Timeline of Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell Law Enforcement Failures (1996-2025)

The Timeline below examines decades-long failures by federal law enforcement and oversight agencies—including the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of the Treasury—in the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes: child sexual abuse and the sex trafficking of minors, as well as the sexual abuse of young adult women. These failures span Democratic and Republican administrations, and transcend party. They have taken place in the context of extreme wealth and influence which, together with gendered power dynamics and socioeconomic vulnerability, have shaped government inaction. Public officials—through neglect, minimization, or deliberate manipulation—blunted scrutiny, weakened victim protections, and enabled continued exploitation and abuse. While much of this “tale of national disgrace,” as the Eleventh Circuit en banc court put it, centers on powerful men, Ghislaine Maxwell’s role shows that direct complicity also crossed gender lines.

Accounts of the survivors of these crimes were frequently discounted or disbelieved, and their fundamental interests were often sidelined. But their actions and perseverance finally brought some justice.

This timeline focuses on public records, especially court filings and government documents. The aim is light, not heat—clear facts over indignation—to show, with as much precision as possible, how systems entrusted with protection failed children and young women, and what those failures reveal about power, class, gender, and justice.

Here’s what’s known from the public record.

Table of Contents

1. Maria Farmer reported Epstein’s abuse to the FBI twice on or around late August 1996, but the Bureau did not open an investigation until May 23, 2006—almost a decade later

2. Virginia Giuffre said Epstein/Maxwell effectively said, “We own the police”

3. May 2006: FBI opens an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein (“Operation Leap Year”)

4. DOJ/FBI mischaracterization and victim-blaming: Treating children as ‘prostitutes’ and failing to understand child sexual abuse

5. In 2007, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida stops the investigation of Epstein before its completion

6. 2005–2007: Federal failures to identify and investigate Ghislaine Maxwell

7. The terms of the Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA): Prelude to the “deal of a lifetime”

8. NPA negotiated in secret—then buried: prosecutors hid NPA talks from victims

9. Prosecutors misled victims about the investigation’s status—assuring them that the Epstein case was “currently under investigation” despite agreeing to the NPA

10. Prosecutors sought to hide the Florida state court plea hearing from the victims