On 23 December 2025, the US Department of Justice released a second tranche of files from the FBI’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It was hoped that “burying” the files would not make interest as great over the holidays. It was wrong. What followed was a fever-pitch ‘scavenger hunt’ as journalists, podcasters, bloggers, and social media activists around the world dove in – and how.
In a matter of hours, TikTokers had discovered that some redacted files could be unredacted simply by copying and pasting text into another document. While typing the name “Trump” showed no results, typing the US president’s name with a space after it yielded more than 500 results.
Trawl through the documents, a fraction of what is apparently available (there are reportedly more than 5 million documents), and a truly dark picture emerges. It’s one of very real perversity and dysfunction. And one that hasn’t been fully or properly reported on.
While a largely complicit and compliant media has repeatedly fed the public the same handful of names (Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, Nigel Farage, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Bill Gates and Donald Trump), an entirely different picture emerges from the files. More than 150 people flew to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island. This is not to say that all of them shared his “proclivities” but it does suggest how Epstein was enabled for so long.
Epstein: ‘evil personified’
In an interview on CBS three years ago, Melinda Gates (Bill Gates’ ex-wife) described meeting Jeffrey Epstein for the first time at his Manhattan townhouse. She told Gayle King:
He was abhorrent, he was evil personified. I knew from the second I walked in.
Those who have seen the pictures of Epstein’s ‘decor’ in the files will know exactly what she meant. All of Epstein’s homes were filled with pictures of naked young women and children – in his New York townhouse there’s even an ‘artwork’ of a naked girl draped in a wedding dress hanging from a rope from the ceiling.
Gates warned her husband – and he chose to ignore her. The couple would divorce shortly afterwards with one of the biggest settlements in history, an estimated $25bn.
Among the files is a FBI memo naming Epstein’s 10 co-conspirators. All the names are redacted. It’s clear that Epstein made no secret of his ‘tastes’. So, why did so many people fall into his orbit?
In investigative journalism, there’s an old adage: “follow the money”. Here, it reveals a network of predators, protected by fear, wealth, position and a conspiracy of silence.
Even from the US Department of Justice’s partial release of the Epstein Files, what emerges is a portrait of a cabal of entitled and highly dysfunctional people who believe themselves not only above the law but above all the rules that govern society.
JP Morgan Chase Bank
According to the New York Times, Epstein had accounts at JP Morgan worth more than $200m and played a role in helping the bank to land similarly high-net-worth clients, including Google co-founder Sergei Brin, as well as making introductions to world leaders.
A lawsuit filed against JP Morgan by a Miami pension fund (the full details of which can be found in the database) found that compliance staff had repeatedly flagged the need to end the bank’s ties to Epstein, and that these “distress calls” went to group chief executive Jes Staley as far back as 2006.
In an email, counsel Stephen Cutler wrote:
This is not an honourable person in any way. He should not be a client.
Despite these concerns, JP Morgan handled Epstein’s accounts for 15 years before cutting ties with the serial sex offender. The bank would eventually reach a $290m settlement with Epstein’s victims in June 2023. Months later, JP Morgan settled with the US Virgin Islands government for $75m.
Jes Staley
Former group chief executive Staley was closer to Epstein than any other executive at JP Morgan. Staley’s name appears a number of times in the flight logs for Epstein’s private island and a legal filing reveals that he exchanged more than 1,200 emails with Epstein, including some containing images of young women and children “in provocative poses”.
The Sun reported that Staley took home a salary of £5.93m in one year.
After leaving JP Morgan, Staley became Barclays CEO but resigned from his post in November 2021 following an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority. It found that Staley had lied about the nature and length of his relationship with Epstein.
The FCA’s proposed fine was reduced from £1.8m to £1.1m as Barclays decided to withhold Staley’s deferred shares.
It’s not clear whether the Metropolitan Police plans to investigate.
In a statement, Staley said:
Obviously, I thought I knew him well and I didn’t. For sure, with hindsight with what we know now, I deeply regret having any relationship with Jeffrey.
Meanwhile:
Did Mr Epstein facilitate meetings with persons at the bank, including yourself and Mr Mandelson?
Question posed by Ms Liu, a lawyer representing the US Virgin Islands, to Staley during a 2023 deposition. More than 50 pages have been removed from the document now available to view on the US Department of Justice website:
Deutsche Bank and Epstein
Deutsche Bank took Epstein on as a client after JP Morgan cut ties with him. The bank agreed to pay $75m to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by dozens of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. The settlement, which received final court approval in October 2023, included claims that the bank enabled the financier’s sex trafficking ring by processing suspicious payments and ignoring red flags.
Les Wexner
Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner is featured in the Netflix documentary Filthy Rich, in which he seeks to distance himself from Epstein. In fact, Wexner gave him power of attorney over his finances – a fortune worth more than $9bn. How this happened has not been explained but his name appears multiple times in the Epstein Files, including a deposition given by one of Epstein’s “fixers” Nadia Marcinkova, in which she “pleads the Fifth” to every single question except her name. Marcinkova is currently missing.
Epstein went on to pass himself off as a Victoria’s Secret “model scout” and used this as an entrée to entice young women to his properties.
In 2024, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested on sex trafficking and prostitution charges along with his British partner, Matthew Smith, and a third man. Abercrombie & Fitch is another of Wexner’s companies. Staff had repeatedly brought their concerns to Wexner about Jeffries’ behaviour but were ignored – just as Victoria’s Secret staff had been.
Wexner ended up paying a reported $90m in a shareholder lawsuit alleging a toxic culture of harassment, misogyny, and ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire is known for giving political donations to the likes of Mitt Romney and Donald Trump.
Leon Black
Leon Black was the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm he co-founded but stepped down from in 2021 over his relationship with the disgraced financier. He was one of several of Epstein’s billionaire clients. Bloomberg reported that Black had paid Jeffrey Epstein $158m between 2012 and 2017 for tax advice. Meanwhile, whistleblower Chris Dilorio accused Black of money laundering and having ties to Putin.
Black is the subject of an active lawsuit, Jane Doe v Leon Black in which he is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl with autism and mosaic Down’s Syndrome, an attack so severe, she required medical attention. The alleged incident took place at Epstein’s Manhattan property. It is his third sexual assault case. His son Ben Black currently serves as head of International Development Finance, a Trump appointment.
The Epstein Files: a timeline
2006 Jeffrey Epstein is arrested in Palm Beach. Despite police finding numerous victims, some as young as 14, Epstein was charged with one single count of solicitation. He spent one night in Palm Beach County jail and was released on $3,000 bail.
July 2019 Epstein is arrested for a second time, in New York, on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. He’s arrested after his private jet returns from Paris.
August 2019 Epstein is found dead in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York, hanged with his bed sheets.
Model agent and longtime Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel goes on the run.
2020 Ghislaine Maxwell goes on the run.
Feb 2021 Jean Luc Brunel is found hanged with bedsheets, in his jail cell at the Santé prison, Paris, at around 1:30 am.
March 2021 Using her mobile phone data, the FBI tracks Maxwell to a 156-acre property in New Hampshire, and arrests her.
November 2021 Maxwell goes on trial and is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
2022 Virginia Giuffre’s civil case against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is settled for an undisclosed sum (a reported £12m).
April 2025 Giuffre is found dead at her home in Australia, from apparent suicide.
November 2025 Congress passes the Epstein Files Transparency Act which stipulates that all documents relating to the Department of Justice case against Jeffrey Epstein must be released within 30 days.
Featured image via Youtube / Netflix
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For me, the biggest scandal in all this is that US citizens not only allow their institutions to be used for such aberrations, but that they simply stand by and watch, thereby enabling everything to remain as it is and all of this to go unpunished. In my opinion, US citizens simply dismiss this as trivial because their system allows billionaires to get away with anything they do. I can’t help but feel contempt for this attitude.
