Disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a gamer who liked to share 4chan links and once chatted with Elon Musk about coming to a “wild” party on his notorious island. That and more were revealed Friday with the latest Epstein document dump.
According to the Department of Justice, the latest publication includes 3 million pages responsive to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump last November. Overall, 3.5 million pages have been released in compliance with the legislation. More than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are included in the Friday release.
That’s a lot of information. Here, some of the notable revelations reported on so far are highlighted. They includes new information about Epstein’s relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Mountbatten, Musk, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and U.S. government officials. They also include information about Epstein’s personal habits, including getting kicked off a gaming platform and his connection with the infamous 4chan message board.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Epstein is already widely known. It was the reason why he was stripped of his former “prince” title last year, per the BBC.
The Guardian noted that Mountbatten-Windsor tried to claim in a “disastrous” interview in 2019 – the year Epstein died in his New York prison cell – that he distanced himself from Epstein after his 2008 conviction for abusing a 14-year-old girl. Per the outlet, the new files indicate that was not the case.
“Released emails appear to show that Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace after Epstein’s house arrest ended,” The Guardian said.
In a correspondence between Epstein and “The Duke” (Mountbatten-Windsor was the Duke of York at the time), they plan for a dinner at Buckingham Palace.
“The documents also suggest that, the previous month, Epstein had offered to arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a ‘clever, beautiful and trustworthy’ Russian woman, who was 26. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be ‘delighted’ to see the woman. He also asked Epstein if it was ‘good to be free’ from house arrest,” The Guardian’s report said.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson (they spilt in 1996) also apparently indicated that she and her daughters met Epstein in an August 2009 exchange, per the report.
“I have never been more touched by a friend [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls,” said Ferguson. The Guardian said Epstein was under house arrest when the email was sent and it added that Epstein reportedly gave Ferguson the equivalent of around $20,000 to pay off debts.
Elon Musk
World’s-richest-man-Musk, who has called for the release of a rumored Epstein “client list” and even hinted at information about ties between the president and Epstein being concealed during their feud last year, is also included in the latest dump. Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein but he said their relationship ended by 2003 and he has not been accused of wrongdoing.
“Elon Musk had more extensive – and more friendly – communications with the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein than previously publicly known, according to documents released on Friday by the Department of Justice,” said The Guardian. “Emails in the files appear to show the two cordially messaging each other on two separate occasions to make plans for Musk to visit Epstein’s island.”
“What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Musk asked in a November 2012 exchange. A later exchange indicated that Musk didn’t make it to the party.
The Guardian said a representative for Musk and his artificial intelligence company, xAI, did not immediately return a request for comment.
In a Saturday post on X, a social media platform that he owns, Musk said: “What matters is not release of some subset of the Epstein files, but rather the prosecution of those who committed heinous crimes with Epstein. When there is at least one arrest, some justice will have been done. If not, this is all performative. Nothing but a distraction.”
Richard Branson
The Independent reported an email exchange between Epstein and Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, from 2013 was included in the Friday DOJ publication.
“In the correspondence, Branson reminisced warmly about meeting Epstein, dispensed public relations advice and requested that the deceased sex offender bring his ‘harem’ to their next get-together,” the outlet said.
It also said that “a spokesperson for the Virgin Group downplayed the exchange.” That spokesperson told The Independent that Richard and his late wife Joan contact with Epstein on “only a few occasions more than 12 years ago,” limited to group and business settings.
“Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims,” the spokesperson added. A spokesperson for the Virgin Group also said Branson’s use of the word “harem” in the 2013 email exchange referred to three adult members of Epstein’s team. Shortly before his death, Epstein was charged with sex trafficking.
According to the Virgin Group spokesperson, “had the full facts about Epstein’s past been known, Branson would not have used this term – nor had contact with Epstein,” said The Independent.
The outlet also said that Branson offered public relations advice to Epstein, who kept a famed photo sof himself and Branson in his New York City townhouse.
“I think if Bill Gates was willing to say that you've been a brilliant advisor to him,” Branson wrote, it said. “That you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17 ½ year old woman and were punished for it, that you’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since and, yes, as a single man you seem to have a penchant for women. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Anyway something along those lines.”
U.S. government staffers
“I adore him. It’s like having another older brother!” said Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as associate White House counsel to former President Bill Clinton and counsel under former President Barack Obama of Epstein in a 2015 email. CBS News said Ruemmler made the comment after Epstein offered to buy her a first-class ticket to Europe.
Ruemmler is currently chief legal officer and general counsel at Goldman Sachs. She said in 2023 that she regretted ever knowing Epstein.
Documents released Friday also indicate that current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick planned a trip to Epstein's island in 2012, Axios reported.
“This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration's accomplishments,” a Commerce Department spokesperson told Axios. They also said that Lutnick has “never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Epstein’s online habits
The Spectator noted that the latest Epstein release revealed that Epstein was a “compulsive video gamer,” who “liked to cruise anonymous online forums for odd genres of pornography.”
It cited a December 2013 automated email to Epstein from Xbox Live that said he had been banned from the service. Here’s that email.
Epstein also visited the sprawling messages of 4chan, a message board site founded by the 15-year-old Christopher Poole in 2003.
“The forum was intended to be an English-language version of the Japanese forum 2channel, where Japanese comics (manga) and cartoon series (anime), in particular, were discussed,” explained research from Sal Hagen of the University of Amsterdam. “It quickly developed into a broader platform for all kinds of topics. 4chan was the birthplace of numerous internet memes, but also became controversial due to the distribution of illegal content and announcements of shooting incidents that took place in real life.”
Epstein sent his last known girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, an email in 2017 with a link to a 4chan thread featuring user-made pornographic videos of the animatronic characters from the horror video game Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Spectator said. Its subject line was “amazing animations.”
An email to a redacted recipient was included in the release with that subject line and a 4chan link.
“Discovering that Epstein looked at and shared porn based on the horror game Five Nights at Freddy’s is far from the worst piece of information to come out of the Epstein emails,” said Zack Zweizen, in a piece from Kotaku this week. “But it is a strange piece of information I didn’t know before, and now I do.”
In addition to being a 4chan visitor, Epstein met with Poole himself in October 2011, the new documents revealed, per The Spectator. An email exchange between Epstein and a Boris Nikolic included in the files does reference “moot,” the name Poole goes by online (styled as m00t). Epstein said he liked “mimot” a lot and that he “drove him home,” when asked how he liked “moot.”
“Little about the encounter or their subsequent meetings is known, but on the day of his first audience with Epstein Poole chose to relaunch the /pol/ – ‘Politically incorrect’ – board,” said The Spectator.
“This subforum was initially set up as a containment board to keep extremist posts separate from the other subforums,” said Hagen of /pol/ in 2024. “It is now the forum’s most active place.”
Hagen’s work argues that 4chan has has become a home for far-right posts and is “what holds this movement together.” His work also focused on how messages on the boards “systematically” portray certain groups as “enemies,” including Jewish people, immigrants and women.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ’s obligations under the Epstein Files Transparency Act were completed with the Friday dump of documents, Axios reported. Members of Congress can request to view parts redacted from the public release.