INDIA IN THE EPSTEIN FILES? SORTING FACTS FROM FICTION IN A WORLDWIDE CONTROVERSY

Fact-checkers and newsrooms have already shot down many viral posts that randomly drag Indian celebrities into the Epstein files — none of their names appear in the primary documents released so far.

- TDG NETWORK

Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle has been under intense scrutiny. For example, Ghislaine Maxwell (center) – Epstein’s longtime associate and former partner – was charged in 2020 and later convicted of helping traffic minors. Maxwell was found guilty in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence. The trove of “Epstein files” being unsealed today includes documents and emails from cases like hers (Maxwell’s 2015 civil suit with Virginia Giuffre). Importantly, most of these records had already been partially public: a federal judge noted they named many of Epstein’s accusers, staff and trial witnesses – not secret conspirators. In short, investigators are re‐examining an old case in extreme detail, rather than exposing a brand-new “client list.”

Early CrimEs and thE maxwEll CasE (2005–2021)

Epstein was first caught in a sex‐trafficking investigation in 2005. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Palm Beach, Florida, receiving an unusually light 13‐month sentence under a federal plea deal. Over the next decade he mingled with the world’s elite, cultivating friends and associates from royalty to Hollywood to politics.

In July 2019, Epstein was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on charges of running a massive trafficking ring. Less than a month later he died by suicide in jail, cutting off the criminal prosecution. (Conspiracy theories about his death immediately sprang up, but fact-checkers have found no evidence linking anyone – Trump, Clinton, or others – to his killing.)