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Are there publicly available passenger manifests for Jeffrey Epstein’s private jets and how can they be accessed?
Executive summary
Publicly available flight manifests for Jeffrey Epstein’s private jets exist and have been made part of court records and news databases: unsealed manifest pages and pilot logs were entered as evidence in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and are hosted on DocumentCloud and archive copies (see flight logs entered into evidence and a PDF of unredacted logs) [1] [2]. Major news outlets and data projects—Business Insider compiled a searchable database combining those manifests with FAA and ADS‑B records, totaling thousands of known flights between 1995 and 2019—so multiple public entry points exist [3] [4] [5].
1. What’s publicly available and why
Handwritten flight logs and passenger lists kept by Epstein’s pilots were unsealed in litigation and entered into evidence at trials, producing nearly 120 pages of manifests that list passengers, dates and destinations [1]. DocumentCloud hosts a contributed file titled “Epstein Flight Manifests” that researchers and reporters have used [3]. Archive copies of “unredacted” flight log PDFs are also publicly accessible online, showing flight-level details including aircraft tail numbers, departure/arrival airports and passenger name fields [2]. Business Insider supplemented those court records with FAA and ADS‑B signal data to build a comprehensive public database of known flights [4].
2. Where to access the manifests directly
Primary public sources cited in reporting include:
- DocumentCloud’s Epstein Flight Manifests collection, which can be viewed and downloaded [3].
- Archived PDFs of the unredacted flight logs that mirror the manifests entered into evidence [2].
- Business Insider’s searchable flight database, which aggregates court‑unsealed manifests, FAA records and ADS‑B signal data [4].
Reporters have also relied on court filings from the Maxwell trial and related defamation litigation in which manifests were introduced as exhibits [1].
3. How journalists and researchers reconstructed flights
Beyond the handwritten manifests, Business Insider combined three sources: the unsealed pilot manifests, FAA records produced through FOIA or inadvertently released, and ADS‑B (public flight‑signal) datasets to document at least 2,618 trips by Epstein’s aircraft from 1995 to his 2019 arrest [4] [5]. The FAA material included thousands of flight records that initially lacked passenger names but helped fill gaps in years where manifests were sparse [5]. This triangulation is why modern databases often include both manifest passenger names and signal‑based route data [4].
4. What the manifests do — and don’t — prove
Manifests show who was listed as a passenger and basic routing notes, and those lists have been cited to confirm appearances of many high‑profile people (reports name figures such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Naomi Campbell, Alan Dershowitz and John Glenn among passengers in various records) [6] [5] [7]. But presence on a manifest is not, by itself, proof of wrongdoing; some individuals have publicly disputed implications drawn from the logs (for example, Alan Dershowitz has denied allegations tied to his appearances on logs) [7]. Available sources do not offer a universal legal interpretation tying every listed name to criminal activity; court records and reporting distinguish between showing a name on a manifest and allegations of conduct [1] [7].
5. Practical access steps and caveats
Start with DocumentCloud and archived PDFs of the unredacted flight logs to view the primary manifests [3] [2]. Use Business Insider’s database if you want a combined view that includes ADS‑B and FAA corroboration and search tools across thousands of flights [4]. Be aware that some FAA records released later filled gaps but did not include passenger names, so complete passenger coverage varies by period [5]. Spelling errors, illegible entries, and handwritten notes mean names can be ambiguous; Business Insider noted corrections and question marks in transcriptions where handwriting was unclear [4].
6. Competing perspectives and transparency issues
Reporting underscores both transparency gains and limits: court unsealing made specific manifests public [1], but the FAA’s accidental disclosure of thousands of flight records (initially lacking passengers) raised procedural questions about official handling of private‑jet data [5]. Some outlets frame the logs as definitive witness lists; others caution that manifests require corroboration and contextual legal analysis before inferring misconduct [4] [7]. Political actors and commentators have treated later declassifications and releases differently, and House or DOJ releases since 2024–2025 have further complicated the public record—available sources reference declassification and subsequent reporting but do not, in this set, provide a single authoritative government portal for every manifest [4] [5].
Final takeaway: The manifests are publicly available through multiple outlets—court exhibits, DocumentCloud, archived PDFs and aggregated databases like Business Insider’s—yet researchers must use triangulation (manifests + FAA/ADS‑B data) and cautious interpretation because a name on a log is a data point, not a legal finding [3] [2] [4].