The Justice Department on Jan. 30 released over 3 million files related to its investigations of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over the past two decades, with revelations that have rattled the highest level of governments, monarchies and the tech, business and sports worlds.

They have also caused trauma for a number of Epstein's victims who said they were assured their names wouldn't be included in the disclosures — and were anyway. In other instances, other investigative documents were so heavily redacted that it's impossible to know what's in them.

  

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., one of the co-authors of the law that led to the files' production, said Feb. 1 on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that the Justice Department has "released at best half the documents" it's supposed to under the law. "But even those shock the conscience of this country," Khanna said.

An NBC News review of the files continues, but here are some of the notable takeaways from the most recent — and by far the largest — release of the Epstein files to date.

DOJ temporarily removed a Trump reference

President Donald Trump, who'd known Epstein since the 1990s, had been mentioned and shown in previous file releases, including in a photo that the Justice Department initially took down and then reposted.

A similar incident happened in the latest release, in which the Justice Department removed and then republished a file that included a spreadsheet summary of complaints made to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center that included references to Epstein and Trump. There is no indication that the tips were verified, and the complaints were made over an unspecified period.

The Justice Department didn't respond to questions about why the file was removed and why it was compiled.

According to the complaint summaries, at least eight of the 16 complainants didn't include their contact information when they made the complaint. A note with the summary says, “Some of these individuals are reporting second-hand information.” Thirteen of the 16 complaints mention Trump personally.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and law enforcement hasn't accused him of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. He says he cut ties with Epstein sometime in the early 2000s because he thought he was "a creep."

Police chief said Trump told him ‘everyone’ knew what Epstein was doing

The newly available documents include a summary of a 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter, who said Trump had contacted him about the Epstein investigation when he led the department, though it’s not clear exactly when the call took place. Reiter was police chief from 2001-2009; Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008.

“Trump called the [Palm Beach Police Department] to tell him ‘thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’” the summary of Reiter’s interview said. “Trump told him people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting. Trump said Maxwell was Epstein’s operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her.’”

When reached for comment, the White House referred NBC News to the Justice Department, where a DOJ official said, “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.” Reiter declined to comment but told the Miami Herald that the call with Trump took place in 2006. The Palm Beach police investigation into Epstein began in 2005.

Lutnick and Epstein discussed a possible trip

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the New York Post in October that he thought Epstein, his former next-door neighbor, was "disgusting" and that he and his wife agreed that they wanted nothing to do with him after he made an inappropriate comment while he was giving them a tour of his mansion in 2005.

"[M]y wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy. That guy was there, I wasn’t going ’cause he is gross,” Lutnick said.

The newly released files show Lutnick and Epstein emailing in 2012 about a possible boat trip to Epstein's private island.

“Hi Jeff, We are landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St. Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point. Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?” Lutnick, then the chief executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, wrote in an email on Dec. 19. He said that he had another couple with him and his wife and that both couples had their four kids with them, ages 7 to 16.

Epstein invited them to a Sunday lunch. “See you then," Lutnick responded.

Asked for comment, the Commerce Department said in a statement, “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

Bannon asks Epstein if he's the 'devil' 

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon makes numerous appearances in the files, trading emails with him and interviewing him on video in 2019 for a documentary Bannon was filming called “The Monsters: Epstein’s Life Among the Global Elite.”

In the video, Bannon presses Epstein about whether his money is “dirty.” Epstein responds, “No ... because I earned it.”

Bannon questioned Epstein about morality and asked him, “Do you think you’re the devil himself?”

“No, but I do have a good mirror,” Epstein responded. Asked again, Epstein said: “No, the devil scares me.”

Bannon didn't respond to a request for comment.

Musk asked about visiting Epstein's island

Billionaire Elon Musk, former head of the Department of Government Efficiency who has been a longtime Epstein critic, told Vanity Fair in a 2019 interview that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”

Emails from 2012 and 2013 included in the most recent release show Musk asking Epstein about a potential visit to his island.

In a November 2012 email, Epstein wrote to Musk, “how many people will you be for the heli to the island.” Musk responds: “Probably just Talulah and me. What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”

In December 2013, Musk wrote, “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays. Is there a good time to visit?” Epstein wrote back, “any day 1st — 8th. play it by ear if you want. always space for you.”

NBC News hasn't verified whether Musk traveled to the island. He isn't accused of any wrongdoing.

Musk posted Feb. 1 on X, "Nobody has fought harder for full release of the Epstein files and prosecutions of those who abused children more than I did."

"I knew that I would be smeared relentlessly, despite never having attended his parties or been on his 'Lolita Express' plane or set foot on his creepy island or done anything wrong at all," the post said.

Musk, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman point fingers at each other

The release also showed more emails between Epstein and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has said he regrets having associated with Epstein.

In one 2015 email, Epstein invited Hoffman to his island or his New Mexico ranch to “play.” In an exchange in 2014, Hoffman wrote that he had sent gifts to Epstein’s home in New York, which included ice cream “for the girls” and “something that may strike your funny bone for the island.” It is not clear which girls Hoffman was referring to or what the other gift was; a spokesperson for Hoffman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a Feb. 3 post on X, Hoffman wrote that he “did not go to the ranch.” In a separate post, he said he “only knew Epstein because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret." Hoffman also acknowledged in another post that he had gone to his island “with Joi Ito, the Director of the MIT Media Lab, who had asked me to help MIT fundraise from Epstein.”

"We should focus on prosecuting those who committed crimes and finally getting justice for the victims," Hoffman concluded in the latter post.

Musk responded with a post of his own, saying, "While you’re at it, maybe you can help OJ 'find the real killer,'” a reference to O.J. Simpson.

Hoffman fired back with a screenshot of one of Musk's 2012 emails to Epstein about visiting his island, where he asked, "What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"

Authorities have not accused either Hoffman of Musk of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. Trump has publicly directed the Justice Department to investigate numerous Democrats who've been mentioned in the files, including Hoffman, a prominent donor to the party. He did not give such a directive about Musk, a major Republican donor and Trump ally.

Epstein claimed he was Bill Gates’ ‘right hand’

In a series of emails from 2013 that Epstein sent to himself, he claimed he had been Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ “right hand” and participated in things for him that were “ethically unsound.”

In one email with multiple typos referring to Gates, Epstein wrote, “In my role as his right hand I had been asked on mulitple occassion and in hindsight , wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate , to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal.”

He said those activities included “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilictating his illicit trysts, with married women,to being asked to provide adderal.”

A spokesperson for Gates denied the allegations in a statement, saying, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false.”

“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the statement said.

In an interview with Nine News Australia posted Feb. 4, Gates acknowledged that he had a “number of dinners” with Epstein beginning in 2011 centered on raising money for his foundation but said the allegations in the email were “false.”

“It just reminds me, every minute I spent with him I regret, and I apologize that I did that,” he said.

Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, told NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast on Feb. 3 that she felt “unbelievable sadness” seeing his name mentioned in new batch of files.

“Whatever questions remain there ... for those people, and for even my ex-husband, they need to answer to those things, not me,” she said. “And I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there.”

Melinda and Bill Gates were married for 27 years and divorced in 2021.

A new photo of the former Prince Andrew

Previously released records appeared to include email exchangesbetween Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who lost his British titles of prince and Duke of York because of his ties to Epstein.

One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, claimed that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to the prince in the early 2000s when she was 17. Andrew has denied having had sex with Giuffre and any wrongdoing connected to Epstein, and he has never been charged. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

The new release includes an image that appears to show the former prince kneeling on all fours over someone who is lying on the ground. Both are clothed, and the other person's face is blacked out. It is unclear where or when the photograph was taken.

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said the palace wouldn't provide any additional comment. In October, the palace said Mountbatten-Windsor “continues to deny the allegations against him.”

British police, meanwhile, are "assessing the information" in an email Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have sent Epstein in 2010, when he was the U.K.'s trade envoy.

The email chain, seen by NBC News, appears to show the former prince forwarding Epstein “visit reports for Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shenzhen” in relation to a trip he'd made to Southeast Asia.

NBC News has not confirmed what was in the attachments that appear to have been sent with the email.

Trade envoys are typically barred from sharing sensitive or commercial documents under confidentiality rules.

Thames Valley Police said in a statement to The Associated Press, “We can confirm receipt of this report and are assessing the information in line with our established procedures.”

Thames Valley Police did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. NBC News has reached out to Mountbatten-Windsor's office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Maxwell email appears to contradict her info to DOJ

The latest release includes a 2015 email from Maxwell to Epstein marked “draft statement” that appears to contradict answers she gave while sitting for an unusual interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July of last year.

Blanche told her at the beginning of the interview that any of the information she provided could not be used against her by prosecutors, but “if you say something today that’s not true, that’s a lie, we can bring a prosecution against you for what’s called false statements,” according to a transcript of that meeting.

Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year prison sentence for her 2021 conviction on federal charges that she recruited and groomed multiple teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, told Blanche she never witnessed any inappropriate conduct — and called a well-known 2001 picture of her, then-Prince Andrew and Giuffre “literally a fake photo.”

Blanche asked Maxwell if she was disputing that Giuffre had met the prince. Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, asked her, “Do you know whether they’ve met each other?” Maxwell responded, “I do not know that they met.”

The “draft statement” email paints a very different picture. Giuffre’s name is redacted in the document, but the context indicates Maxwell is referring to Giuffre, who filed a defamation suit against her in 2015. Maxwell attacks Giuffre’s credibility in the email, while adding, “In 2001 I was in London when [redacted] met a number of friends of mine including Prince Andrew. A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show it to friends and family. I never asked [redacted] to give him a massage.”

Mountbatten-Windsor had also questioned the picture’s authenticity in a 2019 televised interview with the BBC.

Markus and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Feb. 5 on the apparent discrepancy between Maxwell’s 2015 email and her statements to Blanche.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/epstein-files-key-takeaways-trump-musk-rcna256713

 

=====================

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOWc_FypSWc

UNMISSABLE: Names Of 6 'HIDDEN' Global Figures Finally Released In Unredacted Epstein Files | WATCH

 

====================

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq0HRHgfqqU