As of July 18, 2025

September 1973
Donald Barr, headmaster of the Dalton School, a private high school in Manhattan, publishes a sci-fi novel that involves child sex trafficking by powerful oligarchs with the protagonist joining in and unbothered by this.

September 1974
Jeffrey Epstein starts working as a teacher at the Dalton School despite his lack of credentials. The hiring headmaster at the time is Donald Barr, though it is unclear if he is involved in Epstein’s hiring. Barr is known at this time to make a number of questionable hires.

June 1976
Epstein is dismissed from the Dalton School for “poor performance.”

March 2005
Epstein is accused of soliciting a 14-year-old girl for a strip tease and massage in Palm Beach, Florida. Police chief Michael Reiter would publicly call out Palm Beach County District Attorney Barry Krischer for not sufficiently investigating Epstein. Krischer has a long history of manipulating the justice system to cover up crimes for his friends.

Reiter convinces the FBI to get involved in the case and identifies five alleged victims, some ages 14 and 15, as well as 40 other minors who were likely subjects of inappropriate behavior by Epstein.

July 2006
Epstein is arrested and charged with procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. Krischer takes the very odd step of convening a grand jury and presents evidence from only two of the alleged victims, resulting in a single charge of felony solicitation of prostitution.

The FBI opens a wider investigation of Epstein.

August 2006
Epstein pleads not guilty and hires a legal team that includes Alan Dershowitz and former Clinton Special Prosecutor Ken Starr.

June 2007
The FBI produces a 53-page indictment of Epstein. Dershowitz negotiates a plea deal with U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta that grants Epstein immunity from prosecution in exchange for Epstein pleading guilty to the single count from July 2006. Acosta would later contend that he cut the deal because he was told that Epstein was an intelligence asset and to leave the case alone.

November 2007
Epstein forms the Florida Science Foundation, a non-profit.

June 2008
Epstein pleads guilty to one count of procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18 and is sentenced to 18 months in prison. Highly unusually, he is sent to a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade, in an unlocked cell, and after less than 4 months was allowed to leave for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, in violation of the Palm Beach County Sheriff Department’s policies regarding work release for sex offenders. He is allowed to have his own private driver transport him to and from the prison. To satisfy the conditions of his work release, Epstein works out of the office of the Florida Science Foundation.

February 2008
Two unnamed women sue Epstein, claiming that they were raped by Epstein when they were 16 years old. These cases will later be dismissed.

July 2009
After serving less than 13 months, Epstein is released and given a year of probation on house arrest. During this time he is allowed to travel on his private jet to a number of locations, including a residence in Manhattan, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

October 2009
Epstein dissolves the Florida Science Foundation.

January 2011
Manhattan ADA Jennifer Gaffney is chided by a judge for arguing that Epstein’s sexual offender status – that of Level 3 “high risk of repeat” – be downgraded to a Level 1 low-risk designation. As a Level 3 offender, Epstein is required to personally check in with NYPD every 90 days. NYPD fails to enforce this.

September 2013
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announces that her office is considering joining a New York state lawsuit against Trump University. Four days later, Trump’s personal foundation donates $25,000 to Bondi’s reelection campaign. Bondi declines to join the New York case.

December 2014
Two women sue the United States for violations of the Crime Victim’s Rights Act over Acosta’s 2007 non-prosecution deal, and also allege that Dershowitz sexually abused a minor that Epstein provided him, and that Epstein ran a sex trafficking organization that procured underage girls for “prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders.” This case is referred to as Two Jane Does v US.

Virginia Giuffre files a sworn affidavit that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sexually trafficked her when she was 17 for their own use and the use of Dershowitz and Prince Andrew and forced her to recruit other victims.

September 2015
Giuffre sues Maxwell for defamation over comments concerning Giuffre’s 2014 affidavit.

April 2016
A federal lawsuit is filed by a woman alleging that Epstein and Trump sexually assaulted her at a series of parties in 1994 when she was 13 years old. The suit will be dismissed by a federal judge the next month.

September 2016
Another federal suit by another woman is filed alleging the same as the suit from April 2016. The case is withdrawn after the victim is alleged to have received threats on her life.

November 2016
Trump is elected president. Trump settles a class action suit against Trump University without admitting wrongdoing. The settlement is paid by a Trump investor claiming to be providing the funds as part of an unrelated real estate transaction.

January 2017
Sarah Ransome files suit against Epstein and Maxwell alleging that she was threatened with physical harm and retaliation if she refused sexual demands. The suit will be settled out of court with details sealed.

April 2017
After being nominated by Donald Trump, Acosta is sworn in as Secretary of Labor.

December 2018
Lawyer Bradley Edwards sues Epstein for defamation. Epstein settles for undisclosed terms rather than allow Edwards to provide evidence in court.

February 2019
Two Jane Does v US concludes with a finding that the government violated the law, but provides no penalty or remedy.

William Barr, son of Donald Barr, is sworn in as U.S. Attorney General after being nominated by Trump.

March 2019
As part of Giuffre’s 2015 defamation suit against Maxwell, unsealed testimony unveils accusations that Guiffre was forced by Maxwell to provide sexual services to Prince Andrew, then-Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, an unnamed foreign president, an unnamed prime minister, and many other rich and powerful men.

July 6, 2019
Epstein is arrested by a joint FBI-NYPD task force on sex trafficking charges. His residence in Manhattan is raided and thousands of sexually suggestive or explicit pictures of women, many confirmed to be underage, are discovered, as well as a fraudulent passport that had been used to enter a number of different countries.

July 8, 2019
Epstein is charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex. The indictment alleges that Epstein has brought “dozens” of underage girls to his Manhattan residence for the purposes of sex. He offers to post a $100 million bond. The court declines, citing him as an extreme flight risk and danger to the community. 

Citing work with a law firm that represented Epstein in the past, Barr recuses himself from the case. The case is handled by Maurene Comey, former law clerk to New York judge Loretta Preska, and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017 over the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference on behalf of Trump in the 2016 election.

July 29, 2019
Epstein is found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck.  His cellmate, former NYPD officer Nicholas Tartaglione, himself awaiting trial on four counts of murder, denies any knowledge of what happened. Six days later, Epstein is taken off of suicide watch and placed with another cellmate.

August 9, 2019
Epstein’s new cellmate is transferred out and not replaced, despite protocol. Further, corrections officers are supposed to check on him every thirty minutes, but leave him unattended for a window of three hours, falsifying records to cover this up. Two cameras aimed at his cell malfunction. Epstein is found dead in his cell the next morning. His death is immediately reported as a suicide by Barr despite no official investigation being concluded.

November 2019
Trump is ordered by a New York state court to pay $2 million in damages for misusing his personal foundation to make illegal campaign contributions, including to Bondi’s 2014 election campaign. Bondi is hired to defend Trump during his first impeachment hearing.

December 2019
Judge Preska orders a list of names of more than 170 Epstein associates be release on January 1, 2024.

December 2021
Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance writes on Twitter “If you’re a journalist and you’re not asking questions about this case you should be ashamed of yourself. What purpose do you even serve? I’m sure there’s a middle class teenager somewhere who could use some harassing right now but maybe try to do your job once in a while.”

December 2023
Former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense Kash Patel urges Trump to release “Epstein’s client list” on day one of his presidency if he is re-elected.

January 2024
As ordered by Judge Preska in 2019, Documents are released with affidavits from various lawsuits linking Trump, former president Bill Clinton, physicist Stephen Hawking, and other wealthy and powerful individuals to Epstein. Most of these links are without accusation of wrongdoing.

September 2024
Trump states that he has no problem releasing the alleged client list, and suggests that he will do so if he is elected to a second term as President.

October 2024
Vance, now the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, says “We need to release the Epstein list.”

November 2024
Trump is elected to a second term as President.

February 2025
After being nominated by Trump, Bondi is sworn in as U.S. Attorney General and Patel is sworn in as FBI director. She is directly asked about the alleged client list and responds “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”

March 2025
Dershowitz claims to have knowledge of the names on Epstein’s client list.

May 2025
Sean Combs goes on trial for a number of charges including sex trafficking. Maurene Comey is the lead prosecutor.

June 2025
Former presidential advisor Elon Musk states that he has knowledge of the alleged client list and that it has not been released because it implicates Trump.

July 2, 2025
Combs is found guilty of lesser charges and not guilty of the more serious charges against him.

July 7, 2025
A DOJ memo from Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino states that the DOJ will not release any more documents relating to Epstein.

July 8, 2025
In a cabinet meeting, Trump criticizes reporters for discussing Epstein and Bondi attempts to clarify that she was talking about the entire Epstein file in February 2025, despite being asked directly about the alleged client list. 

July 13, 2025
Trump claims that the Epstein files are falsified documents created by former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wife of Bill Clinton.

July 15, 2025
House Democrats force a vote on releasing the entire Epstein file. This vote fails 211-210, with all Republicans voting against and all Democrats voting in favor.

July 16, 2025
The Department of Justice dismisses Maurene Comey, allegedly due to her being the daughter of James Comey.

July 17, 2025
The Wall Street Journal reports that Maxwell collected correspondence to Epstein from dozens of people, including a salacious letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday from Trump which includes the inscription “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

July 18, 2025
Trump threatens to sue the Wall Street Journal over their report containing the birthday letter to Epstein, calling it a fabrication. Trump also claims to have ordered Bondi to produce any and all grand jury testimony, subject to court approval. As any grand jury proceedings would involve only the direct subject of the investigation and any named co-conspirators, it is extremely unlikely that Trump’s name would be involved in such documents, and would be a very small fraction of the entire DOJ file on Epstein.

Vance writes on Twitter: “Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it.”

Establishment Dems talk about ideological purity a lot and how the Left demands it, refuses to vote for candidates who aren’t ideologically pure, and thus, hurt the party. They frame this as “the Left won’t vote for anyone who’s not a hard-charging Bernie Sanders-style anti-capitalist crusader, and this is why Republicans win!” While there are definitely some on the Left who will agree on the first part, the second part is a total lie. The vast majority of those demanding “ideological purity” from Dems are literally just asking Democrats to run candidates who support Democratic ideals. The problem is, the rank and file and the establishment have very different ideas of what those are.

The Democratic Party is, in essence, a center-right, pro-business, socially moderate party with no strong ethos other than “don’t upset the money.” It is the GOP from 50 years ago, just with less backbone. The problem is that everyone who is in favor of that is either rich, in their 90s, or in the ground already. The modern non-GOP voter wants candidates that will work for them. And when I say “work for them,” I don’t mean some nebulous “work for the people,” I mean “actually make the lives of the non-rich better in these highly quantifiable ways.” The establishment does not agree with this.

The starkest difference between the Dems and the GOP is how they deal with ideology within their parties. The GOP has allowed a fringe authoritarian ideology drive them for the last 40+ years, leading to what we have today. Why? It’s loud and preys on fear, and it works. Older GOP politicians probably aren’t the raving proto-fascists we see today from the party, but pantomiming it to secure and maintain power makes them seem like that. Younger GOP pols? Wearing jackboots. Why? Because that increasing curve into authoritarianism generated true believers, who are beginning to take over. It went from “Mexicans are going to take your jobs!” to “we either win elections at the ballot box, or at gunpoint” because leading by fear produces extreme results.

Dems, on the other hand, refuse to be lead by their party. The establishment demands top-down control, and the top does not care much about the bottom. What it does let itself be lead by, unfortunately, is “The Middle.” The problem here is that, in our two-party system*, “The Middle” only matters if both parties are fighting over it. The GOP is not. It does not need the political center, because it operates on fanatical turnout from its base coupled with driving turnout down among others. The GOP does this in two ways: 1) making it difficult or impossible for those that aren’t likely to vote for them to vote at all and 2) preying on the discord the Democratic party itself generates internally to drive down turnout. And in doing this, they shift the center. The GOP has managed to shift the Overton window steadily to the right for decades by painting moderate Dems as burgeoning Stalinists, and in response, the Dem establishment moves to the right to try to prove them wrong. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work.

There are, of course, “independent” voters, but they don’t represent “The Middle.” Most of them are low-info, reactionary voters who show up once every four years to vote for whichever candidate has made them care more. To be fair to them, though, most voters are low-info, because neither party likes an informed electorate. Independents tend to say they don’t like either party, but typically it’s more that they don’t care enough to form an opinion longer than it takes to vote. The GOP strategy toward this group is either to keep them home or make them angry at Dems. Both strategies are super effective, because both are easy.

Look at when Dems have won – years that the GOP has been in control when the economy has tanked. Look at years the GOP has won – all the others. They win elections when they’re destroying the country, as long as the money isn’t being touched, because they excel at blaming Dems for their own failures and only lose when those failures are so horrifically large to shift all the blame on. Democrats, on the other hand, are completely inept at even taking credit for their own wins, and are constantly playing catch-up, which, in turn, moves the Overton window farther to the right.

This, in turn, leads the Dem establishment to further marginalize and demonize voices within the party calling for a move to the left, because they still think they can win “The Middle” by being centrists. The only thing they do is create a larger, more disaffected bloc that cannot be relied on to turn out. Rinse, repeat, definition of insanity. “But they won in 2020!” Did they? 2016 and 2020 should have been layup elections where they not only won the White House, but supermajorities in Congress. 2020 was not a win. All it did was barely hold the line. Heavily on display was the Dem establishment strategy of attacking the concept of ideological purity in favor of “what wins.” TWENTY-NINE Dem candidates for President, and they were mainly there to paint candidates like Sanders and Warren as outside the mainstream.

Contrary to what the Dem establishment would have us believe, “what wins” is candidates who say stuff like “it would cost lest money and lower your taxes to forgive student loans so let’s do it” instead of touting GOP lines like “what about people who paid theirs off?” Dem candidates aligning themselves with the establishment will pile on any outsider who says stuff that upsets the money, and piling on draws the money. Dems calling other Dems “socialist” is hilarious, because if you stop using that word and list what it means, that polls extremely well. But the money doesn’t like it. The only ideological purity that the Dem establishment cares about is fealty to the money.

And that’s the biggest difference between the Dems and the GOP. For all the squawking Dems do about ideological purity, the GOP has been practicing this for quite some time, and it works terrifyingly well. Republican voters purge anyone with even a hint of moderation in their primaries, general election consequences be damned, because their party is willing to sacrifice borderline districts in order to increase turnout everywhere, and slowly eat up more control of the process. GOP candidates that lose are considered failures unto themselves for not being pure enough. The Dem establishment paints center-left leaning candidates as threats to general election success, and either paints establishment candidate wins as vindication, or losses as the result of leftist spite.

* Yes, a two-party system, because like it or not, our Constitution does not allow for viable third parties.