Epstein Files Include 1996 Child Porn Complaint That F.B.I. Ignored

Newly released files show how Maria Farmer, who worked for Mr. Epstein in the 1990s, had urged the F.B.I. to investigate him. The case went nowhere for years.

A woman who once worked for Jeffrey Epstein filed a complaint to the F.B.I. about his interest in “child pornography” in 1996, about a decade before investigators began scrutinizing his predatory behavior.

The woman, Maria Farmer, has for years said that she had called federal investigators in the summer of 1996, but the F.B.I. had never publicly acknowledged her original report, even to Ms. Farmer. Some people following the Epstein case had accused her of inventing the story. After the release of thousands of Epstein files on Friday, The New York Times contacted Ms. Farmer about a report stamped with the date of Sept. 3, 1996. She broke down in tears.

“I’ve waited 30 years,” she said. “I can’t believe it. They can’t call me a liar anymore.”

Ms. Farmer said she was grateful to be “vindicated” but heartbroken that the F.B.I. did not take steps to stop Mr. Epstein until years after her report.

“They should be ashamed,” Ms. Farmer said, adding: “They harmed all of these little girls. That part devastates me.”

The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brad Edwards, a lawyer who has represented many Epstein victims, said Friday night that if the F.B.I. had listened to Ms. Farmer, the government could have stopped Mr. Epstein in the 1990s and prevented hundreds of victims from being abused. He said the government until now has denied the existence of the Ms. Farmer’s report, and that it was “shameful” that it was kept secret.

“There should be a full fledged investigation into every government employee who knew about this document and allowed a narrative to be publicized that it did not exist,” Mr. Edwards said.

An internal investigation of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein case, released in 2020, made no mention of Ms. Farmer’s original complaint.

The newly released report leaves Ms. Farmer’s name redacted, describing her only as a professional artist. She had been hired by Mr. Epstein to acquire art on his behalf.

The complaint says that she had taken photos of her younger sisters — ages 16 and 12 — for her personal art work, and Ms. Farmer clarified in an interview that the photos included nude images. “Epstein stole the photos and negatives,” the handwritten F.B.I. report says. The report also says that Mr. Epstein had asked Ms. Farmer to take pictures of young girls at swimming pools and threatened to “burn her house down” if she told anyone about the photos.

Ms. Farmer said she did not hear from the F.B.I. until a decade later, when a fuller investigation ensued, ending in a 2008 plea deal for Mr. Epstein in Florida. She said she had lived in fear after trying to report Mr. Epstein.

Ms. Farmer said that while the complaint captured part of her concerns, it did not capture all of them. She said she urged investigators to take a larger look at Mr. Epstein’s orbit, citing his relationship with powerful people such as Bill Clinton — then the sitting president — and Donald J. Trump. She said much of her concern was about Mr. Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, but the document does not include Ms. Maxwell’s name or the names of other powerful people.

Ms. Farmer said she saw Mr. Trump in 1995 at Mr. Epstein’s offices in Manhattan. She was in running shorts and said Mr. Trump came into the office and began hovering over her, staring at her bare legs.

Then Mr. Epstein entered the room, and she recalled him saying to Mr. Trump: “No, no. She’s not here for you.” After the two men left the room, Ms. Farmer said, she could hear Mr. Trump commenting that he thought she was 16 years old. The White House has denied her account.

Ms. Farmer eventually broke from Mr. Epstein after what she described as a sexual assault at the hands of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell. It was then that she discovered that the nude photographs of her sisters were missing.

Ms. Farmer later spoke to her sister, Annie, who had her own problems with Mr. Epstein. Annie Farmer later testified at Ms. Maxwell’s trial about she had been invited to Mr. Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico when she was 16. There, he climbed into bed with her one morning to “cuddle.” Ms. Maxwell, she said, had at one point given her a massage, rubbing her bare chest.

Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.

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