It is important to keep the major time-line in mind
This is not a sex scandal. It is an international extortion and money laundering scheme that used sex as bait.
Prior to 1980, Epstein was a teacher at a small private college.
In 1980, he got a job at Bear Stearns, which he used to aggressively develop contacts in internation finance, particularly dark money and money laundering.
Late 1980s, Trump and Epstein were hanging out together regularly, and sex parties were part of the bond, apparently.
In 1996, Trump bought the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants. By that time, Trump and Epstein had been hanging closely for years
By 1998, it is rumored that Epstein was having some contacts with Putin.
1998, Epstein bought Little St. James Island
September, 1998, Trump reportedly first met Melania at the KitKat club. There are implications that Epstein facilitated this acquaintance. Trump was still married to Marla Maples, but separated.
In August, 1999, Putin rose to Prime Minister of Russia, and a few months later was named President.
2000 Maxwell recruited Virginia Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago who became a sex slave for Epstein
2003 - 2019 Epstein ran a billion dollars through JP Morgan accounts.
2005, Trump and Melania were married.
2006, Epstein first arrested on prostitution charges
2014 Eric Trump reportedly said the quiet part out loud, that Trump gets "all the funding we need out of Russia"
July 2019, Epstein again arrested on federal sex trafficking charges
August 2019, Epstein died in a jail cell, 2 weeks after his lawyers met with the Feds to explore full cooperation in the entire operation.
April 2025. Virginia Giuffre died, reportedly as a result of a car accident that officials described as minor. She was an accuser of Prince Andrew.
Ted Lieu reports that the unredacted files show one trump accuser was apparently never investigated by the FBI, and later was shot dead. I don't know when those events happened.
There are numerous reports of Epstein actively cultivating powerful Russian connections at the same time that Trump was being bailed out by these same Russian interests. Various contacts include Sergei Belyakov, Vitaly Churkin, Karyna Shuliak, Maria Drokova Bucher and Putin himself.