There is no shorter route to power than through the genitals of male leaders. This principle guided the Lolita Gambit, played by the Mossad through its "Agent" Jeffrey Epstein
Prince Andrew ‘stayed in touch with Epstein five years longer than claimed’. In his Newsnight interview, the duke said he dropped contact with the paedophile in 2010. Emails suggest they were still talking in late 2015 by Gabriel Pogrund, Whitehall Editor | Emanuele Midolo The Sunday Times Saturday August 30 2025, 9.55pm BST https://archive.is/I9UnU#selection-1473.0-1497.16
[x] Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein in Central Park in Manhattan in 2010. JAE DONNELLY/NEWS UK
Prince Andrew remained in contact with Jeffrey Epstein half a decade later than he had previously admitted, emails indicate.
In late 2015, Epstein told his friend, the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, that the Duke of York was the source of information about a potential business opportunity in China.
It came months after Virginia Giuffre had waived her anonymity to accuse both Andrew and Epstein of coercing her into having sex.
From: jeffrey E. <[DELETE]> To: ehbarak <[DELETE]> CC: Date: Sat, 12/19/2015 11:19:47 PM Subject: Re:
Yes
On Sat, Dec 19, 2015 at 2:48 PM, ehbarak <[DELETE]> wrote:
The Prince? EB
Sent from my iPhone
On 19 Dec 2015, at 01:03, jeffrey E. <[DELETE]> wrote:
Andrew
On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 7:01 PM ehbarak <[DELETE]> wrote:
Where did you see it? EB
Sent from my iPhone
On 19 Dec 2015, at 00:51, jeffrey E. <[DELETE]> wrote:
weathy chines looking for to start personel protection co in Beijing, kidnapping has begun
The email indicates that Epstein and Andrew were still in contact in 2015. The Sunday Times has obtained a copy of the inbox from DDoS and independently verified dozens of details such as email addresses, phone numbers and official addresses belonging to those named in the correspondence
The claim appears to challenge Andrew’s claims in his notorious BBC Newsnight interview that he had last met or spoken to Epstein in December 2010, when he visited the sex offender’s house in New York.
It has already emerged that he had asked Epstein to “keep in touch” and vowed to “play some more soon” months later, in February 2011.
Yet the Epstein-Barak correspondence indicates that the pair stayed in contact even longer. It is yet another challenge to Andrew’s narrative around his relationship with Epstein, which has come under intense scrutiny. In December 2015, Epstein emailed Barak, Israel’s leader between 1999 and 2001, with whom he had just invested millions in a security start-up.
[x] Andrew pictured with Virginia Giuffre, who in 2014 accused Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew of sexual abuse. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Although the company, Reporty Homeland Security, was based in Israel, the pair remained interested in business opportunities elsewhere, including in China.
The paedophile wrote: “Weathy [sic] Chines [sic] looking for to start personel [sic] protection co in Beijing.” He added that “kidnapping has begun” — an apparent reference to the crime that had fuelled demand for private security.
Barak replied, asking how he knew: “Where did you see it?”
Epstein responded: “andrew”. Barak said: “The Prince?” Epstein sent a one word email: “yes”.
[x] In 2008, Epstein was found guilty of procuring a child for prostitution and given a custodial sentence. UMA SANGHVI/THE PALM BEACH POST/AP
The correspondence took place shortly after Andrew played a leading role in welcoming President Xi to the UK during a state visit.
A longstanding advocate of greater trade between the West and China, Andrew had visited Beijing the previous year. He later exported his investment venture, Pitch@Palace, to the People’s Republic with the assistance of Yang Tengbo, who is accused by MI5 of being a Chinese spy. Yang denies this is the case.
The email correspondence was first reported on by Reason, an American magazine, last week. It had obtained a copy of Barak’s inbox, which, its reporter Matthew Petti said, had been “quietly posted” online by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS), a file-sharing website similar to Wikileaks, in May this year. DDoS had itself obtained the data — which contains more than 100,000 emails, pictures and files — from Handala, a pro-Palestine hacking consortium widely believed to be linked to Iran.
While the notion that the documents have been tampered with cannot be definitively ruled out, The Sunday Times has obtained a copy of the inbox from DDoS and independently verified dozens of details such as email addresses, phone numbers and official addresses belonging to those named in the correspondence. Handwritten notes were also examined and found to be consistent with the vernacular of a native Hebrew speaker, as well as Barak’s own handwriting.
[x] Melania Trump, Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club in 2000. DAVIDOFF STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES
There is no evidence that the proposed Chinese security venture materialised. Still, Barak did travel to the People’s Republic in a private capacity in 2014 and 2015, repeatedly messaging Epstein about personal and business matters while there. During the first visit, Epstein contacted him to ask “how do you like Chinese food”. Barak replied: “I don’t like it. So I hope I’m losing weight,” before turning to a forthcoming visit to see the financier in New York. “Look forward to meet you”, he said.
The suggestion that Andrew stayed in touch with the financier as late as the emails indicate is damaging as it contradicts his own public statements, and poses more questions about his judgment. In June 2008, Epstein was found guilty of procuring a child for prostitution and given a custodial sentence. However, in 2010, Andrew stayed at his property in New York. In 2011, Sarah Ferguson admitted receiving £15,000 from Epstein to settle her debts. Weeks later, amid scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein, Andrew stepped down as a UK trade envoy. He later said he regretted the US visit, acknowledging that he had “let the side down”.
Andrew never responded to a BBC report this year saying that he remained in touch with Epstein after December 2010. This was based on emails, disclosed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCS) as part of a court case, sent to Epstein by a “member of the British Royal Family” understood to be Andrew. One, dated February 2011, said: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!” The FCA added that the pair had had a “discussion of press articles”.
[x] Andrew told Emily Maitlis that his 2010 visit to Epstein’s property in New York was the last time the pair met or spoke. BBC NEWSNIGHT
In December 2014, Andrew was first accused of sexual misconduct by Giuffre, a former masseuse to Epstein, who filed an anonymous motion in a Florida court. Weeks later, she waived her anonymity to accuse both men of abuse. Her allegations — which Andrew vigorously denies — were reported around the world.
In November 2019, Andrew gave an interview to BBC Newsnight in an attempt to address his association with the sex offender who, months earlier, committed suicide while awaiting trial. During the discussion, he gave his only public position to date on the duration of his friendship with Epstein. Asked by Emily Maitlis whether the 2010 visit to Epstein’s property in New York was “the only time you saw him after he was convicted”, Andrew responded: “Yes.” She continued: “Did you see him or speak to him again?”, to which Andrew responded: “No.”
The interview caused global controversy. Instead of drawing a line under years of scrutiny, the prince was forced to step back from public life and suspend all duties as a working royal. He later reached an out-of-court settlement with his accuser, Giuffre, which is estimated to have been worth up to £12 million, in which he did not admit liability for any wrongdoing. She took her own life in April.
[x] Ehud Barak described Epstein as “a terrible version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. CORINNA KERN/REUTERS
The disclosures follow a summer of damaging publicity for the prince, which has made the prospect of any kind of return to official duties or public life even more remote.
A fortnight ago, Andrew Lownie, a historian, published a damning biography of the prince, depicting him as vain and in denial about his connections to Epstein. Then, last week, the US Department of Justice published transcripts of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice and an old friend of Andrew. She presented her “frenemy” Sarah Ferguson as the main instigator of the relationship between Andrew and Epstein.
Andrew did not respond to a request for comment. Barak briefly replied to an approach over text but declined to comment on the emails. In 2023, he told The Wall Street Journal that Epstein was “a terrible version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” who “at the time seemed to be an intelligent person, socially well connected and of wide areas of interest, from science to geopolitics”. He also said he did not participate in or know about any of Epstein’s parties with women or girls.
The PM and the sex offender: Emails show Israel’s Barak was alerted of Epstein allegations by Mikael Thalen (Tech Reporter) Straight Arrow News Aug 28, 2025 at 08:34 PM UTC https://archive.is/aspWc
[x] Image credit: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
Summary
Emails dispute claims: Leaked emails suggest former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was aware of allegations against his longtime acquaintance Jeffrey Epstein earlier than he had acknowledged.
Investment followed accusation: An aide sent Barak news articles about allegations against Epstein four years before the financier invested in the former prime minister’s business venture.
Private island visit: Other leaked emails concern Barak’s visit to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
Full story
After Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he had no idea that his longtime acquaintance had engaged in inappropriate relations with underage girls. But newly leaked emails reviewed by Straight Arrow News show Barak had been told numerous times about accusations against Epstein years before he disavowed knowledge of the billionaire’s activities.
The emails, part of a cache of more than 100,000 messages hacked from Barak’s inbox last year, even include a message about the allegations from Epstein himself.
SAN reviewed the messages after they were made public on Wednesday by the nonprofit leak archiving organization DDoSecrets. The discussions between Epstein and Barak, who was Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and its defense minister from 2007 to 2013, were first reported by Reason.
Continued ‘debauchery’
SAN reported Wednesday that those emails also included discussions on visits to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, Little Saint James. In one email, Barak referred to the island as “impressive.” In another, he discussed efforts to visit the island without his security detail.
Barak has acknowledged visiting the island and Epstein’s New York home. However, according to The New York Times, Barak said after Epstein’s 2019 arrest that he had not known about sex-trafficking allegations. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida in a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.
An email from March 2016, however, shows Epstein forwarded to Barak a correspondence between attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Roy Black, as well as a New York Post columnist. Dershowitz did not respond to a request for comment from SAN.
From: jeffrey E. [DELETE] To: ehud barak [DELETE] CC: Date: Mon, 3/7/2016 11:26:48 PM Subject: Fwd: Epstein
Guess who is in the fur hat? -------- Forwarded message -------- From: Alan Dershowitz [DELETE] Date: Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 1:51 PM Subject: Fwd: Epstein To: Jeffrey Epstein [DELETE]
Just forwarding. I refused to talk to Johnson
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Richard Johnson [DELETE] Date: March 7, 2016 at 1:48:02 PM EST To: [DELETE] Roy Black [DELETE] Subject: Epstein
Just to be clear, the story I intend to publish tomorrow will state that Jeffrey Epstein is not letting his conviction for soliciting a teenage girl interfere with his debauchery.
The billionaire money manager – and registered sex offender – is importing his playmates from Russia, sources say.
A recent visitor tells me Epstein has a houseful of young women in his East 71st Street mansion. “Half of them are from the former Soviet Union and the other half are a mix of Americans and Europeans,” said my source.
While all the women appeared to be at least 17, the age of consent in New York State, they were all several decades younger than 63-year-old Epstein, the visitor said.
Epstein apparently has contacts in Moscow who find the young women for both Epstein’s “orgy island” in the Caribbean and his Manhattan townhouse.
One procurer, Peter Listerman – who introduced Oksana Grigoriea to Mel Gibson and Irina Shayk to Cristiano Ronoldo – says on a YouTube video: “I’m not a pimp, just a matchmaker.”
Listerman, or a dead ringer in an Astrakhan fur hat, was photographed entering Epstein’s mansion in January.
Richard Johnson Columnist New York Post [DELETE] @HeadlineJohnson
The columnist, Richard Johnson, informed the lawyers that he intended to publish a story that would accuse Epstein of “not letting his conviction for soliciting a teenage girl interfere with his debauchery.”
Johnson wrote, “a recent visitor tells me Epstein has a houseful of young women in his East 71st Street mansion.”
The alleged visitor cited by Johnson reportedly said that “while all the women appeared to be at least 17, the age of consent in New York State, they were all several decades younger than 63-year-old Epstein.”
Johnson also suggested that a man pictured outside Epstein’s mansion in January 2016 could be Peter Listerman, a Russian who, according to The Daily Beast, was known for supplying Russian and Ukrainian girls to billionaires such as Epstein.
Dershowitz forwarded the email to Epstein, saying he had “refused to talk to Johnson.” Epstein then forwarded the email to Barak, asking: “guess who is in the fur hat?”
The data cache does not show a reply from Barak. It remains unclear whether the man in the fur hat was Listerman and why Epstein mentioned the hat to Barak.
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment from SAN.
Accusations in 2011
In a separate email dating back to March 2011, Dana Zaidman, who has worked as an assistant for Barak, forwarded an email linking to two articles from The Daily Mail.
Both articles detail allegations from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who, according to court filings, also accused Barak of sexual assault. The former prime minister has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, describing Guffrie’s claims as false and “uncorroborated.”
From: dana zaidman [DELETE] To: Ehud Barak [DELETE] CC: Date: Mon, 3/7/2011 5:44:31 PM Subject: Fw:
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone
From: keren [DELETE] Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:02:25 +0200 To Dana [DELETE] Subject:
One of the two articles, titled “Teenage girl recruited by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein reveals how she twice met Bill Clinton,” even mentions Barak by name as an acquaintance of Epstein.
Four years after the email from his assistant, Barak accepted a reported $1 million investment from Epstein in a limited partnership he established to back a technology start-up.
Barak did not reply to inquiries sent by SAN.
Alan Judd (Content Editor) and Lawrence Banton (Digital Producer) contributed to this report.
‘Don’s best friend’: How Epstein and Trump bonded over the pursuit of women. The two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits. by Nicholas Confessore and Julie Tate The New York Times Dec. 19, 2025, 5:00 a.m.
[x] (Alessandra Montalto | The New York Times) A photo of an inscription in a copy of Donald Trump's book "Trump: The Art of the Comeback" that belonged to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has tried to minimize his friendship with Epstein, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.
Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” He and Donald Trump also had “no formal relationship.” They went to a lot of the same parties. But they “did not socialize together.” They were never really friends, just business acquaintances. Or “there was no relationship” at all. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
For nearly a quarter-century, Trump and his representatives have offered shifting, often contradictory accounts of his relationship with Epstein, one sporadically captured by society photographers and in news clips before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s. Closely scrutinized since Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell during Trump’s first term, their friendship — and questions about what the president knew of Epstein’s abuses — now threatens to consume his second one.
The controversy has shaken Trump’s iron hold on his base like no other. Loyal supporters have demanded to know why the administration has not moved more quickly to unearth the convicted sex offender’s remaining secrets. In November, after resisting months of pressure to release more Epstein-related documents held by the federal government — and facing an almost unheard-of revolt among Republican lawmakers — Trump reversed himself, signing legislation that requires their release beginning this week.
Epstein had a talent for acquiring powerful friends, some of whom have become ensnared in the continuing scrutiny of his crimes. For months, Trump has labored furiously to shift himself out of the frame, dismissing questions about his relationship with Epstein as a “Democrat hoax” and imploring his supporters to ignore the matter entirely. An examination of their history by The New York Times has found no evidence implicating Trump in Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of minors.
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
5. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges that the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, did willfully and with extreme malice violate her Civil Rights under 18 U.S.C ; 2241 by sexually and physically abusing Plaintiff Johnson by forcing her to engage in various perverted and depraved sex acts by threatening physical harm to Plaintiff Johnson and also her family.
6. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges that the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, also did willfully and with extreme malice violate her Civil Rights under 42 U.S.C.; 1985 by conspiring to deny Plaintiff Johnson her Civil Rights by making her their sex slave.
7. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges she was subject to extreme sexual and physical abuse by the Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, including forcible rape during a four month time span covering the months of June-September 1994 when Plaintiff Johnson was still only a minor of age 13.
8. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, alleges she was enticed by promises of money and a modeling career to attend a series of underage sex parties held at the New York City residence of Defendant Jeffrey E. Epstein and attended by Defendant Donald J. Trump.
9. On the first occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to manually stimulate Defendant Trump with the use of her hand upon Defendant Trump's erect penis until he reached sexual orgasm.
10. On the second occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to orally copulate Defendant Trump by placing her mouth upon Defendant Trump's erect penis until he reached sexual orgasm.
11. On the third occasion involving the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson was forced to engage in an unnatural lesbian sex act with her fellow minor and sex slave, Maria Doe age 12, for the sexual enjoyment of Defendant Trump. After this sex act, both minors were forced to orally copulate Defendant Trump by placing their mouths simultaneously on his erect penis until he achieved sexual orgasm. After zipping up his pants, Defendant Trump physically pushed both minors away while angrily berating them for the "poor" quality of their sexual performance.
12.On the fourth and final sexual encounter with the Defendant, Donald J. Trump, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was tied to a bed by Defendant Trump who then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff Johnson. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff Johnson loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to "please wear a condom". Defendant Trump responded by violently striking Plaintiff Johnson in the face with his open hand and screaming that "he would do whatever he wanted" as he refused to wear protection. After achieving sexual orgasm, the Defendant, Donald J. Trump put his suit back on and when the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, in tears asked Defendant Trump what would happen if he had impregnated her, Defendant Trump grabbed his wallet and threw some money at her and screamed that she should use the money "to get a fucking abortion".
13. On the first occasion involving the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was forced to disrobe into her bra and panties and to give a full body massage to Defendant Epstein while he was completely naked. During the massage, Defendant Epstein physically forced Plaintiff Johnson to touch his erect penis with her bare hands and to clean up his ejaculated semen after he achieved sexual orgasm.
14. On the second occasion involving the Defendant, Jeffrey Epstein, the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson was again forced to disrobe into her bra and panties while giving Defendant Epstein a full body massage while he was completely naked. The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, was also present as he was getting his own massage from another minor, Jane Doe, age 13. Defendant Epstein forced Plaintiff Johnson to touch his erect penis by physically placing her bare hands upon his sex organ and again forced Plaintiff Johnson to clean up his ejaculated semen after he achieved sexual orgasm.
15. Shortly after this sexual assault by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, on the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, Plaintiff Johnson was still present while the two Defendants were arguing over who would be the one to take Plaintiff Johnson's virginity. The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, was clearly heard referring to Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, as a "Jew Bastard" as he yelled at Defendant Epstein, that clearly, he, Defendant Trump, should be the lucky one to "pop the cherry" of Plaintiff Johnson.
16. The third and final sexual assault by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, on the Plaintiff, Kati Johnson, took place after Plaintiff Johnson had been brutally and savagely raped by Defendant Trump. While receiving another full body massage from Plaintiff Johnson, while in the nude, Defendant Epstein became so enraged after finding out that Defendant Trump had been the one to take Plaintiff Johnson's virginity, that Defendant Epstein also violently raped Plaintiff Johnson. After forcing Plaintiff Johnson to disrobe into her bra and panties, while receiving a massage from the Plaintiff, Defendant Epstein attempted to enter Plaintiff Johnson's anal cavity with his erect penis while trying to restrain her. Plaintiff Johnson attempted to push Defendant Epstein away, at which time Defendant Epstein attempted to enter Plaintiff Johnson's vagina with his erect penis. This attempt to brutally sodomize and rape Plaintiff Johnson by Defendant Epstein was finally repelled by Plaintiff Johnson but not before Defendant Epstein was able to achieve sexual orgasm. After perversely sodomizing and raping the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, attempted to strike her about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at Plaintiff Johnson that he, Defendant Epstein, should have been the one who "took her cherry, not Mr. Trump", before she finally managed to break away from Defendant Epstein.
17. The Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was fully warned on more than one occasion by both Defendants, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein, that were she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse that she had suffered as a sex slave for Defendant Trump and Defendant Epstein, that Plaintiff Johnson and her family would be in mortal danger. Plaintiff Johnson was warned that this would mean certain death for herself and Plaintiff Johnson's family unless she remained silent forever on the exact details of the depraved and perverted sexual and physical abuse she had been forced to endure from the Defendants.
MATERIAL WITNESSES
18. Tiffany Doe, a former trusted employee of the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, has agreed to provide sworn testimony in this civil case and any other future civil or criminal proceedings, fully verifying the authenticity of the claims of the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson. Witness Tiffany Doe was employed by the Defendant, Jeffrey E. Epstein, for more than 10 years as a party planner for his underage sex parties. Despite being subject to constant terroristic threats by Defendants Epstein and Trump to never reveal the details of these underage sex parties at which scores of teenagers, and pre-teen girls were used as sex slaves by Defendant Epstein and Defendant Trump, witness Tiffany Doe refuses to be silent any longer. She has agreed to fully reveal the extent of the sexual perversion and physical cruelty that she personally witnessed at these parties by Defendants Epstein and Trump.
19. Material witness Tiffany Doe fully confirms all of Plaintiff Katie Johnson's allegations of physical and sexual abuse by Defendants Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein. Tiffany Doe was physically present at each of the four occasions of sexual abuse by Defendant Trump upon the person of Plaintiff Johnson, as it was her job to witness all of the sexual escapades of Defendant Epstein's guests at these underage sex parties and later reveal all of the sordid details directly to Defendant Epstein. Defendant Epstein also demanded that Tiffany Doe tell him personally everything she had overheard at these parties explaining to her that "knowledge was king" in the financial world. As a result of these underage sex parties, Defendant Epstein was able to accumulate inside business knowledge that he otherwise would never have been privy to in order to amass his huge personal fortune.
20. Material witness Tiffany Doe will testify that she was also present or had direct knowledge of each of the three instances on which Defendant Jeffrey E. Epstein physically and sexually abused the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson. Tiffany Doe will testify to the fact that the Plaintiff, Katie Johnson, was extremely fortunate to have survived all of the physical and sexual horrors inflicted upon her by Defendants Epstein and Trump.
But the two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits.
Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other’s closest friend, the Times found. Epstein was then a little-known financier who cultivated mystery around the scope and source of his self-made wealth. Trump, six years older, was a real estate scion who relished publicity and exaggerated his successes. Neither man drank or did drugs. They pursued women in a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.
Over nearly two decades, as Trump cut a swath through the party circuits of New York and Florida, Epstein was perhaps his most reliable wingman. During the 1990s and early 2000s, they prowled Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and Trump’s Plaza Hotel, at least one of Trump’s Atlantic City casinos and both their Palm Beach homes. They visited each other’s offices and spoke often by phone, according to other former Epstein employees and women who spent time in his homes.
With other men, Epstein might discuss tax shelters, international affairs or neuroscience. With Trump, he talked about sex.
“I just think it was trophy hunting,” Stacey Williams, who rose to fame as a star of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions during the 1990s, said in an interview with the Times. In social media posts and interviews with news outlets in recent years, Williams has described how Trump groped her in 1993 at Trump Tower while Epstein — whom she was then dating — watched. “I think Jeffrey liked that he had this Sports Illustrated model who had this name, and that Trump was pursuing me,” she said. Trump has denied her account.
To shed light on their friendship, the Times interviewed more than 30 former Epstein employees, victims of his abuse and others who crossed paths with the two men over the years. The Times also obtained new documents that illuminate their relationship and scoured court documents and other public records.
Many of the people interviewed by the Times asked to share their stories anonymously, saying they feared for their safety at the hands of supporters of Trump, a president who has deployed the might of the federal government to target and punish his political opponents. Some Epstein victims have already received death threats for demanding a full accounting of the government’s investigations, according to a statement released by more than two dozen of them last month.
Over the years, Epstein or his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, introduced at least six women who have accused them of grooming or abuse to Trump, according to interviews, court testimony and other records. One was a minor at the time. None have accused Trump himself of inappropriate behavior.
One of the women, who has never before spoken publicly about the experience, told the Times that Epstein had coerced her into attending four parties at Epstein’s home. Trump attended all four, the woman said. At two of them, she said, Epstein directed her to have sex with other male guests.
In an email among those released by Congress in November, Epstein boasted that he “gave” Trump a 20-year-old woman whom Epstein dated in the 1990s. During a flight together in the early 1990s, Trump came on to another Epstein employee traveling with them, telling her that he could have anyone he wanted, according to a different Epstein worker who learned of the incident. A separate Epstein employee from that era recalled that Trump would occasionally send over modeling cards for Epstein to peruse, like a menu.
Epstein, who claimed he required three orgasms a day, exploited or abused hundreds of women and girls before dying in what was ruled a suicide. Trump does not stand accused of sexually abusing a minor. But over the course of his friendship with Epstein and beyond, he left a trail of alleged abuse and assault, many details of which began to surface publicly during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Close to 20 women have publicly accused Trump of groping, forcibly kissing or sexually assaulting them — behavior that he once bragged he could get away with because of his celebrity but later denied ever engaging in. In 2023, writer E. Jean Carroll won a $5 million civil judgment against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.
In response to a detailed list of questions from the Times, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement: “This fake news story, which is not worth the paper it’s printed on, is just another stale regurgitation of decades-old false allegations against President Trump. The truth will remain the same no matter how many times The New York Times tries to change it. President Trump did nothing wrong, and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep.”
It is unclear what new information may emerge under the new law passed by Congress. The statute allows the Trump administration to withhold records that identify victims, including images of child sexual abuse, or documents that are otherwise classified. His appointees can also hold back records that could jeopardize an active federal investigation — such as a new inquiry ordered by Trump into Democrats associated with Epstein. In a statement in late November, a group of Epstein accusers wrote, “Other than redacting victim names, we want all the files disclosed.”
Trump has denied knowing of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls. But in a tranche of emails released in November, Epstein suggested otherwise. In a 2019 message to the journalist Michael Wolff, he wrote of Trump, “of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” The full context of Epstein’s remark is unclear.
In a 2010 deposition, Epstein was asked if he had ever socialized with Trump with girls under 18. As he did more than three dozen times during the deposition, Epstein invoked his constitutional right not to answer.
“Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today, I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment rights, sir,” he replied.
Sex talk and office hours
Sometimes the phone would ring in Trump’s office at Trump Tower. The caller — “the mysterious Jeffrey,” as Trump described him in a 2004 book of business advice — never gave a last name, nor did he need to, Trump wrote. A few times a week, the phone would ring in Epstein’s office in the Villard Houses on Madison Avenue. Trump would be on the line. On one occasion, recalled an Epstein assistant from the mid-1990s, Trump refused to give any name at all.
The White House spokesperson declined to say whether Trump’s book was referring to a different Jeffrey. But the two talked at least three times a week during the mid-to-late 1990s, according to a second Epstein assistant from that period.
The first assistant, who often worked late, recalled that sometimes, when the office emptied out, Epstein would check to see that she was at her desk and put Trump on speaker. Trump, she said, seemed to enjoy regaling Epstein with tales of his sexual exploits. And Epstein seemed to delight in how uncomfortable it made her to overhear them.
She remembered one call in the mid-1990s on which the two men discussed how much pubic hair a particular woman had, and whether there was enough for Epstein to floss his teeth with. On another, Trump told Epstein about having sex with another woman on a pool table, the former assistant said.
A woman known in court records as Jane Doe, whom Epstein trafficked during the mid-1990s, beginning in her early teens, testified in Maxwell’s criminal trial in 2021 that Epstein often put famous friends on speakerphone in front of other people.
The calls with Trump continued through the later years of the men’s friendship, according to a third former employee, who worked for Epstein on and off through most of the 2000s and also recalled him putting Trump on speaker. They would talk about pageants or modeling shows or which countries’ women were in vogue in the fashion world. Sometimes, the third employee said, Trump went on so long that Epstein — whose attention span was famously short — would leave the room while his friend was still talking.
Maria Farmer, an artist who has said she was sexually assaulted by Maxwell and Epstein during the mid-1990s, told the Times in 2019 that Epstein had once summoned her to meet Trump at the Villard Houses office. Trump leered at her, she said, before Epstein informed him that “she’s not for you.”
This summer, a spokesperson for Trump denied that the president had ever set foot in Epstein’s office. The first former assistant, though, recalled Trump meeting there briefly with Epstein at least several times during the mid-1990s. Her account was supported by Mark Epstein, Epstein’s brother, who said that Jeffrey had told him that Trump visited him frequently.
“He was in the office all the time back then,” Mark Epstein said in an interview with the Times.
Daily handwritten notes kept by the first former assistant and reviewed by the Times suggest that Trump was a regular presence in Epstein’s life. The notes, spanning several months in late 1994, have not been previously reported.
Some pages contain instructions to call Trump or return his call. One note reminded the assistant to call Trump’s office to see if he was “flying to Fla tomorrow.” Another recorded that a package would be arriving with an invitation to a Mar-a-Lago event.
On one page are instructions about invitations for an upcoming party. Trump was to be invited — but only if his ex-wife Ivana, with whom Maxwell was friendly, declined.
Their relationship was riddled with undertones of envy and disdain. Epstein seemed to hold a low opinion of his friend’s business acumen, according to the former employees and others who knew him. On one occasion around 2001, the third former employee said, Epstein was annoyed after Trump called him. He later told the employee that Trump was short on cash and wanted a ride on Epstein’s plane.
During the early years of their friendship, Trump was racing toward a reckoning over the billions of dollars he had borrowed to assemble his struggling empire, including casinos, hotels, an airline and a yacht. According to former Epstein employees, Trump seemed attracted to the financier’s wealth and business network.
It is unclear whether Epstein — who ostensibly specialized in offering tax and estate planning for wealthy clients — helped Trump navigate his financial problems. But in his 2020 memoir of representing Epstein victims, “Relentless Pursuit,” Florida lawyer Bradley J. Edwards wrote that Epstein had claimed to some young women that he had bailed his friend out of bankruptcy.
Even as he dismissed Trump’s dealmaking, Epstein — who could be socially awkward at other people’s parties — seemed to admire his friend’s brash confidence and access to higher realms of nightlife and celebrity. He frequently mentioned his friendship with Trump, according to several accusers, telling one he had a bedroom reserved at Mar-a-Lago. Even after they fell out, Epstein kept a framed photo of himself with Trump and his future third wife, Melania, on a credenza in his Upper East Side dining room.
The party circuit
A few years into Trump’s friendship with Epstein, Ivana Trump filed for divorce. Trump’s affair with Marla Maples, a former pageant contestant, was running hot and cold. In 1992, he invited NBC to Mar-a-Lago to shoot video for a feature about his post-divorce life on the talk show “A Closer Look.”
“I love beautiful women, I love going out with beautiful women and I love women in general,” he said in the footage.
The cameras captured him and Epstein at the Palm Beach estate, surrounded by cheerleaders from the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. In the video, Trump grabs a smiling woman from the rear and pats her on the behind; in another clip, he appears to point toward women on the dance floor, and Epstein doubles over laughing at something his friend has whispered.
In January 1993, Trump held another party at Mar-a-Lago, this one to kick off a beauty pageant he was bringing to Atlantic City with two business partners, George Houraney and Jill Harth. Two dozen or so potential contestants were flown in to meet Trump. The only other guest at the party, Houraney told the Times in 2019, was Epstein.
Jill Harth speaks out about alleged groping by Donald Trump. Harth stands by claims of incident described in 1997 lawsuit as ‘attempted rape’ and wants apology from Donald Trump: ‘Don’t call me a liar’ by Lucia Graves in New York The Guardian Sat 8 Oct 2016 14.15 EDT https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -interview
A woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump has spoken for the first time in detail about her personal experience with the billionaire tycoon who this week became the Republican nominee for president.
Jill Harth, a makeup artist, has stayed quiet for almost 20 years about the way Trump pursued her, and – according to a lawsuit she instigated – cornered her and groped her in his daughter’s bedroom.
After Trump mounted his campaign for the White House, details emerged of the 1997 complaint, in which Harth accused him of “attempted ‘rape’”.
She said she was quickly inundated with interview requests from major US television networks, but resolved not to speak about the events – until Trump publicly said in May that her claims were “meritless” and his daughter Ivanka gave an interview in which she said her father was “not a groper”.
Harth, who feels she has been publicly branded a liar and believes her business has suffered because of her association with the allegations, decided to speak out about her experience with Trump because she wants an apology.
In an hour-long interview at the Guardian’s New York office on Tuesday, Harth said she stands by her charges against Trump, which run from low-grade sexual harassment to an episode her lawyers described in the lawsuit as “attempted ‘rape’”.
[b][u][size=120]She first met Trump in December 1992 at his offices in Trump Tower, where she and her then romantic partner, George Houraney, were making a business presentation. The couple wanted to recruit Trump to back their American Dream festival, in which Harth oversaw a pin-up competition known as American Dream Calendar Girls. Harth described that meeting as “the highlight of our career”.
But in other ways, it was something of a lowlight: Trump took an interest in Harth immediately and began subjecting her to a steady string of unwanted sexual advances, detailed by Harth in her complaint.
There was the initial leering in that first December meeting in Trump Tower, and the inappropriate questions after her relationship status. It continued the next night over dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, where at a dinner with beauty pageant contestants she alleges he groped her under the table.
It culminated in January 1993, when Harth and Houraney were visiting his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, to finalize and then celebrate the beauty pageant deal with a party.
After business concluded, Harth and Houraney were on tour of Mar-a-Lago along with a group of young pageant contestants – Trump wanted to “see the quality of the girls he was sponsoring”, Harth recalled – when he pulled her aside into one of the children’s bedrooms.
“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth said, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”
[x] Donald Trump in 1992 at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where Harth says ‘he pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress’. Photograph: Alamy
Speaking as Republicans gathered in Cleveland to formally declare Trump as the party’s candidate in the November general election, Harth said she had been very reluctant to talk after the sexual assault allegations resurfaced, “because honestly, it was painful for me to have to do it again. It was stressful, it gave me anxiety, it definitely wounded my marriage – it wasn’t the death knell, but it wounded it, it was stressful having to handle this.”
She recalled how Trump – who had just gone through a divorce from his first wife, Ivana, and was in a relationship with Marla Maples, who would become his second wife – pursued her and urged her to leave Houraney.
“Trump did everything in his power to get me to leave him. He constantly called me and said: ‘I love you, baby, I’m going to be the best lover you ever had. What are you doing with that loser, you need to be with me, you need to step it up to the big leagues.’
“He was constantly working on me during that time and that took a toll on me. But I moved on. I’m a forgiving type person, OK? I’m a Christian, I moved on.”
‘They tried to get me to say it never happened’
Trump’s decision to run for president brought the question to the fore for her once more. And initially, she said she was inclined to let bygones be bygones.
She concedes she even found herself getting excited at the thought that someone she knew so well was running for president.
A recent Trump rally she attended seemed to confirm her decision to lie low. “‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said, ‘I’m not going to say anything bad, we’ve moved on, we’re friendly,’” Harth recalled in her interview with the Guardian.
When Trump thanked her and gave her a hug, she thought he wouldn’t say anything either.
The interaction, Harth said, reaffirmed her decision to stay quiet. That is, until she saw Trump dismiss media reports referencing her case as “meritless”, or worse.
After the New York Times ran a story in May this year about Trump’s history with women, including an account of Harth’s story, Trump’s campaign even reached out to her to pressure her to take back her account, she told the Guardian on Tuesday.
“His office – and I have it on my voicemails that he called, that they called – they asked me to recant everything when the New York Times article came out. They were trying to get me to say it never happened and I made it up. And I said I’m not doing that,” she recalled. Trump’s office denied this.
She was further upset by an interview Trump’s daughter Ivanka gave in the wake of the New York Times article saying her dad is “not a groper”.
Nobody was defending me, that's why I'm talking … I went through hell and I still have to relive this again Jill Harth
“I understand that the girl wanted to defend her dad, being it’s her dad,” she said, “but what did she know? She was 10 years old! She was 10 years old at the time. She didn’t know what her father was about, what he was doing, how he was acting.”
Such statements felt defamatory to Harth, adding insult to injury. That’s when she hired attorney Lisa Bloom to demand that Trump retract his statements that are, as Bloom put it, “effectively calling her a liar”.
“Jill is very clear that she is not a liar,” Bloom said. “And her reputation is important to her. And her living a life free of this kind of stress is important to her. So we’re calling on not only Mr Trump, Ivanka Trump, too.”
The renewed controversy comes as Trump prepares to give his keynote speech in Cleveland on Thursday. It also comes as Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Trump-friendly Fox News, is in the process of being ousted following a sexual harassment suit filed by a former anchor.
When Trump’s office was asked to respond to Harth’s allegations, they highlighted her inconsistency about her views on Trump, forwarding emails from 2015 and as recently as January 2016 in which she expressed friendly feelings about Trump and even asked about a job helping to do his campaign trail makeup.
As Harth wrote in an August 2015 email forwarded by Trump’s campaign: “I also would like to show my support for Donald and his campaign. I am offering my services to do his grooming and getting him perfectly camera ready for photos and Hi-Definition TV. He knows better than anybody how important image is.”
In another email from October 2015, she praised Trump for “doing a tremendous job of shaking things up in the United States” and added: “I am definitely Team Trump!”
Harth said those emails were written months before Trump called her integrity into question. She also defended her action, as a businesswoman who has never been too proud to look for help where she needs it, even if it smacks of opportunism.
Meanwhile the fact that Trump has an army of staffers and family defending him is part of what inspired her to speak out, she said.
“Nobody was defending me, that’s why I’m talking,” Harth said. “You can believe it or not, but I went through hell and I still have to relive this again. And I just, I’m horrified that I have to think about this again.”[/size][/u][/b]
Michael Cohen, executive vice-president and special counsel to Donald Trump, responded by email to a Guardian request for comment, saying: “It is disheartening that one has to dignify a response to the below absurd query. Mr Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms Harth as these 24-year-old allegations lack any merit or veracity.
“Hope [Mr Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks] will forward to you under separate e-mail, a series of e-mails documenting Ms Harth’s support of Mr Trump, the race for the White House as well as seeking a job opportunity with the campaign.”
In an earlier phone call, Cohen said Harth had “massive credibility issues”.
[x] Harth said of her wish for an apology from Trump: ‘I don’t fully expect one.’ Photograph: Guardian
Speaking in Cleveland at the Republican national convention on Wednesday, Roger Stone, a veteran strategist and longtime Trump adviser, dismissed the allegations, saying: “I have an excellent bullshit detector.”
Stone added: “A verbal agreement is entirely unprovable … So it’s more he said, she said. Sure sounds like bullshit to me.”
Such responses from the Trump camp aren’t new and neither is the lawsuit, which Harth brought forward in 1997. She dropped it weeks later after Trump settled an outstanding business lawsuit from her partner Houraney claiming he broke contract by backing out of the American Dream festival. (Houraney sued for $5m but settled with Trump for a smaller, undisclosed amount.)
Houraney met Harth when she was still in high school and though he didn’t witness any of the alleged incidents with Trump, aside from that first meeting in Trump Tower, Houraney has never doubted her. “I know they’re all true,” he said of the allegations. “I knew her way too long to think she could make up stuff like that, It wasn’t in her. She wasn’t capable of making up the things she said in that thing.”
Harth told the Guardian she expected very little from Trump. “I’m not going to get an apology from him. That would be nice, but he – I don’t fully expect one. But he really should have been taught, if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything, OK? Don’t call me a liar.
“He didn’t have to say anything. For once, he should have closed his mouth. He didn’t have to comment. We were on great – not great, I’ll take that back – we were on good terms, friendly terms. He didn’t – he started this. What is happening now is of his own making, OK? I was quiet.”
During dinner that night, Harth alleged in a 1997 lawsuit, Trump groped her under the table, then cornered her in a bedroom normally used by his daughter Ivanka and “forcibly kissed, fondled and restrained” her from leaving.
Later, in the predawn hours, she alleged in the suit, Trump also sneaked into a bedroom being used by a 22-year-old contestant. Climbing into her bed uninvited, he groped her, too, according to the suit.
Trump has denied the allegations by Harth, who declined to comment. The pageant partnership later fizzled, leading Houraney to separately sue Trump in 1995 for breach of contract. Harth said she withdrew her subsequent harassment lawsuit as a condition for settling the contract dispute. She went on to briefly date Trump.
According to Epstein, he and Trump partied at his house, too. In a 2015 email exchange with Landon Thomas Jr., then a Times reporter, he recounted a moment when Trump was so focused on young women swimming in his pool that he walked into a glass door. Epstein also referred to the 22-year-old contestant from that night in 1993, indicating she had pictures of “donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen” and providing her email address.
The emails, among those released by Congress last month, came as Trump led in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. Thomas, who had once pitched Epstein on a sympathetic profile, said he was being approached by people who thought he had “juicy info on you and Trump.”
It is unclear whether the photos Epstein referenced exist. The former contestant could not be reached for comment. The Times is withholding her name because she has not publicly come forward with her own account of the events. (Thomas has said he never received any photographs; he left the Times in 2019 after disclosing that he had solicited a charitable contribution from Epstein.)
In November 1993, Trump’s chosen pageant contestants flew in from around the world for a week of events at his properties in New York and Atlantic City. At one point, Harth said in her lawsuit, Trump demanded that she provide him with “access” to a 17-year-old Czech contestant. The suit does not say if she complied or if Trump met the contestant.
Toward the end of the week, the contestants joined Trump for a press luncheon at the Plaza. One contestant, Béatrice Keul, then a bank employee and part-time model from Switzerland, said in an interview with the Times that during the event, one of Trump’s employees asked her to meet privately with him in a suite upstairs. Almost as soon as she arrived, Keul said, Trump began groping her, kissing her and trying to lift her dress. “I yelled, I screamed, I pushed him,” she said. “He didn’t want to give up.”
She said she was withholding some details of what happened because she had been subject to anonymous threats. Keul first described aspects of the episode to The Daily Mail last year. A friend, Pascal Claivaz, told the Times that Keul recounted the episode at the Plaza to him around 2004. Keul also provided the Times with pictures of documents corroborating her participation in the pageant and of herself with Trump.
Before the private meeting, she was also approached by Epstein.
“I’m Jeffrey. I’m Don’s best friend,” she recalled him saying. She was confused at first, Keul said, because he didn’t seem to be affiliated with the pageant. She didn’t understand why he had been allowed into the press luncheon. “He said, ‘Don likes you very much,’ and that they were organizing parties at Mar-a-Lago and he would love me to join,” Keul said. He would take care of her, her flights, her hotel. “You just need to pack and come to the party at Mar-a-Lago,” she recalled him saying.
When Keul demurred, Epstein tried other tactics — going on about the wealth he kept in Swiss banks, then about famous friends with whom he could arrange meetings.
“Epstein knew exactly what he was doing,” she said. “He had a hunting method. It was a routine.”
The first of Epstein’s former assistants interviewed by the Times said that on dozens of occasions in the mid-1990s, the financier instructed her to call a pageant winner from somewhere in the world and invite her to visit him in Florida. His standing offer, the assistant said, was an all-expenses-paid trip and $5,000 in cash to go shopping on Worth Avenue, Palm Beach’s famed shopping destination.
In December 1993, not long after the pageant, Trump married Maples at the Plaza. Photos show Epstein in attendance. But the parties continued.
‘Dress sexy’
In the early 2000s, guests mingled in the library or dining room of Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion as their host held court. The women were beautiful and numerous. The men were older and few. Occasionally, one of the women would head toward the bedrooms. One of the men would shortly follow.
One woman, then a model and college student in her early 20s living in Manhattan, said she attended four parties at the mansion. She cannot recall the names of most of the men she met at the gatherings, not even those Epstein directed her to “take care of” at two of them. Recruited by Maxwell and then abused by Epstein, she buried her shame and kept their secrets for years. But Trump’s presence stood out, she told the Times. He was a household name, someone Epstein often bragged about to the women around him, yet also seemed to compete with.
“It was like a pissing contest — who had the most women,” she recalled. She requested anonymity to describe her experiences in detail, saying she feared for her family’s safety after Trump said some of his critics could be executed for sedition.
To people in the modeling business, men like Trump and Epstein were a familiar part of the scene: wealthy men who used their money, clout and personal connections in fashion to meet the young women who worked in the industry. “Two days a week, you’d be at a model dinner at a restaurant,” said Heather Braden, a model and filmmaker. “And there’d be these men we didn’t know.” Braden, who now lives in Utah, said she often saw Trump and Epstein at the same parties or dinners during the 1990s in New York and South Florida, including at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump converted to a members’ club in 1995.
Each man cultivated relationships that in turn put them in proximity to young women in the industry. Epstein exploited his close relationship with Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, sometimes telling women he could get them meetings or bookings. Photographers or camera crews captured Epstein and Trump together at Victoria’s Secret events in 1997 and 1999.
Trump befriended Hawaiian Tropic founder Ron Rice, who told The Boston Globe that he would send models and pageant contestants to Mar-a-Lago for parties at Trump’s request, and John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management, whose Look of the Year contest Trump sponsored and helped judge in the early 1990s.
For Mar-a-Lago gatherings, groups of models were sometimes bused in from Miami, often with help from Trump’s friend Jason Binn, a co-founder of the society magazine Ocean Drive. Binn did not return calls and emails seeking comment.
Tina Davis, who worked with Ford Models in the mid-1990s, said in an interview that her Ford booker instructed her to get dressed up and attend a Mar-a-Lago party in late 1994. Just 14 and new to Miami, she was told to “dress sexy,” according to her mother, Sandra Coleman, who had accompanied her to Florida. Eight or nine other models came along on the bus. “All the girls were really young,” Coleman recalled in an interview. “Some of them could have been in training bras.”
When they arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Coleman said, her daughter was promptly handed a glass of Champagne. She took it away, but servers kept offering more. Each time one of the middle-aged men at the party approached her daughter, Coleman would walk over and introduce herself as Davis’ mother.
During a trip to the bathroom, they ran into Trump’s new wife, whom they had met earlier. Maples clasped her hands, Coleman recalled, and looked her in the eye. “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband,” she told Coleman. “Protect her.”
Maples denied making the comment. “I would always protect young women in any way I could,” she said, “but I am sure I didn’t specifically say that about my daughter’s father.”
Epstein was a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago parties. A woman who said Epstein trafficked her in the late 1990s and early 2000s recalled attending at least a half-dozen of the parties, beginning when she was 17 and modeling during the winter fashion season in Florida. Epstein showed up at several of them, too. He always seemed to know about events happening at Mar-a-Lago, she said, even when he did not attend, and was always curious about her experiences.
The invitations typically came from Binn and Ocean Drive, bidding the models “to be Donald Trump’s guest at Mar-a-Lago,” according to one invitation she shared with the Times. The parties were open-bar, and no one checked IDs, she said. Trump was “always all over” them, she recalled.
The woman provided a picture of herself and a friend with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. She said she did not remember whether she was still 17 at the time of the picture. She has not previously spoken publicly about meeting the future president, and asked for anonymity because she feared retaliation from him or his supporters.
During the 1990s, both Epstein and Trump also forged ties with an up-and-coming modeling agency known as Next and its co-founder Faith Kates, who would become one of the industry’s major figures.
Epstein was sometimes seen around Next office meetings, according to Braden, who was represented by an agency that merged with Next in the early 1990s. (After Epstein’s death, several former employees told The Daily Beast that they had seen Epstein around the Next offices or taken calls from him; after he was arrested in Florida for soliciting underage girls, he also donated money to a charity founded by Kates.) Trump attended Next parties in New York, according to a former model who was represented by the agency in the late 1990s and said she once found herself seated near Trump at the agency’s holiday dinner.
The agency also sometimes sent models to parties at Mar-a-Lago. Zoë Brock, a New Zealand model who worked for Next in Miami, said she was pressured by the agency to attend one of Trump’s parties in 1998, when she was 24. When she balked, a representative of the agency offered to pay her a few hundred dollars to attend.
Not long after, she said, she boarded a bus with 20 or so other models. At Mar-a-Lago, each woman was given a red-and-white striped wristband, advertising them, Brock felt, as “meat.” None of the other guests — chiefly men in tuxedos — wore the wristbands. The women were made to line up and meet Trump.
“I had a glass of Champagne, and I immediately felt not well,” Brock recalled, adding, “I thought my drink had been spiked.”
It was Kates who had brought her client Williams to the 1992 dinner where she first met Epstein, some months after she made her Sports Illustrated debut. And it was Kates who brought her to Trump’s annual holiday party at the Plaza that fall, where she ran into Epstein again — and where Trump also vied for her attention, praising her recent spread in the swimsuit issue, Williams said.
“I think they were trying to get as high up the chain of models as far as they could,” Williams said. “They wanted the biggest prize, the most famous model.”
But it was Epstein — not Trump — to whom she gave her number. One day the following year, as they strolled down Fifth Avenue, Epstein proposed visiting his friend in Trump Tower.
The real purpose of the visit, Williams later came to believe, was to play a game. As the two friends stood talking in Trump’s waiting room, she said, the real estate developer pulled her toward him and groped her breasts, waist and buttocks.
Epstein acted like nothing had happened. After they left, though, he flew into a rage, berating Williams for letting Trump touch her.
“I’m convinced that’s why he walked me in there,” she said in a recent interview. “He thought I would punch him in the face or something. But I froze.” (A Trump representative previously called her allegations “unequivocally false.”)
Kates departed Next in November, after emails released by Congress indicated that she and Epstein had remained close for years after his 2008 plea deal on charges of soliciting a minor.
A Next spokesperson declined to answer questions sent by email, instead sending a statement that the agency “has never had a business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or Donald Trump.”
Kates also declined to answer specific questions. “Neither Faith nor anyone associated with Next ever brought clients to parties or dinners for any inappropriate purpose,” a spokesperson for Kates said.
The woman who attended four parties at Epstein’s mansion in the early 2000s said she had first met Maxwell at a show during New York Fashion Week in 2000. Maxwell presented herself as a wealthy, well-educated mentor, taking her to lunch and charity events. Eventually, she offered to introduce her to a friend, Epstein. She said Maxwell told her that he could help her achieve her dream of modeling for Victoria’s Secret. The three met at Epstein’s mansion that fall and talked about her career.
On a second visit, she recalled, Epstein and Maxwell began touching each other, and then her. She froze. “I don’t know if I could have moved if I wanted to,” she said. Expecting an apology, she returned for a third visit. Instead, she said, Epstein warned her that cameras in the mansion had recorded their encounter. He insisted she come to parties there. Terrified that her parents and pastor would find out what had happened, she acquiesced.
The women at the four parties she attended didn’t seem to know one another. The other men arrived individually. She recalled meeting Trump at one of the parties. She showed the Times a handwritten address book she kept in those years, containing Trump’s name and two of his phone numbers. Trump did not act inappropriately with her, the woman said.
The woman said she hoped the Justice Department would release redacted documents relating to her interview with the FBI, which took place in New York City in the summer of 2020, she said, and in which she mentioned Trump’s presence at the parties. That same year, according to documents the woman provided, she was interviewed about Epstein by representatives of the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, and later received a settlement. Another victims’ fund, handling claims against JPMorgan Chase to settle allegations that the bank ignored warnings about Epstein’s abuses, also approved the woman for a settlement.
She has since filed paperwork to join a Florida lawsuit by more than 30 women — most under pseudonyms — alleging that the FBI failed to properly investigate reports of sex crimes and child sex trafficking by Epstein dating to 1996. Government lawyers have asked a judge to dismiss the case.
“The government knew about Epstein. They were aware of his sexual abuse of minors and young women,” said Jennifer Plotkin, a lawyer for the women. “And because they did nothing, hundreds and hundreds of women were abused over 20 years.”
Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to traffic underage girls. Last July, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, traveled to Florida to interview her. She acknowledged Trump’s social relationship with Epstein but said she had never seen the president behave inappropriately. A week later, she was transferred to a minimum security prison. Her lawyers are now seeking to overturn her conviction.
Rewriting history
In the early 2000s, Epstein — now extraordinarily wealthy and well connected — seemed to grow less content with the anonymity he had carefully drawn around his life and business. In 2002, practically inviting public scrutiny, he arranged to fly with former President Bill Clinton and a celebrity entourage on a humanitarian trip to Africa. Details of the trip were soon shared with The New York Post’s Page Six. Not long after, New York magazine published the first major profile of Epstein. Trump provided the headline quote: “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
But sometime in the subsequent years, their friendship soured. Exactly when, and why, is unclear. After the allegations against Epstein slowly began emerging into view in the mid-2000s, accounts Trump and his representatives gave of their relationship — and its end — began to molt and morph. Epstein was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago for being inappropriate with a masseuse, or with the daughter of a member. Trump had banned him for poaching employees, or for being a creep.
The first public signs of a breach came in 2007, with an anonymous Page Six item, right as Epstein was negotiating a plea deal to resolve the first federal and state charges against him. Epstein, the Post reported, had been banned from Mar-a-Lago for soliciting “a masseuse about 18 years old.” The item appeared to refer to Virginia Giuffre, who said she was recruited by Maxwell from the Mar-a-Lago spa just shy of her 17th birthday — back in 2000, when Epstein and Trump were still close.
Several years after the Page Six item, when Giuffre had gone public with her allegations, Epstein wrote to Maxwell expressing surprise that Trump had not gotten more attention, writing that his friend had “spent hours at my house” with Giuffre. Maxwell replied that she had been thinking about the same thing. In depositions in 2016 — with Trump a leading contender for the world’s most powerful public office — Giuffre said that Trump had never had sex with her, and that she couldn’t remember seeing him in Epstein’s homes. She died by suicide this April.
In 2009, Edwards, the lawyer representing a group of Epstein victims, set out to depose Epstein’s circle of powerful friends. In his book, Edwards wrote that Trump quickly agreed to a phone call. Epstein was merely a business acquaintance, he told Edwards. He could not recall exactly why Epstein had been removed from Mar-a-Lago. He said he had last seen him at a business meeting at Epstein’s Palm Beach home sometime before the allegations came to light.
Even so, in early 2015, as Trump began exploring a presidential bid, stories about Epstein’s widening legal troubles still referred to Trump as his friend. Trump and his representatives became more aggressive. Epstein was merely “one of thousands of people who has visited Mar-a-Lago,” Alan Garten, Trump’s top aide and lawyer, told BuzzFeed News. He was even more definitive the following year. “There was no relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump,” Garten told Fox News. “They were not friends, and they did not socialize together.”
When a reporter from The Associated Press asked Trump about Epstein in 2015, he responded elliptically. “He was certainly a man about town, and because of the fact that it is a small island, he got to know a lot of people,” Trump said, referring to Palm Beach. “When I started reading about the different things and then things were proven, that’s a different planet, that’s a different world.”
Interviews and public records, however, indicate that Trump at times had interacted socially with women who accused Epstein and Maxwell of grooming or abuse. The federal case against Maxwell described her role in grooming three victims under the age of 18 between 1994 and 1997. One of them, a woman known in court records as Jane Doe, alleged in a separate, civil complaint that Epstein had taken her to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1994, when she was about 14.
“This is a good one, right?” Epstein said, elbowing Trump playfully, according to the complaint. Trump smiled and nodded, and the two men chuckled, the victim said. Her case ended in a settlement with Epstein’s estate. In 2021, testifying at Maxwell’s trial, she said she competed in Trump’s Miss Teen USA pageant.
Jack O’Donnell, who ran the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City for several years and later wrote a critical book about Trump, recalled in an interview that Trump once arrived at the casino after midnight one Sunday in September 1989 with Epstein and three young women. A state gambling inspector recognized one of the women as tennis star Gabriela Sabatini, who at 19 was too young to legally enter the casino. In a call that Monday, the inspector told O’Donnell that all the women looked “very young,” he said. Soon after, O’Donnell called Trump to flag the issue.
“Yeah, Jeffrey likes them young,” Trump said, O’Donnell recalled in a recent interview. “Too young for me.” O’Donnell previously described the episode in Slate; the White House called his account a fabrication. Efforts to reach Sabatini were unsuccessful.
Whatever the cause of their later falling-out, Epstein remained obsessed with Trump. In the years after their last known contact, he exchanged hundreds of emails with others mentioning his former friend. As Trump’s political career took flight in the mid-2010s, Epstein’s umbrage seemed to grow. Even as he maneuvered to regain influence within Trump’s world, he mocked and criticized him in private, calling him “nuts” and “evil beyond belief,” according to the emails released by Congress.
He resented Trump’s efforts to distance himself, the emails show. His older, smoother former friend seemed untouchable, while he was enveloped in scandal once again, as more and more victims came forward with their accounts of abuse. In an interview taped by Wolff in 2017 and published by The Daily Beast last year, Epstein described what he said was Trump’s technique for trying to bed the wives of friends. Wolff asked how he had such intimate knowledge of Trump. “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years,” Epstein replied.
In emails, he hinted to friends that he could take Trump down. He didn’t say how.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Jeffrey Epstein files latest: New files, including transcripts, released by Department of Justice on Saturday. Agency hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after Friday release includes limited, heavily redacted trove by Marina Dunbar (now); Sarah Haque and Hayden Vernon (earlier) The Guardian Sat 20 Dec 2025 17.48 EST https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/liv ... live#img-2
• Analysis: Trickle release signals move to bury Trump ties • Photos from the first batch of Epstein files
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an image released by the US Department of Justice. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
07.33 EST Analysis: trickle release on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties by Sam Levine
The justice department’s partial release of the Epstein files on Friday signaled how the agency is using a variety of tactics to try to bury and obfuscate Donald Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein, writes Sam Levine.
The release underscores how the Trump administration is trying to balance both the demand to release the files – something encouraged in large part by the Maga base – while also obfuscating with a slow trickle of document dumps to prevent any embarrassment to Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before they had a falling out.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche has said the department will continue to produce documents on a rolling basis in the coming weeks – a holiday period – a bet that Americans will simply tune out the story as it drags on.
Read Sam’s full analysis here:
Trickle release of Epstein files on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties. The justice department is using a variety of tactics to try to obfuscate the US president’s connection to the sex offender by Sam Levine in New York The Guardian Sat 20 Dec 2025 05.00 EST https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... tegy-trump
From left, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Belgian model Ingrid Seynhaeve, at a Victoria's Secret party in New York City in 1997. Photograph: Epstein estate/House oversight committee/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock
The justice department’s partial release of the Epstein files on Friday signaled how the agency is using a variety of tactics to try to bury and obfuscate Donald Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
As the department raced towards a legally mandated Friday deadline to release its files, little emerged about what it planned to release. There never really seemed to be a doubt that the department would release the files late on Friday afternoon, deploying the well-worn Washington trick of burying unflattering news before a weekend.
Then, on Friday morning, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, went on Fox News to say that the department wouldn’t actually be releasing all of the files on Friday as required by the law. “I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche said on Fox News. “There’s a lot of eyes looking at these and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim.”
By the time the department eventually did release thousands of pages of materials on Friday evening – not the hundreds of thousands Blanche promised - many of the documents had been heavily or completely redacted. Other than a few pictures, the materials made no mention of Trump, even though attorney general Pam Bondi reportedly told Trump earlier this year his name was in the files.
The release underscores how the Trump administration is trying to balance both the demand to release the files – something encouraged in large part by the Maga base – while also obfuscating with a slow trickle of document dumps to prevent any embarrassment to Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before they had a falling out. Blanche has said the department will continue to produce documents on a rolling basis in the coming weeks – a holiday period – a bet that Americans will simply tune out the story as it drags on.
Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who sponsored the law to release the files, was one of many members of Congress to express outrage. He said on Twitter that the release “grossly fails to comply” with the statute.
The justice department did not immediately return a request for comment.
“The Trump Administration is the most transparent in history. By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law that mandates the release of the materials, requires attorney general Pam Bondi to submit within 15 days of the document release a report detailing all categories of the records and a summary of the redactions made and their legal basis. It’s unclear whether that report will be delayed since the records will be released on a rolling basis.
While Trump barely made an appearance in Friday’s release, Bill Clinton appears in several images. The Daily Wire, a Trump-friendly site, obtained a photo of Clinton and Epstein on Thursday, a day before the release. Photos of Clinton lounging in a pool and a hot tub were among those released on Friday. Justice department and White House spokespeople were quick to highlight the images on Twitter.
“Beloved Democrat president. The black box is added to protect a victim,” Gates McGavick, a justice department spokesperson, posted alongside a photo of Clinton in what seems to be a hot tub with another person whose face is redacted. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, posted another photo of Clinton with someone whose face is redacted and, quoting the song Jumpman by Drake and Future, wrote “them boys is up to something”.
Angel Ureña, a Clinton spokesperson, released a statement on Friday saying the Trump administration was using the former president to try to distract from Trump’s connection to Epstein.
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever,” he said. “So they can release as many 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be.”
Several other celebrities appeared in the images released on Friday, including Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Richard Branson, Chris Tucker, David Copperfield and Kevin Spacey. Like Clinton, none has been accused of any crime in connection to Epstein. But their immediate appearance in the files benefits Trump, creating the impression that it was not unusual for famous men to hang out with Epstein.
Meanwhile, the strategy did not appease Democrats on Capitol Hill. The party’s leadership roundly decried the limited release, and some calls for Bondi’s ouster emerged. “Now the coverup is out in the open. This is far from over,” the US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. “Bondi should resign tonight.”
***
10m ago 17.48 EST One of the most notable cases of excessive redaction within the Epstein files released by the justice department is a 119-page document labeled as Grand Jury-NY, likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021.
Every line of every page has been completely blacked out, sparking outrage from lawmakers and the public.
Pages from a totally redacted New York grand jury file into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, released by the US justice department. Photograph: Jon Elswick/AP
1h ago 16.42 EST At least 16 files have disappeared from the justice department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including a photograph showing Donald Trump, less than a day after the files were posted, the Associated Press has reported.
The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image (originally labeled file 468), inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The justice department did not say why the files had been removed or whether their disappearance was intentional, and no notice was offered to the public before the removals.
File 468, which includes a photo of Trump, has been removed from the justice department’s Epstein files website. Photograph: Department of Justice
***
2h ago 16.00 EST Summer Lee, the Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, took aim at the Trump administration’s hyperbolic claims of transparency following the release of heavily redacted documents.
“Most transparent admin in history?” Lee wrote on X, accompanying a photo of a full page of blacked-out text. “These redactions are an absolute mockery of the survivors of Epstein’s abuse and the American people.”
“The DOJ is still compelled by our subpoena to release the full, unredacted files to the Oversight Committee,” she added. “This cover up must end.”
2h ago 15.31 EST The Associated Press has some more on the investigation into Epstein in 2007, reporting:
The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.
One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.
Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.
“For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are under age, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”
The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the US attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.
Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.
He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.
“There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.
***
3h ago 14.33 EST Schumer calls Epstein files release 'one of the biggest cover ups in American history' The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, has responded to the allegations that the justice department removed a photo of Donald Trump from its website, calling the handling of the Epstein files release possibly “one of the biggest cover ups in American history”.
“This is what Susie Wiles meant when she said Trump and Epstein were “young, single playboys together”, Schumer wrote on social media. “And if they’re taking this down, just imagine how much more they’re trying to hide… This could be one of the biggest cover ups in American history.”
***
4h ago 14.11 EST Several of the photos released provide glimpses inside of Jeffrey Epstein’s properties. Here are some images:
An image of a room from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s properties released by the justice department. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock Another image shows Jeffrey Epstein.
Another image shows Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
A massage room with images of naked women on the walls. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
An image of a room from the files released by the justice department. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
***
5h ago 13.28 EST by George Chidi
Conservative reaction to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case has been mixed, with Trump administration supporters highlighting the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in photographs, with others lamenting how the heavy redaction casts Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.
Administration officials defended the redactions with fervent hyperbole. “Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter,” said Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who released a six-page letter describing the redaction process.
While Trump’s name and image appear in some of the documents, the redactions raise questions about what may be concealed behind the black blocks. Some Republicans immediately called for more transparency.
Rightwing Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene – who has recently fallen out with Trump - criticized the release, describing “the heavily redacted Epstein files”, the “failure to release them all by today’s lawful deadline” and the redaction of “politically exposed individuals and government officials” as “NOT MAGA”.
Read more:
From praise to rage: conservative response to Epstein release is mixed. Republicans such as Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene slam redactions, but others express satisfaction by George Chidi The Guardian Sat 20 Dec 2025 13.11 EST https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... in-release
Marjorie Taylor Greene in Washington DC on 3 September. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Conservative reaction to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case has been mixed, with Trump administration supporters highlighting the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in photographs, with others lamenting how the heavy redaction casts Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.
Administration officials defended the redactions with fervent hyperbole. “Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter,” said Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who released a six-page letter describing the redaction process.
While Trump’s name and image appear in some of the documents, the redactions raise questions about what may be concealed behind the black blocks. Some Republicans immediately called for more transparency.
Rightwing Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene – who has recently fallen out with Trump - criticized the release, describing “the heavily redacted Epstein files”, the “failure to release them all by today’s lawful deadline” and the redaction of “politically exposed individuals and government officials” as “NOT MAGA”.
“People are raging and walking away,” she wrote.
In a social media post, the Republican Kentucky representative Thomas Massie said the redactions violate the law, and suggested that a future Congress may impeach the attorney general, Pam Bondi, for that violation. “Unfortunately, today’s document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago.”
But some rightwing commentators and Trump loyalists swung firmly behind the administration.
The release – from a justice department run by close Trump ally Bondi – has hundreds of pages of case material that are completely redacted and many of the men depicted in photographs have their faces redacted.
But some do not, including high-profile figures like Clinton, pop singer Michael Jackson and academic Noam Chomsky. The presence of Clinton, especially, allowed some rightwing figures to go on the attack.
“It’s pretty rich how the Democrats falsely accused President Trump of being a pedophile, only for the Trump DOJ to release Epstein files that show Bill Clinton skinny dipping with a pedophile in the pedo’s pool,” write conservative commentator Laura Loomer. “Maybe now the media will stop obsessing over these files.”
“New Epstein Files show Bill Clinton shirtless in a hot tub with a female that is not his wife Hillary Clinton,” wrote Rogan O’Handley, an attorney whose dc_draino account on Instagram has more than 3 million followers. “There’s only 1 reason Epstein would photograph a US President with a girl in a hot tub: Blackmail.”
Clinton has repeatedly said he knew of no criminal actions by Epstein and has never been alleged to have engaged in any wrongdoing. “The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Ureña said in a statement on X.
“This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be,” the statement added.
However, overall comment on the right was relatively muted on Saturday, especially when compared with the loud demands for action that preceded the congressional vote to pass a law requiring the document’s release.
Loomer, who recently accepted press credentials at the Pentagon after a revolt by conventional newsrooms against reporting restrictions adopted by the administration, had been among the loudest advocates for a release.
In February, Loomer chastised the administration broadly and Bondi specifically after a group of rightwing influencers were given physical binders of files earlier this year that contained no new information.
Epstein files explode open as DOJ details discovery of powerful figures and more than 1,200 victims. The files include new photos of former President Bill Clinton and Epstein by Brooke Singman Fox News Published December 19, 2025 4:01pm EST https://www.foxnews.com/politics/epstei ... 00-victims
Epstein files to go public as Trump signs law releasing all records. Fox News host Jesse Watters chats with Rep. James Comer about the breaking news on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.'
EXCLUSIVE: More than a dozen politically exposed people and government officials' names appear in the hundreds of thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein files made public Friday, sources said.
And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ discovered more than 1,200 victims and their families during the exhaustive review, explaining the process behind determining which files could be released in a letter to Congress exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
Sources told Fox News Digital that new photos of Epstein with former President Bill Clinton are part of the release, which is available at justice.gov/epstein. Clinton did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
epstein-clinton.pdf
The Justice Department redacted the names and identifiers of victims. Fox News Digital has learned that the same redaction standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials.
Later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Digital in a phone interview that the Justice Department is "not redacting the names of any politicians."
"The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law — full stop," Blanche told Fox News Digital, pointing to victims' names, victims' stories, any identifiable information. "Consistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim."
"There are no redactions of famous people," Blanche stressed.
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter written by Blanche to members of the House of Representatives regarding Friday’s anticipated release of the files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
clinton-1.pdf
"We write to notify you that today the Department of Justice is producing hundreds of thousands of pages of responsive materials in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Blanche wrote.
clinton-2.pdf
"Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, this unprecedented disclosure highlights our commitment to following the law, being transparent, and protecting victims," Blanche continued, noting that the production of documents comes within the 30 days required under the law signed by the president.
"This letter will summarize the Department’s historic efforts and disclose specific details regarding the review and production process," Blanche continued.
blanche-.pdf
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the Deputy Attorney General The Deputy Attorney General Washington, D.C 20530
December 19, 2025
Members of Congress:
I write to notifY you that today the Department of Justice is producing hundreds of thousands of pages ofrespon.sive materials in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act (the Act). Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, this unprecedented disclosure highlights our commitment to following the law, being transparent, and protecting victims. President Donald J. Trump signed the Act into law on November 19, 2025. In compliance with the Act, the Department of Justice-at the direction of the Attorney General-has been working to ensure that all responsive materials have been identified, collected, uploaded, reviewed, and publicly produced within 30 days as required under the Act. See Sec. 2(a).
This letter will summarize the Department's historic efforts and disclose specific details regarding the review and production process. Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter. Democrat administrations in the past have refused to provide full details of the Jeffrey Epstein saga. But President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, and FBI Director Patel are committed to providing full transparency consistent with the law.
As part of the collection and review process, the Department is continuing to review additional documents and other items for potential responsiveness. Just this week one of the Department's components provided additional victim information requiring updated review of materials, and in the last few weeks multiple courts have granted the Department's unsealing motions, requiring detailed review of thousands of pages of investigative and grand jury material. Several components have just provided documents this week. Because of the volume of the material and the requirement that every page of every document be reviewed for potential redactions under the Act, final stages of review of some material continue. A district court judge in the Southern District of New York separately imposed additional requirements on the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, adding additional layers of review to minimize the risk of inadvertent production of protected victim information. I anticipate this ongoing review being completed over the next two weeks.
The Review Process
Today, the Department is producing hundreds of thousands of pages of documents responsive to the Act. This disclosure highlights President Trump's, Attorney General Bondi's, and Director Patel's absolute commitment to transparency consistent with the law. Prior to the passage of the Act, the Department conducted a thorough review, including digital searches of databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as searches of real and personal properties. As noted in the July 6 Memorandum, this review did not reveal credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals, nor did it uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. Because of various protective orders, grand jury secrecy laws, and Department practice, limited additional materials have been provided prior to this production. Recently, in addition to the Act being signed by President Trump, judges in the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of ew York authorized the Department to produce materials previously prohibited from production by protective orders and grand jury secrecy laws.
After the Act became effective, the Department prepared a Review Protocol for its attorneys to use while reviewing materials to determine whether an item is responsive under the Act and, if so, whether any information contained in those materials required redactions or withholding as allowed under the Act and other applicable law. See Sec. 2( c)(I); see also 5 U.S.c. § 552a (the Privacy Act of 1974).
The Review Protocol is consistent with the Act and instructed attorneys to redact or withhold material that (I) contained personally identifiable information of victims; (2) depicted or contained child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) as defined under 18 U.S.C. § 2256 and prohibited under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252- 2252A; (3) would jeopardize an active investigation or prosecution; (4) depicted images of death, physical abuse, or injury; and/or (5) properly classified national defense or foreign policy information. See Sec. 2( c)(I )(A)-(E). The Review Protocol is being produced as part of the Department's response under the Act and is attached to this letter.
In addition to the bases for withholding or redacting under the Act, the Department has withheld and redacted a limited amount of information otherwise covered by various privileges, including deliberative-process privilege, work-product privilege, and attorney-client privilege. These privileges are based in common law- not statutes- and Congress is fully aware of them. See Fed. R. Evid. 501; Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40, 47 (1980) ("'In . .. enacting Rule 501 , Congress manitested an affirmative intention not to freeze the law of privilege."). It is a long-held principle that Congress speaks clearly when it intends to abrogate a common law principle or privilege. See Bassett v. United States, 137 U.S. 496. 505-06 (1890) C·[BJefore any departure from the rule affirmed through the ages of the common law-a rule having its solid foundation in the best interests of society-can be adjudged, the language declaring the legislative will should be so clear as to prevent doubt as to its intent and limit.").
Although the Act broadly categorizes items required to be produced, the Act does not include language expressly requiring the Department to produce privileged materials. See Sec. 2(a); Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, 597 U.S. 629, 642 (2022) ("Congress expresses its intentions through statutory text passed by both Houses and signed by the President."). A privilege log will be produced in due course as required under the Act.
Protecting victims is of the highest priority for President Trump, the Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice. As part of the review and production, the Department solicited counsel for any victims of Jeffrey Epstein and invited counsel to provide us with names of victims, whether previously identitied or not. This process resulted in over 1,200 names being identified as victims or their relatives. The Department has redacted reference to such names. In addition to redacting the names of these victims, the Department has also redacted and is not producing any materials that could result in their identification.
The materials on the Department's website include those identified as responsive under the Act. Documents with Bates numbers "'EFTA" followed by 8 digits are those identified during the process described herein after the Act's enactment. If a Bates number is missing from this category of documents means that the Department recently identified that missing document as containing information that the Act requires to be withheld or redacted. An updated version of that document with the victim or other information under the Act redacted will be uploaded to the website expeditiously. In addition, the website contains materials that the Department had in its possession that were previously available publicly. This second category of documents do not contain Bates numbers.
To ensure that all potentially responsive materials were identified, collected, and reviewed, the Department instructed all components with potentially responsive materials to produce those materials to the Justice Management Division (JMD). JMD, which serves as the management arm of the Department as well as Department's Chief Information Office, then uploaded materials it received onto a discovery platform so that attorneys could review for responsiveness and mark appropriate information for redactions as required under the Act. Materials that could not be uploaded onto the discovery platform because of its size or other compatibility issues were reviewed and redacted in their native format.
Potentially responsive materials were identified and collected from Main Justice, Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO-SDNY), and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida (USAO-SDFL).
To ensure the maximum compliance possible under the Act in a 30-day window, JMD had its employees working on ingesting and uploading the voluminous materials so that Department attorneys could conduct their review on the discovery platform.
In collecting and providing materials to JMD to ingest and upload for attorney review, Department components erred on the side of over-collecting materials to ensure full transparency in compliance with the Act. As a result of these broad collections, the vast majority of the items that components provided to JMD were non-responsive under the Act.
The review team consisted of more than 200 Department attorneys working to determine whether materials were responsive under the Act and. if so, whether redactions or withholding was required. The review had multiple levels. First, 187 attorneys from the Department's National Security Division (NSD) conducted a review of all items produced to JMD for responsiveness and any redactions under the Act. Second, a quality-control team of 25 attorneys conducted a second-level review to ensure that victim personally identifying information was properly redacted and that materials that should not be redacted were not marked for redaction. The second-level review team consisted of attorneys from the Department's Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties (OPCL) and Office ofInformation Policy (OIP)-these attorneys are experts in privacy rights and reviewing large volumes of discovery. After the second-level review team completed its quality review, responsive materials were uploaded onto the website for public production as required under the Act. See Sec. 2(a). Finally, Assistant United States Attorneys from the Southern District of New York reviewed the responsive materials to confirm appropriate redactions so that the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York could certify that victim identifying information was appropriately protected.
Consistent with the Act, the Department attorneys reviewed all materials produced by its components for responsiveness. Specifically, the Department attorneys reviewed and marked as responsive "all unclassified record s, documents. communications, and investigative materials ... that relate to: (\) Jeffrey Epstein including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters; (2) Ghislaine Maxwell; (3) flight logs or travel records . .. for any aircraft, vessel, or vehicle owned, operated, or used by Jeffrey Epstein or any related entity; (4) individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein's criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity or plea agreements, or investigatory proceedings; (5) entities ... with known or alleged ties to Epstein's trafficking or financial networks; (6) any immunity deals, nonprosecution agreements, plea bargains, or sealed settlements involving Epstein or his associates; (7); internal DO] communications, including emails, memos, meeting notes, concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates; (8) all communications, memoranda, directives, logs, or metadata concerning the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment of documents, recordings, or electronic data related to Epstein, his associates, his detention and death, or any investigative files; [and] (9) documentation of Epstein's detention or death. including incident reports, witness interviews, medical examiner files, autopsy reports, and written records detailing the circumstances and cause of death."
Consistent with the Act, the Department will provide an explanation for any redacted and withheld materials as part of this production. See Sec. 2(c)(2).
Today's Production
The production includes portions of the FBI New York investigative file for the 2018 Epstein criminal case for child sex trafficking and 2019 Maxwell criminal case; the FBI Miami investigative file for the 2006 Epstein criminal case for child prostitution; the FBI Miami investigative file for the 2009 Alfredo Rodriguez criminal case for obstruction of justice; the FBI New York investigative file for the 2019 Epstein death investigation; the FBI New York investigative file for a threat made against one of Epstein's victims; investigative materials underlying OIG's June 2023 report into Epstein's death; BOP materials related to Epstein's custody at Metropolitan Correctional Center New York (MCC New York), including visitor logbooks, commissary records, and count slips; grand-jury materials from the SDNY Epstein criminal case, SDNY Maxwell criminal case, and SDFL Epstein criminal case; court records from civil and criminal cases involving Epstein, Maxwell, and the Epstein estate; and materials produced by the DOJ in various cases brought under the Freedom of Information Act (ForA). All produced materials will be available at justice.gov/epstein.
The materials produced today are in addition to those previously produced by this Department of Justice, including the following:
• On July 6, 2025, the Department released over 20 hours of video footage showing the outer cell area of the night Epstein committed suicide.
• On August 22, 2025, the Department released over 500 transcript pages and 6 hours of audio recordings of the Deputy Attorney General's interview of Ghislaine Maxwell.
• On August 22, 2025, the Department produced to Congress over 33,000 pages of documents responsive to a subpoena requesting documents related to the Epstein and Maxwell cases.
Conclusion
This Department's commitment to transparency and compliance with the law has been historic. Even before the Act's passage. never before has there been a Department-wide effort to provide this level of transparency for a criminal case that ended less than 7 years earlier. The Attorney General is grateful to the Department attorneys, staff, and employees who worked long hours to ensure that the Department complied with the Act.
The Act requires the Department to publicly produce all responsive materials within 30 days of its enactment. See Sec. 2(a). The Department has worked diligently to meet the Act's deadline. But the volume of materials to be reviewed-many of which continue to be produced to JMD--means that the Department must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis. The Department's need to perform rolling productions is consistent with well-settled caselaw that statutes should be interpreted to not require the impossible. See Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 337, 350 (1937); see also McNeil v. Time Ins. Co., 205 F.3d 179, 187 (5th Cif. 2000) ("It is a flawed and unreasonable construction of any statute to read it in a manner that demands the impossible.").
Similarly, in response to court orders granting motions to unseal grand-jury materials and materials covered by protective orders, USAO-SDNY produced 3.6 million records to the Department. Many of these materials are duplicative of materials previously produced to the Department by the FBI. Department attorneys continue to review these large productions from USAO-SDNY to confirm their duplicity. Moreover, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York was given access to today's production to allow him to make appropriate certifications as directed by a judge in the Southern District of New York. Any non-duplicated, responsive materials will be produced forthwith.
The Department will continue to follow the Review Protocol and add to the public website materials that are responsive under the Act, and the Department will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end ofthis year. The Department's commitment to transparency, following the law, and protecting all victims under the leadership of President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, and FBI Director Patel will never waver.
Todd Blanche
Deputy Attorney General
"Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter," he added. "Democrat administrations in the past have refused to provide full details of the Jeffrey Epstein saga. But President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Patel are committed to providing full transparency consistent with the law."
In November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, requiring the government to release within 30 days all unclassified material in its possession related to Epstein's and associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking cases.
President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in November.
The law allows the DOJ to omit or redact any references to victims and files that could jeopardize pending investigations or litigation, such as a probe Bondi recently opened in New York into Epstein's ties to Democrats. Information could also be left out "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy," the law says.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein's years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Blanche revealed that the Justice Department, through its sprawling internal process, learned of more than 1,200 victims.
"This process resulted in over 1,200 names being identified as victims or their relatives," Blanche wrote. "We have redacted reference to such names. In addition to redacting the names of these victims, we have also redacted and are not producing any materials that could result in their identification."
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in federal custody in 2019. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP)
Blanche explained that "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to: Jeffrey Epstein including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters" are being released.
Also being released are any records relating to "Ghislaine Maxwell; flight logs or travel records..for any aircraft, vessel, or vehicle owned, operated or used by Jeffrey Epstein or any related entity."
The DOJ is releasing any records or documents with "individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity or plea agreements, or investigatory proceedings;" as well as any "entities..with known or alleged ties to Epstein’s trafficking or financial networks."
The documents will also reference "any immunity deals, non-prosecution agreements, plea bargains, or sealed settlements involving Epstein or his associates."
The DOJ also is making public any "internal DOJ communications, including emails, memos, meeting notes, concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates," Blanche said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a press conference with President Donald Trump in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The documents will also include "all communications, memorandum, directives, logs or metadata concerning the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment of documents, recordings or electronic data related to Epstein, his associates, his detention and death, or any investigative files."
MASSIE SETS LITMUS TEST FOR DOJ'S EPSTEIN DISCLOSURES AS DEADLINE SLIPS
Blanche also said that any "documentation of Epstein’s detention or death, including incident reports, witness interviews, medical examiner files, autopsy reports, and written records detailing the circumstances and cause of death" will also be released.
Blanche said the DOJ is continuing to review additional documents and other items for "potential responsiveness."
"Just this week, one of the Department’s components provided additional victim information requiring updated review of materials, and in the last few weeks multiple courts have granted the Department’s unsealing motions, requiring detailed review of thousands of pages of investigative and grand jury material."
Blanche pointed to a ruling in the Southern District of New York requiring "additional layers of review to minimize the risk of inadvertent production of protected victim information."
DOJ FACES FRIDAY DEADLINE TO RELEASE EPSTEIN FILES AS LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR TRANSPARENCY
"We anticipate this ongoing review being completed over the next several weeks."
Blanche explained that prior to the passage of the new Epstein law, the DOJ conducted "a thorough review, including digital searches of databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as searches of real and personal properties."
"This review did not reveal credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals, nor did it undercover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties," Blanche explained. He added that judges in the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York have authorized the DOJ to produce materials "previously prohibited from production by protective orders and grand jury secrecy laws."
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Blanche explained that the review protocol instructed attorneys to redact or withhold material that contained personally identifiable information of victims; depicted or contained child sexual abuse materials…; would jeopardize an active investigation or prosecution; depicted images of death, physical abuse, or injury; and property classified national defense or foreign policy information."
"Protecting victims is of the highest priority for President Trump, the Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice," Blanche wrote. "As part of the review and production, the Department solicited counsel for any victims of Jeffrey Epstein and invited counsel to provide us with names of victims, whether previously identified or not.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino hold a news conference about the Jan. 6 pipe bomber at the Department of Justice Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"This process resulted in over 1,200 names being identified as victims or their relatives," Blanche wrote. "We have redacted reference to such names. In addition to redacting the names of these victims, we have also redacted and are not producing any materials that could result in their identification."
Blanche said the Justice Department’s review team consisted of more than 200 DOJ attorneys working to determine whether materials were responsive under the Act and, if so, whether redactions or withholding were required.
The review had multiple layers, according to Blanche, including 187 attorneys from the DOJ’s National Security Division conducting a review of all items for responsiveness. Next, a quality control team of 25 attorneys conducted a second-level review to ensure that victims' personal identifying information was properly redacted and that materials that should not be redacted were not marked for redaction.
Then, assistant U.S. attorneys from the Southern District of New York reviewed the responsive materials to confirm appropriate redactions.
"The Department will continue to follow the Review Protocol and add to the public website materials that are responsive under the Act, and the Department will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end of this year," Blanche said.
"The Department’s commitment to transparency, following the law, and protecting all victims under the leadership of President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Patel will never waver."
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional comments from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Fox News' Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
***
5h ago 12.57 EST Democrats accuse justice department of taking down photo of Donald Trump
Democrats on the House oversight committee have accused the justice department of taking down a previously published photo which included Donald Trump from the administration’s partial release of the Epstein files.
On social media, the oversight Democrats wrote: “This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release. @AGPamBondi is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
File 468, which House Democrats have accused the justice department of removing from the Epstein files website. Photograph: Department of Justice
***
6h ago 12.16 EST Victoria Bekiempis Donald Trump’s justice department has been hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after authorities released a limited, heavily redacted trove of Jeffrey Epstein files in an apparent violation of the law mandating the near-complete disclosure of these documents by Friday.
Trump’s justice department was required to release all investigative files involving the late financier by 19 December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The legislation does allow for records to be withheld or redacted if their disclosure would imperil present criminal investigations, threaten national security or identify Epstein’s victims – but otherwise it mandates disclosure of everything else.
The department’s initial disclosure on Friday afternoon, and subsequent releases throughout the night, did not abide by this requirement. Several lawmakers have spoken out against the failure of the Trump administration to release the complete files.
Read more:
Outrage and legal threats: Trump justice department slammed after limited Epstein files release. Epstein Files Transparency Act mandated full disclosure of all files by 19 December with certain exemptions
Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie have criticized the Trump justice department’s Epstein files release and are ‘exploring all options’. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Donald Trump’s justice department was hit with legal threats and scathing outrage after authorities released a limited, heavily redacted trove of Jeffrey Epstein files in an apparent violation of the law mandating the near-complete disclosure of these documents by Friday.
“The justice department’s document dump this afternoon does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act,” Ro Khanna, the California Democratic congressman who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December, said in a video statement.
“It is an incomplete release, with too many redactions. Thomas Massie and I are exploring all options,” he also said, among them possible impeachment of justice department officials, finding them in contempt of Congress.
Trickle release of Epstein files on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties
Khanna also floated the possibility of “referring for prosecution those who are obstructing justice”.
“Unfortunately, today’s document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago. @RepRoKhannais correct,” Massie, a Kentucky member of Congress and co-author of this legislation, said on X.
“A future [justice department] could convict the current AG and others because the Epstein Files Transparency Act is not like a Congressional Subpoena which expires at the end of each Congress,” Massie said at another point.
Trump’s justice department was required to release all investigative files involving the late financier by 19 December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The legislation does allow for records to be withheld or redacted if their disclosure would imperil present criminal investigations, threaten national security or identify Epstein’s victims – but otherwise it mandates disclosure of everything else.
The department’s initial disclosure on Friday afternoon, and subsequent releases throughout the night, did not abide by this requirement. Justice officials recognized as much on Friday morning, pre-empting this apparent slow walk on television. Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer turned deputy attorney general, said the justice department would not release all its files on Friday.
“I expect we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr Epstein,” Blanche said during a Fox News interview.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche also said. “There’s a lot of eyes looking at these and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim.”
Some new files, including transcripts, were released on Saturday. However, several documents were also removed with no explanation from the government.
At least 16 files disappeared from the DoJ’s public webpage related to Jeffrey Epstein, the Associated Press reported. The documents included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, is a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The unexplained missing files have fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified. Democrats on the House oversight committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the bipartisan chorus of lawmakers slamming Trump’s justice department, including the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI director, Kash Patel, for the documents’ lackluster rollout.
“Now the coverup is out in the open. This is far from over. Everyone involved will have to answer for this,” Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said on X on Friday. “Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, whole admin. Protecting a bunch of rapists and pedophiles because they have money, power, and connections. Bondi should resign tonight.”
Fellow Democratic congressman Robert Garcia voiced similar sentiments.
“The [justice department] is breaking the law by not releasing the full Epstein files. This is not transparency. This is just more coverup by Donald Trump and Pam Bondi. They need to release all the files, NOW,” the Democratic oversight committee leader said on X.
“The [justice department] has had months and hundreds of agents to put these files together, and yet entire documents are redacted – from the first word to the last. What are they hiding? The American public deserves transparency. Release all the files now!” he also commented.
In a joint statement from House oversight committee Democrats, Garcia and Jamie Raskin said: “Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring …
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” the statement added.
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said the release violated both “the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law”.
“Senate Democrats are working to assess the documents that have been released to determine what actions must be taken to hold the Trump administration accountable,” Schumer also said. “We will pursue every option to make sure the truth comes out.”
Trump’s justice department has gone on the defensive over this criticism, insisting on social media that authorities are complying with the law. A justice department account on X pointed to the many photos of Bill Clinton released in the tranche, claiming their disclosure bolstered claims of accountability. (Clinton has denied wrongdoing related to Epstein and expressed regret for previously associating with him.)
“To set the record straight: No Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) were redacted from today’s released Epstein documents. All references to PEPs were disclosed in full. Do you not see Clinton’s face??” a justice department media relations account said on X.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
***
7h ago 11.33 EST US Department of Justice posts two new batches of Epstein files on Saturday The US department of justice this morning posted two new batches of Epstein files online, which can be found here and here. The new documents are all labeled as being related to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. They include court documents from past cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
***
8h ago 10.56 EST A book titled Massage for Dummies was seen among the partial files released yesterday by the Department of Justice. It is mentioned as one of the “gifts” Epstein gave to a “girl” whose name is redacted.
Various reports say Epstein would often request massages from his victims – for both himself and others in his circle.
"One Of the great masters of age.
The book in an image released by the Department of Justice on 19 December 2025. Photograph: US Justice Department/Reuters
9h ago 09.57 EST Analysis: Trump over-promises and under-delivers with Epstein cache by David Smith
“The Trump administration is the most transparent in history,” proclaimed Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, insisting that it has “done more for the victims [of Epstein] than Democrats ever have”. But it is apparent that Donald Trump has once again over-promised and under-delivered, writes David Smith.
Many of the documents in the data dump were heavily redacted, with text blacked out so it was impossible to read. Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, said: “What they have released is clearly incomplete and appears to be over-redacted to boot.”
The documents extensively featured photos of former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and appeared to include few if any photos of Trump or documents mentioning him, despite Trump and Epstein’s well-publicised friendship in the 1990s and early 2000s.
It smelled of a cover-up. And the rare reticence of Trump did little to dispel that notion. At a White House event on Friday with pharmaceutical companies who have agreed to lower some of their prices, the president – typically so garrulous on every issue under the sun – declined to answer reporters’ questions off topic.
Soon after the partial release of the Epstein files, it was announced that the US military had launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on US personnel. There were echoes of another December day in 1998 when Clinton ordered air strikes against Iraq and was accused by members of Congress of trying to distract from impeachment proceedings against him.
Read the rest of David’s analysis here:
Trump over-promises and under-delivers with heavily redacted Epstein cache by David Smith in Washington
‘Most transparent’ administration has slow-walked and stonewalled – the incomplete release smells of a cover-up
A compilation of heavily redacted documents in the Epstein files that were released by the DoJ on Friday. Illustration: Guardian Design/Images via US Justice Department
The disappointment was palpable. In February, a group of 15 rightwing influencers visited the White House and paraded binders labelled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1”, only to discover that they contained precious little that was new.
Photos from the first batch of the Jeffrey Epstein files
Photos from the first batch of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Richard Branson are among the people who appear in the thousands of documents released by the US justice department on Friday by Guardian staff Fri 19 Dec 2025 18.58 EST https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gal ... es-release
• Jeffrey Epstein files: latest updates • US justice department releases heavily redacted cache of Jeffrey Epstein files • FBI notes detail grim demands Epstein made for procurement of underage girls
Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein in a photo released by the Department of Justice. Photograph: Department of Justice
Photographs in Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including one of Donald Trump inside a drawer on the lower left. Photograph: Department of Justice
Sarah Ferguson in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Bill Clinton in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Richard Branson and Jeffrey Epstein in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Ghislaine Maxwell and Chris Tucker in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Ghislaine Maxwell and David Copperfield. Photograph: Department of Justice
Ghislaine Maxwell and former prince Andrew in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Bill Clinton in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Jackson. Photograph: Department of Justice
Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey (second from right), and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Chris Tucker. Photograph: Department of Justice
Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department of Justice
Ten months later, it was the world’s turn. Amid huge global anticipation on Friday, the US justice department released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Trump administration is the most transparent in history,” proclaimed Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, insisting that it has “done more for the victims [of Epstein] than Democrats ever have”.
But it soon became apparent that, once again, Donald Trump had over-promised and under-delivered. Many of the documents in the data dump were heavily redacted, with text blacked out so it was impossible to read. Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, said: “What they have released is clearly incomplete and appears to be over-redacted to boot.”
The documents extensively featured photos of former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and appeared to include few if any photos of Trump or documents mentioning him, despite Trump and Epstein’s well-publicised friendship in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Moreover, Friday’s release was far from complete. US deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said “several hundred thousand” documents would be made public on Friday, but the need to protect the victims meant thousands more would be released over the next couple of weeks. The initial release also appeared to include far less than Blanche promised.
It smelled of a cover-up. And the rare reticence of Trump did little to dispel that notion. At a White House event on Friday with pharmaceutical companies who have agreed to lower some of their prices, the president – typically so garrulous on every issue under the sun – declined to answer reporters’ questions off topic.
Trump said: “I prefer not talking and asking questions only for the reason that this is such a big announcement. I really don’t want to soil it up by asking questions, even questions that are very fair questions that I’d love to answer. So I think we have to just stop right here.”
The president had spent much of this year resisting disclosure and denouncing the files as a “Democratic hoax”. But a rare bipartisan uprising in Congress forced him to cave and sign legislation last month mandating release of all unclassified Epstein records to be released by the end of 19 December in a searchable and downloadable format. His administration blew past that deadline and Democrats cried foul.
Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, said: “This set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.
“Simply releasing a mountain of blacked-out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law. For example, all 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out. We need answers as to why.”
Jeff Merkley, the lead Senate sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, added that administration officials “have chosen to illegally disregard the law I led the fight in the Senate to pass. By failing to comply, the administration is openly denying ‘equal justice under the law’ to all of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.”
None of this will surprise critics who have seen Trump eviscerate Congress over the past year with authoritarian zeal. He has signed 221 executive orders – more than in his entire first term – and bypassed the legislative branch on everything from a TikTok ban to dismantling USAID to adding his own name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Soon after the partial release of the Epstein files, it was announced that the US military had launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on US personnel. There were echoes of another December day in 1998 when Clinton ordered air strikes against Iraq and was accused by members of Congress of trying to distract from impeachment proceedings against him.
But Trump will struggle to distract from the Epstein issue, with just 44% of Republicans saying they approve of how he has handled it so far. There was some expectation that Friday might bring the matter to a head, for better or worse, with the politically advantageous timing of the Christmas holiday just around the corner.
Instead the “most transparent” administration again decided to slow-walk and stonewall. That will only feed the very conspiracy theories that Trump once feasted upon but which now threaten to consume him.
***
9h ago 09.42 EST Geraldine McKelvie Here are some more the photos released in the first cache of files released by the Department of Justice.
Epstein, Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell in the royal box at Ascot. Photograph: US Department of Justice/PA
There are several pictures of Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor in the cache of files released on Friday, appearing to show how he gave Epstein and Maxwell access to British high society. Read our detailed timeline of the former Prince’s ties with Epstein.
Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein in a photo released by the Department of Justice. Photograph: Department of Justice
Peter Mandelson, who was recently sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US after details about his friendship with Epstein emerged, is pictured looking on as Epstein blows out candles on a large birthday cake. Although the image was part of the cache of documents released on Friday, it has been published before.
The Labour peer, 72, is understood to have been close to Epstein since the early 2000s, describing him in a 50th birthday message as “my best pal”. Epstein was introduced to the then British prime minister, Tony Blair, in May 2002 in a meeting understood to have been facilitated by Mandelson, a former MP and cabinet minister.
Mandelson chose to continue his friendship with Epstein after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences in 2008, encouraging him to “fight for early release”. In September, shortly before he was forced out as ambassador, Mandelson said: “I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.”
Spacey, 2nd right, with Clinton, right, Maxwell, centre, and others. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Kevin Spacey is pictured in a group with Maxwell and Clinton in Winston Churchill’s war rooms, the secret underground meeting place for the British cabinet during the second world war. This image is understood to have been taken in 2002, when Clinton travelled to the UK to address the Labour party conference.
There is no information to suggest Spacey, 66, was involved with, or aware of, Maxwell and Epstein’s crimes and he has not yet made any comment on the documents.
Separately, Spacey was acquitted of nine sexual offences during a criminal case in 2023.
See more of the images at the link below:
***
9h ago 09.15 EST Timeline: former Prince Andrew and Epstein's ties
Sky News reported that the photograph was taken at Sandringham, the late Queen Elizabeth’s Norfolk estate. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
1999-2010 • Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor said he first met the American financier Jeffrey Epstein in 1999 through Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s then girlfriend who was already known to the former prince. • Several undated photos of them together have been released in the recent tranche of Epstein files, showing how Andrew facilitated their access to British high society. Epstein and Maxwell appear to be pictured hunting with the former prince at Balmoral and with him in the royal box at Ascot. A separate picture shows Maxwell outside 10 Downing Street. One image shows Mountbatten-Windsor reclining across the legs of five people, whose faces have been redacted, with his head near a woman’s lap. Another picture, understood to have been taken in 2002, shows Maxwell posing in Winston Churchill’s war rooms, the secret underground meeting place for the British cabinet during the second world war, with a group that includes the former US president Bill Clinton and the actor Kevin Spacey. • Andrew told the BBC that he used to see Epstein a maximum of three times a year at the time but confirmed that he had been on his private plane, stayed at his private island and at his homes in Palm Beach, Florida and New York. • In July 2006 Epstein was invited to a masked ball at Windsor Castle to celebrate the 18th birthday of Princess Beatrice, Andrew’s elder daughter. The previous month Epstein had been charged with one count of solicitation of prostitution. Andrew said Epstein never mentioned that he was under investigation.
Photos of Andrew reveal how ex-prince gave Jeffrey Epstein access to British high society. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor reclines across five people in one photo watched by Ghislaine Maxwell at Sandringham by Geraldine McKelvie, Senior correspondent The Guardian Sat 20 Dec 2025 06.14 EST https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ne-maxwell
Sky News reported that the photograph was taken at Sandringham, the late Queen Elizabeth’s Norfolk estate. Photograph: Department of Justice/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock
Photographs of the child sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell released by the US justice department appear to show how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor facilitated their access to British high society.
Epstein and Maxwell are pictured hunting with the former prince at Balmoral and with him in the royal box at Ascot. A separate picture shows Maxwell outside 10 Downing Street.
One image shows Mountbatten-Windsor reclining across the legs of five people, whose faces have been redacted, with his head near a woman’s lap. In this image, Maxwell appears to peer down and smile at him.
Sky News reported on Saturday that the photograph was taken at Sandringham, the late Queen Elizabeth’s Norfolk estate, where King Charles and members of his family will spend Christmas. The broadcaster said it had cross-referenced the picture with other images taken there.
Another picture, understood to have been taken in 2002, shows Maxwell posing in Winston Churchill’s war rooms, the secret underground meeting place for the British cabinet during the second world war, with a group that includes the former US president Bill Clinton and the actor Kevin Spacey.
This undated photo released by the US Department of Justice shows Ghislaine Maxwell in front of 10 Downing Street in London. Photograph: AP
A trove of documents relating to Epstein, a convicted child sex offender who died in jail in 2019, was uploaded on Friday night to the US justice department website, which held users in a queue as it experienced an “extremely high volume of search requests”.
The data release came after the US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said “several hundred thousand” documents from the “Epstein files” would be released before a legal deadline. He said the need to protect Epstein’s victims meant thousands more would be released in the coming weeks.
The US justice department was legally required to make all files related to the investigation into Epstein public by midnight on Friday after the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The images released on Friday, which also contain images of Mounbatten-Windsor’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, help illustrate how he gave Epstein and Maxwell access to the upper echelons of British life.
Many of the images are undated, but it is understood that Epstein and Maxwell were invited to ladies day at Ascot on 22 June 2000 by Mountbatten-Windsor. Although the event was also attended by the late queen and the queen mother, Mounbatten-Windsor has previously said Epstein and Maxwell were his guests.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. He had previously pleaded guilty to child sex offences in 2008. Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021.
An undated photo released by the US Department of Justice that appears to show Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: Department of Justice
Mounbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Epstein ultimately prompted his exit from royal life. He stepped down from official duties in 2019 after a disastrous Newsnight interview in which he said he did not regret his association with the financier despite his criminality.
Three years later, he paid millions to Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by him when she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager. Mounbatten-Windsor settled Giuffre’s lawsuit despite claiming he had never met her.
The publication of a posthumous memoir by Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, and the US government’s release of documents from Epstein’s estate, brought more scrutiny of his relationship with the financier. Mounbatten-Windsor’s brother, the king, stripped him of his royal titles in October.
Among the hundreds of photos included in the files are several images of Clinton, whose spokesperson said he had cut contact with Epstein when his crimes came to light. Also featured are musicians Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. There is no suggestion this indicates any wrongdoing on their part.
Peter Mandelson, who was sacked from his job as the UK’s ambassador to the US earlier this year after revelations about his friendship with Epstein, is pictured with him as he is presented with a birthday cake. Mandelson helped facilitate a meeting between Epstein and the former prime minister Tony Blair in 2002.
Many of the photos and documents are heavily redacted, prompting criticism from US lawmakers and lawyers for Epstein’s victims.
On Saturday, Liz Stein, an Epstein survivor, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she felt the US justice department was “brazenly going against” the Epstein Transparency Act by failing to release the information in full.
Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein at Royal Ascot. Photograph: Tim Graham/Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images
“What we worry about is a slow rollout of incomplete information without any context as to what we’re looking at,” she said. “It’s really important that we see everything that they have released.
“We are certainly hoping that it’s a path to justice. The release of all of these documents comes at a great cost to us, they’re incredibly triggering and re-traumatising but we feel incredibly strong that they need to be released because we need to know what happened in this case.
“This is a sex trafficking case that has spanned more than three decades, it’s spanned continents, it’s spanned political administrations and when it comes down to it, we just want all of the evidence of these crimes out there so we can find justice, finally.
“I think that there’s definitely a range of emotions. There’s fear that we’re not going to see all of the information released, there’s hope that some of the people who perpetrated these crimes will be held accountable but I think that the amount of information that was released today was so copious that it’s going to take us all some time to get through and we really don’t know what our feelings are going to be as we wade through it.”
Former prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein at Royal Ascot. Photograph: Tim Graham/Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images
2010-2018:
• In 2010 Epstein provided Sarah Ferguson £15,000 to assist with her personal debt. When this was reported by The Telegraph the following year, she made a public apology for accepting the money, stating in 2011 that: “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me. I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgement on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say. Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again. What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
• However, leaked emails from just weeks after this statement was made in 2011 show that Ferguson apologised to Epstein for disowning him. She wrote to Epstein: “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that …I was instructed to act with the utmost speed if I would have any chance of holding on to my career as a children’s book author and a children’s philanthropist,” she is said to have written. “As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ [paedophile] about you but understand it was reported that I did.”
2019-Present:
• After Epstein’s second arrest in 2019, Andrew released a statement in which he stated: “At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.” • On 16 November 2019, the BBC aired an interview with Andrew on Newsnight. Asked by Emily Maitlis if he regretted his friendship with convicted paedophile Epstein, Andrew said he did not, saying that “the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful”. The interview was widely seen as a disaster with Andrew being subject to strong criticism. • Days after the Newsnight interview aired, Andrew stepped down from official duties in 2019. • In May 2020 it was announced that Andrew would permanently resign from all public roles. • In June 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in prison in her New York sex-trafficking case for procuring teen girls for Jeffrey Epstein for him to abuse. • In 2022, Andrew paid millions in a settlement agreement to Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by him when she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager. Andrew settled Giuffre’s lawsuit despite claiming he had never met her and despite a widely circulated photo of them taken by Epstein in Maxwell’s London home. He made no admission of liability. • The publication of a posthumous memoir by Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, and the US government’s release of documents from Epstein’s estate, brought more scrutiny of his relationship with the financier. • Mounbatten-Windsor’s brother, the king, stripped him of his royal titles in October 2025. The statement from Buckingham Palace added: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
The royal family have declined to comment on the photos released in the first tranche of ‘Epstein Files’.
***
11h ago 08.12 EST 'What are we hiding here?' asks Virginia Giuffre's brother after limited files released
Virginia Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts tells Reuters he has “mixed feelings” after the partial release of the Epstein files. “What are we hiding here?” he asks.
Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, estimated the tranche of documents released yesterday included only about 10 per cent of the material in the department’s possession.
Giuffre’s sister-in-law Amanda Roberts adds that “nothing the Department of Justice does comes as a surprise”. She claims it has used the case as a “political toy”.
“When there were rumours that potentially the president could be named in there, all of a sudden the story changed,” she says. Then it was “hoax” and there was “nothing to see”, she adds.
Trump is scantly mentioned in the files released yesterday and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Despite this, Sky Roberts tells Reuters his sister would have felt an “overwhelming amount of joy for her survivor sisters” on Friday.
***
11h ago 08.01 EST Democrats criticize partial Epstein files release Since the release of the first tranche of heavily-redacted Epstein files yesterday, Democrats have lined up to criticize the Trump administration and justice department, saying the partial release violates the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
In a post on X last night, Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “Now the coverup is out in the open. This is far from over. Everyone involved will have to answer for this. Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, whole admin. Protecting a bunch of rapists and pedophiles because they have money, power, and connections. Bondi should resign tonight.”
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer accused the Trump administration of breaking the law: “Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law … We need answers as to why,” he said in a post on X.
Co-author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Ro Khanna, posted a video on X arguing the DOJ release “does not comply” with the law.
“Our law requires them to explain redactions. There is not a single explanation,” Khanna said, adding he would look at options like impeachment, contempt or referral to prosecution.
***
12h ago 07.33 EST Analysis: trickle release on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties by Sam Levine
The justice department’s partial release of the Epstein files on Friday signaled how the agency is using a variety of tactics to try to bury and obfuscate Donald Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein, writes Sam Levine.
The release underscores how the Trump administration is trying to balance both the demand to release the files – something encouraged in large part by the Maga base – while also obfuscating with a slow trickle of document dumps to prevent any embarrassment to Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before they had a falling out.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche has said the department will continue to produce documents on a rolling basis in the coming weeks – a holiday period – a bet that Americans will simply tune out the story as it drags on.
Read Sam’s full analysis here:
***
12h ago 07.13 EST Here are some of the photos released in the first tranche of files released by the US Department of Justice.
A number of famous faces feature, including former US President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, billionaire Richard Branson, and musicians Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.
Billionaire Richard Branson and Jeffrey Epstein in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: US Department of Justice/PA
Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: US Justice Department/Reuters
Former US president Bill Clinton in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, said that the Epstein investigation wasn’t about the former president.
“There are two types of people here,” he said. “The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”
See more of the images at the link below:
***
12h ago 06.51 EST Survivors of Epstein’s abuse condemn justice department for partial release of files
Survivors of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse have expressed disappointment over a document dump that was heavily redacted and only partially released.
[x] Survivors Sharlene Rochard, Jess Michaels, and Annie Farmer react as Sky Roberts, brother of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s late victim Virginia Giuffre, speaks during a press conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act on 18 November 2025. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Epstein survivor Liz Stein told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she thinks the Department for Justice is “really brazenly going against the Epstein Files Transparency Act” – the law which required all documents to be released by Friday.
She says survivors are worried about the possibility of a “slow rollout of incomplete information without any context”. The fight for justice has spanned decades, continents and political administrations, Stein says, adding: “We just want all of the evidence of these crimes out there”.
While the release of documents comes at a “great cost” to victims, Stein is hoping it will be a “path to justice”.
Lisa Phillips was in her 20s when she met the disgraced financier and says she suffered years of abuse from him and people linked to him.
She told CNN that she believes the Department of Justice was “protecting themselves, not the victims,” after Trump officials released only partial files that were heavily redacted.
“I feel like they have so much information to start connecting the dots and for survivors to get justice. But as you’re seeing, we just keep stalling,” she added.
Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer who represents the Epstein survivor Maria Farmer in her lawsuit against the federal government, told our colleague Victoria Bekiempis that one newly released document was important: an FBI report from 1996, documenting Farmer’s effort to report her abuse by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Maria Farmer reported Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes in 1996,” Freeman said. “Had the government done their job, and properly investigated Maria’s report, over 1,000 victims could have been spared and 30 years of trauma avoided.”
***
13h ago06.11 EST Opening Summary
Hello. We are resuming our live coverage of the Department of Justice’s long-awaited release of documents from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than 15 years.
The first cache of ‘Epstein Files’ were released on Friday evening after months of delay and stalling from the Trump administration. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Fox News that he expected the department to release several hundred thousand more files in the coming weeks.
However, significant portions of the files have been heavily redacted. The photos lack crucial context, including dates and locations. Moreover, the justice department appears to be in violation of the law that required the release of all of the Epstein files by a Friday deadline, according to the two congressmen who drafted the legislation, Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican.
Missing documents & ‘over-redactions’:
• Khanna said that the partial “document dump this afternoon does not comply” with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and told CNN, adding: “The most important documents are missing.” Those documents are a draft 60-count federal indictment outlining charges against Epstein, and a detailed memorandum summarizing the evidence that was disregarded by the US attorney, Alex Acosta, who chose instead to offer Epstein an extraordinarily lenient plea deal. • According to a Fox News report, the justice department redacted the names and identifiers of victims and “the same redaction standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials”. Massie wrote on social media that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, could be convicted by a future justice department of obstruction of justice if she violated a provision of the law by redacting the names of government officials. Massie noted that the law explicitly states that no documents may be “withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official”. Blanche later called Fox News to insist that the justice department is “not redacting the names of any politicians”. • Instead, the justice department said it may have “over-redacted” the Epstein files in order to “protect victims”. Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in court on Friday that it had blacked out the faces of almost every woman photographed with Jeffrey Epstein, citing issues determining who was a victim of the paedophile. Mr Clayton reportedly noted the approach could be “over-redaction”, but blamed it on the 30-day timeframe Congress set for releasing the documents.
Who is in the Epstein files?
• The files that were viewable included images of Epstein socialising with an array of prominent figures, including entertainers like Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and Diana Ross, and the entrepreneur Richard Branson. The images also show former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. • Peter Mandelson, who was sacked from his job as the UK’s ambassador to the US earlier this year, could be seen in a picture with Epstein who is being presented with a giant birthday cake. • There were many images of Bill Clinton, but very little about president Trump in the portion of the files released on Friday. But one seemingly innocuous snapshot of Epstein’s bookcase did include a reminder that he and Trump were once close. The image showed Epstein’s copy of Trump’s 1997 book, Trump: The Art of the Comeback, which the New York Times reported in July included an inscription from Trump reading: “To Jeff – You are the greatest!”
Jeffrey Epstein is not letting his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a teenager interfere with his lifestyle.
But instead of having his assistants troll local high schools, the billionaire money manager — and registered sex offender — is importing his playmates from Russia, my source says.
A recent visitor tells me Epstein has a house full of young beauties at his East 71st Street mansion. “Half of them are from the former Soviet Union and the other half are a mix of Americans and Europeans,” said my source.
Although all the women appeared to be at least 17, the age of consent in New York state, they were all several decades younger than 63-year-old Epstein, the visitor said.
Epstein apparently has contacts in Moscow who provide matchmaking services for both his “orgy island” in the Caribbean (which he jokingly dubbed Little St. Jeff’s) and his Manhattan townhouse.
“When the Russian girls arrive in the city, they already have Jeffrey’s phone number,” said my source.
One procurer, Peter Listerman, claims in TV interviews that he introduced many oligarchs and A-listers to Russian models, and says: “I’m not a pimp, just [a] matchmaker.”
Listerman, or a dead ringer in an Astrakhan fur hat, was photographed entering Epstein’s mansion in January.
Former Fashion Models Accuse Top Agent of Rape and Sexual Assault Prosecutors in Paris are reviewing a complaint containing claims against Gérald Marie, former European chief of Elite Model Management, dating back decades. by Elizabeth Paton, Vanessa Friedman and Constant Méheut New York Times Sept. 28, 2020
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The former head of one of the world’s biggest modeling agencies is facing a legal investigation in France, after four women reported claims of rape and sexual assault dating back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Gérald Marie, 70, was president for 25 years of the European division of Elite Model Management, an agency that at its peak represented the likes of Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford. Now, in a complaint submitted on Sept. 21 to the Judicial Tribunal in Paris, two models have accused him of raping them, with another model and a journalist making allegations of sexual assault, in episodes that took place more than two decades ago.
Carré Sutton, 51, and Jill Dodd, 60, accused Mr. Marie of raping them when they were 17 and 20, respectively. A third woman, Ebba Karlsson, 51, alleges that Mr. Marie sexually assaulted her when she was 20 during a meeting in his office at Elite in Paris in the 1990s. A fourth woman, Lisa Brinkworth, 53, says she was sexually assaulted by Mr. Marie while posing as a model and working as a journalist on a BBC modeling industry exposé in 1998.
The events described by the four women currently fall outside the French statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault, and some of the accusations have been public for years. But the women and their lawyer hope that Ms. Brinkworth can circumvent the time limit based on evidence that recently came to light. The other three women’s accounts were included with her complaint to bolster it.
News of the filings was first reported on Saturday by The Sunday Times of London. Mr. Marie, now chairman of Paris-based modeling agency Oui Management, told The Sunday Times that he “categorically” denied the allegations and said it would be inappropriate to comment further.
An official from the Paris prosecutors’ office confirmed on Monday that an investigation of Mr. Marie had been opened on allegations of rape and sexual assault, including of a minor. The investigation will examine the evidence and the question of the statute of limitations, and determine whether criminal proceedings can be brought against him.
The accusers’ lawyer, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, said: “There needs to be an investigation because, potentially, there are other women who were victims or who witnessed some abuse. For the victims, it’s a real relief and it shows that their voices are heard.”
“We want to work so that it doesn’t happen again,” she said.
The filings against Mr. Marie come at a time of renewed focus on abuse of power in the fashion business, more than two years after investigations spawned by the #MeToo movement shined a spotlight on the behavior of high-profile figures like the photographers Mario Testino and Bruce Weber, as well as other once-celebrated executives and industry players.
Last year, French prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into the scandal surrounding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. One name that arose in court documents related to Mr. Epstein’s case was that of Jean-Luc Brunel, another former French modeling agent, who was accused by some of Mr. Epstein’s victims of procuring young girls for him.
Mr. Brunel has faced accusations of abuse himself: Three former models told The Guardian last year that he sexually assaulted them in the 1980s and 1990s in and around Paris. He has denied the allegations.
Ms. Le Jeune, the lawyer representing the women who claim they were assaulted by Mr. Marie, is also representing those accusing Mr. Brunel. She welcomed Monday’s announcement by the Paris prosecutors as an “encouraging first step,” though she acknowledged she was not sure it would result in prosecution.
Ms. Brinkworth is asking that her filing be accepted as a formal complaint, despite the passage of more than two decades, based on an old video. She contends it makes a direct reference to her assault by Mr. Marie, who left Elite in 2011, though the specifics of the video remain unclear.
After the episode, she was bound by a confidentiality agreement with the BBC and Elite, and so she thought she would never have access to the video, but another journalist has recently gained access to it, Ms. Le Jeune said.
“Access to the evidence is therefore possible,” she said.
The French modeling industry first came under scrutiny in the 1980s; in 1988, as part of a “60 Minutes” program, Diane Sawyer interviewed a number of young models in Paris who accused Mr. Brunel and associates of drugging and raping them. Their accounts did not result in a formal investigation.
Mr. Marie, a former husband of the supermodel Linda Evangelista, has also previously faced allegations of sexual impropriety and exploitation, an experience many young models once felt to be inevitable if they were to advance in their careers.
In 2011, Ms. Sutton, a former Calvin Klein model who worked under her maiden name, Carré Otis, published a memoir called “Beauty, Disrupted.” In it, she alleged in detail that Mr. Marie raped her when she was 17 and he was her agent. She was renting a room in his home in Paris at the time.
Similarly, in 2017, Ms. Dodd published a memoir, “The Currency of Love,” in which she reported being raped by Mr. Marie in his apartment after a night out when she was a young model in Paris. “I couldn’t speak French and had no idea what to do” — especially since Mr. Marie was steering her career, she said in an interview this week.
As #MeToo gained momentum in 2017, more models began to speak out against a culture of sexual harassment and abuse that had pervaded the industry for generations.
In 2018, a new French law extended the statute of limitation for the rape of a minor to 30 years, instead of 20. But the time limit for prosecuting the rape of an adult remained 20 years. In cases of sexual assault, such as that alleged by Ms. Brinkworth, the statute of limitations can range from six to 20 years, depending on the gravity of the assault.
Ms. Dodd said in an interview she had been contacted a few months ago by Ms. Brinkworth, who had read her book. Ms. Dodd said she had agreed to join the complaint because “any light we can shine on the secrets of bad behavior by powerful men to alert other women to it and protect young girls is a good thing.”
Modeling agencies are “perpetuating the systemic sexual assault and trafficking of young women and girls,” said Sara Ziff, a labor activist and founder of the Model Alliance, a nonprofit which aims to prevent abuse and exploitation of fashion models.
“Gérald Marie has been a known sexual predator for decades — like so many others in the modeling industry — but rather than a pink slip, it’s only earned him promotions.” she said.
She said, “We are pleased that an investigation has been opened by the prosecutor of Paris, and we hope that Gérald Marie’s victims finally get justice.”
Elizabeth Paton is a reporter for the Styles section, covering the fashion and luxury sectors in Europe. Before joining The Times in 2015, she was a reporter at the Financial Times both in London and New York. @LizziePaton
Vanessa Friedman is The Times's fashion director and chief fashion critic. She was previously the fashion editor of the Financial Times. @VVFriedman
Gérald Marie: Former models expose the ugly truth of the beauty industry by 60 Minutes Australia May 16, 2021
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First there was Harvey Weinstein, and then Jeffrey Epstein, two men so corrupted by their own power and money they thought it entitled them to sexually abuse any woman or teenager they lusted after. Now one of the icons of the world of modelling stands similarly accused of being a sex fiend. His name might not be familiar to those outside the beauty industry, but for decades Frenchman Gérald Marie, now aged 70, was the super-agent who decided, or torpedoed, the careers of supermodels. He even married one of the most famous of them all, Linda Evangelista. But a 60 MINUTES global investigation has uncovered more than a dozen former models with shocking accusations about him. They say he’s a predator who ritually abused and raped young women – including minors. As Tara Brown reports, the women are now demanding that Gérald Marie be held accountable for his depravity, and it seems prosecutors in France are finally taking notice.
Transcript
good evening and welcome to 60 minutes I'm tara Brown first there was Harvey Weinstein and then Jeffrey Epstein two men so corrupted by their own power and money they thought it entitled them to sexually abuse any woman or teenager they wanted now one of the biggest icons of modeling stands similarly accused of being a Sex Fiend you mightn't recognize his name but for decades Frenchman Gerald Marie was the super agent who decided or torpedoed the careers of supermodels he even married one of the most famous of them all Linda Evangelista but our Global investigation has uncovered more than a dozen former models with shocking accusations about the 70-year-old they say he's a predator who ritually abused and raped young women including minors in his care tonight they're demanding Gerald Marie be held accountable for his [Music] depravity irresistibly drawn in by the bright lights and alluring promises stunning girls parade the catwalk recognized and celebrated for their beauty but the glamour can be model thin wer grab a brush and put a little makeup as all these former models discovered making it into the coveted world of runways and magazine covers can be an ugly business hello ladies welcome to 60 minutes thank you for joining us they've come from all over the world to find one another I'm in Boulder Colorado I'm in London UK Western Europe aahu Hawaii Brisbin Australia sharing the same shocking EXP experiences of intimidation sexual harassment and rape when they first started out as models in Paris I knew he had all the power and I was a foreigner I was all alone I knew enough to know I didn't have a chance and they were also the victims they alleg of the same man the former head supro of the elite modeling agency in Europe Gerald Marie the agent behind the biggest models in the world he attacked me in the middle of the night and he raped me in the middle of the night I had no power I had no voice I said the word no now decades later for the first time it was almost like this was his kingdom this was his domain these women have come together for one reason to make Gerald Marie accountable i p of oop it is my hope that Geral would experience what any predator should experience and that is prosecution and incarceration I like other things we've uncovered hidden camera footage locked away for the last 20 years which exposes Gerald Marie's lascivious appetite with allegations too serious for French investigators to ignore could time be up for the once untouchable Geral Marie we're not 17 anymore we're not children anymore we're adults and we know what happened to us and we do know who did it ah Mr Marie 60 Minutes Australia 12 women have spoken about sexual is there anything you'd like to say Mr [Music] [Music] Marie it was the era of the supermodel with French model impressario Gerald Marie almost single-handedly transforming top models into worldwide Superstars he even married one Canadian Beauty Linda [Music] Evangelista being an agent in the 80s was so spectacular and exciting and glamorous money was everywhere and we made lots of it as vice president of elite Chicago in the 80s Marie P Anderson reveled in those heady days and as part of the elite company she happily and unwittingly sent American models to Elite's Uber agent jald Marie and his star Factory in Paris when you meet a lot of beautiful girls all day long come pop out because they have something else to say or something else is happening in their eyes and in the their way to express himself too Gerald then in his mid-30s was at the top of his game with an eye and as he would be accused a creepy ponant for young models slowly but surely I was getting phone calls from Europe from the models complaining about Gerald Marie and telling me stories of either sexual harassment or sexual assault and they would swear me to secrecy so I never betrayed their trust how many girls did you get calls from my memory serves um four to five girls in 1986 unaware of those calls a gorgeous and vulnerable 17-year-old kotas was on her way to Paris deemed too exotic for the American Market the young Runaway was sent to try out for the masterful Gerald Marie I had no idea what to find what to expect and really when I was told I would be staying at the boss's apartment you know naively I thought that might be a really good thing maybe somebody saw something special in me so when you first met Gerald Marie what was your impression of him he was intense he he wasn't a a warm open Friendly guy um it was very businesslike he was very cold um yeah I felt definitely inferior Carrie is Now 51 and lives in Boulder Colorado with her husband and two daughters today Paris is a long way away except in her memory let's be quiet for a moment she says she can never eras from her mind the night Gerald Marie still married to supermodel Linda Evangelista at the time toward came into her room and attacked her I remember I came back after a full day of castings and was cold and felt terrible and went to bed and it was at some point in the night that I woke up with Gerald on top of me and forcing himself on me and I did my best to try to fight him off and I remember a certain moment of of completely giving up of being completely terrified and completely ashamed um and so immediately after that attack what did he say to you almost shaming um rather cruel and no conversation you know there was nothing there was of course no apology it was just business as usual moving right along but trapped by her circumstances Carrie says business as usual now meant she was at Marie's toxic whim forced as she was to stay in his apartment how many times did he attack you you know I don't know the number I know that it was over months and he held the cards he held the power you know I didn't have a parent to call at that time I didn't have money of my own um I didn't have you know a roof over my own head everything was dependent upon him and and him giving it to me and looking back I was I was a perfect Target for so many reasons I respected him I was a bit afraid of him because he had so much power he was the adult in the room and I was the teenager Wendy Walsh was 18 when she first went to Paris to try modeling It Was 1980 and back then Gerald Marie was the head of the Paris planning agency which was later merge with Elite as so many others attest Gerald used a well-oiled Roose to get Wendy alone her female Booker was asked to set up a meeting one day at the agency Pamela slipped me a piece of paper with an address on it and said Gerald wants to see you bring your portfolio he wants to talk to you tonight at his apartment like Carrie Wendy's account of what happened at that so-called meeting is harrowing he grabbed my breast and he grabbed my hips and he said I like this I like this he took my hand and he took me into a little bedroom off the kitchen and he laid me on the bed and I I was frozen I managed to say I'm not I'm not on the pill and he laughed and he said oh really I'm not on the pill either and then so quickly he turned me over I felt him sliding my jeans down and I'm like what the heck I turned and looked over my shoulder and said no and he spit in his hand put the saliva on his penis and raped me anally and I didn't tell anybody about this for nearly 40 years must be very difficult for you to retell it again now what made you stay silent for so long I felt stupid I felt ashamed while these alleged attacks happen behind closed doors by 1998 rumors of abuse were Rife prompting an undercover team of journalists to investigate what they recorded has been buried for the last 20 years that tape is absolutely crucial [Music] evidence this is it the Elite model look contest the biggest most prestigious of its kind it was 1998 and a groundbreaking investigation was underway into rumors of sexual abuse and rape of young models by one of the modeling agency greats the president of Paris Elite Gerald Marie no one had come forward officially but I had been told by people in the industry that he he he dis abuse um young women and teenage girls freelance journalist Lisa brinkworth took her story to the BBC and eminent documentary maker Donal McIntyre their ambition was to uncover the suspected exploitation behind the glamour industrywide so for a year Lisa went undercover as a model and Donal as a fashion photographer give me access to photographing Naomi Campbell Kate Moss some of the worst photographs ever taken of some of the most beautiful women in the world and uh I just blagged my way in and um told a few tall stories and next thing uh I knew I was in the company of um some of the most powerful and I would say dangerous men in the industry this is ma my friend ma from Ireland pleas very quickly Donal going under the name of Mac McIntyre got very close to old Marie I like other things you know what I mean Geral Marie it was quite clear that sex was on the agenda all the time my man I love you so these guys their average night out was either if they're not with their mods young and old on the table drinking having cocaine they're going to brothel and having cocaine or drugs or doing whatever else they do you know I have a little problem here right these guys were in locco Parental they're in the role of a parent this is the first time this undercover footage has been seen in 20 years a legal case bearing it for the past two decades here Gerald is leeringly referring to an elite look of the Year contest which saw girls as young as 13 and 14 comp compete to win a modeling contract but it was Gerald's plans for the most beautiful of them that was stomach turning Miss I come with a big boat we just get off the boat to go and look at the girls this and that and oh you and you and you I always have a couple of friends in there you know girls they bring then we are this street no Pap we witnessed the culture a culture of sex we heard them talk about in the most graphic terms we talked about the Elite model look contest in nce as an opportunity for him um to uh enjoy the company uh sexual company of uh of underage girls it was quite clear no parents no no no parents in the boar chaperon Geral Marie says yes their words they're embarrassing words but that's all they are it was like locker room talk boys talk do you accept that as a defense I don't accept that at all and I think the testimony of uh the women in around that world uh kind of kind of paints a very different interpretation of that while Donal was shocked by what he saw and heard never did the undercover team expect that one of their own would become one of Gerald Marie's alleged victims I didn't want to be a victim I wanted to be the journalist exposing this guy so that was really um it was very traumatic playing the role of model Lisa brinkworth managed to snag an invitation to one of Marie's regular dinners night after night young models from the agency were required to dine with Marie and his businessman friends the conversation at the table was incredibly offensive to these young girls um really bad language lots of sexual innuendo then Gerald Marie turned his attention to Le just you and I alone I know we're going to have a great time and we're going to feel great and and then in front of the table of people offered to pay Lisa for sex I still didn't feel uh afraid um all I thought was I'm getting all of this on camera um and you know he's exactly the person that we'd been told he was and this is all really good evidence for us but what happened next was not caught on tape with Lisa's hidden camera accidentally knocked out of the way despite the public setting Lisa says Gerald unexpectedly and shockingly jumped her completely out of the blue he walked over to me straddled me on my chair um pinned me down to the chair I couldn't move and I could feel he he he has an erection and he was thrusting him himself um into my abdomen and just simulating sex it was the most horrific thing and I I couldn't get him off me and I was absolutely terrified I thought I was going to be raped and um the worst thing about this was that that's the thing that gets me every time actually that it that where all these men sat around laughing sorry it's okay sorry it was that's that was almost the worst part of it no no one helped me um and it was so normal it was so normal to them can you tell me what you witnessed in regards to his behavior towards Lisa I saw him Mount Lisa we were in uh a nightclub brothel and I saw Mount Lisa and uh thrust into her want the assault included in our program why didn't you want that included in the BBC documentary there was a lot of sh I felt really ashamed um I didn't tell my family I didn't tell anybody I didn't want my parents seeing this I I didn't tell anybody was your intention to actually report the assault I wanted to um but in that room that night I was um I was directed not to report it at the time because it would cut short our investigation um and in my shock and in my trauma I I I went along with that how do you now view the direction that you were given not to report this to police given what the subject matter was of your documentary yeah now I realize that actually that would have been crucial um that should have happened it should have been reported Gerald Marie would later deny the assault but in 1999 the BBC ran its expose of the fashion industry with Gerald Marie's bad behavior around young models front and center 1130 11:30 I'll see you for 11:30 bye the worldwide condemnation was damning and the reign of Gerald Marie was judged to be over but not for long the industry you know didn't just forgive him they didn't convict him they gave him more business and he continued to make millions over the next uh two decades Paris is the fashion capital of the world the epitome of Glamour success and power but in 1999 the BBC uncovered its sleazy side broadcast casting a year-long investigation into the modeling industry I of posing as a fashioned photographer journalist Donal McIntyre soon had his biggest catch in Gerald Marie my friend fromel the head of the elite modeling agency in Paris bragging about his plans to have sex with underage models there we [Music] are there were headlines across the world but when you hear it and when you see it from the mouth of one of the most powerful men in the industry then I think that present a truly shocking picture of fashion and the men in fashion to the world the reaction was immediate the disgraced Gerald Marie was suspended from his job at Elite the biggest modeling agency in the world it was a significant and prized scalp it was quite clear that Jo Marie w was at the top of the totem pole he was one of the most powerful and dangerous perpetrators of abuse that was the allegation but very quickly Elite went on the attack suing the BBC for liel and dishonest editing seeking millions in Damages Donal concedes producers made one questionable edit where a model's comments from two interviews were sliced together to make it look like the one interview the BB was accused of unethical editing for which it apologized was that a tactic used to paint Gerald Marie in a certain negative light no I think I the the the specific edits which the BBC were I think overly embarrassed by didn't change the truth of it it didn't went nowhere to the truth of what had happened initially the BBC chose to fight Elites legal claim relying on whistleblower Omar Hau an executive from within Elite itself to prove the documentary had revealed the truth it changed my life when I decided to tell the truth to the BBC I lived three of the worst years of my life after that Omar hauch is an intriguing character a trained concert pianist and Wealthy businessman with a seemingly unshakable honest streak he was the lensee of the elite look of the Year contest in Ukraine but was appalled by Jal Marr's treatment of the young contestants my first impression about him was that he's sexual predator he used to touch the girls he used to show them that he's the one who decide that if they are nice to him they can have a a career they can win the contest also and I said to the girl that it's not normal you you're not obliged to sleep with anybody did you ever confront Gerald Marie about his behavior of course I confront Gerald Marie about his behavior several times he was not afraid he he was like why you're homosexual he was saying that said no I'm not homosexual you don't like girls of course I do I do but the these girls they their family they send it uh send them to us because they trust us as a star witness for the BBC Omar claims the pressure on him became personal and menacing so much so the BBC supplied him with bodyguards did Gerald Marie ever threaten you Gerald Marie he treated me uh twice once in a restaurant and uh in Paris and uh second time it was uh uh uh over the phone when he told me that uh I'm finished and uh something like that just for clarification did Gerald Marie ever threaten your life yes Geral Mar read it in my life that was very clear to you very very it was very clear Omar Hao says he was only ever describing what others had also observed or overheard another former Insider Marie P Anderson once vice president of elite Chicago left the company in disgust in 1990 it was on hearing a heated conversation between two female Executives Gerald Marie and the founder of a late John Casablancas the women were trying to protect the youngest of their models I'm now hearing the the women begging the men to stop sleeping with the 13 and 14y olds and Geral with his Paris accent says uh Girls We Are Men we have our needs and John's response was come on stop being so puritanical it's no big deal and I would I I was so stunned listening to that conversation I had to get up and leave and I quit Elites because I didn't want to be part of that organization if this is the culture that I have to work within inside of an agency I don't want to be part of an agency so I quit the business boom it's like a a big doesn't C it was that toxic culture that freelance journalists Donald McIntyre and Lisa brinkworth exposed so extensively in their documentary but ultimately the BBC backed down apologized for its editing error and signed an agreement to never rerun the footage and in doing so sidestepped a potentially massive payout with the settlement yeah it was business as usual after that the decision to settle was a blow and betrayal so then when elak decided to Sue how do you view the BBC's response there wasn't a single inaccuracy in the entire documentary the footage was robust it was fine you have got a few inappropriate and poor edits uh acknowledge that uh on one side nothing which went to the truth of the investigation whatsoever and you've got these predatory males admitting what they've done telling the world this is their culture this is their ethos this is the world they operate in when they look at after young models no contest was fired wasn't he and he was reinstated with the settlement things settled down yeah Gerald Marie got his job back and with it his glamorous life but now two decades on French prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of rape child rape and sexual assault and Marie may not get a second chance not if former Top Model kotus his victim and greatest pursuer gets her way it's really important in this world that criminals that rapists that you know sex offenders don't keep getting away just because of their position of power Paris la lawyer Anne CLA leun has a big job ahead She carries the hopes of women from all over the world desperate for [Music] justice they have claimed to an active criminal investigation in France they were the sexual assault victims of former modeling agent great Gerald Marie can you tell me how many women do you represent in this investigation into Geral maray well I'm representing 14 women but I have been contacted by uh some other women um they are not ready to speak up not yet how many extra women are talking to you privately I can say more or less uh 12 on top of the 14 you're representing yeah absolutely do you believe the women of course I do of course I do when you cross check the deposit I and the story of every woman you can see uh you know the same details the same moderandi uh it's uh it's real we have no doubt about that while the 1999 BBC documentary exposed Gerald Marie's sleazy Behavior the women he's accused of attacking were then too terrified to talk to see you here today is extraordin does today they have found their voice and their allegations chillingly mirror each others all say they were attacked by Gerald six say they were raped I was 20 and I had only had one boyfriend before I was extremely naive and I was trusting for Jill Dodd it was 40 years ago and it started with Gerald Marie kissing her after a night out with others I felt comfortable with him I didn't know that I should be worried and then he kissed me again and then he physically grabbed me flipped me over onto my H hands and knees and raped me from behind violently and I was screaming to stop and no and he he would he I couldn't get it I couldn't get away the sudden and unexpected nature of the attack on Jill is something all these women describe shaa if I can go to you you were 15 I think when you met Gerald Marie I was flown to Paris for the summer and the agent that met with my family said that there would be a shop or own in an apartment and that I would be taken care of there would be nothing to worry about but like all the former models here at the time the teenage Shauna Lee was required to attend almost nightly industry parties with Gerald and his business friends at the end of one such night Gerald offered to drive Shauna to her apartment instead he took her to his I just started yelling at him and telling him that he was going the wrong way and that that wasn't the way the direction of my apartment and he just didn't listen and then we got to his apartment and he just kind of pounced on me and he was on top of me and then his tongue was in my mouth and I just didn't know what to do I just froze I didn't have any I didn't have any experience with anyone I'm sorry that's okay is this really painful to talk about I just and I told the model in the apartment and he brought me into his office and he called me out on the rape and he said what are you going to do go home and flip Burgers it was like a horrible humiliating experience I just felt so violated and you know I mean he was older than my father at the time I mean I was 15 he was like 42 years old I never saw it coming so he rapes you and then he threatens you uh with your career if you dare tell anyone yeah basically he was well he was laughing about it like he thought it was a joke oh my gosh uh first of all thank you shaa for sharing your story because it was the first time I heard it and it breaks my heart in 1990 Swedish model EBA cson was 20 when she was called into Gerald Marr's office and he pulled out all these portfolios with all the beautiful women and some of them were Swedish and he said do you know who these women are and I'm like oh yes of course they're famous and as he said do you know what they did to earn six figures and as he did that he shoved his hand up my skirt into my vagina with his hand and I felt like somebody just chopped my head off because I didn't I just like I was so shocked I I just froze and I pulled away and I'm like I didn't know what to do how to react and I went out of the office and I just sat outside the office on the street on a bench and cried EJ Moran's account is strikingly familiar ordered to attend dinner and then given some work rated excuse taken back to Gerald's apartment I didn't want to go to his apartment um at all but he was my boss once I got upstairs um he basically threw me on the bed and and put his hand over my face and held me down and started calling me all kinds of names in a low horrible voice and he raped me violently and he was horrible I knew I couldn't report it I I I I knew he had all the power and I was a foreigner I was all alone I didn't speak very much French I was in his apartment um you know I I I knew enough to know I didn't have a chance on her first night in Paris Paula Thomas 17 at the time was asleep when Gerald Marie the boss she'd not yet met crept into her apartment in the middle of the night I woke up to a man sitting on top of me um the bed sheets were pulled down and I heard him say to me um welcome to Paris Paula it's Geral um I was in complete shock obviously um I'd just woken up from sleep and I'd never met Gerald before he did actually stop uh and he did actually leave the room but at that point I was just shaking and didn't really know what to do or what to say a few weeks in another attack this time in Gerald's office he pressed himself up against me and he pushed me up against the filing cabinet and he had an erection and he basically said if you want to be paid you're going to have to have sex with me and uh I pushed him off and um left the building as quickly as I could Lori maren was told she had an enormous future as a model did anyone warn you that you may also become prey in this world no I I I went into it very wide-eyed and just you know happy but Lui now a psychologist based in Brisbane felt the full brunt of saying no to Gerald Marie It All Happened very quickly but he just pushed me through a door um into another room onto a bed and he landed on top of me and um he's grabbing my breasts and he was pulling up my skirt and then I realized that I was in big trouble that that I was going to get raped so um you know I started struggling more and more and shouting at him to stop Lori says Gerald was deaf to her please but she somehow managed to get out from under him and run from the room in retribution Gerald cancelled Lor's next three cover Shoots for the highly sought after El magazine a message her career at the late modeling agency was now dead he got off the phone he hung up and he turned to me and he said they're canceled and I said what's cancelled and he said your L trips and I said well which one and he said all of them so I um you know that was sort of like the second the second punch you know it was like there was the attack and then there was then there was you know this sort of sabotaging me um in my career and it was that was actually the point where I I was overwhelmed Lori went on to have a great career with another agency but it was a pattern of payback that Gerald seemed to use on those who rejected or confronted him and it wasn't just against women a former Elite Insider Omar hao suffered years of untruthful attacks on his reputation for daring to speak out against Gerald Marie for which he successfully sued Marie Omar has now met with French prosecutors to support the 14 former models who accused Gerald Marie of sexual assault and rape I am talking for only one reason first I want the truth to be known I want that everybody believe these girls because I saw what was going on and because I want these girls to know that they are not alone the French investigation was launched in September last year in response to written allegations made by the women in this story but their greatest legal challenge is that the statute of limitations the 20 years in which to make a complaint to the courts has expired for lawyer an CLA Lun it's therefore critical the more recent victims she has spoken to come forward well the prosecutor has been quoted as saying that it is important to investigate so that there are no forgotten victims you must find that very encouraging yeah absolutely and you know then we need uh all the victims to to come forward it's very hard to con convince them to speak up unable to have charges brought against Gerald Marie because of the length of time that has passed these women will be considered vital Witnesses in the current criminal investigation but their determination in facing down one of the most powerful players in the industry and demanding change industrywide cannot be underestimated for you personally to take the testimonials of these women what has that been like for you to see them now come together like this and put their names and their faces to this fight for justice they are very courageous it's an amazing work and I know it's I I know it's not easy but um yeah it's because of her that uh we can get people convicted so they Heroes to you yes they are heroes absolutely we set the word of [Music] and now this neverbe seen videotape I mean I was trying to push him off I couldn't could be the legal breakthrough that could change everything and he had an erection he was pushing it into me and and thrusting and it was just absolutely [Music] horrific the time I was in shock I came back here for Absolut were violated um I just B I didn't want to but I burst into tears un professional about this footage has never been seen before Lisa brinkworth made this recording in the moments immediately after she says she was sexually assaulted in 1999 just all of a sudden he just came over and he was on top of me he straddled me pushed himself and pinned me to the Chan Lisa alleges her attacker was BigTime model agent Gerald Marie who was unaware that she was an undercover freelance journalist posing as a model it was just absolutely horrific it was um there sing other experience to R Lisa was investigating Marie for a BBC documentary after being tipped off by models that he was a Serial sex abuser never did she expect to be one of his alleged victims nor did she ever expect to see this tape again buried as it was by the BBC the BBC locked away the recording when it settled a Lial suit brought by the elite modeling agency what really hit him was that there was a 16-year-old and 17-year-old on the table unbelievably the tape resurfaced when the BBC inadvertently gave it to another journalist in early 2019 so that was not absolute shock to me to hear a woman who I never met didn't know just telling me about what she just witnessed on this tape the shock was made Greater by the fact despite many requests the BBC won't give Lisa the tape citing legal reasons it refuses to release it without her signing a gag order that tape immediately following the assault is absolutely crucial evidence we the obtained the vision from a confidential source and according to lawyer an Clair leun the tape could prove the turning point in the case against Gerald Marie because it has been hidden away for so long Lisa was denied the opportunity to use it as evidence of Marie's alleged assault before the statute of limitations was reached it's hoped because of that lost opportunity the legal time limit cannot apply to Lisa if you can convince the prosecutor and the courts that the statute of limitations needed to be paused in Lisa's case what does that do for your case it means that uh Jal Mari could be officially charged for sexual assault so it will be a great victory of course Lisa BR brr could probably get Justice and that means more than ever before the legal net seems to be closing in on Gerald Marie at 70 Gerald lives on the Spanish island of AA the holiday destination of the Rich and Famous it's here that he has a luxurious clifftop home and far away from the current French investigation he lunches by the beach most days and lives a lavish life built off the back of the lucrative modeling industry still a very active businessman still enjoying the vast wealth and fruits of his trade and um until very recently anyway still actively involved um in the fashion [Music] industry much to the disappointment of the documentary undercover team Donal McIntyre and Lisa brinkworth Gerald Marie continued to work for elite Europe until 2011 and then we Model Management until a year ago he brazened it out I mean what I what I could understand continues working with models all these years Gerald Marie has always denied all of the allegations of sexual assault and rape and was Vindicated when the BBC backed down and settled the Lial claim brought against them by Elite but the allegations won't go away I watched as girls came in and slept with him and then were passed around middleaged men everybody could see what he was doing everybody could see that he was abusing his power to former model kotas who says Marie raped her multiple times when she was 17 he represents the worst of the industry what's been normal ized is horrific and and at this point you know we say it is like the wild west you know the modeling industry is totally unregulated despite the fact we have Decades of allegations and Decades of complaints and and it's time there's a collective rising up and people want to tell their stories and they want real lasting change our repeated requests for an interview with with Gerald have been ignored agreeing to put the allegations directly to Gerald on our behalf and unrestricted by Co travel bans ah Mr Marie Donald McIntyre 60 Minutes Australia Donald McIntyre traveled to ather to confront the man he hasn't seen in 20 years thank you very much or we call the police Mr Marie call the police do you realize the French prosecutors have got 14 women charging you making ations for assault and sexual assault Mr Marie six women are accusing you of rape you have anything to say it appears Gerald Marie does not remember Donal and isn't bothered in the slightest by the allegations against him nor the French criminal investigation it's enough it's not enough it's enough say this say this to the women who claim he's raped and sexually assaulted is this not a problem to you please leave us alone he even feels compelled to make fun of McIntyre about what he's wearing dress like the priest but he doesn't know Mr Marie it's no time for joking this is no laughing matter let it completely unfazed Gerald continues eating and mocking D have a beautiful day enjoy you do beautiful night Hallelujah and we you have nothing better to do but Gerald Marie may not so easily ignore the women he is accused of hurting they plan to travel Co permitting to Paris to give their testimonies in person to the prosecutor so the investigation can progress they believe that there are others out there who should do the same end all your stories have been incredibly compelling and yet Gerald Marie continues toy that he harassed you or raped you or hurt you or ended your careers you know he he denies it he says it's rubbish um what what do you say to him we'll see about that we'll see about that we're not 17 anymore we're not children anymore we're adults and we know what happened to us so um we'll see you in court I understand how scary it is to come forward we are stronger in numbers and there are other women that are available to support women that are coming forward for the first time so I think anything is possible I don't think this show is [Music] over hello I'm Tara Brown thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on ow.com Au and the N9 Now app
‘He wanted to control me completely’: the models who accuse Gérald Marie of sexual assault Elite Models boss Gérald Marie was one of the most powerful men in fashion. Was he also a sexual predator? As French prosecutors investigate, four women tell their stories for the first time A special investigation by Lucy Osborne The Guardian Sat 17 Oct 2020 02.00 EDT
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In the spring of 1980, Wendy Walsh and her mother flew to Paris from their home in a suburb of Toronto, Canada. Walsh was 17, a straight-A student who excelled at maths. She was also an aspiring model whose blond, blue-eyed, girl-next-door look had already got her noticed; at a local hairdressing event, a couple of stylists from a Paris salon had offered to send her headshots to a leading model agency, Paris Planning. Letters and phone calls had been exchanged, and Walsh was invited to Paris.
At the agency’s offices, Walsh and her mother, Ellen, were introduced to the charismatic 30-year-old boss, Gérald Marie. Marie offered to take them to lunch. “So we went to a little outdoor bistro in the Place de la Madeleine, around the corner from the agency,” says Walsh, speaking on the phone from her home in Los Angeles. “It was the first time I ever had a croque monsieur, and he was explaining what it was. I realise now it’s a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. And I remember distinctly him fawning over my mother, and this was surprising to me. She had been an extremely beautiful woman in her youth, but lupus had left scars on her face.
“He reached over and was stroking her hand, and something in my 17-year-old stomach was like, this is weird.” Later, in their hotel room, Walsh remembers her mother saying: “‘Oh, that man is lovely, he’s going to take care of you.’ I look back on it with adult eyes, and I believe this is the way that he groomed families. He lured girls in by convincing them that somehow he would be this very safe guardian of their teenage daughter.”
Two months later, in June 1980, Walsh moved to Paris. “I was young, I was naive, and I had stars in my eyes,” she says now. “I was not scared one little bit, because I trusted all the adults who were going to take care of me and make me a famous model.”
Wendy Walsh, now 58, at home in Los Angeles. Photograph: Dylan Coulter/The Guardian
Walsh, who is now 58 and a respected US radio host, was one of dozens of hopefuls from across North America and Europe who made the journey to Paris in the summer of 1980. Over the following decades, thousands of young women went to work for Marie and other agencies there, desperate to make it as a model. But few became stars, and many were not taken care of in the way Walsh’s mother would have expected.
Within weeks of arriving in Paris, Walsh says, she was raped by Gérald Marie. A Guardian special investigation has found that she is one of eight women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Marie between 1980 and 1998. Four are speaking for the first time.
Last month, French prosecutors announced that they had opened an investigation into Marie, after a criminal complaint from four women: three former models, who have taken part in this investigation, and Lisa Brinkworth, a journalist who says she was sexually assaulted while working undercover for the BBC. Marie, who at 70 still works in the modelling industry, denies the allegations. In a statement to the Sunday Times about the French investigation, he said: “It would not be appropriate for me to comment at this time on the allegations of historic wrongdoing being made against me, other than to make it clear that I categorically deny them.”
By the time Wendy Walsh came to Paris in 1980, Marie had been at Paris Planning for five years, reportedly after a brief stint working as a dancer on local television. The son of a hospital administrator, he quickly earned a reputation as one of the most powerful and well-connected agents in Europe, a man who could make a model’s career with the click of a finger or a call to Vogue. In 1986, Paris Planning merged with Elite Model Management, the agency later credited with inventing the supermodel, and Marie became its European president. He ran the agency alongside Elite founder John Casablancas, who was based in New York; together, they helped launch the careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen and others.
But behind the gloss and glamour of the 90s fashion world, Marie had established a reputation as a predator. A number of former models and industry insiders have told the Guardian his abusive behaviour was “an open secret”, and part of an ingrained culture of exploitation at the heart of the modelling world.
Shh! Nobody cares.
In Paris, Walsh was assigned to Paris Planning’s new-faces division, and sent to “go-sees” with potential clients. In the evenings, the now 18-year-old was told to go to parties that might help her career. “It would be rich old playboys in very glamorous apartments with big bowls of cocaine. Everybody drunk. There was no business being done, no photographers there,” she says.
Around six weeks in, Walsh was told by a female booker that Marie wanted her to dye her hair brown, and she was sent to a hairdresser. That evening, she was invited to a party at which Marie would be present. “The only times I’d seen him had been in the agency, holding court,” Walsh says. At the party, in a tiny apartment, she found Marie sitting on a bed. “He said, ‘Come here’, and he put his hand through my hair, and he said, ‘This is good, this is what I like.’ And I thought he was my boss, telling me I was going to get a lot of work now.”
Based on my own experiences, I believe these women are telling the truth. It breaks my heart and I admire their courage
-- Linda Evangelista
The next day, at the agency’s offices, Walsh was told that Marie wanted to meet her again, this time at his apartment. “With the wise eyes of a grownup, business meetings don’t take place at apartments at nine o’clock at night,” she says. “But when you’re 18 and believing all the adults around you, you just do what you’re told. So I went.
“In Paris, you hit the light switch at the bottom of the dark stairway, then you work your way up. I stood outside his door, and I knocked and knocked until the lights went out after three minutes, and I was scrambling around looking for a switch. I waited another three minutes, and then walked all the way home.”
Back at her apartment, the phone rang. It was her booker, telling her that Marie had been busy and that she should go back: he was waiting. By then it was 10pm, and Walsh had no money for a cab. “And so again, I walk and walk for 20 minutes through Paris at night.”
Wendy Walsh in 1986. Photograph: courtesy of Wendy Walsh
Walsh knocked on Marie’s door. This time a young model came out, smiling and giggling. “She kissed him on both cheeks, said goodbye. So then I went in, and he said, ‘Oh, that girl, she’s one of our models, and she’s having so many problems with her boyfriend. They always come to me about their boyfriend problems.’”
Marie poured her a glass of champagne and offered her hors d’oeuvres. He told Walsh that he had heard she was Catholic, and that he was, too. “It was like, what was going to happen was OK, because he was a trusted person in my club or tribe.” Then, within minutes, “his hand was down my shirt, and he was saying to me, ‘You are the only model in the agency with large breasts – I love it.’ All I was thinking was, ‘If I make this man angry, I’ll never get work again.’”
Walsh tried to make excuses, telling Marie she wasn’t on the pill, and bargaining with him, like “a sweet, young, naive girl who’s afraid of people of power, who tries to say no, but doesn’t know how”. She alleges that he took off her clothes and anally raped her. “It hurt and I remember one thing distinctly: I buried my face in the pillow and said, ‘No’. It smelled of somebody else’s perfume.”
Afterwards, Walsh says, Marie grabbed a bunch of bananas from his kitchen, handed her one and asked if her roommate was “the other Canadian” (Walsh was sharing with another young model from Toronto). When she said yes, he laughed and asked her to give the girl a banana from him, she recalls. She arrived at her apartment, and asked her roommate if she had also had sex with Marie. “That was the only language I had for it then,” she says. Her roommate said yes. The next time Walsh saw Marie, he was at the agency with a male friend. “He was pointing to me and laughing,” she says. “It was the most humiliating moment.”
Walsh believes that part of the reason Marie was able to abuse new models like her was the language barrier. “I didn’t meet one French model while I was there. We were chosen specifically because we didn’t understand the language, would be away from home, and didn’t know what the hell was going on. He had complete control.”
Soon after the alleged rape, Walsh was invited to accompany her booker on a glamorous-sounding trip to Monte Carlo. But she had already been advised against travelling to the south of France by a more successful model, over tea in the twentysomething’s courtyard garden. The older model warned that this was a world of wealthy men and their boats, and that unsuspecting models could end up being exploited. “Bad things happen there,” she was told.
Jill Dodd never got the warning about the “bad things” that could happen in the south of France. Marie had invited the 19-year-old swim instructor to move to Paris after meeting her in her hometown of Los Angeles on a talent-spotting trip. Her Californian agent told her it was a great opportunity.
Jill Dodd in Paris in 1980. Photograph: courtesy of Jill Dodd
Like Walsh, Dodd spent the spring of 1980 navigating the Paris Métro, and attending “go-sees” set up by Paris Planning. But after several weeks, she started to rack up debts to the agency, who were not only charging her fees, but also billing her for a dingy hotel and her flight from California. After one long day of rejections, Dodd recalls crying on a street corner as it got dark, feeling exhausted.
On 23 April 1980, Marie asked Dodd, then 20, and her roommate out dancing. She felt hopeful: time spent with her boss could be good for her career. She had seen Marie send the girls he liked “straight to Vogue without even an interview”. At the club, she recalls dancing awkwardly, watching her boss in his black leather jacket. He was a confident dancer and she thought he looked sexy – a different person from the “moody” manager she’d encountered at the office. In the early hours, Dodd and her roommate went back to Marie’s apartment. When her friend left, she stayed on. Dodd says Marie kissed her and she remembers relishing the attention. “I’d only had one serious boyfriend at that time.” When Marie offered to run her a bubble bath in his marble tub, she agreed, and afterwards joined him in his bedroom to watch a John Wayne film. But “all of a sudden”, she says, Marie raped her. “It happened so fast,” she says. She shouted, “Stop”, but he did not.
This man had control of your life. So you make him think you’re enjoying it – then you get the hell out
In the days that followed, Marie told Dodd he wanted to be her boyfriend, and scribbled her a note (seen by the Guardian) saying: “I want you to behave when I’m away… don’t forget! Love, Gérald”. “I was so immature, and even though it was rape, I was confused,” she says now. “I was like, ‘Oh, he does like me! He’s so powerful.’”
Soon afterwards, Dodd says, she discovered that Marie had tried to have sex with her roommate; the former roommate, who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, confirms this. She added that, months later, Marie tried again. This time, she alleges, he tricked her into being alone in a room with him; she felt the only way out was to perform oral sex. “This man had control of your life. So you make him think you’re enjoying it – then you get the hell out.”
The billionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi in 1996. Photograph: Getty Images
When Dodd was invited to Monte Carlo that summer, she jumped at the opportunity to take a break from go-sees. On her first night, she went to a party where she was introduced by her Paris Planning booker to Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi billionaire arms dealer, then said to be the richest man in the world. The following day, Dodd says, she and the booker were invited to stay the night on his yacht, and offered their pick from a closet full of couture gowns for the evening. That was the start of a “relationship” between Dodd and Khashoggi: “I was basically one of his harem wives for almost two years,” she says now.
But it was a more transactional relationship than she knew. “It wasn’t until the end of our relationship that I found out that he had paid to meet me,” Dodd says. “I was chosen out of a bunch of pictures by Adnan.” She says she realised this when one of Khashoggi’s assistants came into their hotel room one evening with a portfolio of pictures of women. She says the assistant openly went through the photographs, asking whom he would like to meet, and discussing fees between $35,000 and $50,000. She says Khashoggi, who died in 2017, later admitted that he had paid Paris Planning to be introduced to her. “It was all a front. I had been manipulated and used.”
Ann Maguire was on her first modelling shoot, in Rome, when she was scouted by Marie. Maguire, from Virginia, was 5ft 11in, with striking blue-green eyes, high cheekbones and thick eyebrows; she was often likened to Brooke Shields. She had just turned 18, and was new to the world of fashion. “I was the jock, always sporty. I’d never even worn mascara before,” she tells me now. She says Marie showered her with compliments and made her feel “a million dollars”. He invited her to Paris and promised to get her work straight away. Maguire signed up to Paris Planning, and on 31 January 1980 moved into Marie’s spare room: she is one of several former models the Guardian has spoken to who were put up in his apartment. (While Maguire, Walsh and Dodd all worked for Paris Planning in 1980, they have never met or heard each other’s stories.)
Ann Maguire in 1985. Photograph: Robert Christian
Maguire, now 60, has decided to speak for the first time about what happened next. Initially, she says, Marie was charming. “He would play great music and fix great meals, all this kind of stuff… Then, as it grew into a friendship, he proceeded to abuse that.” She alleges she was raped several times by Marie while living in his apartment, and that at night he would ignore her pleas for him to stop and “crawl into bed with me”. She remembers him “flaunting” other models he was romantically involved with, kissing them in front of her, or joking that their toothbrush was in his bathroom. In her notebook at the time, which she still has, she scribbled: “Fight with Gérald” and “Too fat!”
Eventually, Maguire snapped. “I said, ‘Screw you, I’m going to get my own apartment.’” But after moving into an apartment with other models, she says her work stopped. She began busking with her guitar, and one day returned home to find a note from Paris Planning telling her she could no longer live there. She says all her shoes and her passport were missing, which she believes Marie took: “He wanted to control me completely.” She began sleeping on a bench in front of the Louvre.
A booker at the agency arranged for her to stay with another man, who she says also sexually abused her. Maguire wishes now that she had reported the assaults to the police, but didn’t consider it at the time “because I was afraid of not working again”. She explains: “I thought they would laugh at me. ‘You’re living in his house, what do you expect?’ I also didn’t speak French well enough to explain.”
On one of several phone calls with me, Maguire breaks down in tears; she tells me it is a time of her life she would rather forget. She returned home to Virginia and didn’t model again for at least another year.
Another former model, EJ Moran, says that when she was in her 20s, she was raped so violently by Marie that she feared for her life. Now 61 and an author, she is still scared of him, 40 years on. One evening in the summer of 1981, when she was turning 22, she was phoned by a booker at Paris Planning to say she had to attend a dinner with Marie right away. “I really didn’t want to go,” she recalls. “But I felt coerced into it [by the booker].” Dodd and Walsh say the same woman arranged their evening meetings with Marie, and sent them to parties they didn’t want to go to.
EJ Moran in 1981. Photograph: courtesy of EJ Moran
The booker “disappeared abruptly right after dinner”, Moran recalls, and Marie persuaded her to go up to his apartment, which was across the street, so he could show her promotional videos for the agency’s most famous models. “VCRs were a new thing in the 80s,” she explains. Moran remembers she was wearing “lavender-coloured pumps, a white blouse and a forest-green sweater”, as well as “mom jeans”. Suddenly, she says, Marie raped her. “Before I know it, I was thrown on the bed. He took his open palm and smashed my face into the bed.” He verbally abused her, in what she describes as “a terrible low voice”.
Afterwards, Moran says, the “debonair and charming” Marie returned, asking her to stay the night. She made an excuse about needing to change her contact lenses; she was scared that if she wasn’t polite, he would hurt her again. In the following days, she received a call from the booker telling her she had a well-paid catalogue job in Belgium and needed to get on a train. Moran says now that she believes this was “a message”: that if you “play this game and stay quiet, you’ll get all this work”. Other women who told the Guardian they were sexually assaulted by Marie remember being offered lucrative jobs in the days that followed.
Ten years later, by 1991, the modelling industry had hit its golden years, and Marie was firmly at its helm. The original supermodels, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford, had signed with Elite Model Management, then run by Marie alongside Elite US president John Casablancas. Elite had offices around the world, from Tokyo to London; Marie now reportedly owned homes in Manhattan, Saint-Tropez, Ibiza and Paris. He had also been married to Evangelista for more than four years, telling an interviewer that he had left his previous girlfriend, American model Christine Bolster, “within the hour” of meeting Evangelista.
In 1991, the couple were among the celebrity guests at the final of Look of the Year, Elite’s annual international modelling contest, in New York. Evangelista wore her hair in a striking red bob with a heavy fringe, and towered over Marie, who wore a black suit and tie, his hair slicked back. Evangelista joined Naomi Campbell to present a prize, while Marie sat with fellow judges Casablancas and Donald Trump in the audience.
Shawna Lee, then 15, in Paris in 1992. Photograph: courtesy of Shawna Lee
Canadian schoolgirl Shawna Lee was a 15-year-old Look of the Year finalist the following year. In the weeks leading up to the 1992 contest, she was sent by Elite to Paris from her hometown outside Toronto to build up her portfolio. She had already visited in the spring, staying in Marie and Evangelista’s flat while they were on holiday. “She was my idol,” Lee says now. “I was walking around her apartment and seeing these shoots she’d done with [Vogue photographer] Peter Lindbergh, so it was obviously pretty exciting.” This time, she was put up in an apartment with other models; but after an evening out at the nightclub Les Bains Douches, Lee ended up back at Marie’s apartment where, she says, he raped her – an allegation published as part of a Guardian investigation into Look of the Year in March. Speaking more recently from her home in Toronto, where she works as a makeup artist, Lee adds: “What is grossest is him asking me to put Linda’s T-shirt on to sleep in, then pouncing on me.”
Evangelista divorced Marie in 1993, after separating from him the year before. Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, she said: “During my relationship with Gérald Marie, I knew nothing of these sexual allegations against him, so I was unable to help these women. Hearing them now, and based on my own experiences, I believe that they are telling the truth. It breaks my heart, because these are wounds that may never heal, and I admire their courage and strength for speaking up today.”
At the time, Lee confided in a fellow model, and this got back to Marie. She says he took her into his office and berated her for “going around saying I raped you”, suggesting her career would be on the line. She says he told her: “What else are you going to do? Go back home and flip burgers?” Other staff at the agency found out: “It was just understood that it was in my best interests to brush it under the rug.”
At least five women the Guardian spoke to say they experienced sexual misconduct from other men who worked with or for Marie. Lee says that after Marie raped her, a Paris Elite scout and friend of Marie told her that the two men had been competing over “who was going to get your virginity”. She says the scout was “kind of mad that he [Marie] got it first.”
Lee, then 15, went on to have a sexual relationship with the scout, which at the time she thought was consensual. As an adult, she’s not so sure: “It was definitely an abuse of power.” The Guardian has spoken to two other former Elite models, then 15 and 17, who allege they were sexually assaulted by the same scout, and one, then 19, who says he raped her.
Swedish model Ebba Karlsson in 1989. Photograph: courtesy of Ebba Karlsson
Swedish model Ebba Karlsson, who was 20 in 1990, alleges she was raped that year by a different Elite scout, and that, days later, she was introduced to Marie. Karlsson says that when she arrived at his office, the first thing he did was lower the blinds. “There was a window between his office and other people in the agency,” she explains. She says Marie then took her through the portfolios of famous models he represented and asked her if she knew what they did to become successful. Then, she says, “Suddenly, his hand was inside my vagina. It was so quick and abrupt, I totally froze.” After the meeting, she sat down on the “first available bench” and cried, feeling “ashamed and in shock”.
On another occasion, Karlsson agreed to go to a “casting” at Marie’s apartment. He had told her she had a lot of film potential because she spoke several languages. The other models there looked younger than her, she says, perhaps 16 or 17, and some were living in his apartment. “Some were sick, they had colds or something, and did not look great.” She and the others were told to take off their clothes, don high heels, then walk and pose for Marie and two other men. “They wanted to see our boobs. And I don’t know if that was the common practice, but it was like a meat market. It was horrible.”
A movie never materialised, and Karlsson went back to Sweden as soon as she was able, returning to her job at the Body Shop. “Marie took my power away,” Karlsson says now. “I was powerful before, I could protect myself. But after that, I was just a shaking leaf.”
In 2011, the supermodel Carré Otis published a memoir, Beauty, Disrupted, which included claims that she was repeatedly raped by Marie when she was 17. In an interview with the Guardian, Otis says it started around 1986, the year Paris Planning merged with Elite. She was staying in Marie and Evangelista’s apartment; it was the early days of his relationship with the supermodel. “Linda was maybe a little bit older than me,” Otis recalls. “She was soaring, she was already a star in the sky.” But when Evangelista was out of town, “he attacked me in the middle of the night”, she says. “I was sick and I had a fever. That was the beginning of many such attacks.”
Otis went on to become an enormously successful model, and was married to the actor Mickey Rourke, her co-star in the 1989 film Wild Orchid. But in the mid-1980s, like the other women interviewed for this investigation, she was still pounding the pavements looking for work. In her book, Otis writes that Marie told her she needed to drop more weight, giving her “a small brown glass vial of cocaine every day… this was the key to model weight management”. She says now: “It was made very clear that, if I wanted to make it, I would have to deal with his advances. That continued until I actually did say no, and then my work stopped.” Otis is one of the four women whose complaints triggered the French investigation, along with Karlsson, Dodd and journalist Lisa Brinkworth.
Model and actor Carré Otis. Photograph: Getty Images
Otis says she was also abused by others connected to Marie or his agency. She alleges she was raped in her hotel room by a hairdresser on a shoot arranged by Elite. She believes that Marie and other Elite agents were making money by sending models on trips where there was “no actual work”, or to parties with wealthy men who had no connection to the industry. “I was definitely pimped out,” she says. For Dodd – who says she was sexually assaulted at a party she was sent to by Paris Planning, and by another man on a shoot arranged by the agency – this was “out in the open” in 1980. “There were all these offers of, ‘If you go on this trip, you have to sleep with the photographer,’” she says. “It was talked about out loud.”
It was just such a trip – to Monte Carlo – that Wendy Walsh had refused to make, back in the summer of 1980. Instead, the 18-year-old Canadian wrote to her parents from Paris, a letter they kept and which she now has. Reading it now, her disillusionment is clear: “I refuse to hang around in their social circles, and act like a prostitute to get work,” she wrote in what Walsh describes as her “swirly, little-girl handwriting”. “Unfortunately, as much as I wish it weren’t so, I have discovered that this business operates on a totally social level. If you don’t cooperate, you get stepped on.”
Marie Anderson, who worked for Elite between 1983 and 1990, says that to understand how Marie was able to get away with his alleged behaviour, one has to grasp the “complete control” model agencies had during this era. “It was like a cult mentality,” she says. Anderson, who worked for Elite Chicago, first as a booker and later as vice-president, says she remembers at least six different models telling her that Marie had been sexually inappropriate with them, but they swore her to secrecy, “terrified” that they would stop getting work if they complained. She recalls overhearing Trudi Tapscott, an executive at Elite in New York from 1984 to 1991, and another agent, tearfully pleading with Marie and Casablancas to stop sleeping with underage models, some time in the late 80s. Anderson says she could only warn others against working in Paris: “I wish I could have done more.”
Tapscott, who is still a model scout, began working for Elite at the age of 23. She says: “I was only a little bit older than the models, and also taken in by the glamour. We didn’t have the language then to know that this was wrong, and even if we did, who would we report it to? We were like a family and there was no HR department; this was the culture that protected these men. I have tremendous regret about not doing more at the time.”
Gérald Marie with Elite Model Look contestants in Nice in 2001. Photograph: Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images
Most of the models who spoke to the Guardian did not tell their agents about their alleged abuse, for fear it would get back to Marie. Walsh talks in terms of “psychological shackles”. “I was trapped by the fact that they’d gotten me into debt right away,” she says. “And then you had your parents at home with stars in their eyes going, ‘Send us pictures, honey, tell us how it’s going, we want to tell everybody about our famous little girl!’ And you just didn’t want to let down your parents. You didn’t want to be a failure. What a horrible catch-22 to put a teenager in.”
In 1999, it looked as if Marie’s alleged behaviour had caught up with him when a BBC investigation reportedly filmed him saying he hoped to seduce the contestants at Elite Model Look (the new name for Look of the Year), as well as offering an undercover journalist money for sex. In the wake of the allegations, he was suspended from Elite; in an interview at the time, he said: “I’m destroyed… I’m finished.”
But Elite launched a libel action against the BBC, arguing that the report was “dishonestly edited”; the agency successfully made the case that Marie had been set up by the crew. The case was settled, the BBC apologised and conceded that its portrayal was unfair. The film disappeared and Marie was reinstated, continuing to run Elite Model Look for many more years.
People ask how I got brave. I say: I’m a woman of a certain age. What I mean is, I learned the hard way. Gérald Marie prepared me
After years of financial mismanagement, Elite was forced into bankruptcy in 2004, splitting into two separate agencies, owned by different corporate entities, which still operate today. Marie is believed to have continued working with the New York division of Elite, Creative World Management, until as recently as 2011. The company declined to comment, but a spokesperson told the Guardian in March that it condemns the kinds of “deplorable behaviour” alleged to have taken place at Elite in the past.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Elite World Group said: “We find these alleged criminal acts egregious and abhorrent. Gérald Marie’s contract with Elite Model Management ended in December 2010, and the company was sold in 2011 to its current owners Elite World Group, for whom Marie has never worked. Elite World Group is committed to providing a safe environment for our models, and does not tolerate any form of abuse, harassment, discrimination and/or gender bias.”
In 2012, Marie joined Oui Management, a prestigious Paris agency whose models front Louis Vuitton campaigns and Vogue magazine covers. He remains an investor in Oui, which is registered in the UK: company documents filed in August this year state that Marie continues to be a “person with significant control” over Oui Management Ltd.
Marie with his then wife, Linda Evangelista, at the 1991 Elite Look of the Year contest in New York. Photograph: Ron Galella/Getty Images
Although Marie has claimed he is retired, industry insiders who work with Oui Management say that until recently he had a “hands-on” role. One source has shown the Guardian emails that indicate Marie was accompanying models on castings with photographers as recently as last year. Marie’s LinkedIn page, which he recently deleted, had listed his responsibilities at the “thriving newcomer” agency as scouting for and managing talent. Oui Management has told the Guardian that Marie is not currently an employee.
Now married to a Russian model, Marie splits his time between Paris and his home in Ibiza, which according to a local paper has “the best French wine cellar on the island”. Responding to the new allegations put to him by the Guardian, his lawyers said that he was “extremely affected by the accusations made against him, which he contests with the utmost firmness… He intends to actively participate in the manifestation of the truth within the scope of the opened criminal investigation.”
Is the predatory culture of the modelling industry in the 1980s and 1990s a thing of the past? Both Anderson and Tapscott say that there is still a pressure to “stay silent” – one that applies to agents, too. Anderson says: “I can’t get a job in the modelling business any more, because I’ve been ostracised for talking out about this stuff.” She adds that it “speaks volumes” that Marie is still involved with an agency today. “It is living proof that the cult-like mentality still exists, and the code of silence remains.”
Meanwhile, the eight women who spoke to the Guardian say that, even 30 to 40 years after their alleged abuse, the impact on their lives has been lasting. Walsh, Dodd, Lee and Otis all battled eating disorders as a result, and several accusers went on to experience problems with alcohol or drugs.
Otis left Paris in 1987, moving to a farm in northern California for several months to get as “far away from [modelling] as possible”. But when her money started to run out, she approached a small agency in San Francisco and got a few jobs. “It felt safe and stable and normal,” she says. “You knew you were going to get off at five.” From there, her career took off. In 1988, she did an American Vogue cover shoot with Evangelista, the first ever to feature two models, in which they posed together on a Greek beach in matching jumpers and black caps, smiling and laughing. (There is no suggestion that Evangelista was aware of the allegations against her husband at the time.) In 1991, Otis became the face of Calvin Klein and joined Evangelista as one of the world’s most recognisable models; unlike many other women the Guardian has spoken to for this investigation, she found success without Gérald Marie.
Dodd, who is now 60, became a successful businesswoman (she is the founder of the surf brand Roxy) and lives with her husband and three children in the north Californian countryside. “I made it out,” she says, although she stresses that the years that followed weren’t easy.
Wendy Walsh took a degree in journalism and a PhD in clinical psychology, and is now a broadcaster. Photograph: Dylan Coulter/The Guardian
Walsh remembers crying down the phone to her parents in 1980, asking them to get her home for the summer, and then back to school. “I was sitting in my mother’s basement, suffering from depression, not knowing what that was at the time,” she says. “I was just eating and crying.” She says she is coming forward now, “because I believe this is still a problem for girls in the industry today, and it needs to stop.”
After gaining a degree in journalism and later a PhD in clinical psychology, Walsh became a successful broadcaster. In 2017, she was the first woman to go public with sexual harassment allegations against Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. Walsh told a New York Times investigation that, when she was a regular guest on The O’Reilly Factor in 2013, he reneged on a verbal offer to secure her a lucrative position after she declined an invitation to his hotel suite. He was later sacked by Fox after it emerged he had paid five women tens of millions of dollars to settle various sexual harassment lawsuits. At the time, O’Reilly said there was no merit to the allegations. “I never mistreated anyone,” he said, adding that he had resolved matters privately to protect his children from publicity.
Walsh is now a qualified psychotherapist and hosts the Dr Wendy Walsh radio show. “People say, ‘How were you so brave to just go, “No”, to this powerful man who offered you a major job on television in America?’” she says. “And what I said in all the press conferences is that I’m a woman of a certain age, I’ve had some life experience. But what I really meant is, I learned the hard way. What happened with Gérald Marie prepared me for what happened with Bill O’Reilly, 30 years later. What I learned when I was 18 was to never go to the private quarters of any powerful man, whether he held your paycheck or not.”
