What’s happening
Jeffrey Epstein has become such a prominent figure in the public imagination that, despite dying only six years ago, his life is already clouded by myth.
The mythology of Jeffrey Epstein goes something like the following:
He was a pedophile who amassed wealth through suspicious means.
He cultivated relationships with powerful elites and, aided by Ghislaine Maxwell, allegedly trafficked young women and girls to them, Maxwell herself possibly acting on behalf of Israeli intelligence.
He secretly filmed these encounters and used the footage as blackmail, potentially for U.S. or foreign intelligence agencies.
He was arrested during the first Trump administration but was killed in jail under suspicious circumstances, officially ruled a suicide.
How much of this is true? What’s confirmed, and what’s outright false? We wrote this to cut through the noise—from both the left and the right—and make clear where things actually stand in the Epstein saga.
What part of his story is irrefutably true?
Epstein was a math teacher turned financier from New York City. After impressing a parent at the school—the CEO of Bear Stearns—Epstein got a job at the firm handling wealthy individuals’ portfolios. In particular, he helped them avoid or minimize their tax bills.
While there, he managed billionaire Les Wexner’s fortune; he later received power of attorney over Wexner’s assets, using them to obtain a private jet, mansion, and more. Wexner has defended his actions as standard fare for money managers. Epstein made most of his money by taking Wexner and Leon Black—another billionaire—as clients.
After leaving Bear Stearns, Epstein founded Intercontinental Assets Group. This company helped wealthy individuals recover money which had been stolen, winning him friends among the elite.
He was also a pedophile. He and Ghislaine Maxwell—who is currently in prison for conspiring to abuse minors with Epstein—coerced, abused, and raped scores of young girls. Epstein also defended pedophilia to reporters, trying to convince one that “criminalizing sex with teen girls was a cultural aberration.”
Epstein met his accomplice, Maxwell, shortly after her father, Robert Maxwell’s, death. She eventually started helping him procure young women for massages and sexual acts, some of which she participated in.
What parts of the story are unconfirmed?
There is no publicly available evidence that Epstein used videos of powerful individuals as blackmail, for himself or on behalf of intelligence agencies.
However, when Epstein’s New York mansion was raided, the Department of Justice reportedly confiscated CDs labeled “Young [Name] + [Name],” and his various mansions and island were completely wired, leaving a friend to believe Epstein was making videos as an “insurance policy.”
Likewise, there is no direct evidence that he was an intelligence asset. People who knew him say he bragged about being intelligence, but this is second-hand—and he could have been lying.
A famous quote has Alexander Acosta, who oversaw a Florida case in 2007 in which Epstein was charged with soliciting prostitution, saying he had been told Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” But that quote is second-hand at best, having been related to the Daily Beast in 2019 by someone who was supposedly aware of what Acosta had told Trump transition officials.
Still, Maxwell’s father, Robert, was accused of being an agent of the Israeli Mossad. This has never been confirmed by the Israeli government, but he was given a state funeral attended by Israel’s then-prime minister.
Epstein had close ties to Israeli figures like former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, just as he did with numerous other billionaires, world leaders, and celebrities, like Bill Gates and Kevin Spacey.
Some of this is explained by his philanthropy: Epstein frequently gave millions to charitable causes or individuals, winning friends and allies. After his arrest, this led to awkward moments for some, like left-wing analyst Noam Chomsky, who had to explain why Epstein had helped him move nearly $300,000.
What parts of his story are unexplained?
One of the reasons why Epstein has had such a hold on the public consciousness is because some parts of his story have thus far defied explanation:
Why he was hired as a math teacher: Epstein was hired as a math teacher by Donald Barr—the father of former Attorney General Bill Barr—at the prestigious Dalton School. But while he had studied math in college, he never finished his degree.
How he got an Austrian passport: When federal agents raided Epstein’s New York mansion, they discovered an Austrian passport with a fake name and a listed birthplace of Saudi Arabia. His lawyers claimed he received it from a “friend” for personal protection but refused to disclose the identity of the friend or how the passport was obtained.
How he died: The official story is that Epstein killed himself while imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a heavily guarded prison. But that explanation hasn’t resolved the many oddities surrounding his death—like the CCTV footage from his cell being destroyed due to “technical errors,” or his guards failing to conduct a prisoner count that night.
The Trump administration attempted to quell speculation by releasing footage from outside his cell, but analysts have noted that the supposedly “raw” video is actually two stitched clips, with nearly three minutes missing.
Were he and President Donald Trump friends?
Yes. Epstein and Trump socialized frequently in the 1990s and 2000s. But in 2007, Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after he hit on a club member’s teenage daughter. Trump was notably the first major public figure to sever ties with him.
So, what are the Epstein files?
The Epstein files are any and all papers the federal government has collected related to the case against Epstein.
The Department of Justice, in a memo released early this month, said the files include “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence”—which could mean tens of thousands of documents. These files comprise anything related to the investigation, including documents seized in his mansion, such as phone records and contact books.
This is why investigators stress that a person named in the files does not mean they committed crimes: if Epstein wrote down your number on a piece of paper or gave you a call, it qualifies as being “in” the files.
The documents also include “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.” Epstein, like other pedophiles, downloaded immense quantities of child pornography.
Is there an Epstein “list”?
The memo declared there was “no incriminating ‘client list.’” Although it has become an object of obsession for some Epstein-info hunters, there has never been any evidence produced to corroborate the idea that a single “list” of powerful individuals compromised by Epstein exists, nor has evidence ever been released proving Epstein sought to compromise others.
Is Trump in the files?
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