the president, the plane and the prince

The Justice Department released a third batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday, a wide range of documents that shed light on the late sex offender’s alleged co-conspirators and ties to former Prince Andrew.

Among the documents, released in accordance with law passed by Congress last month, were several references to President Donald Trump. Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years and said they argued because Epstein was a “dirty guy,” has denied any wrongdoing regarding Epstein.

The White House on Tuesday referred NBC News to a statement made earlier in the day by the Justice Department.

“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 additional pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these documents contain false and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI just before the 2020 election. To be clear: these claims are unfounded and false, and if they had any credibility, they certainly would have already been used as a weapon against President Trump,” he said on X.

An NBC News study confirmed that the Justice Department released about 30,000 records.

Here are the main takeaways from the files.

Epstein’s plane

A January 2020 email from a New York federal prosecutor who appeared to be involved in the criminal case against Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, alerted an unidentified person to flight logs involving Trump and Epstein dating back to the 1990s.

“For your situational awareness, I wanted to let you know that flight records we received yesterday indicate that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously reported (or known to us), including during the time period we would expect to indict in a Maxwell case.”

Maxwell was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges months later, in July 2020. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The email states that Trump, then serving his first term as president, “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, her daughter Tiffany, and her son Eric.”

“On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two passengers listed; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump and then 20 years old. [redacted]. On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who could be witnesses in a Maxwell case.

The names of the sender and recipient have been redacted. The post does not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing.

Possible co-conspirators

Another released document showed federal prosecutors discussing Epstein’s “10 co-conspirators” in an email exchange. To date, Maxwell is the only co-conspirator to be charged. The Justice Department said in a July memo that it had no evidence to charge other parties in the case.

Their identities are not revealed during the exchange. One of them is described as a “wealthy businessman from Ohio”, while “three of them lived in Florida and served [grand jury] subpoenas; 1 in Boston, 1 in New York and 1 in Connecticut were located and served.

The other three are “destitute,” the email said.

It’s unclear what information investigators sought or found about potential co-conspirators. Maxwell is the only Epstein accomplice to be criminally charged, and it is unclear whether she is among the 10 people named.

Epstein had a habit of turning some of his young victims into recruiters.

A fake Austrian passport

Another document revealed that investigators discovered that Epstein had a fake Austrian passport in his safe, which contained his photo and the name Marius Robert Fortelni. He listed his residence as Saudi Arabia.

A prosecutor said Epstein’s lawyers said in a court filing that the document “expired 32 years ago” and that Epstein never used it.

“Epstein – a well-off member of the Jewish faith – acquired the passport in the 1980s, when hijackings were widespread, in connection with travel to the Middle East. The passport was intended for personal protection when traveling to dangerous areas, only to be presented to kidnappers, hijackers or potential terrorists in the event of violent episodes,” the filing states.

A connection with Prince Andrew

The third batch of released documents also appears to include email exchanges between Maxwell and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who lost his British titles of Prince and Duke of York due to his links to Epstein.

An August 16, 2001 email sent to Maxwell at an address titled “The Invisible Man” states: “I am here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family,” an apparent reference to Balmoral Castle, the royal family’s estate in Scotland.

“How’s Los Angeles? Have you found me any new inappropriate friends? Let me know when you’re coming because I’m free from August 25th to September 2nd and I want to go somewhere warm and sunny with fun people before I have to put my nose firmly to the grindstone for fall,” the email continued, concluding: “See you soon See you xxx.”

Maxwell replied: “I was only able to find suitable friends. I will keep you posted on some church meetings on those dates. Kisses Gx.”

One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, claimed that Epstein and Maxwell brought her to the prince in the early 2000s, when she was 17. Andrew, who has denied having sex with Giuffre and any wrongdoing related to Epstein, was never criminally charged.

He settled a civil suit filed by Giuffre against him by making a substantial donation to his charity. The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing, but a letter issued on his behalf at the time said he “regrets his association with Epstein and commends the courage of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors who stood up for themselves and others.”

Giuffre committed suicide in April.

FBI Tips

The release includes various anonymous and unverified information addressed to the FBI. One was called shortly before the 2020 election, with an informant who said he once spoke to a woman who claimed Trump and Epstein raped her in the 1990s. The informant said the woman told him she wouldn’t go to the police because she was afraid for her life. It is unclear whether the FBI investigated this anonymous claim.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an article on

He quoted: “Fake videos of Epstein in his cell. Photos with no explanation. Sensational stories and lies from random people. This is not reality. We will continue to produce all documents required by law. Let’s not let the rumor engines on the Internet overtake the facts.”

A “fake” note addressed to Larry Nassar

The release included a note signed “J. Epstein” addressed to Larry Nassar, the sports doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing numerous girls and women in his care and who is serving a prison sentence of 40 to 175 years.

The Justice Department said on social media Tuesday that it was “investigating the validity of this purported letter,” and in a follow-up post two hours later said the letter was false and “the handwriting does not appear to match that of Jeffrey Epstein.”

“This false letter serves as a reminder that simply because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or assertions contained in the document factual,” the message said.

The letter was postmarked Aug. 13, 2019, at a U.S. Postal Service facility in Northern Virginia — three days after Epstein died in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in New York. Investigators say he committed suicide.

The note reads: “As you now know, I took the “short route” to return home. He then tells Nassar “we shared one thing…our love and care for young women and the hope that they reach their full potential.” He claims that “our president also shares our love of nubile young girls” and complains that he and Nassar have been incarcerated. “Life is unfair,” the note concludes.

Epstein’s death

Another statement showed confusion and misunderstanding surrounding Epstein’s death on August 10, 2019, with the US Marshals Service informing the US Attorney’s Office of the death, which had previously been reported in the media.

“As you can imagine, we are receiving increasingly frantic calls from defense attorneys who continue to see information in the press that we, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, have not yet received. We need to know the most basic facts, like time and cause of death, as quickly as possible, at the absolute minimum. It has now been hours since this was publicly reported,” the unidentified person wrote.