Troy Barile-Simleness 06/02/26 (whowhatwhy.org)
The files still matter, but the people around them started to matter more.
Sarah Kellen Gave Congress Three New Names
Sarah Kellen, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant and one of the women named as a potential co-conspirator in the 2007 nonprosecution agreement, appeared before the House Oversight Committee on May 21 and tried to recast the role that has followed her for almost two decades. In a prepared statement, Kellen said Epstein abused her for more than a decade and described the control in language that was unusually direct:
He groomed me, sexually and psychologically abused me, controlled me, manipulated me, dominated me, and gaslit me, until I could no longer tell which thoughts were mine, and which were his.
The testimony immediately changed the temperature of the committee’s investigation. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told reporters, “I believe she was a victim now,” and called her appearance “the most substantive, productive interview that we’ve had.”
He also said Kellen provided “three names of people that were involved in abuse,” but declined to identify them publicly or describe the allegations attached to them.
“The new names — that’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Comer said.
That leaves the committee with a very different problem than another file release. Kellen has been described for years as an operator inside Epstein’s world, but she denied being an accomplice and told Congress she was also trapped inside it. The names she gave lawmakers are now a key lead in the investigation, and the committee has said it will release the transcript “as quickly as possible.”
Andrew’s Investigation Widened Again
British police made clear that the investigation into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is bigger than one allegation about confidential government information. Thames Valley Police are examining a range of potential misconduct connected to Andrew’s time as a trade envoy, including possible sexual impropriety, corruption, and abuse of power. Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said the investigation is “by necessity hugely thorough” and “not going to be a quick investigation by any means.”
The new public appeal is directed at people who may have information about Epstein-related activity around Andrew. Police are also assessing reports that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes after a lawyer for the alleged victim said she had been sent to Britain by Epstein.
Wright said the force’s “door is open whenever a victim survivor is ready to engage with us.” The inquiry is now looking at multiple potential offenses, and police are appealing for witnesses as the investigation broadens.
The Queen’s Papers Entered the Andrew File
British government documents released recently put Andrew’s trade envoy appointment into sharper focus. The head of Britain’s trade body wrote in 2000 that, “The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests.”
The problem is what the documents show around that appointment. Trade Minister Chris Bryant told lawmakers that “we have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken” before Andrew received the role. That history now sits inside the police investigation into whether Andrew misused his public office while maintaining contact with Epstein. The inquiry focuses on his trade envoy role from 2001 to 2011, with released DOJ emails suggesting he shared sensitive information with Epstein.
Surrey Police Opened a Child Sexual Abuse Investigation
The United Kingdom track expanded in a second direction when Surrey Police launched a criminal investigation into two allegations of child sexual abuse connected to information in the Epstein files. One allegation relates to locations in Surrey and Berkshire from the mid-1990s to 2000, while another relates to west Surrey in the mid- to late 1980s.
The force said it has made no arrests but would work to verify information or establish corroborating evidence. Two women have come forward alleging they were the victims of attacks described in the Epstein files. The Surrey investigation is the first British police investigation into alleged sexual harm against females relating to Epstein.
France Says New Suspected Victims Have Come Forward
French prosecutors are now listening to women who were not previously known to investigators. Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said about 20 suspected victims have come forward since she urged potential victims to speak in February, including around 10 who were new to authorities. “New victims come forward, ones we didn’t know at all,” she told RTL.
The French investigation is focused on possible offenses committed in France or involving French perpetrators who facilitated Epstein’s crimes. Beccuau said investigators had “once again pulled out Mr. Epstein’s computers, his telephone records, his address books” and were preparing requests for international assistance. Some of the suspected victims are abroad, and investigators are arranging meetings around their ability to come to Paris.
Zorro Ranch Has a Report Date
New Mexico’s Truth Commission is scheduled to release its initial report on its Zorro Ranch investigation on July 31. That is important because the ranch, unlike Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, Palm Beach home, and island, sat for years without the same level of investigative attention.
State Rep. Andrea Romero (D), who heads the commission, said it will examine systemic issues that may have drawn Epstein to New Mexico and whether anyone helped sweep things aside. “We know that there are survivors that were on the record reporting abuse,” Romero said.
Why did their case never make it to the state nor federal government to hold that to account in some way, shape or form.
New Mexico’s Department of Justice also maintains an active Zorro Ranch tip portal seeking credible information, and the department said earlier this year that it had reopened the criminal investigation after reviewing newly released federal material.
Bard’s Board Vote Changed the Botstein Story
Leon Botstein’s exit from Bard College no longer reads as a simple retirement story. Bard’s board of trustees voted to end Botstein’s 51-year tenure after board members were presented with the results of an independent review of his relationship with Epstein. Botstein had publicly framed his departure as long planned.
The review found that Botstein had done nothing illegal but that he was “not fully accurate” in describing his relationship with Epstein and did not fully “see” the risk Epstein posed to Bard’s reputation or to students. The fallout is now institutional as Bard confirmed that its longtime board chair, James Chambers, and two others resigned, while an alum has asked the New York attorney general’s charities office to investigate the board.
The Cellmate Story Became Stranger Than the Note
The purported Epstein note was already public. Recently, the story around the man who produced it became harder to ignore. The Guardian revisited the story of Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s former cellmate, a retired police officer later convicted in a quadruple murder case. Epstein initially said Tartaglione attacked him after Epstein was found with neck injuries in July 2019, then retracted that claim. Prison officials later concluded Epstein had tried to kill himself.
Tartaglione reported finding a note from Epstein hidden in a graphic novel after Epstein had been removed from their cell. The note was released earlier this month after litigation, and it included the line, “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.” At the time of the release, the Justice Department said it was seeing the note for the first time. The new issue is not only what the note says. It is how something tied to Epstein’s first jail incident sat outside the DOJ’s own file release.
The Reading Room Turned the Files Into a Spectacle
A New York installation is displaying nearly 3.5 million printed pages of Epstein material in more than 3,000 volumes under the title “Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room.” The project bills itself as “an exercise in radical transparency,” but visitors are not freely browsing the documents because of concerns from survivors that the government failed to properly redact identifying information.
The point of the exhibit is to force the public to confront the scale of the file universe. The problem is also obvious. A mountain of printed pages can dramatize opacity while doing very little to solve it. That tension is why the installation became a story in its own right.
What We’re Watching
The next pressure points are Kellen’s transcript, the three new names she gave investigators, the UK police requests for unredacted American records, and the first Zorro Ranch truth commission report due July 31. The pattern is straightforward enough as the files are still central, but witnesses, police, prosecutors, and independent researchers are now pushing the story into places the official releases did not reach.
