"Epstein list" redirects here. For a list of people named Epstein, see Epstein (surname).
Demonstrators calling for the Epstein files to be released. From the July 17, 2025 Good Trouble Protest held in Washington DC.
The Epstein list is a hypothesized document allegedly containing the names of high-profile clients to whom American financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein allegedly trafficked young girls, and allegedly part of the wider body of documents known as the Epstein files. Epstein cultivated a social circle of public figures that included politicians and celebrities, fueling conspiracy theories suggesting that he maintained such a list to blackmail these associates—and that his 2019 death was not a suicide (as officially reported) but a murder to protect his clients.
Claims surrounding the existence of a client list first surfaced in the immediate aftermath of Epstein's death, later reaching heightened prominence in 2025 following a now-deleted tweet from former White House senior advisor and Department of Government Efficiency associate Elon Musk alleging that United States president Donald Trump was among the names listed. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump floated the idea of releasing the Epstein Files,[1] though he has since said that they are simply fabrications by the members of the Democratic Party.[2]
The United States Justice Department (DOJ) released a memo on July 7, 2025, which stated the list did not exist and "no credible evidence [was] found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties." The memo was met with skepticism from political commentators across the political spectrum, such as Alex Jones[3] and John Oliver.[4]
Convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein cultivated a social circle of public figures that included politicians and celebrities.[7] This fueled conspiracy theories that Epstein kept a list of clients to whom he had trafficked young girls, that he used it to blackmail them, and that he was killed by them; these theories were disseminated widely after Epstein's 2019 death, including by then-president Donald Trump,[8] and again in 2025.[9][10]
The term "Epstein files" refers to documents collected as evidence in the criminal cases against Epstein and his associates, stored as over 300 gigabytes of data, plus other media, in the FBI’s case management system.[11] They include his contacts book, flight logs of his planes, and court documents; some have been publicly released in redacted form.[12][13] For example, court documents and flight logs have contained various prominent individuals as having traveled with Epstein, or been in contact with him.[14]
"Epstein's black book" or "Epstein's little black book" refers to a 97-page book of names, phone numbers, emails, and home addresses a former employee took from Epstein's home in 2005 and later tried to sell. Gawker published a redacted version in 2015, and an unredacted version was released on 8chan in 2019.[15][16][17][18][clarification needed] A second book of contacts, sometimes referred to as "Epstein's other little black book", was published by Business Insider in 2021, and is dated October 1997.[19] According to investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, Epstein's then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled the directory, which included celebrities as well as Epstein's gardeners, hairdresser, barbers, and electrician. Brown said that "the so-called list is really a red herring" and that "every time Epstein or Maxwell met somebody important, they would get their contact information, and they would put it in this file ... So it was pretty clear that this was not a black book in the sense that these were all his clients. It was just a phone directory."[20][21]
Trump, in 2019, talks about his relationship with Epstein
Trump and Epstein were long-time friends before their friendship fell apart in 2004. Trump once suggested he had known Epstein since the late 1980s ("I've known Jeff for 15 years", he told New York magazine in 2002).[22] In 1992, businessman George Houraney brought in 28 people he described as "girls" to perform in a "calendar girl" competition at Mar-a-Lago. Trump had asked for the party, and Houraney, after planning it, was surprised to learn that Trump and Epstein were the only guests.[23] In 2002, speaking to New York magazine, Trump called Epstein a "terrific guy" who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."[22] Other testimonies about their friendship have been registered, including Epstein's brother Mark, who stated that Epstein had said that he "stopped hanging out with Donald Trump when he realized Trump was a crook,"[24] but they had been close, refuting Trump's assertions that he "was not a fan" and Steven Cheung's statement that "The President was never in Epstein's office…" concerning the accusation of one of Epstein's victims who mentioned having had a "disturbing" encounter with Trump in Epstein's office, in 1995.[25]
In 2003, Trump was one of several contributors to a bound album of birthday greetings given to Epstein on his 50th birthday. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's letter to Epstein was a drawing of a naked woman and an imaginary conversation between the two, including the phrase "We have certain things in common, Jeffrey", with Trump's signature located as if it were pubic hair.[26] At the time, the Journal did not publish a copy of the letter, and Trump immediately denied having written such a letter.[27] A photograph of the letter was provided to Congress by the Epstein estate, and on September 8, 2025, the Journal published a copy.[28][29]
Their friendship cooled in the early 2000s.[22] Reasons given have included:
In 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's girlfriend complicit in his sex trafficking, hired 17-year-old Virginia Roberts (later Giuffre), who would become one of Epstein's victims, as his masseuse.[30] Giuffre had been working for Trump in the Mar-a-Lago spa. In 2025, Trump told reporters that Epstein "stole people that worked for me ... I threw him out".[31] The next day, Trump confirmed he had been referring to Giuffre: "taking people that work for me is bad. ... I told him [Epstein], I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people' ... not too long after that [hiring Giuffre], he did it again and I said, 'Out of here.' ... He, he stole her."[32] These statements yield an unclear timeline, as Epstein hired Giuffre in 2000 but Trump did not cancel Epstein's club membership until 2007.[33]
In June 2007, Epstein was indicted for sex crimes.[40]
In October 2007, Trump revoked Epstein's membership at Mar-a-Lago. According to the 2016 book Filthy Rich, the teen daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member told her father that "while relaxing at Mar-a-Lago, she'd been approached and invited out to Epstein's house. The girl said that she had gone and that Epstein had tried to get her to undress. The girl's father had gone directly to Trump, who—in no uncertain terms—told Epstein that he was barred from Mar-a-Lago."[41][pageneeded] The 2020 book The Grifter's Club recounted a similar reason,[42] and Brad Edwards, an attorney for a number of Epstein's victims, told The New York Times that Trump told him this in 2009.[43] Trump assured campaign aide Sam Nunberg before starting his presidential campaign in 2015: "I kicked him out of the clubs [Mar-a-Lago] when this stuff became public, and I made sure NBC knew" (as Nunberg recalled in 2019 for the New York Times).[23]
On July 28, 2020, Jonathan Swan interviewed Trump. Pointing out that Ghislaine Maxwell had been "arrested on allegations of child sex trafficking", Swan asked Trump why he had recently said "I just wish her well." Trump replied that he did not know Maxwell had been arrested. When Swan said that Trump did indeed know about Maxwell's arrest, Trump said: "I'd wish you well, I'd wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove somebody was guilty. ... And I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her. I'm not looking bad for anybody. And they took that and made it such a big deal..." Swan repeated that Maxwell was "an alleged child sex trafficker." Trump said: "But all it is is her boyfriend died."[44]
Commentary
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Time to drop the really big bomb:
@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
Lawyer and law professor Alan Dershowitz said in an interview with Sean Spicer on March 19, 2025, that he knew the names of individuals on such a list and unreleased files relating to Epstein, adding that "I know why they're being suppressed. I know who's suppressing them" and that he was "[...] bound by confidentiality from a judge and cases, and I can't disclose what I know".[46][10] Dershowitz had been part of the legal team that negotiated a non-prosecution agreement for Epstein in 2006.[10]
Former Trump senior advisor Elon Musk, newly feuding with Trump, tweeted on June 5, 2025, claiming that Trump's name was in the Epstein files and that this "is the real reason they have not been made public".[47][48] Musk deleted the post two days later.[49] On June 11, he posted: "I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far."[50]
On July 15, Epstein's former attorney David Schoen, who helped him secure a plea deal in 2008, said: "I don't believe for a second there's a client list out there."[51] Podcaster Joe Rogan has said that the administration's reversal and newfound refusal to release the Epstein files is a "line in the sand", especially for those who supported Trump's presidency based on this issue.[52][53] According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump was told in May by the Justice Department that his name was found in the files.[54]
January 2024 partial release of the Epstein files
After Epstein's death on August 10, 2019, New York judge Loretta Preska ordered the unsealing of documents from a defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.[55] Anyone who had their name contained in these documents had until January 1, 2024, to appeal to have their name removed, after which date the documents would be unsealed.[56] The court documents unsealed in January 2024 contained little information that had not already been public knowledge.[57] Individuals mentioned in the released court documents include: Prince Andrew, Duke of York, former US president Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, singer Michael Jackson, and physicist Stephen Hawking. Most were mentioned in passing and not accused of any wrongdoing.[7][58] Model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein's victims,[58] had died by suicide in 2022 in Paris, France, while under investigation for the rape and sex trafficking of minors.[59]
Subsequent comments from Trump and his affiliates
During the presidency of Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, many right-wing figures, including Trump allies, hypothesized the existence of a list of Epstein's clients not disclosed by the Biden administration. Kash Patel, who was not yet the director of the FBI at the time, stated that the FBI was withholding information on Epstein, and encouraged a potential administration of Donald Trump to release them if he were to be elected. During the Turning Point Action convention in June 2024, Donald Trump Jr. accused the Biden administration of keeping the list secret to protect pedophiles. In October 2024, JD Vance said "we need to release the Epstein list".[60]
Trump, on the other hand, rarely mentioned the Epstein files, but did not refute his allies' claims.[61] On two occasions during his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged to release the Epstein files. In a June 2024 interview with Fox News, when asked whether he would declassify them, Trump responded, "Yeah, yeah, I would." The clip was shared by an official Trump campaign account on Twitter. The unedited answer aired later shows Trump saying he was not sure he would because "you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world".[62][63] In a September 2024 interview with Lex Fridman, Trump stated he would have "no problem" releasing additional Epstein files and would "probably" make the client list public.[64][63]
2025 Department of Justice involvement
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Jeffrey Epstein, July 8, 2025
U.S. Attorney GeneralPam Bondi was asked on February 21, 2025, by Fox News journalist John Roberts whether the Justice Department would publish "the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients," and Bondi replied: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that."[65][66] On February 27, she released documents that contained no significant new information.[67]
Faced with outcry from a disappointed public, Bondi demanded that FBI Director Kash Patel provide the extensive material she had originally requested from him.[68] Michael Seidel, the section chief of the FBI's Record/Information Dissemination Section, objected to Bondi's order and was forced to resign.[68]
The FBI worked on Epstein records for two weeks during late March, according to Senator Dick Durbin. He later wrote that Bondi had
pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel...on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline. This effort...was haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily-protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses or properly handle FOIA requests. My office was told that these personnel were instructed to "flag" any records in which President Trump was mentioned.[67][69]
In the documents, the FBI found dozens of high-profile names, including Trump's. A unit of FOIA officers, citing exemptions in FOIA law, redacted Trump's name because, although he was then a sitting president, he had been a private citizen when the 2006 federal investigation into Epstein began.[68] On May 18, Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino told Fox News that Epstein had died by suicide.[70]
In May, Bondi informed Trump that his name appeared in the Epstein files. She also said that the files contained "unverified hearsay" about Trump and others, child pornography and identifying information on Epstein's victims. As such, officials advised that the files should not be disclosed. This was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on July 23. White House Communications DirectorSteven Cheung denied the allegations, and Bondi said that "As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings".[71][72] The day it was reported, Bondi canceled her appearance at CPAC's International Summit Against Human Trafficking.[73] According to Politico, "[f]ollowing the reported briefing in May, Trump appears to have sought to narrow the government's public disclosures to avoid releasing information."[74] On June 6, the Joe Rogan Experience aired an interview with Kash Patel who said of the Epstein matter, "We've reviewed all the information, and the American public is going to get as much as we can release. He killed himself. ... Do you really think I wouldn't give that [video evidence] to you, if it existed?"[75]
On Sunday, July 6, 2025, Axios first reported[76] that the United States Justice Department (DOJ) and the FBI had concluded in a memo that they had no evidence that Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a "client list", or was murdered, according to a two-page DOJ memo and a video supporting a medical examiner's finding that Epstein committed suicide.[65][77] The DOJ released the memo on July 7,[78] saying there was no list and "no credible evidence [was] found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties". It also said that Epstein's death was a suicide, contradicting other suspicions. It said it would not release any more documents relating to Epstein.[79][80] The memo was met with skepticism from several right-wing activists and influencers, including the Hodgetwins, Alex Jones, Rogan O'Handley, and Liz Wheeler,[9][65] and from Democratic representatives.[81]
That same day, when White House Press SecretaryKaroline Leavitt was asked what Bondi had meant when she said in February that the material was on her desk, Leavitt responded that Bondi had been referring more generally to the accumulated evidence against Epstein. Leavitt explained that Bondi had been referring to "the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, that's what the attorney general was referring to, and I'll let her speak for that".[82] At a cabinet meeting the next day, as Trump criticized reporters for focusing on the Epstein case, Bondi clarified that she had been referring to the whole case file rather than to any client list allegedly within it.[83][84]
At a July 9 meeting that included Bondi, Bongino, Patel, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Bongino and Patel were confronted on this decision, according to CNN. Bongino reportedly considered resigning in the wake of the meeting.[85][86] Bondi was criticized by many in the MAGA movement.[87][88][89] On July 16, the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the federal prosecutor who had prosecuted Epstein. She is the daughter of James Comey, the FBI Director whom Trump fired in 2017.[90] On August 18, Bondi and Patel announced that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey would share the role of deputy director of the FBI with Bongino,[91] with Bailey to be sworn in on September 15.[92]
July 2025 interview of Ghislaine Maxwell
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Ghislaine Maxwell on July 24 and 25 at the U.S. attorney's office in Tallahassee.[93][94] The Justice Department released the interview transcript and audio recording on August 22.[95][96]
Maxwell, having been sentenced to 20 years, was incarcerated at FCI Tallahassee at the time of the interviews.[97] She was given limited immunity in the interviews, meaning that her answers to her interviewers' questions cannot be used against her as long as she told the truth.[98] Blanche is Trump's personal lawyer and his political appointee. The previous year, Blanche had referred to Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, as a "friend."[99]
Maxwell told Blanche: "I certainly never witnessed the President in any of ― I don’t recall ever seeing him in his [Epstein's] house, for instance. I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody."[100] CNN noted that Maxwell lied about her own crimes and the crimes of Epstein in the interview, and that she appeared to be attempting to flatter Trump with statements such as "I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now," and "I like him, and I've always liked him."[101]
On July 25, when a CNN reporter asked Trump whether he planned to pardon Maxwell, he answered noncommittally: "I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I haven't thought about."[102] On August 1, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed that, following the interview, Maxwell was transferred[103][104] to Federal Prison Camp, Bryan in Bryan, Texas,[105] a minimum security facility with dormitory-style housing generally considered less unpleasant than other federal prisons.[106][107] The White House told reporters that Maxwell had received no "preferential treatment" and suggested that her move was routine.[108] Counterarguing that the move was unusual, Senator Jack Reed on August 8 asked the director of the Bureau of Prisons to explain.[109] Additionally, contrary to the Bureau of Prisons' own rules for sex offenders, Maxwell was deemed eligible to work outside the Bryan prison (first reported on August 11 by Allison Gill).[110]
Joseph Schnitt secret recording
On September 4, 2025, political activist James O'Keefe, founder of far-right Project Veritas, posted a secret recording with DOJ acting Deputy Chief of Special Operations Joseph Schnitt. In the recording, Schnitt acknowledges the existence of the Epstein files, saying there are "thousands and thousands of pages of files" and that "They'll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files". Schnitt stated that Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security prison was "against [Federal Bureau of Prisons] policy because she's a convicted sex offender" and that "They're offering her something to keep her mouth shut". He also described Pam Bondi as "a yes person" and that she "wants whatever Trump wants".[111][112]
In response to the recording, Schnitt stated that he had no idea he was being recorded, and said he met the undercover O'Keefe reporter on Hinge. He said his comments were based on what he "learned in the media" and not from the DOJ.[111] In response, the DOJ asserted Schnitt's statements were false, saying that "Joseph Schnitt had no role in the Department's internal review of Epstein materials" and posted an iPhone screenshot of an email Schnitt sent to his superiors describing the recordings as happening over two dates in August 2025.[112]
"Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!"[113]
In a same-day reply, Bondi posted to Twitter: "President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts."[114] The grand jury transcripts were not expected to contain new information for the public.[115]
The Justice Department made a request to unseal some of the Florida grand jury documents. On July 23, Judge Robin Rosenberg said because the request was not part of a legal proceeding she could not legally grant the request only based on "extensive public interest". Instead, she ordered that a new case be opened.[116] On August 5, Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers said she opposed the release of the grand jury records; they called it "a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy" given that Maxwell still had "legal options" and "due process rights".[117] On August 8, the Justice Department asked two federal judges to release grand jury exhibits as well as transcripts in the Maxwell and Epstein cases.[118]
The request for the material in Maxwell's case was denied on August 11. Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the Trump administration's "entire premise – that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them – is demonstrably false."[119] Engelmayer said the materials do not contain information about any alleged clients nor about sex crimes by anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, any new locations or "means or methods" of Epstein and Maxwell's crimes, the government's investigation, or Epstein's death, and thus unsealing them would not serve the purpose of greater transparency. The government gave "disingenuous...public explanations" for why it wanted to unseal them, Engelmayer wrote.[120]As of the time of Engelmayer's ruling[update], Judge Richard Berman had yet to rule on a similar request for the material in Epstein's case.[119]
In Congress
Jamie Raskin and 15 other members of the House of Representatives penned a letter to Bondi accusing her of withholding documents so as to protect Trump from potentially damaging disclosures. They cited Musk's earlier tweet accusing Trump of being "in the Epstein files".[121]
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives began an effort to, according to Axios, "force a House vote on making Attorney General Pam Bondi release all records related to Jeffrey Epstein" with Ro Khanna and Marc Veasey stating they intended to introduce separate measures.[122] Khanna's measure failed in the House; it was rejected 211–210, along party lines.[123] Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie sought a majority of House members to sign a discharge petition to force a vote on whether to release the files. However, on July 21, 2025, as the August recess neared,[124] House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not allow a vote until the recess was over,[125] and the next day he put the House into recess earlier than expected, canceling other planned votes[126] until the House reconvened as scheduled on September 2.[124] He said the Trump administration should "have the space to do what it is doing".[127]
On July 23, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell, requiring her to be deposed on August 11 at FCI Tallahassee.[128] Her attorney responded that she would testify only if she received the questions in writing in advance and if the lawmakers granted her immunity from further prosecution, or else if President Trump were to grant her clemency so that she could be released from prison.[129] On August 5, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton, former Justice Department officials, and the Justice Department itself.[130] (Former special counsel Robert Mueller was subpoenaed but was excused from testimony when he revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's four years earlier, giving him difficulty speaking.)[131] The House Oversight Committee demanded that the Justice Department provide the Epstein files by August 19.[130] The day before the deadline, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer announced that Justice Department officials "have informed us that the Department will begin to provide Epstein-related records" on August 22.[132] Comer said on August 21 that the committee planned to examine the Justice Department's redactions and judge whether further redactions were necessary before releasing the documents to the public as quickly as possible.[133]
Trump did not publicly object to the Justice Department sending the files to the House Oversight Committee. On August 22, he said that Epstein "knew everybody in Palm Beach", that some people "could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be", and that "innocent people shouldn’t be hurt." Despite this, he said, "I’m in support of keeping it totally open." He added: "I couldn’t care less."[134]
On August 25, Comer announced he had subpoenaed Epstein's estate.[135]
On the first day the House was back in session, Representative Thomas Massie moved to force the House to vote to require the Justice Department to release the files.[136] Trump and Republicans launched a pressure campaign to prevent the release of the files, with one anonymous official calling voting for Massie's discharge petition a "very hostile act to the administration".[137] That same day, the House Oversight Committee released 33,295 pages of Epstein files.[138] Most of the information was already known or available to the public.[139]
On September 6, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Donald Trump was an FBI informant on Epstein during an interview with CNN.[142] Two days later, he clarified: "he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy ... the president was helpful in that ... I don’t know if I used the right terminology."[143] White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on September 9 that Trump had not been an FBI informant.[144]
On September 8, the Epstein estate began sending files, including the "birthday book" of letters Epstein received for his 50th birthday, to the House Oversight Committee.[145] The next day, Representative Dave Min, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said on CNN: "there is a cover-up taking place right now ... Donald Trump’s name is clearly mentioned multiple times." In response, CNN anchor John Berman clarified that Trump has not been charged with a crime.[146]
The House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from FBI director Kash Patel on September 17 and from attorney general Pam Bondi on October 9.[147]
Accusers' reactions
To Epstein-related documents
On July 31, 2025, Giuffre's brothers, Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, and Giuffre's sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that they wanted relevant documents to be released. Amanda Roberts added that Giuffre had also said she wanted documents to be released, saying "She wanted the world to know what they had done to her and so many other survivors." Giuffre had died by suicide three months earlier.[148]
On September 3, victims of Epstein spoke publicly outside the U.S. Capitol, demanding that Bondi release all the files.[149] Frustrated with decades of lack of accountability for perpetrators, the survivors also announced plans to create their own internal client list, which they could release to the public.[150][151][152]
To the questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell
On August 8, Annie Farmer told CNN's Kaitlan Collins: "Even learning that the DOJ would be meeting with her [Maxwell] was extremely disturbing. ... with this prison transfer, I think it again feels like she is getting preferential treatment ... and it's really worrying to us about what might be coming next."[153]
On August 23, Giuffre's family responded to the transcript of the Maxwell–Blanche interview, telling CBS that Maxwell's statements were "in direct contradiction" with her "conviction for child sex trafficking" and that Blanche had "never challenged [her] about her court-proven lies". The family said that the Justice Department had thereby communicated "that child sex trafficking is acceptable and will be rewarded."[154]
Trump's reaction
Donald Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker. [...] Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!
On July 18, the day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had written a 50th birthday card to Epstein 22 years previously, Trump sued the newspaper (specifically, two reporters, owner Rupert Murdoch, and parent companies Dow Jones and News Corp) for defamation and libel.[157] On July 21, the White House removed them from the press pool for his Scotland trip.[158]
↑ In his book Siege: Trump Under Fire, Michael Wolff wrote that Epstein (whom he interviewed for his previous book Fire and Fury)[36] knew Trump "had been loaning his name in real estate deals – that is, for an ample fee, Trump would serve as a front man to disguise the actual ownership in a real estate transaction." So, after losing the auction, "a furious Epstein, certain that Trump was merely fronting for the real owners, threatened to expose the deal (...) But if Epstein knew some of Trump's secrets, Trump knew some of Epstein's. (...) Just as the enmity between the two friends increased over the house purchase, Epstein found himself under investigation by the Palm Beach police."[37] Wolff reiterated his claim that Trump's purchase of the mansion was likely a money laundering operation and that Epstein believed it was Trump who tipped the police on him, in a July 2025 video posted on Instagram.[38] A longer and more detailed testimony was presented by MeidasTouch's YouTube channel.[39]
↑ Jose Pagliery (July 27, 2026). "That time a Russian billionaire paid Trump $95 million for a mansion". CNN Money. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2025. Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that his only dealing with Russia was when he sold a mansion to a Russian billionaire for nearly $100 million. [Includes short video.]
↑ Hugh Dougherty (November 2, 2024). "Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: 'I Was Donald Trump's Closest Friend'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 2, 2025. (...) Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. Wolff was researching his bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury at the time. (...) [Updated June 5, 2025]
↑ Michael Wolff (2019). Siege: Trump Under Fire. United States: Henry Holt and Company. pp.1941–1942. ISBN9781250253811. [The book has 352 pages total. 1941-1942 is the numeration given by consulting the text online.]
↑ Patterson, James; Connolly, John (2016). Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal that Undid Him, and All the Justice that Money Can Buy. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN9780316274050.
↑ Isenstadt, Alex (July 6, 2025). "Exclusive: DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no 'client list,' died by suicide". Axios. Archived from the original on July 9, 2025. Retrieved July 26, 2025. President Trump's Justice Department and FBI have concluded they have no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a 'client list' or was murdered, according to a memo detailing the findings obtained by Axios.
↑ Gold, Michael (September 3, 2025). "G.O.P. Thwarts Epstein Disclosure Bill as Accusers Plead for Files". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2025. None of it appeared to be enough to outweigh the pressure from Mr. Trump and Republican leaders, who have moved quickly to squelch legislation that would require the Justice Department to quickly and completely release what it uncovered about Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. (...) The White House, for its part, has made its opposition to Mr. Massie's bill clear.
↑ "Epstein victims vow to compile 'client list' of their own after House panel drops thousands of documents". September 3, 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025. Lisa Phillips says survivors of Epstein's abuse have been discussing creating their own list of influential associates… "Now, together, as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors — no one else is involved,"
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