The unanswered questions after trove of Epstein files released — and possibly a million more to follow

Latest tranche of records and photographs relating to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein published by the Department of Justice contained almost 30,000 pages of information or 10GB of data, Joe Sommerlad reports

The Department of Justice published another enormous batch of files relating to its past investigations into Jeffrey Epstein Tuesday, making a further 11,000 files available for download on its website.

The latest drop followed on from its publication of an incomplete set of documents and photographs pertaining to the late pedophile and sex trafficker Friday to comply with a 30-day deadline set in motion by the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act through Congress in November.

However, much of what was released proved to be heavily redacted and lacking in context and was not delivered in a searchable format, as the act had expressly stipulated.

An undated and previously unseen image of Donald Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell (DOJ)

The partial release drew an angry reaction from an Epstein survivors’ group, who branded it “unacceptable,” and from the lawmakers behind the original push to release the files, who said they are now weighing contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the matter.

The department responded by firing out almost 30,000 pages of documents two days before Christmas, amounting to 10GB of data, which has only served to invite fresh questions about the late billionaire and his social circle.

How many times did Trump travel on Epstein’s plane?

There were few references to the president in Friday’s batch of files but many more in the latest release.

Trump has not been accused of any crime in relation to Epstein, his fellow New Yorker and one-time Florida social acquaintance, and the appearance of any person’s name in the documents does not imply wrongdoing.

The president has, however, faced intense pressure since this summer to explain his past friendship with Epstein, which Trump has said ended in around 2004 when the two men had a falling out at Mar-a-Lago, the latter’s Palm Beach estate.

A new, undated image of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the latest tranche of files released by the Department of Justice on Tuesday (DOJ)

One of the most eye-catching records included in the latest tranche of files is an internal email sent by an unnamed assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York dating from January 2020.

They wrote to colleagues explaining that flight records obtained from Epstein’s private jet revealed Trump had flown in it “many more times than previously has been reported.”

There were at least eight such flights between 1993 and 1996 in which Trump was a passenger, according to the message, with Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell present on at least four of them.

That appears to contradict a claim Trump made on Truth Social in January 2024, while campaigning for the presidency, in which he flatly declared: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ’stupid’ Island.”

Who were the 10 co-conspirators sought by the FBI?

A series of emails from the bureau sent in July 2019 allude to possible investigations into 10 other associates and enablers of the deceased sex offender.

“When you get a chance can you give me an update on the status of the 10 CO conspirators?” one from a sender with “FBI New York” signature reads.

A follow-up sent two days later requests “an update on the 10 co-conspirators by COB today.”

Three of the 10 alleged co-conspirators lived in Florida and were subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, according to another email from July 2019. There were others in Boston, New York City and Connecticut, the messages suggest.

The only named alleged co-conspirators are Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after she was found guilty of trafficking; former French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was found dead in jail in 2022; and retail mogul Leslie Wexner, who severed ties with Epstein after his indictment in Florida in the late 2000s.

The latest Epstein files release was the biggest so far, with the DOJ suggesting the publication process could drag on into January (AFP/Getty)

Another message from investigators published Tuesday notes that one of the potential co-conspirators is a “wealthy business man in Ohio,” believed to be Wexner.

A legal representative for Wexner said in a statement that the prosecutor overseeing the Epstein investigation at the time said that he was not a co-conspirator nor a target. He has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of his crimes.

That still leaves seven of the 10 people mentioned not identified.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already called for more information, asking on social media: “Who are these 10 co-conspirators? Why haven't we seen those memos? Where are the grand jury records? Where are the FBI records? What are they hiding?”

The emails also throw confusion on FBI Director Kash Patel’s testimony before senators earlier this year.

Patel told Congress there was “no credible information” that Epstein trafficked women and girls to anyone other himself but the documents include references to memos sent after his death in a New York jail cell in August 2019 outlining co-conspirators that could still be charged, according to CNN.

How to separate fact from fiction?

The DOJ moved Tuesday to warn in a post on X that the latest documents disclosed include “untrue and sensationalist claims” against the president that it said were “unfounded and false” and would have been “weaponized” against him previously “if they had a shred of credibility,” its first move to comment on the content of the files.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also took to the same platform later in the day and said the following: “There has been lots of sensationalism and even outright lies these past few days about the ‘Epstein Files.’ But let’s separate fact from fiction.

“Document production is just that. We produce documents, and sometimes this can result in releasing fake or false documents because they simply are in our possession because the law requires this.”

A letter supposedly sent by Epstein to the jailed sex offender Larry Nassar that the DOJ says is a fake (DOJ)

But how easy is it to “separate fact from fiction” when reviewing the documents being published, given that so little context or dating is being provided?

The DOJ did come forward to say in another X post Tuesday that a letter supposedly written by Epstein to the disgraced ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar from jail, in which the writer made a crude joke about “our president” while complaining about their respective fates, was “fake”.

“The letter was postmarked three days after Epstein's death out of Northern Virginia, when he was jailed in New York,” the department said. ”The return address did not list the jail where Epstein was held and did not include his inmate number, which is required for outgoing mail.”

That assessment is backed up by another record from the files: an FBI request from September 2019 that the letter be submitted for a handwriting analysis to determine its true authorship, although the outcome of that test does not appear to have been included.

Another file released Tuesday that has been identified as fake is a video sent to the FBI purporting to show the moment Epstein took his own life in his cell, which was forwarded to the bureau by a member of the public who had found it online and was interested in substantiating whether or not it was real.

While those two examples appear to be relatively clear-cut, their presence underlines the importance of not necessarily believing everything you read in the Epstein files, at least without establishing its context.