The new publications about the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein raise new questions – including about the US President. What do the files tell us?
Over three million pages of text, thousands of videos and tens of thousands of photos from the Files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein the US Department of Justice has published since last week. The businessman, investment banker and asset manager had run an abuse and human trafficking ring for years, to which minors also fell victim. In 2019 he died in custody, according to official information, by suicide.
In addition to further details about well-known names, the files that have now been published reveal a lot of disgusting things from Epstein’s career and from email communications with his contacts. However, no concrete evidence of further crimes has yet been found.
The files could still be dangerous for US President Donald Trump. Not only Elon Musk and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are represented there, Trump’s name also appears over a thousand times. The US President blocked himself long before publication. This is exactly what could cost him support for his MAGA movement.
Before his election, the Republican had claimed that the Democrats would keep the files secret and even fueled conspiracy stories about Epstein’s suicide, secret client lists and elite pedophile rings. While social media is abuzz with speculation and false reports, the new documents raise, above all, new questions.
What’s going wrong in dealing with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? Will Trump’s conspiracy myths be his own downfall? And what do the published files actually tell us?
The taz foreign editor talks about this Fabian Schroer what USA-Korrespondent Hansjürx fromwho reports for the taz from Washington, in the new episode of the long-distance connection.
This episode was recorded on February 4, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. Central European Time.
Long distance connection – The taz foreign podcast appears every week on taz.de and everywhere there are podcasts.
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