Bill Gates, Elon Musk and many more earth-shaking names - List of powerful men in Epstein files

Epstein files feature some very powerful names. From tech titans to Wall Street power brokers and British royalty, a who’s who of powerful men make appearances in the huge trove of documents released Friday by the Justice Department in connection with its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein.

Many have denied having close ties to the late financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women that led to his arrest on sex trafficking charges. None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Yet some of them maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew, even after he became known as a predator of young girls and registered sex offender.

Bill Gates

Jeffrey Epstein drafted notes to and about Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, suggesting that he engaged in extramarital sex, according to emails that the Justice Department released on Friday. Epstein sent the July 2013 emails to himself. It is not clear if Epstein ever sent the emails to Gates.

A representative of the Gates Foundation said, "These claims -- from a proven, disgruntled liar -- are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein's frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame."

Epstein wrote the messages about Gates not long after his attempt to broker a venture between Gates' foundation and JPMorgan Chase fizzled out -- depriving Epstein of what he had hoped would be a gusher of income.

In one of Epstein's emails, written in the style of a personal journal entry, the convicted sex offender wrote that he had helped Gates acquire drugs "in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls" and that he had facilitated trysts for Gates with married women.

In another email, Epstein blasted Gates for choosing to "disregard and discard our friendship developed" over six years. He accused Gates of abandoning him in order to preserve his reputation.

In a 2021 interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Gates called his relationship with the disgraced financier "a huge mistake." He also sought to downplay his interactions with Epstein, saying he had several dinners with Epstein, with the hope of getting him to generate donations to the Gates Foundation.

Gates' relationship with Epstein -- which began around 2011, after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor -- was among the factors that led his former wife, Melinda French Gates, to seek a divorce.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17.

The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.

Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.

Elon Musk

The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound.

But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday or Saturday.

Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025.

Steven Tisch

The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years.

In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms.

“Pro or civilian?” Tisch asked in reply.

Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island.

“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing “Forrest Gump.” “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”

Howard Lutnick

President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show.

That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago.

But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children.

The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.

The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

Sergey Brin

The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show.

In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York.

She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt.

Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

Steve Bannon

The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before his 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide.

The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.

One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.

Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment.

Miroslav Lajcak

A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release.

Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down.

Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the U.N. General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.

He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Limited, invited Epstein to his private island in 2013, telling him in an email: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”

Besides discussing Epstein visiting Branson’s Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, the two exchanged messages about philanthropy, Epstein’s ideas for a “disruptive” financial system and a “social good currency."

In one email, in 2011, Epstein said he offered Branson’s staff the use of his helicopter to transport an accident victim in the Virgin Islands.

In a Sept. 11, 2013 correspondence, Branson suggested Epstein could boost his public image if he could get Bill Gates to say “you’ve been a brilliant adviser to him, that you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17 1/2 year old woman and were punished for it, that you’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.”

A Branson spokesperson told the British news outlet the Independent that Branson’s “harem” comment referred to adult members of Epstein’s staff.

Branson later decided to sever ties with Epstein, the spokesperson said, after learning more about the “serious allegations” that had been made against him.