The United States Department of Justice has released thousands more documents relating to the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein, including photographs of prominent figures he spent time with. Campaigners behind the Epstein Files Transparency Act say that far too much information in the released documents has been redacted. According to US media, at least 16 of the files have since 'disappeared' from the website where they were released, including a photograph showing President Donald Trump. The Justice Department said it will release more documents in the coming weeks.
The release was mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Trump signed into law, requiring the government to release all remaining unclassified material relating to Epstein's and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking cases. Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison for her part in the scandal. One document confirms that the FBI was tipped off about Epstein's crimes nearly a decade before he was first arrested, with Maria Farmer complaining in September 1996. Maria Farmer said officials failed to take steps to investigate her complaint.
Newly released transcripts of grand jury proceedings include testimony from FBI agents describing interviews with girls and young women about being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein, with the youngest interviewee being 14. One woman, then aged 21, told a grand jury that Epstein hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and that she recruited other girls.
A photograph shows former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson standing in white Y-fronts talking to a young woman in a dressing gown at Jeffrey Epstein's Paris mansion. The woman in the photograph with Mandelson is a former Russian model and Epstein victim who gave an exclusive interview to The Mail on Sunday. Mia believes Epstein took the photograph surreptitiously from his desk in the library of his Paris apartment. Mia thinks the photograph was taken around 2010 when she was in her mid-20s.
Mandelson was sacked as Britain's Ambassador to the US in September after his links to Epstein were exposed. Calls have been made for Mandelson to pay back a £75,000 payout he received when sacked as US ambassador. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman said legislation is being drafted to remove Mandelson's peerage. Keir Starmer appointed Mandelson as ambassador to the US in December 2024, but he was later withdrawn after new information on his Epstein links emerged.
Mandelson leaked a high-level Downing Street memo to Epstein in 2008 detailing £20 billion in proposed state asset sales and confidential tax policies. Mandelson appeared to write to Epstein in 2008, offering support after Epstein's conviction. Mandelson appeared to give Epstein advance notice of a €500 billion EU bailout package in 2010. Lord Mandelson's husband was allegedly paid £10,000 by Epstein for an osteopathy course.
Newly released photos appear to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with women classified by US investigators as Epstein victims inside Epstein's Manhattan mansion. The women's faces in the photos of Andrew are redacted, indicating US officials believe they were victims of Epstein. The photos appear to have been taken in the dining room of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, which the FBI says was a center of sex-trafficking. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has never denied visiting Epstein's Manhattan mansion and acknowledged spending a week there in December 2010.
Andrew has always denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor previously claimed to have cut contact with Epstein after an investigation was launched in 2006, only getting back in touch to end their relationship in person in late 2010. A new cache of files suggests Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein were in regular, friendly contact in the months between Epstein's release from house arrest in August and Mountbatten-Windsor's visit to the US in December 2010.
Emails between Andrew and Epstein show Epstein offering to introduce Andrew to a 'beautiful' 26-year-old Russian woman and promising to bring women to dinner at Buckingham Palace. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been pictured crouched on all fours looming over a woman lying flat on the floor in files published by the US justice department.
Andrew was arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office and released after 11 hours. Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Mandelson have separately been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections to Epstein and have both since been released under investigation. Mountbatten-Windsor has said he first met Epstein in 1999 through Ghislaine Maxwell. Mountbatten-Windsor has been accused of having sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager, with a civil case settled with no admission of guilt, and he has strenuously denied the allegations. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in mid-February in Norfolk over alleged sharing of confidential material with Epstein. He served as a UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.
A photograph shows Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Peter Mandelson, and Jeffrey Epstein together for the first time, released by the US Department of Justice. In the photo of the trio, Mandelson and Andrew appear in white bathrobes, while Epstein wears a shirt and jumper. The exact date and location of the photo of the trio are not clear. ITV News said the photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Peter Mandelson, and Jeffrey Epstein was taken in Martha's Vineyard in the US and is believed to have been taken between 1999 and 2000.
Other high-profile figures face questions over private emails published in the files, including Lord Mandelson, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. Epstein claimed Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease after sleeping with Russian women. Released emails indicated that Epstein visited Richard Branson's island in 2013 accompanied with '2 Russian girls' who 'don't have UK Visas'. A source close to Richard Branson claimed that Epstein visited for a 'short, group business meeting' with three adult women who did not join the meeting.
Mandelson has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. Starmer's independent ethics adviser said he will not investigate the Prime Minister over Mandelson's appointment. Lord Mandelson has repeatedly let it be known that he believes he has not acted criminally, arguing that he accepted Epstein's version of events and only discovered the truth after his death.
The latest tranche of documents includes three million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos posted publicly by the DOJ in January.
Key unknowns remain, including what specific evidence led to the arrests of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and why at least 16 files, including a photograph of Donald Trump, disappeared from the DOJ website after release. The full extent of redacted information in the released Epstein documents, and who is responsible for the redactions, is also unclear, along with the exact dates and locations of the newly released photographs involving Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson with Epstein. Additionally, what actions, if any, will be taken against other high-profile figures named in the documents, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson, remains to be seen.