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57
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dave Fravor.md
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@ -7,9 +7,32 @@ alias:
- Dave Fravor
- David Fravor
- Commander David Fravor
summary: "Commander Dave Fravor is a retired U.S."
- Commander Dave Fravor
summary: "Retired Navy commander and commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 who led the November 14, 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac intercept and testified to a House Oversight subcommittee on July 26, 2023."
relations:
- type: director_of
with: "[[Strike Fighter Squadron 41]]"
role: "commanding officer, Black Aces, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 11 aboard USS Nimitz in 2004; his own testimony"
start: 2004
fn: 3
- type: member_of
with: "[[USS Nimitz]]"
role: "Carrier Air Wing 11 squadron commander, strike group workup off Southern California, November 2004"
start: 2004-11-14
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Navy]]"
role: "enlisted Marine, Naval Academy graduate, flew 18 years, retired commander; his testimony"
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[Americans for Safe Aerospace]]"
role: "listed as advisor on the organization's website, October 3, 2026"
start: 2026-10-03
fn: 6
updated: 2026-10-03
created: 2026-10-03
---
Commander [[Dave Fravor]] is a retired U.S. Navy pilot who is best known as the lead eyewitness in the 2004 [[Tic Tac]] involving the [[USS Nimitz]] Carrier Strike Group. His credible testimony and detailed account of the encounter have been instrumental in bringing the issue of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) to the attention of the public and the U.S. Congress.[^1]
Commander [[Dave Fravor]] is a retired [[U.S. Navy]] pilot who is best known as the lead eyewitness in the 2004 [[Tic Tac]] involving the [[USS Nimitz]] Carrier Strike Group. His account of the encounter has been part of the public discussion of [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP) in Congress.[^1]
### Naval Career
@ -17,15 +40,41 @@ A graduate of the prestigious Top Gun naval flight school, Commander Fravor was
### The Tic Tac Encounter
On November 14, 2004, while on a routine training mission off the coast of San Diego, Commander Fravor and his WSO, Commander Jim Slaight, were diverted to investigate a series of anomalous radar contacts that had been tracked by the [[USS Princeton]]. Fravor, along with a second F/A-18 piloted by Lieutenant Commander [[Alex Dietrich]], witnessed a white, oblong craft, later nicknamed the "Tic Tac," maneuvering erratically over a disturbance in the ocean.[^1]
On November 14, 2004, while on a routine training mission off the coast of [[San Diego]], Commander Fravor and his WSO, Commander Jim Slaight, were diverted to investigate a series of anomalous radar contacts that had been tracked by the [[USS Princeton]]. Fravor, along with a second F/A-18 piloted by Lieutenant Commander [[Alex Dietrich]], witnessed a white, oblong craft, later nicknamed the "Tic Tac," maneuvering erratically over a disturbance in the ocean.[^1]
Fravor descended to engage the object, which responded by mirroring his movements before accelerating at a speed he described as "like nothing I've ever seen." The object vanished in an instant, only to reappear on radar sixty miles away at the squadron's pre-arranged rendezvous point. Fravor's detailed and unwavering account of the incident, corroborated by the other pilots and the radar data, provided a solid foundation for the subsequent investigation by the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP).[^1]
### Service record and the 2004 report, in his own words
At the July 26, 2023 hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]], Fravor described his background to Representative [[Nick Langworthy]]: "I was an enlisted [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]], [[United States Naval Academy|Naval Academy]] graduate, [[United States Navy|Navy]], flew for 18 years. Got a Master's from [[University of Houston]] and I have worked in the private sector for the last ... 17 years. I do a lot of defense work."[^2] In his written statement he said that in 2004 "I was a commanding officer of [[Strike Fighter Squadron 41]], the world-famous Black Aces," tasked to [[Carrier Air Wing 11|Carrier Airwing 11]] aboard [[USS Nimitz]], and that the planned two-versus-two training with the cruiser [[USS Princeton]] as control "was going to be suspended and we are going to proceed with real-world tasking."[^3]
He testified that the controller said the objects "had been observed for over 2 weeks coming down from over 80,000 feet, rapidly descending to 20,000 feet, hanging out for hours and then going straight back up"; that all four aircrew saw "whitewater" and "a white Tic Tac object with a longitudinal axis pointing north south"; that the object "suddenly shifted its longitudinal axis, aligned it with my aircraft, and began to climb"; and that after it accelerated away the controller reported it "at your CAP point roughly 60 miles away in less than a minute."[^3] Of the video he said his own crew "got the video that you see, that 90-second video," and "What you do not see is the radar tape that was never released, and we do not know where it is at, of the act of jamming that the object put on an APG-73 radar."[^3]
On reporting after the event, he told Chairman [[Glenn Grothman]]: "None. We had a standard debrief where the backseaters went down to our carrier intel center ... No one else talked to us and I was in the top 20 in the battle group. No one came. That captain was aware. The admiral was aware. Nothing was done."[^3] His statement: "the incident was never investigated. None of my crew were ever questioned. The tapes were never taken ... It was not until 2009, until [[Jay Stratton]] had contacted me to investigate."[^3] He said [[Alex Dietrich]], "the other pilot," later contacted him; that he then spoke with [[Luis Elizondo]]; and that "a few weeks after that" Elizondo "had left the [[Pentagon]] in protest and joined forces with [[Tom DeLonge]], [[Christopher Mellon|Chris Mellon]], [[Steve Justice]] and others to form [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science|To the Stars Academy]]."[^3] He credited [[Leslie Kean]], [[Ralph Blumenthal]] and [[Helene Cooper]] with the 2017 [[The New York Times|New York Times]] articles.[^3]
### Answers on the object and on the water
Asked by Representative [[Tim Burchett]] about the whitewater, Fravor said: "We did not see an object. There was something there to cause the whitewater and when we turned around it was gone," and "We actually joked that the Tic Tac was communicating with something when we came back."[^3] To Representative Langworthy he agreed that he had described "a 40-foot flying Tic Tac shaped object" ("That is correct ... it is a giant flying propane tank"), said "The Princeton tracked it. The Nimitz tracked it. The E2 tracked it. We never saw it on our radars," that the other aircraft's radar was jammed "as soon as it tried to lock it," that there was "no IR plume," and that he knew of no adversary with the capability.[^3] He said "the Tic Tac object we engaged in 2004 was far superior to anything that we had on time, have today, or looking to develop in the next 10 years," and called for oversight "from those people that the citizens of this great country elected."[^3]
### Navy statement and the three videos
In September 2019 Navy spokesman [[Joseph Gradisher]] told [[The Black Vault]] that "The Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those three videos as unidentified" and that the term "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" was used because it "provides the basic descriptor for the sightings/observations of unauthorized/unidentified aircraft/objects that have been observed entering/operating in the airspace of various military-controlled training ranges." [[Fox News]] reported that the first video was taken on November 14, 2004, "shot by the F-18's gun camera," and that the three videos ("FLIR1," "Gimbal" and "GoFast") were "originally released to the [[New York Times]] and to The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA)."[^4] The Black Vault's compiled case file on the incident states that a second sortie carried the targeting pod, that the pod video runs about one minute sixteen seconds, and that it was recorded by Lt. Cmdr. [[Chad Underwood]]; and it describes the object as about 40 to 46 feet in length, with footnoted sources of its own.[^5]
### Role in Disclosure
In the years following the incident, Commander Fravor was hesitant to speak publicly about his experience due to the stigma surrounding the UAP topic. However, he was eventually debriefed by [[Luis Elizondo]] and [[Christopher Mellon]] and agreed to share his story. His testimony was featured in the groundbreaking 2017 New York Times article that revealed the existence of AATIP, and he has since become a key figure in the UAP disclosure movement.[^1]
He has provided briefings to members of Congress and their staff, and he testified under oath at a historic public hearing on UAP in July 2023. His credibility as a highly trained and respected naval aviator has been a crucial factor in legitimizing the UAP issue as a serious national security concern.[^1]
He has provided briefings to members of Congress and their staff, and he testified under oath at a historic public hearing on UAP in July 2023.
### Advisory role
The website of [[Americans for Safe Aerospace]] lists "David Fravor (retired Navy commander)" among its advisors; [[Ryan Graves]], its founder, testified at the same hearing.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: Same, questioning by Representative Langworthy.
[^3]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, statement of Commander David Fravor and questioning. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
[^4]: "UFO videos are footage of real 'unidentified' objects, US Navy acknowledges," Fox News, September 2019, quoting Joseph Gradisher to The Black Vault. https://www.foxnews.com/tech/ufo-videos-real-navy-acknowledges.print
[^5]: The Black Vault, "The Vault Files: The Tic Tac Incident, November 14, 2004." https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/the-vault-files-the-tic-tac-incident-november-14-2004/ . The case-file prose is the compiler's; the FOIA documents it reproduces were not individually opened.
[^6]: Americans for Safe Aerospace, website advisor list. https://www.safeaerospace.org

81
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/David Grusch.md
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@ -3,21 +3,96 @@ category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UFO
alias:
- David Grusch
- David C. Grusch
- David Charles Grusch
- Dave Grusch
summary: "In 2023, Grusch went public with his allegations, testifying under oath before the House Oversight Committee's National Security Subcommittee."
born: 1987
location: "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "GS-15 civilian, co-lead for UAP and trans-medium object analysis, 2021 to 2023; his sworn statement"
start: 2021
end: 2023
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[UAP Task Force]]"
role: "National Reconnaissance Office reservist representative, 2019 to 2021; his sworn statement"
start: 2019
end: 2021
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Air Force]]"
role: "intelligence officer, 14 years, rank of Major, active duty, Air National Guard and Reserve; his sworn statement"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Eric Burlison]]"
role: "special advisor on the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, announced March 27, 2025"
start: 2025-03-27
fn: 9
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Sol Foundation]]"
start: 2023-05
role: "chief operating officer, per his own résumé submitted to the House Committee on Oversight; described by Garry Nolan in September 2023 as senior founding advisor and 'a founder'"
fn: 3
- type: represented
with: "[[I. Charles McCullough III]]"
reverse: true
start: 2022-05
role: "McCullough, of the Compass Rose Legal Group, filed a disclosure of urgent concern and complaint of reprisal with the Intelligence Community Inspector General on Grusch's behalf in May 2022"
fn: 8
updated: 2026-10-03
created: 2026-10-03
---
[[David Grusch]] is a former intelligence officer from the [[National Reconnaissance Office]] (NRO) and the [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]] (NGA) who served as the NRO's representative on the [[UAP Task Force]]. He is a key whistleblower who has provided Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General with extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says have retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.[^1]
### Whistleblower Testimony
In 2023, Grusch went public with his allegations, testifying under oath before the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]]'s National Security Subcommittee. He stated that he was informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program during the course of his official duties. He claimed that the U.S. government is in possession of non-human technology and "biologics" from the occupants of these craft.[^1]
In 2023, Grusch went public with his allegations, testifying under oath before the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]]'s National Security Subcommittee. He stated that he was informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program during the course of his official duties. He claimed that the [[U.S. government]] is in possession of non-human technology and "biologics" from the occupants of these craft.[^1]
Grusch's testimony was a watershed moment in the UAP disclosure movement. As a high-ranking intelligence officer with an impeccable record, his claims have been taken very seriously by Congress and have led to a new level of scrutiny on the so-called "Legacy Program." He has provided hours of classified testimony to congressional committees and the Inspector General, and his allegations have been a major driver of the recent UAP disclosure legislation.[^1]
Elizondo wrote that Grusch has provided hours of classified testimony to congressional committees and the Inspector General about the so-called "[[Legacy Program]]."[^1]
### Sworn statement of July 26, 2023
At the hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]], Grusch said: "I was an intelligence officer for 14 years both in the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]], both active-duty Air National Guard and Reserve at the rank of Major and most recently from 2021 to 2025, excuse me, 2023, at the [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency|National Geospatial Intelligence Agency]], NGA, at the GS-15 civilian level, which is the military equivalent of a full bird colonel." He described himself as "my agency's co-lead in unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans medium object analysis" reporting to the [[UAP Task Force]] and then to the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]]; said he "became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing in May 2022 with the intelligence community inspector general"; and said that, in his [[National Reconnaissance Office]] reservist capacity, "I was a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021," and that "in 2019, the UAP Task Force Director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs."[^2] He said: "I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-ons when I requested it," and "my testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country."[^2] He also said "I have suffered retaliation for my decision."[^2]
The record of the same hearing includes, as a document submitted by Representative [[Anna Paulina Luna]], the [[NewsNation]] article "We are not alone: The UFO whistleblower speaks," and, submitted by Representative [[Tim Burchett]], a statement for the record by [[George Knapp]] and a Defense Intelligence Reference Document titled "Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering."[^2]
### Sol Foundation
The résumé that David Grusch filed with the [[House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]] for its July 26, 2023 hearing lists, as its first entry under experience, "May 2023-Present, Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Sol Foundation," with the description "Managing day-to-day operations for a 501c3 federally recognized non-profit. The premier center for research in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities, but also extends activities to advisory and policy work for the U.S. government/public outreach," and lists "Non-Profit Leadership" among his key competencies. The same document lists "November 2021-April 2023, Senior GEOINT Capabilities Requirements Officer, [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]] (NGA), [[Colorado Springs]], CO (GS-15, Colonel Equiv.)," and describes him as the NGA lead for unidentified anomalous phenomena and trans-medium anomaly issues who "executed new program of record responsive to direct tasking by the Congressional Intelligence Committees."[^3]
[[The Debrief]] reported that the existence of the [[Sol Foundation]] first became apparent through that résumé and related documents in early August 2023, and that the foundation was then described as "pending recognition as a 501c3 federal non-profit." [[Garry Nolan]] said in September 2023 that Grusch's title had since become "Senior Founding Advisor," that the earlier title "seemed the right thing at the time," and that Grusch "is a founder of the Sol Foundation."[^4] The foundation's [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] ruling date as a 501(c)(3) is June 2024, and its 2024 Form 990 does not list Grusch among its officers or directors; the foundation's website, read October 3, 2026, does not list him among its executive leadership or advisory board either.[^5][^6] On November 18, 2023 Grusch joined the foundation's first symposium in [[Palo Alto, California]] by video from Washington and said, "This is why we have the Sol Foundation. We need to basically create a parallel track of research and independent discovery that aren't necessarily dependent on the U.S. government to provide us all the answers."[^7]
His attorney, [[I. Charles McCullough III]], senior partner of the [[Compass Rose Legal Group]] and the first Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, was named as the Sol Foundation's legal counsel in 2023.[^8][^4]
### Congressional adviser, 2025
A March 27, 2025 press release from the office of Representative [[Eric Burlison]] announced Grusch as a "Special Advisor" on the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. It described his career as 14 years in the Air Force, reaching the rank of Major, with a combat tour in [[Afghanistan]] "supporting counter-illicit finance, drug, and arms-trafficking operations with [[Joint Special Operations Command]] (JSOC) and [[International Security Assistance Force|ISAF]]," later work as a senior intelligence officer at NGA and the NRO, representation of the NRO on the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021, and a 2022 complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General "found 'credible and urgent' for reporting to the Congressional intelligence committees."[^9] Grusch is quoted: "I will use all my expertise to support Rep. Burlison and help the US Congress restore full oversight while enabling the Legislative Branch's ability to investigate and hold those accountable who have broken the law and lied not only to our Congress, but also to the [[White House|Executive Office of the President]], [[Director of National Intelligence]], and [[Department of Justice]]."[^9]
### NewsNation and Skywatcher
[[Nexstar Media Group]]'s November 14, 2023 announcement of [[Ross Coulthart]] as a NewsNation special correspondent stated that he "will continue to provide reporting on UFO whistleblower David Grusch."[^10] NewsNation wrote in January 2025 that "In June 2023, NewsNation was the first television network to present an interview with Grusch."[^11] Grusch is listed among those interviewed or referenced in the Part I video of [[Sky Watcher]], alongside [[Alex Klokus]], [[Jake Barber]], [[Garry Nolan]], Col. [[Karl Nell]] and [[Fred Baker]].[^12] NewsNation's full special on Barber stated that Grusch and [[Luis Elizondo]] "say they've been told about it, they believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves," and that Barber, "however, is different. He says he was part of that covert program."[^13]
### Retaliation and Impact
Since coming forward, Grusch has faced a campaign of retaliation and character assassination, which he has reported to the Inspector General. Despite this, his testimony has had a profound impact on the UAP conversation, emboldening other whistleblowers to come forward and forcing the U.S. government to confront the issue of UAP secrecy in a way that it never has before.[^1]
Since coming forward, Grusch has faced a campaign of retaliation and character assassination, which he has reported to the Inspector General.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing of July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, statement of David Grusch and list of submitted documents. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
[^3]: "David C. Grusch" résumé, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, hearing of July 26, 2023. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20230726/116282/HHRG-118-GO06-Bio-GruschD-20230726.pdf
[^4]: Micah Hanks, "The Sol Foundation: How a New Think Tank of Academics is Applying 'Cutting-Edge Research' to the UAP Mystery," *The Debrief*, September 12, 2023. https://thedebrief.org/the-sol-foundation-how-a-new-think-tank-of-academics-is-applying-cutting-edge-research-the-uap-mystery/
[^5]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 93-3649160, and IRS Form 990 for 2024, Part VII. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/933649160/202543269349300004/full
[^6]: The Sol Foundation, home page, "People" section, https://thesolfoundation.org/ , read October 3, 2026.
[^7]: Micah Hanks, *The Debrief*, February 12, 2024. https://thedebrief.org/the-sol-foundation-academias-new-uap-think-tank-releases-videos-of-lectures-from-its-inaugural-symposium/
[^8]: Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, "Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Non-Human Craft," *The Debrief*, June 5, 2023. https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/
[^9]: Office of Representative Eric Burlison, "Rep. Burlison Welcomes Former U.S. Air Force Officer David Grusch as Special Advisor," March 27, 2025. https://burlison.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-burlison-welcomes-former-us-air-force-officer-david-grusch-special-advisor
[^10]: Nexstar Media Group, "NewsNation Signs Award-Winning Journalist Ross Coulthart as a Special Correspondent for the Network," November 14, 2023. https://www.nexstar.tv/newsnation-signs-ross-coulthart-as-special-correspondent/
[^11]: NewsNation, "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists: NewsNation exclusive," January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/
[^12]: Skywatcher, "Media," retrieved October 3, 2026. https://skywatcher.ai/media
[^13]: Ross Coulthart, "Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program; object caught on video," NewsNation, updated January 27, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/hfr-uap-recovery-video-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/

38
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Helene Cooper.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
---
category: "Journalists"
tags:
- Person
- Journalist
- UFO
- NewYorkTimes
alias:
- Helene Cooper
- Cooper, Helene
summary: "Helene Cooper, a New York Times Pentagon correspondent and co-author of the paper's December 16, 2017 report on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, was assigned to work with Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[New York Times]]"
role: "assistant editorial page editor (2004), diplomatic correspondent (2006), White House correspondent (2009), Pentagon correspondent"
start: 2004
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]"
role: "co-author; the Times's Pentagon correspondent assigned to Kean and Blumenthal"
start: 2017-12-16
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
[[Helene Cooper]] was born in [[Monrovia]], [[Liberia]], on April 22, 1966. She joined the *[[New York Times]]* in 2004 as assistant editorial page editor, became diplomatic correspondent in 2006 and [[White House]] correspondent in 2009, and later became a [[Pentagon]] correspondent. In 2015 she was part of the Times team that won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for international reporting for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, and she won the [[George Polk Award]] for health reporting and the [[Overseas Press Club]] Award that year. She wrote the memoir *[[The House at Sugar Beach]]* ([[Simon & Schuster|Simon and Schuster]], 2008) and *[[Madame President]]: The Extraordinary Story of [[Ellen Johnson Sirleaf]]* (2017).[^1]
### The December 2017 report
[[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] wrote in *[[The New Yorker]]* that after a meeting with representatives of the Times's Washington bureau the paper agreed to the story brought by [[Leslie Kean]] and [[Ralph Blumenthal]] and "assigned a veteran Pentagon correspondent, Helene Cooper, to work with Kean and Blumenthal."[^2] Her name appears first in the byline of "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program," published December 16, 2017; the article reported that the [[Department of Defense]] "has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012."[^3] The Pentagon officials quoted in the article included spokesman [[Thomas Crosson]], who said the program ended because other priorities "merited funding."[^3] [[Keith Kloor]] of *[[The Intercept]]* wrote in 2019 that Cooper had described [[Luis Elizondo]] on the Times podcast *[[The Daily]]* as a "spooky, secretive guy."[^4] The sequence of who met whom before the Times assigned her is set out in [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]].
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Helene Cooper." Simon & Schuster author page. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Helene-Cooper/18871279
[^2]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously." *The New Yorker,* May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
[^3]: Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean. "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program." *The New York Times,* December 16, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html (full text read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html).
[^4]: Kloor, Keith. "The Media Loves This UFO Expert Who Says He Worked for an Obscure Pentagon Program. Did He?" *The Intercept,* June 1, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/

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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jake Barber.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UAP
- Whistleblower
- AirForce
- Contractor
- Psionics
alias:
- Jake Barber
- Jacob Barber
- Jacob "Jake" Barber
- Jake Barber (whistleblower)
summary: "Former Air Force airman and self-described contractor helicopter pilot who told NewsNation in January 2025 that he recovered non-human craft for a covert program, and who founded the Skywatcher group."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Air Force]]"
role: "airman and aerospace mechanic in the late 1990s, per NewsNation's review of his records"
start: 1990s
fn: 1
- type: founded
with: "[[Sky Watcher]]"
role: "founder, per NewsNation"
start: 2024-11
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Department of Defense]]"
role: "NewsNation reported on February 24, 2025 that the department confirmed it was investigating his claims"
start: 2025-02-24
fn: 3
- type: briefed
with: "[[Marco Rubio]]"
role: "NewsNation reported it confirmed that Barber met staffers for Senator Rubio in fall 2024"
start: 2024-09
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Jacob "Jake" Barber is a former [[United States Air Force]] airman who told [[NewsNation]] in January 2025 that he had spent about 30 years working "in both an official and unofficial capacity for the [[United States]] government and its partners in the intelligence community," that he had been contracted as a helicopter pilot on a team that retrieved crashed aircraft at "an undisclosed testing facility in the desert," and that some of what the team recovered was of non-human origin.[^1] He is the founder of [[Sky Watcher]].[^2]
### Service record as reported
NewsNation reporter [[Ross Coulthart]] stated that the network "checked Barber's records and confirmed that he was an airman in the [[U.S. Air Force]] who worked as an aerospace mechanic in the late 1990s," and wrote that he "was also recruited into [[Air Force Special Operations Command|Air Force Special Operations]], known as 'combat control.'"[^1] The report credits him with a [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] top-secret clearance from service in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] and an award for heroism, and says NewsNation "spoke with three former special operations soldiers who corroborated Barber's credentials," one of whom, Col. [[John Blitch]], NewsNation wrote, "believes Barber's claim wholeheartedly."[^1] [[Don Paul Bales]], described as a Special Forces veteran who worked on Barber's team, was also quoted.[^1] In the broadcast Barber said that after [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001]] "I left the Air Force and was sent out to [[California]] at that time to begin establishing my cover basis as an independent contractor."[^1] NewsNation reported on February 24, 2025 that Barber "went on to work in a nonofficial capacity for the [[Department of Defense|Defense Department]] and the intelligence community."[^4] Barber has not named the contracting company; he said that he reached its head of security in spring 2024 and was "basically told to 'forget it,'" in NewsNation's wording.[^1]
### Claims made to NewsNation, January 2025
Barber told Coulthart that on one night operation, flying under night vision goggles with a 150 to 200 foot line, he saw "a white egg" of "metallic, pearly white" surface "about the size of an SUV," with "no engine" and "no thermal signature," and that "ranking members of the [[UAP Task Force]]" had confirmed to him "over the last couple of years" that "what we were working with that night was, in fact, NHI (nonhuman intelligence)."[^1] He also said he "was never told the craft wasn't human," in NewsNation's paraphrase, and was certain on the basis of "the reaction of my leadership structure."[^1] He described a second object type, "a flying disc with what looked like eight delineated sections," which he called an "eightgon."[^1] He said that as he approached one site he felt "an intense hybrid of sadness and happiness and beauty and song," "a very feminine energy," and "a frequency that I was connected with."[^1]
He said the operation had been requested by a unit he called "the Psionics," people with a "predisposition for extratemporal abilities and sensitivities," and that "in the program, there was certainly a desire to explore the idea that perhaps UAP could be summoned, could be communicated with, could be controlled and could be persuaded to land."[^1] Bales told NewsNation "I've had the pleasure of meeting multiple psionic assets."[^1] Barber said his team "transported what we called 'mystery boxes' all the time," was authorized to use "lethal force" to protect shipments, and became ill after one mission: "I lost every hair on my body," "I also lost the skin on my arms," and "I ended up developing a severe heart murmur."[^1] [[Garry Nolan]] of [[Stanford University]], whom Coulthart had introduced to Barber in 2024, reviewed "decades of Barber's medical records" and said "the acute injuries were obviously severe" and that "the first thing that came to mind was (Barber) was exposed to some kind of radiation."[^1]
Barber also described a later assignment to recover "high-value targets" that were [[Panasonic]] Toughbooks holding "sensor data, video that was illegally captured," found with the hard drives missing and then located "in a sealed steel container 25 feet underwater," followed by an operation where "it was clear that shots had been fired," after which he believed his former employer, "or someone pretending to be them," intended to kill him.[^1] He said he and his team went to [[Washington, D.C.]] in spring 2024, met the company's director of security, and later met staffers for Senator [[Marco Rubio]] in fall 2024, which NewsNation "confirmed."[^1] Barber said, "I feel I was able to fill in gaps that have been there for a long time that no other whistleblower has been able to do."[^1]
NewsNation separately obtained and aired video it described as showing "a view from the belly of a helicopter retrieving one of those mysterious eggs"; the network wrote that it "was told that the video was sent to the organization responsible for monitoring UAPs."[^5] Defense Department spokesperson [[Sue Gough]] stated that the department "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed."[^6] The [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) told NewsNation it was "aware of the claim."[^6] On February 24, 2025 NewsNation reported that the department confirmed it was investigating, and Coulthart said that AARO director [[Jon Kosloski]] "has indicated his office is talking with whistleblowers like Barber" while cautioning he was limited in what he could say.[^4] [[Jason Colavito]] wrote on January 19, 2025 that "many said" the video appeared to show an aerostat or balloon tethered to a helicopter, and that the [[Pentagon]] had told [[Steven Greenstreet]] of the [[New York Post]] that AARO was aware of the video and "did not assess anything non-human about it."[^3] Barber, in Colavito's account, rests his claims on the UAP Task Force that preceded AARO.[^3]
### Later statements
On January 24, 2025 Barber told Coulthart's "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]," as quoted by the writer Jimmy of [[UAP Files]], "I believe the US Government, in the next 12 months, will use me and my team as a peaceful non-judgmental path forward to disclosure."[^7] The Skywatcher team's August 2024 operation, as Barber described it to NewsNation, ended with a "psionic" saying "Get me out of here" and the overwatch, [[Fred Baker]], seeing "a classic lenticular-shape disk."[^1] Colavito's blog reported on January 19, 2025 that Greenstreet had reported that Barber "launched his own UFO organization, Skywatcher, in November."[^3] Skywatcher later released two videos and stopped posting in December 2025; Coulthart reported in 2026 that Skywatcher "appears" to have been dissolved and that its experts were working with the Defense Department at [[White Sands Missile Range]], on the basis of unnamed sources.[^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Ross Coulthart, "Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program; object caught on video" (full special article), NewsNation, updated January 27, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/hfr-uap-recovery-video-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/ . Sole source for the passages so cited, which are Barber's own statements and NewsNation's account of its verification.
[^2]: Michael Ramsey, "Skywatcher video of 'summoned' UFOs coming soon: Ross Coulthart," NewsNation, updated April 7, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/summoned-ufos-video-ross-coulthart/
[^3]: Jason Colavito, "In Brief: NewsNation Offers a New UFO 'Crash Retrieval' Story," January 19, 2025. https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/in-brief-newsnation-offers-a-new-ufo-crash-retrieval-story . Colavito reports Greenstreet's New York Post reporting at second hand; the Post article was not located. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^4]: Michael Ramsey, "UFO whistleblower Jake Barber's claims being investigated by Pentagon," NewsNation, updated February 24, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/pentagon-investigates-ufo-claims/
[^5]: Ross Coulthart, "UAP recovery video shows 'egg-shaped' object: Exclusive," NewsNation, updated January 18, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-recovery-video-shows-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/
[^6]: "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists: NewsNation exclusive," NewsNation, January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/
[^7]: Jimmy, "Skywatcher: The Disclosure Team That Disappeared - I Tracked Their Helicopter," UAP Files, August 12, 2026. https://uapf.substack.com/p/skywatcher-the-disclosure-team-that . Sole source for the quotation as dated.
[^8]: Ross Coulthart, "Is the Trump administration running a covert UFO program?," NewsNation Reality Check, about August 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/podcasts-newsnation/reality-check/trump-administration-covert-ufo-program/amp/

38
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Forrestal.md
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@ -49,6 +49,30 @@ relations:
start: 1949-05-22
role: "board of investigation into his death under Rear Admiral M. D. Willcutts; proceedings approved July 13, 1949; digitized by Princeton from the Forrestal Papers (Box 94, Folder 11)"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Morton D. Willcutts]]"
start: 1949-05-22
end: 1949-07-13
role: "Rear Admiral, Medical Officer in Command, National Naval Medical Center; signed the precept of May 22, 1949 convening the board and approved the proceedings in revision on July 13, 1949"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[A. A. Marsteller]]"
start: 1949-05-23
end: 1949-07-13
role: "Captain Aolpfar A. Marsteller, Medical Corps (retired, on active duty), senior member of the board of investigation"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[George N. Raines]]"
start: 1949-04-02
end: 1949-05-18
role: "Captain, Chief of Neuropsychiatry, Bethesda; Forrestal's attending psychiatrist from admission at about 1700 on April 2 until he left Washington on May 18; testified to the board on May 24 and again at pp. 56 to 60 of the record"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[John Nardini]]"
start: 1949-05-18
end: 1949-05-22
role: "Commander, Medical Corps; took over the case from Raines on May 18 and testified at pp. 14 to 18"
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-03
---
@ -67,7 +91,7 @@ Forrestal resigned on March 28, 1949 and was succeeded by [[Louis Johnson]].[^1]
The two dates of death sit side by side in the sources. The Navy's board of investigation, convened by precept dated May 22, 1949, found that the body was found on a ledge outside room 384 of Building One of the National Naval Medical Center at 1:50 a.m. and pronounced dead at 1:55 a.m., "Sunday, May 22, 1949."[^2] The Mudd finding aid's biographical note states that Forrestal "committed suicide on May 23, 1949" at the National Naval Medical Center lists among its sources [[Walter H. Waggoner]]'s [[New York Times]] article of May 23, 1949; the same finding aid reproduces Truman's statement that Forrestal "was as truly a casualty of the war as if he had died on the firing line."[^1] The Eisenhower briefing document in the Majestic-12 file gives May 22, 1949.[^3]
The Associated Press dispatch of May 22, 1949, printed in the [[Kennebec Journal]] of [[Augusta, Maine]] on May 23, reported that Forrestal, 57, "committed suicide today" and was found dead on a third-floor ledge, the roof of the passageway of the third floor, below the sixteenth-floor window at Bethesda. It quoted the official hospital statement that he took his life "at 2 a.m. (1 a.m. est)" by climbing out of the window adjacent to his room, and stated that a nurse on the seventh floor heard the falling body. The board of investigation gives 1:50 a.m. for the finding of the body (see above); the wire gives "2 a.m." in its own words and attributes it to the hospital statement. The same dispatch reported a bathrobe cord knotted tightly about his neck, said that he wore a dressing gown with the sash wrapped around his neck and that his wristwatch was still running, and said the AP could not tell whether he had contemplated attaching the cord to a radiator and leaping or hanging himself. It reported that a book, "An Anthology of World Poetry," lay open on his radiator to the poem "Chorus from Ajax," with the lines "When reason's day sets rayless, joyless, quenched in cold decay, better to die and sleep" (the dispatch's dashes rendered here as commas) Per Rear Admiral [[Leslie Stone]], the hospital commandant, and the official statement, as the AP reported them, Forrestal had declined his usual sedative that evening, left his room by a door onto the corridor, avoiding the second room of the suite where a doctor was on duty, crossed to the diet kitchen and knotted the cord about his throat; the windows of the room had been enclosed with heavy wire screening. The AP reported that he had entered the hospital seven weeks earlier with "nervous exhaustion resulting from overwork," had been described as greatly improved and permitted visitors and free use of the telephone, and had been visited by Truman on May 6 according to the [[White House]]; that Willcutts ordered a Navy board of inquiry; and that the board was to determine "among other things" why Forrestal was left unattended long enough to reach the window.[^5]
[[Associated Press|The Associated Press]] dispatch of May 22, 1949, printed in the [[Kennebec Journal]] of [[Augusta, Maine]] on May 23, reported that Forrestal, 57, "committed suicide today" and was found dead on a third-floor ledge, the roof of the passageway of the third floor, below the sixteenth-floor window at Bethesda. It quoted the official hospital statement that he took his life "at 2 a.m. (1 a.m. est)" by climbing out of the window adjacent to his room, and stated that a nurse on the seventh floor heard the falling body. The board of investigation gives 1:50 a.m. for the finding of the body (see above); the wire gives "2 a.m." in its own words and attributes it to the hospital statement. The same dispatch reported a bathrobe cord knotted tightly about his neck, said that he wore a dressing gown with the sash wrapped around his neck and that his wristwatch was still running, and said the AP could not tell whether he had contemplated attaching the cord to a radiator and leaping or hanging himself. It reported that a book, "An Anthology of World Poetry," lay open on his radiator to the poem "Chorus from Ajax," with the lines "When reason's day sets rayless, joyless, quenched in cold decay, better to die and sleep" (the dispatch's dashes rendered here as commas) Per Rear Admiral [[Leslie Stone]], the hospital commandant, and the official statement, as the AP reported them, Forrestal had declined his usual sedative that evening, left his room by a door onto the corridor, avoiding the second room of the suite where a doctor was on duty, crossed to the diet kitchen and knotted the cord about his throat; the windows of the room had been enclosed with heavy wire screening. The AP reported that he had entered the hospital seven weeks earlier with "nervous exhaustion resulting from overwork," had been described as greatly improved and permitted visitors and free use of the telephone, and had been visited by Truman on May 6 according to the [[White House]]; that Willcutts ordered a Navy board of inquiry; and that the board was to determine "among other things" why Forrestal was left unattended long enough to reach the window.[^5]
The AP dispatch of October 11, 1949, printed in the Cumberland News of [[Cumberland, Maryland]] on October 12 under the headline "Navy Cleared In Forrestal Death," reported that the Navy court of inquiry found the death "was not caused in any manner by the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency of any person or persons in the naval service or connected therewith." It stated that Forrestal was admitted on April 2 with "operational fatigue" according to Navy doctors, that the findings were released by Navy Secretary [[Francis P. Matthews]] without explanation of a delay of more than four months, and that a five-man board convened on May 23 on Willcutts's orders and concluded its hearings on May 30, after which the report was drawn.[^6] The Mudd Library scan records that the board reconvened and revised its finding on July 13, 1949 (see below); the AP report states that the hearings concluded on May 30 and does not mention the July session.
@ -75,11 +99,15 @@ The AP dispatch of October 11, 1949, printed in the Cumberland News of [[Cumberl
The Mudd Library finding aid for the Rogow Papers on Forrestal states that files on the 1949 board of investigation, "popularly called the 'Willcutts Report,'" are online on the Mudd Library website under the title "Admiral M.D. Willcutts Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal."[^7] The Forrestal Papers finding aid lists a folder, "Willcutts Report on Forrestal's Death" (Box 94, Folder 11), with a digitized scan of 65 images, which includes a [[Judge Advocate General of the Navy|Judge Advocate General's]] cover letter of April 6, 2004 to a [[David Martin (Chantilly)|David Martin]] of [[Chantilly, Virginia]], replying to a [[Freedom of Information Act]] request of March 5, 2004. The letter encloses a copy of the Board of Investigation (309 pages, of which 100 were charged free) and states that exhibit 1 (photographs of the body), exhibit 4 and exhibit 5 (photographs of injuries) were withheld under the privacy exemption of 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6).[^2]
The precept of May 22, 1949, signed by Rear Admiral M. D. Willcutts, Medical Officer in Command of the National Naval Medical Center, named Captain [[A. A. Marsteller]], Medical Corps (retired, on active duty), as senior member, Captains [[Vincent Hernandez]] and [[Harold J. Cokely]], Commander [[William W. Ayres]] and Lieutenant Commander [[James D. Wharton]] as members and Lieutenant [[Robert F. Hooper]] as recorder. The board met on Monday, May 23 at 11:15 a.m. with closed doors, examined the body at the morgue, viewed rooms 1618 and 1620 (the room and the diet kitchen on the sixteenth floor of the tower) and the roof where the body landed, and took testimony beginning May 24.[^2] A photographer's mate testified to taking ten photographs of the body, and a hospital corpsman chief to eleven photographs of the room and building, among them one of a rug with broken glass about two feet from the end of the bed in room 1618.[^2]
The precept of May 22, 1949, signed by Rear Admiral M. D. Willcutts, Medical Officer in Command of the National Naval Medical Center, named Captain [[A. A. Marsteller]] (typed in the precept as Aolpfar A. Marsteller), Medical Corps (retired, on active duty), as senior member, Captains [[Vincent Hernandez]] and [[Harold J. Cokely]], Commander [[William W. Ayres]] and Lieutenant Commander [[James D. Wharton]] as members and Lieutenant [[Robert F. Hooper]] as recorder. The board met on Monday, May 23 at 11:45 a.m. with closed doors, examined the body at the morgue, viewed rooms 1618 and 1620 (the room and the diet kitchen on the sixteenth floor of the tower) and the roof where the body landed, and took testimony beginning May 24.[^2] Aviation photographer's mate first class Harley F. Cope Jr. of the Naval Medical School testified to taking ten photographs of the body, exhibits 1A through 1J, between three and three-fifteen, of "somebody who had fallen from the sixteenth floor to the outside of the third deck." Hospital corpsman chief John Edward McClain, an instructor in medical photography, testified to eleven photographs of the room, the diet kitchen and the outside of the building, exhibits 2A through 2K. He described the fifth as "a rug with some broken glass on it, taken approximately two feet from the end of the bed" in room 1618, adding that the bed could not be photographed "because the glass wouldn't show"; he said that the window screen opened only to a limited distance, that one picture was taken standing on a chair in the diet kitchen with a man pushing the screen back "for finger prints," and that the body landed on a roof "like in proportion to the second floor" below a ledge of the third floor. The board's record notes that the body landed "on the roof of the second deck, on a level with the third deck, striking first a ledge of the fourth deck."[^2]
Captain Raines testified that Forrestal was admitted at about five in the afternoon on Saturday, April 2, 1949. He described a flight on March 31 with Admiral [[John Gingrich]] to [[Stuart, Florida]], a meeting at Robert Lovett's house with Lovett and [[Artemus Gates]], and the arrival of Eberstadt with [[William C. Menninger]] at Hobe Sound; Raines said that Forrestal had told Menninger he tried to hang himself with a belt, that he and Menninger doubted it, that Forrestal had named sleeping pills and hanging as the two means he would use, and that Forrestal had once sent him a concealed razor blade. Raines said Forrestal's stated means had not included a window, and referred to the bathrobe cord.[^2] The Charlotte News editor's note reproduces parts of the same colloquy.[^4]
The record's index lists the later witnesses, with transcript pages: Captain Raines (pp. 5 to 14 and 56 to 60), Commander John Nardini (14 to 18), Commander David Hightower (18 to 23), Commander Robert Reynolds Deen (23 to 28), Captain Stephen Smith (29 to 33), hospitalman second class William Eliades (34 to 36), Lieutenant (junior grade) Willie Ray Barnett of the Medical Service Corps (36 and 37), hospitalman chief John Lawrence Mego (37 and 38), Rear Admiral Leslie Stone (38 and 39), Captain Bartholomew W. Hogan (39), Lieutenant (junior grade) Francis Whitney Westneat (40 and 41), junior hospital apprentice Robert Wayne Harrison (43 to 46) and hospital apprentice Edward William Price (47 and 48), with further nurse, apprentice and officer witnesses to p. 55. The file read ends at transcript p. 29, the first page of Smith's testimony, so the testimony of the corpsmen at pp. 34 to 48, including Harrison and Price, is not in it; the passage Hugh Turley quoted below could not be checked against the page.[^2]
The board's finding of facts states that Forrestal died "on or about May 22, 1949" of "injuries, multiple, extreme, received incident to a fall from a high point in the tower," that his behavior in the hospital "was indicative of a mental depression," that treatment and precautions accorded with accepted psychiatric practice, and that the death was not caused by "the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency" of any person in the naval service. The Secretary of the Navy returned the record in an endorsement stating that "on or about" was ambiguous and "ill advised," since it might imply that Forrestal could have fallen before midnight without the staff knowing; the board reconvened on July 13, 1949 and changed the finding to "about 1:50 a.m. on May 22, 1949," and Willcutts approved the proceedings in revision the same day. Letters in the folder from [[Winfred Overholser]], [[John C. Whitehorn]] and [[Edward A. Strecker]] to the Judge Advocate General state their agreement with the findings.[^2]
Commander Hightower, testified (pp. 19 to 21 of the record) that on Friday night, May 20, he checked with the corpsman at about nine o'clock and was told Forrestal was sleeping, that Forrestal slept through that night without medication, and that on Saturday morning he visited with a friend from New York, a "Mister Strieffler," whom Raines had said on Thursday night would visit.[^2]
Captain Raines testified that Forrestal was admitted at about five in the afternoon on Saturday, April 2, 1949. He described a flight on March 31 with Admiral [[John Gingrich]] to [[Stuart, Florida]], a meeting at Robert Lovett's house with Lovett and [[Artemus Gates]], and the arrival of Eberstadt with [[William C. Menninger]] at Hobe Sound; Raines said (pp. 5 to 6) that he took the call from the Surgeon General at about noon on Thursday, March 31, landed at Stuart at about eight in the evening, remained "completely out of the picture" because Forrestal had chosen Menninger as his physician, and accepted him as a patient on April 2; he also said (p. 10) that Forrestal had told Menninger he tried to hang himself with a belt, that he and Menninger doubted it, that Forrestal had named sleeping pills and hanging as the two means he would use, and that Forrestal had once sent him a concealed razor blade. Raines said Forrestal's stated means had not included a window, and referred to the bathrobe cord.[^2] The Charlotte News editor's note reproduces parts of the same colloquy.[^4]
The board's finding of facts (five numbered findings, the first placing the body "on the ledge outside of room three eighty-four of building one" at 1:50 a.m. and pronouncing death at 1:55 a.m., "Sunday, May 22, 1949") states that Forrestal died "on or about May 22, 1949" of "injuries, multiple, extreme, received incident to a fall from a high point in the tower," that his behavior in the hospital "was indicative of a mental depression," that treatment and precautions accorded with accepted psychiatric practice, and that the death was not caused by "the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency" of any person in the naval service. The Secretary of the Navy returned the record in an endorsement stating that "on or about" was ambiguous and "ill advised," since it might imply that Forrestal could have fallen before midnight without the staff knowing; the board reconvened on July 13, 1949 and changed the finding to "about 1:50 a.m. on May 22, 1949," and Willcutts approved the proceedings in revision the same day. Letters in the folder from [[Winfred Overholser]], [[John C. Whitehorn]] and [[Edward A. Strecker]] to the Judge Advocate General state their agreement with the findings.[^2]
[[Hugh Turley]], writing for the [[Hyattsville Life and Times]], stated in 2009 that the [[History News Network]] announced the report's availability in 2004, and that the report offers "new evidence of a struggle in Forrestal's room" in the form of broken glass found on the bed and photographed on the floor. Turley wrote that the transcribed testimony of a corpsman, asked when he last saw Forrestal, was "one forty-five, sir," that Forrestal "was in his bed sleeping," and that the corpsman was in the room; he wrote that the report says nothing of the book of poetry, that the board "did not comment on why the sash" of Forrestal's dressing gown "was around his neck," and that the report "did not conclude Forrestal committed suicide." Turley's article reports that the historians [[Keith W. Olson]] and [[Martin J. Sherwin]] were invited to comment: Olson said "the need for such a study is obvious," and Sherwin wrote "I have always thought Forrestal committed suicide, but this is not because I investigated the manner of his death." Turley's own inference, in the article, is that the report indicates assassination.[^8]
@ -90,7 +118,7 @@ The Eisenhower briefing document, dated November 18, 1952, lists Secretary James
### Footnotes
[^1]: Princeton University Library, "James V. Forrestal Papers, 1907-1958 (mostly 1940-1949)," MC051, collection creator biography, collection history, immediate source of acquisition and series 1 folder list, https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/MC051.xml (EAD export, opened 2026-10-03).
[^2]: "Willcutts Report on Forrestal's Death," Forrestal Papers, Box 94, Folder 11, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, digitized at Princeton Figgy (IIIF manifest https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/97bd9b5d-cc16-4f8c-94bf-0763b7228def/manifest), finding aid entry https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/MC051_c04531. Page images (Judge Advocate General letter of April 6, 2004; precept of May 22, 1949; findings; endorsements of June and July 1949; testimony) read directly for the precept and findings pages and by machine OCR for the remainder; names in the testimony transcribed from OCR and not individually verified against the images.
[^2]: "Willcutts Report on Forrestal's Death," Forrestal Papers, Box 94, Folder 11, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, digitized at Princeton Figgy (IIIF manifest https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/97bd9b5d-cc16-4f8c-94bf-0763b7228def/manifest), finding aid entry https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/MC051_c04531. Page images (Judge Advocate General letter of April 6, 2004; precept of May 22, 1949; findings; endorsements of June and July 1949; testimony) read directly for the precept and findings pages and by machine OCR for the remainder; the precept, first-day record, the first witnesses (Cope, McClain, Raines and Hightower, transcript pp. 2 to 21) and the index were re-read from page images on October 3, 2026 and agree with the text above except that the board met at 11:45 a.m. (an earlier version of this page said 11:15); the PDF supplied by the vault owner has 66 pages and stops at transcript p. 29.
[^3]: FBI, "Majestic 12," file 65-81170, Part 01, pages reproducing the Eisenhower briefing document and the Truman memorandum, https://vault.fbi.gov/Majestic%2012/Majestic%2012%20Part%2001%20%28Final%29/at_download/file (Wayback copy used; page images not machine readable; wording cross-checked against the existing Majestic-12 page).
[^4]: Site editor's note on The Charlotte News, Monday, May 23, 1949, W. J. Cash site, https://www.wjcash.org/WJCash17/Charlotte.News.Articles/5-23-49.htm (a modern summary quoting the board testimony, not the 1949 page).
[^5]: "Forrestal Death Leap / Ex-Defense Sec'y Jumps from 16th Story Hospital Window," Associated Press, Washington, May 22 dateline, Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), May 23, 1949, p. 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/857767711/

52
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Fox (filmmaker).md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UAP
- Filmmaker
- Documentary
alias:
- James Fox
- James Fox (filmmaker)
- James Fox (documentary filmmaker)
- James Fox (director)
summary: "Documentary filmmaker who directed UFOs: 50 Years of Denial?, Out of the Blue, I Know What I Saw, The Phenomenon (2020), Moment of Contact (2022) and The Program (2024)."
relations:
- type: director_of
with: "[[The Phenomenon (2020 film)]]"
role: "director and producer; studio listed as CE3 LLC; released October 6, 2020"
start: 2020
fn: 1
- type: director_of
with: "[[The Program (2024 film)]]"
role: "director and producer with Lance Mungia; executive producers Jim Martin and Henry Marx of Lab 9 Films; sales by Verve Ventures"
start: 2024
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
James Fox is an American documentary filmmaker whose features on unidentified flying objects include "Out of the Blue," broadcast on the [[Sci-Fi Channel]], "I Know What I Saw," broadcast on the [[History (TV channel)|History channel]], and "UFOs: 50 Years of Denial?"; an October 19, 2020 item on [[Open Minds]] by [[Alejandro Rojas]] describes him as executive producer and director of those films and calls "[[The Phenomenon]]" his "fourth UFO documentary."[^4] In a 2024 statement he said "I've been making films on the topic of UFOs (now referred to as UAP) since the early 1990s."[^2]
### The Phenomenon, 2020
[[Apple TV]] lists "The Phenomenon" (2020, 1 hour 40 minutes, narrated by [[Peter Coyote]], studio "CE3 LLC") with Fox as director and producer, [[Dan Farah]], [[Marc Barasch]], [[Hanson Tse]] and [[Tony Cataldo]] as producers, and appearances by [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Kim Arnold]] and [[George Knapp]].[^1] The Open Minds item quotes [[Harry Reid]] as saying "The Phenomenon makes the incredible credible."[^4]
### Moment of Contact, 2022
Apple TV lists "Moment of Contact" (2022, 1 hour 47 minutes), on the 1996 events at [[Varginha UFO incident|Varginha]], [[Brazil]], with Fox as director and interviews with [[Stanton Friedman]], [[Brazilian Air Force]] general José Carlos Pereira and the Brazilian researcher [[Ademar José Gevaerd]].[^5] A 2025 follow-up, "Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters," is listed in the same catalog.[^5]
### The Program, 2024
[[The Hollywood Reporter]] reported on September 25, 2024 that Fox directed "The Program," "exploring the unprecedented bipartisan congressional effort to uncover what intelligence agencies really know about UFOs, now referred to as UAP," narrated by Coyote, produced by Fox and [[Lance Mungia]], with [[Jim Martin]] and [[Henry Marx]] of [[Lab 9 Films]] as executive producers, and [[Verve Ventures]] "handling sales," with the film "set to screen for buyers."[^2] Interviewees named in that report were Christopher Mellon (described as the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence), [[Garry Nolan]] of [[Stanford University]], [[Jason Sands]] ("a master sergeant in the [[U.S. Air Force|United States Air Force]]"), [[Craig Lindsay]], [[Nick Pope]], Representatives [[Andre Carson]] and [[Tim Burchett]], Senator Harry Reid and [[Kirk McConnell]], formerly of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]].[^2] [[The Oxford Eagle]] reported on December 10, 2024 that "The Program" would be released on December 16, 2024 on Apple TV, [[Amazon Prime Video|Amazon Prime]], [[Hulu]] and [[Vimeo]], with [[Percy Townes]], an [[University of Mississippi|Ole Miss]] alumnus, as associate producer.[^6]
In a December 18, 2024 interview Fox described attending a congressional hearing weeks earlier at which Rear Admiral [[Tim Gallaudet]] testified, said he had been "told" the plan "is to at least disclose the fact that we have definitive proof that we're not alone by 2030," and, in the interviewer's paraphrase, said his research indicated the Department of Energy oversees many unacknowledged special access programs.[^7] He also recounted a conversation with a general who said "we have overwhelming data" of "structured craft of unknown origin."[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Apple TV, "The Phenomenon," credits and studio listing. https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/the-phenomenon/umc.cmc.e8djkr1rhg7vubj9zgnv7b0a
[^2]: Mia Galuppo, "UFO Doc 'The Program' From James Fox (Exclusive)," The Hollywood Reporter, September 25, 2024. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ufo-doc-the-program-james-fox-1236011733/
[^4]: Alejandro Rojas, "Rojas Report: Filmmaker James Fox on new documentary The Phenomenon," Open Minds, October 19, 2020. https://openminds.tv/rojas-report-filmmaker-james-fox-on-new-documentary-the-phenomenon/
[^5]: Apple TV, "Moment of Contact." https://tv.apple.com/movie/umc.cmc.eq4hi5uneea0v3a7e1sqrq9f
[^6]: Staff report, "Director James Fox, Ole Miss alumnus Percy Townes to release UFO documentary," The Oxford Eagle, December 10, 2024. https://oxfordeagle.com/?p=162243
[^7]: Higgypop, "Interview: James Fox's New Documentary 'The Program' Explores The 'Unprecedented' Push For Disclosure," December 18, 2024. https://www.higgypop.com/news/james-fox-interview/

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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jeffrey Epstein.md
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@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ relations:
with: "[[Gratitude America]]"
start: 2012
role: "private charity; paid Leon Botstein 37,500 dollars a quarter in 2016"
fn: 69
fn: 70
- type: funded
with: "[[Harvard University]]"
start: 1998
@ -88,27 +88,27 @@ relations:
with: "[[World Transhumanist Association]]"
start: 2010
role: "20,000 dollars"
fn: 59
fn: 60
- type: funded
with: "[[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]"
start: 2009
role: "50,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute through the C.O.U.Q. Foundation"
fn: 59
fn: 60
- type: appointed
with: "[[Darren Indyke]]"
start: 2019-08-08
role: "co-executor under the will"
fn: 120
fn: 121
- type: appointed
with: "[[Richard Kahn]]"
start: 2019-08-08
role: "co-executor under the will"
fn: 120
fn: 121
- type: appointed
with: "[[Boris Nikolic]]"
start: 2019-08-08
role: "backup executor under the will"
fn: 120
fn: 121
- type: investigated
with: "[[Palm Beach Police Department]]"
reverse: true
@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ relations:
start: 2019
end: 2019
role: "United States v. Epstein, 19 Cr. 490"
fn: 111
fn: 112
- type: represented
with: "[[Jay Lefkowitz]]"
reverse: true
@ -167,25 +167,25 @@ relations:
reverse: true
start: 2011
end: 2019
fn: 85
fn: 86
- type: represented
with: "[[Reid Weingarten]]"
reverse: true
start: 2019
end: 2019
fn: 112
fn: 113
- type: represented
with: "[[Marc Fernich]]"
reverse: true
start: 2019
end: 2019
fn: 112
fn: 113
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Mark Epstein]]"
role: "brother"
fn: 89
fn: 90
created: 2026-06-18
updated: 2026-09-25
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Jeffrey Epstein (January 20, 1953 to August 10, 2019) was an American financier and convicted sex offender who, with his companion [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], ran a sex-trafficking operation that recruited and abused dozens of underage girls across his residences in [[Manhattan]], [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]], [[New Mexico]], the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]], and [[Paris]]. He built a social and financial network that encompassed technology billionaires ([[Peter Thiel]], [[Bill Gates]], [[Elon Musk]], [[Reid Hoffman]], [[Mark Zuckerberg]]), heads of state and politicians ([[Bill Clinton]], [[Ehud Barak]], [[Prince Andrew]], [[Donald Trump]]), diplomats and intelligence officials ([[William Burns]], [[Vitaly Churkin]]), financiers and executives ([[Leslie Wexner]], [[Leon Black]], [[Tom Pritzker]], [[Howard Lutnick]]), and prominent scientists ([[Martin Nowak]], [[Marvin Minsky]], [[George Church]], [[Stephen Hawking]]) brokered through the literary agent [[John Brockman]]. The source of his fortune was never satisfactorily explained, his long association with [[Robert Maxwell|Robert Maxwell's]] daughter raised documented intelligence questions, and his death in federal custody in 2019 was ruled a suicide over disputes that have not been resolved.[^1][^2][^3]
@ -290,125 +290,125 @@ From the late 1990s Epstein financed and embedded himself in elite science throu
Epstein cultivated scientists including Marvin Minsky of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], the geneticist George Church, the physicist [[Lawrence Krauss]], and the cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. He funded Minsky's April 2002 St. Thomas Common Sense Symposium and a December 2011 conference, and in March 2006, four months before his indictment, the "Confronting Gravity" conference in St. Thomas organized by Krauss, with about twenty physicists including Stephen Hawking and three Nobel laureates, and a barbecue on Little St. James.[^18][^57][^58]
After President [[Drew Faust]] barred further Epstein gifts no later than November 2008, donors Epstein introduced gave Harvard 9.5 million dollars between 2010 and 2015: 7.5 million dollars for Nowak's program (500,000 dollars from the [[Falconwood Foundation]] in 2010, and 7 million dollars from Leon Black, [[Debra Black]] and the [[Black Family Foundation]] in 2011, 2014 and 2015) and 2 million dollars from Black for Church. Epstein's accountant arranged gift letters permitting Nowak to spend the Black money on rent, and Harvard development staff thanked Epstein in December 2014 "for trying to expedite this gift." Epstein had been a trustee of the Black Family Foundation from 1997 until, according to Black's representative, July 2007; Black's representative told Harvard that "none of the funds were provided by Mr. Epstein." Black also gave 2 million dollars to Krauss's Origins Project at [[Arizona State University]] in 2014 and 2015, where one accounting entry listed Epstein's employer as "Leon D. Black, [[Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation|Enhanced Education]]," and, by the account of internal [[MIT Media Lab]] emails, 5.5 million dollars to the Media Lab in 2014 at Epstein's direction.[^55][^59][^60][^61]
After President [[Drew Faust]] barred further Epstein gifts no later than November 2008, donors Epstein introduced gave Harvard 9.5 million dollars between 2010 and 2015: 7.5 million dollars for Nowak's program (500,000 dollars from the [[Falconwood Foundation]] in 2010, and 7 million dollars from Leon Black, [[Debra Black]] and the [[Black Family Foundation]] in 2011, 2014 and 2015) and 2 million dollars from Black for Church. Epstein's accountant arranged gift letters permitting Nowak to spend the Black money on rent, and Harvard development staff thanked Epstein in December 2014 "for trying to expedite this gift." Epstein had been a trustee of the Black Family Foundation from 1997 until, according to Black's representative, July 2007; Black's representative told Harvard that "none of the funds were provided by Mr. Epstein." On October 16, 2015, an itinerary sent to Epstein for a Cambridge visit listed a 2 p.m. meeting at Nowak's institute with the Harvard mathematician [[Shing-Tung Yau]]; on October 20, 2015, the physicist [[Andrew Strominger]] wrote to Epstein that a Black Hole Center with [[Avi Loeb]] "needs a 50 million endowment," and on February 17, 2016, Yau asked Epstein's assistant whether Epstein's friends would fund a black hole center, which "will take twenty million dollars."[^59] Black also gave 2 million dollars to Krauss's Origins Project at [[Arizona State University]] in 2014 and 2015, where one accounting entry listed Epstein's employer as "Leon D. Black, [[Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation|Enhanced Education]]," and, by the account of internal [[MIT Media Lab]] emails, 5.5 million dollars to the Media Lab in 2014 at Epstein's direction.[^55][^60][^61][^62]
Epstein's interest in genetics and population converged with a stated ambition to spread his own DNA. The 2019 New York Times report documented that he told scientists of plans to impregnate women at Zorro Ranch to seed the human race with his genome, and that he was drawn to [[transhumanism]] and [[eugenics]]. In 2010, after his conviction, Epstein gave 20,000 dollars to the [[World Transhumanist Association]] (Humanity+), and in 2009 his C.O.U.Q. Foundation gave 50,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, now the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]. In 2014 he and Church formed an investment company, Georgarage, incorporated in Delaware by Darren Indyke, after Church sent Epstein a ten-stage, 10 million dollar investment plan that included "Supercentenarianstudy.com," reversing aging and "cold-resistant elephants." Epstein discussed Georgarage stakes in the xenotransplant company eGenesis, the gene-editing company Androcyte (where, its founder said, Epstein proposed becoming board chairman), and a California sequencing firm; no investment was completed. Androcyte's assets passed in 2017 to BetterHumans, which describes itself as "the world's first specifically-transhumanist bio-medical research organization." In 2013 Epstein's cells were sampled into Church's Personal Genome Project and cell lines were created, over staff objections to an attempt to expedite his sample. After his 2019 arrest, Church apologized for continued contact.[^18][^59][^62][^63]
Epstein's interest in genetics and population converged with a stated ambition to spread his own DNA. The 2019 New York Times report documented that he told scientists of plans to impregnate women at Zorro Ranch to seed the human race with his genome, and that he was drawn to [[transhumanism]] and [[eugenics]]. In 2010, after his conviction, Epstein gave 20,000 dollars to the [[World Transhumanist Association]] (Humanity+), and in 2009 his C.O.U.Q. Foundation gave 50,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, now the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]. In 2014 he and Church formed an investment company, Georgarage, incorporated in Delaware by Darren Indyke, after Church sent Epstein a ten-stage, 10 million dollar investment plan that included "Supercentenarianstudy.com," reversing aging and "cold-resistant elephants." Epstein discussed Georgarage stakes in the xenotransplant company eGenesis, the gene-editing company Androcyte (where, its founder said, Epstein proposed becoming board chairman), and a California sequencing firm; no investment was completed. Androcyte's assets passed in 2017 to BetterHumans, which describes itself as "the world's first specifically-transhumanist bio-medical research organization." In 2013 Epstein's cells were sampled into Church's Personal Genome Project and cell lines were created, over staff objections to an attempt to expedite his sample. After his 2019 arrest, Church apologized for continued contact.[^18][^60][^63][^64]
Epstein's publicists worked to attach his name to the institutions he funded. In mid-2013 his publicist asked Nowak's program for links because "a link on Harvard's network would be very helpful," and in 2014 obtained a "Friends" page on the program's website on which Epstein was the only entry, because "it would be very helpful in terms of Google results if his name were attached to a Harvard.edu url." In a 2012 email a person whose name is redacted in the Justice Department release told Epstein that press releases about Nowak's work had been placed with major outlets, with more planned on Church and others, in an effort to push "the bad stuff" off the first page of search results; Epstein replied that "ther[e] should be an article a day or every two days." In 2015 an Epstein foundation letter falsely told the [[John Templeton Foundation]] that Enhanced Education had funded Nowak's program since 2003, securing matching conditions for a 1.5 million dollar grant; Harvard's review found that Nowak and his administrator "provided false information."[^55][^62]
Epstein's publicists worked to attach his name to the institutions he funded. In mid-2013 his publicist asked Nowak's program for links because "a link on Harvard's network would be very helpful," and in 2014 obtained a "Friends" page on the program's website on which Epstein was the only entry, because "it would be very helpful in terms of Google results if his name were attached to a Harvard.edu url." In a 2012 email a person whose name is redacted in the Justice Department release told Epstein that press releases about Nowak's work had been placed with major outlets, with more planned on Church and others, in an effort to push "the bad stuff" off the first page of search results; Epstein replied that "ther[e] should be an article a day or every two days." In 2015 an Epstein foundation letter falsely told the [[John Templeton Foundation]] that Enhanced Education had funded Nowak's program since 2003, securing matching conditions for a 1.5 million dollar grant; Harvard's review found that Nowak and his administrator "provided false information."[^55][^63]
The MIT Media Lab director [[Joi Ito]] resigned on September 7, 2019 over revelations, reported by [[Ronan Farrow]], that the lab had concealed Epstein's donations. Farrow reported, citing internal documents and the former development associate [[Signe Swenson]], that Epstein was listed as "disqualified" in MIT's donor database and that the Media Lab recorded his gifts as anonymous. MIT's investigators at [[Goodwin Procter]] wrote that "neither Epstein nor his foundations was ever coded as 'disqualified,'" a code it said denotes dormant donors, while confirming that MIT's senior team (General Counsel R. Gregory Morgan, Vice President Jeffrey Newton and Treasurer Israel Ruiz) approved the anonymous-gift framework in June 2013: "We do not want his name appearing on any list of supporters or donors in any form."[^60][^64]
The MIT Media Lab director [[Joi Ito]] resigned on September 7, 2019 over revelations, reported by [[Ronan Farrow]], that the lab had concealed Epstein's donations. Farrow reported, citing internal documents and the former development associate [[Signe Swenson]], that Epstein was listed as "disqualified" in MIT's donor database and that the Media Lab recorded his gifts as anonymous. MIT's investigators at [[Goodwin Procter]] wrote that "neither Epstein nor his foundations was ever coded as 'disqualified,'" a code it said denotes dormant donors, while confirming that MIT's senior team (General Counsel R. Gregory Morgan, Vice President Jeffrey Newton and Treasurer Israel Ruiz) approved the anonymous-gift framework in June 2013: "We do not want his name appearing on any list of supporters or donors in any form."[^61][^65]
### The Post-Conviction Network
After the 2008 plea Epstein rebuilt his social and business standing and continued to broker access among the wealthy and powerful. On December 2, 2010, seventeen months after his release, he hosted a small dinner for Prince Andrew, who was staying at the Manhattan house; the publicist [[Peggy Siegal]] organized it and listed the guests as Andrew, [[Woody Allen]] and [[Soon-Yi Previn]], [[Katie Couric]] and [[George Stephanopoulos]], describing the house as "one [of] the largest single dwellings in New York."[^65]
After the 2008 plea Epstein rebuilt his social and business standing and continued to broker access among the wealthy and powerful. On December 2, 2010, seventeen months after his release, he hosted a small dinner for Prince Andrew, who was staying at the Manhattan house; the publicist [[Peggy Siegal]] organized it and listed the guests as Andrew, [[Woody Allen]] and [[Soon-Yi Previn]], [[Katie Couric]] and [[George Stephanopoulos]], describing the house as "one [of] the largest single dwellings in New York."[^66]
The [[Wall Street Journal]] reporting on his recovered calendars documented post-conviction meetings with [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Kathryn Ruemmler]], Tom Pritzker and William Burns. Burns met Epstein three times in 2014 while serving as [[Deputy Secretary of State]]; the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] spokeswoman [[Tammy Kupperman Thorp]] said in 2023 that Burns remembered "meeting Epstein once briefly in New York." Ruemmler, the [[Barack Obama]] administration's [[White House Counsel]] from 2011 to 2014, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein between 2014 and 2019; Epstein's staff asked him twice whether young women should be kept out of the townhouse while she was there. On January 8, 2015 she wrote to Epstein: "John Brennan gave me the CIA Agency Medal (the CIA's highest award) this morning. How cool is that?" Ruemmler told the Journal: "I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein." Chomsky had 270,000 dollars moved through Epstein's office.[^66][^67][^68]
The [[Wall Street Journal]] reporting on his recovered calendars documented post-conviction meetings with [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Kathryn Ruemmler]], Tom Pritzker and William Burns. Burns met Epstein three times in 2014 while serving as [[Deputy Secretary of State]]; the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] spokeswoman [[Tammy Kupperman Thorp]] said in 2023 that Burns remembered "meeting Epstein once briefly in New York." Ruemmler, the [[Barack Obama]] administration's [[White House Counsel]] from 2011 to 2014, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein between 2014 and 2019; Epstein's staff asked him twice whether young women should be kept out of the townhouse while she was there. On January 8, 2015 she wrote to Epstein: "John Brennan gave me the CIA Agency Medal (the CIA's highest award) this morning. How cool is that?" Ruemmler told the Journal: "I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein." Chomsky had 270,000 dollars moved through Epstein's office.[^67][^68][^69]
Epstein's charity [[Gratitude America]], whose operating account was at [[Deutsche Bank]] Trust Company Americas, paid the president of [[Bard College]], [[Leon Botstein]], in quarterly checks; one dated August 1, 2016, for 37,500 dollars payable to "Leon Botstein," bears the memo "3rd Quarterly Payment of 4." Deutsche Bank later produced the check images to federal prosecutors in New York. Bard said the 150,000 dollars was compensation for a year on the foundation's board as a music expert, and Botstein said he gave it to the college as part of a one million dollar gift that year: "I didn't benefit personally at all."[^69]
Epstein's charity [[Gratitude America]], whose operating account was at [[Deutsche Bank]] Trust Company Americas, paid the president of [[Bard College]], [[Leon Botstein]], in quarterly checks; one dated August 1, 2016, for 37,500 dollars payable to "Leon Botstein," bears the memo "3rd Quarterly Payment of 4." Deutsche Bank later produced the check images to federal prosecutors in New York. Bard said the 150,000 dollars was compensation for a year on the foundation's board as a music expert, and Botstein said he gave it to the college as part of a one million dollar gift that year: "I didn't benefit personally at all."[^70]
In an iMessage exchange of August 23, 2018 exported from a device whose owner's name is redacted, the contact saved as "Steve Bannon" wrote, "Do u have access that's not the front door," adding that "they have 24/7 surveillance on u," and, asked who was watching, "Don't know but real folks costing lot of coin." The account holder proposed meeting at "301 East 66," adding "I don't like he regency as it is totally wired" and "There is also a rear entrance on 67"; that evening he wrote, "Your girlfriend Ruemmler is coming over," proposed "a private screening of dharma for the power players. . . . Non of my fingerprints," referring to [[Errol Morris]]'s documentary on Bannon, and later wrote: "your girlfriend is outraged. . I suggested to her he pardon everyone, say this is not good for the country , and then fake the heart attack." [[Steve Bannon]] confirmed to the New York Times in 2021 that he had recorded more than 15 hours of interviews with Epstein for a documentary that was never released.[^70]
In an iMessage exchange of August 23, 2018 exported from a device whose owner's name is redacted, the contact saved as "Steve Bannon" wrote, "Do u have access that's not the front door," adding that "they have 24/7 surveillance on u," and, asked who was watching, "Don't know but real folks costing lot of coin." The account holder proposed meeting at "301 East 66," adding "I don't like he regency as it is totally wired" and "There is also a rear entrance on 67"; that evening he wrote, "Your girlfriend Ruemmler is coming over," proposed "a private screening of dharma for the power players. . . . Non of my fingerprints," referring to [[Errol Morris]]'s documentary on Bannon, and later wrote: "your girlfriend is outraged. . I suggested to her he pardon everyone, say this is not good for the country , and then fake the heart attack." [[Steve Bannon]] confirmed to the New York Times in 2021 that he had recorded more than 15 hours of interviews with Epstein for a documentary that was never released.[^71]
On August 8, 2016, in reply to Epstein's question "who attends," Pritzker sent him the membership of the [[Aspen Strategy Group]]: "Nye, Scowcroft and Nick Burns run it (Scowcroft being replaced by Condi). Members include Patraeus, Albright, Slaughter, Donalon (Obama NSA), Hadley (Bush NSA), Sullivan (NSA Hillary), Bill Burns (State #2), Kurt Campbell, Hoss Carwright (#2 Jt Chiefs), Harman, Ignatius, Sanger, Nunn, Reed, Sawers (MI6), Sherman (iran deal), Work (current #2 DoD). It seems to now be taking on an aura." [[John Sawers]] had been chief of MI6.[^71]
On August 8, 2016, in reply to Epstein's question "who attends," Pritzker sent him the membership of the [[Aspen Strategy Group]]: "Nye, Scowcroft and Nick Burns run it (Scowcroft being replaced by Condi). Members include Patraeus, Albright, Slaughter, Donalon (Obama [[NSA]]), Hadley (Bush NSA), Sullivan (NSA Hillary), Bill Burns (State #2), Kurt Campbell, Hoss Carwright (#2 Jt Chiefs), Harman, Ignatius, Sanger, Nunn, Reed, Sawers (MI6), Sherman (iran deal), Work (current #2 DoD). It seems to now be taking on an aura." [[John Sawers]] had been chief of MI6.[^72]
Justice Department releases record a dinner on August 2, 2015 at the Baume restaurant in [[Palo Alto]], which the organizers bought out, whose confirmed attendees were [[Ed Boyden]], Reid Hoffman, Mark Zuckerberg, [[Priscilla Chan]], Peter Thiel, Epstein, Elon Musk and Joi Ito. On August 12, 2010 a correspondent whose name is redacted asked Epstein for "suggestions for an old guy. super smart / well connected that wants to continue legacy of 'old school' secret society?"; on February 6, 2016 Epstein wrote to another redacted correspondent that "peter thiel LOVED the secret socieity idea. . he has done alot of work on the concept. all failed so far," and received the reply ":-) let's do it."[^72][^73]
Justice Department releases record a dinner on August 2, 2015 at the Baume restaurant in [[Palo Alto]], which the organizers bought out, whose confirmed attendees were [[Ed Boyden]], Reid Hoffman, Mark Zuckerberg, [[Priscilla Chan]], Peter Thiel, Epstein, Elon Musk and Joi Ito. On August 12, 2010 a correspondent whose name is redacted asked Epstein for "suggestions for an old guy. super smart / well connected that wants to continue legacy of 'old school' secret society?"; on February 6, 2016 Epstein wrote to another redacted correspondent that "peter thiel LOVED the secret socieity idea. . he has done alot of work on the concept. all failed so far," and received the reply ":-) let's do it."[^73][^74]
JPMorgan records produced in the Virgin Islands case show Epstein arranging introductions for [[Jes Staley]] to Ehud Barak, [[Peter Mandelson]] and Bill Gates, and referring Pritzker to the bank; in January 2008, months before Epstein's plea, Staley had his assistant arrange a meeting between Barak and JPMorgan executives through [[Jamie Dimon]]'s office. Epstein arranged two consulting arrangements for Larry Summers from 2013, a paid advisory seat with the Mongolian president's office worth up to 100,000 dollars a year and a Kazakhstan economic-policy engagement for which Epstein proposed "3-5 million per year"; Summers formed LHSummers Economic Consulting LLC two months after Epstein raised the idea, and an Epstein foundation paid 14,000 dollars for his 2014 first-class airfare to Kazakhstan.[^12][^39][^74]
JPMorgan records produced in the Virgin Islands case show Epstein arranging introductions for [[Jes Staley]] to Ehud Barak, [[Peter Mandelson]] and Bill Gates, and referring Pritzker to the bank; in January 2008, months before Epstein's plea, Staley had his assistant arrange a meeting between Barak and JPMorgan executives through [[Jamie Dimon]]'s office. Epstein arranged two consulting arrangements for Larry Summers from 2013, a paid advisory seat with the Mongolian president's office worth up to 100,000 dollars a year and a Kazakhstan economic-policy engagement for which Epstein proposed "3-5 million per year"; Summers formed LHSummers Economic Consulting LLC two months after Epstein raised the idea, and an Epstein foundation paid 14,000 dollars for his 2014 first-class airfare to Kazakhstan.[^12][^39][^75]
Howard Lutnick, who in 1998 bought 11 East 71st Street from an entity that had bought it from Epstein in 1996, signed an investment contract in the advertising company Adfin four days after a December 24, 2012 lunch on Little St. James, with Epstein signing for [[Southern Trust Company]]. A calendar alert of December 20, 2012 asked: "can Howard Lutnick do lunch Sat or Sun on JE's island?" In October 2025 Lutnick said he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005. An FBI Guardian complaint form dated April 23, 2021 and filed under the Epstein child-sex-trafficking case number records an October 2020 call from a caller describing himself as a former Cantor Fitzgerald compliance employee, who alleged money laundering by Lutnick through [[BGC Partners|BGC Financial]] and [[Cantor Fitzgerald]], claimed to hold documents linking Lutnick to Epstein and Maxwell, and alleged that "Epstein also sold Lutnick a house for $10 dollars through a trust fund." The FBI's own database query for Lutnick returned 26 results in New York case files, including a closed money-laundering case and a RICO real-estate control file, and three suspicious activity reports; the form notes that "queries were not conducted on Epstein and Maxwell due to the sensitive nature of the case." The caller's allegations are recorded in the form as his statements, without findings.[^75][^76]
Howard Lutnick, who in 1998 bought 11 East 71st Street from an entity that had bought it from Epstein in 1996, signed an investment contract in the advertising company Adfin four days after a December 24, 2012 lunch on Little St. James, with Epstein signing for [[Southern Trust Company]]. A calendar alert of December 20, 2012 asked: "can Howard Lutnick do lunch Sat or Sun on JE's island?" In October 2025 Lutnick said he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005. An FBI Guardian complaint form dated April 23, 2021 and filed under the Epstein child-sex-trafficking case number records an October 2020 call from a caller describing himself as a former Cantor Fitzgerald compliance employee, who alleged money laundering by Lutnick through [[BGC Partners|BGC Financial]] and [[Cantor Fitzgerald]], claimed to hold documents linking Lutnick to Epstein and Maxwell, and alleged that "Epstein also sold Lutnick a house for $10 dollars through a trust fund." The FBI's own database query for Lutnick returned 26 results in New York case files, including a closed money-laundering case and a RICO real-estate control file, and three suspicious activity reports; the form notes that "queries were not conducted on Epstein and Maxwell due to the sensitive nature of the case." The caller's allegations are recorded in the form as his statements, without findings.[^76][^77]
The political relationships were older and equally documented. Bill Clinton flew on the 727 more than two dozen times in the early 2000s, including a 2002 trip to Africa connected to the [[Clinton Foundation]], while denying any knowledge of Epstein's crimes or any visit to Little St. James. Prince Andrew, the [[Duke of York]], was photographed with Virginia Giuffre in 2001, settled her 2021 civil suit for a reported sum in 2022 without admitting liability, and was stripped of his royal and military titles between 2022 and 2025; an FBI New York email of June 8, 2020 asked about the status of the "MLAT request for Prince Andrew." Donald Trump socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before a falling out, a relationship documented in flight logs, contemporaneous quotes, and a disputed 2003 birthday letter.[^66][^77][^78]
The political relationships were older and equally documented. Bill Clinton flew on the 727 more than two dozen times in the early 2000s, including a 2002 trip to Africa connected to the [[Clinton Foundation]], while denying any knowledge of Epstein's crimes or any visit to Little St. James. Prince Andrew, the [[Duke of York]], was photographed with Virginia Giuffre in 2001, settled her 2021 civil suit for a reported sum in 2022 without admitting liability, and was stripped of his royal and military titles between 2022 and 2025; an FBI New York email of June 8, 2020 asked about the status of the "MLAT request for Prince Andrew." Donald Trump socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before a falling out, a relationship documented in flight logs, contemporaneous quotes, and a disputed 2003 birthday letter.[^67][^78][^79]
### Carbyne and Ehud Barak
Epstein invested in the Israeli emergency-response company Reporty Homeland Security, renamed Carbyne in 2018 and chaired by Ehud Barak, through SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership, whose general partner was Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd. In February 2019 SUM held warrants to buy 61,251 more preferred shares for 3.5 million dollars, raising its stake "from about 13% to about 26.33%, on a fully diluted basis"; the exercise was funded by Southern Trust (2.4 million dollars) and [[NJF Capital]], formerly Montilla International Corporation (1.2 million dollars), and wired through [[Bank Leumi]]. When the bank's anti-money-laundering review asked for the "controlling person" of the limited partners, Indyke asked Epstein on March 14, 2019 whether he could confirm that Epstein was the controlling person of Southern Trust, and Epstein replied "Yes." Barak wrote to Epstein on March 11 that the disclosure demands reflected "the Israeli banks paranoia after they paid the penalties they've paid to the US authorities for past mistakes," adding: "According to our experience it was never leaked out of the banks. Just kept with them as an insurance policy."[^79]
Epstein invested in the Israeli emergency-response company Reporty Homeland Security, renamed Carbyne in 2018 and chaired by Ehud Barak, through SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership, whose general partner was Ergo (E.B. 2014) Ltd. In February 2019 SUM held warrants to buy 61,251 more preferred shares for 3.5 million dollars, raising its stake "from about 13% to about 26.33%, on a fully diluted basis"; the exercise was funded by Southern Trust (2.4 million dollars) and [[NJF Capital]], formerly Montilla International Corporation (1.2 million dollars), and wired through [[Bank Leumi]]. When the bank's anti-money-laundering review asked for the "controlling person" of the limited partners, Indyke asked Epstein on March 14, 2019 whether he could confirm that Epstein was the controlling person of Southern Trust, and Epstein replied "Yes." Barak wrote to Epstein on March 11 that the disclosure demands reflected "the Israeli banks paranoia after they paid the penalties they've paid to the US authorities for past mistakes," adding: "According to our experience it was never leaked out of the banks. Just kept with them as an insurance policy."[^80]
On January 1, 2019, with Epstein copied, Barak sent [[Jabor Al Thani]] a presentation of Carbyne, "public safety company of which I'm the chairman and leading investor," for the security of the 2022 World Cup in [[Qatar]]: "We can work through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile." Jabor Al Thani asked for help with "any anti-drone services or technologies" and named the country manager of a Qatari security services company as his contact; Barak made Carbyne's chief executive, [[Amir Elichai]], the point of contact. On May 21, 2018 Epstein had written to Peter Thiel: "FYI trae is meeting carbyne Ehud Barak co." In February 2019 [[Nicole Junkermann]], a co-investor, wrote to Epstein that "Carbyne invested 1.5 m (1m you and 0.5m me) net of fees is 3.9m your share, Ehud carry 1.5 m and my share 2m," in a message that also concerned a separate "China" matter which she asked whether Barak could help with.[^80][^81][^82]
On January 1, 2019, with Epstein copied, Barak sent [[Jabor Al Thani]] a presentation of Carbyne, "public safety company of which I'm the chairman and leading investor," for the security of the 2022 World Cup in [[Qatar]]: "We can work through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile." Jabor Al Thani asked for help with "any anti-drone services or technologies" and named the country manager of a Qatari security services company as his contact; Barak made Carbyne's chief executive, [[Amir Elichai]], the point of contact. On May 21, 2018 Epstein had written to Peter Thiel: "FYI trae is meeting carbyne Ehud Barak co." In February 2019 [[Nicole Junkermann]], a co-investor, wrote to Epstein that "Carbyne invested 1.5 m (1m you and 0.5m me) net of fees is 3.9m your share, Ehud carry 1.5 m and my share 2m," in a message that also concerned a separate "China" matter which she asked whether Barak could help with.[^81][^82][^83]
On November 8, 2017, as reporting broke on the lawyer [[David Boies]]'s use of former Israeli intelligence operatives, Epstein wrote to Barak: "boies said he got to the mossad guys through you? true?" and then, "Did Boies ask you to help Obtain former mossad agents to do dirty investigations. ? this is getting a lot of press." Barak replied the next morning: "Call me.. [redacted] in Paris." Barak said in February 2026: "I regret meeting him."[^14][^16]
### Vitaly Churkin
Epstein's iMessage exchanges with Vitaly Churkin, Russia's Permanent Representative to the [[United Nations]], run from November 2015 to January 10, 2017. Epstein wrote in December 2015 "Oil now at the 36 $ level I suggested," and in February 2016 "Good work on Syria , markets will continue bad." He offered Churkin meals with Barak and Summers, introduced "my very close friend Tom Pritzker," and mentioned that "thorbjorn jagland will be staying with me," a reference to [[Thorbjørn Jagland]], then Secretary General of the [[Council of Europe]]. He arranged work for Churkin's son: "Any maxim help is confidential," then "First job confirmed to start day after Labor Day," and later "Maxim is scoring good grades . Thought u should know." On August 29, 2016 Epstein hosted a lunch for Barak, [[Tom Barrack]] and Churkin. Their last exchange arranged a lunch on January 10, 2017. Churkin died in New York on February 20, 2017; Epstein's office scheduled calls and a meeting with his son through August 2017.[^83]
Epstein's iMessage exchanges with Vitaly Churkin, Russia's Permanent Representative to the [[United Nations]], run from November 2015 to January 10, 2017. Epstein wrote in December 2015 "Oil now at the 36 $ level I suggested," and in February 2016 "Good work on Syria , markets will continue bad." He offered Churkin meals with Barak and Summers, introduced "my very close friend Tom Pritzker," and mentioned that "thorbjorn jagland will be staying with me," a reference to [[Thorbjørn Jagland]], then Secretary General of the [[Council of Europe]]. He arranged work for Churkin's son: "Any maxim help is confidential," then "First job confirmed to start day after Labor Day," and later "Maxim is scoring good grades . Thought u should know." On August 29, 2016 Epstein hosted a lunch for Barak, [[Tom Barrack]] and Churkin. Their last exchange arranged a lunch on January 10, 2017. Churkin died in New York on February 20, 2017; Epstein's office scheduled calls and a meeting with his son through August 2017.[^84]
### The Intelligence and Blackmail Question
The recurring claim that Epstein's operation served an intelligence or blackmail function rests on several documented strands and one contested central assertion. The documented strands include Ghislaine Maxwell's intelligence-linked paternity; Epstein's investment with Barak in Carbyne and his attempts to connect Barak with Peter Thiel over [[Palantir Technologies|Palantir]]; the instrumentation of his properties with cameras; and the 2019 search of the townhouse, which recovered a safe containing compact discs, cash, diamonds, and an expired foreign passport with Epstein's photograph under another name. The contested central assertion is the claim, attributed by Vicky Ward to a former senior [[White House]] official, that Acosta had told Trump transition vetters he was given to understand Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to leave the case alone.[^50][^66]
The recurring claim that Epstein's operation served an intelligence or blackmail function rests on several documented strands and one contested central assertion. The documented strands include Ghislaine Maxwell's intelligence-linked paternity; Epstein's investment with Barak in Carbyne and his attempts to connect Barak with Peter Thiel over [[Palantir Technologies|Palantir]]; the instrumentation of his properties with cameras; and the 2019 search of the townhouse, which recovered a safe containing compact discs, cash, diamonds, and an expired foreign passport with Epstein's photograph under another name. The contested central assertion is the claim, attributed by Vicky Ward to a former senior [[White House]] official, that Acosta had told Trump transition vetters he was given to understand Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to leave the case alone.[^50][^67]
Acosta denied the account in a voluntary transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on September 19, 2025, saying he had no knowledge of whether Epstein was connected to any intelligence service. The "belonged to intelligence" quote traces to a single anonymous source. William Barr, Attorney General at the time of Epstein's 2019 arrest and death, was asked about the account in an August 18, 2025 deposition before the committee and answered that he knew of it only from "what's ever been reported in articles over the years." He said he had "no reason to believe he was working for the CIA or any intelligence agency, and I'm dubious about claims like that," answered "No" when asked whether Epstein had been an employee, asset, or informant of any foreign service, and said that "if he was an American asset, as opposed to some businessman who shares stuff with the government, I would've heard about it from the intelligence agency." No declassified document confirms that Epstein worked for any agency of any country.[^50][^84]
Acosta denied the account in a voluntary transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on September 19, 2025, saying he had no knowledge of whether Epstein was connected to any intelligence service. The "belonged to intelligence" quote traces to a single anonymous source. William Barr, Attorney General at the time of Epstein's 2019 arrest and death, was asked about the account in an August 18, 2025 deposition before the committee and answered that he knew of it only from "what's ever been reported in articles over the years." He said he had "no reason to believe he was working for the CIA or any intelligence agency, and I'm dubious about claims like that," answered "No" when asked whether Epstein had been an employee, asset, or informant of any foreign service, and said that "if he was an American asset, as opposed to some businessman who shares stuff with the government, I would've heard about it from the intelligence agency." No declassified document confirms that Epstein worked for any agency of any country.[^50][^85]
In July 2011 Epstein, through his lawyer [[Martin Weinberg]], had Privacy Act requests pending with both the FBI and the CIA for whatever records the agencies held on him. Weinberg wrote to him on July 18, 2011: "we filled out fbi privacy waiver with VI address last year, we filed CIA [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] - they have it - we need a separate privacy waiver signed in 2011 for them to fully process."[^85]
In July 2011 Epstein, through his lawyer [[Martin Weinberg]], had Privacy Act requests pending with both the FBI and the CIA for whatever records the agencies held on him. Weinberg wrote to him on July 18, 2011: "we filled out fbi privacy waiver with VI address last year, we filed CIA [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] - they have it - we need a separate privacy waiver signed in 2011 for them to fully process."[^86]
The earliest known report to law enforcement came on August 29, 1996, when Maria Farmer reported to the [[New York City Police Department|NYPD]]'s Sixth Precinct (complaint No. 1996-0067241, recording that Epstein "did call her and stated he was going to burn victim's painting" and "has keys to victim's apartment") and then by telephone to the FBI. She alleges that she told the Bureau of the recording devices and monitoring equipment Epstein had shown her at the New York house and of a "modeling book" of apparently underage girls kept in his safe, which Maxwell said was used in connection with Victoria's Secret; that she had been assaulted at Epstein's house in [[New Albany, Ohio]], "part of or adjacent to Les Wexner's estate," and held there by "a local Sheriff and other persons connected with Wexner"; and that the FBI hung up on her mid-sentence. FBI agents interviewed her in 2006 during the Florida investigation. The Bureau's record of the 1996 report was released on December 23, 2025. In July 2023 she and Sarah Ransome filed a 600 million dollar Federal Tort Claims Act claim against the FBI, and in May 2025 she sued the United States (No. 1:25-cv-01709-RBW (D.D.C.)). Her complaint also records that in 1992 the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] leased Epstein a New York townhouse and sued him in 1996 after he sublet it at a profit, and that he relied in his defense on communications with an official of the Office of Foreign Missions; certain documents in that case were sealed.[^86][^87][^88]
The earliest known report to law enforcement came on August 29, 1996, when Maria Farmer reported to the [[New York City Police Department|NYPD]]'s Sixth Precinct (complaint No. 1996-0067241, recording that Epstein "did call her and stated he was going to burn victim's painting" and "has keys to victim's apartment") and then by telephone to the FBI. She alleges that she told the Bureau of the recording devices and monitoring equipment Epstein had shown her at the New York house and of a "modeling book" of apparently underage girls kept in his safe, which Maxwell said was used in connection with Victoria's Secret; that she had been assaulted at Epstein's house in [[New Albany, Ohio]], "part of or adjacent to Les Wexner's estate," and held there by "a local Sheriff and other persons connected with Wexner"; and that the FBI hung up on her mid-sentence. FBI agents interviewed her in 2006 during the Florida investigation. The Bureau's record of the 1996 report was released on December 23, 2025. In July 2023 she and Sarah Ransome filed a 600 million dollar Federal Tort Claims Act claim against the FBI, and in May 2025 she sued the United States (No. 1:25-cv-01709-RBW (D.D.C.)). Her complaint also records that in 1992 the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] leased Epstein a New York townhouse and sued him in 1996 after he sublet it at a profit, and that he relied in his defense on communications with an official of the Office of Foreign Missions; certain documents in that case were sealed.[^87][^88][^89]
Accounts from victims and household staff describing cameras in the properties, combined with the 2019 recovery of compact discs and the foreign passport from the townhouse safe, are the documented basis for the inference that the operation was instrumented to generate leverage. In December 2009, five months after his release, a correspondent signing "Gmax" wrote to Epstein: "If you call I'd start by saying what ever you saw was fake and part of a blackmail scheme." No recordings of guests have been produced publicly, and no service of any country has acknowledged a relationship with Epstein. What the cameras recorded, and where any recordings went, is not established in the public record.[^17][^50][^89][^90]
Accounts from victims and household staff describing cameras in the properties, combined with the 2019 recovery of compact discs and the foreign passport from the townhouse safe, are the documented basis for the inference that the operation was instrumented to generate leverage. In December 2009, five months after his release, a correspondent signing "Gmax" wrote to Epstein: "If you call I'd start by saying what ever you saw was fake and part of a blackmail scheme." No recordings of guests have been produced publicly, and no service of any country has acknowledged a relationship with Epstein. What the cameras recorded, and where any recordings went, is not established in the public record.[^17][^50][^90][^91]
### The Financial Structures and the Bank Settlements
Epstein's finances ran through entities chartered in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including Financial Trust Company, incorporated in St. Thomas on November 6, 1998, and Southern Trust Company, incorporated on November 18, 2011 as Financial Informatics, Inc. and renamed in September 2012, with assets of about 391 million dollars in 2015. Both obtained territorial tax benefits under the [[Economic Development Commission]] program: Financial Trust from 1999 under a certificate signed by Industrial Development Commission director [[Frandelle Gerard]], amended in 2012 over the signature of EDC chairman [[Albert Bryan]], who also signed Southern Trust's January 24, 2014 certificate. At the November 15, 2012 EDC hearing the company described its business under oath as "cutting edge consulting services" in "biomedical and financial informatics"; the Virgin Islands later alleged that Southern Trust obtained the benefits for a business it never conducted and existed to fund Epstein's criminal activity and properties. His banking ran through JPMorgan Chase, which kept him as a client until 2013, then Deutsche Bank, and also through [[BNY Mellon]]; the June 15, 2007 7.4 million dollar wire to Maxwell for her Sikorsky helicopter came from his Mellon Bank account.[^11][^12][^20][^91][^92]
Epstein's finances ran through entities chartered in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including Financial Trust Company, incorporated in St. Thomas on November 6, 1998, and Southern Trust Company, incorporated on November 18, 2011 as Financial Informatics, Inc. and renamed in September 2012, with assets of about 391 million dollars in 2015. Both obtained territorial tax benefits under the [[Economic Development Commission]] program: Financial Trust from 1999 under a certificate signed by Industrial Development Commission director [[Frandelle Gerard]], amended in 2012 over the signature of EDC chairman [[Albert Bryan]], who also signed Southern Trust's January 24, 2014 certificate. At the November 15, 2012 EDC hearing the company described its business under oath as "cutting edge consulting services" in "biomedical and financial informatics"; the Virgin Islands later alleged that Southern Trust obtained the benefits for a business it never conducted and existed to fund Epstein's criminal activity and properties. His banking ran through JPMorgan Chase, which kept him as a client until 2013, then Deutsche Bank, and also through [[BNY Mellon]]; the June 15, 2007 7.4 million dollar wire to Maxwell for her Sikorsky helicopter came from his Mellon Bank account.[^11][^12][^20][^92][^93]
Southern Trust reported about 184 million dollars in revenue from 2013 to 2017 with no visible clients and one information-technology employee. The territory's 2022 complaint stated that "virtually all" of its income came "from a single source," which paid it 158 million dollars from 2013 to 2017, 85 percent of its revenue. The [[Dechert]] review commissioned by [[Apollo Global Management]] found that Leon Black signed a service agreement with Southern Trust Company, Inc. on February 13, 2013 and paid Epstein 50 million dollars in 2013, 70 million in 2014, 30 million in 2015, nothing in 2016 and 8 million in 2017, a total of 158 million dollars, plus 30.5 million dollars in 2017 loans from BV70 LLC to Plan D LLC; Dechert found no evidence Black paid for anything but "legitimate advice." Senator [[Ron Wyden]]'s staff put Black's share at 166 million dollars, or 90 percent. Black's wires came from [[Bank of America]] accounts; the bank filed its first suspicious activity report on them on February 7, 2020, flagging 156 million dollars as having "no apparent economic, business or lawful purpose." Black's January 20, 2023 settlement with the territory recites that "Jeffrey Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands," while disclaiming any admission of liability. Financial Trust also bought 263,257 Apollo shares in the March 2011 initial public offering through a directed-share program; the shares passed to [[Southern Financial LLC]] in 2013.[^11][^12][^93][^94][^95]
Southern Trust reported about 184 million dollars in revenue from 2013 to 2017 with no visible clients and one information-technology employee. The territory's 2022 complaint stated that "virtually all" of its income came "from a single source," which paid it 158 million dollars from 2013 to 2017, 85 percent of its revenue. The [[Dechert]] review commissioned by [[Apollo Global Management]] found that Leon Black signed a service agreement with Southern Trust Company, Inc. on February 13, 2013 and paid Epstein 50 million dollars in 2013, 70 million in 2014, 30 million in 2015, nothing in 2016 and 8 million in 2017, a total of 158 million dollars, plus 30.5 million dollars in 2017 loans from BV70 LLC to Plan D LLC; Dechert found no evidence Black paid for anything but "legitimate advice." Senator [[Ron Wyden]]'s staff put Black's share at 166 million dollars, or 90 percent. Black's wires came from [[Bank of America]] accounts; the bank filed its first suspicious activity report on them on February 7, 2020, flagging 156 million dollars as having "no apparent economic, business or lawful purpose." Black's January 20, 2023 settlement with the territory recites that "Jeffrey Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands," while disclaiming any admission of liability. Financial Trust also bought 263,257 Apollo shares in the March 2011 initial public offering through a directed-share program; the shares passed to [[Southern Financial LLC]] in 2013.[^11][^12][^94][^95][^96]
Epstein received the working papers of Black's estate planning during the years of the Southern Trust payments. A "Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring" dated October 2, 2013 covered the substitution of trust assets for a promissory note, financing against Black's art collection with "Preliminary meetings with Deutsche Bank taken," the decanting of family trusts, the restructuring of Black Family Partners and other family entities, and the creation of foundations for each of Black's children. On January 21, 2014 Ada Clapp of Black Family Partners, 445 Park Avenue, sent Epstein the updated version: "Attached is what I believe you are referring to by the 9 page list. I updated to show progress." On July 24, 2017 Barry J. Cohen forwarded to Epstein a privileged [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] memorandum on "Leon Black Estate Planning," addressed by the firm to Clapp, Cohen and Brad Wechsler, with the note: "Let us know what issues you have."[^96]
Epstein received the working papers of Black's estate planning during the years of the Southern Trust payments. A "Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring" dated October 2, 2013 covered the substitution of trust assets for a promissory note, financing against Black's art collection with "Preliminary meetings with Deutsche Bank taken," the decanting of family trusts, the restructuring of Black Family Partners and other family entities, and the creation of foundations for each of Black's children. On January 21, 2014 Ada Clapp of Black Family Partners, 445 Park Avenue, sent Epstein the updated version: "Attached is what I believe you are referring to by the 9 page list. I updated to show progress." On July 24, 2017 Barry J. Cohen forwarded to Epstein a privileged [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] memorandum on "Leon Black Estate Planning," addressed by the firm to Clapp, Cohen and Brad Wechsler, with the note: "Let us know what issues you have."[^97]
A forensic accountant retained by the Virgin Islands identified 134 JPMorgan accounts owned by Epstein or related people and entities, including accounts for Maxwell, [[Richard Kahn]], Darren Indyke, [[Harry Beller]] and Nadia Marcinkova. In September 2009 his balances were 142,867,562 dollars on the bank's internal "Wall of Cash" list. He withdrew more than 7 million dollars in cash from JPMorgan accounts from 2002 to 2013. A March 18, 2004 JPMorgan memorandum to Dimon and others described Epstein as "a founding investor in Highbridge," the hedge fund [[Highbridge Capital Management]] that JPMorgan bought into that year. On July 20, 2011 Cutler wrote to Staley and [[Mary Erdoes]] that Epstein "should not be a client." After Epstein left the bank in 2013, Erdoes approved continued dealings with him on Black's business "as long as it was through the client accounts." JPMorgan filed seven suspicious activity reports on him totaling about 4.3 million dollars between 2002 and 2016, none covering May 2003 to September 2008; after his July 2019 arrest it filed reports on August 13, 2019 (469 wires, about 201 million dollars, including payments to women in Russia, Belarus and Turkmenistan through correspondent accounts at Russian banks including [[Sberbank]] and [[Alfa-Bank]]) and September 26, 2019 (4,725 wires, 1,081,819,653 dollars). Deutsche Bank retroactively reported more than 250 million dollars in Epstein wires after his arrest.[^12][^21][^39][^92][^97]
A forensic accountant retained by the Virgin Islands identified 134 JPMorgan accounts owned by Epstein or related people and entities, including accounts for Maxwell, [[Richard Kahn]], Darren Indyke, [[Harry Beller]] and Nadia Marcinkova. In September 2009 his balances were 142,867,562 dollars on the bank's internal "Wall of Cash" list. He withdrew more than 7 million dollars in cash from JPMorgan accounts from 2002 to 2013. A March 18, 2004 JPMorgan memorandum to Dimon and others described Epstein as "a founding investor in Highbridge," the hedge fund [[Highbridge Capital Management]] that JPMorgan bought into that year. On July 20, 2011 Cutler wrote to Staley and [[Mary Erdoes]] that Epstein "should not be a client." After Epstein left the bank in 2013, Erdoes approved continued dealings with him on Black's business "as long as it was through the client accounts." JPMorgan filed seven suspicious activity reports on him totaling about 4.3 million dollars between 2002 and 2016, none covering May 2003 to September 2008; after his July 2019 arrest it filed reports on August 13, 2019 (469 wires, about 201 million dollars, including payments to women in Russia, Belarus and Turkmenistan through correspondent accounts at Russian banks including [[Sberbank]] and [[Alfa-Bank]]) and September 26, 2019 (4,725 wires, 1,081,819,653 dollars). Deutsche Bank retroactively reported more than 250 million dollars in Epstein wires after his arrest.[^12][^21][^39][^93][^98]
After a July 22, 2019 New York Times article on Epstein's ties to Wall Street figures, JPMorgan's global head of financial crimes compliance wrote to two chief compliance officers: "Top of house requested that we expand our analysis to related parties and put together slides.... There is a highbridge angle and one dating back to Bear." The work became an internal review called "Project Jeep," whose 22-page summary of Epstein, Staley and Erdoes emails, circulated internally in October 2019, stated that "Jes Staley appears to have a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, regularly communicating with him and seeking advice from him including while Epstein is incarcerated," and that Epstein "appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew" and "Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British Government," and "a close relationship with [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem|Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem]]," the chairman of [[DP World]]. The Virgin Islands argued in June 2023 that it would have asked Dimon whether the "top of house" order came from him, citing another bank email in which "top of the house ok for clients who are convicted felons" ran "to Cutler to Jaime Daimnon [sic]"; JPMorgan answered that the phrase referred to Cutler. Late-produced emails showed that the former Bear Stearns chairman Alan Greenberg had gone to Cutler "for an exception to the felony policy" for Epstein, and JPMorgan acknowledged that legacy Bear Stearns staff including Greenberg "may have attempted to speak with" Cutler about the policy, a decision "made by Mr. Cutler." At a January 7, 2011 meeting the head of the U.S. Private Bank, Catherine Keating, said that "no one on today's call was in favor of having retained him as a client. Seems it was all due to Jes's personal relationship"; twelve days later a JPMorgan Securities employee wrote to Epstein that "Ace would love to speak to Jeffrey." Dimon testified that the bank "did not need introductions to anybody." In August 2023 Judge [[Jed S. Rakoff]] denied the territory's request to compel production of all documents concerning "Project Jeep" or other investigations after Epstein's 2019 arrest.[^98]
After a July 22, 2019 New York Times article on Epstein's ties to Wall Street figures, JPMorgan's global head of financial crimes compliance wrote to two chief compliance officers: "Top of house requested that we expand our analysis to related parties and put together slides.... There is a highbridge angle and one dating back to Bear." The work became an internal review called "Project Jeep," whose 22-page summary of Epstein, Staley and Erdoes emails, circulated internally in October 2019, stated that "Jes Staley appears to have a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, regularly communicating with him and seeking advice from him including while Epstein is incarcerated," and that Epstein "appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew" and "Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British Government," and "a close relationship with [[Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem|Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem]]," the chairman of [[DP World]]. The Virgin Islands argued in June 2023 that it would have asked Dimon whether the "top of house" order came from him, citing another bank email in which "top of the house ok for clients who are convicted felons" ran "to Cutler to Jaime Daimnon [sic]"; JPMorgan answered that the phrase referred to Cutler. Late-produced emails showed that the former Bear Stearns chairman Alan Greenberg had gone to Cutler "for an exception to the felony policy" for Epstein, and JPMorgan acknowledged that legacy Bear Stearns staff including Greenberg "may have attempted to speak with" Cutler about the policy, a decision "made by Mr. Cutler." At a January 7, 2011 meeting the head of the U.S. Private Bank, Catherine Keating, said that "no one on today's call was in favor of having retained him as a client. Seems it was all due to Jes's personal relationship"; twelve days later a JPMorgan Securities employee wrote to Epstein that "Ace would love to speak to Jeffrey." Dimon testified that the bank "did not need introductions to anybody." In August 2023 Judge [[Jed S. Rakoff]] denied the territory's request to compel production of all documents concerning "Project Jeep" or other investigations after Epstein's 2019 arrest.[^99]
Deutsche Bank informally designated Epstein an "Honorary PEP," or politically exposed person, "because of his connections to prominent political figures," and a January 2015 compliance escalation cited his relationships with "a prominent former U.S. politician and a member of a European royal family," whom the New York regulator did not name. In October 2008, while Epstein was serving his Florida sentence, Staley sent him the term sheet for "Micawber," a proposed JPMorgan and [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation|FDIC]] vehicle to borrow from the [[Federal Reserve]] during the financial crisis; the UK Upper Tribunal found Epstein was the only recipient not involved in the proposal. In a June 4, 2026 letter Wyden wrote that unsealed Justice Department files indicated Epstein "reached out to Russian government officials" to help Black with women with whom Black had settlements or nondisclosure agreements, and acted "as a middleman for Black to pay women"; Black's counsel called the inquiry an attempt to "unfairly harass" a private citizen.[^99][^100]
Deutsche Bank informally designated Epstein an "Honorary PEP," or politically exposed person, "because of his connections to prominent political figures," and a January 2015 compliance escalation cited his relationships with "a prominent former U.S. politician and a member of a European royal family," whom the New York regulator did not name. In October 2008, while Epstein was serving his Florida sentence, Staley sent him the term sheet for "Micawber," a proposed JPMorgan and [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation|FDIC]] vehicle to borrow from the [[Federal Reserve]] during the financial crisis; the UK Upper Tribunal found Epstein was the only recipient not involved in the proposal. In a June 4, 2026 letter Wyden wrote that unsealed Justice Department files indicated Epstein "reached out to Russian government officials" to help Black with women with whom Black had settlements or nondisclosure agreements, and acted "as a middleman for Black to pay women"; Black's counsel called the inquiry an attempt to "unfairly harass" a private citizen.[^100][^101]
The post-death litigation produced large settlements. In 2022 Epstein's estate agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands more than 105 million dollars, plus the repayment of 80,576,236 dollars in tax benefits and half the proceeds of Little St. James. In 2023 JPMorgan paid 290 million dollars to victims and 75 million dollars to the Virgin Islands, and Deutsche Bank paid 75 million dollars to victims. Staley, who managed the Epstein banking relationship at JPMorgan before becoming chief executive of Barclays, was banned from senior UK financial roles and fined by the [[Financial Conduct Authority]] in a decision dated May 30, 2023 and published that October, which the Upper Tribunal upheld in June 2025 while reducing the penalty to 1,107,306.92 pounds; the ban took effect with the Authority's Final Notice of July 23, 2025. The [[Epstein Victims' Compensation Program]]'s administrator, [[Jordana Feldman]], announced in 2021 nearly 125 million dollars in payments to 150 eligible claimants; the co-executors' lawyers later put it at 121 million dollars to 136 claimants, and the estate separately settled with 58 women for about 48 million dollars.[^11][^20][^99][^101][^102][^103]
The post-death litigation produced large settlements. In 2022 Epstein's estate agreed to pay the U.S. Virgin Islands more than 105 million dollars, plus the repayment of 80,576,236 dollars in tax benefits and half the proceeds of Little St. James. In 2023 JPMorgan paid 290 million dollars to victims and 75 million dollars to the Virgin Islands, and Deutsche Bank paid 75 million dollars to victims. Staley, who managed the Epstein banking relationship at JPMorgan before becoming chief executive of Barclays, was banned from senior UK financial roles and fined by the [[Financial Conduct Authority]] in a decision dated May 30, 2023 and published that October, which the Upper Tribunal upheld in June 2025 while reducing the penalty to 1,107,306.92 pounds; the ban took effect with the Authority's Final Notice of July 23, 2025. The [[Epstein Victims' Compensation Program]]'s administrator, [[Jordana Feldman]], announced in 2021 nearly 125 million dollars in payments to 150 eligible claimants; the co-executors' lawyers later put it at 121 million dollars to 136 claimants, and the estate separately settled with 58 women for about 48 million dollars.[^11][^20][^100][^102][^103][^104]
### The Virgin Islands Government
According to JPMorgan's 2023 filings in the territory's suit against the bank, Epstein's local affairs were managed by [[Cecile de Jongh]], the office manager of Southern Trust and the wife of Governor [[John de Jongh]] (in office 2007 to 2015), who helped Epstein shape legislation affecting sex-offender monitoring and the Economic Development Commission benefits while Epstein-linked entities paid family expenses. On the day the commission's certificate for Southern Trust was dated, January 24, 2014, Cecile de Jongh asked Epstein to match 15,000 dollars for her husband's final State of the Territory reception and asked Richard Kahn to make out a check to the "Governor's Special Events Fund." The commission's general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was [[Stacey Plaskett]], later the territory's delegate to Congress, who acknowledged receiving about 30,000 dollars in campaign contributions from Epstein and his employees. Epstein's office also handled requests from the Mapp-Potter inaugural committee (10,000 dollars from Southern Trust, December 2014), a Mapp super PAC (75,000 dollars, September 2016), and the Bryan/Roach inaugural committee (25,000 dollars requested, December 2018; payment not shown).[^11][^104][^105]
According to JPMorgan's 2023 filings in the territory's suit against the bank, Epstein's local affairs were managed by [[Cecile de Jongh]], the office manager of Southern Trust and the wife of Governor [[John de Jongh]] (in office 2007 to 2015), who helped Epstein shape legislation affecting sex-offender monitoring and the Economic Development Commission benefits while Epstein-linked entities paid family expenses. On the day the commission's certificate for Southern Trust was dated, January 24, 2014, Cecile de Jongh asked Epstein to match 15,000 dollars for her husband's final State of the Territory reception and asked Richard Kahn to make out a check to the "Governor's Special Events Fund." The commission's general counsel from 2007 to 2014 was [[Stacey Plaskett]], later the territory's delegate to Congress, who acknowledged receiving about 30,000 dollars in campaign contributions from Epstein and his employees. Epstein's office also handled requests from the Mapp-Potter inaugural committee (10,000 dollars from Southern Trust, December 2014), a Mapp super PAC (75,000 dollars, September 2016), and the Bryan/Roach inaugural committee (25,000 dollars requested, December 2018; payment not shown).[^11][^105][^106]
The territory's later Attorney General, [[Denise George]], filed the 2020 suit against the estate and a 2022 suit against JPMorgan, and was removed by Governor Albert Bryan days after the bank suit was filed. According to FBI notes of an October 2, 2023 interview released in January 2026, George said Bryan asked her in 2019 to grant Epstein a waiver of the 21-day travel-notice rule, told her after Epstein's death "He's dead go for it," later pressed her to settle with the estate for 80 million dollars with the attorney [[Henry Smock]] as mediator, and said the estate "just wanted to clear people." Smock had assisted Epstein in the 1998 purchase of Little St. James and was counsel to the [[Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority|Economic Development Authority]] board; he later represented Bryan in a sealed 2023 divorce. Bryan's chief legal counsel, [[David Bornn]], a former employee of Epstein's attorney [[Erika Kellerhals]], called George to relay Kellerhals's question about what she was investigating. Bryan has said Epstein received no special privilege from his administration. The territory recovered about 180 million dollars after legal fees and, as of January 2026, had not filed the accounting of the money that a 2024 law requires.[^20][^106][^107]
The territory's later Attorney General, [[Denise George]], filed the 2020 suit against the estate and a 2022 suit against JPMorgan, and was removed by Governor Albert Bryan days after the bank suit was filed. According to FBI notes of an October 2, 2023 interview released in January 2026, George said Bryan asked her in 2019 to grant Epstein a waiver of the 21-day travel-notice rule, told her after Epstein's death "He's dead go for it," later pressed her to settle with the estate for 80 million dollars with the attorney [[Henry Smock]] as mediator, and said the estate "just wanted to clear people." Smock had assisted Epstein in the 1998 purchase of Little St. James and was counsel to the [[Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority|Economic Development Authority]] board; he later represented Bryan in a sealed 2023 divorce. Bryan's chief legal counsel, [[David Bornn]], a former employee of Epstein's attorney [[Erika Kellerhals]], called George to relay Kellerhals's question about what she was investigating. Bryan has said Epstein received no special privilege from his administration. The territory recovered about 180 million dollars after legal fees and, as of January 2026, had not filed the accounting of the money that a 2024 law requires.[^20][^107][^108]
### The 2019 Federal Charges
In the spring of 2019, months before the arrest, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York obtained the confidential discovery from Giuffre v. Maxwell by serving a grand jury subpoena on Giuffre's law firm, [[Boies Schiller Flexner]], under an April 9, 2019 order. On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested at [[Teterboro Airport]] in [[New Jersey]] as he returned from Paris, charged by the office under [[Geoffrey Berman]] with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. The case was assigned to the Public Corruption Unit, which typically handles cases involving public officials; Berman declined to explain the assignment. The prosecutors were [[Alex Rossmiller]], [[Alison Moe]], and [[Maurene Comey]].[^1][^108][^109]
In the spring of 2019, months before the arrest, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York obtained the confidential discovery from Giuffre v. Maxwell by serving a grand jury subpoena on Giuffre's law firm, [[Boies Schiller Flexner]], under an April 9, 2019 order. On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested at [[Teterboro Airport]] in [[New Jersey]] as he returned from Paris, charged by the office under [[Geoffrey Berman]] with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. The case was assigned to the Public Corruption Unit, which typically handles cases involving public officials; Berman declined to explain the assignment. The prosecutors were [[Alex Rossmiller]], [[Alison Moe]], and [[Maurene Comey]].[^1][^109][^110]
The safe in the townhouse held more than 70,000 dollars in cash, 48 loose diamonds, and an expired foreign passport with a photograph that "appears to depict the defendant, but lists a different name," issued within three years of an expired U.S. passport in Epstein's own name. The word "Austrian" entered the docket through the defense's July 16, 2019 letter, which said the passport "expired 32 years ago." The government replied that the passport "contains numerous ingress and egress stamps, including stamps that reflect use of the passport to enter France, Spain, the [[United Kingdom]], and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s." [[Marc Fernich]], Martin Weinberg, and [[Reid Weingarten]] answered that "Epstein was given the passport at issue by a friend," that "some Jewish-Americans were informally advised at the time to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally in case of hijacking," and that the stamps "predating his receipt of the document, do not reflect Mr. Epstein's entries or exits." Press reports described the passport as listing a residence in Saudi Arabia. The dispute was not resolved before Epstein's death.[^110][^111][^112]
The safe in the townhouse held more than 70,000 dollars in cash, 48 loose diamonds, and an expired foreign passport with a photograph that "appears to depict the defendant, but lists a different name," issued within three years of an expired U.S. passport in Epstein's own name. The word "Austrian" entered the docket through the defense's July 16, 2019 letter, which said the passport "expired 32 years ago." The government replied that the passport "contains numerous ingress and egress stamps, including stamps that reflect use of the passport to enter France, Spain, the [[United Kingdom]], and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s." [[Marc Fernich]], Martin Weinberg, and [[Reid Weingarten]] answered that "Epstein was given the passport at issue by a friend," that "some Jewish-Americans were informally advised at the time to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally in case of hijacking," and that the stamps "predating his receipt of the document, do not reflect Mr. Epstein's entries or exits." Press reports described the passport as listing a residence in Saudi Arabia. The dispute was not resolved before Epstein's death.[^111][^112][^113]
The government's July 16, 2019 detention supplement disclosed that on or about November 30, 2018, two days after the Miami Herald began its series, Epstein wired 100,000 dollars from a trust account he controlled to an individual named as a potential co-conspirator in the 2007 agreement and featured in the series, and that on or about December 3, 2018 he wired 250,000 dollars from the same account to a second potential co-conspirator protected by the agreement, an employee identified in the indictment as having scheduled victims' encounters with him. Both names were redacted with the court's consent. On July 18, 2019 Judge [[Richard M. Berman]], no relation to the U.S. Attorney, ordered him held without bail. On July 31, 2019 a Southern District prosecutor forwarded a New York magazine article on Epstein's finances to colleagues, asking: "Is our Office looking at Epstein for fraud-related offenses?"[^89][^111][^113]
The government's July 16, 2019 detention supplement disclosed that on or about November 30, 2018, two days after the Miami Herald began its series, Epstein wired 100,000 dollars from a trust account he controlled to an individual named as a potential co-conspirator in the 2007 agreement and featured in the series, and that on or about December 3, 2018 he wired 250,000 dollars from the same account to a second potential co-conspirator protected by the agreement, an employee identified in the indictment as having scheduled victims' encounters with him. Both names were redacted with the court's consent. On July 18, 2019 Judge [[Richard M. Berman]], no relation to the U.S. Attorney, ordered him held without bail. On July 31, 2019 a Southern District prosecutor forwarded a New York magazine article on Epstein's finances to colleagues, asking: "Is our Office looking at Epstein for fraud-related offenses?"[^90][^112][^114]
### The Detention at the Metropolitan Correctional Center
At the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York]], Epstein's cellmate was [[Nicholas Tartaglione]], a former police officer held on capital murder charges; a later internal review stated that administrators housed them together because both had high-profile cases and Tartaglione, "a certified death penalty eligible inmate," was "less likely to assault or otherwise try to harm Mr. Epstein." At about 1:27 a.m. on July 23, 2019 officers found Epstein with "a piece of handmade orange cloth around his neck." When he became responsive he told a responding officer that he thought his cellmate "tried to kill him," that the cellmate had tried "to extort money from him," and that "this has been going on for a week," and that he had told only his lawyer. The psychologist who interviewed him that day recorded that he had not told her this. On July 31 he told the Special Investigative Services lieutenant that "he has never had any issues with Tartaglione," that he was "not threatened" by him and that he "feels safe"; Tartaglione told the same investigator that Epstein had once said "fourteen (14) is legal in most states and I don't understand what's the problem here." The investigation found "insufficient evidence" of an assault, an August 2 threat assessment was "inconclusive" as to whether Epstein harmed himself, fought his cellmate, or was assaulted, and the self-mutilation incident report was later expunged.[^114][^115]
At the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York]], Epstein's cellmate was [[Nicholas Tartaglione]], a former police officer held on capital murder charges; a later internal review stated that administrators housed them together because both had high-profile cases and Tartaglione, "a certified death penalty eligible inmate," was "less likely to assault or otherwise try to harm Mr. Epstein." At about 1:27 a.m. on July 23, 2019 officers found Epstein with "a piece of handmade orange cloth around his neck." When he became responsive he told a responding officer that he thought his cellmate "tried to kill him," that the cellmate had tried "to extort money from him," and that "this has been going on for a week," and that he had told only his lawyer. The psychologist who interviewed him that day recorded that he had not told her this. On July 31 he told the Special Investigative Services lieutenant that "he has never had any issues with Tartaglione," that he was "not threatened" by him and that he "feels safe"; Tartaglione told the same investigator that Epstein had once said "fourteen (14) is legal in most states and I don't understand what's the problem here." The investigation found "insufficient evidence" of an assault, an August 2 threat assessment was "inconclusive" as to whether Epstein harmed himself, fought his cellmate, or was assaulted, and the self-mutilation incident report was later expunged.[^115][^116]
On July 30 a psychologist ordered that Epstein always have a cellmate. His next cellmate, according to the internal review, was an inmate held in protective housing who "was confirmed as proffering with the U.S. Attorney's Office." On August 8 Epstein signed a new will in a meeting with his lawyers, unknown to jail officials. On August 9 about 2,000 pages of the Giuffre v. Maxwell record were unsealed, including his 2016 deposition invoking the Fifth Amendment. That day his cellmate was transferred out and not replaced, and a unit manager let him place an unrecorded call on the legal line, supposedly to his mother, who had died in 2004; the Inspector General found he spoke for about 20 minutes with a woman identified as Individual 1, who declined to be interviewed and whose lawyer said she was in Belarus. One of Epstein's attorneys had earlier asked a senior officer "how Epstein could get an unmonitored call."[^108][^114][^115][^116]
On July 30 a psychologist ordered that Epstein always have a cellmate. His next cellmate, according to the internal review, was an inmate held in protective housing who "was confirmed as proffering with the U.S. Attorney's Office." On August 8 Epstein signed a new will in a meeting with his lawyers, unknown to jail officials. On August 9 about 2,000 pages of the Giuffre v. Maxwell record were unsealed, including his 2016 deposition invoking the Fifth Amendment. That day his cellmate was transferred out and not replaced, and a unit manager let him place an unrecorded call on the legal line, supposedly to his mother, who had died in 2004; the Inspector General found he spoke for about 20 minutes with a woman identified as Individual 1, who declined to be interviewed and whose lawyer said she was in Belarus. One of Epstein's attorneys had earlier asked a senior officer "how Epstein could get an unmonitored call."[^109][^115][^116][^117]
### The Death
On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell; nursing records log CPR compressions from 6:35 a.m. Dr. Kristin Roman performed the autopsy on August 11 and first listed the manner of death as "pending"; Chief Medical Examiner [[Barbara Sampson]] changed it to suicide by hanging days later. The guards [[Tova Noel]] and [[Michael Thomas]] had failed to perform required checks and admitted to falsifying records; they were charged in November 2019, entered deferred-prosecution agreements on May 25, 2021, and the charges were dismissed on December 13, 2021, while the Southern District declined to prosecute other staff who had also falsified records. The DVR recording system serving about half the jail's cameras, including those near the cell, failed on July 29 and 30, was discovered on August 8, and was not repaired; one camera on another system recorded the common area but not the cell door. The forensic pathologist [[Michael Baden]], retained by Epstein's brother [[Mark Epstein]], said the fractures of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage were more consistent with homicidal strangulation than hanging, while the Medical Examiner stood by the suicide ruling. The Inspector General's June 2023 report attributed the death to the guards' negligence and the jail's failures and "did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI's determination regarding the absence of criminality." Prison officials cited the August 9 unsealing, "combined with a lack of significant interpersonal connections," among the factors contributing to his death.[^89][^114][^115][^116]
On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell; nursing records log CPR compressions from 6:35 a.m. Dr. Kristin Roman performed the autopsy on August 11 and first listed the manner of death as "pending"; Chief Medical Examiner [[Barbara Sampson]] changed it to suicide by hanging days later. The guards [[Tova Noel]] and [[Michael Thomas]] had failed to perform required checks and admitted to falsifying records; they were charged in November 2019, entered deferred-prosecution agreements on May 25, 2021, and the charges were dismissed on December 13, 2021, while the Southern District declined to prosecute other staff who had also falsified records. The DVR recording system serving about half the jail's cameras, including those near the cell, failed on July 29 and 30, was discovered on August 8, and was not repaired; one camera on another system recorded the common area but not the cell door. The forensic pathologist [[Michael Baden]], retained by Epstein's brother [[Mark Epstein]], said the fractures of the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage were more consistent with homicidal strangulation than hanging, while the Medical Examiner stood by the suicide ruling. The Inspector General's June 2023 report attributed the death to the guards' negligence and the jail's failures and "did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI's determination regarding the absence of criminality." Prison officials cited the August 9 unsealing, "combined with a lack of significant interpersonal connections," among the factors contributing to his death.[^90][^115][^116][^117]
Documents released in 2026 showed that JPMorgan filed a suspicious activity report on November 22, 2019 on twelve cash deposits by Noel, the largest 5,000 dollars on July 30, 2019; she was not asked about them in her 2021 interview. A search for "latest on epstein in jail" was run on her workstation at 5:42 and 5:52 a.m. on August 10; she said she did not recall it. On August 19, 2019, a jail employee told the FBI that an inmate said Bureau of Prisons after-action staff "were shredding boxes of paperwork"; the records do not show that the dumpster was searched. The Justice Department and FBI memorandum of July 7, 2025 reaffirmed suicide, citing "the August 19, 2019 autopsy findings" (the autopsy was on August 11) and describing Epstein as locked in "at around 10:40 pm" (the Inspector General dates lock-in to about 8 p.m.); its "full raw" video had been assembled in Adobe Premiere under a Windows account "MJCOLE~1," with close to three minutes missing. Maurene Comey was fired without stated cause on July 16, 2025, nine days after the memorandum.[^115][^116][^117][^118][^119]
Documents released in 2026 showed that JPMorgan filed a suspicious activity report on November 22, 2019 on twelve cash deposits by Noel, the largest 5,000 dollars on July 30, 2019; she was not asked about them in her 2021 interview. A search for "latest on epstein in jail" was run on her workstation at 5:42 and 5:52 a.m. on August 10; she said she did not recall it. On August 19, 2019, a jail employee told the FBI that an inmate said Bureau of Prisons after-action staff "were shredding boxes of paperwork"; the records do not show that the dumpster was searched. The Justice Department and FBI memorandum of July 7, 2025 reaffirmed suicide, citing "the August 19, 2019 autopsy findings" (the autopsy was on August 11) and describing Epstein as locked in "at around 10:40 pm" (the Inspector General dates lock-in to about 8 p.m.); its "full raw" video had been assembled in Adobe Premiere under a Windows account "MJCOLE~1," with close to three minutes missing. Maurene Comey was fired without stated cause on July 16, 2025, nine days after the memorandum.[^116][^117][^118][^119][^120]
### The Estate and the Executors
Epstein's will, signed on August 8, 2019, named Indyke and Kahn as executors and [[Boris Nikolic]], formerly chief science adviser to Bill Gates, as backup executor; Nikolic said he "was not consulted in these matters and I have no intent to fulfill these duties, whatsoever." The will left Nowak 5 million dollars, which Nowak said he has not received. The co-executors valued Epstein's Virgin Islands property at 577,672,654 dollars in the August 15, 2019 probate petition; the estate's February 2021 accounting showed about 240.8 million dollars and September 2026 filings 107.6 million dollars. The 1953 Trust, signed two days before his death, leaves 100 million dollars to [[Karyna Shuliak]], 50 million to Indyke and 25 million to Kahn, paid in that order.[^11][^74][^102][^120]
Epstein's will, signed on August 8, 2019, named Indyke and Kahn as executors and [[Boris Nikolic]], formerly chief science adviser to Bill Gates, as backup executor; Nikolic said he "was not consulted in these matters and I have no intent to fulfill these duties, whatsoever." The will left Nowak 5 million dollars, which Nowak said he has not received. The co-executors valued Epstein's Virgin Islands property at 577,672,654 dollars in the August 15, 2019 probate petition; the estate's February 2021 accounting showed about 240.8 million dollars and September 2026 filings 107.6 million dollars. The 1953 Trust, signed two days before his death, leaves 100 million dollars to [[Karyna Shuliak]], 50 million to Indyke and 25 million to Kahn, paid in that order.[^11][^75][^103][^121]
The territory alleged that Epstein entities paid Indyke more than 16 million dollars and Kahn more than 10 million dollars net from 2011 to 2019 through companies it called shells, and that the two held at least 140 bank accounts with Epstein. Indyke testified in March 2026 that Epstein's 40 million dollars invested in 2015 and 2016 in two funds of [[Valar Ventures]], co-founded by Peter Thiel, was worth about 172 million dollars. The estate agreed in February 2026 to pay up to 35 million dollars to settle a victims' class action against the co-executors (Doe 3 v. Indyke, No. 1:24-cv-01204), and in September 2026 federal prosecutors in Manhattan were reported to be investigating both men, who deny knowing of Epstein's crimes. Wyden's August 2026 report stated that federal prosecutors never questioned Indyke, Kahn or Beller, none of whom has been charged.[^11][^12][^102][^121][^122]
The territory alleged that Epstein entities paid Indyke more than 16 million dollars and Kahn more than 10 million dollars net from 2011 to 2019 through companies it called shells, and that the two held at least 140 bank accounts with Epstein. Indyke testified in March 2026 that Epstein's 40 million dollars invested in 2015 and 2016 in two funds of [[Valar Ventures]], co-founded by Peter Thiel, was worth about 172 million dollars. The estate agreed in February 2026 to pay up to 35 million dollars to settle a victims' class action against the co-executors (Doe 3 v. Indyke, No. 1:24-cv-01204), and in September 2026 federal prosecutors in Manhattan were reported to be investigating both men, who deny knowing of Epstein's crimes. Wyden's August 2026 report stated that federal prosecutors never questioned Indyke, Kahn or Beller, none of whom has been charged.[^11][^12][^103][^122][^123]
### Maxwell and the Giuffre Litigation After 2019
Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in [[New Hampshire]] in July 2020 and convicted in December 2021 on five federal counts including sex trafficking of a minor, and sentenced to 20 years in June 2022. The Giuffre v. Maxwell summary judgment record ordered released in Brown v. Maxwell was unsealed on August 9, 2019; Maxwell's April 2016 deposition was unsealed on July 23, 2020, and further tranches followed through January 2024. On July 23, 2025 the Second Circuit vacated Preska's December 2019 and January 2020 unsealing orders. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide in Australia in April 2025; her memoir, [[Nobody's Girl]], was published posthumously in 2025. She died intestate, and in November 2025 the Supreme Court of Western Australia appointed [[Ian Torrington Blatchford]] interim administrator; his authority extends to the reopened Giuffre v. Maxwell docket, recaptioned in his name on September 3, 2026, to an arbitration involving Dershowitz, and to a defamation suit against the estate by [[Rina Oh]].[^22][^23][^108][^123][^124]
Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in [[New Hampshire]] in July 2020 and convicted in December 2021 on five federal counts including sex trafficking of a minor, and sentenced to 20 years in June 2022. The Giuffre v. Maxwell summary judgment record ordered released in Brown v. Maxwell was unsealed on August 9, 2019; Maxwell's April 2016 deposition was unsealed on July 23, 2020, and further tranches followed through January 2024. On July 23, 2025 the Second Circuit vacated Preska's December 2019 and January 2020 unsealing orders. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide in Australia in April 2025; her memoir, [[Nobody's Girl]], was published posthumously in 2025. She died intestate, and in November 2025 the Supreme Court of Western Australia appointed [[Ian Torrington Blatchford]] interim administrator; his authority extends to the reopened Giuffre v. Maxwell docket, recaptioned in his name on September 3, 2026, to an arbitration involving Dershowitz, and to a defamation suit against the estate by [[Rina Oh]].[^22][^23][^109][^124][^125]
On July 18, 2025, Deputy Attorney General [[Todd Blanche]], formerly Trump's personal criminal attorney, entered an appearance in Maxwell's closed criminal case and moved to unseal the grand jury transcripts; Judge [[Paul Engelmayer]] denied the motion on August 11, 2025. Blanche interviewed Maxwell under limited immunity on July 24 and 25, 2025; she said Trump "was always very cordial and very kind to me" and that she did not know how he and Epstein met. On August 1 she was moved to the minimum-security [[Federal Prison Camp Bryan]], and Senator [[Sheldon Whitehouse]] wrote that the transfer "raises questions about whether she has been given special treatment in exchange for political favors."[^125][^126][^127]
On July 18, 2025, Deputy Attorney General [[Todd Blanche]], formerly Trump's personal criminal attorney, entered an appearance in Maxwell's closed criminal case and moved to unseal the grand jury transcripts; Judge [[Paul Engelmayer]] denied the motion on August 11, 2025. Blanche interviewed Maxwell under limited immunity on July 24 and 25, 2025; she said Trump "was always very cordial and very kind to me" and that she did not know how he and Epstein met. On August 1 she was moved to the minimum-security [[Federal Prison Camp Bryan]], and Senator [[Sheldon Whitehouse]] wrote that the transfer "raises questions about whether she has been given special treatment in exchange for political favors."[^126][^127][^128]
### The Epstein Files, 2025 and 2026
On February 27, 2025, Attorney General [[Pam Bondi]] released a "first phase" of [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]] that the department itself described as "largely" previously leaked, and on July 7, 2025, the department and the FBI issued an unsigned memorandum stating that their review "revealed no incriminating 'client list'" and that "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted." Senator [[Dick Durbin]] wrote on July 18 that, according to information his office received, FBI records staff reviewing some 100,000 Epstein records in March 2025 "were instructed to 'flag' any records in which President Trump was mentioned." Treasury Secretary [[Scott Bessent]] declined Wyden's March 11, June 16 and September 2, 2025 requests for the Treasury's Epstein suspicious-activity file and on January 22, 2026 said it had given the records to the House Oversight Committee instead.[^12][^117][^128][^129]
On February 27, 2025, Attorney General [[Pam Bondi]] released a "first phase" of [[Epstein Files|Epstein files]] that the department itself described as "largely" previously leaked, and on July 7, 2025, the department and the FBI issued an unsigned memorandum stating that their review "revealed no incriminating 'client list'" and that "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted." Senator [[Dick Durbin]] wrote on July 18 that, according to information his office received, FBI records staff reviewing some 100,000 Epstein records in March 2025 "were instructed to 'flag' any records in which President Trump was mentioned." Treasury Secretary [[Scott Bessent]] declined Wyden's March 11, June 16 and September 2, 2025 requests for the Treasury's Epstein suspicious-activity file and on January 22, 2026 said it had given the records to the House Oversight Committee instead.[^12][^118][^129][^130]
A separate strand concerned the 2003 "birthday book" assembled for Epstein's 50th birthday, which the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] reported in July 2025 contained a bawdy letter bearing Donald Trump's signature; Trump denied authorship and sued the paper, and the House Oversight Committee released the book on September 8, 2025 under an August 25 subpoena to the estate.[^77]
A separate strand concerned the 2003 "birthday book" assembled for Epstein's 50th birthday, which the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] reported in July 2025 contained a bawdy letter bearing Donald Trump's signature; Trump denied authorship and sued the paper, and the House Oversight Committee released the book on September 8, 2025 under an August 25 subpoena to the estate.[^78]
On November 14, 2025, at Trump's request, Bondi assigned [[Jay Clayton]] to investigate Epstein's dealings with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman and JPMorgan Chase. Five days later Trump signed the [[Epstein Files Transparency Act]] (H.R. 4405, Pub. L. No. 119-38), which the House had passed 427 to 1 after a discharge petition by Thomas Massie and [[Ro Khanna]], and which permits withholding records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation." The department missed the December 19, 2025 deadline, disclosed on December 24 that it had found more than a million additional documents, and on January 30, 2026 published the bulk of the material, bringing the total to nearly 3.5 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images; its letter to Congress that day stated that about 200,000 pages had been withheld or redacted under privileges the statute does not list.[^28][^130][^131][^132][^133]
On November 14, 2025, at Trump's request, Bondi assigned [[Jay Clayton]] to investigate Epstein's dealings with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman and JPMorgan Chase. Five days later Trump signed the [[Epstein Files Transparency Act]] (H.R. 4405, Pub. L. No. 119-38), which the House had passed 427 to 1 after a discharge petition by Thomas Massie and [[Ro Khanna]], and which permits withholding records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation." The department missed the December 19, 2025 deadline, disclosed on December 24 that it had found more than a million additional documents, and on January 30, 2026 published the bulk of the material, bringing the total to nearly 3.5 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images; its letter to Congress that day stated that about 200,000 pages had been withheld or redacted under privileges the statute does not list.[^28][^131][^132][^133][^134]
The January 2026 release stated that "notable individuals and politicians were not redacted"; four senators called that "plainly false" in asking the [[Government Accountability Office]] to review the department's redaction and release process, which the GAO agreed to do in late April 2026, days after the department's inspector general opened its own audit. In February and March 2026 NPR and CNN reported that FBI interview records of a woman who accused both Epstein and Trump were missing from the public library; the department said nothing had been deleted, later published three of the interviews as records mistakenly tagged as duplicates, and NPR counted 37 pages still missing. A White House spokeswoman said Trump "has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein." On January 13, 2026 Massie and Khanna asked Engelmayer to appoint a special master, reporting that the department had "publicly released only 12,285 documents" of "more than 2 million" under review; he denied the motion on January 21, 2026 for want of jurisdiction. On August 11, 2026 Preska authorized the government to release under the Act the Boies Schiller material obtained by the 2019 subpoena, over Maxwell's opposition.[^108][^134][^135][^136][^137]
The January 2026 release stated that "notable individuals and politicians were not redacted"; four senators called that "plainly false" in asking the [[Government Accountability Office]] to review the department's redaction and release process, which the GAO agreed to do in late April 2026, days after the department's inspector general opened its own audit. In February and March 2026 NPR and CNN reported that FBI interview records of a woman who accused both Epstein and Trump were missing from the public library; the department said nothing had been deleted, later published three of the interviews as records mistakenly tagged as duplicates, and NPR counted 37 pages still missing. A White House spokeswoman said Trump "has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein." On January 13, 2026 Massie and Khanna asked Engelmayer to appoint a special master, reporting that the department had "publicly released only 12,285 documents" of "more than 2 million" under review; he denied the motion on January 21, 2026 for want of jurisdiction. On August 11, 2026 Preska authorized the government to release under the Act the Boies Schiller material obtained by the 2019 subpoena, over Maxwell's opposition.[^109][^135][^136][^137][^138]
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bondi on March 4, 2026; Trump removed her on April 2 and named Blanche acting Attorney General. On March 3, 2026 Finance Committee chairman [[Mike Crapo]] objected to Wyden's request to pass the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (S. 2746), citing the House review and the Banking Committee's jurisdiction. Wyden's August 4, 2026 report, "Looking the Other Way," stated that Blanche had intervened to block the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] from answering his request about a federal investigation in which Epstein and associates had been targets, and that a 60 Minutes interview Wyden taped on March 26, 2026 was not aired after CBS News fired correspondent [[Sharyn Alfonsi]].[^12][^138][^139][^140][^141]
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bondi on March 4, 2026; Trump removed her on April 2 and named Blanche acting Attorney General. On March 3, 2026 Finance Committee chairman [[Mike Crapo]] objected to Wyden's request to pass the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (S. 2746), citing the House review and the Banking Committee's jurisdiction. Wyden's August 4, 2026 report, "Looking the Other Way," stated that Blanche had intervened to block the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] from answering his request about a federal investigation in which Epstein and associates had been targets, and that a 60 Minutes interview Wyden taped on March 26, 2026 was not aired after CBS News fired correspondent [[Sharyn Alfonsi]].[^12][^139][^140][^141][^142]
The 2025 and 2026 releases produced resignations and removals without prosecutions. Summers left the [[OpenAI]] board on November 19, 2025, was banned for life by the [[American Economic Association]] on December 2, 2025, and resigned from Harvard on February 25, 2026, the day after The Boston Globe sent the university its questions; Harvard placed Nowak on leave the same day. Pritzker retired as executive chairman of [[Hyatt Hotels Corporation|Hyatt]] on February 17, 2026, and Ruemmler resigned as general counsel of [[Goldman Sachs]].[^74][^142][^143][^144]
The 2025 and 2026 releases produced resignations and removals without prosecutions. Summers left the [[OpenAI]] board on November 19, 2025, was banned for life by the [[American Economic Association]] on December 2, 2025, and resigned from Harvard on February 25, 2026, the day after The Boston Globe sent the university its questions; Harvard placed Nowak on leave the same day. Pritzker retired as executive chairman of [[Hyatt Hotels Corporation|Hyatt]] on February 17, 2026, and Ruemmler resigned as general counsel of [[Goldman Sachs]].[^75][^143][^144][^145]
### Footnotes
@ -470,89 +470,90 @@ The 2025 and 2026 releases produced resignations and removals without prosecutio
[^56]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A 'Science Philanthropist' And Donated Millions To These Researchers," *BuzzFeed News,* July 11, 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-science-donations
[^57]: Neuman, Scott, and Ava Berger. "Epstein paid for a conference of top scientists in 2006. His motives are now clear," *NPR,* March 9, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/03/09/nx-s1-5721150/epstein-scientists-physics-virgin-islands-conference
[^58]: Minsky, Marvin L., Push Singh, and Aaron Sloman. "The St. Thomas Common Sense Symposium: Designing Architectures for Human-Level Intelligence," *AI Magazine* 25, no. 2 (2004): 113. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v25i2.1764 ; Brandom, Russell. "AI pioneer accused of having sex with trafficking victim on Jeffrey Epstein's island," *The Verge,* August 9, 2019. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/9/20798900/marvin-minsky-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-island-court-records-unsealed
[^59]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein's Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought," *BuzzFeed News,* August 27, 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements
[^60]: Goodwin Procter LLP. *Report Concerning Jeffrey Epstein's Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.* January 10, 2020, pp. 5, 10, 28 n. 28. https://facultygovernance.mit.edu/sites/default/files/20200121GoodwinProcterReport.pdf
[^61]: "Billionaire Leon Black made a $158 million payment to Jeffrey Epstein. Senators want to know why," *CNN Business,* July 25, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/25/business/leon-black-jeffrey-epstein-senate-investigation
[^62]: Owermohle, Sarah, and Austin Culpepper. "How Epstein enlisted Harvard scientists to burnish his reputation, and try to make a profit," *CNN,* February 19, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/19/politics/harvard-epstein-donations-influence-exclusive
[^63]: Molteni, Megan. "Jeffrey Epstein's tissue samples ignited a furor in the Harvard lab of George Church," *STAT,* February 24, 2026. https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/24/epstein-cell-line-george-church-harvard-personal-genome-project/
[^64]: Farrow, Ronan. "How an Elite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein," *The New Yorker,* September 6, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein
[^65]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Peggy Siegal and George Stephanopoulos, "Thursday small dinner for Prince Andrew," November and December 2010, EFTA02411832 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02411832.pdf
[^66]: Ponieman, Natan. *Benzinga,* May 2023, on Epstein's private calendar, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://www.benzinga.com/news/23/05/32134015/private-calendar-reveals-jeffrey-epsteins-meetings-with-cia-director-noamchomsky-and-goldman-sachs ; *The Daily Beast,* May 2023, on Epstein's calendar meetings with Noam Chomsky and William Burns. https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-calendar-reveals-meetings-with-noam-chomsky-and-former-cia-chief-william-burns/ ; "The Former Biglaw Partner In Jeffrey Epstein's Private Calendar." *Above the Law,* May 2023, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/the-former-biglaw-partner-in-jeffrey-epsteins-private-calendar/
[^67]: Hamilton, Katherine. "Jeffrey Epstein Moved Money For Noam Chomsky, Paid Bard President Botstein $150,000, Report Says." *Forbes,* May 17, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/05/17/jeffrey-epstein-moved-money-for-noam-chomsky-paid-bard-president-botstein-150000-report-says/
[^68]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Kathy Ruemmler to Jeffrey Epstein, January 8, 2015, EFTA02386175 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02386175.pdf
[^69]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01348714, DataSet 10, check image, Gratitude America, Ltd, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, to Leon Botstein, August 1, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348714.pdf ; EFTA01348725, DataSet 10, check image, February 3, 2016 (Bates DB-SDNY-0035646). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348725.pdf ; "Leon Botstein received $150,000 from Jeffrey Epstein," *Inside Higher Ed,* May 18, 2023. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/18/leon-botstein-received-150000-jeffrey-epstein
[^70]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01615267, DataSet 10, iMessage log with the contact "Steve Bannon," August 23, 2018, EFTA01615267 to EFTA01615272. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01615267.pdf ; "'Let me see the videotapes': Mark Epstein wants Steve Bannon's 15 hours of unseen footage of his brother," *NBC News,* 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/mark-epstein-steve-bannon-15-hours-brother-jeffrey-epstein-rcna219630
[^71]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Tom Pritzker to Jeffrey Epstein, "RE: Re:," August 8, 2016, EFTA01783338 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01783338.pdf
[^72]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: email to Jeffrey Epstein, sender redacted, "Any other," August 12, 2010, EFTA02407727 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02407727.pdf ; Saida Sapieva to Lesley Groff, "CONFIRMED: DINNER: Sunday, 8/2," July 31, 2015, EFTA00344556, and reply chain, EFTA00344564 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00344556.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00344564.pdf ; email chain, Jeffrey Epstein and a redacted correspondent, February 6, 2016, EFTA01738574 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01738574.pdf
[^73]: "Epstein's Silicon Valley ties extended beyond just Musk and Gates." *CNBC,* February 9, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/09/tech-leaders-epstein-records-silicon-valley-sergey-brin-thiel-sinofsky-reid-hoffman-musk-gates.html
[^74]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals. Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Harvard run deeper than previously known," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^75]: Ruetenik, Daniel, and Graham Kates. "Lutnick and Epstein were in business together, Epstein files show." *CBS News,* February 7, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/howard-lutnick-jeffrey-epstein-in-business-together/
[^76]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: FBI Form FD-71A Guardian Complaint Form, "Alleged Money Laundering by Howard Lutnick via BGC Financial and Cantor Fitzgerald," case 50D-NY-3027571, April 23, 2021, EFTA01249210 (DataSet 9); calendar alert, December 20, 2012, EFTA02152992 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01249210.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02152992.pdf
[^77]: "Birthday letter to Epstein bore Trump's signature, drawing of naked woman, Wall Street Journal reports." *CNN,* July 17, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/politics/epstein-birthday-letter-trump ; "Trump Epstein letter and drawing from 'birthday book' released." *CNBC,* September 8, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/08/trump-epstein-birthday-book-oversight.html
[^78]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: FBI New York internal email on the Prince Andrew MLAT request, June 8, 2020, EFTA00149598 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00149598.pdf
[^79]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: correspondence of Tomer Toor, Darren Indyke, Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Epstein on the exercise of Carbyne warrants, February and March 2019, EFTA02632339 and EFTA02634615 (DataSet 11); Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke on Carbyne financial statements, March 2019, EFTA01035810 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02632339.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02634615.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01035810.pdf
[^80]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Ehud Barak to Jabor Al Thani, copied to Jeffrey Epstein, "Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1, 2019, EFTA02607775, and continuing thread to February 4, 2019, EFTA02628648 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02607775.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02628648.pdf
[^81]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel, May 21, 2018, EFTA01052344 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01052344.pdf
[^82]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein and Nicole Junkermann, February 18, 2019, EFTA02630791 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02630791.pdf
[^83]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: iMessage logs with the contact "Vitaly Churkin," November 16, 2015 to January 10, 2017, EFTA01619434, EFTA01619438 and EFTA01619444 (DataSet 10); Lesley Groff, "Churkin to join lunch tomorrow as well," August 28, 2016, EFTA02044775 (DataSet 10); scheduling of Maxim Churkin, July and August 2017, EFTA02219806 (DataSet 11) and EFTA00676901 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619434.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619438.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619444.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02044775.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02219806.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00676901.pdf
[^84]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, deposition of William P. Barr, August 18, 2025, transcript released September 2025. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Barr-Transcript.pdf
[^85]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein to Martin Weinberg, "Re: CIA FOIA Request," July 18, 2011, EFTA00915248; Weinberg to Epstein, same date, EFTA00687827; FBI Privacy Waiver and Certification of Identity, EFTA00624683 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00915248.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00687827.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00624683.pdf
[^86]: Complaint, Farmer v. United States, No. 1:25-cv-01709-RBW (D.D.C. May 29, 2025), paras. 80, 85-126, 176-185, citing United States v. Epstein, 27 F. Supp. 2d 404 (S.D.N.Y. 1998). https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Doc-1-Complaint-05-29-2025.pdf
[^87]: Maria Farmer and Sarah Ransome, Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death (Standard Form 95), signed July 20, 2023. https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Farmer-and-Ransome-Jeffrey-Epstein-Notice-of-Claim-FBI-07-20-2023.pdf
[^88]: "Maria Farmer and Marsh Law Firm's Persistent Advocacy Vindicated as FBI Releases Farmer's 1996 Report on Jeffrey Epstein," *Marsh Law Firm,* December 23, 2025. https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/persistent-advocacy-vindicated/
[^89]: "NYC medical examiner rejects claim that Jeffrey Epstein's death was a homicide." *CNN,* October 30, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/us/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-fox ; "Jeffrey Epstein autopsy finds broken bones in his neck." *CNN,* August 15, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/15/us/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-broken-neck
[^90]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: "Gmax" to Jeffrey Epstein, December 8, 2009, EFTA02434764 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02434764.pdf
[^91]: Suzanne Carlson, "Epstein estate could be ordered to repay more than $144 million in tax breaks," *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 13, 2020 (ECF No. 158-36 in No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR). http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/epstein-estate-could-be-ordered-to-repay-more-than-144-million-in-tax-breaks/article_b84d9710-14af-5e69-a890-bcf8265cf8f9.html
[^92]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), Expert Report of Jorge Amador, ECF No. 238-31 (filed July 25, 2023), report pp. 6, 16-17, 24, 46, 74. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591653/gov.uscourts.nysd.591653.238.31.pdf
[^93]: Dechert LLP, Memorandum to the Apollo Conflicts Committee, January 22, 2021, Exhibit 99.1 to Apollo Global Management Form 8-K (January 25, 2021), pp. 3 to 5, 16 to 17. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102dex991.htm
[^94]: Letter from Senator Ron Wyden to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel, March 11, 2025. https://www.finance.senate.gov/download/wyden-letter-to-doj-treasury-fbi-on-epsteinpdf?download=1
[^95]: Settlement Agreement and Release between the Government of the United States Virgin Islands and Leon Black, executed January 20, 2023. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/usvi_black_settlement_agreement_-_executedpdf.pdf
[^96]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01071282, DataSet 9, "Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring," as of October 2, 2013. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01071282.pdf ; EFTA00982173, DataSet 9, email, Ada Clapp to Jeffrey Epstein, "6.7.13 Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring-updated 1.14.14," January 21, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00982173.pdf ; EFTA00702518, DataSet 9, email, Barry J. Cohen to Jeffrey Epstein, "S&C: Leon Black Estate Planning," July 24, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00702518.pdf
[^97]: Deposition of James Dimon, May 26, 2023, No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), transcript pp. 261-269. https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rQOuhi8KqiM0/v0
[^98]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02808715, Court Records, Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y.), letter motion of Motley Rice to Judge Jed S. Rakoff seeking leave to reopen depositions, June 7, 2023 (ECF No. 191). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02808715.pdf ; EFTA02808625, Court Records, same case, letter of JPMorgan's counsel in opposition, June 9, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02808625.pdf ; EFTA02814941, Court Records, same case, Order of Judge Jed S. Rakoff, August 2023. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02814941.pdf
[^99]: Staley v The Financial Conduct Authority [2025] UKUT 00203 (TCC), decision released June 26, 2025. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685d21fec2633bd820a92a52/Staley_v_FCA_decision_for_release.pdf
[^100]: New York State Department of Financial Services, Consent Order in the Matter of Deutsche Bank AG et al., July 6, 2020, paras. 26, 33. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/industry_guidance/enforcement_discipline/ea20200706_deutsche_bank ; Letter from Senator Ron Wyden to Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Robert Garcia, June 4, 2026. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wyden_letter_to_house_oversight_on_leon_black-epstein_060426.pdf
[^101]: "JPMorgan settles with Jeffrey Epstein victims for $290 million." *WHYY,* 2023. https://whyy.org/articles/jpmorgan-settlement/ ; "Ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley fined and banned by UK regulator for Epstein ties." *AP/AOL,* 2023. https://www.aol.com/finance/ex-barclays-ceo-jes-staley-142727090.html
[^102]: Em Steck, "Epstein left millions to his closest advisers. A shrinking estate and new lawsuits may stand in the way," *CNN,* September 21, 2026. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/21/politics/jeffrey-epstein-estate-lawsuit-vis
[^103]: Financial Conduct Authority, Final Notice to James Edward Staley, July 23, 2025. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/james-edward-staley-2025.pdf
[^104]: "V.I. Officials Enabled Epstein to Act With Impunity, JPMorgan Alleges in Latest Salvo." *St. Thomas Source,* June 16, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20240721172424/https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/06/16/v-i-officials-enabled-epstein-to-act-with-impunity-jpmorgan-alleges-in-latest-salvo/
[^105]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Court filings show V.I. First Lady's loyalty to Epstein." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* June 21, 2023. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/court-filings-show-v-i-first-ladys-loyalty-to-epstein/article_c2dca0a7-a243-5365-88c0-389c576ad022.html
[^106]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Docs confirm Bryan pressed for special treatment of sex offender." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 2, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/docs-confirm-bryan-pressed-for-special-treatment-of-sex-offender/article_5e9483c9-38d2-406c-8bb0-e5757ce287f2.html
[^107]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Bryan unapologetic for texts with Epstein, doubles down on denial of wrongdoing." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* March 3, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/bryan-unapologetic-for-texts-with-epstein-doubles-down-on-denial-of-wrongdoing/article_8bab46a1-6075-4c7c-abec-6efb19622e62.html
[^108]: Giuffre v. Maxwell, No. 1:15-cv-07433 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 1360 with Exhibits 2-9 (Feb. 20, 2026), describing In re Grand Jury Subpoena, No. 19-MC-149 (CM) (April 9, 2019 order); Order, ECF No. 1367 (Aug. 11, 2026); Order, ECF No. 1370 (Sept. 3, 2026). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/ian-torrington-blatchford-as-interim-administrator-of-virginia-giuffres/
[^109]: "Jeffrey Epstein operated a vast sex-trafficking network of underage girls who recruited other victims, prosecutors say." *CNN,* July 8, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/08/us/jeffrey-epstein-monday-court-appearance
[^110]: "Jeffrey Epstein used foreign passport with fake name to enter Saudi Arabia: prosecutors." *NBC News,* July 17, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jeffrey-epstein-used-foreign-passport-fake-name-enter-saudi-arabia-n1031046
[^111]: *United States v. Epstein,* No. 1:19-cr-00490-RMB (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 23, Letter from AUSA Alison Moe to Judge Richard M. Berman (Supplement to Detention Memorandum), July 16, 2019, pp. 1-3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.518649/gov.uscourts.nysd.518649.23.0_2.pdf
[^112]: *United States v. Epstein,* No. 1:19-cr-00490-RMB (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 30, Letter from AUSA Alison Moe, July 17, 2019 (quoting ECF No. 24 at 7); ECF No. 31, Letter from Marc Fernich, Martin Weinberg, and Reid Weingarten, July 18, 2019. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15887848/united-states-v-epstein/
[^113]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: internal USANYS email, "FW: Fraud and Blackmail: Jeffrey Epstein's Finances," July 31, 2019, EFTA00086657 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00086657.pdf
[^114]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Federal Bureau of Prisons records of Jeffrey Epstein's detention at MCC New York, July 8 to August 10, 2019, including staff memoranda of July 23, 2019, SIS Inmate Investigative Report NYM-19-0061 (July 31, 2019, pp. EFTA00049239 to 43), and an institution response on cellmate assignments and documentation, EFTA00048963 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00048963.pdf
[^115]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. *Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York.* Report 23-085, June 2023, pp. iii to iv, 1 to 6, 14 to 20, 58 to 60. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-085.pdf
[^116]: Khurshudyan, Isabelle. "Epstein files shed new light on what prison officials were doing the night he died." *CNN,* March 26, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/26/politics/epstein-files-prison-officials-night-he-died ; "Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy: A closer look." *CBS News, 60 Minutes,* January 5, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-a-closer-look-60-minutes-2020-01-05/
[^117]: U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, unsigned memorandum on review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein, July 7, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline
[^118]: Eastham, Janet. "'Suspicious' payments to last guard who saw Epstein." *The Telegraph* via *Yahoo News,* March 8, 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/epstein-prison-guard-made-suspicious-132416347.html ; "Hany Farid and WIRED Analyze the Department of Justice's Released Epstein Video, Find Anomalies with Metadata." *UC Berkeley School of Information,* July 2025. https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2025/hany-farid-and-wired-analyze-department-justices-released-epstein-video-find-anomalies ; "Jeffrey Epstein prison video had nearly 3 minutes cut from it: report." *LiveNOW from FOX,* July 2025. https://www.livenowfox.com/news/epstein-prison-video-edit-discrepancy
[^119]: "Maurene Comey, prosecutor in Epstein and Combs cases and daughter of former FBI director, sues after being fired." *CNN,* September 15, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/15/politics/maurene-comey-justice-department-lawsuit ; Comey v. United States Department of Justice, No. 1:25-cv-07625 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71348216/comey-v-united-states-department-of-justice/
[^120]: "Jeffrey Epstein's Executor Is Ex-Science Adviser to Bill Gates." *Bloomberg,* August 19, 2019. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-19/epstein-s-11th-hour-executor-is-ex-science-adviser-to-bill-gates
[^121]: Reuters, "Epstein estate agrees to $35 million settlement in victim class action," *NBC News,* February 20, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epstein-estate-agrees-35-million-settlement-victim-class-action-rcna259863 ; Doe 3 v. Indyke, No. 1:24-cv-01204 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68260876/doe-3-v-indyke/
[^122]: Kaelan Deese, "Two Jeffrey Epstein associates under investigation by New York federal prosecutors," *Washington Examiner,* September 23, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/4739210/jeffrey-epstein-associates-under-investigation-new-york-federal-prosecutors/
[^123]: "Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison." *U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of New York,* June 28, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse
[^124]: "Court Rules Virginia Giuffre Died Without a Will, Appoints Administrator," *Newsweek,* November 26, 2025. https://www.newsweek.com/court-rules-virginia-giuffre-died-without-will-11110482
[^125]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF Nos. 784, 785 (July 18, 2025); ECF No. 809 (Aug. 11, 2025), 794 F. Supp. 3d 215. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/
[^126]: U.S. Department of Justice, "Interview Transcript, Maxwell, 2025.07.24 (Redacted)." https://www.justice.gov/storage/audio-files/Interview%20Transcript/Interview%20Transcript%20-%20Maxwell%202025.07.24%20(Redacted).pdf
[^127]: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, letter to William K. Marshall III, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, August 7, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-08-07-Letter-to-BOP-Maxwell-Transfer.pdf
[^128]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files," Press Release No. 25-201, February 27, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files
[^129]: Senator Richard J. Durbin, letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, July 18, 2025. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/2025-07-18-rjd-letter-to-ag-bondi-re-epstein?download=1
[^130]: "Bondi taps acting U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to probe Democrats' ties to Epstein," *The Washington Times,* November 14, 2025. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/14/bondi-taps-acting-us-attorney-jay-clayton-probe-democrats-ties/
[^131]: Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-38, § 2(c)(1)(C), 139 Stat. 656. https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ38/PLAW-119publ38.pdf ; Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 289, November 18, 2025. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025289
[^132]: U.S. Department of Justice, Press Release No. 26-84, January 30, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-35-million-responsive-pages-compliance-epstein-files
[^133]: Pamela J. Bondi and Todd Blanche, letter to Congress, January 30, 2026, p. 4. https://www.justice.gov/letter-to-congress.pdf
[^134]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 20 Cr. 330 (PAE) (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 21, 2026), Opinion and Order, ECF No. 844. https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2026-01/Maxwell%2020cr330%20-%20Opinion%20%26%20Order%201.21.26.pdf
[^135]: Senators Jeffrey A. Merkley, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Ray Luján and Richard J. Durbin, letter to Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, March 11, 2026. https://www.merkley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/GAO-Epstein-Files-Redactions-Review-Letter.pdf
[^136]: "Government watchdog to review DOJ's handling of the Epstein files," *NBC News,* April 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/government-watchdog-review-dojs-handling-epstein-files-rcna342513
[^137]: "DOJ removed, withheld Epstein files related to accusations about Trump," *NPR,* February 24, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723968/epstein-files-trump-accusation-maxwell ; "Justice Department posts more Epstein files related to accusations about Trump," *NPR,* March 5, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/03/05/nx-s1-5737562/justice-department-missing-epstein-files-trump ; *CNN,* February 24, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/24/us/epstein-files-trump-accuser-missing-files-invs
[^138]: Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 40 (March 3, 2026), pp. S748 ff. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2026-03-03/html/CREC-2026-03-03-pt1-PgS748-2.htm
[^139]: U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, "Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes," August 4, 2026. https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-releases-new-report-on-failure-of-wall-street-banks-to-blow-the-whistle-on-jeffrey-epsteins-sex-trafficking-and-money-laundering-schemes
[^140]: Dareh Gregorian et al., "House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena Pam Bondi for testimony on Epstein files," *NBC News,* March 4, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/pam-bondi-subpoenaed-testify-epstein-files-house-oversight-committee-rcna261779
[^141]: "Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general, installs Todd Blanche as acting AG," *CBS News,* April 2, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pam-bondi-attorney-general/
[^142]: "Summers Resigns From OpenAI Board Amid Backlash Over Epstein Emails." *The Harvard Crimson,* November 19, 2025. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/19/summers-resigns-open-ai/ ; "Larry Summers banned for life from American Economic Association." Associated Press via *Fortune,* December 3, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/12/03/larry-summers-banned-for-life-from-american-economic-association
[^143]: Chapman, Michelle. "Thomas Pritzker steps down from Hyatt board, saying he deeply regrets association with Epstein." Associated Press via *PBS NewsHour,* February 17, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/thomas-pritzker-steps-down-from-hyatt-board-saying-he-deeply-regrets-association-with-epstein
[^144]: *CBS News,* February 2026, on Ruemmler's resignation as Goldman Sachs general counsel. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kathryn-ruemmler-resigning-from-goldman-sachs-epstein-files/
[^59]: EFTA00328899, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 9, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00328899.pdf; EFTA00714297, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 9, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00714297.pdf; EFTA00337558, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 9, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00337558.pdf.
[^60]: Aldhous, Peter. "Jeffrey Epstein's Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought," *BuzzFeed News,* August 27, 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-science-donations-apologies-statements
[^61]: Goodwin Procter LLP. *Report Concerning Jeffrey Epstein's Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.* January 10, 2020, pp. 5, 10, 28 n. 28. https://facultygovernance.mit.edu/sites/default/files/20200121GoodwinProcterReport.pdf
[^62]: "Billionaire Leon Black made a $158 million payment to Jeffrey Epstein. Senators want to know why," *CNN Business,* July 25, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/25/business/leon-black-jeffrey-epstein-senate-investigation
[^63]: Owermohle, Sarah, and Austin Culpepper. "How Epstein enlisted Harvard scientists to burnish his reputation, and try to make a profit," *CNN,* February 19, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/19/politics/harvard-epstein-donations-influence-exclusive
[^64]: Molteni, Megan. "Jeffrey Epstein's tissue samples ignited a furor in the Harvard lab of George Church," *STAT,* February 24, 2026. https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/24/epstein-cell-line-george-church-harvard-personal-genome-project/
[^65]: Farrow, Ronan. "How an Elite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein," *The New Yorker,* September 6, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein
[^66]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Peggy Siegal and George Stephanopoulos, "Thursday small dinner for Prince Andrew," November and December 2010, EFTA02411832 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02411832.pdf
[^67]: Ponieman, Natan. *Benzinga,* May 2023, on Epstein's private calendar, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://www.benzinga.com/news/23/05/32134015/private-calendar-reveals-jeffrey-epsteins-meetings-with-cia-director-noamchomsky-and-goldman-sachs ; *The Daily Beast,* May 2023, on Epstein's calendar meetings with Noam Chomsky and William Burns. https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-calendar-reveals-meetings-with-noam-chomsky-and-former-cia-chief-william-burns/ ; "The Former Biglaw Partner In Jeffrey Epstein's Private Calendar." *Above the Law,* May 2023, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/the-former-biglaw-partner-in-jeffrey-epsteins-private-calendar/
[^68]: Hamilton, Katherine. "Jeffrey Epstein Moved Money For Noam Chomsky, Paid Bard President Botstein $150,000, Report Says." *Forbes,* May 17, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/05/17/jeffrey-epstein-moved-money-for-noam-chomsky-paid-bard-president-botstein-150000-report-says/
[^69]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Kathy Ruemmler to Jeffrey Epstein, January 8, 2015, EFTA02386175 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02386175.pdf
[^70]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01348714, DataSet 10, check image, Gratitude America, Ltd, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, to Leon Botstein, August 1, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348714.pdf ; EFTA01348725, DataSet 10, check image, February 3, 2016 (Bates DB-SDNY-0035646). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348725.pdf ; "Leon Botstein received $150,000 from Jeffrey Epstein," *Inside Higher Ed,* May 18, 2023. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/18/leon-botstein-received-150000-jeffrey-epstein
[^71]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01615267, DataSet 10, iMessage log with the contact "Steve Bannon," August 23, 2018, EFTA01615267 to EFTA01615272. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01615267.pdf ; "'Let me see the videotapes': Mark Epstein wants Steve Bannon's 15 hours of unseen footage of his brother," *NBC News,* 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/mark-epstein-steve-bannon-15-hours-brother-jeffrey-epstein-rcna219630
[^72]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Tom Pritzker to Jeffrey Epstein, "RE: Re:," August 8, 2016, EFTA01783338 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01783338.pdf
[^73]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: email to Jeffrey Epstein, sender redacted, "Any other," August 12, 2010, EFTA02407727 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02407727.pdf ; Saida Sapieva to Lesley Groff, "CONFIRMED: DINNER: Sunday, 8/2," July 31, 2015, EFTA00344556, and reply chain, EFTA00344564 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00344556.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00344564.pdf ; email chain, Jeffrey Epstein and a redacted correspondent, February 6, 2016, EFTA01738574 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01738574.pdf
[^74]: "Epstein's Silicon Valley ties extended beyond just Musk and Gates." *CNBC,* February 9, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/09/tech-leaders-epstein-records-silicon-valley-sergey-brin-thiel-sinofsky-reid-hoffman-musk-gates.html
[^75]: Fernandes, Deirdre, and Tricia L. Nadolny. "Introductions to women. Free flights. Business deals. Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Harvard run deeper than previously known," *The Boston Globe,* February 25, 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/metro/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-spotlight-report/
[^76]: Ruetenik, Daniel, and Graham Kates. "Lutnick and Epstein were in business together, Epstein files show." *CBS News,* February 7, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/howard-lutnick-jeffrey-epstein-in-business-together/
[^77]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: FBI Form FD-71A Guardian Complaint Form, "Alleged Money Laundering by Howard Lutnick via BGC Financial and Cantor Fitzgerald," case 50D-NY-3027571, April 23, 2021, EFTA01249210 (DataSet 9); calendar alert, December 20, 2012, EFTA02152992 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01249210.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02152992.pdf
[^78]: "Birthday letter to Epstein bore Trump's signature, drawing of naked woman, Wall Street Journal reports." *CNN,* July 17, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/politics/epstein-birthday-letter-trump ; "Trump Epstein letter and drawing from 'birthday book' released." *CNBC,* September 8, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/08/trump-epstein-birthday-book-oversight.html
[^79]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: FBI New York internal email on the Prince Andrew MLAT request, June 8, 2020, EFTA00149598 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00149598.pdf
[^80]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: correspondence of Tomer Toor, Darren Indyke, Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Epstein on the exercise of Carbyne warrants, February and March 2019, EFTA02632339 and EFTA02634615 (DataSet 11); Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke on Carbyne financial statements, March 2019, EFTA01035810 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02632339.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02634615.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01035810.pdf
[^81]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Ehud Barak to Jabor Al Thani, copied to Jeffrey Epstein, "Qatar Presentation <> Carbyne 911," January 1, 2019, EFTA02607775, and continuing thread to February 4, 2019, EFTA02628648 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02607775.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02628648.pdf
[^82]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein to Peter Thiel, May 21, 2018, EFTA01052344 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01052344.pdf
[^83]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein and Nicole Junkermann, February 18, 2019, EFTA02630791 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02630791.pdf
[^84]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: iMessage logs with the contact "Vitaly Churkin," November 16, 2015 to January 10, 2017, EFTA01619434, EFTA01619438 and EFTA01619444 (DataSet 10); Lesley Groff, "Churkin to join lunch tomorrow as well," August 28, 2016, EFTA02044775 (DataSet 10); scheduling of Maxim Churkin, July and August 2017, EFTA02219806 (DataSet 11) and EFTA00676901 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619434.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619438.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619444.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02044775.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02219806.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00676901.pdf
[^85]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, deposition of William P. Barr, August 18, 2025, transcript released September 2025. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Barr-Transcript.pdf
[^86]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Jeffrey Epstein to Martin Weinberg, "Re: CIA FOIA Request," July 18, 2011, EFTA00915248; Weinberg to Epstein, same date, EFTA00687827; FBI Privacy Waiver and Certification of Identity, EFTA00624683 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00915248.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00687827.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00624683.pdf
[^87]: Complaint, Farmer v. United States, No. 1:25-cv-01709-RBW (D.D.C. May 29, 2025), paras. 80, 85-126, 176-185, citing United States v. Epstein, 27 F. Supp. 2d 404 (S.D.N.Y. 1998). https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Doc-1-Complaint-05-29-2025.pdf
[^88]: Maria Farmer and Sarah Ransome, Claim for Damage, Injury, or Death (Standard Form 95), signed July 20, 2023. https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Farmer-and-Ransome-Jeffrey-Epstein-Notice-of-Claim-FBI-07-20-2023.pdf
[^89]: "Maria Farmer and Marsh Law Firm's Persistent Advocacy Vindicated as FBI Releases Farmer's 1996 Report on Jeffrey Epstein," *Marsh Law Firm,* December 23, 2025. https://www.jamesmarshlaw.com/persistent-advocacy-vindicated/
[^90]: "NYC medical examiner rejects claim that Jeffrey Epstein's death was a homicide." *CNN,* October 30, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/us/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-fox ; "Jeffrey Epstein autopsy finds broken bones in his neck." *CNN,* August 15, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/15/us/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-broken-neck
[^91]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: "Gmax" to Jeffrey Epstein, December 8, 2009, EFTA02434764 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02434764.pdf
[^92]: Suzanne Carlson, "Epstein estate could be ordered to repay more than $144 million in tax breaks," *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 13, 2020 (ECF No. 158-36 in No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR). http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/epstein-estate-could-be-ordered-to-repay-more-than-144-million-in-tax-breaks/article_b84d9710-14af-5e69-a890-bcf8265cf8f9.html
[^93]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), Expert Report of Jorge Amador, ECF No. 238-31 (filed July 25, 2023), report pp. 6, 16-17, 24, 46, 74. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591653/gov.uscourts.nysd.591653.238.31.pdf
[^94]: Dechert LLP, Memorandum to the Apollo Conflicts Committee, January 22, 2021, Exhibit 99.1 to Apollo Global Management Form 8-K (January 25, 2021), pp. 3 to 5, 16 to 17. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102dex991.htm
[^95]: Letter from Senator Ron Wyden to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and FBI Director Kash Patel, March 11, 2025. https://www.finance.senate.gov/download/wyden-letter-to-doj-treasury-fbi-on-epsteinpdf?download=1
[^96]: Settlement Agreement and Release between the Government of the United States Virgin Islands and Leon Black, executed January 20, 2023. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/usvi_black_settlement_agreement_-_executedpdf.pdf
[^97]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01071282, DataSet 9, "Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring," as of October 2, 2013. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01071282.pdf ; EFTA00982173, DataSet 9, email, Ada Clapp to Jeffrey Epstein, "6.7.13 Checklist for Leon Black Estate Planning and Restructuring-updated 1.14.14," January 21, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00982173.pdf ; EFTA00702518, DataSet 9, email, Barry J. Cohen to Jeffrey Epstein, "S&C: Leon Black Estate Planning," July 24, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00702518.pdf
[^98]: Deposition of James Dimon, May 26, 2023, No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), transcript pp. 261-269. https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rQOuhi8KqiM0/v0
[^99]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02808715, Court Records, Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904 (S.D.N.Y.), letter motion of Motley Rice to Judge Jed S. Rakoff seeking leave to reopen depositions, June 7, 2023 (ECF No. 191). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02808715.pdf ; EFTA02808625, Court Records, same case, letter of JPMorgan's counsel in opposition, June 9, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02808625.pdf ; EFTA02814941, Court Records, same case, Order of Judge Jed S. Rakoff, August 2023. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank%2C%20N.A.%2C%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02814941.pdf
[^100]: Staley v The Financial Conduct Authority [2025] UKUT 00203 (TCC), decision released June 26, 2025. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685d21fec2633bd820a92a52/Staley_v_FCA_decision_for_release.pdf
[^101]: New York State Department of Financial Services, Consent Order in the Matter of Deutsche Bank AG et al., July 6, 2020, paras. 26, 33. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/industry_guidance/enforcement_discipline/ea20200706_deutsche_bank ; Letter from Senator Ron Wyden to Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Robert Garcia, June 4, 2026. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wyden_letter_to_house_oversight_on_leon_black-epstein_060426.pdf
[^102]: "JPMorgan settles with Jeffrey Epstein victims for $290 million." *WHYY,* 2023. https://whyy.org/articles/jpmorgan-settlement/ ; "Ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley fined and banned by UK regulator for Epstein ties." *AP/AOL,* 2023. https://www.aol.com/finance/ex-barclays-ceo-jes-staley-142727090.html
[^103]: Em Steck, "Epstein left millions to his closest advisers. A shrinking estate and new lawsuits may stand in the way," *CNN,* September 21, 2026. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/21/politics/jeffrey-epstein-estate-lawsuit-vis
[^104]: Financial Conduct Authority, Final Notice to James Edward Staley, July 23, 2025. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/james-edward-staley-2025.pdf
[^105]: "V.I. Officials Enabled Epstein to Act With Impunity, JPMorgan Alleges in Latest Salvo." *St. Thomas Source,* June 16, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20240721172424/https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/06/16/v-i-officials-enabled-epstein-to-act-with-impunity-jpmorgan-alleges-in-latest-salvo/
[^106]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Court filings show V.I. First Lady's loyalty to Epstein." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* June 21, 2023. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/court-filings-show-v-i-first-ladys-loyalty-to-epstein/article_c2dca0a7-a243-5365-88c0-389c576ad022.html
[^107]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Docs confirm Bryan pressed for special treatment of sex offender." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 2, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/docs-confirm-bryan-pressed-for-special-treatment-of-sex-offender/article_5e9483c9-38d2-406c-8bb0-e5757ce287f2.html
[^108]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Bryan unapologetic for texts with Epstein, doubles down on denial of wrongdoing." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* March 3, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/bryan-unapologetic-for-texts-with-epstein-doubles-down-on-denial-of-wrongdoing/article_8bab46a1-6075-4c7c-abec-6efb19622e62.html
[^109]: Giuffre v. Maxwell, No. 1:15-cv-07433 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 1360 with Exhibits 2-9 (Feb. 20, 2026), describing In re Grand Jury Subpoena, No. 19-MC-149 (CM) (April 9, 2019 order); Order, ECF No. 1367 (Aug. 11, 2026); Order, ECF No. 1370 (Sept. 3, 2026). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/ian-torrington-blatchford-as-interim-administrator-of-virginia-giuffres/
[^110]: "Jeffrey Epstein operated a vast sex-trafficking network of underage girls who recruited other victims, prosecutors say." *CNN,* July 8, 2019. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/08/us/jeffrey-epstein-monday-court-appearance
[^111]: "Jeffrey Epstein used foreign passport with fake name to enter Saudi Arabia: prosecutors." *NBC News,* July 17, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jeffrey-epstein-used-foreign-passport-fake-name-enter-saudi-arabia-n1031046
[^112]: *United States v. Epstein,* No. 1:19-cr-00490-RMB (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 23, Letter from AUSA Alison Moe to Judge Richard M. Berman (Supplement to Detention Memorandum), July 16, 2019, pp. 1-3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.518649/gov.uscourts.nysd.518649.23.0_2.pdf
[^113]: *United States v. Epstein,* No. 1:19-cr-00490-RMB (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 30, Letter from AUSA Alison Moe, July 17, 2019 (quoting ECF No. 24 at 7); ECF No. 31, Letter from Marc Fernich, Martin Weinberg, and Reid Weingarten, July 18, 2019. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15887848/united-states-v-epstein/
[^114]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: internal USANYS email, "FW: Fraud and Blackmail: Jeffrey Epstein's Finances," July 31, 2019, EFTA00086657 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00086657.pdf
[^115]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library: Federal Bureau of Prisons records of Jeffrey Epstein's detention at MCC New York, July 8 to August 10, 2019, including staff memoranda of July 23, 2019, SIS Inmate Investigative Report NYM-19-0061 (July 31, 2019, pp. EFTA00049239 to 43), and an institution response on cellmate assignments and documentation, EFTA00048963 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00048963.pdf
[^116]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. *Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York.* Report 23-085, June 2023, pp. iii to iv, 1 to 6, 14 to 20, 58 to 60. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-085.pdf
[^117]: Khurshudyan, Isabelle. "Epstein files shed new light on what prison officials were doing the night he died." *CNN,* March 26, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/26/politics/epstein-files-prison-officials-night-he-died ; "Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy: A closer look." *CBS News, 60 Minutes,* January 5, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-a-closer-look-60-minutes-2020-01-05/
[^118]: U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, unsigned memorandum on review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein, July 7, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline
[^119]: Eastham, Janet. "'Suspicious' payments to last guard who saw Epstein." *The Telegraph* via *Yahoo News,* March 8, 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/epstein-prison-guard-made-suspicious-132416347.html ; "Hany Farid and WIRED Analyze the Department of Justice's Released Epstein Video, Find Anomalies with Metadata." *UC Berkeley School of Information,* July 2025. https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2025/hany-farid-and-wired-analyze-department-justices-released-epstein-video-find-anomalies ; "Jeffrey Epstein prison video had nearly 3 minutes cut from it: report." *LiveNOW from FOX,* July 2025. https://www.livenowfox.com/news/epstein-prison-video-edit-discrepancy
[^120]: "Maurene Comey, prosecutor in Epstein and Combs cases and daughter of former FBI director, sues after being fired." *CNN,* September 15, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/15/politics/maurene-comey-justice-department-lawsuit ; Comey v. United States Department of Justice, No. 1:25-cv-07625 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71348216/comey-v-united-states-department-of-justice/
[^121]: "Jeffrey Epstein's Executor Is Ex-Science Adviser to Bill Gates." *Bloomberg,* August 19, 2019. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-19/epstein-s-11th-hour-executor-is-ex-science-adviser-to-bill-gates
[^122]: Reuters, "Epstein estate agrees to $35 million settlement in victim class action," *NBC News,* February 20, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epstein-estate-agrees-35-million-settlement-victim-class-action-rcna259863 ; Doe 3 v. Indyke, No. 1:24-cv-01204 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68260876/doe-3-v-indyke/
[^123]: Kaelan Deese, "Two Jeffrey Epstein associates under investigation by New York federal prosecutors," *Washington Examiner,* September 23, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/4739210/jeffrey-epstein-associates-under-investigation-new-york-federal-prosecutors/
[^124]: "Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison." *U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of New York,* June 28, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse
[^125]: "Court Rules Virginia Giuffre Died Without a Will, Appoints Administrator," *Newsweek,* November 26, 2025. https://www.newsweek.com/court-rules-virginia-giuffre-died-without-will-11110482
[^126]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF Nos. 784, 785 (July 18, 2025); ECF No. 809 (Aug. 11, 2025), 794 F. Supp. 3d 215. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/
[^127]: U.S. Department of Justice, "Interview Transcript, Maxwell, 2025.07.24 (Redacted)." https://www.justice.gov/storage/audio-files/Interview%20Transcript/Interview%20Transcript%20-%20Maxwell%202025.07.24%20(Redacted).pdf
[^128]: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, letter to William K. Marshall III, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, August 7, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-08-07-Letter-to-BOP-Maxwell-Transfer.pdf
[^129]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files," Press Release No. 25-201, February 27, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files
[^130]: Senator Richard J. Durbin, letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, July 18, 2025. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/2025-07-18-rjd-letter-to-ag-bondi-re-epstein?download=1
[^131]: "Bondi taps acting U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to probe Democrats' ties to Epstein," *The Washington Times,* November 14, 2025. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/14/bondi-taps-acting-us-attorney-jay-clayton-probe-democrats-ties/
[^132]: Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-38, § 2(c)(1)(C), 139 Stat. 656. https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ38/PLAW-119publ38.pdf ; Office of the Clerk, Roll Call 289, November 18, 2025. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025289
[^133]: U.S. Department of Justice, Press Release No. 26-84, January 30, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-35-million-responsive-pages-compliance-epstein-files
[^134]: Pamela J. Bondi and Todd Blanche, letter to Congress, January 30, 2026, p. 4. https://www.justice.gov/letter-to-congress.pdf
[^135]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 20 Cr. 330 (PAE) (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 21, 2026), Opinion and Order, ECF No. 844. https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2026-01/Maxwell%2020cr330%20-%20Opinion%20%26%20Order%201.21.26.pdf
[^136]: Senators Jeffrey A. Merkley, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Ray Luján and Richard J. Durbin, letter to Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, March 11, 2026. https://www.merkley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/GAO-Epstein-Files-Redactions-Review-Letter.pdf
[^137]: "Government watchdog to review DOJ's handling of the Epstein files," *NBC News,* April 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/government-watchdog-review-dojs-handling-epstein-files-rcna342513
[^138]: "DOJ removed, withheld Epstein files related to accusations about Trump," *NPR,* February 24, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723968/epstein-files-trump-accusation-maxwell ; "Justice Department posts more Epstein files related to accusations about Trump," *NPR,* March 5, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/03/05/nx-s1-5737562/justice-department-missing-epstein-files-trump ; *CNN,* February 24, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/24/us/epstein-files-trump-accuser-missing-files-invs
[^139]: Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 40 (March 3, 2026), pp. S748 ff. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2026-03-03/html/CREC-2026-03-03-pt1-PgS748-2.htm
[^140]: U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, "Wyden Releases New Report on Failure of Wall Street Banks to Blow the Whistle on Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Trafficking and Money Laundering Schemes," August 4, 2026. https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-releases-new-report-on-failure-of-wall-street-banks-to-blow-the-whistle-on-jeffrey-epsteins-sex-trafficking-and-money-laundering-schemes
[^141]: Dareh Gregorian et al., "House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena Pam Bondi for testimony on Epstein files," *NBC News,* March 4, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/pam-bondi-subpoenaed-testify-epstein-files-house-oversight-committee-rcna261779
[^142]: "Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general, installs Todd Blanche as acting AG," *CBS News,* April 2, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pam-bondi-attorney-general/
[^143]: "Summers Resigns From OpenAI Board Amid Backlash Over Epstein Emails." *The Harvard Crimson,* November 19, 2025. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/11/19/summers-resigns-open-ai/ ; "Larry Summers banned for life from American Economic Association." Associated Press via *Fortune,* December 3, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/12/03/larry-summers-banned-for-life-from-american-economic-association
[^144]: Chapman, Michelle. "Thomas Pritzker steps down from Hyatt board, saying he deeply regrets association with Epstein." Associated Press via *PBS NewsHour,* February 17, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/thomas-pritzker-steps-down-from-hyatt-board-saying-he-deeply-regrets-association-with-epstein
[^145]: *CBS News,* February 2026, on Ruemmler's resignation as Goldman Sachs general counsel. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kathryn-ruemmler-resigning-from-goldman-sachs-epstein-files/

7
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kit Green.md
View file

@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
- Kit Green
- Christopher Green
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-02
updated: 2026-10-03
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
@ -55,7 +55,9 @@ After several scientists at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] reported
Following his departure from CIA, Green continued academic and research work in neurophysiology and forensic medicine. He was associated with [[Wayne State University School of Medicine]], where he worked in forensic pathology and neurological research.[^2]
Green contributed as a consultant and scientific advisor to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), the Pentagon's UAP research program that operated from approximately 2007 to 2012 under the direction of [[Luis D. Elizondo III|Luis Elizondo]]. His contribution included review of reported physical and physiological effects on individuals claiming proximity to anomalous aerial phenomena. He published research examining injuries reported by people claiming UAP encounters - a category he termed "exotic wounds" - applying forensic neurological analysis to the reported symptom patterns. This work represented the extension of his long-standing interest in the medical and physiological dimensions of anomalous phenomena from the SRI era into the post-AATIP period.[^3]
Green contributed as a consultant and scientific advisor to the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), the Pentagon's UAP research program that operated from approximately 2007 to 2012 under the direction of [[Luis Elizondo]]. His contribution included review of reported physical and physiological effects on individuals claiming proximity to anomalous aerial phenomena. He published research examining injuries reported by people claiming UAP encounters - a category he termed "exotic wounds" - applying forensic neurological analysis to the reported symptom patterns. This work represented the extension of his long-standing interest in the medical and physiological dimensions of anomalous phenomena from the SRI era into the post-AATIP period.[^3]
Elizondo's acknowledgments in 2024 thank "everyone else who worked with and supported AAWSAP/AATIP, especially Dr. Hal Puthoff, Dr. [[Eric Davis]], Dr. Christopher 'Kit' Green, [[Garry Nolan|Dr. Garry Nolan]]," Bigelow and others. The body of the book does not otherwise mention Green by name, and it does not describe his role.[^10]
A [[Defense Electronics]] article of July 1993 in the CIA's Star Gate files, on closed briefings by the Russian scientist [[Igor Smirnov]] on "a computerized acoustic device allegedly capable of implanting thoughts in a person's mind," held from March 17 in [[Northern Virginia|northern Virginia]] and later at the [[University of Kansas Medical Center]], lists among "the non-military attendees" "Dr. [[Richard Nakamura]] of the [[National Institute of Mental Health]] and Dr. Christopher Green, director of [[General Motors]] Corp. (GM) biomedical research department in [[Detroit]]"; whether this is the Green of this page the article does not say.[^4]
@ -78,3 +80,4 @@ An April 15, 1993 transcript of a call between [[Ronald Pandolfi]] and [[C. B. S
[^7]: "Telecon: Ron Pandolphy and Scott Jones," April 15, 1993, enclosure to Farley's letter of April 29, 1995, Clinton Presidential Library, Office of Science and Technology Policy FOIA 01-22, item 46, https://avalonlibrary.net/Grant_Cameron/Clinton_Presidential_Library_collection/OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022/1995%2004%2029_C.%20Richard%20Farley,%20Jr.%20to%20John%20Gibbons%20-%20OSTP%20-%20FOIA%2001%2022%20-%20item%20no%2046.pdf.
[^8]: Farley, C. Richard, Jr., letter to John H. Gibbons, March 29, 1997, OSTP FOIA 01-22, item 75, same collection.
[^9]: Boylan, Richard J. "UFO/ET-Disclosure Policy Splits Covert Network," *Perceptions,* http://web.archive.org/web/20130831033026/http://www.think-aboutit.com/ufo/aviary.htm. Sole source.
[^10]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), Acknowledgments, p. 250 (placed by interpolation from index entries; the digital copy read carries no pagination); full-text search of the book for "Kit" and "Green" returns this passage only.

83
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Luis Elizondo.md
View file

@ -5,12 +5,38 @@ tags:
- UFO
- Military
summary: "Elizondo's upbringing was unconventional and deeply shaped by his father, Luis D."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence]]"
start: 2008
end: 2017-10-04
role: "GS-15 civilian; information-sharing work with DHS and state, local and tribal law enforcement from 2008, counterintelligence and security for AAWSAP from 2009, Director of National Programs, Special Management Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense (Guantanamo portfolio); resignation effective October 4, 2017, as he wrote"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]"
start: 2017
end: 2020-12
role: "chief of security and special programs, in his account; salary cut in half during the period; relationship ended by a call from Tom DeLonge a few days before Christmas 2020"
fn: 19
- type: reported_to
with: "[[Garry Reid]]"
start: 2017
end: 2017-10-04
role: "top boss in the Pentagon chain of command, whom Elizondo wrote he kept out of the loop on AATIP; Elizondo wrote that Reid opened an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry after the resignation"
fn: 19
- type: subject_of
with: "[[NewsNation]]"
role: "NewsNation reported on June 30 and July 29, 2026 on disputes between Elizondo and its correspondent Ross Coulthart and the researcher UAPGerb over his role in the Legacy Program and a rumored disclosure post"
start: 2026-06-30
fn: 11
updated: 2026-10-03
created: 2026-10-03
---
[[Luis Elizondo]] is a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and former employee of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. He is a central figure in the effort to disclose information about [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] (UAP), due to his role leading the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]] (AATIP), a clandestine [[Pentagon]] program that studied the phenomenon.[^1]
### Early Life and Paternal Influence
Elizondo's upbringing was unconventional and deeply shaped by his father, [[Luis D. Elizondo III]], a Cuban exile with a revolutionary past. His father had initially fought alongside Fidel Castro against the Batista regime, but turned against Castro after his alignment with the Soviet Union. This led to his participation in the [[Bay of Pigs]] invasion and a subsequent two-year imprisonment in Cuba, an experience that left him volatile and deeply anti-authoritarian. This background led him to provide his son with an intense and unusual education in paramilitary skills from the age of seven. Elizondo was taught to assemble and disassemble firearms like the AR-15 and AK-47, build rocket launchers from PVC pipes, read topographical maps, and even how to hot-wire a car. This was all part of his father's preparation for a planned, but never realized, second invasion of Cuba under an operation known as "Alpha 66."[^1]
Elizondo's upbringing was unconventional and deeply shaped by his father, [[Luis D. Elizondo III]], a Cuban exile with a revolutionary past. His father had initially fought alongside [[Fidel Castro]] against the Batista regime, but turned against Castro after his alignment with the [[Soviet Union]]. This led to his participation in the [[Bay of Pigs]] invasion and a subsequent two-year imprisonment in Cuba, an experience that left him volatile and deeply anti-authoritarian. This background led him to provide his son with an intense and unusual education in paramilitary skills from the age of seven. Elizondo was taught to assemble and disassemble firearms like the AR-15 and AK-47, build rocket launchers from PVC pipes, read topographical maps, and even how to hot-wire a car. This was all part of his father's preparation for a planned, but never realized, second invasion of Cuba under an operation known as "Alpha 66."[^1]
Struggling with dyslexia and bullying at school, Elizondo found structure and camaraderie in his high school's Junior ROTC program, which he credits with saving him from a self-destructive path. Despite his academic challenges, he enrolled in the pre-medical program at the University of Miami, double majoring in microbiology and immunology, before enlisting in the [[U.S. Army|US Army]] in 1995.[^1]
@ -36,9 +62,58 @@ Elizondo's involvement with AATIP was not without personal cost. He and his fami
Frustrated by the bureaucratic stonewalling, the refusal of the [[United States Air Force|US Air Force]] to cooperate, and the inability to brief senior leadership like Secretary of Defense [[James Mattis]], Elizondo resigned from the Pentagon on October 4, 2017. His resignation letter to Secretary Mattis, which was later made public, explicitly stated that the Department was not taking the potential threat posed by UAP seriously.[^1]
Working with [[Christopher Mellon]] and [[Jim Semivan]], Elizondo went public. He was the primary source for a landmark New York Times article in December 2017 that disclosed the existence of AATIP and included the first official release of what would become known as the "[[Tic Tac]]," "[[GIMBAL]]," and "[[GoFast]]" UAP videos. This event ignited a global conversation and marked a pivotal moment for the disclosure movement.[^1]
Working with [[Christopher Mellon]] and [[Jim Semivan]], Elizondo went public. He was the primary source for a landmark New York Times article in December 2017 that disclosed the existence of AATIP. The article carried the Navy videos later known as "FLIR1" (Tic Tac) and "[[GIMBAL]]" (the article carried two videos; "GOFAST" followed in March 2018). [[Politico]] reported in 2021 that the [[Washington Headquarters Services]] declassification division approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government; the Department of Defense stated on April 27, 2020 that it authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, which had been circulating in the public domain after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017."[^2][^3] This event ignited a global conversation and marked a pivotal moment for the disclosure movement.[^1]
Post-resignation, Elizondo joined [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] (TTSA), founded by musician Tom DeLonge, and has worked relentlessly to advocate for UAP transparency. His efforts, in concert with Mellon and others, have been crucial in briefing members of Congress, which led directly to the creation of the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) and the passage of historic UAP disclosure legislation within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).[^1]
Post-resignation, Elizondo joined [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] (TTSA), founded by musician [[Tom DeLonge]], and has worked relentlessly to advocate for UAP transparency. His efforts, in concert with Mellon and others, have been crucial in briefing members of Congress, which led directly to the creation of the [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] (AARO) and the passage of historic UAP disclosure legislation within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).[^1]
### Recruitment, offices and resignation, in Elizondo's account
Elizondo wrote that in 2008 he returned to the Department of Defense in the [[Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence]], working on information sharing among the department, the [[Department of Homeland Security]] and state, local and tribal law enforcement, from an eleventh-floor corner office in a building in [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]] that the Pentagon rented and that housed divisions of [[Boeing]] including Phantom Works, at the GS-15 grade, and that in early 2009 his assistant announced two visitors, Jay Stratton and a colleague he calls "Rosemary Caine," who asked for his counterintelligence and security experience for "a highly classified program led out of our office at DIA," which Stratton said he had helped create under the name AAWSAP, later AATIP, and which they said reported "directly to the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and to Congress." After two more meetings he was taken to a tenth-floor office in a Virginia building where he met James Lacatski, who asked "What do you think about UFOs?"; at a second meeting Lacatski told him the program had the support of the DIA director, Lieutenant General [[Michael D. Maples]], and had been funded by Harry Reid, Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye. Elizondo wrote that an Army friend he calls "John Robert," who served with him in Korea in the 1990s and acted as liaison between another intelligence agency and AAWSAP, had referred him.[^4]
He wrote that after the program lost support at DIA, in 2010, he moved its remnants into his own portfolio as Director of National Programs, Special Management Staff, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which managed national-level special access programs for the National Security Council and the White House and, in his case, Guantanamo Bay; that his base was office 3C503A in the Pentagon; that he "dual-used" existing funds so that a video sent for analysis could be tested both as a possible Russian MiG-25 and as a UAP; and that the only contractors who remained with Stratton and himself were Puthoff, a physician he calls Will Livingston and [[Eric Davis]]. He named as his superiors in this period [[Neill Tipton]], whom he described as running the Intelligence Sharing and Foreign Intelligence Relationship Office, and Tipton's boss John Pede.[^5]
Elizondo wrote that in 2016 the Joint Staff declined to give Stratton's OPLAN Interloper an Alternative Compensatory Control Measures designation, that in 2017 he sought a briefing of Secretary of Defense James Mattis through a SECDEF liaison, a White House advisor named Brad Byers and a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] liaison officer he calls "Shari Smith," that Tipton agreed to take over AATIP and accepted a draft memo but delayed signing it; and that he resigned in a letter to Mattis "effective 4 October 2017," after more than twenty-two years of service, with a second, shorter letter to his chain of command.[^6] He wrote that his immediate supervisor on the Guantanamo portfolio, John Garrity, telephoned that day to say that Garry Reid, whom he described as controlling security, law enforcement and security clearances for the department, wanted to see him; that Reid said he would have to tell people Elizondo was "acting crazy"; and that Reid seized his computers and files, questioned his staff and began an inquiry through the Air Force [[Office of Special Investigations]] which, he wrote, "found no impropriety in my actions."[^7]
After the [[New York Times]] story of December 16, 2017, Elizondo wrote, the Pentagon spokesperson Dana White confirmed his role in AATIP to Politico, but in 2019 the spokesperson [[Christopher Sherwood]] told reporters that "Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program," which Elizondo wrote Sherwood privately acknowledged was untrue; that a [[Freedom of Information Act]] response said his electronic files had been deleted as having "no historic value," and that an email transferring AATIP duties to Tipton in 2017 was released in May 2024 after a FOIA appeal; and that after a Defense Department inspector general review Garry Reid was reassigned to DIA as a "special advisor." Elizondo wrote that a Pentagon spokesperson later confirmed that he "provides technical advice on a variety of classified topics for the US Space Force."[^8] The Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office found in 2024 that AATIP "was never an official DoD program" (see Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program).
### NewsNation, 2025 and 2026
NewsNation's January 16, 2025 article on [[Jake Barber]] stated that "other whistleblowers, including Lue Elizondo and [[David Grusch]], have alleged a secret government UFO program exists but Barber says he knows it's true because he's part of it," and the full-special article of the same month stated that Grusch and Elizondo "say they've been told about it, they believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves."[^9][^10]
On June 30, 2026 NewsNation reported that its special correspondent [[Ross Coulthart]] had said on his "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]" podcast that "There are people who bitterly resent and don't think it's a good idea that Lue be appointed to a position of power in UAP transparency, because they think that he was part of a previous agenda that was essentially to try to control the narrative, to restrict what the public is entitled to know about the UAP disclosure," and "I've spoken to people in the [[Legacy Program]] who knew Lue." Elizondo told NewsNation's [[Chris Cuomo]] that "I've committed myself to transparency to the degree that I could," that "I didn't say I worked for the Legacy Program," that "we cannot confirm or deny" statements are not "some sort of implicit 'yes,'" and that "I think Ross is an excellent investigative journalist." The article gives Elizondo's account that he directed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and "resigned in 2017 in protest."[^11]
On July 29, 2026 NewsNation reported that the anonymous researcher known online as [[UAPGerb]] (named Sam in the article), speaking to Coulthart, said Elizondo was part of a "controlled narrative" and noted speculation that he was "being positioned for a role with the National Security Council or as an adviser to the White House"; the article states "Elizondo has not confirmed the rumors." In a [[YouTube]] video Elizondo called the claims false, confirmed he was moving to [[Washington, D.C.]] because "fighting for UAP disclosure is a full-time job," and told Coulthart "please, for the love of God, be more careful with who you decide to have on your program." The article states that Elizondo said one narrative, which he claims the researcher made up, was that he and [[James Clapper]], the former [[Director of National Intelligence]], "had colluded to create a network" for "soft disclosure," and quotes Elizondo: "That is 1,000% not accurate. In fact, we never had such a conversation, and Jim Clapper and I never met to have that conversation."[^12]
### Resignation and the December 2017 placement
Elizondo's resignation took effect October 4, 2017, according to the Pentagon; a Pentagon official told Politico that Mattis's receipt of the letter could not be confirmed. His letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis cited "bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets" and the "overwhelming evidence" at "both the classified and unclassified levels," and, [[Keith Kloor]] wrote in *[[The Intercept]]*, "does not mention AATIP or Elizondo's role as its director."[^13][^14] [[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] wrote that the previous day had been his last day of work, and that on October 4, 2017 [[Leslie Kean]] met him, Hal Puthoff and Jim Semivan in a hotel bar near the Pentagon at the request of Christopher Mellon; Kean told Lewis-Kraus that Elizondo "had incredible gravitas."[^15] Elizondo spoke onstage at the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science launch later in October 2017.[^15] In an August 2017 email reviewed by Politico he proposed an unclassified "community of interest" database; "Washington Headquarters Services" approved three [[United States Navy|Navy]] videos "for unlimited distribution" within government, and Elizondo, Mellon and others concluded that more was needed. Politico reported in 2021 that the Pentagon "officially acknowledged the existence of the AATIP program and Elizondo's role in it."[^2] In December 2017 Politico quoted Elizondo: "We tried to work within the system. We were trying to take the voodoo out of voodoo science," and he described sightings "often reported in the vicinity of nuclear facilities, either ships at sea or power plants"; the Times quoted his resignation letter's phrase "unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities."[^16]
### Pentagon statements beside his account
December 2017: Politico's [[Bryan Bender]] wrote that Pentagon spokeswoman [[Dana White]] "confirmed to Politico that the program existed and was run by Elizondo." June 1, 2019: spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told *The Intercept* that AATIP "did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena" but that "Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI," that he "cannot confirm" White's statement, and that Elizondo "worked for other organizations in DoD." June 13, 2019: [[Susan Gough]] told [[The Black Vault]] that Reid's July 24, 2009 memorandum was authentic and "makes no change to previous statements," and that "Elizondo did interact with the DIA office managing the program while the program was still ongoing, but he did not lead it." Bender wrote on June 2, 2019 that he expected "a much more definitive statement from the Pentagon" and that The Intercept's "assertions and innuendo" were wrong. Elizondo, in the Intercept article, did not respond to requests for comment; he told Kloor earlier in 2019 that he was a government contractor "but it's not what you think it is."[^14][^17]
### Galileo Project
On October 30, 2021 Elizondo and Mellon became research affiliates of [[Harvard University|Harvard]]'s [[Galileo Project]]; Elizondo was quoted: "Deliberate and methodical research, along with strict rigor will help ensure the tenets of the scientific method are followed."[^18] The October 2021 announcement credits both with "two years of patient public and private lobbying" behind the June 2021 ODNI report.[^18]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: Bender, Bryan. *Politico Magazine,* May 28, 2021. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/28/ufos-secret-history-government-washington-dc-487900
[^3]: U.S. Department of Defense. "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," April 27, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/ (read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/).
[^4]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 3 to 14 (Caine indexed at p. 5; Reid, Bigelow and Maples at pp. 13 to 14). Page numbers are those of the printed index where it lists the passage; the digital copy read carries no pagination, so other pages are interpolated from index entries and may be off by one.
[^5]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 82 to 93 (Higgins, Tipton and Pede at pp. 87 to 89; Will at p. 90; office 3C503A at p. 93).
[^6]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 147 to 202 (Interloper at pp. 147 and 186; Byers at pp. 189 and 217; Tipton at p. 192; resignation letter at p. 202).
[^7]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 202 to 203 and 211.
[^8]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 209 to 217 and 238 (Dana White at p. 210; Sherwood at p. 217; deletion at p. 212; Space Force statement at p. 238); photograph captions on the email released in May 2024.
[^9]: NewsNation, "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists: NewsNation exclusive," January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/
[^10]: NewsNation, "Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program; object caught on video," January 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/hfr-uap-recovery-video-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/
[^11]: Alicia Sitz, "UAP whistleblower Luis Elizondo neither confirms nor denies he was part of government secrecy efforts," NewsNation, updated June 30, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/luis-elizondo-denies-uap-secrecy-efforts/
[^12]: Steph Whiteside and Alicia Sitz, "Elizondo responds to researcher's 'controlled narrative' role rumors," NewsNation, updated July 29, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/elizondo-uap-role-controlled-narrative/
[^13]: Kloor, Keith. "UFOs Won't Go Away." *Issues in Science and Technology,* March 1, 2019. https://issues.org/ufos-wont-go-away/
[^14]: Kloor, Keith. *The Intercept,* June 1, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/
[^15]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. *The New Yorker,* May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
[^16]: Bender, Bryan. "The Pentagon's Secret Search for UFOs." *Politico Magazine,* December 16, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/2018id_/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/pentagon-ufo-search-harry-reid-216111 ; Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean. *The New York Times,* December 16, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html
[^17]: Greenewald, John, Jr. The Black Vault, June 14, 2019. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/pentagon-reinforces-mr-luis-elizondo-had-no-responsibilities-on-aatip-senator-harry-reids-2009-memo-changes-nothing
[^18]: The Galileo Project, October 30, 2021. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/galileo/files/mellon-elizondo_announcement_final_2.pdf (Internet Archive copy).
[^19]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 202 to 217 (resignation at p. 202; Garry Reid indexed at pp. 143 to 144, 202 to 203, 209, 212, 215 to 217, 238 to 239) and pp. 205 to 207, 218 and 219 (offer from Tom DeLonge, salary cut and end of the arrangement).

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---
category: "Journalists"
tags:
- Person
- Journalist
- Author
- UFO
- NewYorkTimes
alias:
- Ralph Blumenthal
- Blumenthal, Ralph
summary: "Ralph Blumenthal, a New York Times reporter from 1964 to 2009 and later a Baruch College lecturer, co-wrote the December 2017 AATIP report and wrote The Believer, a 2021 biography of John Mack."
location: "New York City"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[New York Times]]"
role: "news clerk and reporter, foreign correspondent, investigative reporter, culture reporter, Texas correspondent; contributor after 2009"
start: 1964-06
end: 2009
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]]"
role: "co-author; pitched the story to executive editor Dean Baquet"
start: 2017-12-16
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Baruch College]]"
role: "Distinguished Lecturer"
start: 2010
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
[[Ralph Blumenthal]] joined the *[[New York Times]]* as a news clerk in June 1964 after editing the [[City College of New York]] newspaper *[[The Campus]]* and attending the [[Columbia University]] Graduate School of Journalism. He served as metro and [[Westchester County, New York|Westchester]] correspondent (1964 to 1968), foreign correspondent in [[West Germany]], [[South Vietnam]] and [[Cambodia]] (1968 to 1971), investigative and crime reporter (1971 to 1994), arts and culture reporter (1994 to 2003) and Texas correspondent and Southwest bureau chief (2003 to 2008), returning to the metro staff in 2008. He retired as a staffer in 2009 and continued as a contributor.[^1]
His stated credits include leading the Times metro team that won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for breaking news coverage of the 1993 [[World Trade Center]] truck bombing, the 1987 team coverage of the [[Tawana Brawley]] case, reporting on [[Geraldine Ferraro]] and her husband [[John Zaccaro]] in 1984, and the first of his seven books, *[[Last Days of the Sicilians]]* (1988), on the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[Pizza Connection|Pizza Connection case]]. He received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] in 2001, held a Distinguished Lecturer appointment at [[Baruch College]] from 2010 and taught summers at [[Phillips Exeter Academy]].[^1]
### UFO reporting
Blumenthal's website states that "as a Times contributor after retiring as a staffer in 2009, I reported on the secret [[Pentagon]] unit investigating UFOs." His seventh book, *The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of [[John Mack]]*, was published by [[High Road Books]] of the [[University of New Mexico Press]] on March 15, 2021; in 2023 he and his wife [[Deborah]] published *UFOHS!: Mysteries in the Sky*, a children's picture book.[^1]
[[Gideon Lewis-Kraus]] wrote that when [[Leslie Kean]], whom he described as an "old friend," called him in October 2017 he was "at work on a biography of the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] psychiatrist and alien-abduction researcher [[John E. Mack|John Mack]]." Blumenthal e-mailed executive editor [[Dean Baquet]] to say they wanted to pitch "a sensational and highly confidential time-sensitive story" about a "senior U.S. intelligence official who abruptly quit last month" who had decided to expose "a deeply secret program, long mythologized but now confirmed." After a meeting with the Times's Washington bureau the paper agreed and assigned [[Helene Cooper]].[^2] Blumenthal and Kean later shared bylines on a July 2020 Times article that was corrected the next day on the question of [[Harry Reid]]'s belief about retrieved materials, and on the 2023 reporting on [[David Grusch]].[^2][^3] See [[December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report]].
### Footnotes
[^1]: Blumenthal, Ralph. "Bio." https://ralphblumenthal.com/?p=9 (author's website, first-person biography; credits are his own statements).
[^2]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously." *The New Yorker,* May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
[^3]: Baker, Nicholson. "How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs." *New York Magazine,* January 31, 2024. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/leslie-kean-ufo-sightings-aliens.html

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---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UAP
- Journalist
- NewsNation
- Australia
alias:
- Ross Coulthart
- Coulthart
summary: "Australian investigative journalist and author of In Plain Sight (2021) who joined NewsNation as special correspondent on November 14, 2023 and reported on David Grusch, Jake Barber and Skywatcher."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[NewsNation]]"
role: "special correspondent and investigative journalist, effective November 14, 2023"
start: 2023-11-14
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Nine Network]]"
role: "reporter for 60 Minutes, per NewsNation's announcement"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Seven Network]]"
role: "investigative reporter for Spotlight, most recent post before NewsNation, per NewsNation's announcement"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[David Grusch]]"
role: "NewsNation reporting on Grusch from June 2023; the November 14, 2023 announcement says Coulthart will continue it"
start: 2023-06
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[Sky Watcher]]"
role: "reported on its operations and disappearance, April 2025 to August 2026"
start: 2025-04
fn: 3
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Ross Coulthart is an [[Australia|Australian]] journalist, documentary producer and author whom [[NewsNation]], a cable network owned by [[Nexstar Media Group]], signed as a special correspondent and investigative journalist on November 14, 2023.[^1] The announcement stated that he would "continue to provide reporting on UFO whistleblower [[David Grusch]], along with the larger investigation into an alleged secret U.S. military operation that is believed to have been retrieving non-human intelligence spacecraft for years."[^1]
### Career before NewsNation
The Nexstar announcement lists, over "three decades in journalism," work at [[The Sydney Morning Herald]], at [[Four Corners]] on the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]], at [[60 Minutes (Australian TV program)|60 Minutes]] on the [[Nine Network]], most recently as investigative reporter for [[Spotlight (Australian TV program)|Spotlight]] on the [[Seven Network]] and before that as chief investigative reporter for the news program [[Sunday Night (Australian TV program)|Sunday Night]]. It states that he received five [[Walkley Awards]] including the Gold Walkley and a [[Logie Awards|Logie]], that he co-authored six books including The Lost Diggers, Dead Man Running and Above the Law, that his biography of [[Charles Bean]] won the 2015 [[Prime Minister's Literary Awards|Prime Minister's Literary Award]] for Australian History, and that he holds a law degree from [[Victoria University of Wellington]] and lives in [[Sydney]].[^1] His book [[In Plain Sight (Coulthart book)|In Plain Sight]]: An Investigation Into UFOs and Impossible Science is listed as his "latest book," and in 2022 he "began hosting the podcast Need to Know with fellow author, producer, and journalist [[Bryce Zabel]]."[^1] The announcement quoted NewsNation president of news [[Michael Corn]]: "We look forward to offering our viewers more of Ross' outstanding journalism."[^1] His first NewsNation project was "Unsolved: The JFK Assassination," a special timed to the 60th anniversary of the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]], scheduled for November 19, 2023.[^1] NewsNation was announced in May 2020 as the primetime national newscast of the cable channel [[WGN America]] with a September 1, 2020 target date; Nexstar chairman and chief executive [[Perry Sook]] said it would be "100 percent absent of bias."[^4]
### Grusch and the July 2023 hearing
NewsNation's article "We are not alone: The UFO whistleblower speaks" was entered into the record of the July 26, 2023 hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]] by Representative [[Anna Paulina Luna]].[^5] NewsNation wrote in January 2025 that "In June 2023, NewsNation was the first television network to present an interview with Grusch," and that the account "has led to multiple Congressional hearings."[^2][^6]
### Barber and Skywatcher
Coulthart conducted the January 2025 interviews with [[Jake Barber]] and introduced Barber to [[Garry Nolan]] in 2024, according to NewsNation's account of its own reporting.[^7] On Sunday, April 6, 2025 he told "[[NewsNation Prime]]," as reported on April 7, that [[Sky Watcher]] used an "electro-mechanical dog whistle," that "every time they use their dog whistle, it's worked 100% of the time in summoning the phenomenon," and that a video of nine shapes, including a "jellyfish-shaped" object, would follow "within a day."[^3] Appearing on "NewsNation Prime" on Sunday, February 23, 2025, as reported on February 24, he called the [[Department of Defense]] investigation of Barber "an incremental step forward" and said, "So far, I'm a little bit skeptical, but we'll wait and see."[^8]
In an August 2026 column he wrote that "it appears Skywatcher has indeed been dissolved," that "multiple insiders told NewsNation" its team had been "working with and reporting to a number of government agencies, including [[NASA]], the Department of Defense and several intelligence agencies, including the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]," and that "[[White House]] sources" told him [[Donald Trump]] "has personally authorized" a government program using Skywatcher's methods; he attributed each statement to unnamed sources.[^9] The column also states, again on the authority of unnamed sources, that Secretary of War [[Pete Hegseth]] "has been tasked with identifying these objects and capturing them for the president" and that the [[Office of the Director of National Intelligence]] is "also said to be involved."[^9] NewsNation published a related question-and-answer episode on August 7, 2026.[^10]
### Dispute with Luis Elizondo, 2026
On an episode of "[[Reality Check (NewsNation)|Reality Check]]" reported by NewsNation on June 30, 2026, Coulthart said "There are people who bitterly resent and don't think it's a good idea that Lue be appointed to a position of power in UAP transparency," and "I've spoken to people in the [[Legacy Program]] who knew Lue."[^11] [[Luis Elizondo]] told NewsNation's [[Chris Cuomo]] that he "didn't say I worked for the Legacy Program," that "I think Ross is an excellent investigative journalist," and that he did not know "where Ross is getting his information; I suspect he has sources."[^11] On July 29, 2026 NewsNation reported that an anonymous researcher known online as [[UAPGerb]] (named Sam in the article), speaking to Coulthart, had said Elizondo and others were part of a "controlled narrative," and that Elizondo, in a [[YouTube]] video, called the claims false and told Coulthart "for the love of God, be more careful with who you decide to have on your program."[^12]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Nexstar Media Group, "NewsNation Signs Award-Winning Journalist Ross Coulthart as a Special Correspondent for the Network," press release, November 14, 2023. https://www.nexstar.tv/newsnation-signs-ross-coulthart-as-special-correspondent/
[^2]: NewsNation, "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists," January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/
[^3]: Michael Ramsey, "Skywatcher video of 'summoned' UFOs coming soon: Ross Coulthart," NewsNation, updated April 7, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/summoned-ufos-video-ross-coulthart/
[^4]: Robert Feder, "WGN America planning to launch 'News Nation' Sept. 1," Daily Herald, May 7, 2020. https://robertfeder.dailyherald.com/2020/05/07/robservations-wgn-america-planning-launch-news-nation-sept-1/.
[^5]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, hearing "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53, list of submitted documents. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
[^6]: NewsNation, "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists: NewsNation exclusive," January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/ ; Ross Coulthart, "UAP recovery video shows 'egg-shaped' object: Exclusive," NewsNation, updated January 18, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-recovery-video-shows-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/
[^7]: NewsNation, "Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program; object caught on video," January 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/hfr-uap-recovery-video-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/
[^8]: Michael Ramsey, "UFO whistleblower Jake Barber's claims being investigated by Pentagon," NewsNation, updated February 24, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/pentagon-investigates-ufo-claims/
[^9]: Ross Coulthart, "Is the Trump administration running a covert UFO program?," NewsNation Reality Check, about August 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/podcasts-newsnation/reality-check/trump-administration-covert-ufo-program/amp/
[^10]: Ross Coulthart and Meagan Medick, "Ross Coulthart Q&A: Skywatcher didn't disappear, it went government," NewsNation, updated August 7, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/ross-coulthart-qa-skywatcher-didnt-disappear-it-went-government/
[^11]: Alicia Sitz, "UAP whistleblower Luis Elizondo neither confirms nor denies he was part of government secrecy efforts," NewsNation, updated June 30, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/luis-elizondo-denies-uap-secrecy-efforts/
[^12]: Steph Whiteside and Alicia Sitz, "Elizondo responds to researcher's 'controlled narrative' role rumors," NewsNation, updated July 29, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/elizondo-uap-role-controlled-narrative/

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---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UAP
- Navy
- Pilot
- Nonprofit
alias:
- Ryan Graves
- Ryan "FOBS" Graves
- Lt. Ryan Graves
summary: "Former Navy F/A-18F pilot of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 who founded Americans for Safe Aerospace and testified before a House Oversight subcommittee on July 26, 2023."
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Americans for Safe Aerospace]]"
role: "founder and executive director; District of Columbia filing of March 16, 2023"
start: 2023-03-16
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Navy]]"
role: "F/A-18F pilot, Strike Fighter Squadron 11, for a decade"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[BAE Systems]]"
role: "worked on advanced military autonomy applications at FAST Labs, per his congressional biography"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics]]"
role: "first chair of its Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Integration & Outreach Committee, per his congressional biography"
fn: 1
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Ryan Graves is a former [[United States Navy]] lieutenant and F/A-18F pilot who, in the words of his biography submitted to the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]], "served for a decade, including two deployments in [[Operation Enduring Freedom]] and [[Operation Inherent Resolve]]" and "was the first active duty pilot to come forward publicly about regular sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP)."[^1] The same biography states that he "previously worked on advanced military autonomy applications at [[BAE Systems]] FAST Labs," is founder and executive director of [[Americans for Safe Aerospace]], and is the first chair of the [[American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics]] [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]] Integration & Outreach Committee.[^1]
### 2014 Virginia Beach encounters
In his sworn statement of July 26, 2023 Graves said that "In 2014, I was an F-18 Foxtrot pilot in the Navy Fighter Attack Squadron 11, the [[Strike Fighter Squadron 11|Red Rippers]], and I was stationed at [[Naval Air Station Oceana|NAS Oceana]] in [[Virginia Beach]]," that after radar upgrades "we began detecting unknown objects operating in our airspace," and that in Warning Area W-72, ten miles off the coast, "two F-18 Super Hornets were split by a UAP," described as "a dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere" that "came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft."[^2] He said the squadron filed a safety report and "there was no official acknowledgement of the incident and no further mechanism to report the sightings," and "Recognizing the need for action and answers, I founded Americans for Safe Aerospace."[^2] He told the subcommittee that "more than thirty witnesses have come forward and almost 5,000 Americans have joined us."[^2]
### 2019 press accounts
In May 2019 Graves and Lieutenant [[Danny Accoin]], both F/A-18 Super Hornet pilots of the VFA-11 Red Rippers at [[Naval Air Station Oceana]], told the *[[New York Times]]* of unidentified objects they could not explain, flying up to 30,000 feet, appearing almost daily and showing no exhaust or engine plumes. Graves said: "These things would be out there all day. Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect." He dated the start of his experiences to summer 2014, when the squadron was training off the [[USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)|USS Theodore Roosevelt]]. The two pilots appeared in the six-part [[History (TV channel)|History Channel]] series "[[Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation]]," which premiered on Friday, May 31, 2019. The *Virginian-Pilot* reported that Navy representatives did not respond to its questions, and that a month earlier the Navy had told [[Politico]] it had drafted new rules for reporting "unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years."[^3]
### Questions at the hearing
Representative [[Anna Paulina Luna]] asked him to describe an event at [[Vandenberg Air Force Base]]; he answered that "in the 2003 timeframe, a large group of [[Boeing]] contractors were operating near one of the launch facilities" and observed "a very large 100-yard sighted red square approach the base from the ocean," information "received through one of the witnesses that have approached me at Americans for Safe Aerospace," who he said held "official documentation and records."[^2] He told Chairman [[Glenn Grothman]] that the commercial aviation sector "has not adapted to the lessons that military has implemented," and, asked what steps should be taken, said "There needs to be a location where this information is centralized for processing and there needs to be a two-way communication loop."[^2] [[David Fravor]] and [[David Grusch]] testified at the same hearing.[^2]
### Americans for Safe Aerospace filings
OpenCorporates lists Americans for Safe Aerospace as a District of Columbia domestic nonprofit corporation, number N00007627058, with filings dated March 16, 2023 ("Initial"), June 9, 2023 ("Amendment"), March 28, 2024 (biennial report), July 2, 2025 (good standing) and March 19, 2026 (biennial report), registered agent Corporation Service Company, and ten officers on record (names behind a login); a [[North Carolina]] foreign-nonprofit certificate of authority, number 3088984, was filed on July 16, 2025, with four officers.[^4] The [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date is January 2024 and the employer identification number is 92-2948733, with 2025 revenue reported at 77,745 dollars in the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer data.[^5] The organization's Forms 990-EZ and Schedule A figures are recorded on its own page. Graves's July 2023 count of almost 5,000 members precedes the 990-EZ statements of "over 8000 members" for 2024 and "over 30,000" for 2025.[^2][^6]
Senate lobbying records name no client or registrant called Americans for Safe Aerospace.[^7] The [[Federal Election Commission]] database holds 392 itemized contributions under the name "Graves, Ryan" (reviewed in full on October 3, 2026); the listed employers and occupations include a physician at Banner Health, a Southwest Airlines pilot, an Arcadis engineer and unemployed contributors in [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and [[California]], and none lists the Navy, BAE Systems or Americans for Safe Aerospace, so no contribution was attributed to the founder.[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Ryan Graves, witness biography, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing of July 26, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116282/witnesses/HHRG-118-GO06-Bio-GravesR-20230726.pdf
[^2]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency," July 26, 2023, Serial No. 118-53. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53022/html/CHRG-118hhrg53022.htm
[^3]: Hafner, Katherine. "...Claim UFO sightings: Unidentified objects seen flying up to 30,000 feet." *Daily Press* (Newport News), May 30, 2019, p. A1, via newspapers.com image 593332765 (a *Virginian-Pilot* staff story; the first words of the headline and the page 5 jump were not read).
[^4]: OpenCorporates, Americans for Safe Aerospace, District of Columbia N00007627058 and North Carolina 3088984, retrieved October 3, 2026. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/N00007627058 ; https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nc/3088984 . The incorporation date is hidden behind a login; the earliest dated filing shown is March 16, 2023.
[^5]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Americans For Safe Aerospace, EIN 922948733. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/922948733.json
[^6]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990-EZ, Americans for Safe Aerospace, tax periods ended December 31, 2024 and 2025 (object IDs 202502389349200045 and 202611399349200506), as recorded on the vault page for the organization.
[^7]: Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, client name "Americans for Safe Aerospace," October 3, 2026 (no results); OpenFEC schedule A, contributor name "Graves, Ryan," reviewed October 3, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/

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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tim Gallaudet.md Normal file
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---
category: "UFO & Anomalous Phenomena"
tags:
- Person
- UFO
- UAP
- USNavy
- NOAA
- Oceanography
- SolFoundation
- Disclosure
alias:
- Tim Gallaudet
- Timothy Gallaudet
- Timothy C. Gallaudet
- Timothy Cole Gallaudet
- RDML Tim Gallaudet
- Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet
- Gallaudet
summary: "Retired Navy rear admiral and oceanographer who served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and acting NOAA head, testified to the House Oversight Committee on UAP on November 13, 2024 and advises several UAP groups."
location: "United States"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Navy]]"
role: "oceanographer; Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command; Oceanographer of the Navy; Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory (per his House biography); rear admiral, retired"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]]"
start: 2017-10-05
role: "Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and deputy administrator; acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (acting administrator)"
fn: 3
- type: member_of
with: "[[Sol Foundation]]"
start: 2023-11-17
role: "speaker at the 2023 and 2024 symposia; author of Sol paper Vol. 1 No. 1 (March 2024); 'advisory board member' per his November 2024 House biography; 'senior strategic advisor' in his testimony of November 13, 2024; 'Senior Advisor' on the foundation's website (October 3, 2026)"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Americans for Safe Aerospace]]"
role: "advisory board member per his November 2024 biography"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[UAP Disclosure Fund]]"
role: "advisory board member per his November 2024 biography"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Galileo Project]]"
role: "research affiliate per his November 2024 biography"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[UAP Science Advisory Council]]"
start: 2026-06
role: "oceanography, on the list Avi Loeb supplied to DefenseScoop"
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Timothy Gallaudet holds a bachelor's degree from the [[United States Naval Academy]] and master's and doctoral degrees from the [[Scripps Institution of Oceanography]]. His biography submitted to the [[House Committee on Oversight and Accountability]] for its November 13, 2024 hearing describes a career as an oceanographer and technology consultant and lists service as acting Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, acting and deputy administrator of the [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]], and [[Oceanographer of the Navy]]. It adds that "his experience as the Superintendent of the [[U.S. Naval Observatory]] gave him a greater appreciation for [UAP's] scientific validity," that he serves as "strategic advisor and board member for several startups, nonprofits, and research institutions in the ocean, weather, environment, and space sectors," and that he is a member of the [[Ocean Studies Board]] of the [[National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine]] and the [[White House Ocean Research Advisory Panel]].[^1]
### Navy and NOAA
[[DefenseScoop]] described him in June 2026 as a retired admiral who had served as commander of the [[Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command]] and as assistant secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.[^2] The Senate record shows his nomination as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (PN897, 115th Congress, vice [[Mark E. Schaefer]]) received on September 5, 2017, a hearing before the [[Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee]] on September 27, 2017 (S. Hrg. 115-642), a favorable report on October 4, 2017 and confirmation by voice vote on October 5, 2017.[^3] On July 24, 2018 he testified before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on NOAA's "[[Blue Economy Initiative]]" under the title "Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere."[^4] The biography footer of his House submission gives the address of his consulting firm as oceanSTL.com.[^1]
### UAP positions
His House biography lists UAP writings in a Sol Foundation paper ("Beneath the Surface: We May Learn More about UAP by Looking in the Ocean," which the foundation's website numbers Volume 1, No. 1, March 2024), in [[The Hill]] and in [[Real Clear Science]], and an appearance on [[The Shawn Ryan Show]], and describes him as "seeking to elevate the scientific study of undersea and transmedium UAP to a national research priority." It names him a research affiliate of the [[Galileo Project]] at [[Harvard University]] and an advisory board member of [[Americans for Safe Aerospace]], the [[UAP Disclosure Fund]] and the [[Sol Foundation]].[^1]
He spoke at the first Sol symposium on November 17 to 18, 2023 in [[Palo Alto, California]] and at the second on November 22 to 23, 2024 in [[San Francisco]].[^5][^6] On November 12, 2024 he transmitted to the committee a letter, signed by [[Garry Nolan]], [[Peter Skafish]], [[Avi Loeb]], [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Luis Elizondo]], [[Diana Walsh Pasulka]], [[John B. Alexander]], [[Michio Kaku]] and others, urging enactment of the review-board provisions of the [[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act]]; the signers included [[Yuan Fung]] as executive director of the UAP Disclosure Fund.[^7] He appeared as a witness at the committee's November 13, 2024 hearing, "[[Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena]]: Exposing the Truth." Asked by Representative [[Robert Garcia]] about the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act, he said it "will allow for greater transparency and open research" and that "that is why I am also a member of the UAP Discloser Fund as an advisor and the Sol Foundation as a senior strategic advisor, which is advocating the same" (the transcript prints "Discloser").[^8] The foundation's website lists him as "Senior Advisor" among its executive leadership.[^9]
A March 9, 2025 question-and-answer session after the [[South by Southwest]] premiere of "The Age of Disclosure" is catalogued with Gallaudet, Nolan, [[Karl Nell]], [[Hal Puthoff]], [[Jim Semivan]] and the producer [[Dan Farah]].[^10]
In June 2026 Loeb gave DefenseScoop a roster of twelve members of a UAP Science Advisory Council that includes Gallaudet (oceanography), Nolan, Skafish, [[Michael Shermer]] and [[Ben Lamm]]. Gallaudet told DefenseScoop that he hoped to apply his ocean-science and government-leadership experience "to help the council most effectively accomplish its mission and support the new UAP Governance Board."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret)," biography submitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, November 13, 2024. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Bio-GallaudetPhDRearAdmiralUSNavyRetT-20241113.pdf
[^2]: "New science advisory council forms to help US government 'resolve the UAP mystery,'" *DefenseScoop*, June 17, 2026. https://defensescoop.com/2026/06/17/new-science-advisory-council-forms-to-help-us-government-resolve-the-uap-mystery/
[^3]: PN897, Nomination of Timothy Gallaudet for Department of Commerce, 115th Congress, action history read October 3, 2026. https://www.congress.gov/nomination/115th-congress/897
[^4]: Written statement of RDML Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., USN Ret., Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, July 24, 2018. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/media/doc/7.24.18_Gallaudet_Testimony.pdf
[^5]: Micah Hanks, *The Debrief*, February 12, 2024. https://thedebrief.org/the-sol-foundation-academias-new-uap-think-tank-releases-videos-of-lectures-from-its-inaugural-symposium/
[^6]: Chrissy Newton, *The Debrief*, December 20, 2024. https://thedebrief.org/academics-investors-and-uap-seekers-unite-at-the-2024-sol-foundation-symposium/
[^7]: Statement of Tim Gallaudet with signatory letter dated November 12, 2024, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Wstate-GallaudetPhDRearAdmiralUSNavyRetT-20241113-SD001.pdf
[^8]: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, joint hearing, November 13, 2024. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg57440/html/CHRG-118hhrg57440.htm
[^9]: The Sol Foundation, home page, "People" section, https://thesolfoundation.org/ , read October 3, 2026.
[^10]: Anomaly Archives, "Nell, Karl E.," appearances list. https://anomalyarchives.org/collections/file/nell-karl/

3
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DeLonge has had a lifelong interest in UAP and has used his celebrity to bring attention to the issue. In 2017, he founded [[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]] with the goal of creating a platform for serious scientific research into UAP and educating the public about the phenomenon. He assembled a team of former high-ranking government officials and scientists, including [[Luis Elizondo]], [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Jim Semivan]], and [[Hal Puthoff]], to lead the organization.[^1]
TTSA was instrumental in the public release of the three declassified UAP videos - "FLIR" (Tic Tac), "GIMBAL," and "GoFast" - and produced the television show "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on the History Channel. While the organization was not a long-term financial success, it played a crucial role in raising the public profile of the UAP issue and helping to break the long-standing stigma surrounding the topic.[^1]
TTSA published three unclassified Navy videos, "FLIR" ([[Tic Tac]]), "[[GIMBAL]]," and "[[GoFast]]," which the [[Department of Defense]] stated on April 27, 2020 it had authorized for release after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,"[^2] and produced the television show "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on the History Channel. While the organization was not a long-term financial success, it played a crucial role in raising the public profile of the UAP issue and helping to break the long-standing stigma surrounding the topic.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024.
[^2]: U.S. Department of Defense. "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," April 27, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/ (read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/). Greenewald, John, Jr. "Navy Officially Releases UFO/UAP Videos, Calls Them 'Historical.'" The Black Vault, April 27, 2020 (reproduces the statement and gives the GOFAST date). https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/navy-officially-releases-ufo-uap-videos-calls-them-historical/