NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI gathered substantial evidence that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused underage girls but found little evidence that the well-connected financier led a sex-trafficking ring that served powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.
Videos and photos recovered from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands do not depict him abusing the victims or implicating anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in a 2025 memo.
An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to organizations associated with influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, another internal memo in 2019 said.
Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” Epstein accusers claimed they had been sexually assaulted by other men or women. But, the agents said, “there was insufficient evidence to charge these individuals federally.”
The AP and other media organizations are still reviewing millions of pages of documents, many of them previously classified, that the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and it is possible that those records contain evidence overlooked by investigators.
Here’s what the documents show about the FBI investigation and why U.S. officials ultimately decided to close it without further charges.
Origin of research
The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had been abused at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. Then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta negotiated a plea deal for Epstein to a charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor girl. Sentenced to 18 months in prison, Epstein was released in mid-2009.
In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the charges.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019. A month later, he committed suicide in his prison cell.
A year later, prosecutors accused Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislen Maxwell of recruiting many of his victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse. Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison after being convicted in 2021.
Lack of evidence for conspirators
Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department’s latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential co-conspirators. Outlandish and incomprehensible claims called out on tip lines were also investigated.
Some allegations could not be substantiated, the investigators wrote.
In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewed Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who in the lawsuit and in news interviews accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters with several men, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew.
Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre was sexually assaulted by Epstein. But other parts of his story were problematic.
Giuffre admitted to writing a partially fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein that contained accounts of things that did not happen. She also offered to change accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote.
Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre claimed had “borrowed” powerful men also told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2016 internal memo.
Photos and videos do not affect others
Investigators recovered numerous videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the US Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of women.
No videos or photos show Epstein sexually abusing victims, no men with naked women, and no evidence that anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell were involved, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Comey wrote in an email to FBI officials last year.
If they existed, the government would “follow any lead they generate,” Comey wrote. “Although we haven’t found any such videos.”
Investigators looking into Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence he engaged in prostitution to other men, prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors weighed the possibility of charging some of Epstein’s closest associates, assistants and business clients, but ultimately decided against it due to a lack of evidence.
No customer list found
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein’s never-before-seen “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.” But FBI agents wrote to superiors saying the client list did not exist.
On December 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbott reached out to subordinates to ask if “our investigation indicates a ‘customer list,’ which is often mentioned in the media, does not or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his questions.
A day later, an FBI official responded that the case agent had confirmed that no client list existed.
On February 19, 2025, two days before Bondi’s Fox News appearance, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: “While media coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case referred to a ‘client list,’ investigators found no such list during the investigation.”
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Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
___ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in cooperation with reporters from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what they contain. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the papers.
