Elon Musk has finally addressed reports that his name is included in a newly released batch of Epstein files.
Sharing a story from U.K. outlet Sky News, which ran with the simple headline “Elon Musk and Prince Andrew Named in the Latest Epstein Files Release,” the Tesla CEO fired off an enraged tweet.
“Shame on Sky News for this utterly misleading headline,” Musk wrote. “Anyone pushing this false narrative deserves complete contempt.”
“Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” Musk continued, “yet they name me even before Prince Andrew, who did visit.”
The “false narrative” in question is presumably Sky’s decision to float Musk’s name ahead of Andrew’s; the Daily Beast has reached out to Musk’s representatives for further clarification.
Musk’s name does indeed appear in the latest batch of documents released by Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?)” reads a note found in a 2014 diary of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The revelation comes from a fresh haul of previously unreleased material pertaining to the Epstein investigation, which has continued to dog the Trump administration.
Musk has previously said that he was invited to Epstein’s compound on Little St. James in the Virgin Islands several times, but claims he turned down the offers.
In a statement to Vanity Fair in 2019, just days after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, Musk confirmed that he had visited the disgraced financier’s Manhattan townhouse for about 30 minutes several years previously, but that “Epstein is obviously a creep.” He added, “He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”
In an interview with the Department of Justice in August, British socialite and longtime Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, said she first met Musk in 2010 or 2011, during a multi-day stay on a Caribbean island for Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s birthday.
She also said she later saw Musk at an Oscars event, seemingly referring to a Vanity Fair Oscars party on March 2, 2014, where she and Musk were photographed together. The aspiring trillionaire has previously explained that image by saying he did not know Maxwell and that she had “photobombed” him.
Maxwell did not have any knowledge of a deeper relationship between Epstein and Musk, but believed emails between the two men were uncovered during discovery.
In June, Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, fell out with his buddy President Donald Trump in spectacular fashion. At the height of their spat, Musk wrote in a now-deleted tweet that Trump “is in the Epstein files.” He has since retracted the statement and apologized, saying that he “went too far.”
Others named in the latest round of Epstein file disclosures include Musk’s former colleague and right-wing billionaire, Peter Thiel, and Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Further documents are expected to be released as Congress prepares to vote on a bipartisan bill that would require full disclosure in the Epstein case.
I’m not a fan of musk but if his statement is true he couldn’t just not realised the flavour of creep he was and just didn’t want anything to do with his island harem, but at the time also not knowing they were kids so didn’t feel alarmed enough to speak up?
He donated a sizeable fraction of a billion to a guy whom he said is in the Epstein files, and the latter only after they had a falling-out. So yea, I won’t really believe his words on the matter.
That’s fair. I was just playing devil’s advocate. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he turns out he’s a true diddler
To continue playing devil’s advocat: It could be he only found out about it during his DOGE activities.
He still did nothing about it until he was kicked out of the inner circle.
He didn’t just learn about it, then exposed it. He learned about it, sat on the info, then released it when it felt like it would gain him something.
Given that he first claimed Trump was in the files and then apologised, the only valid devil’s advocate is “maybe he thought he had some proof but later realized it wasn’t conclusive”. The other options involve either him trying to blackmail Trump on a very sensitive matter or withholding critical information to preserve his fortune at the face of threats by Trump, both of which are ethically way worse than the first option.
Lets assume first option is true, which is not completely insane imo, after all his DOGE team did make many erroneous claims during their lifetime which were debunked later (and in many instances it was realized that they just had not analysed the situation carefully enough and jumped to conclusions). But then we are facing a man, whose impaired political judgement skills are proven time and time again, and yet who is trying to steer world wide politics towards his opinion by appearing at extremist right wing rallies. The net negative effect of this option is just as bad if he is going to make such grand claims on world issues based on his judgement skills.
Or he just realized Trump has much more (political) power than he and could damage him and his companies a lot.
Look, he just had the chance to explain himself clearly. But he did not, even though he has years of public speaking experience. So instead, you are imagining what he could have said. That usually suggests you are getting manipulated.
I’m not getting manipulated. I’m just playing devil’s advocate
The guy who accuses everyone of being pedos didn’t realize the “obvious” creep with his own island was a pedo? 🤔 Hmmmm…