Which public figures reported Jeffrey Epstein to the FBI and when?

1. Maria Farmer: the earliest known report

Multiple accounts in the newly released files and encyclopedic summaries identify Maria Farmer, an artist who worked for Epstein in the mid‑1990s, as one of the first people to make a formal complaint that reached the FBI: Farmer reported that Epstein had taken and kept nude photographs of her underage sisters and alleged rape, and she told both New York police and the FBI about these incidents in 1996, according to the files cited by Wikipedia and contemporary reporting ^{[1] [2] [5]}.

2. Victim and witness reports before the 2006–2007 federal probe

The documentary record shows law‑enforcement contact with multiple complainants well before the 2019 indictment—FBI interview notes and related documents describe accounts from estate employees and several underage girls in 2006–2007 that led agents and prosecutors to prepare charges; the FBI opened a probe in July 2006 and agents expected an indictment in May 2007, and prosecutors drafted a proposed indictment after multiple girls reported being paid for “sexualized massages” ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Public figures named in the files are largely subjects of allegations or mentions, not formal complainants

The millions of pages now public contain emails and references to high‑profile people—former presidents, business leaders, royals and celebrities—but the releases and major outlets emphasize that being named in the files is not the same as having reported Epstein: many documents are records of contacts, travel logs, emails and anonymous tips; the DOJ and news outlets caution that numerous calls and submissions to FBI hotlines alleged misconduct by public figures but were quickly judged non‑credible or unverified ^{[3] [7] [4]}.

4. Instances sometimes misread as “reports” are often tipline calls or third‑party allegations

Coverage of the trove highlights that the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received “hundreds” of calls about prominent individuals and compiled lists of allegations—some specifically naming presidents or other public figures—but the FBI and DOJ have said many of those tips lacked corroboration; the new disclosures include lists of allegations and internal emails, not formal criminal referrals from public figures themselves ^{[3] [7] [8]}.

5. What the record does not show (and why that matters)

The supplied sources do not present other specific, named “public figures” who initiated formal complaints to the FBI against Epstein with dates comparable to Maria Farmer’s 1996 report; they instead show a mixture of victim reports, investigative memos, FBI tipline entries and documents naming many public figures in various contexts—an important distinction the Department of Justice and news outlets repeatedly underscore when cautioning the public about drawing guilt by mention in the files ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

6. Alternative explanations and institutional context

Some reporting and DOJ statements imply institutional failures and contested prosecutorial decisions—most famously the 2008 Miami non‑prosecution agreement and long federal inquiries—but those are separate from the narrow question of who among public figures formally reported Epstein to the FBI; contemporary political actors have also pushed for releases and framed the files to serve partisan narratives, which complicates public interpretation of who merely appears in records versus who filed complaints ^{[1] [9] [10]}.

Exact attribution of formal FBI complaints matters for both legal and reputational reasons, and the documents released so far identify Maria Farmer’s 1996 report and multiple victim and witness contacts before and during the 2006–2007 probe, while stopping short of showing other named public figures acting as complainants; beyond those limits of the available sources, this reporting cannot assert additional public‑figure complainants because the documents and the major news summaries provided do not make such claims ^{[1] [6] [3]}.