Do they only see what they want to see?
Here’s a morning headline from the AP: FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show
A line from The Sixth Sense comes to mind: They only see what they want to see.
And that was?
The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.
But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.
Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.
An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.
A lot of stories lacking enough evidence to support charges, records indicate. Including allegations by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In lawsuits and interviews, Giuffre “accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew.” But two other Epstein victims Giuffre named did not corroborate the “lent out” story, according to a 2019 internal prosecution memo.
No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.
Had they existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”
Investigators who scoured Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.
Other women filed sexual misconduct lawsuits against an Epstein massage recipient. One was dismissed or withdrawn. (Was a quiet cash settlement involved?) Another is pending.
As we know from voter fraud allegations, lots of smoke does not necessarily mean a fire. But to my knowledge, no one has lost a royal title over voter fraud allegations or killed themselves over them. Several have in the Epstein case.
It is clearer than ever that Epstein class predators have powerful friends and enjoy a legal system built to insulate them from justice. Including Trump’s DOJ. Whom can you trust?