A newly released tranche of United States Department of Justice material tied to Jeffrey Epstein is drawing renewed scrutiny after documents circulated publicly appeared to include detailed records of purchases linked to the late financier’s Amazon account, alongside fresh reporting and political reaction over the scope and redactions of the wider disclosure.
The documents highlighted in recent coverage set out an online shopping history that includes books, clothing and other items ordered over multiple years. Several of the purchases have been described as deeply troubling when viewed against the backdrop of Epstein’s criminal history and the allegations made against him by numerous accusers. Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected figure who pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution, later faced federal sex-trafficking charges in New York and died in custody in 2019 in what authorities ruled a suicide.
The Amazon order history referenced in the latest reporting includes multiple titles connected to Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian author whose 1955 novel Lolita centres on a middle-aged man’s fixation on a 12-year-old girl. Epstein’s private jet was widely known to have been nicknamed the “Lolita Express”, a detail that has long been cited in coverage of his social circle and travel.
Among the items listed in the documents, Epstein is described as having purchased Lectures on Literature by Nabokov, as well as Discourse and Ideology in Nabokov’s Prose by David H. J. Larmour. Other book purchases described in the material include Justine, first published in the 18th century and associated with the Marquis de Sade, as well as Ann Rule’s true-crime memoir The Stranger Beside Me about serial killer Ted Bundy. The reported list also includes Lying by neuroscientist Sam Harris and a 2016 paperback titled Nobody Likes A C**block*, styled to resemble a children’s book.
Beyond books, the records cited describe purchases of children’s clothing and items marketed for infants. The documents referenced include an order on 19 February 2018 for two sets of girls’ uniforms described as intended for school-aged children, including one beige set and another in white and black. The records also describe a purchase in June 2017 of Gerber baby girls’ sleeper suits, followed by children’s stacking blocks delivered to New York the following month.
Some items described in the reported purchase history are explicitly sexual, including a product marketed for “vaginal tightening”, a stripper pole listed as a portable fitness item and a leather whip. The same reporting also references other purchases ranging from a nautical-style brass and leather telescope and an embroidered sombrero to microscopic cameras.
The attention on the shopping records has landed amid broader controversy over what the Justice Department has released and what remains withheld or redacted under legal privilege. In late January, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department had released more than three million pages of documents related to the Epstein investigations, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, with extensive redactions. Reporting in the United States and Britain has described the disclosure as part of a large-scale “data dump” required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, alongside an acknowledgment that additional material was being withheld or redacted under various privileges, including attorney-client and deliberative-process protections.
The controversy has also moved to Capitol Hill. Recent accounts describe lawmakers being granted access to unredacted materials and then speaking publicly about what they said they saw. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, was quoted as saying the documents referenced previously unreported young victims, including one as young as nine. “You read through these files, and you read about 15-year-old girls, 14-year-old girls, 10-year-old girls. I saw a mention of a 9-year-old girl today. I mean, this is just preposterous and scandalous,” he said, according to the reporting.
The same accounts said the publicly released material contained multiple redactions, including obscured identities, and that lawmakers were disputing whether the redactions were justified. According to reporting in the Guardian, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna publicly disclosed the names of six men whose identities had been redacted, after he and Republican Representative Thomas Massie reviewed unredacted files at the Justice Department. The Guardian reported that Khanna did not present evidence of wrongdoing against the individuals and that appearance in the files does not establish guilt. It also reported that some of the men appeared to have been included because their images were part of a law enforcement photo lineup, not because of a known relationship to Epstein.
Separate material highlighted in the new coverage focuses on documents describing Epstein’s relationship with Celina Dubin, now a physician in her 30s and the daughter of Eva Dubin, a former Miss Sweden who later married billionaire investor Glenn Dubin. The documents described in the reporting suggest Epstein maintained contact with Celina from childhood and referred to her as his “goddaughter”. The same coverage cites a claim that Epstein told friends in 2014 that Celina, who was 19 at the time, was the only person he wanted to marry, prompting a response from a family spokesperson.
A spokesperson for the Dubin family was quoted as describing the remark as an “offhand comment,” and adding that the family had been unaware of it. “There is no justification for dragging Celina into a public controversy she had nothing to do with,” the spokesperson said.
The documents described also set out exchanges said to have occurred between Epstein and Celina, including messages around events and offers to buy clothing. One excerpt cited in the reporting quotes Epstein writing after attending a lacrosse game in Brooklyn: “It was great fun, my first game,” followed by a reply attributed to Celina: “I wish you could have come to a game where I played offense, but I’m glad you enjoyed it!!!!”
Another exchange highlighted in the same coverage relates to a 2011 trip to Paris, where Celina is quoted as writing: “Anything!! You know what I like, I also need some cool but also flattering and somewhat sexy (ish) shirts that I can wear when I go out at night,” and Epstein is quoted replying: “100%,” according to the documents referenced. The reporting also describes Epstein emailing a modelling agent, Jean-Luc Brunel, after Celina sought modelling advice, and contacting Harvard professor Martin Nowak, writing: “My goddaughter and most favorite person in the whole world is coming up to Harvard on sept 1-2,, [sic] please show her or help in any way you and she agree,” he wrote.
The Dubin family spokesperson was also quoted rejecting any suggestion of improper influence connected to Celina’s education. “The suggestion that she got into Harvard because of an email from Epstein to a math professor is gratuitous and offensive undermining of a young woman’s significant accomplishments,” the spokesperson said, according to the report.
The latest disclosures and the reaction to them arrive in a political climate where the Epstein case continues to generate public anger, with victims and advocates arguing that transparency measures must not compound harm to survivors. In January, the Guardian reported that a group of Epstein survivors issued a statement criticising the way releases can expose victim identities while redacting names of alleged abusers, calling that outcome “outrageous”.
