Millions of files related to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released by the US justice department, the largest disclosure by the government since a law passed last year ruled that the documents should be published.
The disgraced financier was convicted of child sex offences in 2008 but the files indicate that many high-profile figures, including the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, continued friendships with him after this point.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on new child abuse charges. His accomplice, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for child sex trafficking.
Here is what we learned from the latest Epstein files release on Friday.
Former prince Andrew invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace after release from house arrest
Released emails appear to show that Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace after Epstein’s house arrest ended.
In 2019, the former prince gave a disastrous interview to the Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in which he tried to claim he distanced himself from Epstein after his 2008 conviction for abusing a 14-year-old girl in Florida. However, the files suggest the pair remained close.
In September 2010, emails between Epstein and “The Duke” – believed to be Mountbatten-Windsor as the then Duke of York – show Epstein requested “private time” on a planned visit to London.
Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have responded: “We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.” Two days later, he followed up by saying: “Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600ish.”
It is unclear if the meeting took place, but Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor were pictured walking together in New York’s Central Park three months later. Mountbatten-Windsor previously claimed he had travelled to the US to end his friendship with Epstein in person in light of his conviction.
The documents also suggest that, the previous month, Epstein had offered to arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a “clever, beautiful and trustworthy” Russian woman, who was 26. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be “delighted” to see the woman. He also asked Epstein if it was “good to be free” from house arrest.
Sarah Ferguson described Epstein as the ‘brother’ she always wanted
Mountbatten-Windsor’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, thanked Epstein for being the “brother” she “always wished for” in an email sent a year after his child sex abuse conviction.
In the August 2009 exchange, Ferguson appears to suggest she and her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, met the disgraced financier, saying: “I have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls.”
Epstein was under house arrest when the email was sent, but Ferguson implies that the pair had lunch the previous week. It has not been confirmed if she visited him while he was confined to his home.
In the emails, Ferguson also discusses conversations she has had with retailers regarding her “Sarah Ferguson brand”.
Epstein gave Ferguson at least £15,000 to help pay off debts, but some reports have suggested he bankrolled her to a much greater extent. In 2011, Ferguson said her relationship with Epstein had been a “gigantic error of judgment” but later emailed him privately to apologise.
Epstein sent money to Peter Mandelson’s husband
Epstein sent £10,000 to Lord Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, in the year after his conviction. The emails suggest this was to fund an osteopathy course.
In another set of emails, Mandelson asks to stay at one of Epstein’s properties while he is serving his jail term. The terms of Epstein’s sentence allowed him to work from his office during the day and return to jail each night.
Mandelson told the Guardian on Friday that he had been “wrong” to continue his association with Epstein after his conviction, but said he was “never culpable or complicit” in his crimes.
Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last September when it emerged he had sent supportive messages to Epstein after he was convicted.
The FBI received allegations about Donald Trump’s links to Epstein
The new documents contain a list, compiled by the FBI, of allegations made against Trump through its National Threat Operations Center hotline. Many appear to be unsubstantiated claims of sexual abuse relating to Trump, Epstein and other public figures.
Although the US president is mentioned hundreds of times in the files, he has always denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse. He has admitted having a friendship with Epstein but the pair appear to have fallen out at some point in the mid-noughties, before Epstein was jailed.
The US justice department said: “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised against President Trump already.”
Elon Musk asked Epstein about parties on his island
The tech billionaire Elon Musk discussed travelling to Epstein’s island in November 2012, the files show. He sent the financier an email in which he asked: “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Musk and Epstein continued to discuss the possibility of Musk visiting his island in late 2013.
Musk has not been accused of wrongdoing and it is unclear if he ultimately made the trip. He has not addressed the revelations in detail but said on X that it was “false” to suggest he planned to visit Epstein on another occasion, in 2014.
