{"id":401232,"date":"2026-01-31T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401232\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:06:07","slug":"what-have-we-learned-from-the-newly-released-epstein-files-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401232\/","title":{"rendered":"What have we learned from the newly released Epstein files? | Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of files related to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> have been released by the US justice department, the largest disclosure by the government since a law passed last year ruled that the documents should be published.<\/p>\n

The disgraced financier was convicted of child sex offences in 2008 but the files indicate that many high-profile figures, including the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a>, continued friendships with him after this point.<\/p>\n

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019<\/a> while awaiting trial on new child abuse charges. His accomplice, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

Here is what we learned from the latest Epstein files release on Friday.<\/p>\n

Former prince Andrew invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace after release from house arrest<\/p>\n

Released emails appear to show that Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace<\/a> after Epstein\u2019s house arrest ended.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the former prince gave a disastrous interview<\/a> to the Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in which he tried to claim he distanced himself from Epstein after his 2008 conviction for abusing a 14-year-old girl in Florida. However, the files suggest the pair remained close.<\/p>\n

In September 2010, emails between Epstein and \u201cThe Duke\u201d \u2013 believed to be Mountbatten-Windsor as the then Duke of York \u2013 show Epstein requested \u201cprivate time\u201d on a planned visit to London.<\/p>\n

Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have responded: \u201cWe could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.\u201d Two days later, he followed up by saying: \u201cDelighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I\u2019ll be here free from 1600ish.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear if the meeting took place, but Epstein and Mountbatten-Windsor were pictured walking together in New York\u2019s Central Park three months later. Mountbatten-Windsor previously claimed he had travelled to the US to end his friendship with Epstein in person in light of his conviction.<\/p>\n

The documents also suggest that, the previous month, Epstein had offered to arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a \u201cclever, beautiful and trustworthy\u201d Russian woman, who was 26. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be \u201cdelighted\u201d to see the woman. He also asked Epstein if it was \u201cgood to be free\u201d from house arrest.<\/p>\n

Sarah Ferguson described Epstein as the \u2018brother\u2019 she always wanted<\/p>\n

Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, thanked Epstein for being the \u201cbrother\u201d she \u201calways wished for\u201d in an email sent a year after his child sex abuse conviction.<\/p>\n

Sarah Ferguson with her daughters, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, at a wedding in London in 2016. Photograph: Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the August 2009 exchange, Ferguson appears to suggest she and her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, met the disgraced financier, saying: \u201cI have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein was under house arrest when the email was sent, but Ferguson implies that the pair had lunch the previous week. It has not been confirmed if she visited him while he was confined to his home.<\/p>\n

In the emails, Ferguson also discusses conversations she has had with retailers regarding her \u201cSarah Ferguson brand\u201d.<\/p>\n

Epstein gave Ferguson at least \u00a315,000 to help pay off debts, but some reports have suggested he bankrolled her to a much greater extent. In 2011, Ferguson said her relationship with Epstein had been a \u201cgigantic error of judgment\u201d but later emailed him privately to apologise.<\/p>\n

Epstein sent money to Peter Mandelson\u2019s husband<\/p>\n

Epstein sent \u00a310,000 to Lord Mandelson\u2019s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, in the year after his conviction. The emails suggest this was to fund an osteopathy course.<\/p>\n

In another set of emails, Mandelson asks to stay at one of Epstein\u2019s properties while he is serving his jail term. The terms of Epstein\u2019s sentence allowed him to work from his office during the day and return to jail each night.<\/p>\n

Mandelson told the Guardian on Friday that he had been \u201cwrong\u201d to continue his association with Epstein after his conviction, but said he was \u201cnever culpable or complicit\u201d in his crimes.<\/p>\n

Mandelson was sacked as the UK\u2019s ambassador to the US last September when it emerged he had sent supportive messages to Epstein after he was convicted.<\/p>\n

The FBI received allegations about Donald Trump\u2019s links to Epstein<\/p>\n

The new documents contain a list, compiled by the FBI, of allegations made against Trump through its National Threat Operations Center hotline. Many appear to be unsubstantiated claims of sexual abuse relating to Trump, Epstein and other public figures.<\/p>\n

Although the US president is mentioned hundreds of times in the files, he has always denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein\u2019s sexual abuse. He has admitted having a friendship with Epstein but the pair appear to have fallen out at some point in the mid-noughties, before Epstein was jailed.<\/p>\n

The US justice department said: \u201cSome of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims 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 have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised against President Trump already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elon Musk asked Epstein about parties on his island<\/p>\n

The tech billionaire Elon Musk discussed travelling to Epstein\u2019s island in November 2012, the files show. He sent the financier an email in which he asked: \u201cWhat day\/night will be the wildest party on your island?\u201d Musk and Epstein continued to discuss the possibility of Musk visiting his island in late 2013.<\/p>\n

Musk has not been accused of wrongdoing and it is unclear if he ultimately made the trip. He has not addressed the revelations in detail but said on X that it was \u201cfalse\u201d to suggest he planned to visit Epstein on another occasion, in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of files related to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released by the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-401232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}