Ghislaine maxwell jeffrey epstein tapes: What Steel claims
William Steel’s 2020 interview with The Sun drew attention to claims about hidden recordings made at Jeffrey Epstein’s properties. Since then the case has moved well past bail arguments. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five counts, including sex-trafficking conspiracy, and sentenced in June 2022 to twenty years in federal prison. She is currently held at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.
William Steel’s Post-2020 Interviews and Claims
Steel has repeated and expanded on his original account in multiple podcasts since 2022. He has described his criminal background, the mid-1990s meetings at high-end diamond dealers, and the equipment he said he supplied for covert filming. Steel continues to state that he witnessed Epstein with an underage girl and that he later sold jewelry to Epstein, but he maintains he refused to participate with minors. No court records have corroborated Steel’s specific tape descriptions.
Who Were These Rich & Powerful Men?
Steel told The Sun the recordings showed “two high-profile US politicians” and “two high-society figures,” one scene depicting a threesome with an underage girl. He has not named anyone. Court documents and subsequent document releases have not confirmed the identities or existence of these particular tapes.
Maxwell’s Conviction, Sentencing, and Current Incarceration
The July 2020 bail hearing never produced a release. After a month-long trial, a Manhattan jury found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts. The Second Circuit upheld the verdict in 2024, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October 2025. Maxwell’s projected release date is 2037, accounting for good-time credit.
Developments at Little St. James Island
The property commonly called Jeffrey Epstein Island changed hands in 2023 when Stephen Deckoff purchased Little St. James and Great St. James for $60 million. Plans call for a luxury resort, yet no major construction has been reported through mid-2026. The 2026 Department of Justice file releases included additional photographs and documents related to the island, though none have altered the established facts of the criminal case.
Ongoing Intelligence Allegations and Recent File Releases
Ari Ben-Menashe has reiterated in 2025 and 2026 interviews his claim that Epstein and Maxwell operated a Mossad-linked operation aimed at blackmailing politicians. The 2026 DOJ releases added further Epstein-related materials, but they contain no official confirmation of foreign-intelligence direction. Maxwell’s documented ties to her father, media mogul Robert Maxwell, remain the only verified connection to Israeli intelligence circles.
Maxwell’s Recent Congressional Interactions
In 2026, staff from the House Oversight Committee visited Maxwell at FPC Bryan. During questioning she invoked the Fifth Amendment on topics including grooming and the identities of potential co-conspirators. Maxwell has also explored clemency avenues, though no formal petition has advanced.
Steel told The Sun that Maxwell confided a contingency plan modeled on Roman Polanski’s flight to France. He said she believed French citizenship would shield her from extradition. Her arrest in New Hampshire in July 2020 rendered the scheme moot. Steel stated he intended to share his account with authorities before the bail hearing and submitted materials, though prosecutors did not rely on his statements at trial.
