FBI Secretly Investigated Death Threats Against Epstein Victims, Records Reveal

Three weeks after Jeffrey Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, the FBI launched a covert investigation into online death threats against his victims, dispatching an undercover operative to a dark web chatroom after warning of an “immediate risk” to their lives, according to FBI records first identified by Sourcebase among 3.5 million pages of Epstein documents released by the Justice Department.

The FBI said it “does not comment on the existence of investigations.” But the documents show the agency turned over records of the inquiry to the Justice Department.

The death threat records, not publicly detailed until now, offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the FBI responded as hundreds of women began to come forward to claim they were abused by Epstein or trafficked by him and his associates to other rich and powerful men.

For years, alleged victims have voiced fears for their personal safety and of possible retaliation as the Epstein case exploded into an international scandal. One of Epstein’s most prominent victims, Virginia Giuffre, posted on social media in December 2019 that the FBI had informed her of a credible death threat, and she wanted to make it “publicly known that I am in no way, shape or form suicidal.” It is unclear whether the threat she described was connected to this investigation. Giuffre was 41 when she died at a farm in Australia in 2025 in what authorities ruled a suicide. Her father has questioned the ruling.

Epstein died of apparent suicide in his federal prison cell in August 2019. Federal prosecutors later charged his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, with sex trafficking. She was convicted in 2021 and is now serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.

Anonymous victims have sued the FBI in the Southern District of Florida, alleging their early complaints to law enforcement were ignored as Epstein built a network of political and financial influence around the globe. Lawyers for the FBI have asked a federal judge to dismiss the complaint, which now includes more than 30 plaintiffs. Epstein’s contacts over the years included his friend President Donald Trump, who says he distanced himself from Epstein in 2004 after a falling out, Prince Andrew, and powerful figures on Wall Street and at major corporations and universities.

Until now, little has surfaced publicly about law enforcement’s actions on behalf of alleged victims, who have protested the government’s failure to protect their identities and act on their complaints.

“I don’t think the FBI took anything Epstein-related seriously enough,” said Dani Bensky, an alleged victim who testified in May before a hearing convened by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The records reviewed by Sourcebase show that the FBI’s New York office began looking into a credible death threat in a chatroom known as “Deep-paste” on July 26, 2019, shortly after Epstein was arrested by federal authorities at a New Jersey airport as his private jet landed from Paris. The agency opened case file 9A-NY-3144791 to document the investigation.

Posted anonymously on July 25, the death threat threatened the “planned execution” of two Epstein victims. It also vowed to “take everyone out”and asked for help compiling a list of names and addresses. The names of victims identified in the chat were redacted by the Justice Department.

The documents raise questions about how diligently the FBI pursued the anonymous user. The file includes little information on steps the agency may have taken to inform or protect victims.

From the available documents, it appears the FBI dropped the investigation in March 2020.

They show the FBI deployed an Online Covert Employee, an agency specialist in digital intelligence gathering, to make“immediate cameo appearances” in the chat room to try to tease out the user’s identity. An FBI memo describing the assignment cited the “immediate risk to the life of the victims, both named and those unnamed,”according to the records.

The memo said the purpose of the inquiry would be “to attempt identification of the subject, identification of any co-conspirators, determine if any personal identifying information of the victims has been obtained or posted, and determine if any additional overt steps have been taken by any individuals targeting the victims.”

The online intelligence specialist posted a first message on July 30, 2019 at 6:12 p.m.

"I can access address info easily. This shit isn’t the place for it,” the employee wrote, trying to convince the user to move to another site for a more detailed exchange. A second brief message was posted a few minutes later.

It is unclear if the FBI made additional attempts to draw out its target. Employees working in covert intelligence-gathering at the FBI are trained to regularly monitor the web, even on nights or weekends, and to approach subjects at unpredictable times, according to records in a follow-up investigation of security breaches in the FBI’s handling of Epstein files.

The records show that the FBI contacted a victim’s lawyer and shared information with its legal attache in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Some of Epstein‘s alleged victims were foreign citizens who came to the US on visas he arranged for them. Giuffre was a US citizen who moved to Australia in 2002.

A special agent reported in January 2020 there had been one additional post by the chat room user, but it was irrelevant to the death threat.

In March, the agent said the Deep-Paste chatroom was either “temporarily or permanently” down. That month, the FBI officially closed its threat investigation. “There are no outstanding leads or evidence and no further investigative activity remains,” an internal memo said.

The Justice Department has estimated that as many as 1,000 women were harmed by Epstein’s sexual abuse and trafficking from his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach and Paris, a ranch in New Mexico and his privately-owned Caribbean island Little Saint James, which was nicknamed “Little Saint Jeff.”

Lawyers for Epstein’s $577 million estate have said the Justice Department’s estimate of victims is too high. Thus far, the Epstein estate has funded a compensation program that paid out $121 million in settlements to about 150 alleged victims, and it reached private settlements with about 60 other women, according to court records.

In FBI interviews, alleged victims have described suspicious phone calls, frightening highway incidents and physical confrontations that have put them and their families at risk.

Giuffre was the most vocal of the alleged victims and authored a best-selling memoir about her time with Epstein. She alleged that Epstein loaned her out for sexual services to various men, including Prince Andrew, during an abusive relationship that lasted several years. Giuffre later married and moved to Australia.

Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts Jr., and sister-in-law Amanda Roberts, who have been prominent advocates for Epstein victims, said through a spokesperson that she never discussed details of the death threat the FBI warned her about. They have not challenged the suicide ruling. Her attorney did not respond.

The available records do not indicate whether the FBI identified the person behind the threats or what steps, if any, it took to protect the intended victims.

“Knowing that the FBI was aware of death threats against survivors, my first question is: What was done to protect these women?” said Sharlene Rochard, a Canadian model and actress who has alleged she was abused by Epstein. “Their lives were being threatened. They were in danger.”