A single-page FBI document buried inside the Department of Justice's sprawling Epstein file release has surfaced an unverified 2019 tip linking Miami Beach nightlife figure Michael Capponi to alleged 'casting parties' held at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate during the same period Epstein and Trump were known to socialise there.
The document, catalogued as EFTA01244937 and published as part of Data Set 9 on the DOJ's Epstein Library, is a one-page crisis intake form completed by FBI staff on 11 July 2019. It records an anonymous tip submitted the previous day, 10 July 2019, via the FBI's National Threat Operations Centre at tips.fbi.gov.
No charges have been brought. No investigation of Capponi has been publicly announced. The document carries no indication that the FBI assessed the tip as credible, acted on it, or ever interviewed Capponi in connection with the Epstein case.
What the FBI Document Actually Says
The form is headed with the case identifier 31E-NY-3027571, filed under the matter heading 'EPSTEIN, JEFFREY; CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING.' An anonymous tipster, identified only by their internet protocol address, submitted the following claim: 'This is about the Jeffrey Epstein case.
There's a man on Miami Beach by the name of Michael Capponi who sent shuttle busses full of underage models to Mar-a-Lago 'casting parties' during the time when Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were partying together there in the 1990's. You need to interview this man because more than a few of the girls quit modeling immediately after attending one of those parties.'
The document records no follow-up action, no investigative notation, and no assessment of the tip's reliability. It is one of thousands of anonymous tips the FBI received during the Epstein investigation and subsequently disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed in November 2025 and Trump signed into law.
When the DOJ released millions of documents on 30 January 2026, it included a statement acknowledging that its public repository 'may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production.' The department added: 'Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false.' That statement applied to the broader release; it is unclear whether it specifically covered this 2019 document.
There is no public record of Michael Capponi being charged, investigated, or subpoenaed in connection with the Epstein case, at any point, under any jurisdiction. No civil lawsuit names him in the matter. This publication has found no court record, law enforcement proceeding, or government communication that corroborates the anonymous tip's claims.
The Broader Context: Mar-A-Lago, Epstein, and the Files Still Missing
The tip surfaces during a period of intense scrutiny over the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files more broadly. The Epstein Files Transparency Act mandated the release of all non-exempt materials by 19 December 2025. What followed was a months-long, legally contentious process that left significant questions unresolved about what the government has actually disclosed.
Trump and Epstein were known associates during the 1990s. In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Trump called Epstein a 'terrific guy' who 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' Trump revoked Epstein's membership at Mar-a-Lago in October 2007, and the two had a falling-out in the early 2000s. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.
Additional tips about Mar-a-Lago have appeared in the released files. The DOJ's 30 January 2026 release included a separate 2020 anonymous tip from a woman who alleged she had been brought to what she understood to be a 'party for prostitutes' at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 by a Ghislaine Maxwell associate. That tip, too, is unverified. The DOJ explicitly noted it could not confirm its credibility and characterised such tips as potentially 'untrue and sensationalist.'
Of greater legal weight are the documents the DOJ has not released. NPR's investigation published 24 February 2026 found that summaries of at least three FBI interviews with a woman who made sexual abuse allegations against Trump were missing from the public database, despite being logged in internal FBI case indices.
The Justice Department confirmed on 26 February 2026 that it is examining whether it wrongly withheld those files, saying: 'Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.' As of the time of publication, those documents remain absent from the public repository.
Separately, NBC News reported that summaries from three of four FBI interviews with a South Carolina woman, who alleged both Epstein-related abuse and separate sexual abuse by Trump decades earlier, have not been made public. The White House has denied any wrongdoing, pointing to the DOJ's statement that such claims are 'unfounded and false.' House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia told reporters: 'We are witnessing a White House cover-up of serious allegations against the president by a survivor.'
The anonymous tip naming Capponi sits within this deeply contested and still-incomplete public record. It is a one-page document containing unverified allegations from an unknown source, received by the FBI during a period of mass tip submission around a high-profile arrest. It does not constitute evidence of wrongdoing. What it does illustrate is the extraordinary breadth of the Epstein files, and the degree to which the public is still, months into the mandated release, working with an incomplete picture.
The full truth of what happened inside Mar-a-Lago during the 1990s, and who knew about it, may yet depend on which files the Justice Department decides to release next.
