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NEW YORK (AP) — A major new series of files on a millionaire financier and sex offender. Jeffrey Epstein Shortly before he died by suicide in 2019, details of his communications with the rich and powerful have been revealed.
The Justice Department said it was disclosing more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as thousands of videos and photographs, in accordance with law passed by Congress. By Friday evening, more than 600,000 documents had been published online. Millions of files that prosecutors had identified as potentially releasable under the law are still secret, however, drawing criticism from Democrats.
latest:
Epstein talks to Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick about island trips
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk emailed Epstein in 2012 and 2013 about visiting his notorious island compound, where multiple allegations of sexual abuse were made.
Epstein asked in an email how many people Musk would like to be transported by helicopter, and Musk replied that it would probably be just him and his partner at the time. “What day/night will be the weirdest party on our island?” According to Justice Department records, he wrote.
It was not immediately clear whether the island was visited. Spokespeople for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Friday.
Musk has said he has repeatedly turned down offers from the disgraced financier. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I refused,” she posted on X in 2025.
Epstein was also invited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick visited the island in December 2012. Lutnik’s wife enthusiastically accepted the invitation and said they would arrive on one boat with your kids. According to a schedule, the two also had drinks on another occasion in 2011. Six years later, he e-mailed about construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.
Lutnick has distanced himself from Epstein, calling him “disgusting” and saying in 2025 that he had severed ties decades ago. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment Friday afternoon.
Epstein talks politics with Steve Bannon and a former Obama official
Documents show Epstein exchanged hundreds of friendly messages with Steve Bannon, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, in the months before Epstein’s death.
They discussed politics, travel, and Bannon was said to be planning a documentary that would help save Epstein’s reputation.
In March 2019, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane To pick him up in Rome.
A few months later, Epstein messaged Bannon, “Now you understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night in a sweat when he finds out you and I are friends.”
The context is unclear from the documents, which were released with numerous amendments and little clear organization.
Another 2018 exchange focused on Trump’s threats to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he had nominated to the post just a year earlier.
Around the same time, Epstein also communicated with Kathy Ruemmler, an attorney and former Obama White House official. In an email filled with typos, he warned that Democrats should stop portraying Trump as a mafia-type figure, even as he ridiculed the president as “crazy.”
Bannon did not immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comment. Ruemmler said through a spokesperson that she was professionally associated with Epstein during her time as an attorney in private practice and now “regrets not knowing him.”
AP journalists are reviewing the files
Compiling accurate and complete information takes time. A team of AP journalists is working to corroborate information about Jeffrey Epstein that the Justice Department is releasing in successive batches.
These standards guide our reporting process:
1. We generally do not identify people who say they have been sexually harassed or abused
2. We must make significant efforts to reach out to anyone who may be portrayed in a negative manner in our content
3. We will not knowingly include rumors or false information in the content
4. We abhor inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortions
5. We always try to identify all the sources of our information