Musk claims ‘major’ US Democrats in Epstein docs

X owner Elon Musk. © Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Senior members of the US Democratic Party and their benefactors are listed in the Epstein documents, X owner Elon Musk has claimed.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the FBI agents reviewing the files on the convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein had identified numerous references to US President Donald Trump, as well as dozens of other high-profile figures. The agency stressed that the appearance of any name “is not evidence of a crime or even a suggestion of wrongdoing.”

Responding to the report, one X user suggested that “when a Democrat becomes president, they’ll un-redact these names.”

Musk, however, did not agree, saying, “They won’t, because major Dems and their donors are on the list too.” He did not offer any evidence or elaborate.

In 2019, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton confirmed that he had flown on Epstein’s private aircraft multiple times, while stressing that the ex-US leader had never visited Epstein’s notorious private island.

Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s former lawyer, has named two Democrats – former Senator George Mitchell and former UN Ambassador Bill Richardson – as appearing in the documents, stressing that that alone did not indicate any wrongdoing.

In June, Musk – who had a falling-out with Trump over his legislative agenda – claimed that the president was in the Epstein files, suggesting, “that is the real reason they have not been made public.” He later deleted his post, acknowledging he “went too far.”

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges involving minors, with some of the abuse occurring on his private island, Little St. James, located in the US Virgin Islands. The financier later died in jail in what was ruled a suicide. The case has fueled intense public scrutiny, driven by Epstein’s ties to powerful figures across politics, finance, royalty, and media, as well as rumors of a potential cover-up.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to release all documents related to Epstein if elected. However, in July 2025, the US authorities concluded that Epstein did not keep a so-called “client list” that could implicate his high-profile associates, sparking widespread public uproar.

‘No defense against’ Russia’s Oreshnik missile – ex-Pentagon analyst

Neither Ukraine nor its Western backers have any means to counter Russia’s newly deployed intermediate-range Oreshnik missile, Michael Maloof, a former senior Pentagon security analyst, told RT in an interview on Friday.

Maloof noted that the Oreshnik could “easily shift the balance of power overwhelmingly in favor” of Russia in any conflict, including the ongoing hostilities with Ukraine.

“Having a hypersonic [missile] for which there’s no defense currently… is astonishing. It absolutely alters that balance of power dramatically, for which the Ukrainians have no defense,” he said.

He noted that while the US is working to adapt missile defense systems such as THAAD to counter hypersonic threats, these programs remain under development. “There’s no operational ability at this point to deal with a hypersonic missile,” Maloof said, adding that the Oreshnik could reach its targets within mere minutes.

The former analyst added that the missile also travels at a speed of over 7,000 miles (11,000km) an hour. “There’s no defense against that,” he said.

The missile system, Maloof stated, has already been tested successfully in Ukraine in battlefield conditions. He was referring to a strike on Ukraine’s Yuzhmash military industrial facility in the city of Dnepr in November 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said afterward that the missile’s warheads flew at speeds exceeding Mach 10 and could not be intercepted by existing air defenses. The missile could also carry conventional and nuclear payloads and travel up to several thousand kilometers.

According to Putin, the Oreshnik strike on Ukraine was a response to the country’s decision to use Western-supplied long-range missiles for attacks deep into Russia.

On Friday, the Russian president said that the first serially produced Oreshnik missile system had entered service with the armed forces. He also noted that the question of supplying the weapons to Belarus, Russia’s key ally, will likely be resolved by the end of the year.