Summary

  • An email by "A" from "Balmoral" asked Jeffrey Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell for "inappropriate friends", new documents released by the US Department of Justice show

  • The sender asks: "Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?" and the sign-off reads: "See ya A xxx"

  • It was sent from an address using the alias "The Invisible Man" – a pen name that was also used alongside a separate email address listed in Epstein's phone book as "Duke of York"

  • "The Invisible Man" also discussed "girls" on a Peru trip in emails with Ghislaine Maxwell

  • Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing - he lost use of his Duke of York title following scrutiny over his links with Epstein

  • Elsewhere, Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein's private jet on eight flights between 1993 and 1996

  • Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and his alleged presence on the flights does not indicate wrongdoing

  • Some files "contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump", the US DoJ says

Watch: The BBC reports on the latest Epstein file release

Live Reporting

Edited by Brandon Livesay and Jack Burgess

  1. BBC Verify

    Trump listed as a passenger on eight flights on Epstein’s private jet, according to email
    Breaking

    By Anthony Reuben

    One of the Epstein documents is an email saying that “Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware).”

    The email was sent on 7 January 2020 and is part of an email chain which includes the subject heading: "RE: Epstein flight records."

    The sender and recipient are redacted, but at the bottom of the email is assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York - with the name redacted.

    The email states: “He is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric.”

    “On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old” - with the person’s name redacted.

    It goes on: “On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.”

    In 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes including conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and sex trafficking of a minor.

    Trump was a friend of Epstein's for years, but the president has said they fell out in about 2004 - years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and his presence on the flights does not indicate wrongdoing.

    We have contacted the White House for a response to this particular file.

    Extracts from the 2020 email, released by the US Department of Justice. Text: On Jan 7, 2020, at 7:56 PM, > wrote: For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case. In particular, he is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric. On one

    Extracts from the 2020 email, released by the US Department of Justice

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  2. Why have the files been released with heavy redactions?

    An entire sheet of redacted pages in connection with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is shown on a computer screenDepartment of Justice

    The files released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) relating to Jeffrey Epstein contain a number of redactions - so what's been withheld, and why?

    The DoJ says it was extremely cautious not to identify victims, so women's faces were blacked out on photos that were made public.

    "Victim privacy interests counsel in favour of redacting the faces of women in photographs with Epstein even where not all the women are known to be victims because it is not practicable for the department to identify every person in a photo,” US attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton has written in a letter to the judges overseeing the Epstein and Maxwell cases.

    He adds that "this approach to photographs could be viewed by some as an over-redaction" - but continues that "the department believes it should, in the compressed time frame, err on the side of redacting to protect victims.”

    Other redactions are believed to have been made as they might jeopardise an active criminal investigation, or contain images of abuse.

  3. Who was pictured in the files released last week?

    Mick Jagger poses in a pink shirt and dark suit next to a woman whose face has been redacted. Bill Clinton stands on the right-hand-side of her, wearing a light blue shirt and a dark suitUS Department of Justice

    Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and former US president Bill Clinton were pictured together in the files released over the weekend

    Several notable figures have been pictured in the files that released prior to today.

    The US justice department has not provided any context for the images, making it difficult to piece together when or where they were taken.

    Being pictured in the files is not an indication of any wrongdoing. Many of those identified have denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

    Here’s a roundup of the famous faces we’ve seen:

    • Richard Branson, Virgin founder
    • Jean-Luc Brunel, French modelling agent
    • Bill Clinton, former US president
    • Walter Cronkite, US broadcaster
    • Mick Jagger, musician
    • Michael Jackson, musician
    • Diana Ross, musician
    • Kevin Spacey, actor
    • Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former British prince
    • Peter Mandelson, British politician
    • Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted Epstein associate
    Bill Clinton swims in a pool between two people. One of the people has had their face redacted while the other person has their head turned away from the cameraUS Department of Justice

    Clinton swims in a pool with two women

    Ghislaine Maxwell, who is wearing a blue checked shirt, smiles and places her hand on Jeffrey Epstein's leg. Epstein is wearing dark jeans and a grey jumper. The pair are pictured sat outside a wooden cabin and a mug can be seen next to EpsteinUS Department of Justice

    Jeffrey Epstein with his long-time associate, Ghislaine Maxwell

  4. Images of Epstein's passport among the latest batch of files

    Passport of Jeffrey EpsteinDepartment of Justice

    Within this latest release - which includes more than 11,000 files - are images of an old United States passport belonging to Jeffrey Epstein.

    It was issued in February 1985 and expired in 1995.

    Below his signature is black and white passport photo of Epstein dressed in a suit and tie.

    In Friday's batch of material we saw another one of Epstein's passports - issued in March 2009 - which you can see below for comparison.

    Jeffrey Epstein's passportDepartment of Justice
  5. BBC Verify

    How we're looking through the newly released files

    Our teams are looking through the material that's just dropped.

    When it comes to images, the first thing we do is check if they’ve previously appeared online via a reverse image search.

    If there are people featured in the images who we don't recognise, we'll use publicly available facial recognition tools, but they aren't always reliable so we might need further corroboration.

    We're also combing through the text documents and any video - we'll bring you details as soon as we can.

  6. Analysis

    More material arrives - but will it satisfy the clamour for information?

    James FitzGerald
    North America reporter

    Donald Trump has repeatedly said the ongoing conversation around Epstein is distracting from his work as US president. It's a point he reiterated to reporters yesterday at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

    But the pressure on his administration to release all the files that it has on Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, is not going away.

    The information released by the DoJ so far has been criticised by campaigners in Washington and beyond over the amount of material that was withheld or redacted. Survivors of Epstein's abuse said only a "fraction" of what is in the possession of the US justice department was made public.

    Compounding the potential political headache for Trump was the fact that a member of his own Republican Party, Thomas Massie, joined an opposition Democrat, Ro Khanna, in threatening legal action against Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, over what they saw as an incomplete release on Friday.

    The justice department, led by Bondi, insists it is complying with its legal obligations to both publish the information that it holds about Epstein while also protecting his victims. As Friday came and went, it promised that more files would be made public. Some of those additional files have now landed.

  7. Trump: Files damaging people who ‘innocently met’ Epstein

    U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference, as he makes an announcement about the Navy's "Golden Fleet" at Mar-a-lagoReuters

    On Monday, Donald Trump made his first comments on the so-called Epstein files, following the publication of an initial tranche on Friday.

    He dismissed the intense speculation over what was - and wasn't included - as distracting from his party's achievements.

    While President Trump has scarcely been mentioned in the previous batches of released, former US president Bill Clinton has featured prominently in some of the photos shared.

    Asked for his reaction, Trump said: "I like Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him. There's photos of me too. Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).

    "You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they're highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.

    "But they're in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody."

    The US president has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. Previously, Trump said he was a friend of Epstein's for years, but said they fell out in about 2004 - years before Epstein was first arrested.

  8. Today's release follows publication of several thousand files over weekend

    Freya Scott-Turner
    Live reporter

    Today's release follows the publication of several batches of files by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over the weekend.

    So, what was released then?

    • Several thousand files
    • These were published in seven batches of varying size across Friday and Saturday
    • Most of these batches were made up of sub-folders, which contained various types of files. Some were just single photographs, but there were other files that contained pages of documents
    • Many of them were heavily redacted, with some pages entirely blacked out
    • They make up some of the materials gathered by the DoJ over the course of two criminal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein
    • The DoJ had been required to release all of these files by Friday 19 December, after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on the day of the deadline that not all the files would be made available immediately

    These are not to be confused with...

    • Prior to the DoJ's publication of some files over the weekend, there were already tens of thousands of pages of evidence from various investigations into Epstein in the public domain
    • Just one day prior - on Thursday 18 December - Democrats on the House Oversight Committee had published 68 photographs subpoenaed from the Epstein estate. It was one of several rounds of evidence the committee had published

  9. More than 11,000 files published - the largest number to date
    Breaking

    Upwards of 11,000 files have been published by the DoJ in this latest drop.

    This includes nearly 400 videos, evidence spreadsheets, part clippings and audio files.

    The file is 10GB in size - the largest dump to date.

    To reiterate, trawling through these files can be quite the operation and it may take us time to strike on news lines.

    We'll share any interesting disclosures as we see them.

  10. More Epstein files released by US justice department
    Breaking

    Screenshot of US Department of Justice websiteUS DOJ

    The files appeared overnight on the US Department of Justice website

    The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has released another tranche of documents relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    This latest batch contains thousands of files including images and investigative documents.

    It follows the passing of a law in Congress mandating the so-called Epstein files be released in their entirety by Friday.

    Due to the volume, the DoJ said it would not be able to release all of the documents by the deadline and would instead publish the material on a rolling basis, redacting any information relating to survivors.

    This has angered Democrats - and some Republicans, including those in Trump's core MAGA support base - who argue the DoJ has violated its legal obligations.

    Today's release is the eighth since Friday. We'll walk you through what we've learned from the other seven in due course.

    It will take us some time - likely several hours - to go through all of the material released today.

    Our team in the newsroom, alongside colleagues from the investigations unit and BBC Verify, are picking through the files now.

    We'll share any significant disclosures on this page - stay with us.