| Name as printed in the files | ”Michael Milken” over the signature of the one letter he signed to Epstein; “Mike Milken” in Epstein’s calendar and in his staff’s correspondence; “milkin” in the spelling of one correspondent who asked Epstein about him123 |
| How the files title him | ”MRA Board Member / Chairman, Milken Institute”, printed under his signature, 22 September 20171 |
| One document he sent | A letter of 22 September 2017 to Epstein at 9 East 71st Street, soliciting a gift to the Melanoma Research Alliance1 |
| Documents addressed to him | No document addressed to him was found by the searches described on this page |
| How Epstein described their connection | Twice through Leon Black, in 2010 and in 2019; once as direct contact, in 2011435 |
| Charges in this material | None. No document read for this page accuses him of anything, and no document read for this page connects him to any allegation against Epstein |
Michael Milken wrote to Jeffrey Epstein once, on Milken Institute letterhead, and signed it. The letter is dated 22 September 2017, it is addressed to “Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, 9 East 71st Street, New York, NY 10021-4102”, it opens “Dear Jeffrey,” and it asks him for money for melanoma research. It is the only document found by the searches described here in which Milken himself is the author, and it is the reason this page exists: everything else found by those searches is other people’s paper.16
The letter
The sheet is a single page on Milken Institute letterhead, with the Santa Monica street address at the head and “SANTA MONICA | WASHINGTON | SINGAPORE” at the foot. It tells a story about how the Melanoma Research Alliance came to exist: “In 2007, when my friend, Debra Black, was diagnosed with melanoma, there were not many treatment options”. It says that Debra Black and her husband Leon asked for advice, and that “In the wake of our conversations, and under the auspices of Milken Institute, the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) was born – the largest non-profit funder of melanoma research.”1
It then asks. MRA would mark its tenth anniversary at a Sotheby’s event on 2 November, and the letter says the Blacks “have agreed to match every dollar raised at the Sotheby’s event”. The closing paragraph reads: “If you’ve not already responded for the Sotheby’s event, I hope you will do so; and whether or not you’re able to attend, I hope you’ll consider a gift to MRA as we celebrate 10 years of treatment advances and power the research forward.”1
Below “Sincerely,” there is a manuscript signature, and below that three printed lines: “Michael Milken / MRA Board Member / Chairman, Milken Institute”. The signature, the date, the addressee and every figure quoted above were read on the page image.1
A journalist should note what the letter is not. It is a fundraising letter of a kind that goes to many people, and nothing on its face says the two men had met. What it does establish is that in September 2017 Milken, or an office writing over his signature, held that address for him and thought him worth asking.
The organisation the letter is about
Epstein was not a cold prospect for MRA. By the date of Milken’s letter his foundation had been funding the charity since at least 2015, and the paper trail is in the same release.
In April 2012 Leon Black’s assistant at Apollo Management, Melanie Spinella, wrote that “Leon and Jeffrey spoke and Jeffrey is writing a check to MELANOMA RESEARCH ALLIANCE for $1.5 million. Leon said he would like to check by May 1st.”7 That message does not mention Milken.
In December 2015 MRA sent the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation an invoice. It is numbered #1219201501, dated December 19, 2015, and its single line reads “Anonymous Donation / 2015 Biennial Benefit Dinner Auction / 1 Young Investigator Award @ $225,000”, dated 10/29/2015, with an amount due of $225,000.00.8 The covering letter the same day, from MRA’s incoming chief executive, says the letter serves “as confirmation of” the pledge “for $225,000 for a Young Investigator Award”.9 The invoice’s payment block carries banking instructions; no banking or routing value from it is reproduced here.
Three months after Milken’s letter, on 22 December 2017, MRA’s president and chief executive wrote to Epstein again, delivered (the letter says) by email, to report on “the progress of Ian Watson, PhD, of McGill University, who is conducting research supported by you under his MRA Young Investigator Award”. The letter says Watson “made significant progress in the first year of his award” and thanks Epstein for “your ongoing support”.10 It does not say whether anything came of the September solicitation, and no document read for this page answers that.
So the sequence the files record is: a $1.5 million cheque in 2012 arranged between Black and Epstein; a $225,000 award pledged at an auction in October 2015 and invoiced that December as an anonymous donation; a personal solicitation signed by Milken in September 2017; and a progress report in December 2017 addressed to Epstein as a continuing funder.
The route runs through Leon Black
In the material read for this page, Milken turns up mostly in Leon Black’s orbit, and the approaches to him mostly run through Black.
On 17 April 2012 Black’s assistant at Apollo Management, Melanie Spinella, wrote to Epstein’s office: “Hi - Leon is having breakfast with Jeffrey tomorrow – he asked which is better 8:30 or 9 – he also said he is not sure if Mike Milken is staying in NYC tonight – if he stays, he will come also. Thanks – just let me know time!” The reply, the same evening, came back: “I will get back to you on time!..and thanks for the info on Mike Milken…do you think we will find out later tonight or early tomorrow if Milken stays the night and will attend the breakfast?”11 The next day Google Calendar sent Epstein’s assistant a reminder for the event itself. The entry reads “8:30 Breakfast w/Leon Black and possibly Mike Milken …”, set for “Wed Apr 18 8:30am – 9:30am Eastern Time”; the parenthesis the ellipsis stands for holds a telephone number, not reproduced here.2 No document read for this page records whether the breakfast happened or who attended.
On 4 April 2013 Epstein wrote, of an event he was being asked about: “he is steve tisch .. the conference is the mike milken conferrnce mike is leons closest friend”.12 The spelling is his.
And in January 2021, when Dechert LLP reported to the Apollo Conflicts Committee on Black’s dealings with Epstein, the firm set down Black’s own account of why he had kept the relationship up: “Third, Black describes himself as someone who believes in rehabilitation, and in giving people second chances. Based on this belief, he has maintained relationships with other notable figures in the business world, such as Michael Milken and Martha Stewart, who have spent time in prison.”13 That is a lawyers’ summary of what their client told them, not a finding, and it is about Black.
What Epstein said about knowing him, and when
Three dated messages put Epstein’s own answer on the record, and they do not agree.
On 7 October 2010 Peter Mandelson wrote to Epstein: “did you ask milken about Ajmal Khan (not that he’s bothered to contact me since singapore) ?” Epstein replied the same day: “asked leon,, leon never heard of him”.4 The question assumes Epstein could ask Milken; the answer is that he asked Black instead.
On 27 January 2011 Epstein wrote to Sultan Bin Sulayem: “spoke to milken for you,, Mike said if you want to go to a cocktail party or restaurant that is fine, but no investment skills, finds he is a talker and would not recommend him.”5 The man being assessed is not named on that sheet and is not supplied here. On its face this is Epstein saying he had spoken to Milken directly, and relaying what Milken said.
On 16 January 2019 Andrew Farkas asked: “How well do you know milkin and are you on good terms with him? He is having an invitation only conference that I want to attend.” Epstein’s reply, in full: “Don’t know him - ask leon”.3
The sequence raises a question this page cannot answer from the documents. A man who in 2011 reported a conversation with Milken about a third party’s investment skills told a friend in 2019 that he did not know him. Both messages are in Epstein’s own hand, eight years apart, and nothing read for this page reconciles them. Whether the 2011 message overstated the contact, whether the 2019 answer was a brush-off, or whether something changed between them, no document read here says.
The conference and the mailing list
Epstein was on the Milken Institute’s mailing list and went to, or planned to go to, its Global Conference. Twenty-seven documents in the release carry the Institute’s own mail domain alongside his name, as of 25 October 2026.14 One of them, of 10 May 2013, is addressed “To: ‘Jeffrey Epstein’” under the subject “Help us help Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation”, and reports what Milken had done at the conference, in a conversation the mailing dates to Tuesday, April 30th: “During that conversation, Mike pledged $1 million to the Foundation – and challenged the Global Conference audience to donate another $5 million to reach a stated goal of $6 million by the end of May.” It adds that “Less than two weeks later, more than $3 million has been raised by the Foundation.” The emphasis is the mailing’s own.15
He registered for it. On 27 April 2013 his assistant forwarded, under the subject “Fwd: JE’s Milken Itinerary”, a chain carrying a conference confirmation addressed to him that begins “Thank you for your panel selections.”16 In his own correspondence the surname alone stands for the event: on 9 April 2013 he wrote “im going to milken on the 30 in la ranch before hand , if you want to get away”, and on 4 April 2013, to a correspondent who had mentioned “mike milken’s gatheing sun-tues”, he answered “I wil go to milkens . i am stayint at the bel air love to spend time”.17 Those are references to a conference, not to a meeting with a man, and this page does not treat them as evidence of contact.
The pardon, as it reached Epstein’s desk
On Friday 15 June 2018 Richard Kahn forwarded Epstein a CNBC story under the subject line “Trump advisors reportedly seeking a pardon for ‘junk bond king’ Milken”, pasting the article beneath.18 Epstein’s reply, timed 9:26 that morning, was about something else entirely: “Did we get bank appraisal ayh”. Kahn answered the question Epstein had actually asked: “i requested last week not yet received / i will call again now..”.19 Nothing in the thread responds to the pardon story.
The exchange documents only that the news reached Epstein and that he did not take it up. It is evidence of a mailing list and a news habit, not of a relationship.
A lead this page could not check
A confidential private placement memorandum for Knowledge Universe Education L.P. appears in the House Committee on Oversight production, and its management section names Milken among the principals, alongside Lowell Milken as chief executive. Elsewhere the same memorandum carries a disclosure about a consent judgment he entered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, on a sheet this page does not cite because the release holds its text in one undivided block rather than as pages. No page image of this document was available to this page, and so no figure, date, identifier or quotation from it is printed here. A reader who wants it should go to the original.20
Why an offering document naming him sits in this release is a question the documents read here do not answer.
What the documents do not show
- No document read for this page records a meeting between Milken and Epstein, a telephone call between them, a message from Milken to Epstein other than the 2017 fundraising letter, or any message from Epstein to Milken.
- No document read for this page places Milken at any property associated with Epstein, on any aircraft associated with Epstein, or at any gathering at which Epstein is also recorded as present.
- No document read for this page shows money passing between them in either direction.
- No survivor account read for this page names him, and no allegation against him appears in the material read here.
- Being named in another man’s correspondence during a period is not a finding about a person, and this page makes none.
A note on the name in these files
The surname alone is unreliable as a route to the man. As of 25 October 2026 it appears on 1,897 sheets across 801 documents of the release, and most of those are not about him: the Milken Institute, its Global Conference, the Milken Family Foundation, the Milken Institute Review, the other Milkens named in the files (Lowell, Lori and Lance), and a very large block of one correspondent’s repeated unsolicited letters, which invoke the name rhetorically. The counts in this paragraph and the routes behind them are described in the footnote.21
Footnotes
Footnotes
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Letter on Milken Institute letterhead, “1250 4th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401”, dated September 22, 2017, addressed to “Mr. Jeffrey Epstein / 9 East 71st Street / New York, NY 10021-4102 / United States”, salutation “Dear Jeffrey,”, subscribed “Sincerely,” above a manuscript signature and the printed lines “Michael Milken / MRA Board Member / Chairman, Milken Institute”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00811559 p.1. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch; the date, the address, the signature block and every quoted sentence were read there and not from the released text, which garbles the letterhead address and the signature. The sheet was rendered and its foot band carries no printed Bates stamp, so none is named here. The letter also gives a staff member’s direct telephone number and work e-mail address for gifts; neither is reproduced. No other copy of this letter was found by the searches described in 21. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
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Google Calendar reminder, From “Google Calendar”, Sent Wed 4/18/2012 12:20:04 PM, subject beginning “Reminder: 8:30 Breakfast w/Leon Black and possibly Mike Milken”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02170986 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_00852579, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. The event title on the sheet continues after the words quoted with a parenthesis holding a telephone number, which is why the quotation ends in an ellipsis; the number is not reproduced. Addresses on the sheet are covered and are neither reproduced nor supplied. ↩ ↩2
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E-mail chain, top message From “Farkas, Andrew L.” to “J [email protected]”, Date Wed, 16 Jan 2019 13:34:33 +0000, reading “Thx.”; beneath it the reply From “J [email protected]”, headed Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019, 8:24 AM, reading “Don’t know him - ask leon”; beneath that “On Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 9:23 AM Farkas, Andrew L. … wrote:” and the question quoted in the body. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01026940 p.1, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. Four sheets; the page count reconciles at four, and p.1’s foot band carries no printed Bates stamp. The two headers on this sheet give clock times that do not run in order — the reply is stamped an hour before the message it quotes — and this page does not reconcile them; both are reported as printed. The spelling “milkin” is the sender’s and is not repaired. Addresses on the sheet are covered and are not supplied. Earlier messages lower on the same sheet concern the sender’s health and are not reproduced. See Andrew Farkas. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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E-mail from Jeffrey Epstein to PETER MANDELSON, Sent Thur 10/7/2010 12:01:19 PM, quoting beneath it “On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 1:49 PM, PETER MANDELSON … wrote:”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01811642 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_00181455, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. Both quoted lines were read at the image, which differs from the released text of this sheet in two places; the wording printed here is the paper’s. Addresses on the sheet are covered and are not supplied. The incoming message also exists separately in the release. ↩ ↩2
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E-mail from Jeffrey Epstein to Sultan Bin Sulayem, Sent Thur 1/27/2011 6:42:00 PM. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01833411 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_00211811, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. The double comma is as printed. The person being assessed in the message is not named on this sheet and is not supplied here. The recipient’s address is covered and is not supplied. See Sultan Bin Sulayem. ↩ ↩2
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E-mail from Melanie Spinella, “Assistant to Leon D. Black, Apollo Management, LP”, sent Mon 4/16/2012 5:25:09 PM. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02170126 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_00851483, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. The recipient is covered on the sheet and is not supplied here. The body is quoted from after the greeting; the greeting itself is not reproduced. Milken is not named anywhere on this sheet, and it is cited here only to date and size the Epstein foundation’s relationship with the charity Milken’s 2017 letter describes founding. ↩
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Melanoma Research Alliance invoice, “SENT TO Attn: Jeffrey Epstein / Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation / 6100 Red Hook Quarters, Suite B-3 / St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 00802-1348”, Invoice # #1219201501, Invoice Date December 19, 2015. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00599642 p.1. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. The description line, the 10/29/2015 date, the $225,000.00 total and the amount due were read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. The sheet was rendered and its foot band carries no printed Bates stamp. Values whose only use would be to move money are not reproduced. ↩
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Letter of December 19, 2015 to “Attn: Jeffrey Epstein / Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation”, subscribed “With sincere appreciation, / Robin L. Davisson, Ph.D. / President & CEO-Elect”, forwarded to Epstein’s address on Monday, December 21, 2015 8:20 PM under the subject “FW: Thank you from MRA”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02676113 pp.1–2; the quoted words are on p.2, printed “2”, printed stamp EFTA_R1_01966919, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. This sheet is an e-mail rendering and the paper itself carries soft line-break marks inside some words; only a fragment free of them is quoted. Two sheets; the page count reconciles at two. A staff member’s contact details on the sheet are not reproduced. ↩
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Letter on Melanoma Research Alliance letterhead, December 22, 2017, to “Mr. Jeffrey Epstein / 9 East 71st Street / New York, NY 10021-4102”, noted “Delivered via email”, subscribed over a manuscript signature “Michael Kaplan / President and Chief Executive Officer”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00810760 p.1. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. The sheet was rendered and its foot band carries no printed Bates stamp. The award holder named in this letter is a research scientist and nothing about him beyond what the letter itself states is reproduced. ↩
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Reply sent Tue 4/17/2012 8:29:15 PM to “Melanie Spinella[[email protected]]”, carrying beneath it “On Apr 17, 2012, at 4:20 PM, Melanie Spinella wrote:” and her message, over the block “Melanie Spinella / Assistant to Leon D. Black / Apollo Management, LP”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02171154 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_00852928, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. The greeting on the quoted message has no name after it on this sheet and none is supplied; the sender line of the reply is covered and is not supplied. The dashes, the spacing and the run of full stops are as printed. A direct telephone number in the signature block is not reproduced. See Melanie Spinella and Leon Black. ↩
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E-mail quoted in a reply chain, attributed on the sheet to “Le Apr 4, 2013 à 7:06 AM, Jeffrey Epstein [email protected] a écrit :”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00874988 pp.1–2; the quoted line is on p.1. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. Two sheets; the page count reconciles at two, and neither foot band carries a printed Bates stamp. The spelling “conferrnce” and the double space are as printed and are not repaired. The recipient of the covering message is covered on the sheet and is not supplied. The same words appear on further sheets of the release. ↩
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Dechert LLP memorandum headed “Apollo Conflicts Committee”, dated January 22, 2021, printed “Page 6”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02730996 p.6. Twenty-two sheets; the page count reconciles at twenty-two, and p.6 is the sixth. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch; the sheet was rendered and its foot band carries no printed Bates stamp. The same sheet carries an account, given by Black to his lawyers, of the facts of Epstein’s 2008 conviction; none of that passage is reproduced here, it does not concern Milken, and it is one man’s account as his lawyers recorded it. ↩
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A search of the released files for the Milken Institute’s own mail domain on sheets also carrying Epstein’s name returned 27 documents, counted 25 October 2026. They are the Institute’s monthly bulletins, conference registration notices and appeals, addressed to him by name. This is a count of documents in the files read for this page, not a claim about how many he received or opened. ↩
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E-mail From “Milken Institute” To “Jeffrey Epstein” [email protected], Subject “Help us help Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation”, Date Fri, 10 May 2013 18:56:46 +0000. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00681800 pp.1–3; the quoted passage is on p.1. Three sheets; the page count reconciles at three. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch, where the four money figures and the April 30th date were checked. Neither p.1 nor p.3 carries a printed Bates stamp at its foot. The bold in the quotation is printed in the mailing. Copy recipients on the sheet are covered and are not supplied. ↩
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E-mail From “Lesley Groff”, Subject “Fwd: JE’s Milken Itinerary”, Date Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:59:19 +0000, forwarding a chain whose inner message is headed “From: Jeffrey Epstein [email protected] / Date: April 16, 2013 10:34:15 AM EDT / To: Lesley Groff” and carries a conference confirmation about panel selections, lunch ticketing and registration. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00391611 pp.1–3; the quoted words are on p.1. Three sheets; the page count reconciles at three. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch; p.1’s foot band carries no printed Bates stamp. Addresses on the sheet are covered and are not supplied. See Lesley Groff. ↩
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Two e-mails from Jeffrey Epstein. First, Date Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:52:13 +0000, to a named recipient, https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00957987 p.1, one sheet, page count reconciled at one, no printed Bates stamp at the foot. Second, Date Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:06:47 +0000, https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00874985 pp.1–3, three sheets, page count reconciled at three, the quoted lines on p.1, no printed Bates stamp at that foot; on that sheet his line of 6:56 AM and his correspondent’s line of 6:54 AM are separate messages in a quoted chain and are quoted separately here, not joined. Both sheets read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. The spellings, the double spaces and the spacing around the full stop are as printed and are not repaired. They are cited only to show the surname being used as the name of an event. See Barnaby Marsh. ↩
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E-mail From “Richard Kahn”, Sent Friday, June 15, 2018 1:06 PM, To “Jeffrey Epstein”, Subject “Trump advisors reportedly seeking a pardon for ‘junk bond king’ Milken”, with a news article pasted beneath. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02580867 p.1, printed stamp EFTA_R1_01756745, read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. One sheet; the page count reconciles at one. The article text on the sheet is a news organisation’s and nothing from it is adopted here. See Richard Kahn. ↩
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The same thread continued: a reply From “Richard Kahn” To “‘jeffrey E.’ [email protected]”, Date Fri, 15 Jun 2018 13:47:13 +0000, above the quoted line “On Jun 15, 2018, at 9:26 AM, jeffrey E. [email protected] wrote: Did we get bank appraisal ayh”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00983221 pp.1–2; both quoted lines are on p.1. Read at the page image at 96 dots per inch. Two sheets; the page count reconciles at two, and neither foot band carries a printed Bates stamp. Kahn’s two lines are quoted as two lines, joined here by a slash and not run together. The release holds this thread on two clock bases four hours apart — the forwarding sheet times the same message at 1:06 PM and this sheet’s quoted attribution times it at 9:06 AM — and this page does not reconcile them; the 9:26 time given in the body is the one printed on this sheet. ↩
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A confidential private placement memorandum for Knowledge Universe Education L.P., held in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform production and running to many sheets, among them https://epstein-data.com/HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024581 p.1 and https://epstein-data.com/HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024582 p.1, which are the management-section sheets. This project holds no page image of these sheets — the render route returned nothing for them on 25 October 2026 — and so the description in the body is confined to who the document names and what kind of document it is. No figure, date, identifier or quotation from it is printed, including the offering amount and the dates of the consent judgment, because none of them could be read off the paper. The memorandum’s risk-factor section discusses litigation exposure of an operating subsidiary; it names no individual, it is not about Milken, and it is not described here. ↩
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The counts in this page are from a search of the released files run on 25 October 2026. Nine spellings of the personal name were tested as phrases — “michael milken”, “mike milken”, “michael r milken”, “milken michael”, “m milken”, “mr milken”, “milkin”, “milkens” and “milkcn” — returning 226 sheets across 215 documents together; of those, two documents are false matches in which the word is a damaged rendering of something else or of the Institute’s name. An invented control name returned nothing, so the searches discriminate. The surname alone returns 1,897 sheets across 801 documents. Subtracting the nine personal forms, the named eponyms and the other bearers — the Institute, the Global Conference, the Milken Family Foundation, the Milken Institute Review, the Milken Center, and the surname forms “Lowell Milken” and “Lori Milken” — leaves 1,284 sheets across 417 documents. A sample of that remainder, read by what each sheet is rather than by the word alone, found: a single correspondent family of unsolicited complaint letters, replicated many times across productions, accounting for 941 sheets in 116 documents; bare-surname references to the Global Conference and to trips to it, 121 documents; further spellings of the Institute’s name, 22; one document naming another bearer of the surname; and forty copies of one Epstein e-mail. About 150 documents of the remainder were sampled but not individually classified; the sample was press clippings and Epstein’s own correspondence using the surname for the man or for the conference. Nothing in the remainder is cited on this page except where a footnote above names the sheet. ↩ ↩2 ↩3