But while investigators collected more evidence that Epstein sexually abused minor girls, they found little evidence that the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring that served powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records found.

Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands do not depict victims abused or implicated in any of his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in a 2025 memo.

An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, another internal memo said in 2019.

While one Epstein victim publicly stated that he was “loaned” by his wealthy friends, agents could not confirm that and found no other victims who told the same story, the records said.

Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” of Epstein’s accusers claimed that other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, “there is not enough evidence to federally charge the individuals, so the cases are referred to local law enforcement.”

The AP and other media organizations are still investigating million pages of documentsmany of them were previously confidential, released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and it is possible that those records contain evidence that investigators have overlooked.

But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture yet of the investigation — and why US authorities ultimately decided to close it without further charges.

Dozens of victims came forward

The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that she was molested at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Police identified at least 35 women with similar stories: Epstein paid high school students $200 or $300 to give him sexual messages.

After the FBI joined the investigation, federal prosecutors drafted indictments to charge Epstein and several personal assistants who arranged the visits and payments to the women. But instead, Miami US attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Sentenced to 18 months in prison, Epstein was released in mid-2009.

In 2018, a series of stories in the Miami Herald about the plea deal prompted federal prosecutors in New York to review the accusations.

Epstein used to be was arrested in July 2019. A month ago, he killed himselfin his prison cell.

A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwellsaying that he recruited some of his victims and sometimes engaged in sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors failed to find evidence to back up many of the sensational claims

Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department’s latest release of records related to Epstein show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors have been diligently pursuing potential co-conspirators. Even seemingly strange and incomprehensible claims, called tip lines, are investigated.

Some allegations could not be verified, the investigators wrote.

In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators conducted interviews Virginia Roberts Giuffrewho in lawsuits and news interviews accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sex with multiple men, including a British ex. Prince Andrew.

Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre was sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of his story are problematic.

Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre claimed were “loaned” by powerful people also told investigators they had no experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.

“No other victim was described as clearly ordered by Maxwell or Epstein to have sex with other men,” the memo said.

Giuffre is credited with writing a partially fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein that contains descriptions of things that never happened. He also offered alternate accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote, and “engaged in a continuous stream of public interviews about his allegations, many of which included sensationalized if not demonstrably inaccurate characterizations of his experiences.” The inaccuracies included false accounts of his dealings with the FBI, they said.

However, US prosecutors tried to arrange an interview with Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He refused to make himself available. Giuffre settled a lawsuit with Mountbatten-Windsor where she accused him of sexual misconduct.

on a memoir published after he killed himself last year, Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told him they did not include him in the case against Maxwell because they did not want his allegations to distract the jury. He insists that his accounts of being peddled by elite men are true.

Prosecutors said the photos and videos did not implicate anyone else

Investigators seized dozens of videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the US Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape with nude images of girls, some of whom appeared to be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sex abuse material — photos that investigators say Epstein obtained on the internet.

There are no videos or photos showing Epstein’s victims being sexually abused, none showing any men with any naked women, and none containing evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email to FBI officials last year.

If they had existed, the government would have “pursued any leads they have generated,” Comey wrote. “We have not, however, found any such videos.”

Investigators looking into Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he engaged in pimping women to other men, prosecutors wrote.

Epstein’s close associates have not been charged

In 2019, prosecutors weighed the possibility of indicting one of Epstein’s longtime aides but decided against it.

Prosecutors concluded that while the assistant was involved in helping Epstein pay women for sex and may have known that some were minors, she herself was a victim of his sexual abuse and manipulation.

Investigators are looking into Epstein’s relationship with French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was previously linked to an Epstein agency in the US, and who has been accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting women in Europe. Brunel killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on a rape case in France.

Prosecutors are also weighing whether to charge one of Epstein’s girlfriends who engaged in sexual acts with some of his victims. Investigators interviewed the boyfriend, who was 18 to 20 years old at the time, “but found there was insufficient evidence,” according to a summary provided to FBI Director Kash Patel last July.

Days before Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, the FBI planned to send agents to serve grand jury subpoenas on people close to Epstein, including his pilots and longtime business client, retail mogul Les Wexner.

Wexner’s lawyers have told investigators that neither he nor his wife had knowledge of Epstein’s sexual misconduct. Epstein managed Wexner’s finances, but the couple’s lawyers say they cut him off in 2007 after learning he had been stealing from them.

“There is limited evidence of his involvement,” an FBI agent wrote about Wexner in an Aug. 16, 2019, email.

In a statement to the AP, a legal representative for Wexner said prosecutors had informed him that he was “not a co-conspirator or target in any way,” and that Wexner was cooperating with investigators.

Prosecutors also examined accounts from women who said they had massages at Epstein’s home with visitors who tried to engage in sexual encounters. A woman has accused private equity investor Leon Black of sexually assaulting her during a massage in 2011 or 2012, causing her to flee the room.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office subsequently investigated, but no charges were filed.

Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said he paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice. He said in a statement that Black did not engage in misconduct and had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities. Lawsuits by two women who accused Black of sexual misconduct were dismissed or withdrawn. One is pending.

No client list

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein’s never-before-seen “client list” is “sitting on my desk right now.” A few months later, he claims the FBI is reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child pornography.”

But FBI agents wrote to superiors saying the client list did not exist.

On December 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate was reached by subordinates to ask “whether our investigation to date has indicated the ‘client list,’ often referred to in the media, exists or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his question.

A day later, an FBI official responded that the case agent had confirmed that no client list existed.

In Feb. 19, 2025, two days before Bondi’s Fox In the news release, a special supervisory agent of the FBI wrote: “While the media coverage of the case of Jeffrey Epstein mentioned a ‘client list,’ investigators did not find such a list during the investigation.”