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FBI found no evidence Jeffrey Epstein ran sex-trafficking ring for powerful figures: Report

Mint 01:30 AM UTC Mon February 09, 2026 World
FBI found no evidence Jeffrey Epstein ran sex-trafficking ring for powerful figures: Report

The FBI, after investigating Jeffrey Epstein's emails and bank records over years, did not come upon any evidence that would indicate he led a sex-trafficking ring, which he used to serve his many powerful friends, a report by the Associated Press has revealed.

There is ample proof that Epstein did sexually abuse underage girls himself, the AP review of internal Justice Department records shows.

In one of the 2025 memos, a prosecutor had written that videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes.

A probe into his financial records, which included his payments to notable figures in academia, finance, and global diplomacy, did not reveal any criminal activity, another 2019 memo revealed.

There has only been one victim who claimed that Epstein “lent her” to his rich friends. However, investigators have not been able to confirm this claim and there has been no other victim who has made a similar claim, as per the records seen by AP.

The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Police later identified at least 35 girls with similar stories: The sexual predator was paying high school age students $200 or $300 to give him sexualized massages.

After the FBI joined the investigation, federal prosecutors drafted indictments to charge the millionaire and some of his assistants who had arranged the girls’ visits as well as payments. But instead, then-Miami US attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal letting Epstein plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. He was initially sentenced to 18 months in jail, and was free by mid-2009.

In 2018,Miami Herald published a series of stories about the plea deal, prompting New York's federal prosecutors to take a renewed look at the accusations.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019. One month later, he killed himself in his jail cell.

A year later, Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged prosecutors who said that she had recruited a number of his victims and sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term.

US 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.” A few months later, she claimed the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn.”

However, FBI agents wrote superiors saying the client list didn't exist, AP reported.

On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through subordinates to ask "whether our investigation to date indicates the ‘client list,’ often referred to in the media, does or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his query.

A day later, an FBI official replied that the case agent had confirmed no client list existed.

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