By Steve Neavling
Federal law enforcement officials say Jeffrey Epstein hired private investigators to harass and intimidate FBI agents investigating him for sex crimes involving underage girls.
The new allegations, reported by Rolling Stone, add to long-standing concerns that Epstein and his legal team used surveillance and pressure tactics to influence law enforcement. Two officials told the magazine that Epstein’s investigators followed agents, dug through their trash, and tried to dig up compromising information. One agent reportedly moved to a gated community to escape the harassment.
Similar tactics were used years earlier against Palm Beach police officers who first investigated Epstein, according to reporting by The Miami Herald. One officer said a private investigator posing as law enforcement ran him off the road, while others followed victims and their families.
The FBI declined to comment.
The revelations come as tensions rise within Donald Trump’s administration over how to handle Epstein-related documents. FBI deputy director Dan Bongino reportedly stormed out of a high-level meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials last week and is considering resigning. Trump’s supporters have grown increasingly angry at the Justice Department for failing to release Epstein’s so-called client list, which Trump had promised to make public.
Trump appeared to downplay the controversy over the weekend, posting on Truth Social, “We’re on one Team, MAGA… all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
Last week, the DOJ released 11 hours of video from Epstein’s jail cell in an attempt to dispel conspiracy theories about his death. But the footage was missing a minute, fueling more speculation. Bondi said the video system resets daily, and the same minute is missing every night.
Meanwhile, a lengthy DOJ report sheds light on the department’s handling of Epstein’s original 2007 plea deal. The Office of Professional Responsibility found that federal agents wanted to arrest Epstein in the Virgin Islands but were blocked by DOJ officials. Prosecutors were also stopped from charging Epstein in 2007, despite planning a coordinated arrest and press conference.
Instead, Epstein received a plea deal that let him serve a reduced sentence through a work-release program and shielded his co-conspirators from prosecution. That deal — and the pressure that led to it — continues to spark anger inside and outside the Justice Department nearly two decades later.
