I decided to try to reconstruct how the Epstein scandal first played out. This is really hard to do because it's hard to isolate the pieces with internet searches yielding thousands of results. But I have found some good stuff, so buckle up.
Epstein was doing nasty shit from maybe the 1980s on, certainly the 90s. I'm not going to make my own timeline because that would be too hard. Evidently he was already throwing around a lot of donations in the 90s and was a guest of Pres. Clinton in the White House. He was also involved in modeling and dating models, some of whom have gone public.
It's not clear when the recruitment of minor girls started, but it was early, with a grooming incident at the Interlocken Arts camp in Michigan in 1994. There's also the famous New York magazine 2002 profile where Trump is quoted as saying he's a "terrific guy."
The investigation by the Palm Beach police started due to a fight in a school and the discovery of a wad of cash of several hundred dollars. The source here is a 133-page filing with a bonanza of information about the investigation, starting in January 2005 with a report of sexual battery on a 14-year-old. On page 48, they start listing the victims, with the youngest being 14 and 16 years old being common.
The earliest mention in the press of underage girls that I found was from September 2007 in a Mail On Sunday pieces from Britain. It centers on revelations from a named victim, Johanna Sjoberg. Same source as the start of the Palm Beach investigation. The British paper probably reported it because of the connection of Prince Andrew in the story.
A draft indictment (undated) was made under the name of Andrew Acosta which called for 32 counts including sex trafficking. This wasn't pursued and Epstein got the sweetheart plea deal instead.
It stayed quiet until January 2015 when a huge release based on a suit (or suits) filed in Florida blew up, again starting in Britain. The earliest article I can find is from the British Daily Mail, and it has photos that were part of court filings including the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre. Bill Clinton and Mick Jagger are namechecked in the headline too. I haven't been able to pin down the court document that was the bombshell, but it might have been this one.
Then in order we get the Telegraph with a picture of Stephen Hawking, Daily Mail with flight logs, Gawker with a ton of information, Page Six with an accusation of Clinton on Pedo Island, The London Times focusing on Jean-Luc Brunel, and finally Buzzfeed pointing out a lack of evidence against Clinton. All of this in January 2015.
Throughout 2015 there was a fair amount of buzz about Epstein, mostly centering on Bill Clinton's flights on Epstein's jet. This just happened to coincide with Hillary Clinton running for president, so any Clinton scandal was good grist for reporting and/or gossip.
Here are some timelines. Just Security is detailed but doesn't have some key points I'm interested in. PBS has a solid timeline. The Miami Herald broke a lot of the story.
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