Twenty years after Jeffrey Epstein was first reported to police, the Justice Division has began to launch its investigative information on the late millionaire, who was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing underage ladies.
Enacted final month, the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act requires disclosure of presidency data on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell by Friday — although it’s potential extra data can be launched on a rolling foundation.
Amongst questions surrounding the discharge: how a lot mild the paperwork shed on Epstein’s crimes, his interactions with influential associates in enterprise, politics and academia and whether or not something within the paperwork will assist — or debunk — one accuser’s claims that different highly effective males participated in or knew about Epstein’s misconduct.
Here’s a timeline of the Epstein investigations and the efforts to open up the federal government’s information:
The investigation begins
March 2005: Police start investigating Epstein after the household of a 14-year-old lady experiences she was molested at his mansion in Palm Seashore, Florida. A number of underage ladies, a lot of them highschool college students, would later inform police Epstein employed them to offer sexual massages.
Might 2006: Palm Seashore police officers signal paperwork to cost Epstein with a number of counts of illegal intercourse with a minor, however the county’s high prosecutor, State Legal professional Barry Krischer, takes the bizarre step of sending the case to a grand jury.
July 2006: Epstein is arrested after a grand jury indicts him on a rely of soliciting prostitution. The comparatively minor cost upsets Palm Seashore police leaders, who publicly accuse Krischer of giving Epstein particular remedy. The FBI begins an investigation.
2007: Federal prosecutors put together an indictment, however for a yr Epstein’s legal professionals have interaction in talks with the U.S. legal professional in Miami, Alexander Acosta, a couple of deal that might keep away from a federal prosecution. Epstein’s legal professionals decry his accusers as unreliable.
Secret deal results in a light-weight jail time period
June 2008: Epstein pleads responsible to state expenses: one rely of soliciting prostitution and one rely of soliciting prostitution from somebody beneath the age of 18. He’s sentenced to 18 months in jail. Below a secret association, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace agrees to not prosecute Epstein for federal crimes. Epstein serves most of his sentence in a piece launch program that permits him to depart jail throughout the day.
Might 2009: One in every of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, information a lawsuit claiming Epstein and Maxwell organized for her to have sexual encounters with “royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen” and others. The lawsuit doesn’t identify the boys.
July 2009: Epstein is launched from jail. For the subsequent decade, Epstein’s accusers wage a authorized battle to get his federal non-prosecution settlement voided.
Information media and lawsuits maintain public curiosity excessive
March 2, 2011: The Every day Mail publishes an interview with Giuffre during which she describes touring with Epstein to London at age 17 and spending an evening dancing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then referred to as Prince Andrew. The story and a photograph of the prince together with his arm round Giuffre creates a disaster for the royal household. FBI brokers subsequently interview Giuffre.
Dec. 30, 2014: Giuffre’s legal professionals file courtroom papers claiming she had sexual encounters with Mountbatten-Windsor and different males, together with “international presidents, a widely known Prime Minister, and different world leaders.” All these males deny the allegations.
November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the dealing with of Epstein’s case in a collection of tales focusing partly on the function of Acosta — who by this level is President Donald Trump’s labor secretary. The protection intensifies public curiosity in Epstein.
New York prosecutors revive case
July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on intercourse trafficking expenses after federal prosecutors in New York conclude they aren’t certain by the phrases of the sooner non-prosecution deal. Days later, Acosta resigns as labor secretary.
Aug. 10, 2019: Epstein kills himself in his jail cell in New York.
July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York cost Maxwell with intercourse crimes, saying she helped recruit and abuse Epstein’s victims.
Dec. 30, 2021: After a monthlong trial, a jury convicts Maxwell of intercourse trafficking and different crimes.
June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to twenty years in jail.
January, 2024: Public curiosity within the Epstein case surges once more after a choose makes extra courtroom data public in a associated lawsuit. Conspiracy theories flourish, pushed by individuals who consider Epstein ran a world intercourse visitors community that served wealthy and highly effective males.
A brand new president and a contemporary political disaster
Jan. 20, 2025: Trump, who was associates and neighbors with Epstein for years, turns into president once more. Throughout his 2024 marketing campaign, he had instructed that he’d search to open extra authorities information on Epstein.
February 2025: Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi suggests in a Fox Information Channel interview that an Epstein “consumer checklist” is sitting on her desk. The Justice Division distributes binders marked “declassified” to far-right influencers, however a lot of the data had lengthy been public.
April 25, 2025: Giuffre dies by suicide.
July 7, 2025: The Justice Division says Epstein didn’t preserve a “consumer checklist” and it gained’t make any extra information associated to his intercourse trafficking investigation public.
July 15, 2025: Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduce the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act.
July 17, 2025: The Wall Road Journal describes a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s identify and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday. Trump denies writing the letter and sues the newspaper.
July 24-25, 2025: In an effort to place a political disaster to relaxation, Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche interviews Maxwell. She denies wrongdoing and says she by no means noticed Trump concerned in any sexually inappropriate exercise. Afterward, she is moved from a low-security jail in Florida to a minimum-security jail camp in Texas.
A prince loses his royal title
Oct. 21, 2025: Giuffre’s posthumous memoir is revealed. In it, she revisits her claims that Epstein and Maxwell sexually trafficked her to highly effective males, together with Mountbatten-Windsor.
Oct. 30, 2025: King Charles III strips Mountbatten-Windsor of his remaining titles, that means he can not be known as “prince,” and evicts him from his royal residence.
Nov. 12, 2025: A Home committee releases a trove of e-mail correspondence between Epstein and others, together with Mountbatten-Windsor, Trump ally Steve Bannon, ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. In a single 2019 e-mail to a journalist, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew concerning the ladies” however didn’t clarify what he meant by that.
Nov. 14, 2025: At Trump’s urging, Bondi broadcasts that the U.S. legal professional in Manhattan will examine Epstein’s ties to a few of the Republican president’s political foes, together with former President Invoice Clinton, a Democrat; Summers; and Hoffman, a outstanding Democratic donor. None of these males has been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s victims.
Nov. 18, 2025: Congress passes the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act. Trump indicators it into regulation the subsequent day.
Dec. 19, 2025: The Justice Division begins releasing data.
Observe the AP’s protection of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.
