Epstein Data Wiki

Mortimer Zuckerman

Properties2
tagsperson, media, real-estate, southern-trust, daily-news, congressional-testimony
aliasesMortimer B. Zuckerman, Mort Zuckerman

32 min read

RolesProperty developer and media proprietor; co-founder of Boston Properties; owner and publisher of the New York Daily News and of U.S. News & World Report
Contact with EpsteinTwo-way email correspondence and meetings recorded in the released files from 2009 to 2016123
Southern Trust CompanySix dated draft letter agreements were addressed to him between June and December 2013, proposing fees of $30 million and later $21 million. He declined the proposal in writing on 30 August 2013 and again on 31 January 2014.4567
PaymentOn 19 December 2013 Epstein’s office sent the agreement to his office for signature with wire instructions for payment by 31 December. No executed agreement, confirmation of transfer, invoice or ledger entry recording any payment by him appears in the material reviewed for this page, and the signature block of every draft as produced in the release is blank; no signed counterpart is in the release.849105
Congressional recordNamed in the transcribed interview of Bill Gates, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 10 June 202611
AllegationsNone. No survivor account in the material reviewed accuses him of anything, and he has not been charged with any offence.

Mortimer B. Zuckerman is a property developer and media proprietor, a co-founder of Boston Properties and the former owner and publisher of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, the three companies named as his affiliated entities on Southern Trust’s own letterhead and in his office’s correspondence.512 Emails released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act record a direct, two-way correspondence between him and Jeffrey Epstein running from at least 2009 to 2016, together with the offices of each man arranging meetings between them.123 Several episodes are documented in which an institution acted. In October 2009 Epstein wrote to Zuckerman about a Daily News investigation of himself, asking him to “take ghislaine out” of it and sending him a proposed answer for the paper.113 Between June and December 2013 Epstein’s Virgin Islands company Southern Trust Company, Inc. addressed six successive draft letter agreements to him proposing an eight-figure fee for estate-planning work; he declined the proposal in writing twice, in August 2013 and again in January 2014.49567 In September 2014 Epstein arranged for him to meet Bill Gates as part of a series of introductions to prospective donors; Gates described that meeting to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in June 2026.141511

Nothing on this page is a finding of wrongdoing. No survivor account in the material reviewed for this page accuses Zuckerman of anything, and he has not been charged with any offence.

The New York Daily News, October to December 2009

In October 2009 the Daily News, which Zuckerman owned, was preparing an article about Epstein. On 9 October Epstein forwarded Zuckerman a chain containing emailed questions from the paper’s columnist George Rush to Ghislaine Maxwell, in which Rush put to her a set of allegations attributed to the attorney Brad Edwards.16 Eleven minutes later Epstein sent Zuckerman a further message under the subject line “proposed answer if mort thinks advisable”, a numbered draft response addressed to “George”, which told the paper that “To publish some of both his and Mr Edwards statements would be wrong and in re. Ms Maxwell, defamatory.”13 The remainder of that draft characterises a woman then suing Epstein; it is a convicted offender’s self-serving account of a person alleging abuse against him and it is not reproduced here.

At 4.37 that afternoon Zuckerman replied: “We r doing major editing over huge objections I just left studio and hope to c copy asap.”1 Twenty-eight seconds later Epstein wrote: “i have not had new york coverage of these crazies.. if your paper decides to do a story and you can’t prevent it. lets do the real one.”17 Two minutes after that: “take ghislaine out. if possible..”1 Within the next forty minutes Epstein received two requests to telephone: one from Zuckerman himself (“Please call me asap”), and a second, twelve minutes later, phrased in the third person from Zuckerman’s own account (“Please call Mort as soon as possible …he is standing by”).18 On 14 October Epstein wrote: “you can tell george rush and martin,, this is an old story.. if they wait , they will get the exclusive on how crazy this really was.”19 On 13 November: “im told that george rush is back doing a story.”20

In December the exchange moved to a document Epstein was drafting. On 7 December he sent Zuckerman a file named press.doc with the note “suggested press release i can also give goerge rush a copy of the suit, it will be filed today”; early on 8 December he sent a revised version.2122 Zuckerman replied that afternoon: “Jeffrey: This is much better. I think it is fine. If you get me a final copy I will send to my colleagues.”23 On 15 December Epstein wrote again about what the columnist might print.24 The attachments themselves are not in the released copies of these emails, and the material reviewed for this page does not record what the “major editing” changed or whether any of this reached the newsroom.

What the paper published, and George Rush’s account

The Daily News published its article on 19 December 2009, headlined “Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein shells out more money in latest sex abuse lawsuit”. Ghislaine Maxwell is not named in it.25 It appeared four days after Epstein’s last email in the exchange above, and eleven days after Zuckerman told him the revised draft was “much better”.2423

George Rush has since given a public account, and it cuts against the natural reading of the emails. Al Jazeera reported in February 2026 that Rush said Zuckerman never suggested the paper cancel the story or publish coverage favourable to Epstein, and quoted him: “I do recall being advised to leave Ghislaine Maxwell out of the story. At the time, the paper’s lawyers had libel concerns, and I saw it as a necessary compromise.” He added: “I didn’t like Epstein and Maxwell trying to appeal to the owner. But I was relieved that the story wasn’t killed, just delayed”, and that “It speaks to Epstein’s arrogance that he thought he had the power to get Mort to do his bidding.”26

Rush wrote his own first-person account for The Daily Beast six weeks later, and it gives a different reason for the same omission. There he writes that he expected the story to be “whittled down to a splinter or, more likely, killed”, that “Instead, Zuckerman asked that we hold it and that I speak to Epstein the following week”, and, in the next and closing sentence of the same paragraph, “To his credit, Zuckerman let it run. At his behest, the published article did not mention Maxwell.” The two sentences are adjacent and parallel, both about Zuckerman, so the plain reading is that “his” refers to Zuckerman; Epstein’s own request to “leave Ghislaine out”, quoted earlier in this account, sits six paragraphs above and is not what the sentence is pointing at.27 The two published accounts therefore differ on this point: Al Jazeera’s account, above, has Rush attributing the omission to the paper’s lawyers and their libel concerns; the Daily Beast account has Rush crediting Zuckerman himself. Both agree that Zuckerman did not kill the story and did not ask for favourable coverage; they disagree on who is responsible for cutting Maxwell’s name, and this page does not resolve that.

Southern Trust Company, 2013 to 2014

The approach

Epstein’s office recorded Zuckerman on his schedule twice in April 2013, in the weeks before the first of the draft agreements. A schedule circulated by Epstein’s executive assistant Lesley Groff on 1 April lists, for Thursday 4 April, “7:30PM Dinner w/Ehud Barak, Peter Mandelson, Jes Staley, Mort Zuckerman”; contact details beside two of the names are redacted in the released image.28 A calendar alert circulated on 25 April records a dinner on 23 April with Woody Allen, the former senator Bob Kerrey and Zuckerman.29

By then Epstein had Zuckerman’s financial records: on 21 May 2013 Carlyn S. McCaffrey, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, wrote to Epstein with a status line on two matters: “Zuckerman - am reviewing his documents.”30 The 26 June draft names McDermott Will & Emery as Zuckerman’s own legal counsel and describes Southern Trust as being retained to assist that firm; the 12 June draft that precedes it names no firm at all.314

Six drafts

Six differently dated versions of the letter agreement are in the release, all on Southern Trust letterhead, all addressed to Zuckerman care of Boston Properties, and all carrying a fee, a payment schedule and a signature block. Five of the six also carry a confidentiality clause invoking attorney–client and work-product privilege through Zuckerman’s own lawyers. The sixth, dated 17 December 2013, does not: it has no such clause, no heading naming one, and no firm named as Zuckerman’s counsel anywhere in the document, confirmed against both Bates copies of this instrument in the release.532 That is the version actually sent for signature two days later, and the one that redirects part of the fee to Terje Rød-Larsen. The draft that dropped the privilege architecture is the one that went out the door.

Date on the letterProposed total feePayment scheduleNamed as Zuckerman’s counsel
12 June 201331$30,000,000$15m by 1 July 2013; $15m by 1 December 2013, plus a discretionary bonus—
26 June 20134$30,000,000$22m on execution; $8m by 1 December 2013McDermott, Will & Emery
21 August 201333$30,000,000$15m on execution; $15m on 21 February 2014, subject to a reviewMcDermott, Will & Emery
29 August 20139$30,000,000$20m on execution; $10m by 1 March 2014, subject to a reviewPaul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
16 December 201310$21,000,000$15m by 31 December 2013; $6m by 28 February 2014Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
17 December 20135$21,000,000$15m to Southern Trust and $1m to Terje Roed-Larsen, both by 31 December 2013; $5m by 15 March 2014—

The version of 17 December 2013 directs part of the fee away from the company and to Terje Rød-Larsen: “One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) to Terje Roed-Larsen by no later than December 31, 2013”.5 The death clauses also change direction, and the change comes earlier than the drafting dates by month alone would suggest: the 12 June and 26 June versions end Zuckerman’s liability at his death, but the 21 August version, nine days before his first written refusal, already makes his estate liable for the whole fee, and every version after it does the same.43310 Several of these identifiers exist in more than one Bates copy in the release; the six above are distinct instruments, not distinct copies.

The fee, and the agreement sent for signature

On 13 October 2013, with the drafting in progress, Epstein wrote that his proposal was the subject of “wild speculations” and that nobody had put a question to him about it. Zuckerman answered:

Quite the opposite Your questions have been critical to my growing understanding of how much lies ahead before my finances are properly organized.You have been an invaluable friend and In the most constructive way a provocateur I am completely grateful and am now beginning to focus in on the issues you have raised. With appreciation from a hesitant amateur Mort34

Zuckerman’s own objection to the size of the fee is in the record. On 24 October 2013 he wrote: “Jeffrey you may well be right On the other hand it is difficult for me to cope with a fee that exceeds what I earned in the first fifteen years of working! And that is cumulative and before taxes !”35 Epstein answered that his standard fee was higher and that “the cost benefit anaylsis is easy. the emotional component is not.”36

On 19 December 2013 the agreement was sent for signature. Groff wrote to Zuckerman’s executive assistant, Clare Probert: “Hello Clare. Could you please forward the below email and attached agreement to Mort from Jeffrey? We will also hand deliver this to your office.” The message she enclosed, from Epstein to Zuckerman, reads: “Attached the agreement between Southern Trust Company, Inc. and you. Please sign and return the agreement by email. Wire transfer instructions for the $15MM payments to Southern Trust Company, Inc. and the $1MM payment to Terje Roed-Larsen to be made by December 31, 2013 are set forth below.”8 It continues, in a duplicate of the same message that blacks out the wire account numbers rather than the dollar figures: “We have worked out with Chris, where the money should come from, so don’t worry.”37 Probert replied within hours that it had arrived.8 Epstein had written to Zuckerman directly earlier that afternoon: “I sent over an agreement to be signed, I thought to give you cash flow room so that the first payment is 16 million , 1 of that to terje and the additional 5 in march”.38 Zuckerman answered at 6.49 pm: “I haven’t had a chance to review the agreement yet as I am out of the office but I look forward to taking it apart ☺”.38

Two refusals

On 30 August 2013 Zuckerman wrote to Epstein under the subject “Estate planning”:

Dear Jeffrey,

I very much appreciate the interest you have taken in my estate planning and the efforts you have made to date to give me guidance on such matters. However, I have made a decision not to accept the proposal set forth in your engagement letter of August 29. I have engaged other advisors to review and update my estate planning. As soon as possible, please return to me all of the financial and personal information that I provided to you. I trust that this information will remain confidential. Thank you not only for your friendship but also for alerting me to the need to address my estate plan.

Best,

Mort6

Epstein replied thirty-six minutes later: “I trust you understood that was the agreement that was sent months ago. they only changed the date. I will return to ny next week for the holidays, lets get a coffee.”39

The correspondence continued and the drafting resumed in December. On 31 January 2014 Epstein sent a long message setting out his account of the negotiation. In it he asserted that at an earlier meeting attended by Rød-Larsen the three men had “agreed and shook hands” on a fee of 21 million dollars, and that “My offer to work for 20 million is of course no longer in effect.”7 That is Epstein’s own characterisation of what had passed between them, written while pressing a claim; it is not a record of an agreement. The same message runs at length through Zuckerman’s personal finances and health, and none of that detail is reproduced here.

Zuckerman answered twice that evening. At 7.45 pm: “Jeffrey. I have now consulted with three tax specialists and they do not see the issues as you do especially on the step up.”40 At 7.51 pm: “Jeffrey. I just don’t feel comfortable with your structure I have tried and it doesn’t fit Sorry but that is why I could not proceed.”7 Epstein replied: “no problem, I hope they find a solution for you.”7

That was not the end of the conversation. The next afternoon Zuckerman wrote: “Lets continue talking. Sorry this is difficult but it is so extraordinary on so many levels. Mort”; that evening he wrote “Jeffrey we must have one more talk”; and on the morning of 2 February Epstein answered that Zuckerman was welcome to come to his house.404142 No further version of the agreement appears in the material reviewed for this page after 17 December 2013.

The correspondence continued after both refusals. On 24 August 2014 Epstein wrote to Zuckerman with the single line ”??”; Zuckerman replied that evening: “Hi there. You are very special. And a great friend. Mort.”43 On 9 October 2015 the two men’s assistants arranged for Zuckerman to see Epstein the following week.44 On 6 January 2016 Epstein asked “how is it going?” and Zuckerman answered “Let’s talk drink and eat It has been too long. Happy New Year. Mort Z”; on 26 January the two assistants confirmed a 7 pm coffee for the following evening.452

No executed agreement and no payment in the record

The signature block of every one of the six drafts was rendered from the page image for this page. In each, the rule following “By:” above Jeffrey Epstein’s typed name is blank, the rule above “MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN” is blank, and the acceptance line reads “Agreed to and Accepted this ___ day of” a named month with the day left open.314339105 That is true of what was produced in the release, not necessarily of what was executed: on 17 December 2013 Epstein’s counsel, Darren Indyke, instructed Groff by email, “please give to JE to sign and then forward a pdf of the signed agreement to Mr. Zuckerman’s office,” an instruction to sign and countersign that sits beside these same blank blocks.46 No signed counterpart of any kind is in the release, so the conclusion below is unchanged; only the reasoning for it is. The August 21 version still carries “day of June, 2013” on its acceptance line, two months after the version it was copied from.33 Each draft closes with the sentence “If you are in agreement with the foregoing, please sign, date and return one copy of this Letter Agreement.”10

These are drafts, and nothing more can be taken from them. A search of the released files for Zuckerman’s name alongside the terms of these agreements (the fee figures, “wire”, “invoice”, “executed”, “payment”, “received”, “engagement letter”, and Southern Trust) returned the drafts themselves, their duplicate Bates copies, the transmittal of 19 December 2013, the two refusals, and no executed counterpart, no confirmation of a transfer, no invoice, no receipt and no ledger entry recording a payment by Zuckerman to Epstein or to any Epstein entity. What the December transmittal establishes is that a signature and two wires were asked for by 31 December 2013; six weeks later Zuckerman wrote that he could not proceed. Epstein himself wrote in November 2016 that he had “not asked for the money that mort promised for getting my help and never following through”.47 Reporting has associated Zuckerman with very large sums in connection with Epstein. On the material reviewed for this page, the record establishes that a fee was proposed six times, demanded once in writing and twice declined; it does not establish that any money was paid.

The September 2014 introductions

On 4 September 2014 Epstein emailed Zuckerman: “want to spend some quality time with bill gates and me , monday afternoon:?”14 Probert replied that evening: “I’m clearing MZ’s deck on Monday; he has a noon lunch re: ISIS at the Harvard Club. At what time would you suggest he come to your home please, Jeffrey?”14 A Google Calendar reminder for Monday 8 September records “2:00pm Mort Zuckerman to meet you at 71st w/Bill Gates”, timed 2 pm to 3 pm.15

A different document, described in Gates’s transcribed interview before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 10 June 2026 as “yet another email setting forth Jeffrey Epstein’s schedule from September 2014” and listing meetings with Tom Pritzker, Leon Black, Larry Summers, Zuckerman and Kathy Ruemmler, was marked as Minority Exhibit F and put to Gates entry by entry; that exhibit is not among the documents cited on this page and is not the Google Calendar reminder above.48 The questioner dated the exhibit’s entries to “September 8th, 2014,” matching Groff’s reminder; Gates himself, twice, described the same set of meetings as having happened “on September 5th.” The transcript does not reconcile the two dates.49 Asked whether the 2 pm meeting with Zuckerman took place, Gates answered “Yes”; asked whether he had met him before, “I had not.”11 Asked about the location, which the exhibit is recorded as giving as a choice between Gates’s own residence and the Four Seasons, Gates said: “It was not at Mr. Epstein’s residence is my recollection. I think it was at the Four Seasons.” That location also differs from Groff’s calendar reminder, which places the meeting at 9 East 71st Street.11 On the substance:

It was about his philanthropic thinking, and like the others, he was polite and praised the work I was doing without showing a near-term interest in giving substantial sums to global health.11

He said he thought Epstein sat in on the meeting.50 Of the series as a whole, including the meetings with Leon Black and Josh Harris at the Apollo offices, he told the Committee that “none of them was at a point where they were deciding to give large additional sums in general and not to global health” and that “it was a complete disappointment from my point of view, even though it was all very friendly.”51 Gates’s own account of the association, his statement that he never witnessed or had any indication of criminal conduct by Epstein, and the Committee’s exhibits are set out on the Bill Gates page.

MIT Media Lab, January 2016

On 19 January 2016 Peter F. Cohen, the MIT Media Lab’s director of development and strategy, emailed the Lab’s director Joi Ito and four colleagues: “If Jeffrey is still interested in sending Mort Zuckerman a short $10 million proposal, one is attached. We are asking for a chair in antidisciplinary science and seed money to launch Design-Science.” He added: “My understanding is that others at MIT are reaching out to Mort as well, so I’ll have to do some reconnaissance after you send it.”52 The next morning Ito forwarded the message and the attachment, a document named MIT_Media_Lab--Zuckerman--January_2016.docx, to Epstein: “I don’t know if this is appropriate for Mort but this is something my team put together. Let me know what you think.”52

The exchange records the Lab’s decision to route a solicitation to a named donor through Epstein, taken sixteen months after the Gates introductions and while Epstein was a registered sex offender. Whether the proposal was sent, and whether Zuckerman ever saw it, is not recorded in the material reviewed for this page.

The Daily News again, 2016

Late in the evening of 5 October 2016, Eastern time (the message’s header, printed in UTC, reads 6 October), Epstein wrote to Zuckerman, blind-copying Terje Rød-Larsen: “how you could let your paper call me a pedophile.???!!!! I expect a public apology and a full retraction. . I have been a close friend of yours for years.”3 No reply appears in the material reviewed for this page. On 10 November 2016 he sent Zuckerman and Rød-Larsen a link to a British tabloid report under the subject line “why doesnt your newspaper re print this”, and on 12 November sent the same link to Zuckerman alone under the subject line “why dont you print this , not right”.5354 The linked report itself states that a civil claim naming Epstein and another man had been withdrawn days earlier;55 the woman who brought it is not named on this page and nothing about her is reproduced.

Eighteen days after the second of those, on 30 November 2016, Epstein wrote to Eric Gertler, who corresponded with him about Zuckerman’s charitable giving: “eric, I hope you have the opportunity to now consider a signifigant gift to either harvard or mit. I hav not asked for the money that mort promised for getting my help and never following through. I would also appreciate you putting a brake on the daily news calling me a pedophile. I have been patient and my fondness for mort remains”. Gertler replied on 4 December: “jeffrey, sorry for the delay and happy holidays to you. as always, appreciate your friendship with Mort and that you are looking for him and you want the best for him. we had previously discussed this; Mort makes charitable contributions to his causes per his interests, e.g. Zuckerman leadership fellowships at Harvard, etc. best, Eric” Epstein answered: “Understood”.47 Read against the drafts, that exchange is Epstein’s own written statement, nearly three years after the first letter agreement, that the money was never paid.

What the record does not establish

  • Payment. Wire instructions were sent to Zuckerman’s office on 19 December 2013, but no executed letter agreement, no confirmation that a transfer was made, no invoice marked paid and no ledger entry recording a payment by Zuckerman to Epstein or to Southern Trust appears in the material reviewed. The six drafts are unsigned and undated in every copy examined at the page image, and Epstein wrote in 2016 that the money had never come.84749105 Forbes reported in February 2026 that Zuckerman and one other person “appear to have paid” Epstein $45 million between them, and that the sums each supposedly paid “for estate planning services” were “$15 and $20 million, respectively”: the $20 million is the same figure Epstein named as his own prior offer in the message of 31 January 2014 quoted above, an offer he there says was “no longer in effect.” The combined $45 million figure is hedged in the article itself, but the $20 million is attributed to Zuckerman specifically, three times in the piece. Forbes also reported: “It’s also unclear whether Zuckerman did ultimately pay Epstein the $20 million fee, as no invoices appear in the files,” the same conclusion this page reaches independently, from the search described below.56 Business Insider reported in March 2026 that “The deal was never consummated”, and quoted John Christian Elden, an attorney for Terje Rød-Larsen, saying that “Mr. Zuckerman did not pursue Mr. Epstein’s advice or proposals, and accordingly, these arrangements were never implemented”. That is a statement by another man’s lawyer, not by Zuckerman.57
  • Any accusation. No survivor account in the material reviewed accuses Zuckerman of anything. He has not been charged with any offence, and he is not a defendant in any of the litigation described on this wiki.
  • The contact-list account is wrong. A widely circulated encyclopedia entry states that Zuckerman does not appear in emails or recovered correspondence and that his presence is limited to one or more contact-list entries. The released files contradict it: the correspondence is two-way, sustained, and spans at least 2009 to 2016.163
  • No statement from Zuckerman. No public statement by Zuckerman, and none by any named representative of his, about Epstein has been found since the 2025 and 2026 releases. Forbes, Al Jazeera, The Daily Beast and the Columbia Daily Spectator each record that a request for comment to him, to his personal assistant, to his foundation or to his companies went unanswered; Business Insider’s own unanswered-request line in the same reporting concerns two other men, not Zuckerman, and is not evidence of a request to him.56262758 Where this page sets out material adverse to him, no answer from him exists to place beside it.
  • Flight logs. A search of the released files for his name alongside aircraft and flight-manifest terms returned no manifest carrying it. The claim that he took four flights on Epstein aircraft in 1997 and 1998 traces to a single aggregator site whose page declares itself machine-generated and links to a bulk file upload rather than to a court exhibit. One panel on that page lists three dated entries for him and a table further down the same page lists four, so the site does not agree with itself on the count, let alone supply a manifest. It is not adopted here and should not be repeated without a manifest.
  • Radar magazine. The New York Times reported on 19 October 2004 that Zuckerman and Epstein had agreed to finance Radar, writing in its own words that “Mr. Epstein and Mr. Zuckerman will be equal partners in the new venture,” and that, according to two executives involved in the negotiations, they were “committed to spending up to $25 million” to back the magazine and its founding editor Maer Roshan. The equal-partners statement is the Times’s own; the $25 million figure is the part sourced to unnamed executives.59 The only reference to the venture in the released files sits inside a source-of-wealth narrative that a Deutsche Bank officer supplied to the bank’s own know-your-customer reviewers in July 2018, and that narrative’s own “equal partners” sentence is a near-verbatim recital of the Times’s, which is the point: the narrative recites Epstein’s published biography (his schoolteaching, his Bear Stearns career, a 2003 magazine auction) rather than anything drawn from the bank’s own records, so a bank file that copies a newspaper sentence is not independent evidence of a venture’s terms.60
  • The 2003 birthday album. The album compiled for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday was released by the House Oversight Committee in September 2025 and published in full by PBS NewsHour. The Columbia Daily Spectator reported in October 2025 that Zuckerman is listed among “Friends” and contributed a handwritten letter in which he joked that an “extensive search” of the Daily News for information about Epstein, reflecting Epstein’s “accessibility and high profile,” had turned up only that Epstein was born in Liechtenstein and had a wife and three children, none of it true, before closing “To happy times, best wishes, and peace”.58 No page of the release copy carrying that letter has been located and read for this page, so the description above rests on the newspaper’s account of the document and not on the document.

Coverage

  • Forbes, February 4, 2026, “How Jeffrey Epstein Got So Rich: Two More Billionaire Clients”, reporting a $20 million figure attributed to Zuckerman specifically within a combined $45 million total for him and one other person, and noting that no invoices appear in the files to show the fee was paid.56
  • Al Jazeera, February 9, 2026, “Epstein pressed billionaire media mogul to influence coverage, files reveal”, carrying George Rush’s account of the 2009 story.26
  • Business Insider, March 8, 2026, “Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s plan to nab another billionaire client”, reporting that the deal “was never consummated”.57
  • The Daily Beast, March 25, 2026, George Rush’s own account of reporting and publishing the December 2009 article.27

Footnotes

  1. Email thread, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 9, 2009, 20:39 UTC, quoting Zuckerman’s message of 4:37 pm, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00884111 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Email thread between the two men’s assistants, January 26, 2016, subject “Confirming 7pm coffee w/JE tomorrow”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00330033 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, blind copy to Terje Rød-Larsen, dated October 6, 2016 in the header (UTC); 5 October 2016 Eastern time. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00816149 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, June 26, 2013, 8 pp.; fee clause p.1, counsel clause p.2, signature block p.8. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00585968 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, December 17, 2013, 6 pp.; fee and payment clauses p.1, signature block p.6; no confidentiality or privilege clause and no counsel named anywhere in the document. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00585770 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  6. Email, Mortimer Zuckerman to Jeffrey Epstein, August 30, 2013, subject “Estate planning”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01961972 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Email thread, Epstein and Zuckerman, January 31, 2014, carrying Epstein’s message of 5:44 pm, Zuckerman’s reply of 7:51 pm and Epstein’s answer, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00982552 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Email thread, Lesley Groff to Clare Probert and Probert’s reply, December 19, 2013, carrying the covering message to Zuckerman, p.1. Cited at p.1 only; no other page of this document is cited. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02118244 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, August 29, 2013, 7 pp.; fee clause p.1, signature block p.7. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01120866 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, December 16, 2013, 7 pp.; fee clause p.1, counsel clause p.2, signature block p.7. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00587066 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  11. Interview of William H. Gates, III, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 10, 2026, p.99. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Bill-Gates-Transcript.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. Signature block of Zuckerman’s executive assistant, giving his three companies, in the thread of October 9, 2015. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00338243 ↩

  13. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 9, 2009, subject “proposed answer if mort thinks advisable”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00884100 ↩ ↩2

  14. Email thread, Epstein to Zuckerman September 4, 2014 and the reply from Zuckerman’s executive assistant the same evening, forwarded September 5, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02098356 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. Google Calendar reminder, September 8, 2014. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02098410 ↩ ↩2

  16. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 9, 2009, 17:22 UTC, forwarding a chain containing the New York Daily News columnist’s emailed questions of October 8, p.1. The intermediate sender in the chain is redacted in the released image and is not identified here. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00884096 ↩

  17. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 9, 2009, 20:37 UTC. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00740477 ↩

  18. Emails, Zuckerman to Epstein, October 9, 2009, 21:07 UTC and 21:19 UTC. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00771239 and https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00771242 ↩

  19. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 14, 2009. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00740631 ↩

  20. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, November 13, 2009. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00742002 ↩

  21. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, December 7, 2009, attaching press.doc. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00743219 ↩

  22. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, December 8, 2009, 07:22 UTC, attaching press.doc, “revised”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00743287 ↩

  23. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, December 8, 2009, 18:22 UTC, replying to the message above. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00767653 ↩ ↩2

  24. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, December 15, 2009. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00743690 ↩ ↩2

  25. New York Daily News, “Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein shells out more money in latest sex abuse lawsuit”, December 19, 2009. The surviving web version carries a generic newspaper byline rather than a named reporter. https://www.nydailynews.com/2009/12/19/billionaire-jeffrey-epstein-shells-out-more-money-in-latest-sex-abuse-lawsuit/ ↩

  26. Al Jazeera, John Power, “Epstein pressed billionaire media mogul to influence coverage, files reveal”, February 9, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/9/epstein-pressed-billionaire-media-mogul-to-influence-coverage-files-reveal ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. The Daily Beast, George Rush, “How I Learned the Sinister Truth About My Interview With Epstein”, March 25, 2026. https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-i-learned-the-sinister-truth-about-my-interview-with-epstein-by-george-rush/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  28. Lesley Groff, schedule email, April 1, 2013, entry for Thursday April 4, p.3. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00690803 ↩

  29. Calendar alert circulated April 25, 2013 for a dinner on April 23, 2013. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02140824 ↩

  30. Email, Carlyn S. McCaffrey, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, to Jeffrey Epstein, May 21, 2013. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00635698 ↩

  31. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, June 12, 2013, 8 pp.; fee clause p.1, signature block p.8. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01108435 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  32. Duplicate Bates copy of the same December 17, 2013 letter agreement, confirmed identical: no confidentiality or privilege clause and no counsel named. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01140740 ↩

  33. Southern Trust Company, Inc., draft letter agreement to Mortimer B. Zuckerman, August 21, 2013, 7 pp.; fee clause p.1, signature block p.7. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01087017 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  34. Email thread, Zuckerman to Epstein, October 13, 2013, 19:37 UTC, quoting the earlier messages of that day, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00676180 ↩

  35. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, October 24, 2013, 11:19 pm, quoting Epstein’s message of that morning. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01954656 ↩

  36. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, October 25, 2013, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01954958 ↩

  37. Email, Lesley Groff to Clare Probert, December 19, 2013, a duplicate of the transmittal above with the wire account numbers redacted at the image. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00377579 ↩

  38. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, December 19, 2013, 6:49 pm, quoting Epstein’s message of 1:48 pm. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01750593 ↩ ↩2

  39. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, August 30, 2013, 14:49 UTC, replying to and quoting the message above. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00872984 ↩

  40. Email thread, Zuckerman to Epstein, February 1, 2014, 12:54 pm, quoting his own message of January 31 at 7:45 pm and Epstein’s reply, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01937136 ↩ ↩2

  41. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, February 1, 2014, 10:30 pm. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01940469 ↩

  42. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, February 2, 2014, p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01937832 ↩

  43. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, August 24, 2014, 10:47 pm, replying to Epstein’s message of 2:04 pm. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02396036 ↩

  44. Email thread between the two men’s assistants, October 9, 2015, subject “Jeffrey Epstein”. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00338243 ↩

  45. Email, Zuckerman to Epstein, January 6, 2016, 21:52 UTC. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00662126 ↩

  46. Email thread, Darren K. Indyke to Lesley Groff, December 17, 2013 (“please give to JE to sign and then forward a pdf of the signed agreement to Mr. Zuckerman’s office”), with Groff’s reply of December 18. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00377709 ↩

  47. Email thread, Epstein to Eric Gertler November 30, 2016, Gertler’s reply of December 4 and Epstein’s answer, also December 4 Eastern time (the header, printed in UTC, reads December 5), p.1. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01059991 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  48. Interview of William H. Gates, III, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 10, 2026, p.96. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Bill-Gates-Transcript.pdf ↩

  49. Interview of William H. Gates, III, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 10, 2026, p.97. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Bill-Gates-Transcript.pdf ↩

  50. Interview of William H. Gates, III, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 10, 2026, p.100. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Bill-Gates-Transcript.pdf ↩

  51. Interview of William H. Gates, III, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 10, 2026, p.98. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Bill-Gates-Transcript.pdf ↩

  52. Email, Joi Ito to Jeffrey Epstein, January 20, 2016, forwarding a message of January 19 from the MIT Media Lab’s director of development and strategy. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00698029 ↩ ↩2

  53. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman and Terje Rød-Larsen, November 10, 2016. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02669936 ↩

  54. Email, Epstein to Zuckerman, November 12, 2016. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02670027 ↩

  55. DailyMail.com, Ryan Parry, “Troubled woman with history of drug use claimed she was assaulted by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at sex party aged 13 - FABRICATED story”, November 7, 2016, updated November 9, 2016. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3914012/Troubled-woman-history-drug-use-claimed-assaulted-Donald-Trump-Jeffrey-Epstein-sex-party-age-13-FABRICATED-story.html ↩

  56. Forbes, Giacomo Tognini and Monica Hunter-Hart, “How Jeffrey Epstein Got So Rich: Two More Billionaire Clients”, February 4, 2026, updated February 5, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2026/02/04/how-jeffrey-epstein-got-so-rich-two-more-billionaire-clients-mortimer-zuckerman-ariane-de-rothschild/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  57. Business Insider, Jacob Shamsian, “Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s plan to nab another billionaire client”, March 8, 2026. https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstein-files-playbook-landing-billionaire-clients-mort-zuckerman-2026-3 ↩ ↩2

  58. Columbia Daily Spectator, Colette Holcomb and Nadia Knoblauch, “Jeffrey Epstein’s 2003 birthday album signed by prominent University donor Mortimer Zuckerman”, October 14, 2025. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/10/14/jeffrey-epsteins-2003-birthday-album-signed-by-prominent-university-donor-mortimer-zuckerman/ ↩ ↩2

  59. New York Times, David Carr, “Radar Magazine Lines Up Financing”, October 19, 2004, Section E, p.1. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/arts/radar-magazine-lines-up-financing.html ↩

  60. Email, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, July 11, 2018, answering know-your-customer rejection points; the source-of-wealth narrative is at p.3. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01416670 ↩

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