Epstein survivors say fight for justice ‘not over’ as final documents released

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse say their fight for justice is “not over” after the US government finished releasing millions of pages of documents related to its investigation of the sex offender’s crimes, including files that revealed the extent of Epstein’s network of rich and powerful friends.

After a year of political wrangling, the Department of Justice published more than 3 million pages of material on Friday, US time, in what Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche said would be the final tranche of documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Among the new material was correspondence involving Epstein and well-known associates such as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Prince Andrew, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former president Bill Clinton and other high-profile people, including Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

There were also thousands of mentions of now-President Donald Trump, including unsubstantiated claims of sexual misconduct collected by the FBI from tipsters, all of which were previously dismissed by the White House as attempts to slander Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd strongly denied ever visiting Epstein’s home after an email chain indicated Epstein had scheduled a meeting with Rudd in June 2014. “Our office has no records of this meeting,” Rudd’s office said, adding that to the best of Rudd’s knowledge, the two had never met.

And Katherine Keating, the daughter of former prime minister Paul Keating, told this masthead she ended her “unfortunate” association with Epstein after he and his staff contacted her with “persistence bordering on harassment”. The new files show the pair met and corresponded regularly in the early 2010s when Keating was trying to build a career in New York.

Although the records highlight Epstein’s vast network of connections, they have failed to deliver what victims and their families hoped would be evidence that identified co-conspirators, who could yet be indicted.

Epstein, who was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, died in jail awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges in 2019.

As well as survivors, the Epstein case attracted enormous interest from politicians on both sides, conspiracy theorists, amateur sleuths and the media. “There’s a hunger, or a thirst, for information that I don’t think will be satisfied by the review of these documents,” Blanche said at a news conference.

The department had released 3.5 million pages in total, as well as 2000 videos and 180,000 images, he said. The only material withheld was personal information about the victims, child pornography and anything that could jeopardise an active investigation.

“We redacted every woman depicted in any image or video with the exception of [Ghislaine] Maxwell,” Blanche said, referring to Epstein’s convicted accomplice and former girlfriend. “We did not redact images of any men, unless it was impossible to redact the woman without also redacting the man.”

But in a statement signed by 20 victims or relatives, Epstein survivors said some people’s identities had been exposed in the released files, “while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected”.

“That is outrageous. As survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinised and retraumatised while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy,” they said. “This is a betrayal of the very people this process is supposed to serve.”

The survivors said the Justice Department could not claim the exercise was finished until all perpetrators were held accountable. “This is not over.”

Epstein’s famous friends

The latest batch of documents includes correspondence either with or about some of Epstein’s friends.

The records have thousands of references to Trump, including emails in which Epstein and others shared news articles about him, commented on his policies or politics, or gossiped about him and his family. Also included was a spreadsheet created last August summarising calls to the FBI’s National Threat Operation Centre or to a hotline established by prosecutors from people claiming without corroboration to have some knowledge of wrongdoing by Trump.

A newly released image from the files appears to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouching over a woman lying on the ground, with her face redacted.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in the documents, including emails where
Epstein offers to introduce the former prince to a “beautiful” 26 -year-old Russian woman.

Other records also document an attempt by prosecutors in New York to get the former prince to agree to be interviewed as part of their Epstein sex-trafficking probe.

The documents also show Musk, the billionaire Tesla founder, reached out to Epstein on at least two separate occasions to plan visits to the Caribbean island where many of the allegations of sexual abuse purportedly occurred.

In a 2012 exchange, Epstein asked how many people Musk would like flown by helicopter to the island he owned.

“Probably just Talulah and me,” Musk responded, referencing his then-partner, actress Talulah Riley. “What day/night will be the wildest party on our island?”

Musk messaged Epstein again ahead of a planned Caribbean trip in 2013. “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays,” he wrote. “Is there a good time to visit?” Epstein extended an invite for sometime after the New Year holiday.

It’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespeople for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures.

“Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X last year when House Democrats released an Epstein calendar with an entry mentioning a potential Musk visit to the island.

The documents also contain friendly text messages between Epstein and Steve Bannon.

Bannon, a conservative activist who served as Trump’s White House strategist earlier in the president’s first term, bantered over politics with the financier, discussed get-togethers with him over breakfast, lunch or dinner and, on March 29, 2019, asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome: “Is it possible to get your plane here to collect me?”

Epstein told him his pilot and crew “are doing their best” to arrange that flight, but if Bannon could find a charter flight instead, “I’m happy to pay.” Apparently,y in France at the time, Epstein sent a text message saying: “My guys can pick you up. Come for dinner.” The exchange did not show how that played out.

On one occasion in December 2012, Epstein invited Howard Lutnick, now Trump’s commerce secretary, to his private island for lunch, the records show. Lutnick’s wife, Allison Lutnick, accepted the invitation and said they would arrive on a yacht with their children. On another occasion in 2011, the two men had drinks, according to a schedule shared with Epstein.

Lutnick has tried to distance himself from Epstein, saying in a 2025 interview that he cut ties decades ago. A Commerce Department spokesman said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

Building on the earlier release

The tens of thousands of pages of documents released in December consisted of photographs, interview transcripts, call logs and court records.

They included previously released flight logs showing Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet in the 1990s, before their falling-out, and several photographs of Clinton. None of Epstein’s victims who have gone public with their stories have publicly accused Trump, a Republican, nor Clinton, a Democrat, of wrongdoing. Both have said they had no knowledge that he was abusing underage girls.

Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.

In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. At the time, investigators had gathered evidence that Epstein had sexually abused underage girls at his Palm Beach home. The US attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute him in exchange for his guilty plea to lesser state charges.

A draft indictment from that period released Friday shows prosecutors contemplated federal charges against not just Epstein but three others who worked for him as personal assistants. The draft indictment said those people, whose names were blacked out, were part of a conspiracy to recruit underage girls to perform lewd acts with Epstein.

In 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Maxwell, a British socialite, of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

US prosecutors never charged anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse of girls, but one of his victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, accused him in lawsuits of having arranged for her to have sexual encounters at age 17 and 18 with numerous politicians, business titans, noted academics and others. They all denied her allegations.

Among those she accused was Mountbatten-Windsor who was stripped of his royal titles amid the scandal. The former prince denied having sex with Giuffre but settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

Giuffre died by suicide last year at age 41.

with Michael Sisak, Alana Richer (AP)