With the Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein in recent weeks, East Hampton appears hundreds of times, from more mundane mentions having to do with travel plans and lunch appointments to some explosive claims, including the report of an alleged sex-trafficking ring in Amagansett and a possible sighting of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Epstein confidante and convicted sex trafficker, in East Hampton Village while she was on the run from federal law enforcement.
Some of the files read like a who’s who of the Hamptons gossip pages. There are accounts of Mr. Epstein dining with Dick Cavett, Leon Black, Andrew Farkas, and Mort Zuckerman; flying by helicopter from Manhattan to the East Hampton Airport; shopping for real estate in Northwest Woods and in Montauk, and attending parties on Further Lane. Flight logs and travel plans abound, indicating frequent visits to friends on the South Fork.
“Who will pick up Jeffrey and the girls tomorrow in East Hampton?” and “What time does Jeffrey want the girls to [be at the] house to take heli to East Hampton?” could be the tedious checklist of an assistant to any millionaire or billionaire in the Hamptons.
But Mr. Epstein was anything but the average billionaire.
A 2005 investigation into multiple counts of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18 in the state of Florida ended in Mr. Epstein’s arrest on one count of the crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigations stepped in after some police brass believed he had been given a sweetheart deal by then-State Attorney General Barry Krischer.
As federal prosecutors prepared to indict Mr. Epstein on multiple charges, the then-United States Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta — who would later become Secretary of Labor under President Trump — worked out a deal with Mr. Epstein’s attorneys to avoid prosecution on a federal level.
Mr. Epstein was convicted on state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18 in 2008. He was sentenced to an 18-month work-release program. What followed was a decade-long fight to void his agreement with Mr. Acosta.
A new federal-level investigation of Mr. Epstein was opened in 2018 and charges were brought against him in July 2019 in New York, where officials said they were not bound by the agreement made in Florida 10 years earlier.
Several months later, in August 2019, Mr. Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell in Manhattan while awaiting trial on more serious sex-trafficking charges. He had apparently hanged himself.
Many mentions in the files of East Hampton and Mr. Epstein’s well-connected friends and associates here occurred in the years after his conviction on state charges in Florida.
In a 2009 email, Peggy Siegal, a well-known East Hampton personality and high-powered entertainment publicist who is credited with bringing Mr. Epstein into the Hollywood fold, runs down a day of parties, events, and film screenings for Mr. Epstein. She then departs from that to discuss the health of a redacted individual. “Spoke to [redacted] last night. She sounds a little disoriented. I am giving her a job . . . have all young people here — doctor told me to keep it very simple. . . . Harold is also advising me how to handle the situation . . . he says meds have to kick in . . . to see any progress.”
According to an email from 2017, Mr. Epstein gifted Ms. Siegal $100,000 for her 70th birthday. In an exchange with Richard Kahn, Mr. Epstein’s accountant, Ms. Siegal offered a breakdown of how that would be or had been spent: “$30,000 for my 70th birthday party in Southampton on July 5,” “$15,000 went to Elton John’s AIDS foundation, which you paid directly, enabling me to attend a party at his house in June,” $40,000 for a carpet in her apartment. . . .
Mr. Zuckerman, whose name appears thousands of times in the files and has connections to Mr. Epstein dating back to 1983, is the editor in chief and co-publisher of U.S. News and World Report. In an email between Mr. Zuckerman and Mr. Epstein from 2009, it appears Mr. Epstein asked Mr. Zuckerman for input on a news story about the allegations against him and Ms. Maxwell.
“We r doing major editing over huge objections I just left studio and hope to c copy asap,” Mr. Zuckerman wrote in the Oct. 9, 2009, email to Mr. Epstein. Mr. Epstein replied: “take ghislaine out. If possible.. the very first plaintiff, deposed admitted in a sworn videotaped statement that she lied and was a escort , call girl since age 15. SHE took the fifth over 40 times.. its crazy.. thanks for you help.”
Mr. Epstein did not have a house in East Hampton, but some of his closest friends and associates did and still do. Like Stephen Hanson, who lives in Springs. Mr. Hanson is the owner of BR Guest Hospitality, which owns the Dos Caminos, and Blue Water Grill restaurants in Manhattan. In a text message exchange in 2019, Mr. Hanson asks if Mr. Epstein had been to visit Leon Black in the Hamptons. “I’ve been careful, as my press has been toxic. No need to put you at risk . . . hopefully changing soosn [sic].”
It appears, through numerous mentions in the files, that Mr. Hanson had personal and business ties to Mr. Epstein, which includes Mr. Hanson being picked up by Mr. Epstein’s jet in East Hampton and taken to his Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. Throughout his mentions in the files, Mr. Hanson is seen coordinating dinners, events, and shows for Mr. Epstein and also dropping off birthday and Christmas presents for him. In unredacted photos, pictures of one of the gifts show a “please take a number” ticket machine with a “now serving” neon sign. He also coordinated new dishware for “the island” — Mr. Epstein’s now-famous private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Several emails between Mr. Epstein and Mr. Kahn relate to the plane crash that killed Ben Krupinski, his wife, Bonny, their grandson, and their pilot in 2018. Mr. Krupinski built the Southampton house of Mr. Black, the ex-C.E.O. of Apollo Global Management. Mr. Black appears in the files over 8,000 times and by some accounts was a crucial source of Mr. Epstein’s wealth in his final years.
Marc Rowan, the billionaire C.E.O. of Apollo Global Management, partner of Mr. Black, and owner of Duryea’s in Montauk, met with Mr. Epstein for breakfast on multiple occasions. Mr. Epstein tried to buy Mr. Rowan’s private jet for $18.95 million in 2016.
Ms. Maxwell was charged with crimes relating to recruiting women for human trafficking and was accused of abusing victims herself in 2020, but was on the run when she was allegedly spotted in East Hampton Village.
According to an F.B.I. memo on July 2, 2020, someone reported seeing Ms. Maxwell in East Hampton Village within days of her eventual capture in New Hampshire. An unnamed woman called the F.B.I., saying that a friend she had been with that day knew and recognized Ms. Maxwell because she had shopped frequently in the friend’s “small, high-end” Sag Harbor boutique. When seen in East Hampton, Ms. Maxwell had been “wearing ‘homely clothes’ in order not to draw attention to herself,” according to the woman’s account in the F.B.I. memo. She became “visibly panicked” and rushed to get in a car and leave the scene immediately, the witness told the F.B.I.
That information was passed between two unknown law enforcement agencies after it was documented, with one person asking another, “does this mean anything to you?”
Perhaps more ominous is an email exchange in 2020 within the Suffolk County Police Department Human Trafficking Investigations Unit. The email originates from a national hotline after a call received by a now-redacted individual accusing the head of a model agency of running a child sex-trafficking ring in Amagansett for many years prior. The caller alleged that Rachel Chandler “recruited minor females for Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein’s girlfriend, Maxwell.”
A long-form version of the memo says the accused allegedly procured girls from the beach for Mr. Epstein. In a corresponding F.B.I. report, a redacted victim said she “thinks Maxwell and Chandler are linked because there is a photo seen with them together. Chandler had pictures of naked children, children not even from this country, and kids with black eyes on her Instagram.”
A 2019 F.B.I. crisis intake form that was submitted online states, “If you go on Tumblr and look at Rachel Chandler Tumblr there is an inappropriate picture of a clearly underage boy.” The report ends with the statement: “I would look into this woman a bit maybe.”
Ms. Chandler is the co-founder of the Midland Agency, a modeling agency, and has been pictured with Mr. Epstein and appears in other files released by the D.O.J., including an F.B.I. memo that appears to have spurred the emails to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Also in the files are many back-and-forth Blackberry conversations between Mr. Epstein and Faith Kates, founder of Next Model Management and an East Hampton resident. Ms. Kates stepped down from her position in the company in December when the extent of her ties to Mr. Epstein began to be revealed.
In 2018 Ms. Kates enlisted Mr. Epstein’s help in getting her son into college, asking him to connect her with Mr. Rowan, who was on the board of the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Wolff, the author of four books on the presidency of Donald Trump who is now working on a book about Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Epstein, lives in Amagansett. Mr. Wolff features heavily in the released files with many emails passing between the two while Mr. Wolff wrote his books. In 2019, he appears to advise Mr. Epstein in his communications with an investigative reporter looking into the charges levied against him. Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, was looped in on these emails.
The D.O.J. said earlier this week that they had released all the files in their possession, contradicting their claim earlier this month that three million files were yet to be released.
The files can be found at justice.gov/Epstein, the department asks that people confirm they are 18 and over before viewing them.
