The recently released documents by the US Justice Department, pertaining to the investigations of disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, have revealed a notable list of individuals, including tech industry leaders, Wall Street figures, members of the British royal family, Norway's Crown Princess, and Indian politicians.
Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women that led to his arrest on sex trafficking charges.
None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
It was in 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor under the age of 18 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Yet many people maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew.
Here is the summary of notable names from the Epstein files:
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and abused by Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17.
The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.
Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.
Sarah Ferguson
Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson had previously avoided the worst of the fallout from the Epstein files, but Friday's release shines a new light on her ties to the financier.
One email shows her thanking him for being "the brother I have always wished for".
In another, she wrote: "urgently need 20,000 pounds for rent today... Any brainwaves?"
Ferguson said in a 2011 interview that she was cutting ties with Epstein, and has also called a £15,000 ($20,000) loan that she took from him to help pay off her debts a "gigantic error of judgement".
Elon Musk
The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound.
But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place.
Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures.
Musk said in a post on X responding to the revelations he "was well aware that some email correspondence with (Epstein) could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name."
"I don't care about that, but what I do care about is that we at least attempt to prosecute those who committed serious crimes with Epstein, especially regarding heinous exploitation of underage girls," Musk wrote.
Donald Trump
The newly released filed mention US President Donald Trump more than 1,000 times.
Many of these references are benign, such as news clippings, emails sharing articles about Trump, or casual gossip about his policies and family.
These range from graphic claims dating back to the 1990s to more recent unsubstantiated tips received around his campaigns.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations "false smears" and claiming the files "absolve" him. He has acknowledged a past friendship with Epstein that ended around 2004 but insists he was unaware of Epstein's crimes.
Bill Gates
In a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs.
Epstein wrote in the email that his relationship with Gates had ranged from "helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women."
The Gates Foundation, in a statement to The New York Times, denied the allegations of affairs.
Ehud Barak
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak attempted to enlist Epstein’s assistance in securing an interview with Donald Trump for Israeli media, the files revealed.
The correspondence includes a September 7, 2016, email that Barak sent to Epstein as Trump and Hillary Clinton were competing in the US presidential race.
In the email, Barak noted that Israel’s Channel-2 news had arranged an exclusive interview with Clinton and asked Epstein to gauge Trump’s interest in giving a similar interview to rival Channel-10, which he said would attract "a huge percentage of Israelis and most US citizens in Israel."
Barak also wrote that Channel-10 was prepared to send to the US "their leading anchor, a gifted positive (blond) lady."
Narendra Modi
An email referencing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appeared in the latest tranche of files published by the US Department of Justice.
The email attributed to Epstein comments on Modi’s 2017 state visit to Israel, the first by an Indian prime minister to the country.
The email frames it as: "The Indian Prime Minister Modi took his (Epstein’s) advice and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president. They had met a few weeks ago. It worked."
Epstein, according to the files, maintained close ties with Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, exchanging messages about business deals, government issues, and facilitating connections for Modi's 2017 visits to the US and Israel.
India has described the commentary as "trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal" that deserve "the utmost contempt," adding that there is no evidence of any substantive interaction or advisory relationship between Modi and Epstein.
Hardeep Singh Puri
Modi’s top minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who retired from the Indian Foreign Service to join Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, features in some files.
The documents reveal email exchanges from June 2014 between Puri and paedophile financier Epstein, discussing Reid Hoffman's visit to India. Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn.
Puri subsequently outlined India's investment potential to Epstein and Hoffman, highlighting Modi's economic initiatives and encouraging Hoffman to visit.
Records indicate Puri visited Epstein's Manhattan home on multiple dates: February 4, 2015; January 6, 2016; and May 19, 2017. This despite Epstein being a registered sex offender since 2008. Puri told Indian media that his visits and interactions with Epstein were only business-related.
While Puri was trying to "excite" Epstein's interest in India, the sex offender expressed personal disdain for India in private emails, according to the files.
Epstein expressed extreme dislike for the idea of going to India, including calling it "filthy" in one 2014 email exchange. "I want nothing to do with India, hot, smells like shit, filthy," he wrote.
In a 2012 exchange with Boris Nikolic, a former science advisor to Bill Gates, Epstein appeared to agree with Nikolic's complaints about being stranded in Delhi and Pune, where Nikolic described the locations as "filthy" and "in the middle of nowhere," adding that Epstein would "HATE it."
Epstein responded supportively, saying he "fully understand[s]" without apology needed. Another reported email from Epstein himself stated "Leaving India. HATE it," reinforcing his sentiment.
Norwegian diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen, a former UN envoy and Epstein friend, sent Epstein a racist email in 2015 stating: "Have you heard the saying: when you meet an Indian and a snake, kill the Indian first!"
Opposition parties have nonetheless seized on the reference to demand answers about the latest disclosures.
Bill Clinton
The former US President Bill Clinton, according to the files, flew on Epstein's private jet multiple times. Clinton is mentioned frequently in emails and photos with Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwel.
According to the files, a witness testified that Epstein said "Clinton likes them young, referring to girls". Clinton has denied knowledge of Epstein's crimes.
Steven Tisch
The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years.
In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms.
"Pro or civilian?" Tisch asked in reply.
Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island.
"We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments," said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing "Forrest Gump."
"As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with."
Howard Lutnick
President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show.
That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago.
But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children.
The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.
The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Sergey Brin
The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and his longtime confidant Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show.
In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York.
She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
Steve Bannon
The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide.
The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.
One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.
Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment.
Miroslav Lajcak
A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned on Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release.
Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down.
Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the UN General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.
He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties.
Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Limited, invited Epstein to his private island in 2013, telling him in an email: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”
Besides discussing Epstein visiting Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, the two exchanged messages about philanthropy, Epstein’s ideas for a “disruptive” financial system and a “social good currency."
In one email, in 2011, Epstein said he offered Branson’s staff the use of his helicopter to transport an accident victim in the Virgin Islands.
In a September 11, 2013 correspondence, Branson suggested Epstein could boost his public image if he could get Bill Gates to say "you’ve been a brilliant adviser to him, that you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17 1/2 year old woman and were punished for it, that you’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since."
A Branson spokesperson told the British news outlet the Independent that Branson’s "harem" comment referred to adult members of Epstein’s staff.
Branson later decided to sever ties with Epstein, the spokesperson said, after learning more about the “serious allegations” that had been made against him.
"Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever," the spokesperson said.
Mette-Marit
Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit has apologised for her "embarrassing" friendship with Epstein.
Correspondence published in Norwegian media dates from 2011 to 2014.
In one email, Mette-Marit asked Epstein if it was "inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old son's wallpaper".
On Saturday, Mette-Marit said she "showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein", calling the relationship "embarrassing".
According to the palace, Mette-Marit had ceased contact with Epstein in 2014 because she felt he was "trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people".
The leak comes at a bad time for the royal, whose 29-year-old son Marius Borg Hoiby goes on trial at Oslo's district court on Tuesday.
He is accused of 38 crimes, including the rape of four women as well as assault and drug offences. He denies the most serious charges.
Casey Wasserman
Los Angeles Olympics chief Casey Wasserman apologised on Saturday after decades-old flirty emails between him and Epstein's jailed former girlfriend appeared in the files.
Wasserman, the chairman of the organising committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, said his 2003 email exchanges with Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking underage girls for Epstein — took place before her crimes were known.
He said he had "never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein", adding that he was "terribly sorry for having any association with either of them".
Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson, who was fired as the British ambassador to Washington last year over his ties to Epstein, quit the Labour Party on Sunday after the newly released US documents revived scrutiny of his connection with the late sex offender.
Banking records cited in British media suggest Epstein transferred $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson in 2003 and 2004. He told the BBC he had no record or recollection of any payments.
In a letter to Labour's general secretary, Mandelson said "allegations which I believe to be false... need investigating by me", adding that he was stepping down to avoid causing the party "further embarrassment".
Newly released, undated photos appear to show him in a T‑shirt and underwear beside a woman whose face was redacted by US authorities. Mandelson told the BBC he could not identify the woman or place the location.
In January, Mandelson apologised to Epstein's victims and for his friendship with the convict.
