US Justice Department releases massive cache of Jeffrey Epstein files
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Jeffrey Epstein and his now-jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell are seen in an image released by the US Department of Justice on Dec 19, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- The Justice Department released the final cache of millions of Jeffrey Epstein documents, including images and videos, as mandated by a November law.
- The released files contain "extensive" redactions, and some documents were withheld due to legal privilege, sparking criticism from some members of Congress.
- The Justice Department addressed allegations of covering up Epstein associates' involvement, while the scandal continues to politically impact Donald Trump.
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WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department on Jan 30 published millions of new files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
They include e-mails that showed Mr Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary, apparently visited Epstein’s private island for lunch years after he claimed to have cut off ties.
In another set of e-mails, billionaire and former Trump adviser Elon Musk asked whether Epstein was planning any parties, but declined an invitation to visit the island.
In a reflection of the elite circles Epstein inhabited, the documents included mentions of many prominent figures in politics, business and entertainment, including Mr Trump himself, who was friends with Epstein years before his crimes came to light.
For instance, Mr Kevin Warsh, whom Mr Trump nominated on Jan 30 as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, appeared in an e-mail from a publicist to Epstein listing 43 people, including celebrities such as Martha Stewart, headed to a Christmas gathering. It was not clear whether Mr Warsh knew Epstein or why Epstein was sent the note, and Mr Warsh did not immediately comment.
Previous document releases have renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s relationships with other prominent people, including former president Bill Clinton and former treasury secretary Larry Summers, who have denied wrongdoing and said they regret their association with the late financier.
Mr Todd Blanche, the US Deputy Attorney-General, said the batch of documents marked the end of the Trump administration’s planned releases under a law calling for all Epstein-related files to be made public.
The new cache includes more than three million pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, he said at a press conference.
Mr Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. But the scandal has dogged him for months, in part because he promised to release the files during his 2024 presidential campaign then reneged after taking office.
The newly published files included hundreds of documents that mention Mr Trump, many of which were collections of media reports.
Trump references
One file details what appeared to be internal e-mails by federal investigators looking into salacious accusations involving the President and Epstein. The e-mails, all from August 2025, give no indication that any claims had been substantiated, and investigators noted several of the accusers were deemed not credible.
The Justice Department said in a press statement that some of the documents contained untrue and sensationalist claims against Mr Trump.
Another message, whose sender and recipient were both redacted, reads, “What does JE think of going to Mar-a-Lago after xmas instead of his island”, referring to Mr Trump’s Florida club. The message is from 2012, years after Mr Trump said the two men stopped socialising.
The files also included what appeared to be a 2002 e-mail from Mrs Melania Trump to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner and co-conspirator, about a New York Magazine piece on Epstein.
“Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great on the picture,” the e-mail says. “Give me a call when you are back in NY.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor and other charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Lutnick, Musk messages
E-mails show Epstein and Mr Lutnick made plans to meet for lunch on Dec 23, 2012, on Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little Saint James. That morning, Mr Lutnick’s wife wrote to Epstein’s secretary, “We are heading towards you from St Thomas”, and asked where to anchor. A day later, Epstein’s assistant sent Mr Lutnick a follow-up note from Epstein that read in part: “Nice seeing you.”
In November 2015, Epstein’s assistant forwarded him an invitation from Mr Lutnick to a fund-raiser at his financial firm for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who would go on to lose to Mr Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Campaign finance records showed Mr Lutnick donated US$2,700 (S$3,400) to Mrs Clinton’s campaign, the maximum allowed by law at that time. The e-mails appeared to contradict Mr Lutnick’s comments on a podcast in 2025.
Mr Lutnick said Epstein, his next-door neighbour at the time, invited him and his wife around 2005 to tour Epstein’s townhome, where the financier made a sexually suggestive comment about a massage table he had set up. He said he vowed to “never be in a room” with Epstein again.
A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement that Mr Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing”.
Musk seeks parties
In another e-mail exchange, Epstein and Mr Musk discussed an invitation from the former to visit his island.
“The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for,” Mr Musk wrote to Epstein on Christmas Day in 2012. Mr Musk said he had been “working to the edge of sanity” and asked Epstein if he had “any parties planned”.
Epstein replied that he understood Mr Musk turning down the invitation, adding that “the ratio on my island” might make Mr Musk’s female companion uncomfortable, without elaborating further. A few days later, Mr Musk invited Epstein to join him and others for drinks in “St Bart’s”, presumably the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, but it is unclear if the two met there.
He responded on Jan 31 on his X social media platform that he had been “well aware that some e-mail correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name”.
“No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released, and I’m glad that has finally happened,” Mr Musk wrote. “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his Lolita Express.”
Democrats sceptical
The documents were released weeks after the Dec 19 deadline mandated by Congress, which passed a bipartisan law requiring the release of the Epstein files despite months of effort by Mr Trump to block it.
Many were heavily redacted, which Mr Blanche said was done to protect victims or ongoing investigations in accordance with the law’s permitted exceptions. One 82-page document, for instance, had all but one page blacked out.
Democrats immediately questioned whether the administration had provided all relevant material, noting that the Justice Department had identified six million potentially responsive pages but released only 3.5 million.
Asked whether he believed all the files had been released in compliance with the law, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: “We believe it is not.”
Epstein, a New York financier with ties to high-profile political and business figures, was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019
