The Justice Department released what it says is its final trove of files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein , including emails between Epstein and Elon Musk and Bill Gates . Here are some takeaways on what we know so far.
A lot more files this time
The new trove contained more than three million pages, Justice Department officials said, and The Wall Street Journal was able to identify more than 800,000 files in the new dump, compared with fewer than 100,000 in December .
It wasn’t immediately clear Friday evening whether the department had finished uploading all the files from the release, which officials have said would be the last.
Island plans
The trove released Friday contained numerous references to Musk. While many were news clips and other media, some were private correspondence between Musk and Epstein.
One email exchange, which runs from mid-December 2013 to early 2014, shows Epstein and an account named “Elon Musk” coordinating a possible holiday visit to Epstein’s compound in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
There are also references to other planned get-togethers between 2012 and 2014, including island visits, meals and meetings at SpaceX—though it couldn’t be learned whether they actually happened.
In another email exchange from earlier in 2013, shortly after the successful launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Epstein congratulates Musk and later asks if he has tried the wakefulness medication Nuvigil.
Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but he has said in the past that he never paid a visit to Epstein’s island.
“Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” Musk wrote in September on X . The post was in response to an article noting that Musk had been mentioned in an earlier tranche of files. In a 2019 comment to Vanity Fair, Musk said that he had once briefly visited Epstein’s home but had declined repeated invitations to Epstein’s island.
Praise for a profile
In one 2002 email, Melania Trump wrote to “G” to congratulate her on a New York magazine profile of Epstein. Though the recipient’s email address is redacted, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was photographed in the article.
Melania Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Emails about Bill Gates
In 2013 emails that Epstein sent to himself, Epstein referenced a “marital dispute” between Bill and Melinda Gates . It couldn’t be learned whether the emails were ever sent to anyone, or whether Epstein was writing them for himself or for someone else.
A spokeswoman for Melinda French Gates didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokeswoman for Bill Gates called the claims in the emails “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.”
Gifts for Ruemmler
Flowers, wine, an Hermès bag, $10,000 in Bergdorf Goodman gift cards, spa time, an Apple Watch, “1 million amex points”—that’s a list of some of the gifts Epstein sent Kathryn Ruemmler , the new documents show.
Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under Barack Obama and now general counsel of Goldman Sachs , was at the time a lawyer at Latham & Watkins. Previous Epstein files releases showed they corresponded frequently.
She has said her relationship with Epstein was professional and that she regularly interacted with criminals as part of her job. “I regret ever knowing him, and I have enormous sympathy for the victims of Epstein’s crimes,” she said in a recent statement to the Journal.
“It’s well known that Epstein often offered unsolicited favors and gifts to his many business contacts,” a Goldman spokesman emailed Friday.
Lutnick’s planned island visit
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick corresponded with Epstein and planned to visit his island in 2012, the released documents show, indicating that the former Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive and longtime Trump associate kept in touch with Epstein for longer than he previously said. It couldn’t be determined whether the visit actually took place.
Lutnick previously said that in 2005 he and his wife were invited to Epstein’s house , which was next door to theirs, for coffee. He said that he didn’t associate with Epstein after that visit.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Department said Lutnick had limited interactions with Epstein and has never been accused of wrongdoing.
Steve Tisch
Steve Tisch , the co-owner of the New York Giants, exchanged emails with Epstein in 2013, including messages in which they discuss meeting with women. In a statement, Tisch said, “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments. I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com and Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky at jjw@wsj.com
