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Today, Explained

The Epstein fallout

05 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What new information has been revealed in the Epstein document dump?

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The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. And honestly, they're kind of a mess.

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10.466 - 18.798 Madeline Berg

It's not just 3 million documents. It's 3 million documents that have no rhyme or reason, right? There's no context. They're messy. They're full of typos. They're duplicates.

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But they also shed new light on how some of the world's richest and most powerful people use that power. Epstein, in an exchange with Elon Musk, discusses sending his helicopter to take him to his island. In these messages from 2013, the convicted sex offender connecting New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch with various women.

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Emails also show Trump Cabinet Secretary Howard Lutnick coordinating a visit in the Caribbean in 2012. It's not clear if the meetings happened. So, will there be any actual fallout? That's coming up on Today Explained from Vox.

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Thank you.

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Megan Rapinoe here. This week on A Touch More, Gotham FC's Rose Lavelle joins us to talk about FIFA's very first Champions Cup, her incredible year of wins, and some of her greatest pranks of all time. Unfortunately, on yours truly. Plus, with the WNBA's CBA negotiations still stalled, I gotta ask the question, is it time to worry?

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Check out the latest episode of A Touch More wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. I got in the water in the very early morning before the sun had risen and the water was pitch black. I started swimming and I felt the water hollowing out around me and felt like something really big was swimming below.

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I'm Phoebe Judge and this is Love, a show about the surprising things that love can make us do. More than 100 episodes available now on This Is Love. This is Today Explained.

132.325 - 137.83 Madeline Berg

Hi, I'm Madeline Berg. I am a correspondent at Business Insider covering wealth and power.

Chapter 2: How do wealthy individuals communicate within their networks?

565.701 - 588.151 Madeline Berg

We want out of government, out of their business, whatever it is. It's kind of up to the court of public opinion now. That said, we are going to see some of these changes. people testify in front of Congress later this month. The Clintons are going to testify. Les Wexner, who was, you know, was listed in a draft document by the DOJ as a co-conspirator, a potential co-conspirator of Epstein's.

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588.512 - 609.878 Madeline Berg

So we are going to see these people questioned by the government. We might get more answers and we might then, it won't be criminal charges necessarily, but we might get repercussions from the public and there might be more consequences in that way. Yeah. You have to remember these documents are such a mess that a lot of them are really hard to understand.

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610.74 - 632.399 Madeline Berg

There's so many just everyday emails mixed in with really incriminating emails. So we kind of, we need that explanation. And I think that everybody hopes that these... When these people testify, we're going to get more of an understanding of what actually happened. There are also files that the DOJ didn't release. There are 200,000 documents that the government said it will not release.

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633.04 - 652.631 Madeline Berg

We don't know what's in those. We may never know what's in those, but there could be things in there that eventually do get revealed. And there are also... I don't think any news organization has been able to go through all three million documents, no matter how much manpower they've devoted to this. So, you know, we're going to continue to get revelation after revelation.

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What should the public take away from all of this? This whole thing?

658.883 - 684.501 Madeline Berg

Yeah, I mean, I think... I think it's important to understand how the very, very, very wealthy, the very, very powerful interact with each other, how they speak about women, how they use each other. People are using Epstein, Epstein's using other people. And also how many people can't be taken at their word, right? So many people denied having a connection to Epstein or visiting his island or...

684.481 - 710.016 Madeline Berg

talking to him after his conviction in 2008, but they were lying. And I think it's really important that we hold people to account and we don't take their word at face value. And also, I mean, one thing that really I found interesting is how much these people put into writing. It was almost like they believed they were above the law or above repercussion. And

709.996 - 721.528 Madeline Berg

Not everybody, obviously, but some very rich and powerful people think they're immune to consequences. And it's really up to the public now that this is out there, what consequences they face.

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Madeline Berg is a correspondent at Business Insider. She covers wealth and power. Up next, how a journalist who's covered Epstein from the start is reading these files. This week on Net Worth and Chill, I'm talking about what happens after you've mastered the basics. How to build wealth that actually lasts for generations.

Chapter 3: What fallout has occurred for powerful people linked to Epstein?

1247.009 - 1271.561 Vicki Ward

I wanted to forget about Jeffrey Epstein. I wanted to sort of normalise the whole thing in my mind. But then... The years ticked on and I began to realise that it wasn't just the farmers, that the scale of this thing was potentially enormous.

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1272.642 - 1298.168 Vicki Ward

And I did feel, to be honest, that the idea of Jeffrey Epstein walking into the office of my boss, Graydon Carter, behind my back, it was during the fact-checking process, I'd by that time been put on bed rest, And for me to have been cut out of the loop of the decision making on the piece, I did feel this smacked of the good old boys club. Boys protecting boys.

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1298.889 - 1335.092 Vicki Ward

Graydon Carter was a bachelor at the time. You know, he was running around dating all sorts of people. And the whole thing made me sick to my stomach and angry, frankly speaking. Really, really angry. And I think, you know, now, what do I feel? I feel that it's very important that these victim survivors get justice. But even so, even so, what's happened is botched.

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1335.713 - 1343.357 Vicki Ward

The survivors, I know Annie Farmer's, you know, spoken out. all the documents are still not out there.

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You know, some of the people mentioned in the files come across worse than others. Yeah. What does it mean just for your name to pop up in the Epstein files?

1354.208 - 1369.423 Vicki Ward

Nothing. I mean, you know, particularly in the way that my name comes up, I'm thrilled. I'm absolutely thrilled. I think Julie Brown's pretty thrilled that, you know, he sends emails around viewing her as a problem.

1369.403 - 1391.351 Vicki Ward

And he clearly viewed John Connolly, who was a friend of mine, another great investigative journalist who co-authored a book with my co-author, James Patterson, clearly viewed him as a problem too. So that's, you know, I think that's not a problem. I think... It's absurd. Some of the redactions make no sense.

1392.053 - 1417.903 Vicki Ward

There's a woman, Melanie Walker, who's a person of great global influence, who was an Epstein protege. He paid for her to go through college. She became a neuroscientist and she ended up going out with Prince Andrew. And she ended up being the partner of Steve Sinosky, who was Bill Gates's number two at Microsoft. And she ended up on the board of the World Bank.

1417.923 - 1449.41 Vicki Ward

She's a pretty influential person who is intensely loyal to Jeffrey Epstein. And I noticed that her names have been redacted. And it seems absurd to me As to why that would be. What questions do you still have about the case? Well, I still want to understand the money. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get an answer to that. Because without the money... There would have been no sex crimes.

Chapter 4: What connections do high-profile figures have with Epstein?

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This is Today Explained.

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