• US commerce chief Lutnick visited private island in 2012
• Musk inquired about ‘parties planned’
• Fed nominee Warsh on guest list for holiday gathering
• Epstein ‘helped Bill Gates obtain drugs, facilitated illicit trysts’
• DoJ says papers carry ‘untrue and sensationalist claims’ about President Trump
WASHINGTON: A fresh cache of files released on Friday related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contains documents that refer to numerous high-profile figures.
President Donald Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and SpaceX founder Elon Musk are among some of the people named in the documents.
The disclosure offers a sprawling look into the elite circles Epstein inhabited before his death, implicating prominent figures in politics, business and entertainment.
The documents were published following a deadline mandated by a bipartisan congressional law requiring the public release of all files related to Epstein.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced release marked the conclusion of the Trump administration’s planned disclosures. The batch includes 3 million pages of documents, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, Blanche said at a press conference.
Among the names surfacing in the files is Kevin Warsh, whom Trump nominated on Friday to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Warsh’s name appeared in an email from a publicist to Epstein detailing a guest list of 43 people, including Martha Stewart, for a Christmas gathering.
Lutnick under scrutiny
According to the documents, Lutnick and Epstein scheduled a lunch meeting for Dec 23, 2012, on Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
The following day, Epstein’s assistant sent a note to Lutnick on behalf of the financier, which read in part, “Nice seeing you”.
Records also show that in November 2015, Epstein’s assistant forwarded an invitation from Lutnick for a fundraiser supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at Lutnick’s financial firm.
These exchanges stand in contrast to Lutnick’s comments during a podcast appearance last year.
Lutnick stated that he had been neighbours with Epstein around 2005 and was invited to tour the financier’s townhome. He claimed that after Epstein made a sexually suggestive comment about a massage table, he vowed to “never be in a room” with him again.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Department addressed the discrepancy in a statement.
“Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said.
Musk inquires about parties
The documents detail a separate exchange between Epstein and Musk on Christmas Day in 2012.
“The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for,” Musk wrote, declining an offer to visit Little Saint James.
Musk added that he had been “working to the edge of sanity” and asked Epstein if he had “any parties planned.”
Epstein replied that he understood Musk’s refusal, noting cryptically that “the ratio on my island” might make a female companion of Musk’s uncomfortable, though he did not elaborate.
Days later, Musk invited Epstein to join a group for drinks in St. Barts, though it is unclear if the meeting occurred.
Trump, Melania
The files include hundreds of documents mentioning President Trump, primarily consisting of compiled media reports. However, the release also details what appear to be internal emails from federal investigators dated August 2025.
These messages, which examined accusations involving the president, indicate that investigators found no substantiation for the claims and deemed several accusers “not credible”.
The Justice Department noted in a press release that the files contained “untrue and sensationalist claims” regarding the president.
One redacted message from 2012 queries, “What does JE think of going to Mar-a-Lago after xmas instead of his island?” This corresponds to a period years after Trump said he stopped socialising with Epstein.
Additionally, a 2002 email from Melania Trump to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, references a profile in New York Magazine.
“Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great on the picture,” the email reads. “Give me a call when you are back in NY.”
Bill Gates
In a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs.
Epstein wrote in the email that his relationship with Gates had ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”
The Gates Foundation, in a statement to The New York Times, denied the allegations of affairs.
The release has drawn immediate scrutiny from Democrats, who questioned whether the administration withheld relevant material. While the Justice Department identified 6 million pages of potentially responsive documents, only 3.5 million were released.
Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2026
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