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Newly disclosed US government files onJeffrey Epsteinprompted the resignation of a top Slovakian official and revived calls in Britain for a former prince to share what he knows with authorities about Epstein’s links to powerful individuals around the world.
The outburst comes just a day after the Department of Justice began releasing dozens of files offering more details about Epstein’s interactions with the rich and famous after he served time for sex crimes in Florida.
The prime minister of Slovakia accepted the resignation of an official, Miroslav Lajcak, who previously served a one-year term as president of the UN General Assembly. Lajcak was not accused of wrongdoing but left his position after photos and emails revealed he met with Epstein in the years after Epstein was released from prison.
Disclosures also haveraised questionsabout if Epstein’s longtime friendAndrew Mountbatten-Windsorformerly known as Prince Andrew, must cooperate with US authorities investigating Epstein.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday suggested Mountbatten-Windsor should tell American investigators what she knows about Epstein’s activities. The former prince has so far ignored a request from members of the US House Oversight Committee for a “transcribed interview” about his “longtime friendship” with Epstein.
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department said it will release more than 3 million pages of documents along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images under a law intended to reveal much of the material it collected during a two-decade investigation involving the wealthy financier.
The files, posted on the department’s website, include documents related to Epstein’s friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor, and Epstein’s email correspondence with one-time Trump adviser Steve Bannon, co-owner of the New York Giants Steve Tisch and other prominent contacts with people in political, business and philanthropic circles, such as billionaires.Bill GatesandElon Musk.
Other documents offer a window into various investigations, including the reasons for sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019 and his longtime confidante.Ghislaine Maxwellin 2021, and an earlier inquiry found evidence of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls but never led to federal charges.
The Slovakian official resigned
Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, said on Saturday that he had accepted the resignation of Lajcak, his national security adviser.
Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but emails show Epstein invited him to dinner and other meetings in 2018.
The records also include a March 2018 email from Epstein’s office to former Obama White House general counsel Kathy Ruemmler, inviting him to a get-together with Epstein, Lajcak and Bannon, the conservative activist who served as Trump’s White House strategist in 2017.
Lajcak said his contacts with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties. Pressure has mounted for his ouster from opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition.
The draft indictment details Epstein’s abuse
The FBI began investigating Epstein in July 2006 and agents expected him to be charged in May 2007, according to newly released records. A prosecutor wrote a proposed indictment after several underage girls told police and the FBI they were paid to give Epstein sex massages.
The draft shows that prosecutors are preparing to indict not only Epstein but also three people who worked for him as personal assistants.
According to interview notes released Friday, an employee of Epstein’s Florida estate told the FBI in 2007 that Epstein once bought her flowers and delivered them to a student at Royal Palm Beach High School to commemorate her performance in a school play.
The employee, whose name has been blacked out, said some of her duties included fanning $100 bills on a table near Epstein’s bed, placing a gun between the mattresses in his bedroom and cleaning up after Epstein’s frequent massages of young women, including disposing of used condoms.
Finally, the US attorney in Miami at the time,Alexander Acostasigned a plea deal allowing Epstein to avoid federal prosecution. Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a person under the age of 18 and received an 18-month prison sentence. Acosta was Trump’s first labor secretary in his first term.
Epstein offers Andrew a date
The records contain thousands of references to Trump, including emails in which Epstein and others shared news articles, commented on his policies, or gossiped about him and his family.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times, including in Epstein’s private emails. In a 2010 exchange, Epstein appeared to be setting her up for a date.
“I have a friend that I think you might enjoy having dinner with,” Epstein wrote.
Mountbatten-Windsor replied that he would be “delighted to see him.”
Epstein, whose emails often contain typographical errors, wrote later in the exchange: “He’s 26, russian, kind beautiful, reliable and yes he has your email.”
Concerns about how the Justice Department handles records
The Justice Department has faced criticism over how it handled the latest disclosures.
A group of Epstein accusers said in a statement that the new documents make it easier to identify those he abused but not those who may have been involved in Epstein’s criminal activities.
“As survivors, we should not be the ones named, scrutinized, and retraumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to exploit the secret,” it said.
On the other hand, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, pressed the department to allow lawmakers to review unredacted versions of the files as soon as Sunday. He said in a statement that Congress should review whether the redactions were lawful or improperly shielded people from scrutiny.
Department officials have acknowledged that many records in its files are duplicates, and the documents make it clear that reviewers took different levels of care or used different standards while withholding names and other identifying information.
There are many documents where a name is left exposed in one copy, but redacted in another.
Epstein’s ties to the powerful are on display
The released records confirm Epstein was, at least before he got into legal trouble, friendly with Trump andformer President Bill Clinton. None of Epstein’s victims have gone public to accuse Trump, a Republican, or Clinton, a Democrat, of wrongdoing. Both men said they had no knowledge that Epstein abused minor girls.
Epsteinkilled himself in a New York prisonin August 2019, one month after being indicted.
In 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Maxwell, a British socialite, of sex trafficking for helping to recruit some of her minor victims. He isserved 20 years in prison.
US prosecutors have never charged anyone in connection with Epstein’s abuse. One victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, sued Mountbatten-Windsor, saying he had sex with her starting at age 17. The former prince denied having sex with Giuffre but settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.
Giuffredied by suicidelast year at the age of 41.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
