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   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and   
   emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims   
   and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential   
   people.   
      
   But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually   
   abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected   
   financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated   
   Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.   
      
   Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and   
   the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate   
   anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.   
      
   An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he   
   made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and   
   global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another   
   internal memo in 2019.   
      
   While one Epstein victim made highly public claims that he “lent her” to   
   his rich friends, agents couldn’t confirm that and found no other   
   victims telling a similar story, the records said.   
      
   Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four   
   or five” Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused   
   them. But, the agents said, there “was not enough evidence to federally   
   charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law   
   enforcement.”   
      
   The AP and other media organizations are still reviewing millions of   
   pages of documents, many of them previously confidential, that the   
   Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and   
   it is possible those records contain evidence overlooked by   
   investigators.   
      
   But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and   
   prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture to date of the   
   investigation — and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it   
   without additional charges.   
      
   Dozens of victims come forward   
   The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a   
   14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at the millionaire’s   
   home in Palm Beach, Florida.   
      
   Police would identify at least 35 girls with similar stories: Epstein   
   was paying high school age students $200 or $300 to give him sexualized   
   massages.   
      
   After the FBI joined the probe, federal prosecutors drafted indictments   
   to charge Epstein and some personal assistants who had arranged the   
   girls’ visits and payments. But instead, then-Miami U.S. attorney   
   Alexander Acosta struck a deal letting Epstein plead guilty to state   
   charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Sentenced to   
   18 months in jail, Epstein was free by mid-2009.   
      
   In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted   
   New York federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the accusations.   
      
   Epstein was arrested in July 2019. One month later, he killed himself in   
   his jail cell.   
      
   A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein’s longtime confidant,   
   Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she’d recruited several of his victims and   
   sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving   
   a 20-year prison term.   
      
   Prosecutors fail to find evidence backing most sensational claims   
   Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the   
   department’s latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI   
   agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential   
   coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims,   
   called in to tip lines, were examined.   
      
   Some allegations couldn’t be verified, investigators wrote.   
      
   In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewed Virginia Roberts   
   Giuffre, who in lawsuits and news interviews had accused Epstein of   
   arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including   
   Britain’s former Prince Andrew.   
      
   Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused   
   by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.   
      
   Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also “lent out”   
   to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience,   
      
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