“They said they didn’t really know Jeffrey Epstein that well. They were disgusted by him right off the bat. They were just drawn to his intellect or love of science or business acumen. They didn’t know about his abuse of women and girls. They deeply regretted associating with him,” the New York Times reports.

“In the years since Mr. Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death by suicide in a Manhattan jail, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people have hastened to distance themselves from the disgraced man with whom they once did business, dined in lavish settings or flew on private jets.”

“But a slow drip of document releases and other revelations over the last several months — culminating in Friday’s release of nearly three million pages of Epstein-related records — has underscored the depth, intensity and persistence of his connections to the global elite, contradicting or undermining years of careful denials.”

“The Justice Department’s Friday release of its investigative materials related to Jeffrey Epstein is packed with details about his ties to the most powerful figures in politics, tech and global affairs,” Politico reports.

“The documents shed new light on the depth of his relationships between the convicted sex offender and figures such as Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and world leaders. In particular, the files contain extensive exchanges with Bannon as he mounted a political influence campaign across Europe, and numerous overtures — the unrequited kind — to Musk.”

“And the documents add new heft to earlier indications that Epstein wielded extraordinary influence for years — even as investigations into his trafficking of young girls had ramped up.”

Wall Street Journal: What we know so far about the latest release of Epstein files.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick once planned a visit to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s private island and maintained contact with the sex offender far longer than he has previously claimed, Bloomberg reports.

404 Media has an email that Elon Musk sent to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on November 11, 2012: “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”

“Ghislaine Maxwell once sent a message to an email address associated with former President Clinton that complimented the size of the recipient’s genitals, according to a Trump administration official familiar with the email released in the latest batch of Epstein files,” Axios reports.

“It’s unclear whether Maxwell was writing to Clinton or an aide who used the ex-president’s account, and whose name was redacted.”

“Bombshell allegation in the latest Epstein Files document release… an underage girl claims she was forced to perform oral sex on Donald Trump approximately 35 years ago in New Jersey,” TMZ reports.

“The allegation is from a document in the files that describes a tip that was sent to the feds.”

Ghislaine Maxwell claimed that 29 associates and friends of Jeffrey Epstein were shielded by the U.S. government through “secret settlements,” the Telegraph reports.

“One month after the congressionally mandated deadline to release all its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department has made only a fraction of the files public — and it remains silent on its plans to fully comply with the law,” Politico reports.

CNN Poll: “A two-thirds majority of Americans say the federal government is intentionally holding back some information about the Epstein case that should be released, while just 16% say the government is making an effort to release all information possible. The remainder say they haven’t heard enough about the case to say.”

“The secretary of labor’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were placed on administrative leave on Monday, as the Labor Department’s watchdog begins investigating allegations of professional misconduct involving the secretary,” the New York Times reports.

“The move to place the two officials on leave followed a report by The New York Post on Friday that said a formal complaint had been filed against Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer with the department’s inspector general’s office, accusing her of abusing her office and of having an affair with a subordinate.”

“More than two weeks after the deadline to release the vast trove of files connected to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Justice Department officials disclosed Monday that they’re still reviewing millions of documents and have released less than 1 percent of the total,” Politico reports.

“During the 2024 election, President Trump promised to release the Epstein files as part of a campaign message arguing the government was run by powerful people hiding the truth from Americans,” NPR reports.

“At the start of 2026, many people agree — and believe that he is now one of the powerful few keeping the public in the dark.”

“A recently released cache of surveillance video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City is raising new questions about the prison cameras at the facility where Jeffrey Epstein died in his cell in 2019,” CBS News reports.

“The videos were among a huge cache of materials released on Dec. 23 by the Department of Justice as congressionally mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Rather than clarifying events surrounding Epstein’s death, the footage appears to complicate the official narrative, and contradicts some prior statements about the prison’s surveillance system.”

Tara Palmeri: “If there’s one thing 2025 has made clear, it’s that in today’s Washington, scandal is just noise. The people who survive it are the ones who learned from President Trump that endurance—not accountability—is the real strategy. Ride out the shame long enough and it eventually fades.”

“This year alone, a series of old allegations resurfaced around some of the president’s allies. There was reporting about border czar Tom Homan allegedly accepting a $50,000 Cava bag stuffed with cash in exchange for government contracts, only to have it brushed aside by FBI Director Kash Patel, who has reportedly been using FBI Boeing aircraft like a personal jet to visit his country singer girlfriend.”

“Then there are the lingering and newly revived scandals involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who seems largely immune, perhaps because he presents as a Ken-doll version of a war secretary, untouched by consequences.”

“The Justice Department is seeking to enlist about 400 lawyers to review roughly 5.2 million pages of Epstein files documents, an effort that is drawing in prosecutors who work on national security and criminal cases, and in U.S. attorneys’ offices in New York and Florida,” the New York Times reports.

“The number represents a more precise, and potentially much larger, figure than previous estimates provided by the department.”