So If There's A List, Who's On It?

I continue to be puzzled at the reasoning behind the idea that there is an Epstein "list". Let's start with the first question, ehich might actually be more productive: we know that the FBI kept files on figures like Dr King. His FBI file itself was something like 17,000 pages:

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began monitoring Martin Luther King, Jr., in December 1955, during his involvement with the Montgomery bus boycott, and engaged in covert operations against him throughout the 1960s. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was personally hostile toward King, believing that the civil rights leader was influenced by Communists. . . . Under the FBI’s domestic counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) King was subjected to various kinds of FBI surveillance that produced alleged evidence of extramarital affairs, though no evidence of Communist influence.

As far as I can tell, although it's entirely credible that the FBI has maintained an equivalent file on Jeffrey Epstein, which it seems to me might be highly, highly informative itself, that isn't what anybody's asking for. They keep using the word list. For instance,

The US Department of Justice and FBI have concluded that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not have a so-called client list that could implicate high-profile associates, and that he did take his own life - contradicting long-held conspiracy theories about the infamous case.

When they use the word "file" or "files", they are using it as a synonym for "client list", as the story at the link does:

While campaigning last year, President Donald Trump promised to release files relating to the disgraced financier.

They aren't referring to any FBI-generated investigative file, but to what they assume is a client list generated by Epstein himself and presumably uncovered during searches of his residences following his death. But why should we imagine Epstein had ever created any such thing? Did he have a program on his desktop that kept track of blackmail payments from his marks, or what?

But isn't it far more likely that the FBI itself had maintained its own investigative file on Jeffrey Epstein equivalent to those we know it maintained on Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Bertolt Brecht, James Cagney, Charles Chaplin, Jules Dassin, Walt Disney, Howard Fast, Lillian Hellman, Danny Kaye, Gene Kelley, Peter Lorre, Groucho Marx, Vincent Prince, Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, Gloria Swanson, and others?

Wouldn't that be far more informative and far more easily released? But so far, this doesn't seem to be what anyone wants to see, or if they do, they aren't making it clear that this is what they're talking about. Insead, what we're seeing is the product of a surmise that Epstein had some sort of rolodex or e-mail contact list that included a bunch of usual suspects, for instance:

They include not only Trump, but Bill Clinton, who allegedly took a trip to Thailand with Epstein, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University Larry Summers, cognitive psychologist and author Stephen Pinker, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire and Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner, the former Barclays banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, the magician David Copperfield, actor Kevin Spacey, former CIA director Bill Burns, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell and disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who reveled in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia.

But there's nothing new here. Let's go through the names. Trump? At this point if there was ever evidence that Trump was on the Lolita Express or on the island, the press would have been on it like white on rice in 2015. There is no such evidence, and Trump appears to be correct in saying, at the time of Epstein's death in 2019, that he hadn't spoken with Epstein for 15 years.

Bill Clinton? Where's the secret? He was on the Lolita Express in between his own wet T-shirt parties and visits from the Energizer Bunny in his years out of office. Prince Andrew? Where's the secret? It's been in the tabloids for over a decade. Nothing to cover up, as far as I can see.

Bill Gates? All we have is a photo at a dinner in Epstein's New York mansion, everyone fully clothed, at some sort of business meeting. Gates had his own independent scandals, he didn't need Epstein for anything.

Glenn Dubin? Dubin's wife, Eva Andersson-Dubin, dated Epstein for years before she and Dubin married in 1994.

Epstein introduced Dubin to Jes Staley, then a senior executive at JPMorganChase & Co. and now the CEO of Barclays, the big British bank. After JPMorganChase bought control of Highbridge Capital, Dubin’s hedge fund, in stages, starting in 2004, Epstein reportedly received a $15 million fee.

All this really does is give a possible source for Epstein's wealth outside a putative blackmail op on behalf of Mossad -- just a routine overly cozy relationship among big money players. Occam's razor -- the simplest explanation is the best -- weighs in on this version.

As long as we're on Jes Staley, let's take him out of order. After the Epstein scandal broke, he was forced out of his position as CEO of Barclay's based on his relationship with Epstein, but again, where's the coverup? What don't we already know? Where's the secret?

In June 2025, Jes Staley lost his bid to overturn a ban from holding senior [UK corporate] leadership.

Bill Richrdson? He passed away in 2023; as i've been saying, actuarial science says many of the names on an "Epstein list" are going to be dead, like Epstein himself. Independent of Epstein, throughout his political career as Governor of New Mexico and in cabinet-level federal positions, he was damaged by repeated allegations of corruption. Ultimately, he withdrew his 2009 nomnation as Obama's Secretary of Commerce for those reasons. Virginia Giuffre alleged in 2019 that she had been trafficked to Richardson by Epstein, but Richardson's reputation had already been destroyed without that. Where's the secret?

Larry Summers? We know one of Epstein's grifts was connected with donations to Harvard, and Summers was a professor there and ultimately its president.

An article in The Harvard Crimson in 2003, during Summers's tenure as president, detailed a reportedly "special connection" between Summers and Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein pledged to donate at least $25 million to Harvard during Summers's tenure to endow Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, and Epstein was given an office at Harvard for his personal use. . . . Summers's ties to Epstein reportedly began "a number of years...before Summers became Harvard's president and even before he was the Secretary of the Treasury." Flight records introduced as evidence in the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell show that Summers flew on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane on at least four occasions, including once in 1998 when Summers was United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and at least three times while Harvard president.

If anything, this provides more alternate sources for Epstein's wealth besides Mossad, and whatever Epstein was cooking up with Summers seems mostly to have involved Harvard. In addition, merely flying on the Lolita Express doesn't necessarily imply sexual activity, although nobody with any sense should have been on that plane in anything but a hazmat suit. Any secrets at this stage are probably Harvard's problem.

Stephen [sic] Pinker? For starters, the writer couldn't spell the guy's name. Pinker worked with Alan Dershowitz, who is known for representing unpopular defendants, in Epstein's 2008 guilty pleas. Other than that, he never received money from Epstein, met with him three times over a dozen years, couldn't stand Epstein, and tried to avoid him.

Alan Dershowitz? As I've discussed elsewhere here, Dershowitz flew on the Lolita Express but claims to have been unaware of the trafficking allegations against Epstein at the time and claims not to have engaged in sexual activity on the plane or the island. Virginia Giuffre withdrew her allegations against Dershowitz in 2022. Afer great effort, he appears to have restored his full reputation.

Leslie Wexner?

Wexner retained Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager from 1987 to 2007 and was initially the "main client" of Epstein's money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. Epstein ran his business out of a house Wexner owned and sometimes lived in while Advisor of Victoria's Secret.

If anything, as far as anyone can determine, Wexner is one of Epstein's principal victims, not a co-conspirator. He may have been an unwitting enabler, but he's also a credible source for Epstein's wealth besides Mossad.

In August 2019, following Epstein's second incarceration and prior to his death, Wexner addressed the Wexner Foundation, releasing a written statement that his former financial advisor, Jeffrey Epstein, had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him and from his family.

Elsewhere, Virinia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Wexner in 2015 and settled in 2017. The judge ordered the documents in the suit released in 2024:

Neither Wexner nor any of the figures whose names are mentioned in the files released this week have been charged with any crime. Their inclusion on the list only constitutes a possible association as a witness, victim or plaintiff or having business or social contact with Epstein and/or Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in federal prison for her conviction.

Ehud Barak:

Barak visited Epstein about 30 times between 2013 and 2017 at his estates in Florida and New York, including a time in 2014 when the former Israeli premier flew with Epstein on his private aircraft from Palm Beach to Tampa, after which Epstein went on to New York. Barak said his wife and an Israeli security guard were also on that flight. He said he flew with Epstein on his private plans on one other occasion, also with his wife and guards.

. . . Barak, who entered a business deal with Epstein in 2015 to fund an Israeli startup, years after the American financier served 18 months for solicitation, has called long-rumored allegations of sex trafficking by Epstein “abhorrent” and said he had officially cut off all business ties with him.

Barak's involvement with Epstein was the subject of an extensive investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which included reviews of Epstein's personal calendar. Barak maintains that his visits with Epstein were business-related, often included his wife, and never involved sexual activity, and the WSJ doesn't appear to have found contrary information. As with Wexner, it appears that Barak was a naive victim.

I'm going to pass over David Copperfield and Kevin Spacey.

William Burns: According to the Wall Street Journal, quoted at Wikipedia,

"Epstein's Private Calendar Reveals Prominent Names, Including CIA Chief, Goldman's Top Lawyer". Wall Street Journal. William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan. [...] Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state. A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport."

There's no indication these meetings had any result. Even after his guilty pleas, Epstein appears to have had enough prestige to meet with high-level figures and propose deals of one sort or another that never materializd.

Mortimer Zuckerman was subpoenaed in a US Virgin Islands suit against JPMorgan alleging that Morgan was aware of the nature of Epstein's traffficking operations on his island. No other specific allegation is involved.

George Mitchell: Virginia Giuffre alleged in a 2015 lawsuit against Epstein and Gislaine Maxwell that they had trafficked her to George Mitchell.

Mitchell denied ever having met or spoken with Giuffre, and stated that he became aware of Epstein's criminal prosecution only through the media.

On November 30, 2021, Epstein's former pilot Larry Visoski named Mitchell as one of the people he recalled flying on one of Epstein's private planes, but claimed to have never seen sexual activity nor indication that such activity had taken place.

Giuffre has since retracted a similar allegation against Alan Dershowitz, and details that surfaced of her life before her passing in Australia suggest she may not have had much credibility as a witness.

Harvey Weinstein is mentioned in a single phone message from Epstein's office records:

“She had on the phone Mr. Harvey Weinstein,” reads one message about a missed call.

Weinstein, then a force in Hollywood, was once part of a media investment group that included Epstein.

“At the time, Epstein was seen as a wealthy power broker with access to many people of various industries and for many reasons,” said Weinstein’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer. “It wasn’t uncommon for people of that caliber to talk, as we see from the lists that have been coming out. There was and remains nothing more to that.”

And that's the last of the names that a writer thinks might appear on an Epstein "client list". It's worth noting that over just a few hours' work in tracking these names down, it's emerged that extensive documentation of Epstein's client activities has already emerged in legal documents and newspaper investigations. In other cases, all we see is appointments or phone messages that don't seem to suggest anything nefarious -- in most cases, it was while Epstein was seen, rightly or wrongly, as a power broker with a wide range of contacts, and influential people, often naively, interacted with him on that basis.

But my overwhelming impression is that there's plenty out there for researchers to draw a credible picture of Epstein's activities without the need to find a new supposed "client list". The problem is that it doesn't confirm that he was ever running a blackmail operation on behalf of Mossad. It strongly suggests he was a con artist who was able to steal "vast sums" from Les Wexner while running a smaller operation to skim off donations to Harvard and MIT, using prestigious connections at both institutions.

Many specific allegations of trafficking and abuse have come from a single person, Virginia Giuffre, who has retracted one of the biggest, against Alan Dershowitz, while indications are that she was in an unbalanced mental state later in her life. The impression I increasingly have is that any serious investigation into the existing public record on Epstein will indicate that he was not an Israeli agent, and that many who are suspected of being co-conspirators were naive dupes or just victims.