Under intense scrutiny from Congress, Attorney General Pam Bondi unexpectedly told lawmakers that the Justice Department still has pending investigations related to its larger probe of Jeffrey Epstein. 

The latest release of documents related to the Justice Department’s decades-long investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender have revealed the most to date about Epstein as well as the investigations into his activities. They paint a complicated picture that sometimes doesn’t align with many of the publicly common theories about the case. 

Here are the biggest developments from the most recent batch of documents released by the Justice Department under the law passed by Congress last year: 

FBI concluded Epstein did not run a trafficking ring for powerful people

Contrary to the complex conspiracy theories that swirl around Epstein’s life, arrest, and suicide, the FBI concluded after years of investigation and the seizure of evidence — which included bank records, emails and proof he abused underage girls — from Epstein’s properties, there was still scant evidence that he ran a sex-trafficking ring for the rich and powerful. 

In photos and videos found at Epstein's homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands, some included nude images of females, some of whom appeared to be minors. Images of commercial child sex abuse material that Epstein obtained online were also found, Just the News previously reported. 

However, last year, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote an email to FBI officials summarizing the probe and said there were no photos or videos showing victims being sexually abused. Additionally, no evidence implicated anyone other than Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, she said.

Had the evidence existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”

The rich and powerful nevertheless rubbed elbows with Epstein

Despite finding little evidence he ran a sex-trafficking ring, investigators collected reams of evidence on Epstein’s contacts with the richest and powerful men in America and around the world. Two of the most influential men are Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates

• Howard Lutnick

The records landed one Trump administration official, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in hot water after it proved he had previously misled the public on when he said he had cut ties with Epstein. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Lutnick was the president and CEO of financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald. His reported net worth, according to Forbes magazine, is reported to be $2.7 billion.

Emails showed Lutnick was invited to Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island, Little Saint James, in 2012, seven years after he claimed he cut ties with the financier in 2005 after the state of Florida charged him with sex crimes. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and to soliciting a prostitute.

When pressed by senators earlier this week, Lutnick walked back his previous claim and confirmed he did visit the island that year. “I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said. He said that during his 2012 visit to the island, during which he brought his family along, that he didn’t witness any of the sex crimes that are alleged to have happened on the private island. 

He added: “I don’t recall why we did it."

• Bill Gates

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates also found himself thrust back into the spotlight because of an Epstein draft email that contained salacious claims about the billionaire. Gates is listed by Bloomberg News as the 17th richest man in the world, worth an estimated $106 billion.

In one message drafted by Epstein, he accused Gates of asking him to delete emails about a sexually transmitted disease and requested antibiotics that he could “surreptitiously” give to his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. Epstein also alleged in another email that he sent to himself in 2013 that Gates had “sex with Russian girls” and “illicit trysts” with married women.

Gates denied the contents of the draft emails, but again apologized for associating with Epstein in the past. 

"Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself," Gates said in the interview. "That email was never sent. The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?"

“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that,” Gates told Australia’s 9News in an interview last week.

A diverse cast of characters on the world stage

Also mentioned in the files is a diverse cast of characters that frequently associate with those in the upper echelons of politics and business. Former President Bill Clinton, Trump ally and TV host Steve Bannon, and British politician Lord Peter Mandelson have also been the focus of the recently released documents. 

The revelations that Epstein made $75,000 worth of payments to Lord Mandelson through his connected accounts have rocked the British political establishment. Mandelson, who served in the Labour Party government from 2008 to 2010, was described by The New York Times as a “veteran political operative whose ruthless tactics and spin led people to dub him the ‘Prince of Darkness’.” 

The scandal has engulfed the current Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who appointed Mandelson as His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the United States of America last year. 

Former Prince Andrew was stripped of his royal titles, including Duke of York, by King Charles III late last year, due to his long-standing friendship with Epstein and the resulting fallout, particularly Virginia Giuffre's allegations of sexual abuse. Giuffre accused then-Prince Andrew of sexual abuse when she was a teenager, leading to a civil lawsuit that Andrew settled in 2022.

Other lesser-known billionaires in Epstein's circle

A handful of names were also revealed by Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna after they reviewed unredacted versions of the public files at the Justice Department. Both have been advocates for transparency regarding the Epstein files, which has brought them into conflict with the Trump administration. 

They identified Leslie Wexner, a billionaire retail mogul who managed popular brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret. Wexner’s association with Epstein, who helped manage his finances, was already publicly known. “Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect,” a legal representative of the businessman said. 

The pair also identified Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a Dubai-based businessman who runs DP World, a logistics and port company in the United Arab Emirates. The disclosed documents show that bin Sulayem emailed Epstein in 2015 about a girl he met “two years ago” that attended an American university in Dubai. In that communication, he said it was “the best sex I ever had, an amazing body.” 

Ex-police chief said Trump told him "thank goodness you're stopping" Epstein

One FBI memo released as part of the latest batch shows that the former Palm Beach, Florida, police chief, Michael Reiter, who led the state investigation into Epstein, said he received a phone call from Donald Trump shortly after charges against the financier were announced thanking him. 

“Thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this,” Trump said, according to the chief’s recollection in a 2019 interview with the FBI. The call from Trump came in July 2006 as the investigation into Epstein was being made public. 

Trump has repeatedly insisted that he and Epstein had a falling out in the early 2000s, shortly before the state charges were filed against him for sex crimes.  

“DONALD TRUMP told [Reiter] that he threw EPSTEIN out of his club,” the memo reads. “TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting. TRUMP said MAXWELL was EPSTEIN's operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her,’ the report continued.

“TRUMP told [Reiter] that he was around EPSTEIN once when teenagers were present and TRUMP ‘got the hell out of there.' TRUMP was one of the very first people to call when people found out that they were investigating EPSTEIN.”

Obama's White House Counsel received lavish gifts from Epstein

President Barack Obama’s White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was previously identified on Epstein’s calendar back in 2023. But, the newly released emails show that Epstein gifted her expensive luxury items and experiences despite downplaying her relationship with the disgraced financier. 

Recently released emails show that Epstein showered her with expensive gifts, including a $9,400 Hermes handbag, an Hermes-branded Apple Watch, and a spa treatment package at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Last month, CNN reported that Ruemmler, who stepped down Thursday from her position as the chief lawyer for Goldman Sachs, had advised Epstein on media relations. In response, she insisted she "did not represent him and was not compensated by him." 

In one email, apparently after receiving the expensive handbag, Ruemmler wrote to Epstein: “OH MY GOD!!!!! He is in so much trouble!!!! I am dying. It is so beautiful.”