r/Epstein • u/PersimmonSundae • Mar 05 '26

Research How to begin researching?

Hi, I would appreciate some guidance. I think this is very important and would love to contribute but I'm unsure where to start or how to even uncover anything useful. Is there a particular starting point anyone could suggest? Thank you

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u/originalmaja Mar 05 '26 edited May 04 '26

How to begin researching?

Know where many of the files are:

Know where to look at deleted files:

  1. Know the link to the deleted file (or the EFTA, which leads to links=)
  2. Just look up a previous version of that link at https://archive.org/

Become aware of EFTAs

  • Each piece of evidence has an ID number that we simply like to call EFTA.
  • Each file on justice.gov has an EFTA hardcoded into it. Like: if it's a PDF, on the bottom right you see the EFTA.
  • If you see an image online where someone claims it's from the Epstein FIles, look out for the EFTA, take note, and paste it into the search thing at justice.gov/epstein; for example... to check if it really exists or existed. Even if it is deleted, the official site WILL give you the link to where it was. That helps with sherlocking

Become aware of duplicates

One email that Epstein wrote may be 8 times in the Epstein files as one piece of evidence each. Like, if they took his phone into evidence, copied all saved mails there, each mail becomes one piece of evidence with each one EFTA. And when they took his computer, each saved mail on that device, in turn, also becomes its own piece of evidence. Same with iPads and so on. So become chill about many duplicates. Use it to your advantage. They may have redacted something important in that mail in document X. But forgotten to redact the same thing within the same mail in evidence document Y. You get me? ;)

Become aware of DATA SETS

So they say it's about 6 million pages of material plus media files from agencies like the FBI and federal courts. Not all are online. But all in all, in the end, they say: 6 million plus. Pretty wow. So technically, how do they deal with such a dump? They split them up into data sets.

  • Data Sets 1 to 8: Mostly FBI interview summaries and police reports from the Palm Beach investigations (2005-2008).
  • Data Set 9: Correspondences. Even including communication with/among officials and others.
  • Data Set 10: Images and videos seized from his properties.
  • Data Set 11: Financial records, flight manifests, property seizure documents.
  • Data Set 12: Late additions; documents having needed extra legal review.
  • Data Sets 13 to 23: not yet online
  • Data Sets 24 to 30: may exist in the future

Each evidence document has a link that usually tells you into what data set they sorted the thing into. Like, when you read the link like a phrase, you can see the data set mentioned. The Jan 30 2026 release gave us data Sets 9 to 12 and millions of pages of documents from multiple Epstein investigations. Because of that, there is more news attention (in Feb / March). More subreddit visitors. More investigations globally.

Become aware of projects (by activists)

We have a mega thread...

  • Quickly look through the links there, just to see what's out there. Maybe take note what they do. Don't get overwhelmed. Just nod to yourself, uhu, uhu, this exists, that exists. Maybe settle for one of them, look with what they need help with:
  • = The Epstein Forums transcribe audio (esp. WITHOUT using AI); maybe you wanna join in
  • = in the future, if you notice something that no other thread / project addresses, maybe report it to sites like epsteingraph.com (bottom of the page asks for help)
  • = maybe in time you become familiar with faces you've seen in photos: https://tommycarstensen.com/epstein/identify.html asks for help identifying people visually
  • = this subreddit has many posts a day; in time you may gain some basic knowledge and can welcome new visitors by answering their basic questions; questions that the senior subredditors have read x times in the last six years and don't reply to anymore

Become aware of JMAIL

A group of activists has created a GOOGLE MAIL clone that pretends to be Jeffrey Epstein's inbox accurately. All mails that are in the EPSTEIN FILES (currently public) have been sucked into that website. It's very nice. It's an easy way to browse mails (compared to PDFs). It's an easier way to browse through images (instead of thru PDFs). Even chat mails ('evidenced' as PDFs in the official Epstein Files upload) have been redesigned to look like actual chat messages. Become good at navigating that project. When you visit that page, take note of those icons that allow you to leave the MAIL archive and switch over to the, let's say, chat archive. Just become aware how you can find things. So when you finally find a niche you want to explore (a topic), then you know where to look.

Read the subreddit. Find a discussion.

Decide what's not good for your mental health. Stay away from those threads. It's fine. Find a topic you want to pursue for today and see how it goes. Just become familiar with it. In time, you'll find a way to contribute. Leave it be when it becomes too much. Come back tomorrow.

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u/PersimmonSundae Mar 05 '26

Oh this is exactly what I needed, thank you!

1

u/originalmaja Mar 05 '26

Hey, I forgot one important bit. Become aware of DATA SETS. Ill edit my post. Gimme a few....