The FBI spent years investigating Jeffrey Epstein, poring over his bank records, emails, and videos seized from his properties. Agents interviewed dozens of victims and examined his connections to some of the world’s most powerful people.
Their conclusion? Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for the elite.
That’s according to internal Justice Department records reviewed by the Associated Press, which paint a picture of an investigation that found plenty of evidence Epstein sexually abused underage girls—but little proof he was pimping them out to billionaires and politicians.
THE DETAILS: Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida, and the Virgin Islands didn’t show victims being abused or implicate anyone else, a prosecutor wrote in a 2025 memo. His financial records—including payments to figures in academia, finance, and diplomacy—showed “no connection to criminal activity.”
The most sensational claims came from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who publicly accused Epstein of “lending” her to powerful men including Britain’s Prince Andrew. But investigators couldn’t confirm it. Two other victims Giuffre claimed were similarly trafficked told the FBI they had “no such experience.” A 2019 internal memo stated: “No other victim has described being expressly directed by either Maxwell or Epstein to engage in sexual activity with other men.”
Prosecutors also noted Giuffre had written a “partly fictionalized memoir” and given “sensationalized if not demonstrably inaccurate characterizations” in public interviews, including false accounts of her interactions with the FBI itself.
BUT BUT BUT: This doesn’t mean powerful people weren’t aware of what Epstein was doing or weren’t in his orbit. Investigators examined retail mogul Les Wexner, private equity investor Leon Black, and others. Black was accused by one woman of initiating sexual contact during a massage; the Manhattan DA investigated but filed no charges. Wexner’s lawyers claimed he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and was himself a victim of Epstein’s theft.
And about that infamous “client list” Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was sitting on her desk? FBI agents told their superiors it doesn’t exist. “Investigators did not locate such a list during the course of the investigation,” an FBI supervisory agent wrote in February 2025—two days before Bondi went on Fox News claiming otherwise.
WHY IT MATTERS: For years, the Epstein case has fueled suspicions that a cabal of powerful men participated in his crimes and that authorities looked the other way. These documents suggest something arguably more depressing: investigators tried to find evidence of a sex trafficking ring and came up empty. Either the evidence was destroyed, the investigation was inadequate, or the conspiracy theories were always bigger than the provable reality.
Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell is serving 20 years. Epstein reportedly killed himself in 2019. The victims got no broader justice. And the public is left with millions of pages of documents that answer some questions while leaving the most tantalizing ones frustratingly unresolved.