Who are the most prominent public figures named in the Epstein files?
Executive summary
The publicly released Epstein files name dozens of high-profile figures from politics, royalty, academia and entertainment — including Prince Andrew (Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor), former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and Ghislaine Maxwell among others — but the paperwork is uneven: many entries are photos or contact-book entries without context and the Department of Justice applied redactions and caveats that limit what can be confidently inferred from mere appearance in the files [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Who shows up most often — royalty and former presidents
Among the most consistently cited names across multiple releases are Prince Andrew (also named as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor), Bill Clinton and Donald Trump; they appear in court papers, photos and flight-log material disclosed in 2024–25 releases [1] [5] [6]. The BBC and other outlets explicitly note that dozens of names — including those three — surfaced in the 2024 court-document unsealing, while reporting that inclusion does not itself prove wrongdoing [5] [1].
2. The inner circle and key associates named
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s close associate and co-defendant, is a central figure in the files and in subsequent prosecutions, and her name anchors many of the documents released by the DOJ and Congress [3] [7]. Legal filings and earlier civil suits that fed the unsealed record also feature lawyers and political figures such as Alan Dershowitz and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson as named individuals in those documents [2].
3. Entertainment, science and business — a long, varied roll call
The released materials include many cultural and scientific figures: singers and entertainers such as Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, actors and models like Alec Baldwin and Naomi Campbell, and scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Marvin Minsky are all named in various portions of the trove, often in photos, a contact book or witness statements rather than as criminal defendants [8] [7] [2] [9].
4. What the documents are and what they are not — evidence vs. association
Multiple outlets and the DOJ warn that many entries are limited to contact-book listings, photos or third‑party references; Time, the BBC and others emphasize that most documents provide little direct evidence of wrongdoing by people merely named, and the DOJ said some materials include “untrue and sensationalist” claims that do not amount to indictable conduct [9] [5] [10]. The Justice Department also applied redactions deemed legally necessary, prompting both criticism for over-redaction and defense that names of non-victims were not routinely excised [3] [4].
5. Newer releases expanded the list but kept context thin
Later batches released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and congressional disclosures added photos, emails and thousands of pages that named additional business and political figures — for example, Walter Cronkite, Richard Branson, Larry Summers, Kathryn Ruemmler, Michael Wolff, Peter Thiel and others appeared in various documents — yet reporting stresses these are mentions, images or requests, not proofs of participation in crimes [6] [8] [11].
6. Politics, publicity and the danger of inference
The publication of the files has itself been politicized: promises to “release the Epstein files” figured in political rhetoric and the DOJ’s decisions about what to publish drew accusations of both concealment and overexposure, while newsrooms repeatedly cautioned that names alone do not equal culpability; those tensions shape how prominence in the files translates into public reputational harm versus verified legal exposure [2] [4] [3].