Good morning. The mills of God may grind slowly, but the wheels of the US justice department appear to turn even more sluggishly when it comes to those connected with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Over the past few days, the release of millions of previously sealed documents relating to Epstein has reignited scrutiny of his relationships with politicians, business leaders and public figures around the world. But amid the frenzy over names and emails, there are growing concerns that the disclosure risks repeating a familiar pattern: centring powerful men, while the experiences of survivors once again slip into the background.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the award-winning Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman, who has been closely following the release of the files, about what they really tell us – and why some survivors are increasingly frustrated by the way the story is being handled. But first, the headlines.
Five big stories
Jeffrey Epstein | Peter Mandelson is facing a possible police investigation into his alleged leak of market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein at the height of the financial crisis; and the charity of Sarah Ferguson has announced it is closing after new revelations emerged about the former duchess’s friendship with Epstein.
UK news | Dan Norris, a former Labour minister and now an independent MP, has been arrested for a second time on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, voyeurism and upskirting. Norris has denied the allegations.
Doctors | Resident doctors in England have voted in favour of continuing industrial action over the next six months, the British Medical Association has announced.
Gaza | The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been reopened by Israel for people on foot, as fragile diplomatic efforts inch forward. According to an Egyptian official, only 50 Palestinians will be permitted to cross in each direction on the first day of operations.
Environment | A damning report has found that the EU’s renewable energy targets for 2030 are “out of reach” because of lack of progress in domestic production, refining and recycling.
In depth: ‘We must remember who has already paid the highest price’
In June 2008, the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from someone under 18, as part of a plea deal. He was released on probation after 13 months in prison. In July 2019, he was arrested on sex trafficking charges involving allegations that date back to the early 2000s, and accused of paying underage girls for massages, and molesting them. Having pleaded not guilty, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell a month later. In December 2021, a court found Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex-trafficking.
Those are the bare judicial facts. But, Amelia Gentleman says, they tell only a fraction of the story.
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A network of entitled, powerful enablers
A few days before I spoke to Amelia, she had interviewed the US lawyer Lisa Bloom (pictured above), who represents 11 of Epstein’s victims. It was, she says, “good timing”, as it was just ahead of when the latest tranche of files was released. Bloom has spent four decades handling some of the most serious sexual assault cases in the US, yet considers Epstein’s exceptional. Not because of the scale of one man’s abuse, but because of what surrounded it.
“It’s relatively easy to get your head around the idea of one person behaving in an abusive and exploitative way,” Amelia says. “What’s much harder – and much more disturbing – is the extent of the network of powerful enablers around him.”
That network is only now coming fully into view. Bloom told Amelia she was “flabbergasted” by the scale of Epstein’s connections – and by how many influential figures appeared to regard his behaviour as, at best, something to joke about.
One of the most revealing aspects of the files, Amelia says, is not only who appears in them, but also the tone of the correspondence. Emails and messages exchanged between Epstein and his contacts are often casual and jokey, even flippant – discussing young women and “massages” in a way that suggests normal moral boundaries simply did not apply.
“It tells you something about this elite class of entitled, powerful people, who are almost exclusively men,” Amelia says. “There’s a sense that ordinary norms of behaviour are too trivial or too bourgeois for them to bother with.”
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Who faces consequences – and who doesn’t?
The US justice department has indicated it does not expect the release of the files to lead to further prosecutions – being mentioned in the releases is not in itself any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. As deputy US attorney general Todd Blanche put it: “there’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr Epstein or by people around him … that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”
For many of those named, the likely outcome will be a short burst of reputational damage, followed by a return to business as usual.
Some figures, Amelia notes, have faced consequences – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his ex-wife, and Peter Mandelson for example – but those consequences have often been slow, partial and driven by public pressure rather than legal accountability. “The court of public opinion has been pretty harsh on a lot of those at the centre of this,” she adds.
For survivors, that can still be deeply frustrating. Many of the people who appear in the documents have not committed prosecutable offences. Yet their behaviour, Amelia says, is still “depressing and gross”, raising uncomfortable questions about what accountability should look like when criminal law falls short.
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Why survivors are angry about the release
One of the sharpest criticisms that victims and their advocates have had about the latest disclosure has been around the protracted, piecemeal release of the files – Amelia says Bloom was clear it has made an already traumatic process worse.
“From the victims’ point of view, this started a long time ago,” Amelia says. “You might reasonably have expected some form of justice or closure years ago. Instead, there’s been this incredibly slow, grudging drip-feed of information.”
There have also been concerns about redactions and about the theatrical way the release has been used politically, with survivors complaining that their privacy has not always been adequately protected.
All of this is on top of what seems to be a systemic mishandling of the Epstein case from the start. Bloom has issued a lawsuit against the FBI, which alleges that the agency hung up the telephone on one of the first women to try to report Epstein, and that it had credible reports of Epstein’s sexual misconduct involving minors as far back as 1996.
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‘These are life-shattering stories’
Amelia points to the case of Virginia Giuffre as a cautionary reminder. Giuffre became one of the most prominent voices to accuse Epstein and his associates, yet her experience underlines that even those who appeared to gain a platform still lived with the long-term effects of trauma. Giuffre took her own life in April 2025.
“Abuse like this has lifelong consequences,” Amelia says. “We know about the links to trauma, mental ill health and suicidality.”
That, she says, is the real lesson of the files. Beyond the names and the speculation, they expose how power, entitlement and mutual back-scratching can shade into corruption – and how easily institutions, from banks to law enforcement agencies, can look the other way.
In the rush to read and republish what has been released, Amelia argues, the responsibility on journalists is simple but demanding: to keep the victims at the centre, and to remember who has already paid the highest price.
“We have to keep reminding ourselves that these are not just intriguing stories about powerful men – they are life-shattering stories about women.”
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
What else we’ve been reading
“Do they have no ‘human decency’, no compassion? Have they forgotten that they were once children themselves?” asks Francine Prose in a moving column about the ICE agents who detain young children, including five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos (pictured above). Lucinda Everett, newsletters team
Singer Lucie Jones has an adorable line about the baby she is expecting while performing in Les Misérables – “I’m hoping she comes out waving a red flag and marching” – in this interview by Chris Wiegand. Martin
Putting a stink bomb in Stephen Fry’s shoe, getting complaints about how “birds can’t be Christians”, and the origins of “Ulrika-ka-ka” – I loved reading how Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer made Shooting Stars. Lucinda
Anna Moore’s piece on the life-shattering effects of ‘in-person romance fraud’ – from financial ruin to the trauma of being duped by someone you loved – is a startling read. Lucinda
Writing for the Conversation, Jonatan Sodergren looks at the bizarre rebranding of parts of London’s tube to advertise a beer brand – including making the maps wrong. Martin
Sport
Football | Jean-Philippe Mateta will be reintegrated into Crystal Palace’s squad after the France striker’s deadline-day move to Milan collapsed, but he faces competition for his place from the new club-record signing Jørgen Strand Larsen. Check all the big moves in the men’s and women’s transfer windows.
Football | Sunderland easily beat struggling Burnley 3-0 to move up to eighth in the Premier League standings.
Rugby | Jamie George is to captain England in their Six Nations opener against Wales on Saturday, with Maro Itoje named on the bench and Henry Arundell selected for a first start in three years.
The front pages
“Calls for Mandelson to face police inquiry over alleged leak to Epstein” is top story at the Guardian. The Mail has “Labour’s dark lord now faces a criminal inquiry”, the Times splashes on “Police look into Epstein ‘leaks from Mandelson’” and the Telegraph says “Mandelson leaked No 10 emails to Epstein”. Elsewhere, it’s more on Lord Mandelson – The Mirror has “Mandelson … Police probe Epstein links” and the i paper says “Lord Mandelson reported to police for leaking No 10 files to Epstein”. The FT leads on “Trump to cut India tariffs after Modi ‘agrees’ halt in Russian oil purchases”, while the Sun has “Kim & Lew’s 3 dates in 3 nights” – in reference to Kim Kardashian and Lewis Hamilton.
Today in Focus
Will China replace the US on the world stage?
A succession of political leaders have been trooping to Beijing in recent months. Is it an indication of a new world order? Tania Branigan explains.
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
It would be hard to argue that modern life has not hijacked our attention – we have as many as 50,000 thoughts per day, and many of us fight a daily battle against distractions. But the authors of a new book provide hope that we can retrain our brains to pay attention and reframe our thinking. “We like to play the blame game with focus,” says Oscar de Bos, co-author with Mark Tigchelaar of Focus On-Off. But many of the most common difficulties, “you can solve for yourself.”
In a conversation with Elle Hunt, the Dutch experts bust myths about concentration and offer some counterintuitive suggestions to improve our concentration. For instance, instead of waiting for silence to focus, challenge your brain to work harder. Noisy colleagues? Read faster. Boring work? Crank up your favourite playlist.
“We get so nervous about not being productive,” says De Bos. Instead, we should ask ourselves: how can we limit daily disruptions and decision-making? What routines and activities can we replace doomscrolling with? And when do we just need to take a break? “The time is now to start thinking about it, and make some decisions: what does work-life look like?” Sometimes, the answer to all of these questions really is that less is more.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
