The Epstein Chronicles

In the wake of Jeffrey Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, multiple core federal jail protocols failed at once. Epstein had recently been removed from suicide watch and placed in the Special Housing Unit, where he was supposed to have a cellmate and receive regular inmate checks, including rounds every 30 minutes. Instead, he was left alone in his cell, required rounds were no...

The FinCEN Files were a massive 2020 investigative project built around more than 2,100 leaked Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, that banks had filed with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Those reports covered more than $2 trillion in transactions that financial institutions themselves considered suspicious between 1999 and 2017. A SAR is not proof that a crime o...

Al Seckel was an American writer, collector and promoter of optical illusions who became part of Jeffrey Epstein’s intellectual and social network after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Seckel was also married to Isabel Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister, which put him unusually close to the Maxwell family as well as Epstein. His role went well beyond attending dinners or scientific gatherings: records...

Epstein survivors and legal experts warned that Todd Blanche’s expected confirmation as attorney general could further obstruct efforts to secure accountability for Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation. Survivors urged Republican senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn to reject Blanche, accusing him of repeatedly mishandling the case while serving as acting attorney general. They said his Justice...

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...

The Guardian reported that British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith was allegedly warning people about Jeffrey Epstein as early as the late 1980s, decades before Epstein became the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation. French architect Robert Couturier, who worked for Goldsmith, said Goldsmith described Epstein as a sexual deviant, warned him to stay away from Epstein, and expressed c...

The Guardian reported that British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith was allegedly warning people about Jeffrey Epstein as early as the late 1980s, decades before Epstein became the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation. French architect Robert Couturier, who worked for Goldsmith, said Goldsmith described Epstein as a sexual deviant, warned him to stay away from Epstein, and expressed c...

The Guardian reported that British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith was allegedly warning people about Jeffrey Epstein as early as the late 1980s, decades before Epstein became the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation. French architect Robert Couturier, who worked for Goldsmith, said Goldsmith described Epstein as a sexual deviant, warned him to stay away from Epstein, and expressed c...

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...