Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
two decades later Jeffrey Epstein This was first reported to the police Justice Department has begun releasing its investigative files on the late millionaire, who was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing underage girls.
Enacted last month, the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the disclosure of government records on Epstein and his longtime confidant. Ghislaine Maxwell As of Friday – although it is possible that more records will be released on a gradual basis.
Among the questions surrounding the release: how much light the documents shed on Epstein’s crimes, his interactions with influential friends in business, politics and academia and whether anything in the documents would support — or refute — an accuser’s claims that other powerful people participated in or knew about Epstein’s misconduct.
Here’s a timeline of the Epstein investigation and the government’s efforts to open the files:
investigation begins
March 2005: Police begin investigating Epstein after the family of a 14-year-old girl reports that she was molested at Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Several underage girls, many of whom were high school students, later told police that Epstein had hired them to give them sexual massages.
May 2006: Palm Beach police officers sign paperwork to charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, but the county’s top prosecutor, State Attorney Barry Krisher, takes the unusual step of sending the case to a grand jury.
July 2006: Epstein is arrested after a grand jury indicts him on charges of soliciting prostitution. The relatively minor allegation irked Palm Beach police leaders, who publicly accused Krisher of giving special treatment to Epstein. The FBI began an investigation.
2007: Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment, but for a year Epstein’s lawyers remain in negotiations with the US attorney in Miami. Alexander AcostaAbout a deal that would protect him from federal prosecution. Epstein’s lawyers call his accusers unreliable.
Secret deals could lead to lighter prison sentences
June 2008: Epstein pleads guilty to state charges: one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution of a person under the age of 18. He is sentenced to 18 months in prison. Under a secret arrangement, the U.S. attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes. Epstein serves most of his sentence in a work release program that allows him to leave prison during the day.
May 2009: One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffrefiles a lawsuit claiming that Epstein and Maxwell arranged for her to have sex with “royalty, politicians, academics, businessmen” and others. The men are not named in the lawsuit.
July 2009: Epstein is released from prison. For the next decade, Epstein’s accusers fought a legal battle to have his federal non-prosecution agreement voided.
News media and lawsuits keep public interest high
March 2, 2011: The Daily Mail published an interview with Giuffre in which she described traveling to London with Epstein at the age of 17 and spending a night dancing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Prince Andrew. The story and picture of the prince with his arm around Giuffre caused distress for the royal family. FBI agents later interviewed Giuffre.
December 30, 2014: Giuffre’s lawyers file court papers claiming she had had sexual relations with Mountbatten-Windsor and other men, including “foreign presidents, a famous prime minister and other world leaders”. All of them deny the allegations.
November 2018: The Miami Herald revisited its handling of Epstein’s case in a series of stories focusing partly on the role of Acosta — who is currently President Donald Trump’s labor secretary. This coverage increases public interest in Epstein.
New York prosecutors revive the case
July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on sex trafficking charges after federal prosecutors in New York conclude he is not bound by the terms of an earlier non-prosecution agreement. A few days later, Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor.
August 10, 2019: Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell in New York.
July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York charge Maxwell with sex crimes, saying she helped recruit and abuse Epstein’s victims.
December 30, 2021: After a month-long trial, a jury convicted Maxwell of sex trafficking and other crimes.
June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
January, 2024: Public interest in the Epstein case increases again after a judge makes public more court records in a related trial. Conspiracy theories flourish by those who believe that Epstein ran an international sex trafficking network that catered to rich and powerful men.
A new president and a fresh political crisis
January 20, 2025: Trump, who was Epstein’s friend and neighbor for years, is reelected president. During his 2024 campaign, he suggested he would like to open more government files on Epstein.
February 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi suggests in a Fox News Channel interview that an Epstein “client list” is sitting on her desk. The Justice Department distributed binders marked “unclassified” to influential people far and wide, but most of the information had long been public.
April 25, 2025: Giuffre dies by suicide.
July 7, 2025: The Justice Department says Epstein has not kept a “client list” and it will not declassify any further files related to its sex trafficking investigation.
July 15, 2025: Representatives Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
July 17, 2025: The Wall Street Journal describes a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says contains Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing the letter and sued the newspaper.
July 24–25, 2025: In an effort to defuse the political crisis, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch interviews Maxwell. She denies wrongdoing and says she never saw Trump engage in any inappropriate sexual activity. Subsequently, he was moved from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
A prince loses his royal title
October 21, 2025: Giuffre’s posthumous memoir is published. In it, she revisits her claims that Epstein and Maxwell sexually exploited her for powerful men, including Mountbatten-Windsor.
October 30, 2025: King Charles III strips Mountbatten-Windsor of his remaining titles, meaning he can no longer be called a “prince” and is evicted from his royal residence.
November 12, 2025: A House committee releases a trove of email correspondence between Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor, Trump ally Steve Bannon, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, among others. In a 2019 email to a reporter, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls” but did not explain what he meant by that.
November 14, 2025: At Trump’s insistence, Bondy announced that the U.S. attorney in Manhattan would investigate Epstein’s ties to some of the Republican president’s political enemies, including former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat; summer season; and Hoffman, a major Democratic donor. None of them have been accused of abuse by Epstein’s victims.
November 18, 2025: Congress passes the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Trump signed it into law the next day.
December 19, 2025: The Justice Department begins releasing records.
,
Follow AP’s coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffref-epstein.