They Said They Weren’t Close to Epstein. New Documents Show Otherwise.

They Said They Weren’t Close to Epstein. New Documents Show Otherwise.

 

Materials released by the Justice Department revealed that leading business and political figures had enduring relationships with the disgraced financier.

 

By Nicholas Confessore

Jan. 31, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/epstein-powerful-men.html

 

They said they didn’t really know Jeffrey Epstein that well. They were disgusted by him right off the bat. They were just drawn to his intellect or love of science or business acumen. They didn’t know about his abuse of women and girls. They deeply regretted associating with him.

 

In the years since Mr. Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death by suicide in a Manhattan jail, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people have hastened to distance themselves from the disgraced man with whom they once did business, dined in lavish settings or flew on private jets.

 

But a slow drip of document releases and other revelations over the last several months — culminating in Friday’s release of nearly three million pages of Epstein-related records — has underscored the depth, intensity and persistence of his connections to the global elite, contradicting or undermining years of careful denials.

 

So far, at least, the new documents have not fundamentally altered the public understanding of Mr. Epstein or his crimes. Instead, they are replete with chummy exchanges, warm invitations and financial entanglements. Together, the documents show how Mr. Epstein’s connections with people in Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington and fashion thrived even after he became a convicted sex offender in 2008.

 

In some cases, the documents shed greater light on Epstein associates whose connections to him were already known. Others revealed relationships that had remained hidden for years.

 

Elon Musk, among the world’s richest men, once not only denied visiting Mr. Epstein’s island, but framed his decision as an act of principle. In a social media post last September, Mr. Musk wrote that Mr. Epstein “tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED.” But the documents released on Friday suggested that Mr. Musk was at one point eager to visit. “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Mr. Musk emailed Mr. Epstein in November 2012.

 

Mr. Musk wrote Saturday in a social media post: “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express,’ but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”

 

On a podcast last year, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, described being so revolted by a mid-2000s visit to Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion that he decided to “never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”

 

Mr. Lutnick’s disgust appeared to prove temporary. In 2012, he emailed with Mr. Epstein to arrange a visit with his wife and children to Mr. Epstein’s private island just before Christmas. An assistant to Mr. Epstein later forwarded Mr. Lutnick a message from Mr. Epstein: “Nice seeing you,” it said. (On Friday, Mr. Lutnick said that “I spent zero time with him.”)

 

Kathy Ruemmler, a White House counsel under President Barack Obama who is now general counsel of Goldman Sachs, has said she provided Mr. Epstein with professional services and legal advice. But in newly released emails with Mr. Epstein and others, she discussed meeting up with him and what she described as “the girls”; analyzed troubling dreams; and arranged to accept the delivery of expensive gifts from him. A Goldman spokesman said  that it was “well known that Epstein often offered unsolicited favors and gifts to his many business contacts.” He also said that “the girls” was a reference to a mutual client and her daughters.

 

A 2013 email exchange with the British billionaire Richard Branson hinted that he, too, had a familiar relationship with Mr. Epstein. “It was really nice seeing you yesterday,” Mr. Branson wrote, adding: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!” A Branson representative said the two had a business meeting and stressed that the women were adults and had not attended the meeting.

 

The New York real estate mogul Andrew Farkas, a powerful political donor with ties to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and President Trump, co-owned a marina with Mr. Epstein in St. Thomas for years. In a letter to investors last year, he said that his relationship with the sex offender was purely a business one. But documents released recently suggested a more personal connection.

 

The two men traded crude emails about women in one 2010 exchange, after Mr. Epstein’s first arrest and conviction. Mr. Farkas told Mr. Epstein in a 2018 note that he loved him and considered him one of his best friends before signing off, “xoxo.” Mr. Farkas stayed on Mr. Epstein’s island. And photographs released by Congress late last year showed Mr. Epstein with his hand on Mr. Farkas’ shoulder as they walked together in a tropical setting. In December, a spokeswoman for Mr. Farkas told The Times that his “dealings with Mr. Epstein were entirely related to their business relationship” and that “he regrets their association.”

 

Early last year, the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel wrote an essay for the Financial Times arguing that Mr. Trump’s re-election meant that closely guarded government secrets — including about Mr. Epstein’s death — would finally come to light. In the months since, the scrutiny around Mr. Epstein instead revealed that an investment firm co-founded by Mr. Thiel accepted $40 million from Mr. Epstein and that Mr. Epstein and Mr. Thiel corresponded for at least five years before Mr. Epstein’s death.

 

“Visit me Caribbean,” Mr. Epstein urged the tech billionaire in 2018. Jeremiah Hall, a spokesman for Mr. Thiel, declined to comment on the relationship but said that Mr. Thiel “never went to Epstein’s island.”

 

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Testimony and documents released over the years have shown that Mr. Epstein’s cultivation of powerful people was integral to his abuse of women. He displayed photos with famous friends in his Manhattan townhouse, where girls and young women might see them. He often had them listen to his phone conversations. He bragged to them about who he knew — and about what might happen to his victims if they turned against him.

 

Mr. Epstein sometimes brought his victims to social events where they met his elite acquaintances, and the documents released on Friday provided more examples. In testimony to investigators in 2007, an unnamed victim of Mr. Epstein said she was coerced to visit Little St. James, Mr. Epstein’s private island, and that Mr. Epstein had sexually abused her there. She said she once encountered Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and his then-fiancée, Anne Wojcicki, who had come for a visit. They did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Mr. Epstein also appeared to serve as a connector between wealthy men and young women. His status as a sex offender apparently raised few concerns.

 

In the early 2010s, he became acquainted with Steve Tisch, the co-owner of the New York Giants football team, who Mr. Epstein in one 2013 exchange called a “new but obviously shared interest friend.” Mr. Tisch met a young woman through one of Mr. Epstein’s assistants and then asked another woman whether she was “pro or civilian?” In another email that year, Mr. Epstein invited Mr. Tisch to his mansion in the late evening. “Can I expect ‘trouble’?” Mr. Tisch wrote. Mr. Epstein said he could invite an unnamed Russian woman to join them “if you like.”

 

In a statement, Mr. Tisch said that he had a “brief association” with Mr. Epstein in which they exchanged emails about “adult women” and other topics. “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with,” Mr. Tisch said.

 

Mr. Epstein sometimes kept tabs on women that powerful friends were dating or having affairs with. He had particular interest in Leon Black, the private equity billionaire who was Mr. Epstein’s main financial benefactor in the 2010s. In emails that sometimes referred to Mr. Black as “Mr. Big,” Mr. Epstein sought to gather information about one of Mr. Black’s former girlfriends and discussed putting her under surveillance. (Mr. Black wasn’t on the emails, but his lawyer was on some of them.)

 

After Mr. Epstein’s death, Mr. Black told investors that their relationship was strictly professional and that he provided tax and estate planning advice. “I was completely unaware of, and am deeply troubled by,” Mr. Epstein’s misconduct, he said.

 

But Mr. Black made payments to women in Mr. Epstein’s orbit. The documents released on Friday included a list of payments from Mr. Black to a former model connected to Mr. Epstein. The payments, labeled “gifts,” totaled more than $600,000.

 

A spokesman for Mr. Black declined to comment.

 

Ryan Mac, Mike Baker Steve Eder, Rob Copeland, Debra Kamin, Matthew Goldstein, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Carol Rosenberg contributed reporting.

 

Nicholas Confessore is New York-based political and investigative reporter for The Times and a staff writer at the Times Magazine, covering power and influence in Washington, tech, media and beyond. He can be reached at nicholas.confessore@nytimes.com.