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Following the release of court documents that included the names of former associates, employees, friends and victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, social media users put pressure on the FBI to release information relating to evidence in the case that reportedly went "missing."
On Wednesday evening, hundreds of court documents involving Epstein and his associates were released following a lawsuit filed by one of his accusers, Virginia Giuffre, against Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. In 2021, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after she was found guilty of collaborating with Epstein in his crimes involving the sexual abuse of underage girls.
In 2019, New York financier Epstein was found dead in his cell in Manhattan weeks after being remanded on new sex abuse allegations. His death was ruled a suicide.
The court documents released this week included names of some prominent individuals who had interactions with Epstein and Maxwell, such as former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, former Donald Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Hawking and Michael Jackson.
Former President Donald Trump's name was also mentioned in the documents. Many of those whose names appear in the documents aren't accused of wrongdoing.
Click here to read the documents in full.
In 2019, FBI agents testified during Maxwell's trial that following a raid on Epstein's townhouse in New York City, some evidence "went missing."
FBI Special Agent Kelly Maguire testified in 2019 that during the raid of Epstein's residence, FBI agents found a safe with CDs, computer hard drives, money, jewelry and passports. During her testimony, Maguire said that FBI agents did not have a valid warrant to remove the evidence, so instead, they photographed them.
A few days later, when they returned to obtain the evidence, it was gone, The Telegraph reported.
Newsweek reached out to the FBI via email for comment.
A number of other social media users brought up the disappearance of the evidence following the release of the documents this week.
"Reminder that the FBI confiscated the Epstein tapes and has never returned them," conservative commentator and senior editor at Human Events, Jack Posobiec wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"Three days after his death, the FBI raided Epstein's private island and confiscated secretly recorded tapes supposedly of high profile clients and underage children. These tapes have never surfaced," X user Juanita Broaddrick wrote, questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray.
X user End Wokeness wrote: "On July 6, 2019 the FBI raided the Jeffrey Epstein townhouse in NYC. Agents found a safe filled with CDs, hard-drives, passports, and more. They found binders of CDs with explicit photos of his underage victims and presumably his clients too. We have not heard about them since."
Similarly, conservative radio host Buck Sexton wrote: "Epstein was running a blackmail operation based on surreptitious video, as evidenced from the extensive surveillance set ups in his various mansions. So where are the blackmail tapes/files? Ask the FBI about the ones they 'lost' in Manhattan."
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more