Latest Epstein release details government’s investigation into possible co-conspirators

(NEW YORK) -- Even as investigators took Jeffrey Epstein into custody in July 2019, they were already turning their attention to others in the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender's vast orbit who might also be involved in his crimes, according to a massive new trove of files released by the Justice Department early Tuesday morning.

The fresh batch of files also add new details to the Epstein saga not previously known, including operational details that went into planning for his 2019 arrest; how some federal officials reacted to his death by suicide in jail; and images of the fake Austrian passport Epstein held under a pseudonym.

And the files included a 2020 heads up from a federal prosecutor that Trump had traveled with Epstein more than was previously known at the time.

The latest DOJ disclosure under the Epstein Files Transparency Act includes more than 10,000 files totaling more than 10 gigabytes of material, ranging from internal government emails to investigative materials, to a blueprint of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse used by officials executing their search.

The DOJ posted the new materials just after midnight ET on Tuesday morning, marking the latest cache of materials released under a congressional mandate. The law, which President Donald Trump signed in November, required the DOJ to release all the documents by Friday, Dec. 19, although the department has said the vetting process required to protect Epstein's victims has slowed their delivery.

A statement from alleged victims said the DOJ "violated the law" by "failing to redact survivor identities."

Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. A co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses.

Investigation into potential co-conspirators

Hours after Epstein had been arrested at Teterboro Airport and his Manhattan home had been raided, investigators also sought to ramp up their pursuit of others who might also potentially be involved in his alleged crimes.

Though it has previously been reported that investigations of possible Epstein co-conspirators were a focus after his death, the new disclosures indicate that those efforts had already begun by the time he was arrested -- and were in fact well underway.

"When you get a chance can you give me an update on the status of the 10 co-conspirators?" someone from the FBI's New York office wrote in an email at 12:24 p.m. July 7, 2019 -- the day after Epstein’s arrest. The reply: That contact had been made with some of the alleged accomplices, and investigators were efforting others. Most of the names are redacted; however some are not.

The documents the DOJ chose to release Tuesday do not detail the information investigators sought from these individuals, nor the basis for characterizing them as potential co-conspirators.

"Attempts were made to [redacted] and Brunel," the update said, referring to Jean-Luc Brunel, a now-disgraced modeling agent and Epstein associate, who would be arrested the following year in Paris and charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment. It’s not clear if the charges related specifically to any Epstein victim. Brunel, who maintained his innocence, was found dead by suicide in his Paris prison cell in February 2022.

"Attempts to [Ghislaine] Maxwell are being made in Boston today," the July 7 email said.

"I do not know about Ohio contacting Wexner," the email added -- referring to Leslie Wexner, the Ohio billionaire for whom Epstein served as a longtime personal financial adviser.

Wexner has previously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s behavior and said he had cut ties with him in 2007. "I condemn his abhorrent behavior in the strongest possible terms and am sickened by the revelations I have read over the past weeks," he said in a written statement to his foundation after Epstein’s arrest, obtained by ABC News at the time. The founder and chairman of L Brands said after Epstein’s death that he was "embarrassed" to have ever been associated with the disgraced sex offender.

Wexner has never been charged and was not identified at Maxwell’s trial as a co-conspirator.

In another email exchange, dated July 9, 2019, a member of the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Human Trafficking Unit received an update on the 10 alleged co-conspirators.

"3 have been located in FL and served GJ subpoenas; 1 in Boston, 1 in NYC, and 1 in CT were located and served," the email said. "4 of the 10 are outstanding with attempts having been made. 1 is a wealthy business man in Ohio, a lead is being sent to CV; the remaining 3 are currently out of pocket."

The email added that teams of special agents and prosecutors were shortly flying out to "various locations" in Florida "to interview approximately 25 victims."

About month later, Epstein would be found dead by suicide in his New York jail cell. But his death did not halt investigations into his associates, according to the files.

In September 2019, prosecutors exchanging updates noted the investigation into Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators was "ongoing," and that they had had conversations with several people who would cooperate in the investigation. Prosecutors later detailed a seven-page "memo on co-conspirators we could potentially charge" as well as a 86-page "co-conspirator update memo," according to the files.

In July 2020, Maxwell would be arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire. She was charged by the Southern District of New York with conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses. She was convicted in 2021 on five of six counts and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

No alleged co-conspirator other than Maxwell has ever been charged, and the Department of Justice said in July that there were no credible allegations that would lead to charges against others.

A heads-up about Trump’s travel

Six months after Maxwell’s arrest, prosecutors receiving Epstein-related records discovered that the onetime friend and current sitting president had in the 1990s traveled with Epstein far more than they had previously known.

"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 Maxwell case," according to the Jan. 7, 2020, email to recipients whose names and email addresses are redacted.

"In particular, he 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," the email said. "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. We've just finished reviewing the full records (more than 100 pages of very small script) and didn't want any of this to be a surprise down the road." It’s not clear if there was any response to the message.

The flight records of Epstein’s private aircraft documents referenced in that email would later become public exhibits during Maxwell’s 2021 trial. There was no allegation raised during those proceedings that Trump’s travels on Epstein’s plane were in any way connected to the charges against Maxwell.

Prosecutors press for interview with Prince Andrew

One of the documents included is an extensive email exchange in September and October 2020 between an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and a lawyer representing then-Prince Andrew of Britain.

In the email exchange -- which took place a few months after Maxwell’s arrest -- Andrew’s lawyer lays out restrictions on the manner of the interview, including Andrew only providing a signed witness statement, and the topics he would agree to discuss.

Prosecutors pushed for a live in-person or virtual interview, according to the files. Andrew’s lawyer appeared to refuse, agreeing only to written answers. In the last email of the exchange, the assistant U.S. attorney writes, "[B]ecause the written statement you propose to provide will not assist our investigation, we intend to move forward with our MLA request seeking a compelled interview of your client." An MLA request, or Mutual Legal Assistance, is a request from one country to another for assistance in a legal matter. It’s not clear from the newly-disclosed files if prosecutors followed through on the MLA request.

The fact that Andrew, who has been stripped of his title as prince, had offered a written statement, and that the SNDY had declined that format and intended to pursue an MLA request were reported at the time -- but these communications reveal an extensive inside look at the process of those negotiations.

Details of Epstein’s arrest

Meticulous planning went into the undercover operation that would ultimately take Epstein into custody, according to the newly released DOJ files.

Among the documents is an "Operations Order Form," dated July 2, 2019 -- four days before he would be arrested -- that strategizes how it might all go down upon his return from overseas.

"Epstein is presently out of the country. A silent hit notification with [Customs and Border Protection] has been put into effect for his return to the US. Upon Epstein’s return to the US, CBP will detain him at an airport. Agents and NYPD detectives will coordinate with FBI Newark and CBP, then respond to effect the arrest of Epstein,” the document said.

"Once Epstein is in custody, a search warrant for his premises in New York will be sworn out," the document said. "Agents and NYPD detectives will knock and announce their presence at the subject premises. Upon entry, the subject premises will be secured and the search warrant will be executed. Teams will then break off to conduct interviews."

The order mentions a "tactical brief" scheduled for July 8. But agents got word Epstein’s return home was imminent, according to the files.

"We received a hit notification that our sub will be landing at Teterboro at 1720 tomorrow, 7/6/2019," according to a July 5, 2019, email from an FBI special agent. The agent then goes on to suggest that they should plan to meet at the airport at 3:30 p.m. "in case of an early landing."

The exchange noted Epstein used a private plane and was a "frequent flier out of Teterboro. Ideally we would like to pick him up when he arrives." Because Epstein would be arriving on an international flight, CBP would need to initiate the arrest, the agents noted.

Also included in the documents is the arrest warrant for Epstein dated July 2, 2019, and issued by SDNY. Epstein was arrested July 6, 2019, when he landed at Teterboro.

Epstein’s alter ego, 'Marius Fortelni'’

The new disclosure also includes several photographs of a fake Austrian passport bearing a photograph of Epstein -- but in the name of Marius Robert Fortelni -- who listed his occupation as "Manager" and his residence as Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The passport was issued in 1982 and was valid until 1987. On the inside pages are stamps from airport arrivals in Paris and Nice, France, in the early 1980s as well as entry stamps for England and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, prosecutors said they had discovered that passport in a safe in Epstein’s New York mansion, along with three U.S. passports, 48 loose diamonds and $70,000 in cash.

Epstein's defense attorneys, seeking to secure bail for their client, said that two of the US passports were expired. The foreign passport, they claimed, was given to Epstein "by a friend," and he had never used it to travel. They argued he received it in the 1980s for personal protection when traveling in the Middle East.

Internal government reaction immediately after Epstein’s death

Internal communications sent in the hours after Epstein was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan in August 2019 show how some people with federal email addresses reacted to the news, with one stating that they could not understand how it happened.

"His victims deserve some sort of modicum of justice and this is not how it should have gone down," one unidentified individual wrote.

The names and email addresses of the people who sent the messages were redacted.

"In separate news and not to be crass but Epstein! Wow. Can we still pursue forfeiture against the estate?” one of the emails said.

"We can bring a civil forfeiture against the properties IF we're within statute, which we may not be. We'll have to look at it, but we've got some time, since I'm pretty sure no one's going to want to have that be was our immediate reaction to his suicide," another person responded. "We can't pursue any kind of general money judgment against the estate - there we're out of luck."

One person wrote in an email that it had not been a "great year" for the Bureau of Prisons in the New York area.

"It's just slightly more awkward where he was somehow allowed to commit suicide on a second try in two weeks by a branch of our government," the email noted.

A different message concluded with, "MCC, WTF?"

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