FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show
NEW YORK (AP) — FBI investigated the matter Jeffrey Epstein bank records and emails. He searched their house. He spent years interviewing his victims and examining their connections to some of the most influential people in the world.
But while investigators gathered ample evidence that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found little evidence that the well-connected financier ran a sex trafficking ring that catered to powerful men, according to an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records.
A prosecutor wrote in a 2025 memo that the videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands did not depict the victims being abused or show him implicating anyone else in his crimes.
Another internal memo in 2019 said a review of Epstein’s financial records, including payments to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no links to criminal activity.
While one Epstein victim claimed he “lent” her to wealthy friends, agents were unable to verify this and were unable to find another victim who told a similar story, records show.
Outlining the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” of Epstein’s accusers alleged that other men or women had sexually assaulted them. However, agents said there was “insufficient evidence to charge these individuals federally, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.”
AP and other media organizations still under investigation Millions of pages of documentsMany are previously classified documents released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and it’s possible these records may contain evidence missed by investigators.
But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview transcripts and prosecutor emails, reveal the clearest picture yet of the investigation and why U.S. authorities decided to close the investigation without additional charges.
Dozens of victims come forward
The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported being abused at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Police identified at least 35 girls with similar stories: Epstein was paying high school-aged students $200 or $300 to send him sexually explicit messages.
After the FBI joined the investigation, federal prosecutors filed an indictment to charge Epstein and some of the personal assistants who arranged the girls’ visits and payments. But instead, then-Miami U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta agreement reached Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to a charge of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison, was released in mid-2009.
In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted New York federal prosecutors to take a new look at the charges.
Epstein was Arrested in July 2019. A month later he he killed himself in a prison cell.
A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein’s longtime confidant: Ghislaine MaxwellHe said he recruited several of his victims and sometimes participated in sexual abuse. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors fail to find evidence supporting many sensational claims
Prosecutor’s notes, case summaries and other documents made public in the department’s latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential collaborators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible allegations called into tip lines were examined.
Investigators wrote that some allegations could not be verified.
Researchers were interviewed in 2011 and 2019. Virginia Roberts GiuffreShe accused Epstein in lawsuits and interviews of arranging for sexual encounters with multiple men, including England’s ex-boyfriend. Prince Andrew.
Investigators said they confirmed Giuffre was sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of his story were problematic.
Prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo that two other Epstein victims who Giuffre claimed were “loaned” to powerful men also told investigators they had no such experience.
“No other victims disclosed that they were explicitly manipulated by Maxwell or Epstein into engaging in sexual activity with other men,” the memo said.
Giuffre has acknowledged writing a partially fictionalized memoir about her time with Epstein that includes descriptions of things that did not happen. They also wrote that he gave varying accounts in interviews with investigators and “consistently gave public interviews about his allegations, many of which contained sensational, if not inaccurate, descriptions of his experiences.” They said those inaccuracies included false statements about his interactions with the FBI.
Still, U.S. prosecutors attempted to arrange an interview with Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He refused to make himself available. Giuffre settled a case He had accused Mountbatten-Windsor of sexual harassment.
Inside a memory In a document released after she killed herself last year, Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told her not to include her in the case against Maxwell because they did not want her allegations to distract the jury. She insisted that her statements about being sold to elite men were true.
Prosecutors say photos, videos do not incriminate others
Investigators seized numerous videos and photographs from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, printed photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of women, some of whom appeared to be underage. One of the devices contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sexual abuse material; Epstein obtained it online, investigators said.
Then-Deputy U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email to FBI officials last year that there were no videos or photographs of Epstein’s victims being sexually assaulted, none showed any men with naked women, and none contained evidence incriminating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell.
If it existed, Comey wrote, the government would “follow up on any leads they generate.” However, we could not find such a video.”
Investigators who combed through Epstein’s bank records said he paid more than 25 women posing as models, but found no evidence he prostituted women to other men, prosecutors wrote.
Close associates of Epstein not charged
In 2019, prosecutors considered the possibility of charging one of Epstein’s longtime associates but decided against it.
Prosecutors concluded that although the assistant helped Epstein pay girls for sex and was aware that some of them were underage, she was also a victim of sexual abuse and manipulation.
Investigators looked into Epstein’s relationship with French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was once part of an agency for Epstein in the United States and is accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting women in Europe. Brunel killed himself in prison While awaiting trial on rape charges in France.
Prosecutors also discussed whether to charge one of Epstein’s girlfriends who had sexual relations with some of his victims. Investigators interviewed his girlfriend, who was between 18 and 20 at the time, but “it was determined there was insufficient evidence,” according to the summary given to him. FBI Director Kash Patel last July.
Days before Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, the FBI laid out a strategy of sending agents to serve grand jury subpoenas on people close to Epstein, including pilots and his longtime business client, retail mogul Les Wexner.
Wexner’s lawyers told investigators that neither he nor his wife knew about Epstein’s sexual abuse. Epstein managed Wexner’s financial affairs, but the couple’s lawyers said they broke off relations with him in 2007 after learning he was stealing from them.
“There is limited evidence of his involvement,” an FBI agent wrote of Wexner in an Aug. 16, 2019, email.
Wexner’s legal representative told the AP that prosecutors had informed him that he was “neither an accomplice nor a target in any way” and that Wexner was cooperating with investigators.
Prosecutors also reviewed testimony from women who said they gave massages to guests at Epstein’s home who tried to turn the encounters into sexual ones. A woman accused private equity investor Leon Black of engaging in sexual intercourse during a massage in 2011 or 2012, causing her to flee the room.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office later launched an investigation, but no charges were filed.
Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said he paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice. In his statement, he said that Black did not abuse his power and that he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activities. Lawsuits filed by two women who accused Black of sexual harassment were dismissed or withdrawn. One is pending.
No customer list
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February 2025 Epstein’s never-before-seen “client list” was now sitting on my desk. A few months later he He claimed the FBI was investigating Epstein’s “tens of thousands of videos containing child or child pornography.”
However, FBI agents wrote to their superiors that the customer list was not available.
On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through his subordinates to ask “whether our investigation to date indicates the existence of the ‘client list’ frequently cited in the media,” according to an email outlining his query.
A day later, an FBI official said the case representative confirmed that no client list existed.
On February 19, 2025, two days before Bondi appeared on Fox News, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: “Although media reports regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case referenced a ‘client list,’ investigators found no such list during the investigation.”
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Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
___ The AP is reviewing documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom work together to review files and share information about what’s in them. Each publication is responsible for its own independent coverage of the documents.
