[NEW YORK] US Congressional Democrats released on Friday (Sep 26) daily schedules belonging to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2014 to 2019, which show Epstein had plans to meet with Republican donors Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and conservative commentator Steve Bannon.
The documents, which Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said came from Epstein’s estate in response to a congressional subpoena, also showed Britain’s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein’s private jet in 2000.
There were no accusations of any wrongdoing by Musk, Thiel, Bannon or Andrew in the documents released on Friday. The daily calendars do not indicate whether Epstein’s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon in fact took place.
In an X post on Friday referencing a news story about the documents’ release, Musk wrote: “This is false.” A spokesperson for Thiel and lawyers who have represented Bannon and Andrew did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US President Donald Trump has been facing criticism in recent months from his conservative base and congressional Democrats over his administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
The Justice Department in early July said that it would not make public files from its sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, reneging on earlier promises from Trump and his allies to do so.
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The Democrats said the documents showed Epstein was friends with “some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world”, and called on the Justice Department to release all the documents from its probe.
“Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein’s heinous crimes,” Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for the committee, said in a press release accompanying the documents. FBI director Kash Patel said in congressional testimony earlier this month that there was no credible information that Epstein trafficked women and underage girls to anyone but himself. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, to which he had pleaded not guilty.
Epstein’s partner Maxwell convicted
The calendar entries for Epstein’s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon referenced periods that came after he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges in 2008 but before he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019.
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One calendar entry dated Dec 6, 2014, reads: “Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec 6 (is this still happening?).” Epstein at the time owned a private island in the US Virgin Islands, where many women say Epstein abused them.
The documents released on Friday included a passenger list showing Britain’s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein’s private jet from the New York area to Palm Beach, Florida, on May 12, 2000, with Epstein and his longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
Flight logs presented as evidence during Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial showed Andrew had flown on Epstein’s plane on other occasions.
In 2022, Andrew settled a US lawsuit brought by the late Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers. In the lawsuit, Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Andrew has denied wrongdoing and said that he regrets his past association with Epstein.
Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse, and is serving a 20-year sentence. She had pleaded not guilty and is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. REUTERS
