The Daily Populous Sunday December 21st, 2025 day edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by seeebiscuit

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice

The release of tens of thousands of files from probes into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has confirmed that a former employee warned the FBI in 1996 that he was seeking out child pornography - a decade before the agency investigated the financier.

“I’ve waited 30 years,” Maria Farmer told The New York Times after the Justice Department released files Friday. Among the documents was Farmer’s report to the bureau, which is thought to be the first time someone reported Epstein to law enforcement.

Farmer, who accused Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell of sexually assaulting her in a 2019 lawsuit, has said she faced threats and claims that she was inventing her story, for years.

“I can’t believe it,” Farmer added. “They can’t call me a liar anymore.”

The FBI has never publicly acknowledged the report.

open image in gallery Newly released Epstein documents show how Maria Farmer, a former Epstein employee, tried to warn the FBI about the financier a decade before the agency began investigating him ( ABC News )

The document reveals that Farmer, an artist, warned in 1996 that Epstein stole photos she had taken of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters, and alleges he may have sold the pictures to buyers.

Farmer told the Times the photos included nude images. The artist also claimed in the complaint that Epstein at one time requested she take photos of young girls at swimming pools, and later threatened to burn down Farmer’s house down if she told anyone about the photos.

open image in gallery Farmer sued the FBI this year claiming they failed to pursue her complaint, alleging that the bureau’s inaction paved the way for Epstein’s abuses ( Department of Justice )

Farmer filed a lawsuit against the FBI in May in Washington, D.C., alleging it did “absolutely nothing” to stop Epstein until it was too late. The bureau didn’t start investigating the financier until 2006.

“The FBI, in violation of its mandatory obligations under regulations and DOJ policies, chose to do absolutely nothing,” the lawsuit states.

Farmer has said she also tried to urge federal officials to investigate Epstein’s ties to powerful people like former president Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump. While both are known to have socialized with Epstein - and were photographed with him - neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

Farmer claims that she encountered Trump in 1995 in Epstein’s Manhattan office, and that the real estate mogul stared at her bare legs.

open image in gallery Friday’s release of Epstein files contain scores of images of the late financier with high-profile people like Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton ( AP )

Epstein then said: “‘No, no, she’s not here for you,’” Farmer told The New York Times.

“The president was never in [Epstein’s] office,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said of the claim. “The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”

Farmer’s sister, Annie Farmer, alleges she was invited to the Epstein ranch in New Mexico when she was 16, where she said Epstein climbed into bed with her to “cuddle” and Maxwell gave her a massage where she rubbed her bare chest. Maxwell is serving 20 years in federal prison on sex trafficking charges for her role in the Epstein ring.

open image in gallery Epstein survivors have pushed the government to release more files than the heavily redacted materials they have shared so far ( Heather Diehl/Getty Images )

Scores of Epstein survivors have pushed the government to release more documents, following Friday’s heavily redacted tranche of materials.

Officials will share more documents as part of the release in the coming weeks, according to the Justice Department.

The Trump administration initially resisted calls to release the documents, though by November the president gave into political pressure and signed a bill authorizing the disclosures.

yestbat on December 21st, 2025 at 00:31 UTC »

What happened to the Survivors creating their own list and reading it on the floor. Let’s get that in action, please. I’m tired of these games

EmmelinePankhurst77 on December 21st, 2025 at 00:12 UTC »

This is one good thing that came out of all these redacted documents. Why did the FBI not investigate this and why did they pretend they never got the complaint?

jstank2 on December 20th, 2025 at 23:48 UTC »

> The document reveals that Farmer, an artist, warned in 1996 that Epstein stole photos she had taken of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters, and alleges he may have sold the pictures to buyers.

> Farmer told the Times the photos included nude images. The artist also claimed in the complaint that Epstein at one time requested she take photos of young girls at swimming pools, and later threatened to burn down Farmer’s house down if she told anyone about the photos.