What do the newly released DOJ flight logs and passenger manifests reveal about other high-profile individuals who flew on Epstein’s planes?
Executive summary
The newly released Department of Justice flight logs and passenger manifests reproduce hand-written and compiled records that document thousands of trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s aircraft and list many well-known public figures among the passengers, but they do not by themselves prove criminal conduct by those passengers and the DOJ has warned some claims in the files are untrue or sensationalist [1] [2] [3]. The records were used as exhibits in prosecutions and have been combined with other flight-tracking data by journalists to show scale and patterns, while the Justice Department and related reviews say the material does not establish a “client list” or proof that powerful people were blackmailed [2] [1] [4].
1. What the newly released logs actually are and their provenance
The documents now public include handwritten pilot logs, court-unsealed manifests and ancillary flight-tracking data compiled in litigation and introduced into the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, and the DOJ has published batches of these materials as part of its disclosures about the broader Epstein investigation [5] [2] [6]. Journalistic reconstructions merged the unsealed manifests with ADS‑B and FAA records to assemble a near-continuous ledger of Epstein’s fleet: one Business Insider compilation counts roughly 2,618 trips between the mid‑1990s and 2013 and treats the manifests as the backbone of the dataset [1].
2. Who shows up in the manifests — breadth and frequency
The lists contain a broad mix of politicians, entertainers, scientists, businesspeople and socialites; Business Insider’s database finds Epstein listed on at least 1,098 flights, Ghislaine Maxwell on roughly 520, and close associates such as Sarah Kellen on about 350 flights, while recurring names include public figures from former presidents to celebrities [1]. Law & Crime and other court materials confirm that the flight logs were treated as detailed passenger lists and introduced as evidence at Maxwell’s trial, underscoring their centrality to documenting who traveled on Epstein’s planes even as individual entries require corroboration [2].
3. Notable examples highlighted by the disclosures
Among the most discussed entries are Donald Trump — listed in the records as a passenger on multiple flights in the 1990s, including eight flights between 1993 and 1996 according to internal prosecutorial notes — and Bill Clinton, who also appears repeatedly in the assembled manifests; media outlets and the New York Times reported these repeats while stressing different contextual details about timing and company on those trips [7] [1] [3]. Other named passengers cited in broader reporting include Naomi Campbell and even public figures like astronaut John Glenn in earlier public reconstructions, demonstrating the social breadth of Epstein’s contacts though appearance on a manifest is not an allegation of participation in illegal behavior [1].
4. What the logs prove — and what they do not
The records are primary-source evidence that certain individuals were aboard Epstein’s planes at particular times and that Epstein’s network touched many elite circles; they do not, however, by themselves establish criminal wrongdoing by those passengers or validate theories of a formal “client list.” The Justice Department and subsequent reviews stated they found no credible evidence that Epstein operated a blackmail scheme or maintained a distinct list of clients, and the DOJ has cautioned that some claims surfaced in the released files were untrue or sensationalist [4] [3].
5. How the disclosures have been used and misused — reporters, prosecutors and politics
Prosecutors used the logs for “situational awareness” in cases such as Maxwell’s and the records have fed intense journalistic scrutiny and partisan commentary; at the same time, advocates and politicians have selectively amplified entries to suggest broader conspiracies, prompting DOJ pushback and careful caveats in mainstream coverage that being named is not proof of criminality [2] [6] [3]. Source agendas matter: litigation-driven unsealing and press compilations aim for transparency, while political actors can weaponize partial records—readers should weigh provenance, context and corroboration.
6. Bottom line
The newly released DOJ flight logs and passenger manifests confirm that many high-profile people flew on Epstein’s planes and that some individuals were repeat passengers, but the documents themselves are evidence of travel and association, not of criminal conduct; investigators and the DOJ have repeatedly emphasized the limits of the records and rejected claims that the files constitute a blackmail “client list” or by themselves justify charges against unindicted third parties [1] [2] [4].