During a heated exchange of insults between Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Thursday, Musk accused the former U.S. president of being involved in the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died by suicide in 2019 inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while facing charges of sexually exploiting dozens of underage girls.
Musk claimed that Trump’s name appears in the so-called “Epstein files,” or confidential court documents, and that this is why many of these documents have not yet been made public.
Epstein’s story has been at the center of several conspiracy theories from the outset, especially those spread by the American far-right, of which Musk has become one of the main figures (as well as Trump). Among other things, these theories claim, without offering evidence, that Epstein did not commit suicide but was murdered by someone to cover up influential people involved in his dealings.
Musk described his alleged discovery as “a bomb,” claiming that Trump was covering something up to protect himself. Musk provided no evidence. However, an appearance in documents, by itself, would not be equivalent to having a role of any kind. Court documents also mention the names of witnesses, people who had suffered those crimes, or who may have been in contact with the suspect or his alleged accomplices.
It is true that Trump knew Epstein: they were neighbors in Florida and for years attended the same parties. In a 2002 interview, Trump said he had known him for 15 years, that he thought he was “a terrific guy,” and that “they say he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are younger.”
In 2019, when Epstein was arrested again, Trump sharply distanced himself, saying that “everyone knew him in Palm Beach” but that he had not spoken to him for a long time: “I was not a fan of his.”
The Democratic Party has asked the Trump administration whether Musk’s accusations are founded and, in particular, for clarification on the timing of the release of still-classified documents. Last February, the administration, under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, had published about a hundred pages of documents, presented as the “first phase” of their gradual release. Despite much anticipation, almost all the material was already known or not particularly useful because it was full of redacted passages.
Since then, no other documents have been published, although Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel say they have assigned dozens of agents and prosecutors to work on the documents. Bondi had said that the delay was necessary to protect “victims” in cases that are still under investigation.
A federal court decision in January 2024 declassified another set of documents, but they also did not list any wealthy, famous, or powerful men involved in Epstein’s criminal scheme (other than those already known, including Britain’s Prince Andrew).
