A timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and the fight to make government files public

For two decades, police, FBI agents and prosecutors investigated allegations that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused underage girls. Now, the Justice Department has released much of what it found to the public.

Millions of documents comprise the most detailed look yet at the inner workings of multiple investigations into Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.

Read more: Hillary Clinton calls for a public hearing in the House investigation into Epstein

These documents include some of the earliest police reports taken by police in Palm Beach, Florida, as well as recordings of some of Epstein’s victims speaking on the phone and to investigators. It includes internal Justice Department emails from a few months ago.

Here’s a timeline of the Epstein investigation and efforts to open the government’s files:

The investigation begins

March 2005: Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. Several underage girls, many of them high school students, later told police that Epstein hired them to provide sexual massages.

May 2006: Police officials signed papers to indict Epstein on multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, but the county’s top prosecutor, District Attorney Barry Krischer, took the unusual step of sending the case to a grand jury.

Read more: The government says it is working to fix thousands of documents in files related to Epstein that may contain information about the victim

July 2006: Epstein was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on charges of solicitation of prostitution. This relatively minor charge troubles Palm Beach police chiefs, who publicly accuse Krisher of giving Epstein special treatment. The FBI begins an investigation.

2007: Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment, but for a year Epstein’s lawyers have been engaged in talks with the U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, about a deal that would avoid federal prosecution. Epstein’s lawyers denounced his accusers as unreliable.

A secret deal leads to a light prison sentence

June 2008: Epstein pleaded guilty to the charges against him: one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution of a person under 18 years of age. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Under a secret arrangement, the US Attorney’s Office agreed not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes. Epstein is serving most of his sentence in a work release program that allows him to leave prison during the day.

He watches: Labor Secretary Acosta resigns amid criticism over Epstein deal

May 2009: Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, files a lawsuit alleging that Epstein and Maxwell arranged for her to have sexual encounters with “members of the royal family, politicians, academics, business people” and others. The lawsuit does not name the men.

July 2009: Epstein is released from prison. Over the next decade, Epstein’s accusers waged a legal battle to overturn his federal agreement not to prosecute.

News media and lawsuits keep public interest high

2 March 2011: The Daily Mail published an interview with Giuffre in which she describes traveling with Epstein to London at the age of 17 and spending a night dancing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Prince Andrew. The story and image of the prince with his arm around Geoffrey creates a crisis for the royal family. FBI agents then interviewed Giuffre.

Read more: Epstein’s victims want former Prince Andrew to testify before lawmakers. It is unlikely to do so

December 30, 2014: Giuffre’s lawyers file court papers alleging she had sexual relations with Mountbatten-Windsor and other men, including “foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders.” All of these men deny the accusations.

November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the handling of the Epstein case in a series of stories focusing in part on the role of Acosta — who by this point had become President Donald Trump’s labor secretary. The coverage intensifies public interest in Epstein.

Prosecutors in New York are reviving the case

December 6, 2018: FBI agents and the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan began a new investigation into Epstein.

July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on new sex trafficking charges brought by New York prosecutors, who conclude they are not bound by a previous non-prosecution agreement with Epstein in Florida. Days later, Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor.

August 10, 2019: Epstein kills himself in his New York prison cell.

Read more: A Justice Department watchdog says misconduct by federal prison guards led to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide

July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York charge Maxwell with sex crimes, saying she helped recruit and abuse Epstein’s victims.

December 30, 2021: After a month-long trial, a jury convicts Maxwell of sex trafficking and other crimes.

June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

January 2024: Public interest in the Epstein case spikes again after a judge unearths more court records in a related lawsuit.

A new president and a new political crisis

January 20, 2025: Trump, who had been a friend and neighbor of Epstein for years, becomes president again. During his 2024 campaign, he suggested he would seek to open more government files related to Epstein.

February 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview that Epstein’s “client list” was on her desk. The Justice Department distributes folders marked “declassified” to far-right influencers, but much of the information has long been public.

April 25, 2025: Geoffrey died by suicide.

Read more: Virginia Giuffre, plaintiff in Epstein and Prince Andrew sex trafficking case, dies at 41

July 7, 2025: The Justice Department said Epstein did not maintain a “client list” and would not release any other files related to his sex trafficking investigations to the public.

July 15, 2025: Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the Justice Department to make the files of its investigations into Epstein public.

July 17, 2025: The Wall Street Journal describes a sexually suggestive message that the newspaper says was named after Trump and included in a 2003 album marking Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denies writing the letter and is suing the newspaper.

July 24-25, 2025: In an attempt to put an end to the political crisis, Maxwell is interviewed by Deputy District Attorney Todd Blanche. She denies any wrongdoing and says she never saw Trump engaged in any inappropriate sexual activity.

After that, she was transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a low-security prison camp in Texas.

The prince loses his royal title

21 October 2025: Geoffrey’s memoirs are published posthumously. In it, she revisits her allegations that Epstein and Maxwell sexually trafficked her to powerful men, including Mountbatten-Windsor.

October 30, 2025: King Charles III strips Mountbatten-Windsor of his remaining titles, meaning he can no longer be referred to as “the Prince,” and evicts him from his royal residence.

Read more: King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of his titles and evicts him from his royal residence over his ties to Epstein

November 12, 2025: A House committee releases a trove of email correspondence between Epstein and others, including Mountbatten-Windsor, Trump ally Steve Bannon, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. In one 2019 email to a reporter, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls” but did not clarify what he meant by that.

November 14, 2025: At Trump’s request, Bondi announces that the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan will investigate Epstein’s ties to some of the Republican president’s political opponents, including former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat; summer. Hoffman, a prominent Democratic donor. None of these men have been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s accusers.

November 18, 2025: Congress passes the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Trump signed it into law the next day.

December 19, 2025: The Department of Justice begins releasing the records. The collection includes footage that Epstein kept in his home of many celebrities he met over the years, including Trump and Clinton. After releasing only a small portion of the available documents, the Justice Department halted disclosure, saying it needed more time to review the records.

January 30, 2025: The Justice Department begins releasing what Blanche says are more than 3 million pages of documents, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 photos. The files are published on the Ministry’s website.