Olivia Asher is a reporter at the New Herald Tribune covering breaking news for the Digital Trends Desk. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Plain Dealer.
September 28 , 2026
WASHINGTON — FBI co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he was stepping down from his post to devote himself full time to pursuing unresolved questions surrounding the crimes and associates of financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The announcement comes amid renewed scrutiny of the government's handling of the Epstein case following the release of millions of pages of investigative records.
Bailey said the volume of material had convinced him that significant questions remained unanswered. “I have spent enough time reviewing the investigative record to understand how much information is sitting there,” Bailey said. “What shocks me is that, with all of this material, Ghislaine Maxwell remains the only person currently serving a federal sentence for the conduct surrounding Epstein. There should've been at least twenty convictions by now.”
Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate, is serving a 20-year federal sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking-related charges.
The enormous volume of newly public material has nevertheless renewed questions about people who appeared in Epstein's orbit. The presence of a person's name in investigative records, however, would not by itself establish that the individual committed a crime.
That distinction would be central to Bailey's investigation. Rather than treating names in the records as evidence of criminal conduct, investigators would be tasked with determining which allegations are supported by corroborating evidence, which witnesses can establish relevant facts and whether prosecutors could meet the high burden required for criminal convictions.
Bailey said the investigation would focus on evidence rather than speculation. “A name in a document isn't a conviction, and an allegation isn't proof,” he said. “But when investigators have witnesses, financial records, communications and corroborating evidence pointing in the same direction, those leads deserve to be followed wherever they go.”
The announcement places Bailey outside the FBI's ordinary chain of command, raising immediate questions about what authority a former senior FBI official could exercise and whether prosecutors would adopt any conclusions reached by his independent inquiry.
For now, the investigation into Epstein's activities has generated an extraordinary documentary record, but the publication of those records has not itself resulted in new criminal convictions. The question of whether additional individuals could ultimately face prosecution remains dependent on evidence, applicable statutes and decisions by federal or state prosecutors.
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