(José Niño, Headline USA) Jean-Luc Brunel was prepared to provide testimony against Jeffrey Epstein when he abruptly ceased cooperating with federal prosecutors in 2016, newly released Justice Department files reveal, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The French modeling scout was secretly negotiating with lawyers representing Epstein’s victims. Brunel’s attorney informed them his client recruited girls for Epstein and possessed incriminating photographs. They discussed a date for Brunel to enter the US Attorney’s office in New York in exchange for immunity.
“One of Epstein’s bfs, Jean Luc Brunel, has helped get girls. He is wanting to cooperate,” according to handwritten notes taken by a federal prosecutor in February 2016 that are now accessible on the Justice Department’s website. “Brunel is afraid of being prosecuted.”
Then Brunel went silent. Epstein had discovered the negotiations were occurring. On May 3, he sent an email to Kathy Ruemmler, an attorney with whom he corresponded regularly. He wrote that Brunel planned to visit the US Attorney’s office the following week and one of Brunel’s friends had “asked for 3 million dollars so that Jean Luc would not go in.”
Epstein told Ruemmler that Brunel feared arrest if he failed to appear. “I want to know more,” Epstein wrote, dismissing Brunel’s lawyer and friend as “scammers.”
Ruemmler responded hours later requesting Epstein call and explain the situation. The next day she wrote “Awake now. Talking to Poe in 20 mins.” Gregory Poe was Epstein’s Washington DC lawyer.
The documents do not clarify why Brunel ultimately remained quiet. What is clear is Brunel did not cooperate with prosecutors and Epstein remained free for another three years until his 2019 arrest. He allegedly died in jail in what was ruled suicide by New York’s medical examiner.
“It set us back a couple of years,” said David Boies, one of the attorneys who filed civil lawsuits on behalf of Epstein victims, referring to Brunel’s withdrawal. “We know from our lawsuits that there were more than 50 girls that were trafficked after this.”
Brunel was a central figure in Epstein’s operation who used his position atop a US modeling agency to recruit foreign girls and young women, securing work visas and providing the appearance of legitimate employment. He traveled on Epstein’s plane, visited his island and exchanged hundreds of emails with him.
The files also show federal prosecutors in New York received briefings on Epstein’s scheme in 2016. The handwritten notes detailed Epstein’s trafficking operation and allegations that Brunel, Ghislaine Maxwell and others recruited dozens of underage girls.
The Justice Department did not move on Epstein until after a Miami Herald investigation in late 2018 brought renewed attention to his case. When authorities arrested Epstein in 2019, Brunel and Maxwell were named as co-conspirators in FBI investigative files.
Joseph Titone, Brunel’s attorney, told the Wall Street Journal he advised Brunel to cooperate and cut ties with Epstein. “I recommended and advised him to stop communicating with Epstein, but he never did,” Titone said.
Brunel was arrested in 2020 in France where prosecutors were investigating rape allegations and supplying girls to Epstein. He died in jail in 2022, per a report by the WSJ. Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 and is serving a 20 year sentence.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
