How Orlando figures in the Epstein files

Brian Bell, Orlando Sentinel on Dec 27, 2025

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A look at some of the documents among the vast universe of records released from the investigation of the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein reveals connections to the city of Orlando — and a photographed meeting with Piglet at Disney World.

As might be expected, given the volume of information and the proximity of Epstein’s Palm Beach home to Central Florida, there are numerous references to Orlando in the federal Department of Justice “Epstein files.” A search for the word “Orlando” on DOJ’s Epstein Library page generates 117 results.

Located about 180 miles south of The City Beautiful, Epstein’s mansion was a primary location for his sexual abuse and sex-trafficking crimes against girls from the mid-2000s or earlier, investigators say. The initial police investigation into his activities began there in 2005.

Epstein died Aug. 10, 2019 in a cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. He was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex in Florida and New York. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Here is a look at some of the Central Florida connections.

A trip to the Magic Kingdom

A photo among the mountain of records released by the Justice Department of the probe into the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein shows him at Disney World posing with the character Piglet, a man and a young girl whose face is obscured.

That photo became public earlier, in a 2021 article from the Daily Mail. The news organization cited an unnamed source saying that Epstein was seen talking to the little girl before Piglet, from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” stood with the group at the Crystal Palace restaurant along the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street U.S.A. around 2004.

The source, said to have gone along on the trip, said, “It was a fun day. We ate in a restaurant with two of Jeffrey’s friends who he met there. Jeffrey however did not eat lunch. I hardly ever saw him eat at a restaurant. Food always had to be prepared by a personal chef.”

Another photo accompanying the Daily Mail article shows Epstein cuddling a sleeping young girl on his lap, purportedly as his private jet returns from Walt Disney World.

There is no information suggesting the unidentified girl was a victim of Epstein and her identity has remained anonymous, the Daily Mail said.

March 2007 grand jury

An FBI special agent gave testimony March 20, 2007, to a federal grand jury in West Palm Beach as part of the agency’s investigation of Epstein dubbed Operation Leap Year.

The agent testified about a 17-year-old girl who would give Epstein massages at his home that over time “became much more sexual in nature.”

Around the time of the girl’s 18th birthday the agent testified she “asked Mr. Epstein (if) she could borrow one of his cars to go to Orlando and he stated that — at first he said yes, and then he said he would get her a rental car.”

April 2007 grand jury

On April 24, 2007, a 21-year-old woman whose name was redacted testified before the same grand jury. She told the panel she “worked in a club up in Orlando” but its name was redacted.

She told the grand jury that when she was around 16 years old she met Epstein at his Palm Beach house through two acquaintances. She testified that he proposed for her “to bring girls to the house and for every girl that I brought I would make $200.”

When asked at the time if she was in contact with Epstein or anyone who worked for him she said she had not talked to him in years: “However, I did live with one of the girls in Orlando for a couple months to a year. I haven’t spoken to her in over a year either.”

Jane Doe No. 2

An April 2010 motion filed in the lawsuit of Jane Doe No. 2 vs. Epstein in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sought a protective order for depositions of certain nonparty witnesses — people not directly involved in the lawsuit.

The motion argued Epstein’s counsel had consistently and unnecessarily used depositions as a means to inform witnesses about the most intimate details of plaintiffs’ lives. The motion claimed Epstein’s counsel used leading questions that disclosed facts to witnesses without establishing any foundation for what the witnesses already knew.

One example cited in the motion was about questions Epstein’s lawyer asked the father of Jane Doe No. 4 about ties to an Orlando strip club.

“Did your daughter ever tell you that she worked at a gentleman’s club, a strip club?”; after the witness answered “no,” Epstein’s counsel asked: “If I ask you to assume that she testified that she tried out for three hours at a strip club called Dancers Royale in Orlando, has anyone told you that?” No response to the question was noted.