Trump administration officials in the Epstein files

Feb. 14, 2026, 5:00 AM EST
By Dareh Gregorian

At least a half-dozen top officials in the current Trump administration have connections to Jeffrey Epstein, according to an NBC News review of some of the over 3 million documents the Justice Department has released ...

Alex Acosta, who was Trump’s Labor secretary during his first term, led the first federal criminal probe into Epstein as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Acosta approved a much-maligned secret nonprosecutorial agreement that allowed Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to lesser state charges, which helped him avoid potentially decades of jail time. Acosta has defended the plea deal and said that his office "acted appropriately" given the context of the 2008 case. “Times have changed, and coverage of this case has certainly changed,” he said in 2019 after Epstein's arrest in New York ...

... Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ... admitted this week to visiting Epstein's island in 2012 ...

Stephen Feinberg, the billionaire financier who's now the No. 2 official at the Pentagon, makes numerous appearances in the newly released files in connection with the business he founded, Cerberus Capital Management ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/least-half-dozen-top-trump-administration-officials-appear-jeffrey-eps-rcna258749