AP reported that the Justice Department’s document release includes a who’s who of powerful men across sectors and countries, drawn from records tied to the agency’s investigations of Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein’s death in 2019 ended a case that had made him widely known as an alleged abuser of girls and young women, but the release—disclosed in collaboration with Versant, CBS and NBC reporters—continued to draw scrutiny toward how public figures communicated with him.
The documents, AP said, show Epstein exchanging information and maintaining contact with prominent figures, including some who continued relationships or re-established connections even after the broader public learned of his alleged crimes. AP reported that none of the named people have been charged with a crime connected to the investigations, and that many issued denials of any involvement in Epstein’s sexual abuse.
The Justice Department release included extensive references to Britain’s former Prince Andrew, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose relationship with Epstein has long been dogged by questions and later allegations. AP said Mountbatten-Windsor had been accused by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre of being trafficked to have sex with him when she was 17, and AP reported that the former prince denied that it happened. AP also said King Charles III stripped Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York, while Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears “at least several hundred times” in the Friday document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.
Among the correspondence AP described, an exchange includes an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace and Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman. AP also described photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor. AP said Sarah Ferguson, then Duchess of York, publicly apologized in March 2011 for letting Epstein pay off some of her debts, telling the Evening Standard newspaper that she would have “nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again,” while AP reported that two months later she emailed Epstein seeking advice on how to respond to questions about their relationship.
AP said that in the later email exchange, Ferguson told Epstein she was going on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show and wanted his advice. AP quoted Ferguson’s message: “I just want to make sure you are aware of this and seek your advice on how you would like me to answer,” before describing Epstein’s reply that said Epstein was “unfairly characterized as a pedophile by the tabloid press,” and that “He paid his debt to society and has sought forgiveness.” AP reported that Ferguson’s spokesperson did not indicate wrongdoing, but the emails remained part of the file disclosure.
The document release also includes emails involving tech billionaire Elon Musk and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, AP reported. AP said Musk appears at least a few times in the release, including email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s Caribbean island compound, and AP said it was not immediately clear whether the island visits happened. AP reported that Tesla and X did not respond to emails seeking comment after the document release.
AP also reported that Musk has said he refused Epstein’s overtures, quoting Musk’s 2025 post on X: “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED.” AP reported that Branson exchanged numerous emails with Epstein as well, including a 2013 invitation to Epstein to visit Branson’s private Caribbean island and a suggestion that Epstein rehabilitate his image by convincing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to tell the public that Epstein had been “a brilliant adviser” to him and had “more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.” Branson’s company said any dealings were limited to group or business settings more than a decade ago and that Branson declined a charitable donation and did not plan further contact after his team “uncovered serious allegations.”
The Justice Department disclosure also contained thousands of references to Donald Trump, AP reported. AP said the release included emails in which Epstein and others shared news articles about Trump, commented on his policies and politics, or gossiped about him and his family, while much of the material did not add clear new detail about the men’s relationship beyond the longstanding knowledge that Epstein was a friend of Trump. AP reported that in addition, the Justice Department disclosed a spreadsheet created last August summarizing calls made to law enforcement tip lines by people claiming to have knowledge of wrongdoing by Trump, including many uncorroborated stories involving celebrities and notes on whether agents followed up.
AP reported that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday the FBI fielded “hundreds of calls” about prominent individuals that were “quickly determined to not be credible.” The release described in the AP story also included material involving Bill Clinton, including claims that Clinton representatives say he broke off relations with Epstein after the first round of criminal charges in 2006. AP said the investigative file includes snapshots of Clinton and other famous people that Epstein kept in his home in New York, and it also included messages from members of the public demanding to know why Clinton wasn’t being investigated, while AP said no Epstein victims have publicly accused Clinton of being involved in Epstein’s crimes.
Other people named in the document release included Steven Tisch, a New York Giants co-owner, who AP said appears in more than 400 entries. AP reported that correspondence showed Epstein offering to connect Tisch with women and, in a 2013 exchange labeled “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman in crude terms. AP said Tisch responded “Pro or civilian?” and that Tisch later acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied he ever went to Epstein’s Caribbean island, saying: “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” and that, “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
AP also described photographs in the files that include film director Brett Ratner, who appears in images with Epstein, Jean Luc Brunel and young women, including photos that appear to have been taken around the same time. AP said Ratner and a spokesperson for his film company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Another committee official mentioned was Casey Wasserman, president of the committee for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, whom AP said exchanged flirty emails with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, while Wasserman later released a statement saying he regretted the correspondence and that it came before Maxwell’s crimes became public.
In addition to Wasserman, AP reported that Miroslav Lajcak, a national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, resigned Saturday after opposition parties called for him to step down when his past communications with Epstein were revealed. AP said Lajcak has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein but that he said the correspondence was part of his diplomatic duties and that photographs show him meeting Epstein between his jail release and his 2019 indictment on sex trafficking charges. AP reported that other named figures in the release included Howard Lutnick, Sergey Brin, Steve Bannon, and Larry Summers, each accompanied by denials and assertions of limited interactions or errors in prior statements where applicable.
Across the document release, AP said that many of the prominent people named denied wrongdoing and pointed to the nature of their interactions, while others did not respond to requests for comment. The release continued to put a spotlight on relationships that spanned years and, for some, years after Epstein’s public legal case history, even as investigators said none of the figures named in the disclosure have been charged with crimes connected to the investigations described in the files.