President Donald Trump’s return to the White House could clear the way for the public to finally see a glimpse of Jeffrey Epstein’s long-awaited “black book,” as questions about the deceased financier and sex trafficker continue to swirl years after he was found dead in a federal jail in New York City.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who has long called for the government to release more of its evidence against Epstein and his potential accomplices, raised the issue during a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday for Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel.
“I have been working on this for years, trying to get those records of who flew on Epstein’s plane and who helped him build this international human trafficking, sex trafficking ring,” Blackburn told the nominee.
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She said past attempts to convince former committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, to subpoena the information failed, and former FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to hand it over to her as well.
“Will you work with me on this issue, so we know who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in building these sex trafficking rings?” Blackburn asked Patel.
“Absolutely, senator,” Patel replied. “Child sex trafficking has no place in the United States of America, and I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past and how we are going to countermand missing children and exploited children going forward.”
Durbin’s office previously denied allegations that he “stonewalled” Blackburn’s request and blamed “an obscure Senate rule” for ending debate on the issue.
More than a year has gone by, and the records remain out of public view.
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Child sex trafficking has no place in the United States of America, and I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past and how we are going to countermand missing children and exploited children going forward.
“Jeffrey Epstein built a disgusting global sex trafficking network that caused irreparable damage to countless women,” Blackburn said last week. “Americans deserve to know exactly who was affiliated with this network.”
Epstein, a 66-year-old millionaire financier with a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and mansions around the country, died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
He had landed a sweetheart plea deal more than a decade earlier after having sex with a teenager – 13 months in jail with work release during the day.
“This is not about celebrities – this is about what happened to victims and survivors,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn has long called for the release of additional evidence against the deceased defendant believed to be in the FBI’s possession.
She urged Wray to disclose more information in 2023. She renewed her calls in November after Patel’s nomination.
“I look forward to working with Kash Patel as FBI Director to release Epstein’s flight logs and black book,” she wrote on X. “Under the Trump administration, the American people are going to get answers.”
A federal court ordered thousands of pages of sealed records to be made public last year. They revealed nearly 200 names, many of which belonged to people who were not accused of crimes. Some of them were prominent figures, including politicians, billionaire business leaders and celebrities.
Epstein’s so-called black book, expected to include potential conspirators in his international sex trafficking ring, remains a mystery.
A group of 12 Epstein accusers also sued the FBI last year, alleging the bureau failed to properly investigate credible allegations that he led a “sex trafficking ring for the elite” as far back as the 1990s.
The FBI previously said it does not comment on pending litigation.
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Epstein, his former lover and now a convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly abused young women and underage girls between 1996 and his death in 2019, according to the lawsuit. Citing police documents, it alleges that Epstein recruited girls between 14 and 16 as well as students at Palm Beach Community College for “sex-tinged sessions.”
He allegedly coerced them into silence with violent threats: “You’re going to die; I’m going to break your legs,” according to the lawsuit.
“We know the FBI seized a treasure trove of surveillance footage from Epstein’s Palm Beach home where he ran his operations,” Blackburn said at the time. “Why won’t they release those tapes or the flight logs I’ve been requesting for months?”
In addition to Maxwell, another Epstein associate, French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, was also charged with sex trafficking. Like Epstein, he turned up dead in a jail cell.
Maxwell is appealing her conviction while serving a sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee. She is due for release in the summer of 2037.
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At the state level, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed a new law that allowed secret grand jury transcripts to be made public in the case.
Hours after the law took effect, Palm Beach County Court Clerk and Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo announced the release.
Palm Beach police initially opened an investigation into Epstein after a fight between high school girls, according to the transcripts. One, just 16, had been accused of prostitution by a classmate, and a school official later found $300 in her purse – payment from Epstein.
She testified that she had been instructed to concoct a fake life story and pretend to be 18 to get $200 to give Epstein a massage before the first time she met him. Then she revealed she was asked to strip down to her underwear and had a graphic sexual encounter with him.
In a court order authorizing the release of the documents, Circuit Judge Luis Delgado warned that the contents were disturbing.
“It is widely accepted that Epstein is a notorious and serial pedophile,” the order reads. “The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape – all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal. The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people.”
The question remains – who else was involved?
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