A document included in the US Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed on January 30, 2026, that illustrates several people who handled Epstein's financial affairs or who were close to him. Photo: VCG

Newly disclosed US government files on Jeffrey Epstein case are offering more details about his interactions with the rich and famous, including politicians and billionaires such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk, according to PBS News.

According to the US Department of Justice, more than 3 million pages of documents along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images were released under a law intended to reveal most of the material it collected during two decades of investigations involving the wealthy financier, PBS News reported. 

US President Donald Trump is mentioned more than 1,000 times in the three million Jeffrey Epstein documents released Friday, after the president initially resisted the effort. While some of the references are benign, others include newly disclosed unverified sexual assault claims against Trump as well as fresh details about how some of Epstein’s victims described their interactions with Trump, CNN reported. 

There’s no public evidence that any of the allegations against Trump contained in the new documents were deemed credible by the FBI, and the Justice Department said on Friday that the allegations against Trump in the documents were false. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein or any allegation of sexual misconduct, CNN reported. 

Howard Lutnick, the billionaire businessman who serves as US President Trump’s commerce secretary, once planned a trip to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, according to documents that the Justice Department released on Friday, New York Times reported. 

The planned visit in 2012 came years after Lutnick has said he severed ties with Epstein.

In December 2012, the records show, Lutnick sent an email to Epstein saying that he had a group of people – including his wife and children and another family – who were visiting the Caribbean. He asked where Epstein was located and whether they could visit for a meal.

Epstein replied through an assistant to give more information about the location of Little St. James, his private island off the coast of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. They eventually settled on plans for a lunch gathering, according to New York Times. 

Newly released emails by the US DOJ include also Epstein’s allegations that Bill Gates planned to hide a sexually transmitted infection from his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, People.com reported. 

The newly released documents include draft emails Epstein addressed to himself, in which he alleged Bill caught an STI from “Russian girls,” according to People.com. 

Epstein wrote the messages about Gates not long after his attempt to broker a venture between Gates’s foundation and JPMorgan Chase fizzled out – depriving Epstein of what he had hoped would be a gusher of income, New York Times reported. 

A spokesperson for Microsoft co‑founder Gates, 70, dismissed the latest allegations emerging from the newly released Epstein files – including claims that he contracted a sexually transmitted disease – as “absolutely absurd and completely false,” Newsweek, reported. 

Documents released Friday by the US DOJ also provide another perspective on the acquaintanceship between Epstein and Elon Musk. The records include at least 16 emails between Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, including multiple instances where Musk expressed interest in visiting Epstein’s Caribbean island, which has since become notorious as an alleged location for Epstein’s abuse of women and girls, NBC News reported.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment Friday. In a series of posts on X Saturday, Musk called for justice for victims and prosecutions of people who participated in Epstein's sex trafficking. He did not name any specific people.

In one post, Musk denied attending Epstein's parties. "I have never been to any Epstein parties ever and have many times call for the prosecution of those who have committed crimes with Epstein," Musk wrote. "The acid test for justice is not the release of the files, but rather the prosecution of those who committed heinous crimes with Epstein," NBC News reported. 

Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his titles last year amid the fallout from his friendship with the billionaire, features heavily in the latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US DOJ, according to The Guardian. 

Besides, recent documents released by the DOJ have reignited scrutiny of Harvard professor Martin Nowak due to his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. A particular email exchange from 2014, where Nowak mentions a "spy" and Epstein responds with a concerning question about torture, has sparked widespread speculation online regarding the nature of their conversation, Times Now News reported. 

The Justice Department is facing criticism over how it handled the latest disclosure, PBS News reported. 

Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released on January 30 a statement after the Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General, and former Trump personal lawyer, Todd Blanche announced that the Department released 3 million pages of the Epstein files, out of the total 6 million pages they collected, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

According to Garcia, Trump and the US DOJ have made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50 percent of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law, which Garcia said is outrageous and incredibly concerning. 

“We are demanding the names of Epstein’s co-conspirators and the men and pedophiles who abused women and girls. We will begin a thorough review of this latest limited production, but let's be clear: our work and investigation are just getting started,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.

The Epstein case has increasingly become a partisan political tool, with critics noting that selective document releases are unlikely to have major real-time political consequences, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

While the Epstein files may reinforce public perceptions of systemic corruption in the US, its practical political impact is expected to be limited, especially given Epstein’s death and the difficulty of verifying key details, Lü said.