Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released partial records from a third batch of documents they received from the Jeffrey Epstein estate earlier this week that includes notes that contain the names of current and former Trump allies Elon Musk and Steve Bannon, as well as Peter Thiel and Prince Andrew.
Two years ago, the U.S. Virgin Islands subpoenaed Musk in its lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co., alleging that Musk was referred to JPMorgan by the late convicted sex offender. At the time, the Tesla CEO denied that he had ever taken financial advice from Epstein — “That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever,” he wrote on X.
“The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd,” he continued.
However, Epstein’s daily schedule, released Friday by Oversight Democrats, suggests that there was a potential connection between the two.
“Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?),” Epstein’s schedule for Dec. 6, 2014, reads.
Press contacts for Tesla and X did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ request for comment. Musk said in 2019 that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.” Musk destroyed his relationship with President Donald Trump when he accused him of stalling the release of “the Epstein files” because of Trump’s apparent friendship with Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote on X in June. (He later apologized for his posts.)
Bannon was specifically mentioned on Epstein’s Feb. 16, 2019, schedule, which states that he and Epstein had breakfast that morning. Similarly, the documents show that Epstein and Thiel were scheduled to have lunch on Nov. 27, 2017. Prince Andrew is listed as a passenger on Epstein’s aircraft. (Epstein’s connections to Musk, Bannon, Thiel and Prince Andrew have been previously reported; all of them have denied any wrongdoing.) Bannon and Thiel did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment.
“It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world. Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims. Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein’s heinous crimes. It’s past time for Attorney General Bondi to release all the files now,” said Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Democrats in the House Oversight Committee.
“It’s unfortunate that Democrats continue to meaninglessly cherry-pick documents and politicize this investigation,” said a spokesperson for Republicans on the committee. “They are intentionally withholding documents that contain names of Democrat officials, and the information they released today is old news. We are focused on delivering transparency and accountability for the survivors, and will release documents in full.”
The document drop comes as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has nearly all the signatures needed to force a House vote to compel the Department of Justice to release all of the documents related to Epstein. Massie told reporters that Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat who won the special election to fill her late father Raul Grijalva’s seat in Arizona, plans to sign the discharge petition, bringing the signatures to 218.
“Both of the candidates on the ballot promised to sign my discharge petition,” Massie said earlier this week. “And one of them won, obviously, and so now we’re going to have 218 signatures, and we’re going to force a vote on releasing those files.”
House Republican leadership has been trying to find ways to try to move past the Epstein case. The House passed a measure to reinforce the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Epstein matters, and Republicans have been trying to use the powerful Rules Committee to find a way to dismiss the efforts from Democrats and Massie.