The Epstein Chronicles

In 2020, U.S. federal prosecutors investigating Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell formally sought the United Kingdom’s help in obtaining testimony from Prince Andrew through a Mutual Legal Assistance request, or MLA. The request was a significant escalation from the public back-and-forth over whether Andrew was voluntarily cooperating, because an MLA is an official government-to-government mec...

During Juan Alessi’s cross-examination in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, the defense tried to undermine his credibility and narrow the significance of his testimony about Maxwell’s role inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach household. Maxwell attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca confronted Alessi with inconsistencies between his trial testimony and earlier sworn statements, including how many times he had stolen...

Six Jeffrey Epstein survivors, identified as Jane Does 1 through 6, filed a putative class-action lawsuit accusing the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and several current and former territorial officials of helping create a safe haven for Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. The complaint alleged that Epstein brought women and girls to the Virgin Islands, where they were sexually abused and...

For years, Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse in the U.S. Virgin Islands was often framed as part of the later phase of his criminal operation, centered on Little St. James and continuing into the period before his 2019 arrest. But lawsuits, survivor accounts and records released after his death showed that his activities there stretched much further back and continued far later than many people initially un...

Katie Phang accused Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche of withholding foreign-language Epstein records that may contain crucial evidence linking members of the trafficking network and potentially supporting new charges against Ghislaine Maxwell. Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered Blanche to begin reviewing and producing those records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but the Justice Department...

Day four of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing, held July 9, centered on some of the prosecution’s most consequential evidence yet, including a recorded interview with Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs. In the interview, Twiggs described Robinson’s behavior after Charlie Kirk was killed and authenticated text exchanges in which Robinson allegedly admitted responsibili...

Day four of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing, held July 9, centered on some of the prosecution’s most consequential evidence yet, including a recorded interview with Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs. In the interview, Twiggs described Robinson’s behavior after Charlie Kirk was killed and authenticated text exchanges in which Robinson allegedly admitted responsibili...

The fourth amended complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida by more than 30 Jeffrey Epstein survivors against the United States, accuses the FBI and DOJ of decades of negligence that allegedly allowed Epstein’s abuse and trafficking operation to continue. The plaintiffs argue that federal authorities repeatedly received credible warnings about Epstein but failed to follow mandatory inv...

The fourth amended complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida by more than 30 Jeffrey Epstein survivors against the United States, accuses the FBI and DOJ of decades of negligence that allegedly allowed Epstein’s abuse and trafficking operation to continue. The plaintiffs argue that federal authorities repeatedly received credible warnings about Epstein but failed to follow mandatory inv...

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most well-known accusers, filed a motion in her defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell requesting permission to exceed the standard limit of ten depositions allowed under federal rules. Giuffre’s attorneys argued that the extraordinary scope and complexity of the case, involving a vast network of high-profile individuals and years of alleged...

Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico has remained one of the most mysterious parts of his broader operation because so much of what happened there was concealed behind isolation, private security, controlled access and a sparse public record. The property sat on thousands of acres outside Santa Fe and functioned as one of Epstein’s most secluded residences, a place where he could host guest...

The failure to bring the full weight of the justice system down on Jeffrey Epstein was never confined to one prosecutor, one office or one bad decision. Over the years, responsibility passed through local prosecutors in Palm Beach, federal prosecutors in South Florida, senior officials at the Justice Department, prosecutors in New York and investigators working alongside the FBI, yet the broader c...

Juan Alessi was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s longest-serving household employees and a key firsthand witness to how Epstein’s Palm Beach operation functioned. Alessi began working full-time for Epstein in January 1991 and remained until the end of 2002, eventually becoming the house manager, majordomo, butler and driver at Epstein’s El Brillo Way mansion. He supervised other household staff and handle...

Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico has remained one of the most mysterious parts of his broader operation because so much of what happened there was concealed behind isolation, private security, controlled access and a sparse public record. The property sat on thousands of acres outside Santa Fe and functioned as one of Epstein’s most secluded residences, a place where he could host guest...

Rinaldo Rizzo, who worked for Glenn and Eva Andersson-Dubin, gave sworn testimony describing a deeply disturbing encounter with a 15-year-old Swedish girl who had been brought to the Dubins’ home by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in late 2004 or early 2005. Rizzo said the girl appeared visibly traumatized, shaking and close to tears, and eventually told him and his wife that she had been on...

Karyna Shuliak, a 37-year-old Belarus-born dentist, emerged from newly released investigative records as Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and one of the potential principal beneficiaries of his remaining fortune. Shuliak met Epstein in 2011, when she was 21 and living in New York on a temporary student visa, and remained close to him for nearly eight years. Epstein financed her education, hel...

Karyna Shuliak, a 37-year-old Belarus-born dentist, emerged from newly released investigative records as Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and one of the potential principal beneficiaries of his remaining fortune. Shuliak met Epstein in 2011, when she was 21 and living in New York on a temporary student visa, and remained close to him for nearly eight years. Epstein financed her education, hel...

The lead-up to the closure of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was shaped by years of mounting crises that long predated Jeffrey Epstein’s death but were dramatically amplified afterward. MCC had become infamous for chronic staffing shortages, crumbling infrastructure, frequent lockdowns, and extended power outages that left inmates in freezing cells without light, heat, or reliab...

Day four of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing, held July 9, centered on some of the prosecution’s most consequential evidence yet, including a recorded interview with Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs. In the interview, Twiggs described Robinson’s behavior after Charlie Kirk was killed and authenticated text exchanges in which Robinson allegedly admitted responsibili...

The fourth amended complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida by more than 30 Jeffrey Epstein survivors against the United States, accuses the FBI and DOJ of decades of negligence that allegedly allowed Epstein’s abuse and trafficking operation to continue. The plaintiffs argue that federal authorities repeatedly received credible warnings about Epstein but failed to follow mandatory inv...

The fourth amended complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida by more than 30 Jeffrey Epstein survivors against the United States, accuses the FBI and DOJ of decades of negligence that allegedly allowed Epstein’s abuse and trafficking operation to continue. The plaintiffs argue that federal authorities repeatedly received credible warnings about Epstein but failed to follow mandatory inv...

The co-executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, asked the Virgin Islands probate court to expedite approval of a voluntary compensation program for Epstein’s sexual-abuse survivors, arguing that continued delay would unnecessarily prolong the claims process and leave victims waiting for resolution. The proposed Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program was designed to cre...

For years, the FBI and Justice Department have faced criticism for repeatedly narrowing the scope of the Epstein investigation in ways that limited exposure for the people and institutions around him. The pattern began with the 2007–2008 non-prosecution agreement in Florida, which resolved Epstein’s federal exposure without a broader public accounting of potential co-conspirators, and continued af...

As Jeffrey Epstein faced prosecution in Florida, multiple people from his personal, professional and social circles submitted letters to prosecutors or the court urging leniency and portraying him as someone whose charitable work, intelligence, generosity and relationships should weigh against a harsh punishment. The letters were part of a broader effort by Epstein’s legal team to humanize him and...

Bill Barr said publicly that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide, but he also described the failures at the Metropolitan Correctional Center as extraordinary and unacceptable. Immediately after Epstein’s death on August 10, 2019, Barr said he was “appalled” and that the death raised “serious questions that must be answered.” Two days later, he said he was angry about the jail’s failure to properly sec...