Trump's survival instinct might be his No. 1 asset; he used it to defund one Epstein-related probe and to plant a roadblock for another. What will he try next?

Zorro Ranch in New Mexico (PBS)

We have had two reports this week of the Trump administration trying to shut down investigations connected to the Epstein files. That raises this question: Why would Trump and his toadies be trying to keep anyone from scrutinizing documents surrounding the legal, financial, and "other" matters of the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein? Let's allow that question to percolate for a few moments as we examine events that suggest the White House is perplexed about matters that go beyond the war in Iran.

The most recent instance of the Trump regime trying to suck the life out of an Epstein-related probe came on Tuesday evening when U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), a Trump ally who probably spoke out of turn by accident, said the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) asked New Mexico investigators to shut down a 2019 probe into a ranch owned by convicted child-sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. That's from a jointly published report at Mediaite and Yahoo! News, and reporter Zachary Leeman provides more details:

Comer joined Fox News’s Jesse Watters on Tuesday evening after New Mexico authorities searched a ranch in the state once owned by Epstein. Victims of Epstein have said they were trafficked at the ranch. This is the second time the property has been investigated.

The property was being probed in 2019, but federal investigators reportedly took over and shut things down. Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while incarcerated awaiting sex trafficking charges.

Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on Tuesday:

The federal government asked New Mexico to stop their investigation, I believe  back in 2019, of that ranch. So there’s just so many questions about how the government failed the victims and how government failed in trying to prosecute Epstein sooner. I mean, this whole thing doesn’t make sense. Everyone has conspiracy theories on how Epstein was able to get away with it. Was it because he had powerful friends? Was it because he was an agent? We don’t know, but we’re gonna find out and I’m glad that they’re on the ground now in New Mexico searching that property.

Rational people generally do not tune to Fox News for serious journalism. But in this instance, Jesse Watters at least proved he was paying attention to what Comer said:

“Congressman, you said in 2019 the government told New Mexico authorities to stand down in investigating the ranch,” Watters replied. “Do you know what branch of the government?”

It was the Department of Justice, I believe. And I believe it was because they had– I believe, it perhaps was Southern District of New York because they had taken over the investigation at that point. So, again these are questions that we have. We want to get the answers.

We have to give Comer credit for one thing: He said New Mexico officials were on the ground "now" searching the former Epstein property -- and a subsequent report from CNN on Tuesday evening proves he was right. Michael Williams writes:

Authorities in New Mexico launched a search this week of a sprawling ranch formerly owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has come under renewed interest after allegations surrounding the estate were included in files recently released by the US Justice Department.

The New Mexico Department of Justice announced the Monday morning search of the property, known as Zorro Ranch, in a brief statement posted to its website. It is part of the criminal investigation announced by state authorities last month into allegations of illegal activity surrounding the ranch at the time Epstein, who died in 2019, owned it.

The statement did not indicate whether anything of interest has been found during the search or how long it is expected to continue.

The family of Donald Huffines, a Republican politician and businessman from Texas, purchased Zorro Ranch via a limited liability company (LLC), and the secluded property has been renamed San Rafael Ranch, according to a report at the Santa Fe New Mexican. CNN's Williams, hinting at Trumpian interference, writes:

The ranch had previously not been subject to the same level of law enforcement scrutiny as Epstein’s other properties in New York, South Florida and the Caribbean. But following the release of federal government files related to Epstein, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez ordered the reopening of the state’s criminal investigation into the property, which he said closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors.

Included in the millions of files released by the Justice Department in late January was a 2019 email received by a local radio host that alleged  “somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G.” That allegation is unverified, but it is also not clear to what extent it had been investigated by law enforcement before the recent renewed interest in Epstein.

The host, Eddy Aragon, previously told CNN that he believed the email was sent to him by someone who worked at the ranch but wouldn’t disclose who he thought the person was. He said he tried sending an email to the address, but it bounced back. The files show he forwarded the allegations to a redacted email address four days after receiving it. . . . 

The release of the email sent to Aragon prompted Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico’s commissioner of public lands, to send a letter last month asking the state Department of Justice to investigate the claims. She told CNN in February that the special investigative office of the New Mexico DOJ later reached out to her for “background information” on state lands and her agency’s processes and documents it released in 2019.

Garcia Richard told CNN on Tuesday that the New Mexico State Land Office granted the state Department of Justice a right of entry to the state land portions of the property for 180 days, which can be renewed.

“I just feel very gratified that it seems like the New Mexico Department of Justice has been responsive to the mounting calls for someone finally to go out to that property — both the state land and the private part of the ranch — and look for evidence, gather evidence,” Garcia Richard said.

What about the other incident of White House interference with the investigative process? We addressed that in Wednesday's Legal Schnauzer post, which was based on the original investigative reporting of Jason Leopold from Bloomberg News. From our post:

An informant's tip that Jeffrey Epstein was involved in the funding and distribution of so-called club drugs -- including ecstasy, ketamine, and methamphetamine -- led to the noted sex trafficker becoming part of a long-running federal investigation of organized crime that had been secret until now. That's from a new story by investigative reporter Jason Leopold at Bloomberg News. It's a winding tale that provides valuable insight on Epstein and the powerful figures in his orbit. It also raises many disturbing questions, and No. 1 on the list is this: Why did the second Trump administration, in September 2025, defund and shut down a government task force known for its ability to combat illicit finance and take down transnational criminal networks. In other words, it was exactly the kind of outfit that needed to be front and center on the Epstein case. But Trump shut it down. Is that because Trump saw a need to stunt the Epstein probe in any way he could, thereby protecting himself and perhaps any political or corporate toadies who support him? We invite you to ponder that question as you follow the trail Leopold and Bloomberg have set out for us, presenting the very latest reporting on the Epstein saga.

What was the task force that Trump targeted? Our post provides details, with the help of Leopold's reporting:

In December 2010, long before Epstein or anyone in his circle surfaced in their probe, the DEA and the FBI started investigating a drug trafficking operation in nightclubs in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, South Carolina, and Mexico, according to the five people familiar with the case. One person who’d been arrested in connection with the probe had attempted to ship a package to Florida containing ecstasy tablets and ketamine, a drug known to facilitate date rape.

The following year, the DEA requested the help of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a Reagan-era Justice Department division made up of hundreds of prosecutors and thousands of intelligence and law enforcement personnel from across the federal government. OCDETF, as it’s called, worked jointly on investigations with other agencies to combat illicit finance and take down transnational criminal networks. Getting OCDETF’s buy-in unlocked additional funding and resources — including access to its fusion center, which the DOJ called “the single largest repository of federal and foreign investigative reporting throughout the federal government.”

Last year, as Bloomberg News first reported, OCDETF was defunded and shut down amid the Trump administration’s cost-cutting spree, sparking alarm among law enforcement officers given the task forces’ achievements over the decades, which included a leading role in the 2019 capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The administration transferred various responsibilities, including 5,000 existing cases, to a new set of task forces under the Department of Homeland Security that are focused mainly on immigration enforcement. In short, Trump took the task force duties away from veteran professionals and put them under Kristi Noem, who since has been ousted when the raging incompetence on her watch became too much for even Trump to stomach. 

What were the chances that a task force under the direction of Kristi Noem would would discover anything worthwhile? The correct answer probably is "zero." With the OCDETF dispersed and unfunded, it appears Trump was successful in his bid to make sure that investigation went nowhere. Meanwhile, a search is underway in New Mexico, and it might take a while, but new evidence could lead to enlightenment for the public and justice for Epstein victims and their families.

As for the question we asked at the beginning ("Why did Team Trump try to block efforts to investigate Epstein-related matters?"), we don't have a definitive answer. But here is one thought that comes to mind: Why does anyone hide potentially damaging information? It's probably because they know they've done something wrong, and they don't want to be found out. In Trump's case, the wrong might be so serious that it could affect his freedom, his very existence. We all have seen signs Trump is a tortured soul, but he does have a will to survive; in fact, survival instincts might be one of his strongest assets. So far, he has used that asset to stay one step ahead of the law. The question now? How long can he keep it up?

Accountant/executor tells U.S. House that Epstein estate resolved lawsuit by reaching settlement with victim who claimed Trump had sexually abused her

U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA)

A woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor, reached a financial settlement with the estate of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports yesterday from multiple news sites. The revelation comes in the wake of testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives from Richard Kahn, who served as both Epstein accountant and executor of his estate.

Does this mean Trump committed a criminal act against the victim? The settlement was the result of a lawsuit, a civil matter, so we have no definitive answer, for now, to questions about possible criminality on Trump's part. But yesterday's reports indicate: (1) Trump likely had connections to Epstein's intricate financial network; (2) At least two members of Congress stated to the press that Kahn had confirmed the Trump-related settlement; (3) Those who represented the Epstein estate in negotiations felt it was in their best interests to resolve the matter short of trial.

Independent media played a central role in breaking yesterday's story, especially narrative.org, which features the work of Zev Shalev, an Israeli-South African television producer who has worked extensively in Canada and the U.S., including a stint as producer of The Early Show at CBS. 

Joining Shalev to help break yesterday's big Trump story was Dean Blundell -- a longtime radio "shock jock" who now focuses on a biting Substack page, where he describes himself as a "media guy, content provider, dog whisperer, Canadian raconteur, muckraker." The following is from yesterday's Shalev-Blundell piece about the Trump-related settlement, under the headline "Epstein Estate Settled with Trump accuser":

Jeffrey Epstein’s personal accountant Richard Kahn sat for a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee and confirmed the names of the five clients who paid money directly to Epstein: Les Wexner, Glenn Dubin, Steven Sinofsky, the Rothschilds, and Leon Black.

U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) told reporters Kahn confirmed the Epstein estate reached a settlement with a person who accused President Trump, and also revealed a non-American head of state had financial transactions with Epstein. (That turned out to be Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel.) 

“This is the very first time we’ve got someone from Epstein’s community going, yep, we paid off an accuser, someone who accused Donald Trump of raping her as a minor,” Blundell said.

Kahn managed every dollar of Epstein’s empire across 64 known entities for 22 years, yet Democratic members said he claimed inability to recall emails and texts he was directly involved in. Darren Indyke, Epstein’s longtime attorney and co-executor, testifies March 19.

At least one Democrat was unimpressed with Kahn's testimony, according to a report at Yahoo! News: 

“Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring would not have been possible without Richard Kahn, who managed Epstein’s money for years, authorized payments, including payments to victims and survivors,” said Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., who added that Kahn told them he was unable to recall details of some of the transactions and communications that he was asked about.

Another Democrat made some of the most insightful comments following Kahn's testimony, according to a report at The New Republic: 

Representative Ro Khanna told PBS News Hour’s Ali Rogin Wednesday that Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, confirmed the alleged sex trafficker’s estate had made a payment to a woman who accused both Epstein and Trump. Kahn did not say how much the settlement was, or when it was paid, during his deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee earlier in the day. 

“If it was fake, then why was she paid a settlement? There must be some validity to it,” Khanna said, according to Rogin. “Now, I’m not saying validity necessarily against Donald Trump. Maybe it was against Epstein. But he did confirm that there was a settlement payout.”

Khanna said that the Oversight Committee was “exploring” interviewing this woman as part of its investigation into Trump’s ties to Epstein. 

It wasn’t immediately clear which survivor of Epstein’s abuse Khanna was referring to.

The Khan testimony made a deep impact on at least one TV anchor, according to a report at Mediaite:

Khan was deposed behind closed doors on Tuesday, the latest new witness to be brought in amid the latest release of Epstein files documents, which include multiple claims of sexual misconduct against Trump in FBI documents — and some shocking claims that initially weren’t included.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, co-anchor Brianna Keilar was taken aback by the revelations, telling her guest “that was something!”

CNN ANCHOR BRIANNA KEILAR: Happening now in the House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, testimony from Epstein’s longtime accountant Richard Kahn. He’s being deposed behind closed doors today.

The House Oversight Chairman calls Kahn a, quote, “big witness.”.

Lawmakers were expected to ask him, among other things, how Epstein accumulated his vast wealth and how he spent it. 

Feds tracked Jeffrey Epstein's criminal network through prostitution, drug rings, money laundering, and the Russian mob, but Trump aborted the effort by kneecapping a task force that specialized in such cases

(Bloomberg.com)

An informant's tip that Jeffrey Epstein was involved in the funding and distribution of so-called club drugs -- including ecstasy, ketamine, and methamphetamine -- led to the noted sex trafficker becoming part of a long-running federal investigation of organized crime that had been secret until now. That's from a new story by investigative reporter Jason Leopold at Bloomberg News. It's a winding tale that provides valuable insight on Epstein and the powerful figures in his orbit. It also raises many disturbing questions, and No. 1 on the list is this: Why did the second Trump administration, in September 2025, defund and shut down a government task force known for its ability to combat illicit finance and take down transnational criminal networks. In other words, it was exactly the kind of outfit that needed to be front and center on the Epstein case. But Trump shut it down. Is that because Trump saw a need to stunt the Epstein probe in any way he could, thereby protecting himself and perhaps any political or corporate toadies who support him? We invite you to ponder that question as you follow the trail Leopold and Bloomberg have set out for us, presenting the very latest reporting on the Epstein saga.

At the time of the probe in 2015, Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution-related state charges in Florida. It was not until 2019 that he was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges and died in custody before standing trial. Epstein was a registered sex offender from 2008 until his death, but his arrest on federal charges turned him into a household name, making him known as a notorious pedophile. His infamy grew when evidence surfaced of his ties to political, business, royal, and entertainment elites -- including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Les Wexner, Robin Leach, and many more. When the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began to release the Epstein files in November 2025, Trump soon was enveloped in a disturbing news cycle that no sitting president had ever faced. Documents included allegations that tied Trump to child murder and rape, even claims that Trump had funded underage sex parties at his properties and a young murder victim was buried on one of the president's golf courses.

Jason Leopold's latest reporting shows that, long before disturbing allegations against Trump came to light, Jeffrey Epstein was of interest to federal investigators. Under the headline "Ketamine, Prostitution, and Money: Details of a Secret DEA Probe of Jeffrey Epstein," Leopold writes:

The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and a dozen other individuals in 2015 that centered on allegations of money laundering, drug trafficking and the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes for high-profile clients, according to five people familiar with the case.

The investigation, which grew out of a longstanding probe into organized crime, was conducted by a secretive intelligence and law enforcement unit of the DEA and a transnational crime-fighting task force. It began after an informant told authorities that Epstein was involved in the illicit funding and distribution of so-called club drugs, including ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamine,  according to the people, who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive law enforcement matters.

The individuals named in a document related to the investigation, according to the sources, included Epstein’s accountants, attorneys and European women who worked as his assistants or fashion models. The DEA investigation also named two businesses. 

None of the individuals were charged with any offenses as a result of the investigation. It’s unclear how long the investigation remained open and what authorities ultimately learned from it because the complete case files have not been released. Yet descriptions of the DEA probe add to questions about what federal authorities knew about Epstein before they arrested him in 2019. By that time, he’d victimized more than 1,000 people, the US Department of Justice has said. 

Most of the attention on Epstein has been driven by the federal sex-crimes probe and news accounts about his ever-growing ties to the famous, rich, and powerful. The latest developments, however, show federal interest in Epstein was more far-reaching and of longer duration than was widely known. Leopold writes:  

Initial information about the 2015 investigation surfaced in January in a heavily redacted document that was released by the DOJ. These new details about the investigation deepen the mystery surrounding the serial sex abuser, and reveal a striking level of scrutiny into him that extended beyond the federal sex-crimes probe that has captured international attention for years. They also reflect a pattern: As Epstein famously cultivated high-profile connections with Wall Street executives, politicians and royalty, federal authorities secretly kept their eyes on him.

Because of the sweetheart deal Epstein received on the state charges in Florida, many Americans probably have assumed authorities also took a relaxed approach to the federal sex-trafficking probe. But that does not appear to be the case, as Leopold makes clear:

Beginning in 2009, when Epstein was released from state custody in Florida after pleading guilty to charges that included soliciting a minor for prostitution, at least eight US government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA, the US Treasury Department and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, conducted their own investigations into Epstein, according to various documents that the DOJ released in January.

The documents show that law enforcement agencies kept tabs on Epstein by tracking his movements, building dossiers on his connections and following his money as it moved through offshore accounts. Foreign governments did likewise. The US Secret Service’s White House division and Harvard University’s campus police conducted background checks on Epstein years after he was released from custody in Florida.

Epstein was an obscure figure in 2010 when federal agents began to investigate a drug-trafficking operation that had tentacles in five U.S. states, plus Mexico. That ultimately led to a spotlight shining on Epstein and his associates. It also led to curious actions from from the second Trump administration. Jason Leopold explains:

In December 2010, long before Epstein or anyone in his circle surfaced in their probe, the DEA and the FBI started investigating a drug trafficking operation in nightclubs in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, South Carolina, and Mexico, according to the five people familiar with the case. One person who’d been arrested in connection with the probe had attempted to ship a package to Florida containing ecstasy tablets and ketamine, a drug known to facilitate date rape.

The following year, the DEA requested the help of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a Reagan-era Justice Department division made up of hundreds of prosecutors and thousands of intelligence and law enforcement personnel from across the federal government. OCDETF, as it’s called, worked jointly on investigations with other agencies to combat illicit finance and take down transnational criminal networks. Getting OCDETF’s buy-in unlocked additional funding and resources — including access to its fusion center, which the DOJ called “the single largest repository of federal and foreign investigative reporting throughout the federal government.”

Last year, as Bloomberg News first reported, OCDETF was defunded and shut down amid the Trump administration’s cost-cutting spree, sparking alarm among law enforcement officers given the task forces’ achievements over the decades, which included a leading role in the 2019 capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The administration transferred various responsibilities, including 5,000 existing cases, to a new set of task forces under the Department of Homeland Security that are focused mainly on immigration enforcement. In short, Trump took the task force duties away from veteran professionals and put them under Kristi Noem, who since has been ousted when the raging incompetence on her watch became too much for even Trump to stomach.

In May 2011, OCDETF formally launched an operation called Chain Reaction. Over the next four years, federal authorities targeted and prosecuted nearly a dozen people in New York, including associates of the Genovese crime family, on various racketeering charges including loan sharking, drug trafficking, and running an illegal gambling business. They brought charges against a police officer in Suffolk County, New York, for extortion, narcotics distribution, and counterfeiting. At least two of the cases involved the distribution of ketamine.

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Just as the case appeared to be winding down, an informant help bring it back to life, Leopold reports:

Around January 2015, the lead DEA agent on Operation Chain Reaction wrote in a status update that he expected the case to wrap up in a few months after all the defendants were sentenced, the five people familiar with the investigation said. But in a twist, one suspected drug trafficker became an informant and told federal agents that Epstein had been involved in the funding and distribution of ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamine, the people familiar with the matter said. The informant also said that Epstein ran a prostitution ring.

A few months later, on April 28, 2015, the DEA requested that OCDETF’s fusion center prepare a “target profile” on Epstein, 12 other individuals and two businesses. A target profile is typically a compilation of information on individuals and entities that includes biographical details, border crossings, financial information, and any criminal histories. A DEA agent told OCDETF the agency needed the information to support an investigation into money laundering, drug trafficking and the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes for high-profile clientele, the people familiar with the matter said.

The investigation was led by the DEA’s Special Operations Division, a unit that works in concert with 34 agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of the Treasury and the intelligence partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

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Leopold reviewed a document that describes the scope of the DEA investigation, which focused on dubious financial activities tied to illicit drug and prostitution operations in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City. It should be noted that Little Saint James Island, also known as Epstein Island is a private 72-acre tract that is about two miles from St. Thomas.

The next month, OCDETF responded with the target profile. An analyst at the fusion center wrote in the 69-page document that the DEA’s investigation involved “illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City,” according to a heavily redacted copy released by the DOJ. (CBS News first reported on the existence of the redacted document. Last month, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden asked the DEA to provide an unredacted copy of the document and additional details about its “mystery investigation.”)

The 12 individuals and two businesses were redacted from the document the DOJ released. Bloomberg has learned their identities from the people familiar with the matter. They include Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke; his brother, Mark; and his accountants, Bella Klein, Harry Beller and Richard Kahn. Indyke and Kahn are co-executors of Epstein’s estate. Epstein died while in federal custody in August 2019.

The two businesses are Wagging Tail Entertainment and Ossa Properties Inc. Peggy Siegal, an entertainment publicist and friend of Epstein’s, did business under Wagging Tail, according to multiple emails in the DOJ’s Epstein documents. Ossa is a real estate company owned by Mark Epstein. Anthony Barrett, who was an executive at Ossa Properties, was also named in the target profile. Some of Epstein's victims have said in civil lawsuits that they were sexually abused in a building managed by Ossa Properties.

A representative for Siegal said she was never questioned by the DEA or FBI, is no longer affiliated with Wagging Tail and was never aware of any investigation. Siegal wasn’t one of the named targets in the OCDETF document.

In an interview, Mark Epstein said he was not aware of the DEA investigation and never spoke to any investigators about illegitimate wire transfers, illicit drugs or prostitution. He added that he would not answer any additional questions unless it was about the circumstances of his brother’s death. Jeffrey Epstein’s manner of death was ruled a suicide. Mark Epstein maintains that his brother was murdered.

Daniel Weiner, an attorney for Indyke and Kahn, said neither of his clients was “ever aware of any DEA investigation.” Klein, Beller and Barrett didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bloomberg is not revealing the identities of six women who were also named as targets by the DEA either because they could not be located or because publicly available information indicates that they could be considered victims of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.

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A central goal for investigators was to determine how Epstein's sex-trafficking operation was funded -- and if it was tied to other criminal activities. That proved to be a challenging task, Leopold reports:

For years government agencies have been trying to follow Epstein’s money through his sprawling network of offshore investment vehicles and shell companies to determine how his sex-trafficking operation was funded and whether he was also involved in other criminal activity.

As early as 2007, federal prosecutors launched a money laundering probe alongside a sex-crimes case. But when Epstein, who fiercely resisted scrutiny into his finances, signed a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal authorities in 2007, that investigation ended. (The agreement allowed him to plead guilty to Florida state charges that included procurement of a minor to engage in prostitution.)

After he was released from state custody in 2009, Epstein frequently enlisted assistants and accountants to wire funds to women around the world, at times without a stated business purpose, according to emails released by the DOJ. He’d also coach staffers on how to respond if financial institutions asked questions about the transfers, according to emails and other documents.

In October 2012, Klein, one of his accountants, sent Epstein an email saying Western Union canceled a $2,600 wire to a woman for “security purposes” and would not authorize a separate wire for about $4,000 to a modeling scout, unless she could answer detailed questions about the purpose of the wire transfer.

“Just say a friend wanted to borrow money,” Epstein wrote, according to the email, which was in the DOJ’s cache of Epstein records.

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The riddle of Epstein's complex web of financial maneuvers has yet to be solved. But Sen. Wyden has been working on it for several years, and surveillance has unearthed evidence of suspicious banking activity. Leopold provides details:

OCDETF amassed a wide range of intelligence and financial data on Epstein and his associates from seven federal agencies that fed information to the fusion center, as well as the FBI’s National Information Crime Information Center, according to the OCDETF target profile.

The document says that Epstein and the 12 other individuals were the subjects of a combined 40 suspicious activity reports, or SARs, totaling nearly $50 million that banks sent to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, between 2010 and 2015 and 37 currency transaction reports between 2010 and 2014 totaling $1.2 million. (Banks are required to file SARs with FinCEN whenever their compliance departments spot signs of money laundering, wire fraud or other financial crimes. They’re required to file currency transaction reports when a cash transaction exceeds $10,000 in a day. Neither is evidence of a crime.)

One agency that the fusion center pulled information from was the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, which protects the Secretary of State and also investigates transnational organized crime and visa fraud. A portion of the report lists a person whose identity is redacted as the sponsor of a non-immigrant visa for one of the DEA’s targets.

The targeting profile showed that more than a dozen law enforcement agencies in the US and abroad, including Harvard’s police department, the US Secret Service and the agency’s White House division, queried a national crime database 311 times between 2013 and 2015 for information about Epstein.

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That the U.S. Secret Service and its White House division searched, over a two-year period, a national criminal database 311 times for information on Epstein . . . well, that is bound to raise eyebrows. Leopold explains what it might mean:

The query by the Secret Service’s White House division in August 2014 suggests that Epstein may have been vetted because he was expected to come into contact with the agency’s protectees, such as the president, or a protected government site. There’s no public record indicating that Epstein visited the White House that year. A spokesperson for the Secret Service said the agency was unable to track down records related to the query because “records from 2014 fall outside the applicable federal records retention schedule for this category of information.”

A Harvard University spokesperson told Bloomberg News that the campus police’s query occurred on Nov. 6, 2013, a day before a meeting between university officials on whether Harvard would reconsider its position of no longer accepting gifts from Jeffrey Epstein. A 2020 report by Harvard said it did not reverse the ban.

The target profile also included details about Epstein’s border crossings and shows that under a program called Operation Angel Watch, which alerts foreign law enforcement authorities when sex offenders travel abroad, ICE notified Paris officials that Epstein planned to be there in mid-2013. Another document in the files shows that in September 2016, the FBI alerted its legal attaché in Paris that Epstein planned to travel there, underscoring how federal authorities continued to track his movements after his 2008 guilty plea in Florida.

“No action is required,” an FBI analyst wrote in the advisory. “This message is only intended to advise you that this individual, previously convicted of a sex crime against a child, is traveling to your country, and for any follow-up deemed necessary.”

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Leopold turns to an insider in an effort to tie up the many loose threads still exposed in the Epstein story:

Thomas Padden was the acting director of OCDETF until September 2025, around the time the Trump administration began to shutter the unit. He worked for the task forces for 17 years, previously as deputy director, which covered the time frame of the OCDETF-DEA investigation. Padden told Bloomberg he was not familiar with the probe into Epstein. But after reviewing the redacted version of the target profile, he said that he’s not surprised that Epstein may be connected to a transnational criminal network.

“Money laundering is always a part of it,” Padden said. “And it’s not surprising that it could touch or potentially include Jeffrey Epstein as one of the conspirators. The DEA felt that they needed to inquire about him and connect it into their case. And what that tells me is there's smoke.”

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A reasonable mind cannot help  but wonder: What could Jeffrey Epstein have accomplished if he had set his mind on serving humanity, protecting the environment and animals, fostering peace and prosperity? Instead, overwhelming evidence suggests he was driven by the most base of desires -- and a determination not to be caught in his despicable acts. 

Investigators who followed his trail wound up in some dark places -- from a murder-for-hire case, tied to the Genovese crime family, in Yonkers, NY, to money laundering and human and drug trafficking tied to Russian organized crime. Jason Leopold summarizes:

Chain Reaction, which grew to involve other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Investigations, and state and local police, continued for another eight years. The final case from the larger investigation that began in 2011 centered on a member of the Genovese crime family named John Tortora. He was indicted in 2018 and charged with his alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot involving the stabbing death of Richard Ortiz in 1997 in Yonkers, New York.

Prosecutors later dropped the murder charge against “Johnny T,” as he was known, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to obstruction and gambling charges in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

On April 4, 2019, a few months before Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, OCDETF launched a separate operation with the FBI: Trip Knot, a money laundering and human and drug trafficking investigation tied to Russian organized crime that was linked back to FBI and DEA probes in 2017 and 2018, according to the people familiar with the case. Epstein’s name surfaced repeatedly in that case as well, the people said.

Operation Chain Reaction was officially closed on June 16, 2023.