Washington — A huge new tranche of files relating to the millionaire financier and sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein Released on Friday, it revealed details of his contacts with the rich and powerful, some of them shortly before his death by suicide in 2019.
The Justice Department said it was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as thousands of videos and photos, as required by a law passed by Congress. By Friday evening, more than 600,000 documents had been posted online. However, millions of files that prosecutors identified as potentially subject to release under the law remain secret, drawing criticism from Democrats.
Here’s what we know so far about the files now being reviewed by a team of AP reporters:
The documents show that Epstein exchanged hundreds of friendly text messages with Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, a few months before Epstein’s death.
They discussed politics, travel, and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help save Epstein’s reputation.
In March 2019, Bannon asked Epstein if he could Supplying his plane To pick him up in Rome.
Two months later, Epstein sent a letter to Bannon, saying: “Now you can understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears that you and I are friends.”
The context is unclear from the documents, which were released with many redactions and little clear organization.
Another exchange in 2018 focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he had appointed to the position just the previous year.
Around the same time, Epstein also reached out to Kathy Rumler, a lawyer and former Obama White House official. In an email riddled with typos, he warned that Democrats should stop demonizing Trump as a mafia-type figure even as he mocked the president as “crazy.”
Bannon did not immediately respond to a message from the Associated Press seeking comment. Rummler said through a spokesman that she was associated with Epstein professionally during her time as an attorney in private practice, and she now “regrets knowing him at all.”
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk emailed Epstein in 2012 and 2013 about visiting his notorious island compound, which has been the scene of numerous sexual assault allegations.
Epstein inquired in an email how many people Musk would be willing to transport by helicopter, and Musk replied that it would likely be just him and his partner at the time. “What day/night will the wildest party be on our island?” he wrote, according to Justice Department records.
It is not immediately clear whether visits to the island took place or not. Spokespeople for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Friday.
Musk has maintained that he has repeatedly rejected the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I refused,” he posted on X in 2025
Epstein was also invited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick came to the island in December 2012. Lutnick’s wife enthusiastically accepted the invitation and They said they would arrive On a Yacht with their children. The two also had drinks on another occasion in 2011, according to a timeline. Six years later, they emailed about constructing a building across the street from their homes.
Lutnick distanced himself from Epstein, calling him “rude” and saying in 2025 that he had severed ties decades ago. He did not respond to an email request for comment Friday afternoon.
Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019, and was found dead in his jail cell a little over a month later.
The latest batch of documents includes emails between investigators about Epstein’s death, including one investigator’s remark that his final communication did not appear to be a suicide note. Multiple investigations I have decided that Epstein is dead It was suicide.
The records also detail a trick used by prison staff to fool the media gathered outside as they removed Epstein’s body: They used boxes and blankets to create what appeared to be a body and load it into a white truck labeled as belonging to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Reporters followed the truck as it left the prison, not knowing that Epstein’s actual body was loaded into a black car, which left “unnoticed,” according to interview notes.
__
AP reporters around the country contributed to this story, including Michael R. Sisak and Philip Marcello in New York, Cal Woodward in Washington, Safiya Riedel in Montgomery, Alabama, and Meg Kennard in South Carolina.