The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019) was an American financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of serial sex trafficking of women and girls. Along with his convicted confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell, he systematically groomed and sexually abused (and enabled the sexual abuse of) hundreds and hundreds of young women and girls. Through his successful financial career, Epstein became a multimillionaire and developed a social circle that included extremely wealthy individuals, prominent politicians, and even royalty. While jailed and awaiting a federal sex-trafficking trial, Epstein killed himself by hanging.

Since he died in 2019, many prominent political and media leaders have demanded that the US release his “client list.”  In October 2024, JD Vance, then a candidate for vice president, said, “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.”  Before he was Trump’s director of the F.B.I., Kash Patel told Glenn Beck that the F.B.I. had Epstein’s “black book” and that it was “under direct control of the director of the F.B.I.” In 2023, Patel told Benny Johnson, a MAGA podcaster, that members of Congress should “put on your big-boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. “In September 2024, Dan Bongino, now the deputy director of the F.B.I., told his listeners, “Folks, the Epstein client list is a huge deal” that would “rock the Democrat Party.”

One of Epstein’s most powerful friends was Donald Trump. David French summarizes that relationship:  “They flew together, they partied together, and in 2002, Trump told New York magazine: ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.’  But Trump also made this ominous observation, ‘It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ After Maxwell’s arrest, Trump said: ‘I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.’”

In July in an unsigned memorandum, Trump’s Department of Justice declared that there was no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein maintained a client list or that he blackmailed prominent individuals for various misdeeds. The memorandum also declared that Epstein committed suicide.  Many of Trump’s supporters exploded in outrage.  Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and even Marjorie Taylor Greene demanded that Trump release all of the Epstein files.  President Trump then ordered the Department of Justice to seek the release of some grand jury testimony—a request that a federal judge in Florida has denied. But even that information, though it might have filled in some gaps in the Epstein story, would have been only a sliver of what’s in the F.B.I. files—which include a mind-boggling “300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” according to the Department of Justice and the F.B.I.

As Barry Levine correctly argues, “The American people—and above all, the victims of Mr. Epstein’s crimes—deserve answers to outstanding questions about how he operated, with whose help and in whose service. With the exception of redactions required to protect the innocent and materials that must be withheld while under court seal, the complete F.B.I. files should be released.”  Levin posits that there are nine unanswered questions about the Epstein case that the files might help answer:

1. How did Mr. Epstein make his money, and how did he finance his sex trafficking over two decades?  At the time of Mr. Epstein’s death in 2019, his estate was worth an estimated$600 million. He worked briefly on Wall Street and built his wealth with the help of several billionaires, including the L Brands founder Leslie Wexner and the Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, for whom Mr. Epstein provided consulting, tax advice and other financial services. But it’s still not clear how Mr. Epstein amassed such a large fortune — or how he was able to fund such a complex trafficking scheme.

“In addition to trafficking underage victims within the United States, Mr. Epstein imported young women and children from Russia, Belarus, Turkey and Turkmenistan, according to an investigation conducted by the office of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. This trafficking was presumably expensive. Treasury Department files reviewed by Mr. Wyden’s staff members detail, among other things, 4,725 wire transfers adding up to nearly $1.1 billion associated with just one of Mr. Epstein’s bank accounts.”

2.   Did Mr. Epstein have any ties to spy agencies?  “Some have speculated that Mr. Epstein might have been acting as an intelligence asset. One suggestive comment was apparently made by Alexander Acosta when, after the 2016 presidential election, he was being vetted for secretary of labor in Mr. Trump’s first administration. In 2008, as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Mr. Acosta agreed to a lenient — and heavily criticized — plea deal that ended a federal investigation into Mr. Epstein. When asked in 2016 to explain that decision, Mr. Acosta reportedly said, “I was told Mr. Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.”
3. Are there references to Mr. Trump in the files that add to our knowledge of his relationship with Mr. Epstein?  Trump has acknowledged being friendly with Mr. Epstein for about 15 years, ending with a falling out over a real estate matter in 2004.  “Mr. Trump has not been accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing related to Mr. Epstein, but his relationship with Mr. Epstein has come under scrutiny.  On 23 July 2025, The New York Timesand The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Mr. Trump this spring that his name appeared in the Epstein files. The context in which his name was raised remains unclear.”
4. What about Bill Clinton?  “Collecting famous friends seemed to be integral to Mr. Epstein’s business model—and Bill Clinton was the most famous. In a contact book, Mr. Epstein listed 21 phone numbers for Mr. Clinton.  The two men met decades ago, most likely through Mr. Epstein’s close friend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell . . .   After he left office in 2001, Mr. Clinton flew on Mr. Epstein’s private jets for 26 flights from 2002 to 2003, according to flight logs . . .    A full accounting of the F.B.I.’s Epstein files might help clarify the nature of Mr. Clinton’s relationship with Mr. Epstein.”
5. Who were the clients implicated in Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking operation?  “The lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who joined Mr. Epstein’s legal team in 2005 when Mr. Epstein was first under investigation, said that young women and girls interviewed by the F.B.I. claimed to identify several of Mr. Epstein’s clients. Mr. Dershowitz wrote recentlythat their identities “should be disclosed but the courts have ordered them sealed.” He added: “I know who they are. They don’t include any current officeholders. We don’t know whether the accusations are true.”
6. Who helped Mr. Epstein overseas?  “One associate of Mr. Epstein was the French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, who faced his own allegations of sexual assault and died behind bars in Paris in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape charges.  Mr. Brunel was accused of grooming minors and trafficking them to Mr. Epstein. After Mr. Epstein’s conviction in Florida, court documents assertthat Mr. Epstein continued his abuse of girls and had a steady supply of victims ferried to him in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  According to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general of the Virgin Islands, Mr. Epstein used private planes, helicopters, boats and other vehicles to bring young women and girls to his island residence there. The scheme led to the molestation and exploitation of “numerous” girls between 12 and 17 years old, according to legal papers.”
7. What did investigators find in Mr. Epstein’s safe, computers and other property?  “An evidence inventory made during multiple investigations of Mr. Epstein by law enforcement resulted in a three-page index generated by the F.B.I. According to the index, the evidence included 40 computer and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices — along with approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photos, travel logs and employee logs. The records, according to ABC News, also included three discs containing the outcome of court-authorized intercepts of a phone number previously belonging to Ms. Maxwell.”
8. What do the videos show?  “Victims have said that Mr. Epstein had cameras in his homes. The Department of Justice and the F.B.I. have saidthat the Epstein files contain more than 10,000 downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex material and other pornography. The A.P. recently reported on a court filing in which Mr. Epstein’s estate was said to have located an unspecified number of videos and photos that it said might contain child sex abuse material. The F.B.I. files could provide more details about when and where this material was uncovered.”
9. What is in Mr. Epstein’s autopsy report?  “The autopsy was performed by Kristin Roman, a forensic pathologist, at the direction of Barbara Sampson, New York’s chief medical examiner at the time. Dr. Sampson determined that Mr. Epstein died by suicide, but many are skeptical. Were DNA tests performed on the bedsheet that Mr. Epstein was said to have used to hang himself? If so, was any foreign DNA detected? Did investigators question inmates in nearby cells about what they heard or saw?”

Jeffrey Epstein exemplified human depravity at its worst.  He answered to no one except himself, and he believed that he could abuse women, even young girls, with impunity.  He also involved many other powerful people in this abuse.  All need to be held accountable.

Theologian Wayne Grudem captures the horrific results of human depravity, which began with the sin of Adam and Eve.  We see these results in the life of Jeffrey Epstein:

• Sin strikes at the basis for moral/ethical standards —i.e., “What is right?”  In the Garden, God defined what was right and wrong.  The test of that standard was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, from which they were not to eat.   Adam and Eve were moral creatures and, when faced with an ethical standard, had the capacity to choose obedience or disobedience.  Satan knew that and successfully challenged God’s goodness and His ethical standards; Adam and Eve joined the rebellion.  As God’s revelation continued to unfold throughout history, humanity has persistently defined “what is right” its own way; ignoring the standards that God as Creator and Sustainer of all life had revealed.
• Sin also gives a different answer to the question, “Who am I?”  The correct answer was that Adam and Eve were created persons:  Of value and worth as God’s image-bearers, yet dependent on Him and subordinate to Him as dominion stewards (Gen.1:26ff).  But once they sinned, the answer changed— a declaration of independence from God.  Since Genesis 3, humanity has been pursuing autonomy from God—a rejection of Him personally and of His standards.  In the Postmodern world of today, humanity has embraced a thoroughgoing pursuit of autonomy, defined as a rejection of authority and ethical standards, all in the name of individual rights and liberties.  [“Every man is doing what is right in his own eyes.”]

See David French in the New York Times (14 July 2025); and Barry Levine in the New York Times (27 July 2025).