Jeffrey Epstein had the private phone numbers and addresses of the very rich and very famous in an address book seized by the FBI during its investigation of a sex trafficking ring he operated for more than a decade.
The contents of his address book, posted online Monday by House investigators, listed the work and personal phone numbers, car phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, and home and business addresses of royalty from around the world, the Kennedys and the Trumps, governors, entertainment stars including Alec Baldwin, model and actress Christy Turlington, Ralph Fiennes and some of the wealthiest people in the United States and abroad, among them the Soroses and Ecclestones.
None of the people listed in Epstein’s address book is implicated or charged with any wrongdoing, and none is accused of participating in Epstein’s trafficking of girls as young as 14 for sex with him and, allegedly, a select group of his friends.
The list does show that Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019, had easy and deep access to the upper echelons of society, even as he preyed on underage girls.
The address book contains the contacts of lords, ladies, viscounts and princesses. It listed 18 phone numbers to reach Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, including those at Buckingham Palace and Balmoral Castle. It also included private numbers for former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, publishing mogul Conrad Black and the late entertainer Jimmy Buffett.
Multiple ways were listed to contact legendary Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman, including on his “private line,” and several numbers to contact talent agent and Creative Artists Agency founder Michael Ovitz, billionaire businessman Les Wexner and designer Vera Wang.
The addresses and phone numbers were photocopied from Epstein’s original “black book,” which estate attorneys told House investigators was likely in the FBI’s possession.
Authorities said Epstein committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The address book served as a source of potential witnesses in his criminal investigation, and it is among the material in the “Epstein files” that the government is slowly releasing to the public through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are debating whether to pass a measure that would force the Justice Department to immediately make public all the files associated with Epstein rather than wait for Justice Department attorneys to review, redact and possibly extract material that could incriminate powerful people.
The oversight panel is also seeking documents from Epstein’s estate. Estate attorneys who turned over the address book and other material told lawmakers that they did not have a “client list” compiled by Epstein that would purportedly reveal the names of men who engaged in sexual activities with girls and women lured into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
“We are not aware of the existence of a ‘list of clients involved in sex, sex acts, or sex trafficking facilitated by Mr. Jeffrey Epstein,’” the estate attorneys wrote to the oversight panel Monday.
However, they handed over the “Birthday Book,” compiled by girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and signed by Epstein’s influential friends when he turned 50 in 2003. Maxwell was convicted in 2019 of acting as Epstein’s accomplice in his sex trafficking operation and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The book she compiled for his birthday 15 years earlier is loaded with sexual references and innuendoes, including a sexually suggestive drawing and message with what appears to be President Trump’s signature. The message refers to “a wonderful secret” between the two men. Mr. Trump said the message and signature were fake and that he had not produced them.
The birthday book includes a short and friendly 50th birthday note from former President Bill Clinton, who praised Epstein for his “childlike curiosity” and “drive to make a difference.”
Both presidents palled around with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s and traveled on Epstein’s private jet.
Business magnate Bill Elkus wrote a birthday note to Epstein, saying it was “no secret” that Epstein “appreciates beautiful women.” It recounted Epstein persuading a woman he met in a bookstore in Iowa to return to New York with him on his private jet.
A cartoon drawing in the birthday book labeled “1983” depicts Epstein offering balloons and a lollipop to a group of girls next to an image in “2003” of women massaging Epstein and providing oral sex. Below the drawing is the message “What a great country!”
Epstein’s address book provided extensive contact information for his famous friends and for dozens of ordinary women who gave him “massages.”
Interspersed with the phone numbers of the rich and famous are long lists of women around the country and the globe, their names and numbers listed under “massage” in Paris, New Mexico, Britain, the Virgin Islands and Florida. Epstein’s “massage” contacts for Florida listed dozens of names of women and took up a page and a half of his address book. Some women are listed specifically for “foot” massages.
A page tucked into the photocopied address book appears to have been handwritten by investigators in 2019 when the book was seized.
It flagged potential key witnesses among his contacts who could be important in the criminal case against him.
They included Epstein’s personal driver and the Secret Service personnel who escorted former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak aboard Epstein’s private jet.
Investigators flagged the contact information for a man named David Cook. They identified him as someone who “interacted and chat daily with underage girls” at Epstein’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Investigators list modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel as a “Scout for young females.”
Epstein’s personal chef and renowned New York City chef Charlie Palmer are also listed as potentially important witnesses.
Investigators also wrote down the names of 35 females they identified under “visitors massage” at his Palm Beach residence.
According to grand jury documents and victims, Epstein created a vast network of women, dozens of them underage, whom he sexually exploited after offering to pay them to provide him with massages while they were nude or partially nude.
The massages, prosecutors say in court documents, “would become increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts.”
Some of Epstein’s victims appeared on Capitol Hill last week but did not identify anyone other than Epstein. They said they planned to interview other female victims to compile a list of Epstein’s powerful friends who were sexually involved with the girls trafficked by Epstein. One of the victims, the late Virginia Giuffre, sued Prince Andrew. She said he forced her to have sex with him when she was a minor. The two settled the case out of court in 2022.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.