Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir was published in the wake of a new court filing regarding an upcoming hearing on her estate
In a posthumous memoir titled “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice”, late Jeffrey Epstein trafficking survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre recounts her terrifying years of exploitation. This includes allegations of brutal sexual abuse at the hands of a “well-known prime minister” and revisiting Prince Andrew’s role in the network of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The memoir, released October 21, 2025, has sparked further outrage to encourage the White House to release all of the “Epstein files.” Guiffre was said to have written the memoir the year before her death (she took her own life in April of 2025).
According to Giuffre, she was brutally assaulted in 2002 on Epstein’s private island, Little St. Jeff’s, by the man she refers to only as the “Prime Minister,” as she feared directly naming him. She details being “choked until unconscious” and experiencing heavy “bleeding from her mouth, vagina and anus.” Giuffre cites this attack as the final straw to break free from Epstein’s grasp.
The memoir also reconfirms allegations that Prince Andrew had sex with Giuffre on at least three occasions when she was a minor, claims he has long denied. The memoir also alleges that his legal team deployed internet trolls to harass her during her 2021 civil suit as a form of intimidation. Guiffre describes being genuinely terrified of what could happen to her, knowing the fate of Princess Diana.
Giuffre also goes into sordid, detailed descriptions of how Epstein and Maxwell manipulated and trafficked her to powerful men, including a specific United States Senator and a well-known US Governor (again, that she declines to name). She also recounts being forced to consider carrying Epstein and Maxwell’s child (they allegedly begged her), but would be forced to relinquish all rights to the child.
The release of Giuffre’s memoir comes on the heels of an October 20, 2025, status filing in the federal defamation case of Rina Oh Amen against Virginia Giuffre from 2021 (Amen sued Giuffre for alleging that she was an Epstein co-conspirator who took part in Giuffre’s abuse, demanding $20 million in damages to restore her name). Giuffre’s lawyer Kathleen Thomas wanted the judge to know that since Giuffre passed away, there’s now a process underway to handle her estate. A hearing to appoint someone to temporarily manage Giuffre’s estate, an interim administrator, is scheduled for November 25, 2025. This status update comes after Thomas previously submitted a motion to dismiss the defamation suit, citing Guiffre’s untimely death. The judge denied the request and decided that nothing can happen until someone is officially appointed to handle the estate, and the dismissal can be refiled later.
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Ladies & Gentlemen meet Rina who now is pleading innocence since there’s a $VCF$ she has decided to come out as a victim, when on the record she was #Epstein’s GF”& was rewarded with $$ in trade for victims- real victims. May karma be upheld and justice be done. @FBI@nytimes 🦋 https://t.co/AqprmBM8Ap
Since the Jeffrey Epstein saga seized the national consciousness toward the end of 2018, a kind of recurring parlor game has emerged for politicians on both sides of the aisle, gambling websites, late-night hosts, and podcasters. When a new batch of court documents was set to be unsealed amid the sprawling legal proceedings, these far-flung sets of Epstein watchers sprung into action, speculating about who would next be named in the case, or who might be added to what is now sweepingly known as the Epstein list.
What often went unsaid at these junctures was that in many instances the documents in question were the product of one Epstein victim’s quest, over several years, to bring attention to the horrors she said she suffered at the hands of the late financier and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s account of her relationship with Maxwell and Epstein is out in a new memoir, Nobody’s Girl, which details some of the inner workings of their operation.
After Giuffre accused Maxwell of sexual abuse in 2015, the British socialite went beyond denying the allegations and branded Giuffre a full-blown liar. That claim, in turn, prompted Giuffre to sue Maxwell for defamation, leading to the streams of discovery and depositions that animated so much of the criminal scrutiny and amateur sleuthing that followed. (The defamation suit was settled in 2017. Maxwell was ultimately found guilty of sex trafficking of a minor among other infractions and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.)
It was one of the many ways in which Giuffre, who grew up in Palm Beach County and died by suicide in Australia in April, shaped the conversation around Epstein and Maxwell. Giuffre claimed that she was forced into sex with Prince Andrew at 17 years old after Epstein trafficked her to him among other wealthy and prominent friends. (Andrew has repeatedly denied this.) In 2022, Giuffre and Andrew settled a lawsuit she brought against him, but the allegations sent the royal family into an ongoing spiral. On Friday, just days before the publication of Giuffre’s much-awaited memoir, Andrew announced that he would no longer use his royal title.
Giuffre met Maxwell while working as a spa attendant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, as she recounted in an excerpt from Nobody’s Girl, which Vanity Fair exclusively published last week, and after breaking free from Epstein’s clutches, she became the foremost voice in the fight for justice for his scores of victims. Amid the current wave of outrage surrounding Trump, Maxwell, their prior relationship, and the possibility of a presidential pardon, Giuffre’s posthumous memoir may offer few surprises. Still, the book is among the fullest and most vivid pictures to date of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s modi operandi.
If the tragedy of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring had a face, it might’ve been Virginia Roberts Giuffre. At a 2019 press conference she said, “I was recruited at a very young age from Mar-a-Lago, and entrapped in a world that I didn’t understand, and I’ve been fighting that very world to this day.”
Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre speaks outside of federal court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019, less than three weeks after Epstein, a convicted pedophile, killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy and trafficking minors for sex.
Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Before she died from suicide last April at the age of 41, she wrote an unflinching memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” with the hope it would be published in case of her death.
Co-author and journalist Amy Wallace spent more than four years writing with Giuffre, who was celebrated for her honesty – and questioned, by some, about the accuracy of her memories.
Wallace said, “What she always said to me was, ‘I may not remember days, times, dates. But when you have a man raping you, his face six inches from your own, you remember that face.’”
Giuffre said Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her to the sex ring in 2000 when she was a 16-year-old working at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and she was quickly immersed in Epstein’s world of money and depravity.
Wallace believes Maxwell should not be pardoned: “She did not just procure. She did not just keep the date book of what girls came when,” she said. “No, this woman participated in the sexual abuse, and she should absolutely not be pardoned.
“Only one of us is telling the truth”
In 2021, Giuffre famously sued Britain’s Prince Andrew, to whom she said she was trafficked for sex three times, starting when she was 16. “He knows what happened; I know what happened,” she told the BBC in 2019. “And only one of us is telling the truth.”
Virginia Giuffre (center) is seen in a file photo with Britain’s Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Rex Features
The prince repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but settled with Giuffre the following year, and issued a statement saying he regretted his association with Epstein.
But the rumors kept flying, and Andrew became a distraction for the crown. So, just this past Friday, he announced he was giving up all his royal titles, including Duke of York.
And he, Giuffre wrote, was only one of many.
Asked whether Giuffre believed that the Epstein Files which have not yet been released contain the names of other men who abused her and maybe others, Wallace replied, “She didn’t just believe it; she knew it. She knew what she’d told them. And some of those names are not public.”
“So, authorities have those names in the Epstein Files?” I asked.
“Presumably, if somebody kept them in a file cabinet in an efficient way,” Wallace replied.
Giuffre also believed there might be a trove of videotapes from cameras in Epstein’s homes. And in recent months, there’s been mounting pressure from people who want the president to authorize the release of all of the Epstein Files. Virginia Giuffre was one of them.
Asked whether Giuffre had mentioned Donald Trump in their discussions, Wallace replied, “Oh, she absolutely did. She was a huge Trump fan because he campaigned on releasing the Epstein Files.”
“But she never talked about him in any sense that he was involved in any of this?”
“No, no,” said Wallace. “He was not, as far as she knew. And again, she was there for two-plus years, but as far as she knew, he was not involved in the ring of trafficking that Epstein was working.”
Giuffre also writes that her sexual abuse ordeal started at home. She says her father, Sky Roberts Sr, started abusing her when she was seven years ago. He didn’t respond to our requests for comments, but he told Amy Wallace he never abused his daughter.
Virginia’s brother, Sky Roberts, and his wife Amanda, say they believe her. “He knows what he did,” said Roberts.
“He denied it in the book,” I said. “You know, Amy reached out to him, and he said, ‘Absolutely not. I would never touch my daughter.’ You don’t believe that?”
“I believe my sister,” Roberts replied.
Amanda and Sky Roberts, Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s sister-in-law and brother.
CBS News
“It’s like a modern ‘Handmaid’s Tale’”
And as for Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Giuffre said his abuse went beyond sexual assault – like ordering her to tuck him in at night.
Wallace said, “She would go in, she would pull the covers up. He didn’t want sex. And she was instructed to stay with him until he fell asleep.”
I said, “It just struck me because this is a young woman who wasn’t nurtured all that much as she grew up, and here she’s turning around and having to perform this nurturing act to her abuser?”
“It’s one of the reasons that Epstein and Maxwell said to her repeatedly, ‘You would make a great mother,’” said Wallace.
Giuffre went on to say that they asked her to carry a child for them, and sign away her parental rights.
“It’s like a modern ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’” Wallace said. “And interestingly, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her.”
Knopf
Years after Giuffre left Epstein, she was tormented by what she said she suffered at his hands. She married, moved to her husband’s native Australia, and became a mom – and a voice for abuse survivors. But there was turmoil at home.
Shortly before she died, she told People magazine that her husband, Robert Giuffre, physically abused her. But the courts granted him a restraining order – and custody of their three children.
In a statement to “Sunday Morning,” Robert Giuffre’s attorney said that since the case is still pending, Robert and the children were “very limited in their ability to respond to the various unfounded allegations.”
Virginia’s brother Sky and sister-in-law Amanda say the loss of her children might’ve helped push Virginia over the edge.
Sky also disputed conspiracy theories suggesting Virginia had not taken her own life: “I was with her in her final days. I mean, I was the one that found my sister when she had passed.”
In “Nobody’s Girl,” Giuffre wrote: “My goal now is to prevent the emotional time bomb that lives inside me from ever detonating again.” Asked what she believes happened, Amanda said, “The worst thing that could happen to a mother: Her children, she was separated from her children. And that is something that she couldn’t bear. That was something she couldn’t – I don’t think any mother could handle.”
Virginia Giuffre left behind an account of her life that is both illuminating and heartbreaking – a window into the mind of a young girl preyed upon by demons – and a woman who fought them to the end.
Asked who Virginia was to him, Sky Roberts replied, “To me, she was always my protector. You know, I was her little brother. But she just had this strength inside of her that I think if you had the opportunity to meet her, was just courageous. … She was unlike anybody that you’d ever met.”
Amanda Roberts said, “I think it’s always important to remember that she was also human, and vulnerable, and beautiful, and funny, and beautifully flawed, and strong. She was just amazing. I think like he said, there was nobody like her.”
Toying more freely with his pardon powers in an untethered second term, he told reporters outside the White House in July, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
On Monday, speaking in the Oval Office hours after the Supreme Court news broke, the answer evolved again. “I haven’t heard the name in so long,” Trump said. “I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it.”
“I will speak to the DOJ,” he added, noting that he has “a lot of people who have asked me for pardons,” including Diddy.
Days after Justice Department lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reject Markus’s petition in July, the agency held an unusual interview with Maxwell. She and Markus met with Todd Blanche, the department’s number two official and Trump’s lead lawyer in his New York hush money trial last year, in a Florida courthouse for two days. About a week later, she was moved to a lower-security Texas prison. When the interview tapes were released in August, they revealed the most extensive record to date of Maxwell’s speaking voice; her insistence, immediately broadcast across MAGA-friendly social media accounts, that she had never seen Trump do anything wrong; and perhaps not much else.
“I wish I could respond to those critics,” Markus told me in August when I raised to him the prevailing concerns about a quid pro quo. “But we’re just not going to comment on that.”
For the large and vocal community of Maxwell-watchers across social media, the intrigue surrounding a potential pardon continues to percolate. Lady Victoria Hervey, a former girlfriend of Prince Andrew and Mar-a-Lago regular who knew Maxwell from the ’90s London party scene, told me in July that “the only way to really deal with this situation” is to allow Maxwell to “have her voice.” I asked her on Monday if she still thought, as she had mentioned a few times, that a pardon was in the works.
House Democrats released a small but notable sample of documents obtained from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein on Friday. And one line really sticks out.
The line appears to be from a 2014 schedule for the late sex trafficker, dated Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014: “Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?)”
It’s unclear which “island” the line may be referring to, but the obvious suggestion is that it could be a private island in the Caribbean owned by Epstein himself. The island is known as Little Saint James, but most people online just call it Epstein Island.
The press release from Democrats even refers to it as “evidence of a pending trip by Elon Musk to Epstein’s island.”
Excerpt from a schedule for Jeffrey Epstein released by House Democrats asking if Elon Musk was still visiting the “island.” Screenshot: Oversight Dems
The fact that this line appeared in a schedule for 2014 seems notable. Musk has repeatedly denied being involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. But internet commenters have frequently raised questions about a Vanity Fair Oscars party on March 2, 2014, where Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Musk were photographed together.
Back in 2020, Musk addressed the frequent questions about his photo with Maxwell in a tweet, writing, “Don’t know Ghislaine at all. She photobombed me once at a Vanity Fair party several years ago. Real question is why VF invited her in the first place.”
Maxwell was interviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice in August and told Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and now a top official at the DOJ, that she first met Musk at a birthday party for Sergey Brin in 2010 or 2011.
“I met him in—I don’t remember the year, but it’s going to be in 2010, ’11, something like that, I think, if my memory serves,” Maxwell said. “And I was at an event for Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. And Sergey had arranged for—it was for his birthday.”
Maxwell said that Epstein was not present for the birthday party, but the New York Times reported in August that Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse included photos of the late sex offender “alongside” famous people like Pope John Paul II, Mick Jagger, Elon Musk, and Fidel Castro.
Representatives for Musk didn’t respond to an email on Friday, but he’s previously said he had nothing to do with Epstein. However, the billionaire Tesla CEO hasn’t been shy about accusing others of being affiliated with the late pedophile.
Musk accused President Donald Trump of being “in the Epstein files” in early June, not long after the two men had a very public falling out. Musk later deleted the tweet, and the two men were photographed sitting together at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk last weekend.
Shortly before the 2024 presidential election, Musk also complained to Tucker Carlson that the Epstein client list hadn’t been released. “You know, I think part of why Kamala’s getting so much support,” Musk said, “if Trump wins, that Epstein client list is going to become public.”
Musk suggested that Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, were on “the list.” Hoffman reportedly visited Epstein’s island in 2014, according to a 2023 article from the Wall Street Journal.
Musk isn’t the only name mentioned in the six pages released by House Democrats on Friday. Bill Gates is also on Epstein’s schedule for Dec. 5, 2014, in New York. It’s listed as a “TBD TENTATIVE Breakfast Party” with Bill Gates.
Excerpt from a 2014 schedule for Jeffrey Epstein that mentions Bill Gates. Screenshot: Oversight Dems
Gates met with Epstein several times, and the Wall Street Journal reported in 2023 that Epstein had blackmailed the Microsoft co-founder over an alleged affair with a Russian bridge player in 2017. Epstein reportedly wanted Gates to donate to a charitable foundation he was trying to set up with JPMorgan Chase, according to the Journal.
The newly released files also include an email sent to Epstein with his schedule on Nov. 27, 2017, that lists a lunch with Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel in New York.
Excerpt from a document released by House Democrats showing Peter Thiel on a schedule to meet with Jeffrey Epstein. Screenshot: Oversight Dems
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019, and his death was declared a suicide. But many people don’t think that’s how he died, and roughly 70% of Americans think the federal government is hiding something about Epstein.
Julie K. Brown, the journalist who’s arguably most responsible for bringing Epstein’s crimes to broader public attention in the late 2010s, tweeted “Have these been redacted by @GOPOversight @OverSightDems or by the Estate?”
We don’t have an answer to that question yet, but the press release from House Democrats notes, “Extensive redactions have been made to protect victims as Committee investigators continue to analyze the new documents.”
Democrats clearly aren’t going to stop asking about Epstein, who was friends with President Trump for about 15 years before they had a falling out.
“It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world,” Dem Oversight spokesperson Sara Guerrero said in a statement posted online.
“Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims. Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein’s heinous crimes. It’s past time for Attorney General Bondi to release all the files now.”
Are these the biggest clues yet about who exactly is in the Epstein files?!? Plus an actual name?! HOW IS THIS NOT THE BIGGEST STORY RIGHT NOW???
Donald Trump and his loyal DOJ and FBI leaders shocked some of the MAGA faithful with their about-face on Jeffrey Epstein. They went from teasing a big reveal to actually having teams of agents spend hundreds of hours reading the files… and suddenly deciding it all needed to be swept under the rug.
Well, a small handful of Republicans have stood up to Trump on the Epstein issue, and their leader, Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky, finally got one of those rug-sweepers in the hot seat this week.
Kash Patel has been testifying to Congress the past couple days, being grilled on numerous scandals and mistakes, by Democrats and Republicans alike. But on Wednesday, Massie got to ask the biggest question we think America has right now: WTF?!?
Kash In Pocket
OK, Massie didn’t say that. But he did confront the seemingly confused FBI director about his inane claim to the Senate on Tuesday that Epstein didn’t traffic the girls to anyone. If you missed that claim, Patel maintained to Senator John Kennedy:
“There is no credible information, none… that he trafficked to other individuals.”
So Jeffrey Epstein trafficked underage girls to NO ONE? Despite the victims saying very clearly they were trafficked to powerful men? Well, Massie made his big play here. When Epstein’s victims got together and said they’d make their own list, Massie said he and Marjorie Taylor Greene might be able to reveal it even if the girls couldn’t themselves. And on Wednesday he gave us the first name! He defied Patel, saying:
“According to victims who cooperated with the FBI in that investigation, these documents in FBI possession — in your possession — detail at least 20 men, including Mr. Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays Bank, who Jeffrey Epstein trafficked victims to.”
Whoa, what?!?
HE ACTUALLY NAMED SOMEONE! HE DROPPED A NAME FROM THE EPSTEIN LIST! HOW IS THIS NOT THE BIGGEST STORY OF THE DAY?!
The First Name
Who the heck is James Edward “Jes” Staley? A few months after Epstein’s death, the CEO of Barclays was investigated for mischaracterizing his relationship with him. Ultimately he resigned from his position.
(c) Bloomberg/YouTube
He was later named in a lawsuit against JP Morgan. An Epstein victim accused the bank of enabling Epstein financially — and Staley specifically of knowing exactly what he was doing. According to The New York Times, Staley was Epstein’s “chief defender” at JP Morgan, helping him keep his huge accounts despite suspicions he was up to no good. The lawsuit, revealed in January 2023, alleged Staley personally witnessed Epstein’s abuse of an underage girl.
Why would he look the other way, so to speak? Well, it sounds like Massie says one of the victims told the government she’d been trafficked TO HIM!
Currently he’s only facing civil and financial consequences.
Major Effing Clues!
Massie was far from finished. He may have only given one actual name, but he made very clear there’s a list of men accused of wrongdoing, and it’s in the government’s hands. He spoke about the men who were named by Epstein’s victims — and gave some major clues on who they are! He said:
“That list also includes at least 19 other individuals: One Hollywood producer worth a few hundred million dollars. One royal prince. One high profile individual in the music industry. One very prominent banker. One high profile government official. One high profile former politician. One owner of a car company in Italy. One rock star. One magician. At least six billionaires, including a billionaire from Canada. We know these people exist in the FBI files, the files you control. I don’t know exactly who they are, but the FBI does. Have you launched investigations into any of these individuals?”
YOWZA! That is a lot of clues all at once!
Well, look, the Royal prince one is easy. Prince Andrew is one of the only men who have been accused publicly. Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed she was trafficked to him by Epstein multiple times, including when she was just 17 years old. Here they are together in a photo with Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
(c) BBC/WENN
As for the “high profile government official” and “high profile former politician”? Pretty horrific to know our taxes have supported people like this, isn’t it?
And then there’s “magician” — what a wild profession to throw out, right? But probably the most intriguing to us? A rich Hollywood producer?? A “rock star”? A “high profile individual in the music industry”?? Our minds are racing with ideas, though we’ve never, to our recollection, heard of any connection between Epstein and any specific people who fit these bills. Do YOU know who he’s talking about??
Anyway, let’s check back in on what Patel has to say for himself…
Kash Tries To Pass The Buck
When Patel tried to reiterate that he hadn’t seen credible evidence yet, Massie pressed, remind him VICTIM TESTIMONY is evidence! He straight up asked the FBI head:
“Is it your assertion that these victims aren’t credible? That the 302s maybe didn’t produce credible statements that rise to probable cause?”
Patel said it was the decision of US attorneys, noting some were in past administrations. Totally passing the buck. Massie didn’t let him get away with it. He
“Have you viewed the 302 documents where they victims name the people who victimized them?”
Patel admitted he has not “personally” viewed the documents in question. So Massie hit him with:
“So how can you sit here, and in front of the Senate, and say there are no names? I named one today.”
He sure as hell did.
Patel squirmed again, saying the FBI won’t release “victim names” or “in-credible evidence.” So let’s see if we’ve got this right… Despite the fact he was such a vocal crusader for the Epstein list before this job, Patel hasn’t made it a priority to personally look at any of this evidence, any of the victim testimony, in the nearly SEVEN MONTHS he’s been on the job. Instead, he’s totally satisfied being told there’s nothing to see, and he’s accepted that without looking for himself??
Yeah, it didn’t sound like Massie bought any of that. You can see his full interrogation (below):
Out Of The Frying Pan…
Look, so far we’ve only been speaking about Kash Patel getting grilled by Republicans. But when it came to Dems, it was pretty bad, too. Though it did lean a little worse for Trump, as you might imagine…
Eric Swalwell asked Patel did he ever “tell Donald Trump his name is in the files?” The FBI director said he’d never spoken to Trump about Epstein files. (Wow, but OK.) So Swalwell asked next:
“Did you ever tell the the Attorney General that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files?”
This should have been a simple NO, right? Instead Patel gave a non-answer, saying:
“The attorney general and I have had numerous discussions about the entirety of the Epstein files and the reviews conducted by our team.”
Yeah, definitely didn’t answer that one. So Swalwell pressed him on it, asking again if he’d ever told the AG that Trump’s name was in the Epstein files. Patel again tried to skate around the answer, saying:
“During many conversations that the Attorney General and I have had on the matter of Epstein, we have reviewed…”
Swalwell wasn’t having it. He said, “The question is simple,” asking again sarcastically slowly. Patel refused to answer and started attacking Swalwell and his home state of California instead. Eventually the Congressman had to give up and said simply:
“We’ll take your evasiveness as consciousness of guilt.”
SWALWELL: Did you ever tell Donald Trump his name is in the files?
PATEL: I have never spoken with Donald Trump about the Epstein files
SWALWELL: Did you ever tell the AG that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files
It went on like that with some others. At no time, speaking to either side of the aisle, did Patel look like he had any interest in getting to the truth about Epstein and his co-conspirators. Shame.
Do you want Congress to demand release of the full Epstein files? Learn how to peacefully contact your reps to demand action at https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.
The Powerful Man publishing event of the season—what “Steve Jobs” or “The Lives of John Lennon” or “Iacocca” were to their respective moments—is “The First Fifty Years,” a set of three leather-bound tomes commissioned by Ghislaine Maxwell to celebrate the milestone birthday, in 2003, of her onetime boyfriend and, eventually, fellow convicted child-sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “The idea behind this book was simply to gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places people and different events,” Maxwell writes in the prologue. Her pen swoops and dives, like a ravenous moray eel. She seems so pleased with herself, for what’s about to unfold. And what a team she’s put together: the business executive Leslie Wexner, the private-equity investor Leon Black, the venture capitalist William Elkus, the Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold, and Alan Dershowitz—among many other friends and associates—are all named as contributors, gathered here in honor of the birthday boy.
You have likely heard about the Presidential submissions to this anthology, which the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform obtained from Epstein’s estate and released to the public this week. A vapid, near-illegible note attributed to Bill Clinton salutes “all the years of learning and knowing” that Epstein has logged, and praises his “childlike curiosity” and his “drive to make a difference.” The entry attributed to and apparently signed by Donald Trump invents an innuendo-heavy conversation between himself and Epstein, who was later revealed to be a serial rapist of girls as young as fourteen. Surely taking inspiration from the concrete poems of John Hollander or perhaps James Merrill’s “Christmas Tree,” the author fits the lines of dialogue inside a female silhouette, adding pen strokes that represent breast buds. He alludes to a shared love of secrets. Epstein, Trump once observed, likes women “on the younger side.” (The White House has denied that Trump contributed the drawing or signed it.)
The second Trump Administration has been dogged by a somewhat amnesiac fixation on the President’s long-established ties to Epstein, whom Trump once described as “a lot of fun to be with,” and who died in a jail cell under bizarre circumstances during Trump’s first term, in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. This summer, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, reversed her promises to release new investigative files related to Epstein. Maxwell, who is appealing her conviction and seeking a pardon, met for two long sessions with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as part of what my colleague Ruth Marcus called a “damage-control operation.” (As ABC News put it, “It is almost unheard of for a convicted sex trafficker to meet with such a high-ranking Justice Department official, especially one who used to be the president’s top criminal defense attorney.”)
It’s therefore understandable why most of the media response to “The First Fifty Years” has focussed on a couple of pages of Trump-related content. But this framing may actually undersell the book’s hideous, maggot-crawling depravity. Reading it from start to finish—there are two hundred and thirty-eight pages, with redactions throughout, in the PDF that the House committee released—is to immiserate oneself in a uniquely cheap and idiotic genre of degeneracy. Sometimes it’s like you’re leafing through the visitors’ book at the Museum of Carcosa. Sometimes it reads like a catalogue raisonné of outsider art by registered sex offenders. Sometimes it’s like you’ve stumbled into the masked ball in “Eyes Wide Shut” and everyone is wearing Shein, and smells like Burger King, and there’s that tacky gold shit that Trump likes all over the walls. Sometimes it’s like you’ve discovered a rich man’s contract with the devil, and, next to his signature, he’s drawn a little penis cartoon.
Epstein’s air of mystery is a refrain among the admirers who made contributions to his birthday book. He has both a “Mona Lisa smile” and a “Cheshire cat grin”; he is “always grinning” like a “mischievous lad”; his friends “think he works for the CIA.” (Maybe?) He is surrounded at all times by gorgeous babes. He “can create them out of thin air,” one pal writes. The section “Girl Friends” includes two pages of densely collaged snapshots of young women, predominantly in bathing suits or lingerie, all with their faces blacked out. The “Assistants” section reads as if someone asked a prospective employer for a job description and was given a millennial issue of Maxim: skimpy-bikini shots, butt shots, and a blacked-out horizontal shot with a caption asking, “Who Am I???” A photo of a couple taken from behind—the man’s hand is pushed deep into the waistband of the woman’s jeans—is captioned “Thank You!!!” Another grateful former employee lists the men of wealth and taste whom she has met through her work with Epstein: Clinton, Trump, Prince Andrew, the Sultan of Brunei, Kevin Spacey, Michael Jackson, and so forth.
The Epstein of the birthday book is charming and suave but also menacing. He looms. A slim young woman in a thong turns toward the camera: “Visiting you down in Palm Beach . . . Can’t get a second of privacy with you and a camera around Ha! Ha!” He augurs violence; he must be placated. A friend imagines threatening girls at knifepoint to strip off their bathing suits. In another snapshot, Epstein is masked and holding what appears to be a gun; the caption refers to a “first victim” who will “be attacked and brutally plundered.” Everyone surrenders to him. It’s wonderful and terrible. “You’re my kid’s role model,” one friend tells Epstein, adding that when he and a mutual friend “get together, who and what do you think we talk about ? You, You, You, You, its constant—I can’t stand it anymore.” That was twenty-two years ago.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
After President Donald Trump denied the existence of his signature in a birthday book assembled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, the House Oversight Committee has released the entirety of the 238-page book. Not only does it contain a creepy illustration and signature by his friend Trump (which he has denied is his), the book is loaded with awful writings and illustrations as well as many pages of pictures of naked women. Here are some of the worst ideas from the convicted sex criminal and his famous friends.
The book includes a photo of Epstein at Mar-a-Lago holding up an oversize check selling a “fully depreciated” woman to Trump for $22,500. The man next to Epstein in the picture is Joel Pashcow, a longtime member of Mar-a-Lago who appears in the Epstein flight logs many times.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
According to the New York Times, the woman whose face is redacted dated both Epstein and Trump, and she may have been one of Epstein’s victims:
The woman, whose name is also redacted in the files released by the House Oversight Committee, was a European socialite then in her 20s, according to two people familiar with the original photo. She had briefly dated both Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump around that time, according to court transcripts and a person close to Mr. Epstein. The birthday book entry appears to be a reference to the competition between the two men for the woman’s affections.
The nature of the woman’s relationship with Mr. Epstein is murky. The New York Times is not naming her because she may have been one of his victims.
A lawyer for the woman said she knew Mr. Epstein in “a professional capacity” when she was a student but severed ties with him in 1997. She did not know anything about the letter or its “derogatory content,” the lawyer added. …
The woman in the photograph was mentioned in the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s former girlfriend who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring to sexually traffic minors. An employee of Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein testified that the pair “felt like a couple.”
One drawing from an unnamed friend shows Epstein handing out candy to three young girls, who are then massaging him while he is naked 20 years later. “What a great country!” it reads.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
William Elkus, a venture capitalist with early stakes in PayPal and Yahoo, wrote a letter to Epstein recounting their trip to Iowa. “It’s no secret that Jeffrey appreciates beautiful women,” he wrote. “But not many people know that he can create them out of thin air.” Elkus wrote that they were in Iowa together in 1988, where it was hard to “tell the difference between the girls and the hogs.” He said Epstein was able to find a “spectacular tall blonde” there to spend time with, and he even wondered if “Jeffrey arranged the whole episode through some long distance escort service.” (Elkus told the New York Times his note was a joke meant to emphasize Epstein’s “charisma.”)
Epstein’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz made a fake magazine cover called Vanity Unfair featuring teasers about Epstein being Jack the Ripper, funding Al Qaeda, and dating Nicole Kidman.
“As a birthday gift to you, I managed to obtain an early version,” Dershowitz wrote. In a statement to CNN, the lawyer said he did not remember doing this.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
In a letter to “Degenerate I,” one of Epstein’s friends describes his two-decade relationship traveling the world with this “mischievous, mysterious lad.”
“So many girls, so little time,” he writes, signing the letter “Degenerate II.”
Former Bear Stearns banker Elliot Wolk recalled meeting Epstein in the 1970s when he joined the bank and was “running an account for Bob Maxwell,” the suspected spy and father of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later convicted of trafficking girls for Epstein. “Was that when you first discovered the Maxwell teen-age daughter,” Wolk writes.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The book is full of quips about how much sex Epstein had and his nonstop desire to have more. One of the stranger entries is from an unnamed contributor who wrote that he’d “agonized long and hard about what to write.” Instead of writing anything, he just attached pictures of lions and zebras having sex. These pictures, he wrote, “seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words.” Another friend, signed “Leslie,” wrote that he “wanted to get you what you want,” so he just drew a sketch of a woman’s breasts.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
President Trump has denied that he wrote a poem in the book that features his signature mimicking a woman’s pubic hair. House Oversight chair James Comer has said he does not intend, for now, to investigate the matter further. “The president says he did not sign it,” Comer said Tuesday. “So I take the president at his word.” Trump’s allies also say the signature is fake, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Trump boosts Canada tariff to 35% as U.S. announces new levies across the globe; Family of Virginia Giuffre presses Trump to release Epstein files to the public.
This week we got one of the most hopeful bits of news yet about this Jeffrey Epstein scandal… but there’s a pretty big hurdle to clear still.
The Donald Trump administration may be content to bury the Epstein files forever, with the President personally calling the whole thing “a Democrat hoax”… But the victims won’t go away!
Several women who were abused and trafficked by Epstein in the ’90s and 2000s came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and spoke out. And in one of the bravest, most badass moves we’ve seen, they announced they were putting together their own Epstein list! Accuser Lisa Phillips declared:
“And let me announce now: Several of us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list of names. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now together as survivors we will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. No one else is involved.”
Hell yeah!
Many asked why they aren’t just saying the names right there. We mean, they did mention Trump and Bill Clinton by name as being part of Epstein’s circle… but they didn’t make accusations against anyone other than Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Why??
Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, the Republican Congressman who is leading the charge with his Democratic counterpart Ro Khanna from California, explained just that to folks on the internet. Taking to his X (Twitter) account, he wrote:
“Survivors at our press conference announced they are privately compiling their own Epstein list. They would be sued into homelessness for naming names…”
Yeah, we’ve already seen some of them threatened with lawsuits before. Even if they filed lawsuits, they’d still face legal action in retaliation. Alan Dershowitzactually did countersueVirginia Roberts Giuffre. All the accused probably have really powerful, expensive legal teams. It’s a huge obstacle.
However, Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene give no effs when it comes to something this morally clear — and they have a certain protection that could allow them to announce the list publicly! He continued…
“…but @RepMTG and I are willing to name names in the House of Representatives under Constitutional ‘speech or debate’ immunity.”
That’s amazing! We could actually get this thing out this way! It wouldn’t give us the files with all the evidence and accusations that are already on record… But it would be something. And hey, if just SIX Republicans join all the Democrats in the House, they could force the DOJ to reveal all of it!
Someone asked why accusing the men of crimes opened them up to lawsuits at all — wondering why they couldn’t just press charges against the men for what they did. Massie pointed out the sad reality:
“Individuals can’t file criminal charges. That would be up to the government, who already has these names, and has already failed to file charges.”
Damn. Not only have they failed to file charges, Trump’s DOJ and FBI made clear they had no intention of ever doing so. That’s what got this renewed fervor going in the first place!
But hey, at least someone in Congress has a backbone!
[Image via Johnny Louis/MEGA/WENN/Florida Department of Law Enforcement.]
The country has been waiting for years now for the release of the Epstein Files — all the info the government collected on underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein both before and after his death. Many of Donald Trump‘s supporters believed he would be their champion and make all of it public… but it’s become clear even to most of MAGA that’s a long wait on a train that ain’t comin’.
No, Trump — a longtime pal of Epstein, and not the only one in the government — has made clear where he stands. He doesn’t want any of it out, he wants everyone to shut up and stop asking about it, he even went so far as to say the entire thing was just a fake Witch Hunt — repeating as recently as Wednesday that it’s “a Democrat hoax.”
But of course, we know that’s not true. Epstein’s right-hand woman and sometime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on sex trafficking charges, essentially proving in court that Epstein was guilty, too. We mean, he died rather inconveniently in prison before he was able to face justice, but his accomplice’s guilty verdict was pretty definitive legal proof. After all, the victims said it was both of them who recruited, sexually abused, and trafficked them to powerful men.
So there’s just that one loose end. Why the hell aren’t any of these powerful men facing justice? The ones who participated in the underage sex trafficking? That’s who everyone has been hoping would be exposed when the Epstein Files finally went public. But that… never happened.
Well, thankfully a few Republicans are standing up to Trump and siding with Democrats to demand everything be released. Congressmen Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) are asking their fellow reps to sign a discharge to force Trump’s DOJ to release all the files. They already have 134 of the 218 signatures they need, including Republicans Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Wow. We may not agree with them on anything else, but at least we can all agree that UNDERAGE SEX TRAFFICKING IS WRONG! Jeez, why does this have to be difficult at all??
In a press conference on Wednesday morning, Rep. Massie hit back directly at Trump’s “hoax” defense, saying:
“I think it’s shameful that this has been called a hoax. Hopefully, today, we can clear that up. This is not a hoax. This is real. There are real survivors. There are real victims to this criminal enterprise, and the perpetrators are being protected because they’re rich, powerful, and political donors to the establishment here in Washington, DC.”
In their most powerful push for votes yet, Khanna and Massie invited some of those real survivors of Epstein to speak out about what was done to them — and why it’s so important these files be released. Trump’s FBI and DOJ used the victims as an excuse why the files should be kept private, to protect them — but these women are standing up and calling BS. And we are so in awe of their bravery.
Annie Farmer was just 16 years old when Epstein and Maxwell assaulted and took sensitive photos of her and her sister Maria Farmer. They even reported it to authorities at the time, and… nothing. That was in 1996, btw. Now she’s had three decades to witness the inaction when powerful men are involved. She told the crowd gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday:
“I am now 46 years old; 30 years later, we still do not know why that report wasn’t properly investigated, or why Epstein and his associates were allowed to harm hundreds, if not thousands, of other girls and young women.”
She added, pointing at the men still being protected:
“Not only did many others participate in the abuse, it is clear that many were aware of his interest in girls and very young women and chose to look the other way because it benefited them to do so. They wanted access to his circle and his money. Their choice to align with his power left those of us who had been harmed by this man and his associates feeling very isolated.”
Sky Roberts, brother of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre — who died by suicide earlier this year, echoed these sentiments:
“The justice system was not designed to serve the powerful, it was meant to protect the people — and it’s time it started doing just that.”
He has every reason to be furious. The President of the United States admitted to knowing that Epstein “stole” his 16-year-old sister from Mar-a-Lago, and has faced no consequences whatsoever…
But the victims weren’t just there to inspire Congress to try to find them justice — they revealed they’re ready to fight with the one weapon they have: information.
As Haley Robson, who says she was trafficked by Epstein to other men starting when she was 16 years old, said:
“We are the keys. We know the games. We know the players.”
She also blasted the DOJ for using the victims as their shield for not releasing the files, saying:
“Shame on you for using our trauma to weaponize this moment.”
Well, you know who isn’t going to exploit the survivors and their trauma? The survivors themselves. Accuser Lisa Phillips declared to thunderous applause:
“And let me announce now: Several of us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list of names. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now together as survivors we will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. No one else is involved.”
Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa! Hell yeah! This is a total game changer!
We have to assume they’ve stayed quiet for so long because they were afraid of what would happen to them. After all, accusers have faced threats both of the legal AND violent kind. Well… not anymore! Now that it’s become clear the government has to be dragged kicking and screaming to truth and transparency, it’s well past time for these women to take charge.
It sounds like one way or another, an “Epstein list” is going to get released. After all, they know who some of the men who abused them are. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to shout it from the rooftops? Who’s going to stop them from outing sexual predators and rapists of minors??
Oh, right.
A White House official blasted the efforts to release the Epstein files, even though they clearly have the backing of the victims. They said:
“Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the Oversight Committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.”
A “very hostile act” to the Trump administration?! Why would the push for a release of information be hostile to Trump? Hmm, let’s think about that one…
Some of the victims hinted at the men involved. Chauntae Davies pointed out how Epstein and Maxwell were consistently “boastful about their famous or powerful friends.” And Epstein loved bragging most about how close he was with Trump:
“And his biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump. He had an 8 by 10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them, like they were very close.”
Several men have been associated with Epstein over the years. Bill Clinton rode on his plane and apparently had him over to the White House. Attorney Alan Dershowitz had some kind of relationship, though he’s quite litigious about what kind. Prince Andrew has been straight up accused of having sex with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts.
The infamous photo of Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts, who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the Royal when she was just 17. / (c) BBC/WENN
But we don’t know of any other name as closely associated with Jeffrey Epstein as our 47th President.
Trump was good friends with Epstein for years, they were party pals, having been described by mutual friends and acquaintances as “best friends” and “wingmen.” There’s a ton of photo and video evidence of them partying together. There are stories about them hanging out with young women. Hell, Trump even said in a profile in 2003:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
If that weren’t suspicious enough, Trump actually has been accused of wrongdoing with Epstein. A woman going by the pseudonym Katie Johnson told a horrifying story years ago, accusing Trump of tying her to a bed at Epstein’s apartment and raping her. She said she was only 13 years old when this happened. The same age as his daughter Ivanka Trump that year.
Johnson withdrew her lawsuit against Trump, citing fears for her safety, and has since disappeared. You can read her entire story HERE, if you have the stomach for it.
The point is, there may be a huge reason Trump is so keen to sweep all this under the rug — and always has been. But he can no longer silence the survivors.
We don’t know what will come first, the victims’ unofficial Epstein list or the actual release of actionable material by the US government… but if we had to bet, the smart money is on the women to come through.
And damn, we cannot wait.
See the full press conference for yourself (below):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
The folders contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell. They also contained video files appearing to be body cam footage from police searches, as well as law enforcement interviews with victims with their faces obscured.
The Justice Department released the files to the committee in response to a subpoena, but the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known.
Still, pressure is growing in Congress for lawmakers to act to force greater disclosure in the case. House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell an effort by Democrats and some Republicans to force a vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all the information in the so-called Epstein files, with the exception of the victims’ personal information of the victims.
Acting quickly, lawmakers pressing for the full release of the so-called Epstein files launched a campaign for the House to take up their bill. Meanwhile, Johnson and a bipartisan group of lawmakers met with survivors of abuse by Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
“The objective here is not just to uncover, investigate the Epstein evils, but also to ensure that this never happens again and ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies for so very long,” said Johnson, R-La., after he emerged from a two-hour meeting with six of the survivors.
“It is inexcusable. And it will stop now because the Congress is dialed in on this,” he added.
But there are still intense disagreements on how lawmakers should proceed. Johnson is pressing for the inquiry to be handled by the House Oversight Committee and putting forward a resolution that directs the committee to publicly release its findings.
The files released Tuesday included audio of an Epstein employee describing to a law enforcement official how “there were a lot of girls that were very, very young” visiting the home but couldn’t say for sure if they were minors.
Over the course of Epstein’s visits to the home, the man said more than a dozen girls might visit, and that he was charged with cleaning the room where Epstein had massages, twice daily.
Some of the interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police Department date to 2005, according to timestamps read out by officials at the beginning of the files.
Most, if not all, of the text documents posted Tuesday had already been public. Notably, the probable cause affidavit and other records from the 2005 investigation into Epstein contained a notation indicating that they’d been previously released in a 2017 public records request. An internet search showed those files were posted to the website of the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office in July 2017.
If the purpose of the release was to provide answers to a public still curious over the long-concluded cases, the raw mechanics of the clunky rollout made that a challenge.
Lawmakers at 6 p.m. released thousands of pages and videos via a cumbersome Google Drive, leaving it to readers and viewers to decipher new and interesting tidbits on their own. The disclosure also left open the question of why the Justice Department did not release the material directly to the public instead of operating through Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, Democrats and some Republicans are trying to maneuver around Johnson’s control of the House floor to hold a vote on a separate bill that would require the Justice Department to publicly release the files, with the exception of names and personal information of the victims.
The clash suggests little has changed in Congress since late July, when Johnson sent lawmakers home early in hopes of cooling the political battle over the Epstein case. Members of both parties remain dissatisfied and are demanding more details on the years-old investigation into Epstein, the wealthy and well-connected financier whose 2019 death in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges has sparked wide-ranging conspiracy theories and speculation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, responding to mounting pressure in Congress to force more disclosure in the case.
Still, the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known or available. The folders contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell. They also included video files appearing to be body cam footage from police searches as well as recordings and summaries of law enforcement interviews with victims detailing the abuse they said they suffered.
The committee’s release of the files showed how lawmakers are eager to act as they return to Washington after a monthlong break. They quickly revived a political clash that has flummoxed House Republican leadership and roiled President Donald Trump’s administration. House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell an effort by Democrats and some Republicans to force a vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all the information in the so-called Epstein files, with the exception of the victims’ personal information.
Survivors meet with lawmakers
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, Johnson and a bipartisan group of lawmakers met with survivors of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.
“The objective here is not just to uncover, investigate the Epstein evils, but also to ensure that this never happens again and ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies for so very long,” said Johnson, R-La., after he emerged from a two-hour meeting with six of the survivors.
“It is inexcusable. And it will stop now because the Congress is dialed in on this,” he added.
But there are still intense disagreements on how lawmakers should proceed. Johnson is pressing for the inquiry to be handled by the House Oversight Committee and supporting the committee as it releases its findings.
What’s in the released files
The files released Tuesday included audio of an Epstein employee describing to a law enforcement official how “there were a lot of girls that were very, very young” visiting the home but couldn’t say for sure if they were minors.
Over the course of Epstein’s visits to the home, the man said, more than a dozen girls might visit, and he was charged with cleaning the room where Epstein had massages, twice daily.
Some pages were almost entirely redacted. Other documents related to Epstein’s Florida prosecution that led to a plea deal that has long been criticized as too lenient, including emails between the defense and prosecutors over the conditions of his probation after his conviction. Barbara Burns, a Palm Beach County prosecutor, expressed frustration as the defense pushed for fewer restrictions on their client: “I don’t know how to convey to him anymore than I already have that his client is a registered sex offender that was fortunate to get the deal of the century.”
Some of the interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police Department date to 2005, according to timestamps read out by officials at the beginning of the files.
Most, if not all, of the text documents posted Tuesday had already been public. Notably, the probable cause affidavit and other records from the 2005 investigation into Epstein contained a notation indicating that they’d been previously released in a 2017 public records request. An internet search showed those files were posted to the website of the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office in July 2017.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, chided Republicans on the panel for releasing material that he said consisted almost entirely of already available information.
“The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American people — don’t let this fool you,” Garcia said in a statement.
Push for disclosure continues
If the purpose of the release was to provide answers to a public still curious over the long concluded cases, the raw mechanics of the clunky rollout made that a challenge.
Lawmakers at 6 p.m. released thousands of pages and videos via a cumbersome Google Drive, leaving it to readers and viewers to decipher new and interesting tidbits on their own. The disclosure also left open the question of why the Justice Department did not release the material directly to the public instead of operating through Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, Democrats and some Republicans were still trying to maneuver around Johnson’s control of the House floor to hold a vote on their bill to require the Justice Department to publicly release files. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is leading the maneuver, spoke confidently that he would be able to gain support from at least a handful of Republicans, as well as all Democrats, in order to force a vote.
If Massie, who is pressing for the bill alongside Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is successful in forcing a vote — which could take weeks — the legislation would still need to pass the Senate and be signed into law by Trump.
The clash suggests little has changed in Congress since late July, when Johnson sent lawmakers home early in hopes of cooling the political battle over the Epstein case. Members of both parties remain dissatisfied and are demanding more details on the years-old investigation into Epstein, the wealthy and well-connected financier whose 2019 death in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges has sparked wide-ranging conspiracy theories and speculation.
“We continue to bring the pressure. We’re not going to stop until we get justice for all of the survivors and the victims,” Garcia told reporters.
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Mike Sisak in New York and Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed.
Ghislaine Maxwell first met Jeffrey Epstein for tea in his Madison Avenue office. What she remembers most vividly about the encounter, Maxwell told the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, in an interview in late July, which was released last week, is Epstein’s tie. “It had a giant, seemed like a ketchup stain on it,” she said. “I was, like, Wow, O.K.”
It was 1991, and Maxwell had recently called off an engagement and was in the process of moving from London to New York. “And a girlfriend of mine . . . said, ‘I’ve got’—you know, as your girlfriends do—‘I’ve got a guy for you to meet. . . . You’ll love him. He’s looking for a wife,’ ” Maxwell told Blanche at the start of the interview. “I’m edging towards thirty. I don’t need to tell you guys, that’s a very important moment for a girl to, like, think about important things.”
So began a relationship that lasted for decades and was both romantic and professional, with Epstein paying Maxwell—who oversaw the management of his properties—from very early on. According to Maxwell, they were largely out of touch by the time of Epstein’s death, in jail, in 2019. Three years later, she was sentenced to twenty years in prison for trafficking young girls for Epstein and participating in their sexual abuse.
The story of Maxwell’s first meeting with Epstein may sound like an unlikely anecdote for a convicted child-sex trafficker to share with a senior Justice Department official; indeed, the entire Maxwell interview, which took place over two days, is like no legal document most of us ever encountered. To read the three-hundred-and-thirty-seven-page transcript—even more, to listen to the audio of Maxwell’s soft voice, her British accent sanded down by decades in the United States—is to be horrified, even enraged, by Maxwell’s brazen airbrushing of her conduct, and by Blanche’s placid acceptance of her rendition of events. The interview had no evident legal purpose. It was a damage-control operation. Blanche was not so much investigating Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes as attempting to exculpate President Donald Trump, who was under fire from his base for his own involvement with Epstein, a man he once described as a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” The Justice Department had once argued that Maxwell should be sentenced to at least thirty years in prison. Now its second-ranking official, who had been Trump’s criminal-defense lawyer, was aligned with a woman whose crimes the department had condemned as “monstrous.” Interrogator and witness shared the same goal—they were both there to make Trump happy—and their exchange reflected this arrangement.
The interview is alternately boring and compelling, offering a glimpse into an insular world of privilege and entitlement. “I’m English, and my close friends are all close friends with Sarah and Andrew,” Maxwell explained at one point, referring to Sarah Ferguson and her former husband, Prince Andrew, who was accused in a civil lawsuit of raping one of Epstein’s underage victims, Virginia Giuffre. (Prince Andrew has denied wrongdoing but reached an out-of-court settlement in the Giuffre case.) Maxwell described meeting Elon Musk when “a bunch of us” gathered at “another friend’s island” for a birthday party for the Google co-founder Sergey Brin; she said that she ran into the Tesla C.E.O. again a few years later, at the Oscars. Maxwell comes off as both pathetic and loathsome. Epstein had encouraged her to think they might get married. “Certainly by the mid-, late nineties, I knew the marriage part was never going to happen,” she said. “But I did think that we might have a child, which is what I had really wanted.” She suggested that she had ruined her own life—but never acknowledged that she had harmed many others in the process.
About her crimes, Maxwell remained utterly lacking in remorse. She allowed that “somebody’s inappropriate”—such as seeing Epstein masturbating on a massage table—“and mine may be different.” She acknowledged that he sexually abused underage girls. “He’s a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids,” Maxwell said. But she claimed that she never witnessed or even knew of the abuse when she was involved with Epstein, and denied soliciting underage girls to massage him. “I can categorically state that, had any child said to me that they were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen . . . I would never have permitted such a thing,” Maxwell told Blanche. She said she never saw any women, of any age, “under any form of duress” or “looking uncomfortable or in any way distressed.” Perhaps some of Epstein’s masseuses performed their jobs topless—“less than normally clad for massage,” as she put it. “Did I ever instruct anyone how to pleasure Mr. Epstein?” Maxwell told Blanche. “No.”
Of course, there is no reason to believe Maxwell. At her trial, four women, all of whom were underage when they met Maxwell and Epstein, provided testimony that convincingly contradicts this account. The jury convicted Maxwell of five counts involving sex trafficking. The judge who presided over her trial and sentenced her concluded that she had “participated in a horrific scheme to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls, some as young as fourteen.”
The pair met one of them, known by the pseudonym Jane, at a summer camp for talented children, when she was fourteen; her father had just died, and her family was struggling financially. The prosecution’s sentencing memo described what happened next: Epstein and Maxwell both sexually abused Jane, and “taught Jane how Epstein liked to be massaged and gave Jane instructions about touching Epstein’s penis.” Maxwell, the memo continued, “tried to make Jane feel like this was ‘very normal’ and ‘not a big deal.’ ” Epstein abused Jane for the next two years, the memo said, and Maxwell “was frequently in the room when the abuse happened.”
Maxwell had this to say about Jane to Blanche: “I only saw her in Palm Beach and I only saw her with her mother.” Blanche didn’t press her on the inconsistency. The last time Maxwell denied that she had witnessed or participated in Epstein’s crimes, in a civil deposition in 2016, she was charged with perjury—by the very Department of Justice that Blanche now helps run. (Prosecutors dropped the perjury charges after securing Maxwell’s conviction on the sex-trafficking counts.)
After the transcript of Maxwell’s interview with Blanche was released, the family of Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, issued a statement denouncing the Justice Department for giving Maxwell a “platform to rewrite history.” Their anger is understandable. The Justice Department took care to redact victims’ names from the transcript but allowed Maxwell’s lies to stand unquestioned. Blanche was there, he told Maxwell at one point, not “to create a kind of a ‘she said, she said’ situation” but, rather, “to hear from you about your conduct.” In this proceeding, fairness to victims was an afterthought.
But the odd encounter—Deputy Attorneys General do not ordinarily spend their time interviewing witnesses—offered the prospect of mutual benefit to Trump and Maxwell. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, had cannily seized the moment of Trump’s Epstein difficulties to offer up his client’s testimony—provided that she received immunity from having it used against her. Maxwell presented herself in the interview as having been “very keen to talk to anyone” and lamented that “no one from the government . . . has ever spoken to me,” conveniently omitting the fact that she chose not to testify in her own defense.
The Trump team clearly had hoped that the interview would yield allegations about sexual misconduct by prominent Democrats. On that count, the interview was a failure, despite Blanche’s game efforts to elicit information. At one point, Blanche asked whether Senator Ted Kennedy knew Epstein. Maxwell said that they were not acquainted. “But Bobby Kennedy knew him,” she offered, referring to the Health and Human Services Secretary. “Say that again about Bobby Kennedy,” Blanche said. “How do you know that?” Answer: “Dinosaur-bone hunting in the Dakotas.”
Blanche dropped the subject of the Kennedys, but he repeatedly brought up Epstein’s relationship with former President Bill Clinton:
Page 99: “So we talked about people that were his clients, and you’ve mentioned President Clinton.”
Page 258: “Do you know whether Mr. Epstein had a separate relationship with President Clinton?”
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein on Monday as congressional lawmakers try to determine who was connected to the disgraced financier and whether prosecutors mishandled his case.The committee’s subpoena is the latest effort by both Republicans and Democrats to respond to public clamor for more disclosure in the investigation into Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019. Lawmakers are trying to guide an investigation into who among Epstein’s high-powered social circle may have been aware of his sexual abuse of teenage girls, delving into a criminal case that has spurred conspiracy theories and roiled top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration.The subpoena, signed by Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee, and dated Monday, demands that Epstein’s estate provide Congress with documents including a book that was compiled with notes from friends for his 50th birthday, his last will and testament, agreements he signed with prosecutors, his contact books, and his financial transactions and holdings.Comer wrote to the executors of Epstein’s estate that the committee “is reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them, and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials.”The Justice Department, trying to distance Trump and Epstein, last week began handing over to lawmakers documentation of the federal investigation into Epstein. It has also released transcripts of interviews conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend. But Democrats on the committee have not been satisfied with those efforts, saying that the some 33,000 pages of documents they’ve received are mostly already public.“DOJ’s limited disclosure raises more questions than answers and makes clear that the White House is not interested in justice for the victims or the truth,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.Pressure from lawmakers to release more information is likely to only grow when Congress returns to Washington next week.A bipartisan group of House members is attempting to maneuver around Republican leadership to hold a vote to pass legislation meant to require the Justice Department to release a full accounting of the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
WASHINGTON —
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein on Monday as congressional lawmakers try to determine who was connected to the disgraced financier and whether prosecutors mishandled his case.
The committee’s subpoena is the latest effort by both Republicans and Democrats to respond to public clamor for more disclosure in the investigation into Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019. Lawmakers are trying to guide an investigation into who among Epstein’s high-powered social circle may have been aware of his sexual abuse of teenage girls, delving into a criminal case that has spurred conspiracy theories and roiled top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration.
The subpoena, signed by Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee, and dated Monday, demands that Epstein’s estate provide Congress with documents including a book that was compiled with notes from friends for his 50th birthday, his last will and testament, agreements he signed with prosecutors, his contact books, and his financial transactions and holdings.
Comer wrote to the executors of Epstein’s estate that the committee “is reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them, and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials.”
The Justice Department, trying to distance Trump and Epstein, last week began handing over to lawmakers documentation of the federal investigation into Epstein. It has also released transcripts of interviews conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend. But Democrats on the committee have not been satisfied with those efforts, saying that the some 33,000 pages of documents they’ve received are mostly already public.
“DOJ’s limited disclosure raises more questions than answers and makes clear that the White House is not interested in justice for the victims or the truth,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
Pressure from lawmakers to release more information is likely to only grow when Congress returns to Washington next week.
A bipartisan group of House members is attempting to maneuver around Republican leadership to hold a vote to pass legislation meant to require the Justice Department to release a full accounting of the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
For weeks, Donald Trump has been on the defensive over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files and the extent of his own personal links to the late sex trafficker.
While Trump had promised to release files related to Epstein, his justice department announced in July there would be no more disclosures, prompting uproar among conspiracy-minded Maga adherents and many other of his supporters.
As criticism grew louder, the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche – who defended Trump in criminal proceedings – interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her involvement in Epstein’s abuse of teen girls. After the first interview session, Blanche said “the Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time”.
The appropriate time turned out to be just before 3pm ET on Friday, 22 August when the department published redacted transcripts of Blanche’s interviews with Maxwell.
While the transcripts span hundreds of pages, their contents are unlikely to satisfy those who want to know more about Trump’s past association with Epstein – let alone those who believe that the deceased financier was part of a powerful cabal of the global elite preying on young girls.
Maxwell’s comments on Trump in the transcripts largely played into his efforts to distance himself from Epstein. If anything, the transcripts revealed Maxwell’s ongoing sense of aggrieved entitlement – as well as Blanche’s intense focus on Bill and Hillary Clinton, who like Trump had past dealings with Epstein.
“I think [Trump and Epstein] were friendly like people are in social settings. I don’t – I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of – I don’t recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance,” said Maxwell, who had been Epstein’s on-again, off-again girlfriend.
“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell also said, alluding to Epstein’s abuse of women and teen girls whom he’d met under the guise of them providing massages.
Maxwell was asked whether she had heard Epstein or anybody say that Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses, or anybody, in their world. “Absolutely never, in any context,” Maxwell said.
Such comments would be music to Trump’s ears as he has long played down the extent of his social contacts with Epstein. Maxwell, who shortly after being interviewed by Blanche was moved from her Florida jail to a much lower security one in Texas, was also asked whether she remembered if Trump had contributed to a birthday book for Epstein.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that Trump sent a “bawdy” birthday letter to Epstein in 2003 featuring a drawing of a nude woman. Trump has filed suit over this reporting. “I do not remember,” Maxwell said of the incident.
Blanche repeatedly asked Maxwell about Clintons, who, like Trump, have also denied knowing of any of Epstein’s crimes.
When asked whether she knew if Bill Clinton had ever received a massage, Maxwell said “I don’t believe he did.” During the second interview day, Blanche asked Maxwell whether Epstein had a separate relationship with Clinton outside of the former president’s philanthropic work. He also asked whether Epstein had “any sort of visit, dealings or – associated with Hillary Clinton?” Maxwell said: “I would say no.”
Did Maxwell know whether “Epstein ever did any business transactions with the Clintons?” she was also asked. But if Blanche was looking to incriminate the Clintons, Maxwell came up short. Just like she had with Trump.
The true made-for-tabloid moments in Maxwell’s interviews in the transcripts dealt more with aspects of Epstein’s personal life and her posh asides. “He started doing testosterone and that altered his character. And I believe that started in the late 90s,” Maxwell said of Epstein. “He became more aggressive.”
As time went on, Epstein started surrounding himself with more people, including more masseuses. Maxwell said she didn’t know he was having sexual relations with them.
Blanche pushed back, saying: “I mean, you had to know at that point that there was something going on beyond just, he really needed to get massaged.”
Maxwell said that was a “very fair question” but noted that the masseuse he’d seen most frequently was in her 40s. “The second thing is that – is, he told me he didn’t – he had difficulty having an erection, and I believed him.”
She said Epstein had gotten into business “where he looked for stolen money”. Epstein had a girlfriend, the daughter of a billionaire, who had some money stolen. “And for some reason this woman introduced Jeffrey, and Jeffrey, I think that’s how that business started. That’s what I remember.”
Epstein’s potential links to the world of espionage are a staple of conspiracy theories surrounding him. As for whether Epstein had ties to law enforcement agencies or intelligence operatives, Maxwell said: “I think he would’ve bragged about it to me as a show off, because he could be a show off. And if he wasn’t, he might have dropped it like he was cool. And I don’t think – I don’t remember him doing either.”
Maxwell said there was a caveat. “Before I met him finding money, I think he may have suggested that there was some people who helped him, but that’s the only context that I recall that in.” Blanche asked what she meant.
“He showed me a photograph that he had with some African warlords or something that he told me. And, you know, I get – I don’t remember if I – that’s what I interpreted the – like that kind of thing or whether it was something like that.
“That’s the only actual active memory I have of something nefarious – not nefarious. I don’t even know if it was nefarious, but covert, I suppose would be the word.”
During various points of the interview, Maxwell also found ways to point to her prim and proper upbringing. In discussing how she felt duped by Epstein, she said: “I’m not stupid. I’m very bright. I’ve had an excellent education. I traveled all over the world.”
Maxwell also said that she did not think Epstein killed himself in prison but did not think someone from outside of prison had him killed.
“In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay – somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That’s about the going rate,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell moved to her new minimum security prison camp just a few days after her sit-down with Blanche ended.
Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcripts released by Justice Department – CBS News
Watch CBS News
The Justice Department released transcripts of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s two-day interview with convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Nikole Killion has details.
The transcripts — which run for over 300 pages — came after Blanche traveled to Florida last month to meet with Maxwell, following pushback over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case’s fallout. The release of the transcripts came as the Justice Department also turned over thousands of pages of files in the Epstein case to the House Oversight Committee, which said it would publish, after child sexual abuse material and any information identifying victims is redacted.
At the outset, Blanche told Maxwell the interview was not part of a “cooperation deal.” He said that she had immunity during their conversations, meaning the government wouldn’t use anything she said against her, but he made no promises to ask the judge in Maxwell’s case for leniency. He did say that the government could prosecute her if she made false statements during the interview.
“By you meeting with us today, we’re really just meeting, I’m not promising to do anything,” he said.
What do the Maxwell-Blanche transcripts say?
Throughout the interviews, Blanche asked Maxwell about her relationship with Epstein and others in the late financier’s orbit. He also asked about some of the allegations made against her and Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence on charges that she helped Epstein recruit and abuse underage victims.
In some cases, the names of accusers appear to be redacted.
Maxwell said she may have first met President Trump in 1990. She said her father, British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was “friendly with him and liked him very much,” and he was fond of Mr. Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump.
Later in the interview, Blanche asked about Maxwell and Epstein’s relationships with famous people, including Mr. Trump. She said Mr. Trump “was always very cordial and very kind to me,” adding that “I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now.” She also said Mr. Trump and Epstein “seemed friendly,” but she “only ever saw them in social settings,” not private settings.
She said she “never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way.”
She also claimed she “can’t ever recollect” recruiting somebody from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to give Epstein a massage. Late Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre had alleged that Maxwell recruited her while she worked at Mar-a-Lago in the early 2000s. Mr. Trump told reporters last month he cut off ties with Epstein after he “stole” employees from Mar-a-Lago, including Giuffre.
She also spoke about former President Bill Clinton, whom she claimed was “my friend, not Epstein’s friend.” She noted that she attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding with her then-boyfriend, Ted Waitte. She said she did not believe Clinton ever received a massage while the former president was with Epstein. And she told Blanche that Clinton flew on Epstein’s private plane, but did not visit Epstein’s private island.
Maxwell did not appear to accuse Clinton or Mr. Trump of inappropriate behavior.
Maxwell also appears to address Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein and a person whose name is redacted. From context, that person appears to be Giuffre, who alleged that Andrew sexually assaulted her as a minor after she traveled to London with Epstein. Andrew had denied the allegations, but settled a lawsuit brought by Giuffre out of court.
When asked about Andrew’s relationship with the accuser, she responds, “what’s an even bigger word than bullshit?” She claimed a famous photo showing Andrew with his arm around Giuffre as Maxwell smiles in the background was “fake.” She said “categorically” that she “never, at any time, set Andrew up to have relations with her or any other human being ever.”
Blanche asked her briefly about several other people whom she claimed to know, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Alan Dershowitz and now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with whom she said she went “dinosaur bone hunting.”
Maxwell describes her relationship with Epstein
In 1991, Maxwell said she struck up a friendship with Epstein. Maxwell was asked by Blanche in detail about her sexual relationship with Epstein, which she says started in 1992. She told the deputy attorney general that it is a “misnomer” that she was with Epstein consistently as a partner, and that she did not know he had other girlfriends until the Epstein flight logs were released.
“Contemporaneously, I absolutely did not know,” about other women Epstein was with, Maxwell said, adding that by 1999, their relationship had “foundered.”
Maxwell told Blanche that despite their physical relationship ending, she was still being paid by the disgraced financier, and that the two occasionally shared a bed together as “friends with benefits, if you will, just not sex.”
Maxwell said at first she was paid $25,000 a year to work for Epstein, starting in 1992, and by the end of the payments in 2009, she was being paid $250,000 per year. Between 2010 and Epstein’s 2019 death, Maxwell said her relationship with him was “almost nonexistent,” though she acknowledges they exchanged occasional phone calls and emails.
She acknowledged to Blanche that she helped Epstein find people to give him massages at home — but she said she met them in “legitimate spas” and did not believe any of the people she found were under the age of 18. She also claimed it “never would cross my mind” that those people were asked to perform sexual favors for Epstein.
At other points, Blanche asked Maxwell about Epstein’s career on Wall Street — a persistent focus of speculation. She noted former Victoria’s Secret CEO Lex Wexner was “one very famous” financial client of Epstein’s, and said former JPMorgan Chase banker Jes Staley was “business partners” with Epstein. But she said she was “not part of Epstein’s business world, except tangentially.”
Maxwell addresses Epstein’s case — and death
Maxwell told Blanche there is “no list,” referring to the conspiracy theory that Epstein maintained a black book of clients who engaged in sexual activity with minors on his properties.
She speculated that she does not believe that Epstein died by suicide in jail, but she also doesn’t think anybody on the outside caused him to be killed. She noted that, in the prison where she served at the time, “somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary” (she was moved to a lower-security facility following the interview).
“If it is indeed murder, I believe it was an internal situation,” Maxwell said, adding that she does “not have any reason to believe that” he was killed to cover up information Epstein had.
“I also think it’s ludicrous, because if that — I also happen to think if that is what they wanted, they would’ve had plenty of opportunity when he wasn’t in jail. And if they were worried about blackmail or anything from him, he would’ve been a very easy target,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said law enforcement did not contact her during an initial investigation into Epstein in Florida in the 2000s, and she didn’t discuss the case with Epstein. That probe controversially ended with federal authorities in Miami agreeing not to prosecute him, in exchange for Epstein pleading guilty to prostitution in state court. That deal is now key to Maxwell’s efforts to appeal her criminal conviction, as she claims she’s covered by a clause in the non-prosecution agreement that covers “any potential co-conspirators.”
Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus thanked the Trump administration for releasing the transcripts in a statement posted to X. He also insisted that Maxwell is innocent.
“Ms. Maxwell answered every question. She did not refuse to respond and did not dodge any question. She supported her answers with documents and other objective evidence. Her demeanor and credibility are clear for anyone to hear,” Markus wrote.
Elon Musk infamously threw Donald Trump under the bus in June when he insisted that the president was “in the Epstein files,” a reference to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But a newly released interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell might put the spotlight back on Musk when it comes to all things Epstein.
Maxwell, who’s in prison for sex trafficking a minor, was recently interviewed by Todd Blanche, the president’s former personal attorney and now a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice. Redacted transcripts of the interview, along with audio recordings, were published to the DOJ website on Friday.
Brin’s birthday bash
Blanche asked Maxwell about several powerful people, according to the transcripts, including Elon Musk:
TODD BLANCHE: Okay. So I want to just — we went through several individuals yesterday and I want to go through just a couple of more names and ask if you — if you know them. And if you do know them, how you know them. Do you know Elon Musk? GHISLAINE MAXWELL: I do. BLANCHE: And how did you meet Mr. Musk? MAXWELL: I met him in — I don’t remember the year, but it’s going to be in 2010, ’11, something like that, I think, if my memory serves. And I was at an event for Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. And Sergey had arranged for — it was for his birthday. And we were — or a bunch of us, I don’t even remember how many we were, but not many of us. Maybe — I don’t know. If I say 40, I could be wrong. If it was 30 or 50, I don’t remember. I’m sorry. Went to another friend’s island. Somebody called Mr. Pigozzi in the Caribbean and — not with Epstein, he was not there, to celebrate Sergey’s birthday. And we were there together for, I want to say, three or four days, something like that in my memory. And Mr. Musk was present for that. BLANCHE: And that was the first time you met him, as far as you know? MAXWELL: As far as I remember, yes.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2023 that Epstein advised Sergey Brin on tax matters in 2007. But Musk and Brin have their own drama. In 2022, Musk denied having an affair with Brin’s then-wife Nicole Shanahan, who would go on to become Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign. Brin divested from all of Musk’s companies after the alleged tryst, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The photograph
Blanche then went on to ask Maxwell about Elon’s brother Kimbal, who was reportedly set up with a girlfriend by Epstein many years ago, according to a report from Business Insider in 2020.
BLANCHE: Did you meet — did you know his brother, Mr. Musk’s brother? MAXWELL: I don’t know if I’ve ever met him. I know that he has a brother and I don’t think I met him. BLANCHE: Aside from that time in — around 2010, on the island in the Caribbean for a couple days, did you — have you seen — do you know Mr. Musk beyond that time? MAXWELL: We met at — I was at the Oscars and we met at the Oscars. BLANCHE: What year was that, earlier or later? MAXWELL: It was post that event, I believe. BLANCHE: And do you know whether Mr. Epstein knew Mr. Musk? MAXWELL: I believe they did. And the only reason I say that is not from my memory, but because I saw — I think I saw — my memory is that in discovery, they were communicating on email. BLANCHE: So you have no personal knowledge of that? MAXWELL: I have no — BLANCHE: It’s just what you’ve — what you’ve seen from the press or from discovery? MAXWELL: And I believe his brother as well, actually. BLANCHE: Excuse me? MAXWELL: Mr. Musk’s brother as well. But I don’t — my — like I said, my memory is not — it’s not as good as I would like it to be. And I just want to say that.
Maxwell seems to be referring to a Vanity Fair Oscars party on March 2, 2014, where she and Musk were photographed together. Musk has previously suggested she photobombed him during that event.
Writing in a tweet from 2020, Musk insisted, “Don’t know Ghislaine at all. She photobombed me once at a Vanity Fair party several years ago. Real question is why VF invited her in the first place.”
But the fact that Maxwell claims they met years earlier, in 2010 or 2011, seems to be new information, provided Maxwell is telling the truth. Prosecutors alleged that she perjured herself, but dropped those charges after she was convicted of sex trafficking.
The President and that other birthday
This new interview will obviously be highly scrutinized, given the number of people who are named. But it’s also important to keep in mind what kind of incentives are at play for Maxwell, Blanche, and Trump. Not only was Blanche Trump’s former attorney, but he was also pretty damn chummy with Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus. Blanche appeared on Markus’s podcast twice, according to ABC News.
Trump has been cagey when asked about Maxwell, even giving a bizarre answer to questions during his first term when she was first sent to prison. During a White House briefing in July 21, 2020, Trump said, “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach, but I wish her well, whatever it is.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach, but I wish her well whatever it is.” (July 21, 2020)
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times recently reported on a birthday album made for Epstein in 2003 that included friendly letters from men like billionaire Leslie Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, and President Trump. The letter included a line that the two men “have certain things in common,” and reportedly states that “enigmas never age,” ending with the line “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
A photo of the letter hasn’t been made public, but fake versions of the letter have gone viral online. Trump was friends with Epstein for at least 15 years before they had some kind of falling out. Trump defenders insist it was because Epstein was being a “creep” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, while others believe it had more to do with a real estate deal where the men were competing to buy a property.
It’s extremely unusual for a high-ranking official at the DOJ to personally interview someone in prison. But these are extremely unusual times.
Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” where he worked with Brennan for two years on the broadcast. Rosen has been a producer for several CBS News podcasts, including “The Takeout,” “The Debrief” and “Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen.”
Aaron Navarro is a CBS News digital reporter covering the 2024 elections. He was previously an associate producer for the CBS News political unit in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
Olivia Rinaldi is a White House reporter at CBS News. She covered President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and was previously an associate producer for “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” and a broadcast associate for “Face the Nation.” She is based in Washington, D.C.
The Justice Department on Friday releasedtranscripts of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s two-day interview with convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The transcripts — which run for over 300 pages — came after Blanche traveled to Florida last month to meet with Maxwell, following pushback over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
