FBI: Epstein Didn't Run a Sex-Trafficking Ring for the Powerful
Ed Morrissey 9:20 AM | February 09, 2026
Consider this a spoiler alert for those still searching through the three million pages of documents released by the Department of Justice last week, hoping to find the smoking gun on Jeffrey Epstein and the moneyed elite. As has been clear now for a few years, the smoking gun doesn't exist, at least according to the FBI. Epstein trafficked underage girls to feed his own perversity, but the vast Epstein trafficking and extortion ring didn't exist.
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.
But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture to date of the investigation and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.
Is it possible that prosecutors missed a sex-trafficking ring of the proposed enormity suggested by accusers? Theoretically, sure. In practical terms, no way. The DoJ didn't just collect three million pages of testimony and evidence as an afterthought, nor did they catalog 180,000 images and thousands of hours of video.
The FBI and prosecutors clearly wanted to build a case on Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, along with anyone else implicated in potential trafficking. The DoJ under two presidents spent thousands of man-hours maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands building a massive trove of testimony and evidence, and they didn't do that to shrug off Epstein or protect his super-rich pals.
If Maxwell had evidence of a wider operation, she would have cut a plea deal to expose it at that point.
More to the point, though, the DoJs of Joe Biden and Donald Trump had ample motive to dig for dirt in the Epstein files. Neither came up with anything significant. Democrats convinced themselves that the files had a political kill shot hidden on Trump over the past year, but Merrick Garland wouldn't have hesitated for a second to publicize it before the 2024 election if it existed. Pam Bondi couldn't find anything either, despite her suspicions of a vast conspiracy.