A New York reading room dedicated to the Epstein Files opened in Tribeca on Thursday, turning 3.5 million pages of records into a public exhibit that will be available by appointment only through May 21.
The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room holds the full cache of Epstein-related records released by the Department of Justice earlier this year, compiled into more than 3,700 individual volumes and presented as more than 17,000 pounds of evidence. A detailed timeline inside the installation traces the relationship between Epstein and Donald Trump from 1987 to 2007, including a note that Epstein and Trump first met in Palm Beach, that Epstein attended Trump's wedding to Marla Maples in 1993, and that his membership at Mar-a-Lago ended in 2007.
David Garrett, speaking for the Institute for Primary Facts, said the material in the room represents one of the most horrific crimes in American history and urged visitors to see the display as a call to action. He said people who come through the room should understand that in America there is a rule of law and that citizens can demand accountability for crimes that were committed.
The installation is being described as an analog version of the Epstein files, built to show the scale of Epstein’s crimes and the impunity with which he carried them out. Candles on the floor represent more than 1,200 victims, matching the Justice Department’s estimate that Epstein had more than 1,200 potential victims. The shelves are arranged around an exhibit in support of survivors, making the room as much a memorial as an archive.
The records also include an email thread from 2016 in which Epstein asked a woman for a naughty selfie and later asked whether she had any friends who might want to work for him. In another message he wrote, “Do you have any friends that might want to work for me?...I will give you money if you find someone willing to travel, 22-25, educated. Personable.” Epstein died in prison in 2019.
The exhibit lands in a politically charged moment because it places Trump's name beside Epstein’s in a public setting while the White House is insisting the former president has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also said Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone. The reading room, which was verified by numerous fact-checkers and lawyers employed by the Institute for Primary Facts, gives visitors a place to inspect the records themselves rather than argue over them from a distance.
What happens next is simple and public: anyone who wants to see the files can do so by appointment in New York through May 21, and the exhibit is built to force a reckoning with the scale of what the records describe.
