The Department of Justice on Friday released 3 million documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files, along with 2,000 videos and roughly 180,000 images. The latest batch included mention of celebrities like Jay-Z, Pusha T and Harvey Weinstein.
Mentions of the trio did not come from Epstein’s personal records nor reports corroborated by law enforcement. The two rappers and the disgraced Hollywood mogul were named in a tip to the FBI, which was archived as part of the Epstein investigation. The tip itself does not imply these individuals were investigated, nor does it in any way imply guilt for the accusations posed.
According to an FBI crisis intake report included in the latest Epstein release, an anonymous victim, who claimed she had been drugged and sexually abused in several instances throughout the years, said Pusha T (Terrence LeVarr Thornton) was one of her “handlers.” Also in the report, the victim said she once woke up in a room with Weinstein and Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) with her. The report also stated that because the victim was drugged in both scenarios, her memory was clouded.
Reps for Jay-Z and Pusha T did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Director Mira Nair, the mother of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, was also found in the new release. She was mentioned by name in an email from publicist Peggy Siegal to Epstein. Siegal wrote that she saw Nair at an after-party for the 2009 film “Amelia,” which Nair directed. The email implies no wrongdoing or investigation.
A rep for Nair did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Messages between Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA28 Olympics committee, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of child sex trafficking in connection with Epstein, were also included in the files. In one correspondence, Maxwell offers Wasserman a massage that could “drive a man wild.”
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In a statement obtained by Variety, Wasserman said his interactions with Maxwell occurred “over two decades ago” and were “long before her horrific crimes came to light.” He also denied any connection to Epstein.
Wasserman wrote, “I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”
After a rare, bipartisan push from Congress, President Donald Trump in November signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, which has since brought a surge of previously sealed material on the Epstein investigation into the public eye. Trump has his own complicated past with the late New York financier, but has adamantly denied any knowledge of his criminal behavior. Throughout Trump’s second term, the Epstein files have remained a cultural hot point as well as a political one, referenced on everything from “Saturday Night Live” to “South Park.”
From Variety US