The Justice Department on Tuesday released a large trove of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, including allegations about the late financier’s ties to President Donald Trump.
The release was by far the DOJ’s largest in its effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and contained the most new information, along with claims about Trump that the department said are “unfounded and false.”
One of the newly-released emails published Tuesday claimed that flight logs show Trump flew on Epstein’s plane at least eight times in the 1990s, including once with an unnamed 20-year-old woman.
The email, which was sent in January 2020 from a federal prosecutor in New York to an undisclosed person, says, “For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a [Ghislaine] Maxwell case.”
Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice, was indicted in July 2020 on federal sex trafficking charges. She was found guilty in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The email said Trump, who was at the time serving his first term as president, “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric.”
“On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [redacted]. On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.”
Both the name of the sender and the recipient were redacted. It does not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing.
A White House official referred questions about the email and the broader release to a Justice Department statement posted to X earlier Tuesday.
That post acknowledged there were multiple references to Trump in the latest document release, and said some include “untrue and sensationalist claims.”
“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the DOJ said in its post on X.
“Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the statement said.
An NBC News review confirmed that the department released roughly 30,000 records. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said before the first release of documents on Friday the department would be releasing “hundreds of thousands” of Epstein-related documents that day, but it had released less than 10,000, according to an NBC News review.
The DOJ is legally required to release the files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Another item that was released Tuesday was a note signed by “J. Epstein” addressed to Larry Nassar, the sports doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing numerous girls and women in his care. Nassar, 62, is serving a prison sentence of 40 to 175 years behind bars.
An envelope also released in the same batch bore a postmark of Aug. 13, 2019, at a USPS facility in Northern Virginia — three days after Epstein died in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Investigators say he died by suicide.
The note says, “Dear L.N., As you know by now I have taken the ‘short route’ home.” It then tells Nassar “we shared one thing . . . our love and caring for young ladies and the hope they reach their full potential.” The note then says “our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls,” and then bemoans that he and Nassar have been locked up. “Life is unfair,” the note concludes.
The envelope was marked “return to sender” and sent back to Epstein’s jail because Nassar was no longer at the facility to which it was mailed. Another document shows the FBI requested a handwriting analysis to confirm it was Epstein’s handwriting, but it does not include the results. NBC News cannot independently verify that Epstein wrote the letter.
The Justice Department said in a post on social media that it is “currently looking into the validity of this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar and we will follow up as soon as possible.”
It noted the postmark is from Virginia, not New York where Epstein was jailed and “did not include his inmate number, which is required for outgoing mail.”
Less than two hours later, the DOJ said on X that the “FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE. The fake letter was received by the jail, and flagged for the FBI at the time.”
It said that among the other reasons the FBI had found the “writing does not appear to match Jeffrey Epstein’s.”
“This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual,” it said in a post on X.
The AP reported on the existence of the letter, but not its contents, in a June 2023 article based on more than 4,000 pages of documents related to Epstein’s death obtained from the Bureau of Prisons under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The release also includes unverified, anonymous tips to the FBI, including one where the tipster said he’d spoken to a woman who alleged Trump and Epstein had raped her in the 1990s. The tipster said the woman was scared to go to the police. The tip came in on Oct. 27, 2020 — shortly before Election Day. It’s unclear if the FBI investigated the anonymous second-hand claim.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and said he cut ties with Epstein at some point in the early 2000s because he was a “creep.”
Another of the documents released Tuesday showed federal prosecutors discussing “10 co-conspirators” of Epstein’s in an email exchange. To date, Maxwell is the only co-conspirator to be charged. The DOJ said in a memo in July it did not have evidence to charge any other parties in the case.
Ghislaine Maxwell is a former British socialite who was convicted of recruiting and trafficking young girls for Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s what you need to know.
The identities of the people are not revealed in the exchange. One is described as a “wealthy business man in Ohio.” It said “3 have been located in FL and served [grand jury] subpoenas; 1 in Boston, 1 in NYC, and 1 in CT were located and served.” The “remaining 3 are currently out of pocket,” the email said.
It’s unclear what information investigators pursued or found about the potential co-conspirators.
The genders of the remaining nine were not referenced in the document. Epstein had a history of turning some of his young victims into recruiters, according to court filings and his accusers.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., highlighted the email exchange in a post on X, and wrote, “Tens of thousands of files released shed no light on who they are. More questions than answers.”
Schumer on Monday said he would be introducing a resolution directing the Senate to “initiate legal action against the DOJ” for only releasing some of its records related to Epstein on Friday and Saturday.
“The law Congress passed is crystal clear: release the Epstein files in full so Americans can see the truth,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “Instead, the Trump Department of Justice dumped redactions and withheld the evidence — that breaks the law.”
The initial records released by DOJ contained only passing references to Trump — and numerous pictures of former President Bill Clinton, who’d flown on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation trips in the early 2000s, before the financier was charged with any sex crimes.
Trump has asked the Justice Department to investigate Clinton’s ties to Epstein. Clinton has denied any wrongdoing, and his spokesman on Monday called on Trump to direct all pictures and references to him in the files be released.
Speaking to reporters on Monday night, Trump suggested that the pictures should not have been released, and said that he would probably appear in some as well.
“I hate to see photos come out of him, but this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats, and a couple of bad Republicans, are asking for. So they’re giving their photos of me, too. Everybody was friendly with this guy,” he said of Epstein.
The new release appears to include exchanges between Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who lost his British titles of prince and Duke of York because of his ties to Epstein.
In an Aug. 16, 2001, email from an address labeled “The Invisible Man” to Maxwell reads, “I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” an apparent reference to Balmoral Castle, the royal family’s estate in Scotland. The email, which is signed “A,” asks Maxwell, “Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, has charged that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to the prince in the early 2000s when she was 17. He’s denied the allegations and settled a civil suit she brought against him by making a substantial donation to her charity. Giuffre died by suicide in April.
The release came after Congress passed a bill last month, which Trump signed into law on Nov. 19, that gave Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice” involving Epstein, “including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters.”
The law allows for some redactions and exceptions, including to protect victims’ identities.
Brennan Leach, Ryan Nobles, Ben Kamisar, Isabelle Schmeler, Maya Rosenberg and Joe Murphy contributed.