Trumpstein

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Some people in the Epstein files are monstrously gross. Some are moderately gross. Some are situationally, aspirationally, or cosmetically gross. And it is also quite possible that some may be no grosser than you. The files run to nearly 3.5 million pages. I’ve lost hours to the search bar, feeding it boldface names and receiving, almost unfailingly, a bright pellet of righteousness in return. Jeffrey Epstein’s correspondents who were most interested in sex were generally careful to be euphemistic about it—they were not waiting with excitement for an “underage girl” but for “my surprise” or a “gift.” Most of the others weren’t careful about anything. They preened. They flattered. They abased themselves before a man they must have known wasn’t what he presented himself to be—but whose private jet was very real. The rot is undeniable, and it’s produced a moral backlash that sometimes flattens everyone into the same shade of stain. But the person who looks the other way is not the same as the person who looks for victims. The person who flatters is not the same as the person who abuses. The person who borrowed money from a monster is not necessarily a monster. Every holy text understands that sins are not equal, and neither are sinners. The unholy Epstein files deserve the same clarity. Reading these exchanges as individual acts rather than a monolith is a useful exercise because you can begin to see how at least some otherwise-decent people—in a weak moment, in the wrong circumstance—behaved the way they did. Katie Couric and the former Prince Andrew are both Epstein correspondents—which turns out to be about as analytically useful as noting that Taylor Swift and Adolf Hitler both visited Warsaw. Couric complimented Epstein’s lasagna. Andrew has been accused of having sex with a teenage victim of Epstein’s trafficking network. That’s an easy one. But the files get weirder, and more complex. Leon Botstein is the president of Bard College, a renowned “public intellectual,” and a guy with acute fundraising needs (Bard ain’t Harvard). While cultivating Epstein as a donor, Botstein was willing to play down to the level of his correspondent—offering favors, promiscuously tossing around the word friendship. So far as we know, he never wrote anything repellent—though more communication could always emerge. But he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor; he also apparently owed Epstein tens of thousands of dollars for the purchase of a rare watch. Botstein, a watch collector, has said that he helped Epstein find the Swiss pocket watch, and “felt obliged to make the parties whole” after Epstein decided he didn’t want it anymore. I honestly don’t know how to assess that. I’ve also never had to raise money for a classics department. The files remain a deep and largely unexplored cavern of information. Judgment may change with the facts. The following buffet of names is not comprehensive, only representative of the many categories of Epstein correspondents. The exercise isn’t a defense of anyone swept up in the Epstein drift net—many of whom have issued statements of regret for actions they don’t try to defend. What follows is an attempt at proportion and calibration. Not absolution. Not exoneration. Unfortunate Bystanders In the multigigabyte data set mined from Epstein’s emails, many well-known people are discussed, debated, or merely mentioned—often in articles and messages forwarded among Epstein and his associates. Others appear only as names or phone numbers in Epstein’s black book, sometimes with no evidence that Epstein even knew them. This is where the Epstein files are least sinister—and most absurd. (Disclosure: I was once suggested to Epstein as someone he might contact, post-conviction, if he hoped to be taken more seriously as a thinker. It was terrible advice! And no, I never met or corresponded with Jeffrey Epstein.) The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals, even though they had the ball in the final seconds of the game—shooting guard J. R. Smith didn’t know the score and dribbled out the clock. Epstein’s assistant emailed her husband about the viral screwup: “Lebron pissed.” So, yeah, LeBron James is “in” the Epstein files. The founder of Khan Academy—one of the purer things on the whole internet—appears in a 2013 automated email thanking Epstein for creating a Khan Academy account and encouraging him to explore “physics, finance, and history.” Epstein had once taught physics at the Dalton School in New York, though he had long since left. What he did with the account is unknown. In a midnight email in 2015, Epstein asked the producer Barry Josephson (Enchanted, Dirty Grandpa) for thoughts on a theoretical Woody Allen stand-up special. Josephson suggested that “somebody like Jon Stewart could host/narrate.” Stewart mocked the mention on his show. “Excuse me? I am offended. ‘Somebody like Jon Stewart?’ … Do I have the offer or is this an audition?” In February 2013, Epstein brainstormed names of people someone called “bill” might like to meet. Among them: Anne Hathaway, the prime minister of Qatar, Victoria’s Secret models, and Ban Ki-moon. A subsequent email suggests that “bill” was likely Bill Gates. (I found no evidence that this invitation-by-dartboard gathering ever occurred.) Months later, Jean-Luc Brunel—Epstein’s alleged French scout for trafficking victims (see: “Beyond Gross” below)—emailed Epstein to say he had seen Ban at Cinderella on Broadway. In 2013, a person whose name has been redacted asked Epstein if he’d be willing to rent out his private jet to the White Feather Foundation so it could fly Goldberg to Monaco for a charity ball. The person offered to pay for fuel, but gently reminded Epstein that any money the nonprofit saved would be donated to water conservation. Plus, they noted, it happened to be the International Year of Water Cooperation. “no thnaks,” Epstein replied. Goldberg should thnak her lucky stars. She Who Must Not Be Named was named—in a promotional invitation to the Broadway debut of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The publicist Peggy Siegal requested tickets on Epstein’s behalf (see: “Beyond Gross”), but Epstein was never added to the guest list, and he was turned away at the door. Siegal later requested an apology for the oversight. “Neither I, nor anybody on my team, ever met, communicated with or invited Jeffrey Epstein to anything,” Rowling has said. One Epstein accuser, Annie Farmer, alleged that when she was 16, Epstein caressed her hand and foot during a 1996 screening of Pitt’s film 12 Monkeys, and later assaulted her. In 2013, Epstein received tickets from what seemed to be a publicist’s email to a screening of Pitt’s zombie thriller, World War Z. A person whose name has been redacted attended and later told Epstein that “Brad Pitt looked cute.” Fundraising Maniacs Intellectuals and other prominent people who treated Epstein as a Medici-style patron of science or ideas. Many appeared oblivious to the implications of accepting support or vacation invitations from a convicted sex offender. In 2011, Bard High School Early College received an unsolicited $75,000 gift from Epstein. Botstein subsequently courted Epstein for additional donations. In 2012 he fell ill while on a boating trip near Epstein’s island; it’s unclear if he stayed on the island or not. In 2015, after a story broke about Prince Andrew’s ties to Epstein, Botstein reached out to say he was sorry about the “tabloid publicity”: “True friendship, in my view, is among the most honorable and rare of virtues. And I value our friendship, so if there is any way I can be of help, let me know.” The following year, Botstein received $150,000 in consulting fees from Epstein’s foundation Gratitude America; Botstein says he donated the sum to Bard as part of a $1 million gift. Botstein has said he pursued the relationship “in fulfillment of my responsibilities as the chief fundraiser for the College.” In the nine years leading up to his conviction, Epstein donated more than $9 million to Harvard, $6.5 million of which funded the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which Nowak directed. After Harvard’s president banned gifts from Epstein around the time of his 2008 conviction, Nowak continued to bring Epstein to the PED offices (yes, they were actually called that)—likely at least 40 times from 2010 to 2018, according to a Harvard report—providing him with an office and a key card. Nowak was placed on administrative leave in 2020, and again in 2026 after newly released documents revealed that Epstein’s assistant had emailed details about a flight for Nowak to Epstein’s island in 2014. Some of their emails are unsettling. In one exchange, Nowak wrote, “our spy was captured after completing her mission.” Nowak told The Atlantic that “I detest the crimes Epstein has committed” and that he regrets accepting his support. In a blog post titled “Confusion,” he wrote that the line about “our spy” comes from a video game, and that it sometimes reoccurs to him “after having solved a small mathematical problem.” He said he did not understand Epstein’s response, which was: “did you torture her.” Cavett’s wife, Martha Rogers, sought Epstein’s help in funding a possible PBS documentary about Cavett with a proposed budget of roughly $500,000. The idea collapsed after WNET, the public-media nonprofit, conducted a background check and decided that Epstein should not be involved. Cavett nevertheless continued to correspond warmly with Epstein for years after his conviction. In a 2017 email, Cavett wrote: “Your salon lunches are a great pleasure. And the food! My god, how you, with all you do, find time to spend in the kitchen preparing those fine dishes is beyond me. Do you have a favorite apron?” (Rogers told The New York Times in 2026 that she and her husband thought Epstein “had paid his dues” and that the “smart, interesting people” in Epstein’s circle couldn’t “all be wrong.” But “we all were.”) Embarrassing Social Enthusiasm Status seekers who, with varying degrees of intensity, corresponded or spent time with Epstein or Maxwell. Even if they reached out for ostensibly respectable reasons (a few didn’t), the flattering tone in many of these emails reveals a delight at being in Epstein’s orbit. Couric went to a 2010 dinner celebrating then-Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion, two years after Epstein’s conviction. Couric emailed Epstein to thank him: “the lasagna was ROCKIN’!” In 2011, after news of this dinner broke, Couric emailed Siegal, “Oy, thanks for the Jeffrey Epstein invite...it’s brought me a world of trouble!” In 2023, Couric admitted that she “should have done a little more research,” but claimed that “a lot of the stuff about him hadn’t come out yet.” Wasserman was married in 2003 when he exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell. She offered a massage that “would drive a man wild.” He asked, “What do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” Embarrassing? Yes. Skeevy? Also yes. But there’s no evidence that Wasserman corresponded with Epstein himself. And his last recorded correspondence with Maxwell came five years before Epstein’s first conviction. Wasserman has not responded to calls to step down from the Olympics, and has said, “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell, which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.” Still, after some clients left his agency in protest, Wasserman bent to Hollywood’s famous zero-tolerance policy for lechery and announced plans to put the company up for sale. The estimated $2 billion valuation should ease the sting. In 2002, the Rush Hour star traveled on Epstein’s private jet with Kevin Spacey and Bill Clinton on a trip across Africa to raise awareness about HIV. A woman named Juliette Bryant, who has accused Epstein of sexual abuse and of trafficking her for years, met Epstein on that trip, when she was 20 and living as a student in Cape Town. She says Epstein was described to her as “the King of America”; the fact that his retinue included a president gave credence to that idea, though Bryant does not accuse Clinton or any of the other men on the trip of wrongdoing. When asked about Epstein in a podcast interview last year, Tucker said, “We were going to Africa to save lives,” adding, “You don’t know people—what they do in their private lives.” But even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, emails indicate that Tucker visited Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Musk exchanged emails with Epstein in 2012 and 2013, hoping to attend parties, including on Epstein’s island, which he planned to visit at least twice, though the trips fell through because of scheduling conflicts. In one exchange, Epstein warned that “the ratio on my island might make Talilah uncomfortable,” referring to Musk’s then-partner, Talulah Riley. Musk replied: “Ratio is not a problem for Talulah.” In another email, from September 2013, Epstein invited Musk to his New York residence, writing that the UN General Assembly was in session, which meant that “many interesting people” would be over. Musk responded that watching “UN diplomats do nothing would be an unwise use of time.” Epstein shot back: “do you think i am retarded, . ? just kidding , there is no one over 25 and all very cute.” Musk doesn’t seem to have gone, but he did attend a 2015 dinner with Epstein and other tech executives, including Mark Zuckerberg; Musk can be seen in a photo of the gathering that Epstein emailed to himself. Musk has said that he “REFUSED” Epstein’s invitations to his island, has “never been to any Epstein parties ever,” and has repeatedly called “for the prosecution of those who have committed crimes with Epstein.” He also tweeted, in 2025: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” Lutnick visited Epstein’s New York residence with his wife in 2005 but claimed that he left mid–house tour and cut ties with Epstein after entering a room with a table surrounded by candles that Epstein said was for getting “the right kind of massage.” But documents indicate that the men continued emailing for years. Lutnick also admitted in a Senate hearing that he visited Epstein’s island with his family in 2012 for lunch. He told a congressional committee that he was sailing in the area, and that—in case anyone was worried—after the meal “we left with all of my children with my nannies and my wife.” Lutnick maintains that he has “done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard.” Many of these people were most connected to Epstein early in the decade, and later distanced themselves. Not Previn. In 2017, she thanked Epstein, who had connections with Bard President Leon Botstein (see: “Fundraising Maniacs” above), for helping her daughter gain admission to Bard College. (A spokesperson for Botstein has denied that Epstein helped her get into Bard.) But much of her correspondence is devoted to shit talking. Regarding the 15-year-old girl involved in Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal, Previn wrote: “She knew exactly what she was doing and how vulnerable [Weiner] was and she reeled him in like fish to bait.” On the 2018 film Beautiful Boy, starring Timothée Chalamet: “I’m glad that prick Chalamet’s movie did not get a good review.” A representative for Previn declined to comment. Attia appears in more than 1,700 Epstein documents corresponding about science and medicine. (Though some emails may be duplicated in the files.) He will likely always be remembered for a 2016 email with the subject line “confirmed,” in which he wrote: “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.” Being gross in private remains a cherished American freedom—just not a very noble one. Attia has apologized for his “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible” correspondence with Epstein and said, “I was not involved in any criminal activity.” In January 2026 Attia was announced as a contributor to CBS News. He resigned a month later, having never made an on-air contribution. “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!” Richard Branson wrote to Epstein after a visit Epstein made to Branson’s Caribbean island in 2013. A Virgin Group spokesperson later said Branson was echoing Epstein’s own description of the three women traveling with him, and added that Branson would not have associated with Epstein—or used the word harem—had he known about Epstein’s crimes. But Branson was aware of Epstein’s history. In the email, he offered Epstein informal public-relations advice regarding an incident in which he slept with a “17 ½ year old woman”: Epstein may have “slipped up many years ago,” Branson wrote, but he had learned his lesson and done nothing against the law. “Yes, as a single man you seem to have a penchant for women,” he added, but “there’s nothing wrong with that.” The spokesperson has said Branson’s contact with Epstein “was limited to group or business settings” and that Branson considers Epstein’s actions “abhorrent.” “I want to see Jeffrey,” Campbell wrote to Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff (see: “Beyond Gross”) in 2015—and there’s ample evidence that she saw him plenty. Epstein was invited to Campbell’s 40th birthday party in 2010, described in an email as “a private event for her closest friends,” as well as a celebration of her 25 years in fashion. “jeffrey will come plus two„ if possible„ thanks,” was the unsigned reply. Emails from 2016 show that she was trying to arrange a ride on “the plane.” Epstein reportedly invoked the model’s name when luring young women with his supposed connections in the fashion world. Victims later told the FBI that they had seen Campbell at his Manhattan mansion and on his island. (Campbell’s lawyer has said that she “knew nothing about his appalling criminal conduct” before he was arrested in 2019.) Andrew was always the Prince of Eye Rolls—the British royal most likely to wander into a mortifying scandal or shoot his own toe off on a fox hunt. Sarah Ferguson married him, which makes her 2009 emails praising Epstein as “the brother I have always wished for” and “a legend” feel like a grim continuation of the brand. That same year Ferguson wrote, “I urgently need 20,000 pounds for rent today.… Any brainwaves?” In 2010 she dispensed with subtlety and asked for “50 or 100,000 US dollars to help get through the small bills that are pushing me over.” Pressed to condemn Epstein in a March 2011 interview with the Evening Standard, Ferguson said: “I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf.” She then wrote Epstein an apology: “I know you also feel hellaciously let down by me” and “I must humbly apologise to you and your heart.” She reached out to Epstein again, before an interview with Oprah Winfrey, “to make sure you are aware of this and seek your advice on how you would like me to answer.” Always a Category of One Epstein visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and Clinton traveled on Epstein’s jet in the early 2000s. In 2020, The Daily Mail published photographs of Clinton on a stop on the way to Africa in 2002 (see: Chris Tucker), receiving a massage from a young woman. Clinton has said that he did not know the woman was an Epstein victim. An undated photo from the files shows Clinton in a hot tub next to a woman whose image is redacted. In congressional testimony, Clinton said he doesn’t know who the woman is. He maintains that “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.” Possibly Duped, but Yikes No group of Epstein affiliates better underscores the fact that criminal liability is not the only indictment of a person’s character. If the Epstein story has a beginning, it’s the 1980s encounter between Wexner—the merchant prince of lingerie capitalism—and an obscure young man with no credentials but formidable swagger. Within a few years, Epstein held power of attorney over Wexner’s personal fortune. The scale of trust is difficult to overstate; Epstein appears to have iced out long-standing advisers, insinuated himself into the daily mechanics of Wexner’s private life, and acquired, through arrangements still not fully understood, the Manhattan mansion and private aircraft that would become stage sets for his infamy. Epstein would go on to tout his influence at Victoria’s Secret to ensnare young victims. Wexner’s name appears in an FBI document as a potential Epstein co-conspirator, though no charges were ever brought and no evidence of criminal involvement has emerged. Wexner says he severed ties in 2007 and has since accused him of having “misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.” What the record ultimately suggests is that Wexner was Epstein’s foundational mark, the dupe whose belief convinced other wealthy people to trust a predator. Gates met Epstein in 2011, when Epstein was already a registered sex offender. Epstein apparently did not lead with that credential, instead presenting himself as a well-connected intermediary who could help channel large-scale funding into science and global health. There’s little direct correspondence—staff members often served as intermediaries—but, according to The New York Times, Gates emailed colleagues after their first meeting: “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” (A spokesperson told the Times that he was referring only to the decor.) The Wall Street Journal reported that Epstein threatened to expose an extramarital affair Gates had with a Russian bridge player after Gates refused to participate in a charitable fund Epstein had proposed. Gates has called the relationship “a huge mistake” and said he had “no financial dealings with Epstein.” In an October 2018 text exchange about two women, Epstein wrote: “You can have them both, I am not possessive.” Lajčák replied: “Sharing is caring.” At the time, he was Slovakia’s top diplomat. The messages became public in 2026, prompting Lajčák to resign as national security adviser. He said he stepped down to spare the prime minister political fallout, not because he had done “anything criminal or unethical.” He later characterized the exchange as “foolish male egos in action—self-satisfied male banter,” and said: “I was never offered sexual services, I never participated in any, I never witnessed any, and I never had any information about them.” Creepy Intellectuals Brilliant men at prestigious institutions who used their intellect to justify Epstein’s actions, engaged in a nerd’s awkward fantasy of locker-room talk, sought advice from him, or were otherwise revealed as skeevy horndogs. Axel served as a co-director of a neuroscience institute at Columbia University until his correspondence with Epstein became public. The records included an email inviting Axel to Epstein’s island; the neuroscientist got a plane ticket, though a university spokesperson said that he never went. In one undated transcript, a person named “Richard” talks with Epstein about olfactory research, Axel’s speciality, and cracks a joke about a 20-year-old prostitute having sex with an old man; Epstein wonders whether “sex offender lingere would sell?” Axel later apologized: “My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret.” In 2017, after BuzzFeed News asked Krauss about allegations against him of sexual misconduct, Krauss reached out to Epstein, as someone experienced in such matters, for advice. Among Epstein’s recommendations: “break the charges into ludicrous. ogling. jokes.” Krauss also asked an attorney to speak with Epstein because he was “friends with most of the famous people from finance, to business, to Hollywood” who had been “brought down during #metoo.” In 2018, Krauss announced that he would retire from Arizona State University after a university report found that he had propositioned a potential hire and harassed others. In a response, Krauss wrote, “I have never harassed or assaulted anyone.” He later said of Epstein that he “sought out advice from essentially everyone I knew,” and that they never talked about “the horrendous crimes he was accused of.” Chomsky corresponded with Epstein for years and met him on multiple occasions. In one email, Chomsky’s wife, Valeria, wrote: “Thank you for all the gifts.” In 2019, Chomsky advised Epstein on managing his public image after sex-abuse allegations, criticizing the “hysteria that has developed about abuse of women.” In an undated letter of support, Chomsky wrote that he had learned “a great deal” from Epstein about “the intricacies of the global financial system” and that their relationship was “a most valuable experience.” Chomsky has since had a stroke. In February 2026, Valeria released a statement on both of their behalf acknowledging the “profound suffering” of Epstein’s victims and Chomsky’s “overly trust[ing] nature.” Summers is the purest example of this category’s leitmotif: smart people being stupid. Summers—former Treasury secretary, former president of Harvard, former OpenAI board member—maintained a cringeworthy correspondence with Epstein until shortly before Epstein’s death. In one 2019 exchange, Summers recounted an awkward attempt to flirt with a woman who was not his wife: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.” Epstein as wingman: “she’s smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy i’m going to go out with the motorcycle guy, . you reacted well.” Elsewhere, Summers referred to the same woman—who seems to be a Harvard-educated Chinese macroeconomist and, at the time, a tenured professor at the London School of Economics—using racist language. “I’d be happy to have a rational affair w yellow peril,” he wrote. Summers resigned from a number of positions and said that he takes “full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.” Trivers, who died in March 2026, told Reuters in 2015 that Epstein had donated $40,000 for his research, and Epstein called himself a “major funder” of Trivers in an email to Chomsky. Trivers, who studied evolutionary biology, defended Epstein after his 2008 conviction, saying of his victims: “By the time they’re 14 or 15, they’re like grown women were 60 years ago, so I don’t see these acts as so heinous.” In July 2019, Trivers called this statement “stupid and offensive.” In a 2016 email, Trivers referred to “a woman with a dick” as a way to “have your cake and eat it too” and said: “if you as a heterosexual male and have a minor desire to suck a dick then what better organism to do it with than a transsexual? ‘she’ will smell like a woman, be softer and more hairless like a woman and may, to some degree, actually resemble one morphologically—leaving the dick for you to enjoy in a feminine setting.” Norwegians Not all of them, but quite a few. Norwegians tend to cluster around strange but noble pasttimes—the biathlon medal podium, Joachim Trier films. Which makes the density of powerful Norwegians in the Epstein files all the more jarring. In a 2011 email, she acknowledged that googling Epstein “didn’t look too good : )”—smiley face included—yet she remained in regular contact with him for several years and spent four nights at his Palm Beach residence in 2013. She has since said she “wouldn’t have written a smiley face” if her search had surfaced information that made her realize he was “an abuser and sex offender.” Jaglund was a frequent guest at Epstein’s properties. A March 2014 email from Epstein’s assistant suggests Jagland even used Epstein’s credit card to finance a family vacation in Palm Beach. In 2012 Jagland wrote to Epstein about the “extraordinary girls” he was encountering on a trip through Albania. Epstein later asked the friend he called “mr human rights” to arrange a meeting with Vladimir Putin. “All this is not easy for me to explain to Putin,” Jagland wrote in 2013. “You have to do it. My job is to get a meeting with him.” No such meeting is known to have taken place. Jagland has since been charged with gross corruption in Norway and faces up to 10 years in prison; his lawyers say he denies all charges. Rød-Larsen, a central figure in the Oslo Accords, and Juul, a diplomat who would later serve as Norway’s ambassador to Iraq and Jordan, visited Epstein’s island with their children. Rød-Larsen maintained a personal and financial relationship with him for years. Norwegian investigations found that Rød-Larsen wrote visa-support letters for young Russian women described as having “extraordinary abilities.” Some of these women were reportedly later trafficked. Epstein left $10 million to the couple’s children in his will and Rød-Larsen personally received a $130,000 loan from Epstein in 2013. The couple is under investigation by Norway’s financial-crimes squad. Rød-Larsen’s lawyer said that “there is no basis for criminal liability.” Rød-Larsen has said that “it was a grave error of judgment on my part to engage in a personal financial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and I regret it whole heartedly.” Juul resigned from her ambassadorship in March 2026; according to her lawyer, she “does not recognise the accusations made against her.” Somewhat to Very Gross Prominent figures who were friendly with Epstein. Some asked him to connect them with women; some rushed to help him despite his treatment of girls and women; some allegedly harassed or preyed on women themselves. Stop scrolling for a second. It’s time to reach for the hand sanitizer. In a series of 2013 emails, Epstein offered Tisch introductions to women he described in crudely transactional terms, including a “fake tit” woman with “a 10 ass.” Tisch replied that he would contact her, but asked whether she was a “pro or civilian.” In other exchanges, Tisch asked if a woman was a “working girl” and whether he should “expect ‘trouble’” when he and Epstein hung out. Tisch has acknowledged “a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women,” adding that he deeply regrets associating with such a “terrible person.” In a note for a book that Maxwell assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday, in 2003, Mandelson described the financier as “my best pal.” Unlike many other Epstein correspondents, the sentiment appears to have been genuine. After Epstein was charged with soliciting a minor, Mandelson—an architect of New Labour, and later Britain’s ambassador to the United States—wrote: “your friends stay with you and love you.” He offered Epstein both emotional support and apparently privileged financial information. In 2009, Mandelson forwarded an internal email in which the prime minister was urged to consider “releasing value from the very substantial asset base which the Government holds.” Epstein responded: “what salable assets?” The next year, Mandelson appeared to give Epstein advance notice of a €500 billion bailout from the European Union to shore up the euro. Another difference between Mandelson and much of this list is that he has faced consequences. He was stripped of his ambassadorship last year, and forced to resign from the House of Lords. In February, Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and released on bail pending further investigation. (The BBC reported that his “position is that he has not acted in any way criminally.”) “Flexible principles! It’s what I love about lawyers and politicians.” That’s a solid private joke between two pals. Less so when it becomes public, and the recipient is an infamous sex offender. Still, Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, thought enough of his relationship with Epstein to keep the banter going well after Epstein’s 2008 conviction should have made such exchanges unthinkable. In a 2018 email, Epstein enlisted Pritzker as a kind of concierge for his girlfriend’s trip to Asia. Pritzker asked the woman, Karyna Shuliak, what she planned to do there: “Going to try to find a new girlfriend for Jeffrey.” Pritzker replied with a smiley-face emoji and “May the Force be with you.” In a deposition, Virginia Giuffre, an early and vocal Epstein accuser who killed herself in 2025, testified that Pritzker was one of the men she was trafficked to; a spokesperson told Reuters that Pritzker “continues to vehemently deny” it. No criminal charges have been brought. In a February letter to the Hyatt board announcing his immediate retirement as executive chairman, Pritzker acknowledged “terrible judgment” in maintaining contact with Epstein. “There is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner.” “Dude!!!!! Is this real Tell me this is real … Epic epic epic.” This was how Bannon congratulated Epstein after learning in 2008 that he might have been freed from further federal prosecution on sex-abuse charges in Florida. The “epic” event, however, didn’t prevent prosecutors in the Southern District of New York from charging Epstein in 2019. In the months before his arrest, Epstein and Bannon were in very frequent communication. Texts show that Epstein encouraged Bannon to look after his health and offered him use of the jet. At the time that Epstein died by hanging in a prison cell, Bannon had been reportedly working on a sympathetic documentary about him. (Bannon has denied that it was sympathetic and said that he was a filmmaker in the business of gaining access to “controversial figures,” and “that’s the only lens through which these private communications should be viewed.” A spokesperson said that he didn’t go on the jet or sleep at his house.) In emails, the former White House counsel to Barack Obama referred to Epstein as “Uncle Jeffrey,” “sweetie,” and “older brother.” She accepted thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from him, including wine, designer handbags, flowers, a massage, and chicken soup when she was ill. At one point Epstein asked her for legal suggestions about how to set a “prrjury trap” for one of his accusers. (For all his riches, Epstein could not afford spell-check.) She replied with advice, and wrote that she wished she were working on the case: “I so wish I were doing it.” Ruemmler told CNN that she had “no knowledge of any new or ongoing unlawful activity” since his 2008 conviction. After the emails became public, she announced that she would resign from Goldman Sachs, where she is chief legal officer and general counsel, in June 2026. The most conspicuous name in the Epstein files—and the most conspicuous name redacted from them. In 2002, Trump told New York magazine that he had known Epstein for 15 years and that he was “a lot of fun to be with.” He added: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Epstein’s black book contained more than a dozen phone numbers for Trump and those around him. Virginia Giuffre wrote in her posthumous memoir that she met Ghislaine Maxwell at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where she had been hired as a towel girl in the spa. In March 2026, the Justice Department released summaries and notes from 2019 FBI interviews with a woman who alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by Trump in the 1980s, when she was between the ages of 13 and 15. In response to the allegations, the White House press secretary said: “These are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history.” Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s signature was on a drawing of a nude woman in Epstein’s 50th birthday book, in 2003. The text reads, in part: Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it. Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret. Trump has said he cut off the relationship before Epstein was indicted. Regarding the birthday card, he said: “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” Beyond Gross People whose actions—doing work or favors for Epstein, inviting him to parties, lending him the sheen of someone who chummed around with royalty—supported a lifestyle that made it easier for Epstein to pursue his criminal activities and evade the consequences. Also, David Copperfield. From the late 1980s to 2014, 16 women accused Copperfield of sexual assault or inappropriate conduct, some alleging they had been drugged and some saying they were minors at the time. In 2007, the FBI wanted to investigate whether Copperfield and Epstein had referred “possible victims” to each other, and in 2008 a prosecutor wondered if Epstein might cooperate against Copperfield. Copperfield has denied wrongdoing, and no charges have been filed. Copperfield’s lawyers have said that he and Epstein were not friends, but an FBI memo cites evidence that Copperfield frequently gave Epstein tickets to his shows, and in one email, Epstein writes that he tipped Copperfield off about a private Bahamas archipelago (now available for rent) that he ended up buying. Every social ecosystem needs a pollinator. In New York, for decades, it was Peggy Siegal, a publicist who used her celebrity Rolodex to dole out access to countless movie premieres and dinner parties. Epstein introduced himself to Siegal via the gift of a Cartier clock and made her his emissary to fame. Siegal appears regularly in the files, doing what she always did: inviting people to things. (Siegal to Epstein about a party for the film Love & Other Drugs: “Ann [sic] Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal in it and here. Valentino hosting. All young girls. All dressed by VaVa.. Want to come?”) In a New York profile in March 2026, she said she had not known the extent of Epstein’s crimes, and described how hurt she had been by the fallout. “One last thing,” she said at the end of an interview. “I have said nothing about the girls. At the end of the day, I have felt so victimized myself that I have neglected to say that the real victims were the girls.” Groff appears about 160,000 times in the Epstein files. As Epstein’s longtime executive assistant, she managed his schedule and coordinated his travel. Multiple women who accused Epstein of assault alleged that Groff helped arrange their visits to see him, sometimes to ostensibly give him massages, and facilitated payments to them. Groff has denied wrongdoing. According to Giuffre, Epstein sex trafficked her to Andrew on three occasions. In her memoir, Giuffre recalls that, when prompted by Maxwell to guess her age, Andrew correctly said 17, adding: “My daughters are just a little younger than you.” Andrew’s attempt to explain his connection to Epstein in a catastrophically tone-deaf televised interview only reinforced the impression of a man less troubled by the underlying conduct than by the inconvenience of being asked about it. He was briefly taken into custody in February, likely in connection with his time as a trade envoy, when he allegedly shared confidential documents with Epstein. (He has denied any wrongdoing, and reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022.) Siad is a latecomer to the Epstein files: Most of his nearly 2,000 appearances in the cache of documents were declassified in January 2026. In one 2016 email, Stan Pottinger, a lawyer for several Epstein victims, writes that Jean-Luc Brunel (see below) referred to Siad as a “‘scout’ or recruiter of girls and/or women for J. Epstein.” Many of Siad’s communications to Epstein refer to young women he encountered in his travels. In one email, seemingly in response to some modeling profiles, Epstein wrote that “most of these girls would have been good 5 years ago. you need to find new.” Siad’s attorney, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, has said: “There is no evidence of any crime. He was working as a modelling scout and sending details to Epstein of the women.” She also said that “the worst thing about these files is that he and Epstein talk in language that we as women don’t like.” Brunel has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and trafficking minors to Epstein, and an FBI document identified him as a co-conspirator of Epstein’s. Beginning as early as 2016, Brunel secretly entered negotiations with lawyers representing Epstein’s victims, offering to turn on him and provide details about his operation. Epstein learned about the talks, and negotiations collapsed. Brunel, who insisted on his innocence, died in a French prison in 2022 while awaiting trial for the rape of minors. Authorities ruled the death a suicide by hanging—the same cause officially given for Epstein’s death. Convicted There are thousands of names in the files. To date, only one person—besides Jeffrey Epstein himself—has been convicted of a crime in connection with his years of abuse. Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking a minor, among other crimes. From Judge Alison Nathan’s June 28, 2022, order sentencing her to 20 years in prison: The evidence at trial established that Ms. Maxwell directly and repeatedly and over the course of many years participated in a horrific scheme to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls, some as young as 14, for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein. I will pause on those words for a moment, “by and with Epstein.” It is important at the outset to emphasize that although Epstein was, of course, central to this criminal scheme, Ms. Maxwell is not being punished in place of Epstein or as a proxy for Epstein. Like every other participant in a multi-defendant case, Ms. Maxwell is being punished for the role that she played in the criminal conduct. Maxwell recruited and groomed children for Epstein to abuse, and sometimes participated in the abuse herself. She was the social choreographer who coaxed victims from massage rooms to private jets to bedrooms. And yet we still know remarkably little about the true nature of Maxwell’s relationship with Epstein. Maxwell did not testify at her trial—a spokesperson for her family said she was “too fragile.” Which means that she may be one of the last people alive who knows how the enterprise really worked: who paid, who visited, who asked for what. For now, those secrets sit with her in a federal prison. If she ever decides to speak, others may find themselves joining her in this category. Amogh Dimri contributed reporting.