At the heart of recent controversy over disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are multiple criminal investigations that stretch back more than 20 years.
The case has long been the subject of conspiracy theories, even before Mr. Epstein died in prison in 2019. But the Trump administration’s flip-flops over releasing more details – including how President Donald Trump could feature – have caused a surge in public interest. Mr. Trump on Monday said he didn’t have the “privilege” of traveling to Mr. Epstein’s private island (and that he turned down invitations to go).
Here are details about the investigations, and the ambiguities that have only grown more glaring over time.
Why We Wrote This
The Trump administration faces pressure to release additional files from investigations of sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s what’s known from two decades of lawsuits and what could come from efforts to reveal more.
Who is Epstein, and what did he do?
Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Epstein made his fortune as a banker and financier. As he built a multimillion-dollar fortune, he also developed a social circle of powerful and wealthy elites and celebrities.
His legal troubles began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl in Palm Beach, Florida, told police that she had been molested by Mr. Epstein at his mansion in the city. Local law enforcement uncovered dozens more victims dating back years.
“This was not a ‘he said, she said’ situation. This was 50-something ‘shes’ and one ‘he’ — and the ‘shes’ all basically told the same story,’’ retired Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald in 2018.
Florida police found evidence that Mr. Epstein had paid teenage girls to come to his house for sexual encounters and to recruit other teens. The FBI around this time was also investigating Mr. Epstein, interviewing victims and witnesses “from across the United States,” according to the Miami Herald.
Local police had pushed for major charges to be brought against Mr. Epstein in 2005, but the top local prosecutor took the unusual step of referring the case to a grand jury. (Grand juries for non-capital cases are rare in Florida.) After hearing from only two alleged victims, the grand jury returned an indictment on one count of solicitation of prostitution. Local police then forwarded their evidence to federal prosecutors, and a federal investigation began in 2006.
Federal grand jury investigations resulted in an unusual plea deal in 2008. Instead of facing a potential life sentence, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges. He registered as a sex offender and served 13 months in a county jail work-release program, spending six days a week working outside the jail. The deal immunized him and “any potential co-conspirators” from all federal criminal charges.
After his release from jail, dozens of alleged victims brought civil suits against Mr. Epstein. (More than one hundred “Jane Does” have been identified in court documents, according to the Miami Herald). Many of them reached out-of-court settlements with the disgraced financier.
One long-running civil case in the 2010s, in which Epstein accusers sued the federal government for violating a victims’ rights statute with the 2008 plea deal, revealed more details about Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking and abuse of minors. The judge ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in February 2019.
Months later, in July 2019, federal agents arrested Mr. Epstein in New York on charges of child sex trafficking. Epstein pleaded not guilty, and a judge denied his request for release on bond. A month later he was found dead in his jail cell; officials ruled his death a suicide.
In 2020, federal prosecutors charged Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, with sex crimes related to her role in Epstein’s criminal enterprise. She was convicted in 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Some powerful figures – including Mr. Trump and former President Bill Clinton – have been identified in court records as having flown in Mr. Epstein’s private jet over the decades. Both have denied knowledge of or involvement with Mr. Epstein’s sex crimes. Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein owned homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and socialized together in the 1980s and 1990s until falling out in the early 2000s.
What are the Epstein files?
The combination of the horrific alleged crimes, the unusual prosecutorial decisions, and the high-profile individuals possibly implicated in Mr. Epstein’s activities have kept the controversy alive even after two decades of legal scrutiny.
Much of that controversy relates to the first Epstein prosecution. Federal grand jury investigations in 2005 and 2007 had been probing the scope of Mr. Epstein’s activities, including the number of victims and other potential co-conspirators. The 2008 plea deal effectively ended these investigations. Other details presented in court during criminal investigations of the disgraced money manager have been kept under seal. The New York investigation a decade later ended with Mr. Epstein’s death.
How much new information there is to unearth is unclear. Last year, a federal judge who oversaw one survivor’s civil lawsuit against Ms. Maxwell ordered the release of documents that included more than 150 names mentioned in court documents related to the case. Among those names are Mr. Trump, Mr. Clinton, and former Vice President Al Gore.
Public pressure has built up in recent years to release records that may contain new details of Mr. Epstein’s criminal activities – records that are collectively known as the Epstein files. These files range from grand jury transcripts to evidence collected during the course of federal investigations.
“The Trump administration’s ability to release the full Epstein file is not unfettered,” says David Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County from 2012 to 2024.
In particular, Justice Department policy restricts the agency’s ability to publicize the names of individuals mentioned in an investigation but not ultimately charged. Without a promise of secrecy, witnesses may not speak with full candor; confidentiality also protects unindicted third parties.
“We want to protect people who are being investigated but it turns out there’s not enough probable cause” to indict them, says Jeffrey Cohen, a former federal prosecutor.
Unless there’s new evidence that “said something really clearly about someone actually committing a federal crime, it would [just] be guilt by association,” he adds. “That’s not how we convict people, or should convict people.”
How has the Trump administration gotten involved?
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that the Epstein “client list” – a purported list of influential figures connected to Mr. Epstein’s criminal activities – “is sitting on my desk right now to review.”
But earlier this month, in an unsigned and undated memo, the Justice Department and the FBI announced that after an “exhaustive” and “systematic” review of Epstein investigations, they found “no incriminating ‘client list’” nor any credible evidence “that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” Addressing another conspiracy theory, the memo concluded that Mr. Epstein had died by suicide.
The agencies reviewed over 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence, the memo said, but it noted that – for privacy reasons – much of it is subject to court-ordered sealing and that “only a fraction” of it would have been made public at trial.
“One of our highest priorities is combating child exploitation and bringing justice to victims. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends,” the memo concluded.
As the memo has generated significant pushback among Mr. Trump’s core political supporters, the administration has moved to release more information about Mr. Epstein.
The Justice Department recently asked a federal judge to unseal transcripts from the 2005 and 2007 federal grand juries in Florida, but a federal judge denied the request, citing circuit precedent. The administration has not yet appealed.
The department is also asking to unseal records related to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations in New York, where circuit precedent is different. Last week, the judges who oversaw the two cases issued near-identical orders asking the government to provide more information about its requests.
“I hope and expect that the [New York circuit court] will afford an opportunity to people who are in those transcripts to object,” says Professor Cohen, who now teaches at Boston College Law School.
“But there’s no reason why, with some court oversight, the grand jury transcripts couldn’t be released.”
Will new information be surfaced?
Reinterviewing witnesses and defendants could be another route to new information. Over two days last week, Todd Blanche, the deputy Attorney General, interviewed Ms. Maxwell in Florida where she’s currently in custody. Experts say it’s unusual for such a high-level Justice Department official to conduct a prison interview.
“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” Mr. Blanche posted on the social media site X last week.
Members of Congress are also pushing to glean more details. Before their summer recess, the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena the Justice Department for Epstein investigation files and for Ms. Maxwell to testify before the committee.
That these new inquiries will lead to new information, and new criminal charges, is unlikely, experts say. Assuming prosecutors acted in good faith, the reason more individuals haven’t been charged is because there isn’t enough evidence to charge them.
And if new information does emerge, will people trust it when there is already so little trust in how the Epstein case has been handled? On Monday, Mr. Trump said he’s “allowed” to pardon or commute Ms. Maxwell’s sentence, but “nobody’s approached me with it.” Ms. Maxwell’s attorney said that “there’s been no asks and no promises.” Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers on Monday petitioned the Supreme Court to review her conviction.
“The possibility of a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon [is] sowing more distrust,” says Mr. Aronberg, who is now in private practice.
“There’s nothing that’s going to satisfy the public on this matter unless the file is released. And the file is not going to be released any time soon.”
