It has been more than two weeks since the latest tranche of files related to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein was released by the Justice Department, outlining years of correspondence and visual evidence connecting the convicted sex offender to some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world.
The massive trove — totaling more than 3 million documents — has roiled Europe, leading to resignations and criminal inquiries. In the United States, however, professional exits and investigations of the individuals named in the files have not taken place on the same scale. Only a few high-profile people, such as Kathy Ruemmler, an official in the Obama White House, have stepped down from their jobs after new revelations of their connections to Epstein.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor. He was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in federal custody later that year. His death was ruled a suicide. Judges and lawmakers say that over decades, he abused, trafficked and molested scores of girls, many of whom have come forward in court and in other public forums.
Here is a list of some of the prominent figures who have resigned from their roles or are facing investigations after their communications with Epstein and his former longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, were released last month.
Peter Attia
Attia, a physician and longevity expert, faced scrutiny after the latest release of documents revealed his friendly and sometimes crude correspondence with Epstein. In one 2016 message, Attia wrote Epstein, “P—y is, indeed, low-carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
In June 2015, Attia wrote to Epstein: “You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul …”
After the emails became public, Attia stepped down from his role as chief science officer of a protein bar brand, David Protein, accordingto the company’s co-founder. The powdered supplement company AG1 said in a statement that “Dr. Attia is no longer an advisor to the company.”
Attia apologized for his interactions with Epstein, writingon X that he was never involved in any criminal activity and that his interactions with Epstein “had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.”
Days before the emails were released, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss announced a new slate of contributors that included Attia, despite previous reporting by the network’s journalists indicating that Attia had ties to Epstein. His appearances in the latest tranche of documents led to further scrutiny about his employment at the network. CBS News did not respond to a request for comment.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem
Bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman, resigned from his role as chairman of DP World, one of the world’s largest logistics companies. In a Feb. 13 statement, the company said the resignation was effective immediately.
Bin Sulayem appears in wide-ranging exchanges with Epstein, with Epstein telling the sultan in one 2013 email, “You are one of my most trusted friends in [the] very sense of the word, you have never let me down.”
Bin Sulayem replied, “Thank you my friend I am off the sample a fresh 100% female Russian at my yacht.”
The resignation statement does not explicitly mention bin Sulayem’s connections to Epstein, but DP World had faced pressure from financial groups after the emails were released.
Sarah Ferguson
Sarah’s Trust, the charity founded by Sarah Ferguson, a former duchess of York, shut down for the “foreseeable future” following the latest document release.
“Our chair Sarah Ferguson and the board of trustees have agreed that with regret the charity will shortly close for the foreseeable future,’’ the trust said in a statement. “This has been under discussion and in train for some months.’’ Other charities also dropped Ferguson as a patron.
Emails released by the Justice Department revealed that Ferguson maintained contact with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction. Ferguson is the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who also had ties to Epstein.
More than a decade ago, Ferguson tried to publicly distance herself from Epstein. In a 2011 interview, she said that her closeness to him, which included borrowing 15,000 pounds to pay off debts, was a mistake.
“I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children, and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf,” she said at the time.
Thorbjørn Jagland
Jagland, a former secretary general of the Council of Europe and a former prime minister of Norway, was charged with “aggravated corruption” in connection with his ties to Epstein, said a spokesperson for Elden Law Firm, which represents Jagland. The charges came after the Council of Europe waived immunity for Jagland at the request of Norwegian police conducting the investigation.
Jagland was one of several European officials who had engaged in correspondence with Epstein, the recently released files show.
In the 2010s, emails show, Epstein repeatedly attempted to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin through Jagland. There is no evidence in the Justice Department files that such a meeting took place. Epstein also askedJagland to relay a message to the Kremlin suggesting that officials should consult him if they wanted a better understanding of how to engage with Donald Trump, who was then in his first presidential term.
A lawyer for Jagland, a former head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has said that Jagland will cooperate with the investigation.
Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen
Juul, a Norwegian diplomat who last week resigned as the country’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq, and her husband, former diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, are facing a corruption investigation by police in Norway after media reports indicated that Epstein had left the couple millions in his will. Juul is charged with aggravated corruption, and Rød‑Larsen is charged with contribution to aggravated corruption.
“Juul has been clear that she regrets having had contact with Jeffrey Epstein,” her attorney said in a statement. “The fact that she now acknowledges that she has shown poor judgment by having contact with Epstein does not mean that she has acted in violation of the criminal law.”
Brad Karp
Karp resigned as longtime chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison after a series of emails between him and Epstein became public, outlining his extensive relationship with the financier.
The newly released documents include an email exchange from 2015 in which Karp thanked Epstein for hosting him for a “once in a lifetime” evening. Epstein told Karp that he was “always welcome” and that “there are many many nights of unique talents. you will be invited often.”
A statementfrom the firm did not explicitly mention Karp’s connection with Epstein, whom the firm said has said it never represented. But Karp, in the statement, acknowledged that “recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.” Although he will no longer serve as chairman, Karp will remain at the firm.
Miroslav Lajčák
Lajčák, a former president of the U.N. General Assembly, resigned from his role as national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister over his communications with Epstein.
Documents revealed that in 2018, while Lajčák was serving as Slovakia’s foreign minister, Epstein and Lajčák shared jokes about women and discussed an upcoming meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In an interview with Radio Slovakia translated by Politico, Lajčák said, “When I read those messages today, I feel like a fool. It was a private conversation, let’s be honest, who would be happy if the whole nation were reading their messages? At the very least, I exercised poor judgment.”
He added: “But that does not absolve me of responsibility. I showed poor judgment and inappropriate communication.”
Lajčák condemned Epstein’s crimes and said “there were no girls … the fact that someone is communicating with a sexual predator does not make him a sexual predator.”
Jack Lang
Former French cultural minister Jack Lang and his daughter, Caroline Lang, are facing an investigation involving “laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds,” French financial crimes prosecutors confirmed to The Washington Post.
The inquiry comes in response to an investigation by French independent news outlet Mediapart, which outlined Jack Lang’s close ties to Epstein.
Jack Lang also resigned from his role leading the Arab World Institute after he was summoned to appear at the French Foreign Ministry, which oversees the institute.
“The opening of a preliminary investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office is news that I welcome with calmness and even relief. It will shed light on accusations that attack my integrity and my honor,” Jack Lang wroteon X. “The accusations against me are baseless, and I will prove this beyond the sound and fury of the media and digital courts.”
Peter Mandelson
Mandelson, a former British ambassador to the United States, resignedfrom the Labour Party in early February and subsequently resigned from the House of Lords amid renewed scrutiny of his connection to Epstein. On Feb. 6, British police searchedtwo properties linked to Mandelson as part of a misconduct investigation stemming from his ties to Epstein.
The fallout comes after the Financial Times reported on Justice Department documents that appear to show Epstein made payments totaling about $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson when he was a Labour member of Parliament in the early 2000s. The files include an undated photograph of a man who appears to be Mandelson in a T-shirt and underwear alongside an unidentified woman.
In a letter to Labour officials, Mandelson insisted that he had no record or recollection of the payments from Epstein and that the allegations “need investigating by me.” But in addition to stepping down from the party, he wrote, “I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”
In September, Mandelson was dismissed as Britain’s ambassador to Washington by Prime Minister Keir Starmer after communications emerged showing a closer relationship with Epstein than Mandelson had acknowledged.
Morgan McSweeney
McSweeney resigned from his role as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff amid mounting criticism over the appointment of Mandelson as British ambassador to the United States in December 2024, despite knowledge that Mandelson had a relationship with Epstein.
McSweeney said that when asked, he “advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.” He called the decision “wrong” and damaging to “our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” in a public resignation statement.
Starmer, who is facing growing calls to resign as prime minister over Mandelson’s appointment, has claimed that the former ambassador lied about how close he was to Epstein.
George J. Mitchell
Mitchell, a former U.S. senator who represented Maine as a Democrat before serving as President Bill Clinton’s envoy to Northern Ireland, is mentioned more than 300 times in the latest Justice Department document drop. Mitchell resigned as the honorary chairman of his namesake institute in early February. The leadership of the institute said in a statement that it agreed that “this is an appropriate time to initiate a thoughtful, responsible process to consider a potential name change.”
The U.S.-Ireland Alliance also announced in February that its board of directors had unanimously agreed that its George J. Mitchell scholarship program “should no longer bear the former Senator’s name,” saying that the decision was made in response to new information that had come to light in the latest Epstein document release.
A spokesperson for Mitchell previously saidthe senator never suspected or had any knowledge of Epstein’s illegal or inappropriate conduct with underage girls.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
The new batch of Epstein documents included photographs that appeared to show Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, crouched over a woman on the floor.
The documents, which include the previously unseen photographs and several email messages, contain no allegations of criminal activity by the former prince, who has long denied any wrongdoing.
Mountbatten-Windsor had faced consequences previously regarding his ties to Epstein, having been stripped of his royal title and ordered to vacate the Royal Lodge. He officially moved out of the residence this month. And after revelations from the latest batch of files, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested that Mountbatten-Windsor should testify before the U.S. Congress about his links to Epstein.
David A. Ross
Ross, an influential figure in the contemporary art world, resigned from his position as the chair of the master’s degree program in art practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York following revelations about his friendship with Epstein, first revealed by ARTnews.
Among their email exchanges was a 2009 thread in which Ross appeared to support Epstein when the financier told him he was thinking about funding an art exhibition entitled “Statutory” that would display images of “girls and boys ages 14 – 25, where they look nothing like their true ages.”
The School of Visual Arts said in a statement to The Post that it was aware of the correspondence between Ross and Epstein and that the college accepted Ross’s resignation on Feb. 3.
Ross told ARTnews in an email that after learning of Epstein’s 2008 jailing in Florida, he believed Epstein’s claim that “he had been the subject of a political frame-up because of his support of former President Clinton.”
“When the reality of his crimes became clear, I was mortified and remain ashamed that I fell for his lies,” he continued, adding that he continues to be “appalled by his crimes and remain deeply concerned for its many victims.”
Kathy Ruemmler
Ruemmler, an Obama White House lawyer, is resigning from her role as the chief legal officer and general counsel of Goldman Sachs following months of reports about her friendly exchanges with Epstein.
“My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’ interests first,” Ruemmler, who has previously said she regrets ever knowing Epstein, said in a statement released last week. “Earlier today, I regretfully informed David Solomon of my intention to step down as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Goldman Sachs as of June 30, 2026.”
In email exchanges with Epstein in September 2014, days before then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder stepped down from his position, Ruemmler appeared to be weighing whether she should replace him at the Justice Department. At the time, she was widely reported to be a contender for the role.
The latest document drop also showed that after she left her White House role, Ruemmler received gifts from Epstein, including an Hermes handbagand a spa dayat a Four Seasons Hotel.
Joanna Rubinstein
Rubinstein, the chair of Sweden for UNHCR — a fundraising foundation for the United Nations’ refugee agency — resigned after the recently unsealed documents revealed she visited Epstein on his private island in 2012.
“Joanna Rubinstein did indeed step down from her role on February 1st following media attention concerning events that took place long before she joined the Board of Sweden for UNHCR, and of which the organisation had no prior knowledge,” Ulrika Belin, the group’s director of communications, wrote in an email to The Post.
Rubinstein told Swedish publication Expressen that she “was aware of the verdict at the time of the visit” to Little Saint James, referring to Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
“What has subsequently emerged about the extent of the abuse is appalling and something I strongly distance myself from,” Rubinstein added.
Steve Tisch
The National Football League said that it would review communications between Tisch, who co-owns the New York Giants, and Epstein following the latest document release.
“We are going to look at all the facts, we are going to look at the context of those, we are going to try to understand that,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a news conference in San Jose in early February, days before the Super Bowl.
Goodell stopped short of saying the league would formally investigate Tisch over the matter. He also said it was premature to evaluate whether Tisch will be disciplined under the league’s personal conduct policy.
Tisch’s name reportedly appeared at least 440 times in the more than 3 million documents. Epstein connected Tisch with numerous women, according to email exchanges first reported by the Athletic.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Tisch said in a statement last month. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Casey Wasserman
Wasserman is selling his talent agency after the emergence of flirtatious correspondence between himself and Ghislaine Maxwell in the latest batch of files, according to a memo from Wasserman to his agency’s staff obtained by the Associated Press.
The document drop includes an email in which Wasserman expressed a desire to see Maxwell in a “tight leather outfit.” In late 2021, Maxwell was convicted in federal court for her role in trafficking girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. The emails do not directly link Wasserman to Epstein himself and were sent in 2003.
The decision from Wasserman, who wrote to staff in the memo that he felt he had become a distraction, came after several entertainers announced their departures from the agency over his appearance in the files.
Wasserman expressed his deep regret over the correspondence, which he said took place “long before” Maxwell’s crimes became known. “I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them,” the statement read.
Ahead of Wasserman’s role as chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, the executive board of the Olympics issued a statement saying that he will continue to chair the Games following a review of his past interactions with Epstein and Maxwell. “We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” the statement said.
Michael Birnbaum, Aaron Schaffer, Leo Sands, Mark Maske, Mary Ilyushina, Catherine Belton, Karla Adam and Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.
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