Hugh Hefner, the late founder of Playboy magazine, repeatedly contacted the FBI beginning in 2005 to report that a Playboy Playmate had been sexually abused and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, but the bureau sat on the tip for 15 years, only reaching out after Epstein was dead, according to newly surfaced court documents and a report by Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown.
The victim, Audrey Christensen, then a Playboy model, told Hefner she was an Epstein survivor and asked him to be the one to contact the FBI because she believed his status would make the bureau take the report seriously. Hefner agreed and made multiple calls, but the FBI did not act on the information until October 2020, months after Epstein died in federal custody under suspicious circumstances.
The details of Christensen’s alleged abuse are laid out in a legal complaint against the United States filed by 34 Epstein survivors. The court document states that Christensen told the FBI she met Epstein and “before she knew it, she was naked and raped by Epstein and then trafficked for 10 years.” The complaint alleges the FBI violated mandatory policies requiring it to investigate credible claims of child sexual abuse and trafficking.
By failing to investigate, the complaint argues, the FBI “created a foreseeable zone of risk to future victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise, including plaintiffs.” The FBI is now trying to have the case dismissed, arguing the survivors did not file in time because the alleged abuse occurred between 1997 and 2017.
This is not the first time the FBI has been accused of ignoring Epstein-related complaints. In 1996, victim Maria Farmer, who worked for Epstein, told the FBI that he was abusing children and had child pornography. FBI reports made public earlier this year show that Farmer filed complaints against Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, yet the bureau not only failed to investigate but for years failed to even acknowledge her complaint.
Eric Fidali, a lawyer representing Epstein survivors, told NewsNation that “the latest reporting about the FBI ignoring complaints about Epstein in 2005 are devastating, but not surprising. Law enforcement has failed Epstein survivors for decades and continues to do so today at the highest level.”
The timeline of FBI inaction is staggering. Hefner reported the abuse in 2005. Epstein was arrested in 2006 on state charges, but in 2008 he received a shockingly light plea deal negotiated by then-prosecutor Alex Acosta, who later became Donald Trump’s secretary of labor.
Epstein was allowed to leave jail during the day, effectively treating his sentence like a hotel stay. The FBI had overwhelming evidence of a massive trafficking ring but chose not to pursue it.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges. He died in jail one month later, officially ruled a suicide. The circumstances remain deeply suspicious: guards were on break, video cameras in the hallway were not working, and two different nooses were found in his cell.
The government has never fully explained what happened.
Now, a federal judge is threatening contempt proceedings against Department of Justice lawyers who are still refusing to release all Epstein-related documents or explain extensive redactions. The judge has warned he will “ruin their careers” if they do not comply.
The fact that Hugh Hefner, the man who presided over the famously libertine Playboy Mansion, was so disturbed by Epstein’s behavior that he went to the FBI multiple times underscores just how egregious the crimes were. Even in a world where sexual boundaries were routinely blurred, Epstein’s actions were so far beyond the pale that Hefner felt compelled to act. And still, the FBI did nothing.
This case is a devastating indictment of a system that protects the powerful at the expense of victims. The same government that allowed Epstein to operate for decades, gave him a slap on the wrist, and then let him die in mysterious circumstances is now trying to silence the survivors by claiming they waited too long to sue. But the survivors didn’t wait—the FBI did.
For 15 years, the bureau sat on a credible tip from one of the most famous men in America.
The Epstein scandal is not just about one predator. It is about a network of enablers, a compromised justice system, and a government that has repeatedly failed to protect children. The FBI, the DOJ, and the prosecutors who made sweetheart deals must be held accountable.
The survivors deserve justice, and the American people deserve the truth. The files must be released. The cover-up must end.
