Has an impact far beyond his death in 2019: The sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted in 2008, here in a police photo from 2017.Image: keystone
What began as a transparency offensive ends in political crises, diplomatic tensions and death threats against victims. A classification of the most important developments in 7 points.
Feb 6, 2026, 6:03 p.mFeb 6, 2026, 6:03 p.m
Bojan Stula / ch media
It’s been a week since the US Department of Justice published a flood of new investigative files from the so-called Epstein files. The huge bundle contains emails, court documents, medical reports, photos and videos – a total of more than three million pages, over 100,000 images and thousands of video recordings, spread over eleven data sets.
But despite this enormous volume, the files create less clarity than new unrest. Many also complain that they have long since lost track of the scandal surrounding the sexual abuse of minors that has been rampant for decades. The following overview reveals the political explosive power of the various levels, which has so far received little attention, as well as the profound failure of the US justice system.
Victim protection as collateral damage
The most serious consequence of the latest publication is a massive breakdown in the protection of those affected. Lawyers for almost 100 alleged victims accuse the Justice Department of insufficiently redacting sensitive data. At times, real names, email addresses, private bank details and even nude photos with identifiable faces were visible. Several of the women affected subsequently reported death threats and acute danger.
The Ministry of Justice then withdrew thousands of documents and media and spoke of a “technical or human error”. In the future, disputed documents should be immediately taken offline, checked and republished in redacted form. New York judge Richard M. Berman scheduled a conference to clarify how to proceed. However, for many of those affected, this reaction comes too late: the publication brought up old traumas and caused new suffering.
Decades of looking the other way
Politically, the case also has repercussions and dominated both US media headlines and public debate this week. Bill and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to testify under oath before the House Oversight Committee at the end of February. In doing so, they avert the threat of proceedings for contempt of Congress. Bill Clinton was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Although he is not accused of any wrongdoing, the scandal began to emerge during his presidency (1993 to 2001). Clinton’s and subsequent administrations failed to investigate the case early on.
The newly published documents clearly show that there were early opportunities for more comprehensive criminal prosecution. Particularly revealing is the draft indictment from the mid-2000s, in which Epstein is listed along with three other co-defendants. The names of these people are blacked out and the indictment itself was never made public. It is still unclear why the case was not pursued further.
The Federal Police FBI created this “spider web” in an early attempt at an investigation.Image: keystone
The lawyer and former federal prosecutor Eddie Honig sees this document as evidence that the Epstein case failed not because of a lack of clues, but because of institutional failure. There have been repeated reports and complaints from young women and girls who were either completely ignored or not consistently pursued by the police and FBI – regardless of who was in government at the time.
Famous names and their meanings
As with previous publications, the prominent names initially attract the most public attention. The files contain email contacts with tech billionaire Elon Musk, references to meetings with Bill Gates and new details about the role of the former British Prince Andrew. Also new is Steve Tisch, influential film producer (“Forrest Gump”) and co-owner of the NFL football team New York Giants.
An email exchange from 2012 between Jeffrey Epstein and Elon Musk concerns a possible trip to Epstein’s island. Musk asks which day the “wildest party” takes place there. Musk later explained on X that he had had very little contact and was afraid that individual emails could be misinterpreted.
The following applies: The mere mention of a name does not prove criminal behavior or involvement in sexual abuse. However, the files paint a picture of a widespread network in which Epstein acted as a globally valued host, mediator and hub – and in which actors from politics, business, science, culture and nobility moved, partly even after his conviction in 2008.
As individual emails show, Epstein repeatedly asked his network to name “interesting personalities” who were still unknown to him and through whom he wanted to influence the economy, the art trade or scientific research. Like a German one Investigative Collective reported on Thursday, thanks to such contacts, Epstein tried to buy Sal. Oppenheim, Europe’s largest private bank at the time, in 2009.
In Great Britain the government is shaking, in Norway the monarchy is shaking
In Great Britain, new revelations are weighing on both the royals and the government. New email histories from the files are said to support the authenticity of the infamous photo showing the former Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre – the victim who accused him of sexual abuse and later took her own life at the age of 41. Andrew and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had expressed doubts about its authenticity or spoken of it as a “fake”. Additional emails indicate continued contacts and possible meetings even after Epstein’s conviction.
At the same time, former minister Peter Mandelson’s close ties to Epstein plunge Prime Minister Keir Starmer into a government crisis. Starmer apologized to the victims because he believed Mandelson’s trivializations about barely knowing Epstein and entrusted him with a top job. New files also raise suspicions that Mandelson passed on sensitive information during the financial crisis; the police are investigating. There are increasing voices in Starmer’s Labor Party calling for his resignation in light of such missteps.
Meanwhile, in Norway, Crown Princess Mette-Marit is under pressure after her name appeared hundreds of times in the files. There are reports of years of private email contact and stays in Epstein’s environment. Several organizations are demanding comprehensive clarification from the royal family. The Crown Princess postponed a planned trip abroad under the influence of the affair and issued a public apology on Friday. The German Epstein expert Julia Amalia Heyer from “Spiegel” calls Mette-Marti’s case exceptional. Apparently she started flirting with Epstein “out of pure boredom” and naivety.
Epstein seems to have maintained particularly intensive contacts with Norway in particular. According to agency reports on Friday, an investigation has been initiated against the ex-Prime Minister and former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, on suspicion of serious corruption. He is said to have accepted gifts, trips and other benefits from Epstein.
The situation is made even more explosive because a rape trial against her eldest son Marius Borg Høiby has begun in Oslo at the same time. For many Norwegians, this accumulation of scandals raises fundamental doubts about the future of the monarchy.
Geopolitical dimensions and suspicion of espionage
Beyond the USA and Western Europe, the scandal also has a geopolitical dimension. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk had the files searched for possible Polish connections and put forward the theory of a Russian secret service operation – a so-called “honey trap” against Western elites. There is no evidence of this yet.
Stefan Meister, Russia expert at the German Foreign Policy Society, also says that a lot of it is speculation, but one can conclude that Epstein was “very interesting” for the Russian domestic secret service FSB because of his network.
In Lithuania, the authorities initiated preliminary proceedings on suspicion of human trafficking after media evidence pointed to Epstein’s contacts with Lithuanian artists and models as well as business relationships with an entrepreneur.
Moscow reacted sharply to Poland’s announcement: Putin’s confidant Kirill Dmitriev rejected the Russia suspicions as a lie, attacked “left-wing elites” and spread conspiracy claims. Dmitriyev is also considered Russia’s chief negotiator in talks with the USA and is said to have developed good relations with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff – which further increases the political explosiveness.
And what about Donald Trump?
According to the New York Times, Trump’s name appears in at least 4,500 files in the newly released documents; However, no evidence of involvement in Epstein’s crimes has yet been reported. The US Department of Justice also emphasized that there was no intervention from the White House. The AP news agency, however, doubts the ministry’s statement that “well-known personalities and politicians” were expressly not anonymized.
Nevertheless, US President Donald Trump reacts increasingly irritably after the files were released. In the middle of the week, he told journalists that “it is now really time for the country to turn to something else.” Nothing came out about him in the files, except for a “conspiracy against me” by Epstein and others. When asked by a CNN reporter what he would say to the victims who continued to feel cheated out of justice, Trump responded with wild insults. Observers see this as an indication that the question at least hit a sore spot.
Trump lashes out at CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins:
Video: Watson/Lucas Zollinger
Even if complete investigation is of the utmost importance to the hard core of the MAGA movement and many conspiracy theorists, Epstein expert Julia Amalia Heyer does not believe that Trump’s contemptuous approach to the scandal could really pose a threat to him. So far it has not been possible to prove that he was untruthful in this regard. Trump is also one of the few celebrities who can be proven to have permanently broken with Epstein before his first arrest.
Conclusion: A scandal without closure
The previously and newly published Epstein files provide less conclusive answers than a depressing overall picture: of a globally networked power milieu, decades of judicial failure and a system that ignored evidence of serious abuse. The fact that the publication of the files once again endangered victims underlines the particular tragedy of this case.
Even after millions of pages of documents have been disclosed, the Epstein scandal remains a scandal without closure – and still without justice for many of those affected, on the contrary. (aargauerzeitung.ch)