and settled out of court a lawsuit that she brought against him.
What if anything did the FBI do to corroborate Giuffre’s claims about Andrew? Did it investigate the authenticity of a photo showing her with Andrew — a photograph he has claimed may be a fake?
6: Who helped Epstein overseas?
One associate of Epstein was the French modelling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, who faced his own allegations of sexual assault and died behind bars in Paris in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape charges.
Brunel was accused of grooming minors and trafficking them to Epstein. After Epstein’s conviction in Florida, court documents assert that Epstein continued his abuse of girls and had a steady supply of victims ferried to him in the US Virgin Islands.
According to a lawsuit filed by the attorney-general of the Virgin Islands, Epstein used private planes, helicopters, boats and other vehicles to bring young women and girls to his island residence there.
The scheme led to the molestation and exploitation of “numerous” girls between aged 12 and 17, according to legal papers.
The Miami Herald has reported that the US Marshals Service recorded the names of passengers on Epstein’s planes when they arrived at airports in New York and the Virgin Islands.
The Department of Homeland Security released some of those documents pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Miami Herald, but the names were redacted, with the exception of Epstein’s.
There is probably revealing information about Epstein’s operation in the Virgin Islands in the FBI files.
7: What did investigators find in Epstein’s safe, computers, and other property?
An evidence inventory made during multiple investigations of Epstein by law enforcement resulted in a three-page index generated by the FBI.
According to the index, the evidence included 40 computer and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs, and six recording devices — along with approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photos, travel logs, and employee logs.
The records, according to ABC News, also included three discs containing the outcome of court-authorised intercepts of a phone number previously belonging to Maxwell.
This evidence represents a wealth of potential detail, and we’re being denied access to it. Why hold this material back if properly redacted?
8: What do the videos show?
Victims have said that Epstein had cameras in his homes.
The Department of Justice and the FBI have said that the Epstein files contain more than 10,000 downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex material and other pornography.
The AP recently reported on a court filing in which Epstein’s estate was said to have located an unspecified number of videos and photos that it said might contain child sex abuse material. The FBI files could provide more details about when and where this material was uncovered.
9: What is in Epstein’s autopsy report?
The autopsy was performed by Kristin Roman, a forensic pathologist, at the direction of Dr Barbara Sampson, New York’s chief medical examiner at the time. Sampson determined that Epstein died by suicide, but many are sceptical.
Were DNA tests performed on the bedsheet that Epstein was said to have used to hang himself?
If so, was any foreign DNA detected? Did investigators question inmates in nearby cells about what they heard or saw?
Seeking answers to this and the other eight matters is the least we can do, not only for Epstein’s victims but also for a nation that badly needs to restore its trust in government.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Barry Levine
Barry Levine is the author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a co-author, with Monique El-Faizy, of All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator.
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