The release of the Epstein files has reverberated around the world, leading to at least nine resignations and investigations into high-profile figures, including the former UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, and the ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The deluge of information has made it hard to assess the extent of the connections but a Guardian data analysis reveals how frequent, deep and longstanding his ties were to a number of high-profile figures.
The Guardian examined more than a million emails released so far and identified over 150,000 unique emails between Epstein and a select group of elites and influential people (including those sent to or from assistants or close associates).
In this two-part series, the Guardian analyses correspondence between more than 30 people and Epstein, and visualises the online relationships of seven high-profile figures. The first article looks at Mountbatten-Windsor, Mandelson, Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, and the Emirati billionaire Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. Tomorrow, the Guardian will focus on the director Woody Allen, the former head of Barclays Jes Staley, and the renowned economist and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers.
Appearing in the Epstein files does not constitute evidence of wrongdoing.
Steve Bannon: ‘get link to Brother Epstein’
Steve Bannon mainly spoke to Epstein over WhatsApp but the Guardian identified almost 1,500 emails between them or their assistants – mostly in 2018, a year after Bannon left his White House role. The two men often discussed politics and film.
In May 2018, Bannon sent Epstein a Guardian article about a Dutch exhibition exploring his political propaganda. In a seeming reference to Leni Riefenstahl, he said the Nazi filmmaker was “his hero”. (He has previously spoken about learning from her technique while leaving “the politics aside”.)
On Apr 22, 2018, at 7:31 AM, Jeffrey E. wrote:
we should go see it. . sean can dress like adolph and you like leni
On Sun, Apr 22, 2018 at 7:39 AM, Steve Bannon wrote:
Leni my hero
In July 2018, Bannon forwarded Epstein an article detailing his plans to launch a rightwing foundation called “The Movement” in Brussels. The text explicitly mentioned Bannon’s courtship of “nationalists of the right from East to West”. Epstein responded with strategic advice:
From: Jeffrey E
To: Steve Bannon
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2018 02:02:16If you are going to play here , you’ll have to spend time , europe by remote doesn’t work . Lots and lots of face time and hand holding
Epstein also acted as an informal adviser to Bannon on some of his media projects, with Bannon asking him for feedback on American Dharma, a documentary about Bannon’s career directed by Errol Morris (“Get link to Brother Epstein asap”), and in August 2018 on an early cut of Bannon’s film about the US president, Trump @War.
Bannon has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and told the New York Times that his relationship with the disgraced financier had been strictly professional.
Epstein introduced Bannon to other high-profile people, including Kenneth Starr – the late independent counsel who led an investigation into Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky – as well as the businessman Tom Pritzker, the celebrated leftwing academic Noam Chomsky and Bin Sulayem, the former chair of Dubai-based logistics group, DP World:
From: Jeffrey E.
To: Steve Bannon; Sultan Bin Sulayem
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018 7:55 AMSultan Steve / Steve sultan
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem: ‘I consider you a close friend and I don’t have anyone I can call a close friend’
Bin Sulayem and Epstein had a prolific online correspondence, with close to 4,200 direct emails exchanged from August 2005 – when the future DP World chair is asked “what time you would like your massage today in New York” – to 2019.
Among the many emails, in which the two often referred to each other as friends, shared travel plans, business ideas, contacts and news articles (including some about longevity and an article about the resignation of a Liberian minister over a sex scandal), there are sexual references and messages discussing women.
From: Sultan Bin Sulayem
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Date: Tue 11/12/2013 10:55:55 AMBy the way the Ukrainian and the Moldavian arrived
Big disappointment the Moldavian is not as attractive as the picture while the Ukrainian is very beautiful
From: Sultan Bin Sulayem
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 7:38 PM
Subject: Russian Cypriot
Attachments: IMG_2661.1PG: Untitled attachment 00062.txtThis girl is russian father Cypriot mom I met her two years ago she goes to the American university in Dubai She got engaged but now she back with me . The best sex I ever had amazing body
In 2009, Epstein wrote an email saying: “Where are you? are you ok I loved the torture video.” The US deputy attorney general later appeared to confirm the message was sent to an email connected to Bin Sulayem. DP World and Bin Sulayem have not publicly commented on the email.
Bin Sulayem resigned as head of DP World, which is ultimately owned by the emirate’s royal family, after the revelations over his connection with Epstein. Bin Sulayem has not been accused of wrongdoing or charged with crimes relating to Epstein.
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: Sultan Bin Sulayem
Date: Tue 8/20/2013 12:38:34 AM
Subject: Re: London gateway port is getting ready to open this Octoberinvite prince andrew.. i will organize if you want. also . can we organic for joi ito to be met in dubai on sept 2
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson: ‘A steadfast, generous and supreme friend’
The former prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on 19 February over allegations he shared confidential material with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy.
Mountbatten-Windsor, whose title was removed due to his relationship with Epstein, claimed to have first met the businessman in 1999, after being introduced by Maxwell.
Email records released so far mainly show correspondence from 2009 to 2011, during and after the financier’s time under house arrest after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In 2010, after his release from house arrest, Mountbatten-Windsor congratulated Epstein and offered to meet in Paris.
From: The Duke
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Subject: RE:
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:02:13 +0000Really, really good news. If you are in Paris around the 16th I’ll be across to pay homage to your new life ahead!….
And as far as things to do I have, with DS, a good brain to make things happen. Even looking at purchases from government of up to £3B each.
A
HRH The Duke of York KG
The correspondence suggests several meetings. In August that year, the prince invited Epstein for dinner at Buckingham Palace. After Jeffrey agreed, Andrew asked how many people would be there. Epstein responded:
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: The Duke
Date: Mon Sep 27 18:31:11 2010I want private time with you„ however, i am here with sarah sue and vera, should i bring them all. so as to add some life.
The same day, Mountbatten-Windsor confirmed the time with a “see you then” and later Epstein emailed to add another person to the list.
To: The Duke
From: Jeffrey Epstein
Date: Mon 9/27/2010 6:41:23 PMadd one more.. ███, romanian very cute
Mountbatten-Windsor did not respond to invitations to comment but has in the past denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Sarah Ferguson – the former duchess of York and Andrew’s wife from 1986 to 1996 – was also in regular contact with Epstein. She enlisted his help around her near-bankruptcy and the financier helped settle her debts to a former assistant whom she appeared to owe just short of £100,000. After the story broke in 2011, Ferguson wrote to Epstein acknowledging he had been a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” to her family, even as she faced pressure to distance herself from him.
Peter Mandelson: ‘One of my best friends’
Mandelson, a key figure in the Labour party since the 1980s, was arrested and released on bail over claims he committed misconduct in public office during the course of his friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson, who has denied any wrongdoing, had already lost his job as ambassador over his relationship with Epstein and resigned from the House of Lords and from the Labour party.
Emails from 2009 appear to show Mandelson passing on a confidential assessment of potential policy measures by an adviser to Gordon Brown, who was prime minister at the time.
Mandelson also appeared to discuss a tax on bankers’ bonuses, confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010 and advise that the head of JP Morgan should “mildly threaten” the UK chancellor.
The records show his contact with Epstein lasted far longer than his time in government.
The earliest emails in the files released so far are between Mandelson and Ghislaine Maxwell, with the vast bulk of the released correspondence between Epstein and Mandelson relating to the period between 2008 and 2014. Maxwell and Mandelson joked about his two previous resignations from government.
From: Peter Mandelson
To: Ghislaine Maxwell
Date: 09:38 AM 6/17/2002 +0100I love disgusting. That’s why I am wild and dangerous, and twice fallen….
From: G Max
To: Peter Mandelson
Date: 18 June 2002 01:56Suffice it to say that neither me not mine will lead to the third spill. You know what they say though. 3rd time lucky?
Gx
Mandelson referred to Epstein as his “best pal” as part of a 2003 birthday book released last year. The emails show he continued to view Epstein as one of his best friends in 2011, after his 2008 conviction.
From: Peter Mandelson
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Date: Thur 8/4/2011 1:13:04 PMAnd a great fan of your’s. Nat mentioned you at lunch and she raced my comment that you are one of my best friends and said you are the nicest and cleverest people she knows and how much you and ███ taught her.
The files also show correspondence between Epstein and Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. In an email in 2009, Epstein appeared to send thousands of pounds to Avila da Silva to fund an osteopathy course. Mandelson and Avila da Silva married in 2023 after 27 years together.
The wider network
As many emails appear multiple times across the files, the Guardian used a large language model to clean names and badly formatted dates, manually verified those results and de-duplicated when possible. However, due to the poor quality of some of the scanned documents, as well as inconsistent redactions, the analysis will have missed some emails.
Most of the emails shown in the analysis happened after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, but this does not mean there was no correspondence or communication before then, as more documents are yet to be released and many of the documents have been redacted.
Epstein’s connections extended to politicians and diplomats including the former Norwegian PM Thorbjørn Jagland and senior diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, who are under investigation over ties to Epstein, and the former Israeli PM Ehud Barak and his wife, Nili Priel Barak. Barak has denied any knowledge of inappropriate or unlawful behaviour. Jagland and Rød-Larsen are co-operating with investigators and deny criminal wrongdoing.
Epstein also had a prolific online communication with some cultural figures.
The Indian-American author Deepak Chopra, who denied “any criminal or exploitative conduct”, and Epstein exchanged thousands of emails from 2016 to 2019. And Noam Chomsky’s extensive correspondence also involved other members of his family. His wife and spokesperson, Valeria Chomsky, apologised for their “grave mistake”.
Epstein was first convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution and a new investigation into the financier was opened in 2018. He killed himself in prison while awaiting trial for sex trafficking in 2019.
The thousands of emails show how he connected elites across finance, tech, politics and the arts world and was valued for his networking abilities.
As Summers put it in a 2017 email introducing Epstein to the editor of a scientific journal: “I know people who circulate among the powerful, among the wealthy and among the brilliant. Jeffrey does all three to a unique extent.”
Additional reporting by Seán Clarke, Oliver Holmes and Tom Richards
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