WASHINGTON — At least nine investigations have begun in eight countries and within the European Union’s anti-fraud unit following the release by the U.S. Justice Department of millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the U.S., not so much.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the case remains open. But according to a Justice Department and FBI memo last year, the department underwent an “exhaustive review” of materials related to Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and died in federal custody in what was ruled a suicide. There was no evidence of an “incriminating ‘client list’” or evidence that would lead to additional prosecutions of third parties, the memo said. Justice Department officials have said they complied with the law and did all that was required of them.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently put it more bluntly: The review is over.
Yet the publication of more than 3.5 million documents has prompted a global reckoning, including the arrests in the U.K. of both the former Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the U.S., on suspicion of misconduct in office. The former prime minister of Norway has been charged with aggravated corruption. All deny the allegations, which were not connected to the sex abuse charges against Epstein but were uncovered because of their presence in the files.
And the investigations are raising questions about why the Trump administration isn’t doing more.
“Right now, the government in charge has no interest in pursuing this, whereas the governments in other countries, or the authorities in other countries, for whatever reasons, do,” said Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in New York and former district attorney for Westchester County.
There are hurdles to any new investigation. While there is no federal statute of limitations for criminal child sex abuse or sex trafficking, there are limitations on when someone can be charged with most other federal crimes in the U.S., usually between five and 10 years. And allegations or details uncovered in the Epstein documents may be salacious or troubling, but might not rise to the level of chargeable criminal conduct. Laws overseas are different; the U.K., for example, has no statute of limitations for crimes triable by a jury.
Yet legal experts and survivors of Epstein’s abuse say there is still much more the Justice Department could uncover. There are still more documents that have not been publicly released and some that appear to be missing, including 54 pages of summaries and notes from three FBI interviews with a woman who had also made an allegation against Donald Trump. He has denied any wrongdoing. After the files were flagged by news outlets, Justice Department officials said they would review to see if any should be released.
“As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, the department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production,” the DOJ said in a statement on X.
The release of the files under a federal law signed by Trump was a major departure from typical Justice Department procedures; never before has such a trove of investigative detail been made public. Congress also forced the Epstein estate to release documents related to his business and personal dealings.
The trove of documents increasingly paint a picture of a vast network that facilitated Epstein’s abuse, from financial institutions to doctor’s offices. Scores of rich and powerful people appear in the files but say they did not know what he was up to; at least 20 have left their jobs or been fired as a result.
The allegations against Epstein began in Florida in 2005, after parents of a 14-year-old girl say he paid her for a massage. By 2007, a 60-count federal indictment had been drafted. But in 2008, Epstein struck an agreement to plead guilty to lesser charges and got an 18-month sentence.
The much-criticized deal included a nonprosecution agreement that meant the case against Epstein and his potential co-conspirators was done. The victims weren’t told about the resolution to the case before it was signed.
He later was investigated by federal prosecutors in New York for years and was facing a raft of charges when he died. His accomplice Ghislane Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking and other offenses in 2021.
No one else has been criminally charged.
“If they were able to commit the most heinous crime out there, what else could they have committed? Why aren’t we following the money? Why aren’t we taking more action?” asked Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of the earliest and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers. Giuffre was the first to raise claims against the former Prince Andrew, which he denied. She died by suicide last year.
“We should be opening the investigations, and we should be subpoenaing their flight records. They should be subpoenaing their bank account records and start combing through those, and let’s see what’s there,” Roberts said.
Redactions of tens of thousands of names and places in the files make it hard to decipher who may have played a role in enabling Epstein.
“The Justice Department’s job is to follow the facts and follow the law and not to protect anyone, whether it’s wealthy men, whether it’s well-connected men, that does not matter,” said Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor. “‘Without fear or favor.’ Those aren’t just words. That’s the job. And it’s not being done here. The victims, the survivors, deserve better than what they’re getting from this Justice Department.”
At least one criminal investigation is open in the U.S., in New Mexico, on allegations of criminal activity at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.
New Mexico officials say they’re seeking immediate access to the unredacted files. U.K. officials, too, said they were working with overseas law enforcement in order to aid in their investigations.
New probes have been launched across Europe that focus on individuals who were associated with Epstein or that are looking into trafficking or financial networks, or both.
Thorbjørn Jagland, who was prime minister of Norway in the 1990s and went on to head the Nobel Committee and the Council of Europe, was charged in February following searches of his home in connection with Epstein file disclosures. Authorities are also scrutinizing possible ties to the files including in Britain, France, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey and Slovakia. The European Union’s anti-fraud office is investigating Mandelson.
During a combative congressional hearing earlier this month, Bondi said there were pending investigations related to Epstein, though it wasn’t clear what or who she was referring to. Last year, Bondi’s office quickly acquiesced when Trump used his social media platform to call on the Justice Department to investigate Democrats over their affiliations with Epstein.
Blanche, during a news conference about the release of the documents, argued there is “mantra out there that, oh, you know, the Department of Justice is supposed to protect Donald J. Trump,” but he said that the DOJ was “always concerned about the victims.”
For the survivors, their best shot at accountability may come from Congress. Even with Republicans in power, Congress has driven the effort to keep the investigation alive; it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which led to the release of the files, and held depositions with a number of prominent people connected to them, including Hillary Clinton, and on Friday, Bill Clinton.
But the Republican leadership has stopped short of calling for continued criminal investigations or pushing for more documents.
Democrats have promised to step up investigative efforts if they win back the majority in Congress, giving them subpoena power that would allow them to force witness interviews, collect documents and conduct extensive investigations.
While Congress does not have the power to prosecute, lawmakers could make criminal referrals to law enforcement agencies and make their findings public.
“When DOJ says that there is nothing to investigate, we, the American people, must rise up,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. “It is the voices of the survivors ringing through in the darkness of all of this horror that has gotten us this far, and in speaking to so many of them myself, I know that this effort is not just for them.”
Congress also has the power to change law; Democrats recently introduced “Virginia’s Law” named in honor of Giuffre, who was one of the first Epstein survivors to come forward. The law eliminates the statute of limitations on civil claims for adult survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking.
Marina Lacerda, who was referred to as “minor victim 1” in court documents and who has publicly shared her experience of abuse, called for full transparency and said it’s up to everyone to stop the cycle of abuse uncovered by the files.
“What are we doing as Americans?” She asked. “Because we need to take this a little bit more serious.”