The Jeffrey Epstein client list does not exist

• A lot of people are breathlessly waiting for a "Jeffrey Epstein client list."
• It's not real. That's not how any of this works.
• You really think that man wrote down a list???

This week, documents related to about 170 of Jeffrey Epstein's associates are being unsealed.

What isn't being unsealed is a "Jeffrey Epstein client list."

That's because there is no client list.

It's not real.

Rumors about a list of "clients" for the dead pedophile financier have circulated online for years, rooted in a combination of politically motivated speculation and illiteracy.

Before he killed himself in 2019 (and yes, he killed himself) while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Epstein sexually abused about 150 girls and women, according to a victims' compensation program. He was also connected to people at the height of society and world power, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, and Leon Black.

As the conspiracy theory goes, he must have trafficked girls to them for sex and then blackmailed them for money. He flew his powerful "clients" on his "Lolita Express" private plane to his private "Pedophile island" on the US Virgin Islands for orgies with girls, according to these theories.

"Where is the Epstein client list?" people on Twitter, sometimes known as X, demand. "And will we see my least favorite politician on it?"

Fake versions of this apparent list often circulate on the internet, passed around and are easily debunked, like the rumor that your 2nd grade best friend's uncle works at Nintendo.

There is no evidence that this "Epstein client list" is a real thing. And it doesn't even make any sense.

For you to believe that there's a "client list," you must believe that (1) Epstein was a pimp to the stars, (2) Epstein kept a list of all these people somewhere, (3) in the volumes of documents made public from various lawsuits and investigations related to Epstein and Maxwell, no one ever talks about or even refers to it.

This is a stretch.

Here is what is really happening this week: A judge ordered the unsealing of documents that were previously filed under seal in a civil lawsuit between Maxwell and accuser Virginia Giuffre, which they settled in 2017. Many of those documents had already been previously partially unsealed, but some portions were redacted because they included the names of people who a judge deemed had some kind of "privacy interest." But now, after litigation from Giuffre's lawyers and the Miami Herald, a judge has deemed that the public's right to see court documents outweighs almost all of their privacy interests.

The first batch of documents were posted to the public docket on Wednesday night, with more to come Thursday, and possibly more even later.

So, who are these people? Yes, they include Epstein's powerful friends, like Bill Clinton, who notably did not object to having his name unsealed. They also include his victims, like Johanna Sjoberg and Carolyn Andriano.

The documents include new information about how Epstein and Maxwell operated. In one newly unsealed document, a 2015 email from Maxwell to a lawyer and public relations executive, she frets about needing "to consult with US lawyers on any statement I make" denying sexual misconduct allegations against her, while at the same time bragging that she has "no legal risk currently on these old charges and civil suits against Jeffrey."

What they do not include is a "list" of "clients," much less evidence that Epstein was a souteneur who kept careful paperwork.

There is a list in some sense, but that's just the list of names, originally identified as "Does" in court documents, which appear in the court documents to be unsealed.

Conspiracy theories are not inherently false. And many of the conspiracy theories surrounding Epsein have nuggets of reality. At least one accuser has publicly claimed to have seen a recording Epstein took of one of his associates having sex. Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented dozens of Epstein's victims, told the Wall Street Journal that his clients have named more than 20 men who were participants in sexual exploitation, but declined to name them. Epstein did genuinely fly powerful people on his plane. Sometimes, according to flight manifests, powerful people were on the same flights as underage girls. He also kept versions of a "black book" of contacts that listed people he apparently knew, including his wealthy and politically connected friends — as well as people who ran his household.

None of this means that there is a "client list."

Things didn't quite work out for Maxwell. In 2021, a jury found her guilty of trafficking four girls to Epstein and sexually abusing some of them herself. She's appealing her case as she serves a 20-year prison sentence. At her trial, witnesses testified about the almost mechanized way Epstein raped girls. Epstein and Maxwell often used their victims to recruit their friends to create a "pyramid of abuse," as prosecutors termed it.

Jean Luc Brunel was another person who allegedly trafficked girls to Epstein through his modeling agency, MC2. Documents related to him are also being unsealed in the case. French authorities brought child rape charges against Brunel but, like Epstein, he died by an apparent suicide in jail before going to trial.

Look, the journalist in me kind of wants to be wrong about all this. If Epstein kept an actual list of politicians and CEOs to whom he trafficked girls for sex, it would be the scoop of the century. But the notion that he had a secret list, which has not been uncovered in the numerous lawsuits and investigations against him and his estate, is just not really coherent.

There are plenty of actual unsolved mysteries related to Epstein. How, exactly, did he amass a $630 million fortune? Why did he travel to Saudi Arabia on the eve of the 2016 presidential election? What was in the hard drives and photo albums the FBI seized from his Manhattan mansion? What is going on with Sarah Kellen?

The mystery of Epstein's fortune has — partially — been solved by understanding Epstein's "clients."

He made some of his money and acquired some properties through his relationships with Les Wexner and Leon Black, two billionaires to whom he provided financial advice. He was also a "client" of JP Morgan Chase, in the sense that he kept his money there and got referral fees by bringing other high net worth people to its private banking practice.

Women have accused both Wexner and Black of wrongdoing through their relationships with Epstein, though both have denied the claims. Neither has been the target of a criminal prosecution. Civil lawsuits against Black are ongoing.

Playing political football with the experiences of Epstein's real-life victims because you want Donald Trump or Bill Clinton to show up on an imaginary "client list," though, does not actually help answer the questions surrounding Epstein's time on this Earth.