(New York) The FBI scrutinized Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. He searched his homes. He spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.
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Investigators have gathered extensive evidence that Epstein sexually abused minors, but they have found little evidence that the well-connected financier ran a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press analysis of internal Justice Department records shows.
Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands did not show victims being abused and did not implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in a 2025 memo.
A review of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and international diplomacy, revealed no links to criminal activity, according to another internal memo from 2019.
Although one Epstein victim publicly stated that he “loaned” her to his wealthy friends, agents could not confirm this and found no other victims telling a similar story.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Jeffrey Epstein, in a photo made public by the US Department of Justice
Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents reported that “four or five” of Epstein’s accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. However, according to agents, “there was insufficient evidence to federally charge these individuals, and so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.”
The AP and other media outlets continue to review millions of pages of documents, many previously confidential, that the Justice Department made public under the Epstein Records Transparency Act. It is possible that these documents contain evidence that was overlooked by investigators.
But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and emails from prosecutors, provide the clearest picture yet of the investigation and explain why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.
Dozens of victims come forward
The investigation into Epstein began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had been sexually assaulted at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Police identified at least 35 girls who had similar experiences: Epstein paid teenage girls $200 or $300 to give him sexual massages.
After the FBI joined the investigation, federal prosecutors drafted indictments against Epstein and some of his personal assistants who arranged the girls’ visits and payments.
But instead, then-Miami District Attorney Alexander Acosta cut a deal allowing Epstein to plead guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Sentenced to 18 months in prison, Epstein was released in 2009.
In 2018, a series of daily articles Miami Herald on the plea deal prompted federal prosecutors in New York to reexamine the charges.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019. A month later, he committed suicide in his cell.
A year later, prosecutors indicted Epstein’s longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she recruited many of his victims and sometimes participated in the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
PHOTO JOHANNES EISELE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislain Maxwell
Department memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the latest release of Epstein-related files show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently searched for possible accomplices.
Even seemingly far-fetched and incomprehensible allegations, reported through hotlines, were investigated.
Some allegations could not be verified, investigators wrote.
A fictionalized story
In 2011, and again in 2019, investigators questioned Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who in lawsuits and interviews had accused Epstein of arranging sex for her with numerous men, including England’s former Prince Andrew.
Investigators confirmed she was sexually abused by Epstein. But other elements of his story posed problems.
Two other Epstein victims who, according to Mme Giuffre, who had also been “loaned” to powerful men, told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.
“No other victims reported being expressly encouraged by Maxwell or Epstein to have sex with other men,” the memo said.
Mme Giuffre admitted to writing a partially fictionalized memoir about his experience with Epstein, containing descriptions of events that did not occur.
She also gave conflicting accounts in interviews with investigators and “engaged in a continuing series of public interviews about her allegations, many of which included sensationalized, if not blatantly inaccurate, descriptions of her experiences.” These inaccuracies included false accounts of his interactions with the FBI.
US prosecutors nevertheless attempted to arrange an interview with ex-Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The latter refused to make himself available. Mme Giuffre out of court settled a lawsuit against Mountbatten-Windsor, in which she accused him of sexual misconduct.
In his memoirs published after his suicide last year, Mme Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told her they did not include her in the case against Maxwell because they did not want her allegations to distract the jury. She insisted that her stories of claiming to have been sex trafficked for the benefit of influential men were true.
Investigators seized a trove of videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands. They found CDs, photos and at least one videotape containing images of nude women, some of whom appeared to be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child pornography, which investigators said were obtained by Epstein over the internet.
No videos or photos showed Epstein’s victims being sexually abused, none showed men with naked women, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email to FBI officials last year.
If they had existed, the government “would have followed all the leads they could have generated,” she said. “However, we did not find any such videos. »
Investigators who sifted through Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models, but no evidence that he engaged in prostitution of women to other men, prosecutors wrote.
