• Handwritten notes from a federal prosecutor in February 2016 show Brunel was “wanting to cooperate” and “afraid of being prosecuted”
• Epstein emailed an attorney that someone had asked for $3 million so Brunel would not walk into the U.S. Attorney’s office — then Brunel went silent
• Victims’ attorneys say the collapse of cooperation “set us back a couple of years” while more than 50 additional girls were trafficked

NEW YORK, NY (TDR) — Among the millions of pages the Justice Department has released in the Epstein files, one set of documents stands out for what it reveals about the investigation that almost was. In February 2016 — three years before Jeffrey Epstein was finally arrested — one of his closest facilitators was ready to turn on him.

French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, who ran the MC2 Model Management agency with Epstein’s financial backing, was in secret negotiations with victims’ attorneys and federal prosecutors in New York to provide evidence in exchange for immunity, according to newly obtained federal files reported by the Wall Street Journal. His lawyer told those attorneys that Brunel had recruited girls for Epstein and possessed incriminating photographs. A date was being discussed for Brunel to walk into the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Then the talks collapsed. Epstein found out. And the federal government did nothing for three more years.

The Prosecutor’s Notes

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The timeline begins with handwritten notes taken by a federal prosecutor in February 2016. The language is blunt.

“One of Epstein’s bfs, Jean Luc Brunel, has helped get girls. He is wanting to cooperate.”

The notes continue:

“Brunel is afraid of being prosecuted.”

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Additional entries from Feb. 29, 2016 record that Joseph Titone, Brunel’s attorney, had relayed specific claims to lawyers for Epstein’s victims.

“Titone says his client has photographic evidence.”

The notes also stated that Brunel “doesn’t want to implicate himself” — a tension that would define the negotiations. He wanted immunity. He had evidence. But he also had personal exposure.

The information reached federal prosecutors through victims’ attorneys Stan Pottinger and David Boies, who relayed what they were hearing from Brunel’s lawyer. By early 2016, discussions were underway about a specific date for Brunel to appear at the Southern District of New York. The cooperation appeared imminent.

Epstein Found Out — And The $3 Million Question

What happened next is where the files become most troubling. On May 3, 2016, Epstein emailed Kathy Ruemmler — a former Obama White House counsel who was among his regular correspondents — alerting her that Brunel was planning to visit the U.S. Attorney’s office the following week.

The email contained a striking detail: one of Brunel’s friends “had asked for 3 million dollars so that Jean Luc would not go in,” according to the Justice Department files.

Epstein also wrote that Brunel feared arrest if he failed to attend the meeting. He dismissed Brunel’s lawyer and associates as “scammers” and cast doubt on their credibility — while simultaneously alerting Ruemmler that a potential cooperating witness was about to walk into the federal building.

“This was another instance of Epstein attempting to engage Ms. Ruemmler on a matter about which she had no knowledge, and she appropriately directed him to his legal counsel.”

That was the response from Jennifer Connelly, a spokeswoman for Ruemmler, to the Wall Street Journal. Ruemmler resigned from her position as general counsel of Goldman Sachs last week amid scrutiny over roughly 8,400 documents involving her in the Epstein files, telling the Financial Times the media attention had become “a distraction.”

After Epstein’s email about Brunel’s planned cooperation, the talks fell apart. Brunel stopped communicating with the attorneys. No meeting with prosecutors occurred.

No Investigation Opened

The federal documents reveal what may be the most consequential detail: no investigation was launched.

A 2021 government court filing states that the prosecutor who wrote the February 2016 notes discussed the information with colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI. The notes referencing Brunel were redacted in that filing. But the bottom line remained the same — nothing happened.

“It set us back a couple of years.”

That was Boies, the prominent attorney who filed civil suits on behalf of Epstein’s victims, speaking to the Wall Street Journal about Brunel’s decision to back out.

“We know from our lawsuits that there were more than 50 girls that were trafficked after this.”

The Department of Justice did not move against Epstein until late 2018, after Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown published an investigative series that brought renewed public attention to the case. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and died in a New York jail cell the following month in what the city medical examiner ruled a suicide.

The Modeling Pipeline

The files add granular detail to how Brunel’s modeling network served as an Epstein recruitment pipeline. Epstein wired up to $1 million to Brunel around 2004 to help launch MC2 Model Management, which opened offices in New York and Miami. The agency name was reportedly an inside reference to the equation E=MC², with the “E” standing for Epstein.

“Epstein’s wealth and power allowed him to infiltrate industries, perhaps most pervasively the modeling industry. He found in Jean-Luc a like-minded predator with whom he could conspire on a daily basis to recruit and control the lives of countless young women, including Jane Doe.”

That was Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented more than 200 Epstein victims.

Flight logs from 1998 to 2005 show Brunel was a passenger on Epstein’s private jet on 25 trips. When Epstein was jailed in Florida in 2008 after pleading guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution, jail records show Brunel visited him nearly 70 times.

On May 3, 2016 — the same day Epstein emailed Ruemmler about the cooperation talks — Pottinger wrote to a federal prosecutor about Daniel Siad, whom Brunel had described as a “scout” or recruiter of girls and women for Epstein. Emails in the files show Siad updating Epstein about potential recruits, writing in one message to “please send me the details of the girls names etc.”

Both Key Witnesses Are Dead

Brunel’s own attorney told the Journal he urged his client to cooperate with authorities and sever ties with Epstein.

“I recommended and advised him to stop communicating with Epstein, but he never did.”

That was Titone, who watched the cooperation window close.

The breach between Brunel and Epstein proved temporary. By April 2015 — before the 2016 cooperation talks — Brunel had proposed mediation over a lawsuit he filed against Epstein alleging that MC2 had lost up to $10 million in business due to the notoriety surrounding Epstein. Epstein responded by email suggesting he had “some ideas that I think you will like.” The suit was settled under confidential terms.

After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Brunel went into hiding. French police arrested him in December 2020 as he attempted to board a flight to Senegal. He was charged with rape of minors and held at La Santé prison in Paris. In February 2022 — four years to the month after the cooperation talks would have brought him into the U.S. Attorney’s office — Brunel was found hanged in his cell.

Both Brunel and Epstein are now dead. Neither testified. Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2021 and serving a 20-year sentence, remains the only person from Epstein’s inner circle to face criminal prosecution in the United States.

France Reopens Its Investigation

The files have prompted action overseas. Paris prosecutors announced on Feb. 14 that they are creating a dedicated team of magistrates to analyze the DOJ documents for possible French involvement. The Brunel investigation, closed in 2023 after his death, will be thoroughly re-examined. Ten women had made accusations against Brunel during the initial French probe, several describing being forced to drink alcohol and subjected to sexual assault.

Prosecutors have also opened new investigations into three individuals including French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, whose name surfaced in the files, and Daniel Siad — the same recruiter Brunel had identified to victims’ attorneys in 2016.

Meanwhile, a UN Human Rights Council panel stated in February 2026 that the Epstein files depicted a “global criminal enterprise” with acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity under international law.

What The Files Force Us To Ask

The 2016 cooperation talks raise questions that cut across institutional lines. Federal prosecutors had credible information from a named co-conspirator that Epstein was running an active trafficking operation. Brunel’s attorney had confirmed his client possessed photographic evidence. Victims’ lawyers had done the work of identifying a cooperating witness and connecting him with the government.

The investigation did not advance. The Southern District of New York — the same office that would eventually arrest Epstein three years later — did not open a case. A spokesman for the office declined to comment.

The question is not whether a single prosecutor failed. It is whether the systems designed to protect trafficking victims functioned as intended — and whether the pattern of inaction that defined the Epstein case from 2008 through 2019 represents individual failures or something structural that has yet to be addressed.

When a cooperating witness with photographic evidence is ready to walk into a federal building and the investigation still doesn’t open — what institutional reforms would ensure that future trafficking cases aren’t lost to the same pattern of delay?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from the Wall Street Journal’s investigation as reported by LBC, NBC News coverage of Ruemmler’s Goldman Sachs departure, the Associated Press profile of the Ruemmler-Epstein relationship, Bloomberg’s reporting on France reopening probes, the Detroit News on French investigations, France in English on the Brunel case reopening, AFP reporting on Daniel Siad, Wikipedia’s compiled Epstein files overview, Wikipedia’s Jean-Luc Brunel biography, and French prosecutors’ statement on the special investigation team.

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