\u201cI told him that you are coming with [Sarah] and that [Kimbal] might want to ditch his ex\/or current to be,\u201d Boris Nikolic, a close associate whom Epstein describes as a \u201cgood friend\u201d in an email, reported in an email to Epstein ahead of the party. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo please prepare [Sarah],\u201d Nikolic added, with a winking emoji. (While many of the victims\u2019 names were not entirely redacted in the Department of Justice\u2019s initial release of thousands of names, Fortune <\/em>is changing the names of the women mentioned in this story in an effort to protect their identities.)<\/p>\n After the party and the lunch, Sarah and Kimbal would go on to date for the next several months. Throughout that time, Epstein kept close tabs on Kimbal\u2019s relationship. He directed Sarah\u2019s involvement and her travel with him, according to dozens of emails from the Epstein files\u2014seemingly in an attempt to get closer to Kimbal\u2019s brother, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who had just made Forbes\u2019<\/em>s billionaire list in 2012, the year the relationship began. (Kimbal currently holds board seats at both companies.) And after the lunch at Epstein\u2019s Manhattan home, Epstein would say to others that he and Elon \u201cwere talking all the time,\u201d according to a person who worked at Epstein\u2019s residence at the time.<\/p>\n The emails offer a revealing window into the tactics Epstein used to build his network of the rich and powerful, using women under his control like pieces on a chessboard. (All of the emails referenced in this article were part of the vast cache of files related to the Epstein case released by the DOJ earlier this month.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The elaborate game plan involved identifying powerful targets like the Musk brothers, using women and intermediaries to forge stronger ties with the target, and then relentlessly trying to insert himself into their circles. Throughout it all, Epstein and his associates sent and received status updates on the progress of the project, according to the Department of Justice files. Kimbal and Elon Musk are two of dozens of high-profile businessmen whose correspondence has emerged in the new batch of emails and documents, and who have tried to distance themselves from the disgraced financier.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul Hennessy\u2014SOPA Images\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n According to a former staffer at Epstein\u2019s home, the catered lunch the week of Kimbal Musk\u2019s birthday fit a pattern. \u201cThere would be a magician or a movie actor, a businessperson like Musk or [Bill] Gates, and beautiful women from his entourage,\u201d the staffer said. <\/em>(Fortune<\/em> spoke with the former employee on condition of anonymity to protect their privacy.)<\/p>\n Inside the house, the staffer said, was a tightly controlled environment for Epstein\u2019s assistants. Emails and news reports show these women were often in their early twenties, many from Eastern Europe. \u201cThere were myriads of abuse on a pretty much daily basis when there was no one around,\u201d the staffer said. \u201cHe would switch assistants for abuse.\u201d (One email from Epstein refers to Sarah as one of his assistants.)\u00a0<\/p>\n As has now been thoroughly documented, these women worked with Epstein expecting modeling or business opportunities that in many cases never materialized, and would often become dependent on him for a visa, housing, or money. The longer anyone stayed with Epstein, the staffer said, \u201cthe more you\u2019re trapped.\u201d<\/p>\n While Kimbal Musk\u2019s ties to Epstein have been reported in news articles, a closer look at the complete sequence of events and emails in the relationship with Sarah, along with firsthand details from an Epstein staffer at the time, reveals a far more nuanced picture. It\u2019s unclear whether Kimbal, who was recently divorced at the time, understood the true nature of his relationship with Sarah, or Epstein\u2019s behind-the-scenes involvement in it.<\/p>\n Neither Kimbal Musk nor Elon Musk responded to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s multiple requests for comment by press time. Kimbal said in a statement on X earlier this week that the woman he started dating in 2012 was 30 years old when the relationship began and referred to Epstein as a \u201cdemon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy only meeting with that demon was in his New York office during the day. I never met with him again, and I never went to his island,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cMy heart goes out to the many victims of Jeffrey Epstein, as it does for all who have suffered any kind of sexual abuse or harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Her attorney, Brad Edwards, said, \u201cThe fact that this personal aspect of her life is now being publicized as a consequence of DOJ\u2019s errors in redacting victim names is causing so many victims so much pain.\u201d He added: \u201cFor the public, the gossip gives people something to talk about; however, the fact that Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s victims are real people whose privacy is being obliterated is somehow being completely forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n Business Insider reported some details of the relationship and Epstein\u2019s involvement in 2020.<\/p>\n By the time she began dating Kimbal Musk, Sarah had already spent approximately six years working under Epstein\u2019s close eye and control, the emails in the DOJ cache suggest.<\/p>\n Emails also suggest that, at the time, she lived in one of the many New York apartments Epstein maintained for associates. Emails suggest as well that she had most of her movements approved or at least monitored by him. When she fell ill, Epstein was updated; when she needed to travel, he paid for her tickets.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would control all the women\u2019s schedules in his network,\u201d says the person who worked for Epstein during that period, noting that women were not allowed to travel without his approval. \u201cHe was controlling every step,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n When Sarah began dating Kimbal Musk, the relationship itself was also closely monitored by Epstein, with her or other people in his orbit updating Epstein on Kimbal\u2019s invitations for her to meet before his \u201cweeklong boys\u2019 trip\u201d and travel with him to New York, London, and Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe universe is conspiring for us to spend more time together,\u201d Kimbal wrote Sarah in one email that she forwarded to Epstein.<\/p>\n Epstein received detailed copies of her schedule showing when she was with Kimbal and when she was \u201cFREE.\u201d In one exchange, Sarah told Epstein he had \u201cthe final call\u201d on whether she should travel with Kimbal in late 2012 or stay with Epstein instead; he instructed her to stay with Kimbal through Thanksgiving and \u201cgo somewhere romantic,\u201d like Morocco, before returning to his island.<\/p>\n On Feb. 9, about a week after the DOJ released the documents, Kimbal Musk wrote on X that in 2012, he had met the woman \u201cthrough a friend. Epstein did not introduce us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Two weeks after the party in 2012, however, Kimbal sent an email to Epstein and Nikolic, thanking the two for \u201cconnecting\u201d him with Sarah. \u201cI believe you both played a role,\u201d Kimbal wrote, along with a smiley face. Nikolic responded, telling Kimbal Musk to \u201cbe nice\u201d to Sarah, adding that Epstein \u201cgoes crazy when someone mistreats his girls\/friends.\u201d\u00a0(Nikolic did not respond to requests for comment for this story.)<\/p>\n \u201cMessage received wide and clear,\u201d Kimbal responded.<\/p>\n Epstein wasted no time in trying to leverage Kimbal Musk\u2019s new romance to his advantage, and nudge his way into Elon Musk\u2019s orbit.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few weeks after the birthday party, Epstein emailed Elon directly to let him know that he would be seeing \u201cyour brother and his new romance\u201d in New York the following week (Elon said he would not be there at the same time).\u00a0<\/p>\n Patrick Fallon\u2014Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n That same fall, the two men began exchanging messages about a possible trip to Epstein\u2019s now notorious private Caribbean island. On Christmas morning in 2012, Elon Musk wrote: \u201cDo you have any parties planned? I\u2019ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St. Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d The plans never panned out.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February 2013, Epstein once again brought up Musk\u2019s brother. \u201cDid your brother tell you about [Sarah\u2019s] pregnant joke?\u201d he asked before inquiring if Elon was going to an upcoming TED conference. This time, Elon bit, saying that he wouldn\u2019t be at TED for long, but if Epstein \u201cwould like to talk,\u201d it\u2019d be best to do so at the SpaceX factory near Long Beach, Calif.\u00a0<\/p>\n The emails suggest that Epstein brought three of his \u201cgirls\u201d to visit the facility on Feb. 25, 2013, and thanked Elon for the tour afterward. \u201cYou would have had fun at xmas,\u201d Epstein wrote in the exchange. \u201cI see :),\u201d Elon responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elon Musk denied in 2020 that Epstein had ever visited SpaceX, when he wrote on X: \u201cTo the best our knowledge, he never toured SpaceX. Don\u2019t know where that comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n The emails show, however, that Epstein wrote to Musk more than 50 times in total\u2014congratulating him on a successful rocket launch, recommending stimulants, or asking if his workload was getting better. They also show that Musk repeatedly brushed off Epstein: He often gave terse responses, never reciprocated invites, nor did he ask Epstein how he was doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to a screenshot of an email he sent in the files, Elon posted on X earlier this month that \u201cEpstein tried to get me to go to his island so many times that eventually I just blocked him.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2013 Epstein would lose his \u201cin.\u201d In an email from that month, Kimbal Musk broke up with Sarah, writing that he was busy with his sister moving in with him and weighed down by managing his relationship with his ex-wife. He asked if she\u2019d be interested in keeping things more casual and going back a step to \u201cjust dating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how much we like each other,\u201d Kimbal wrote. \u201cBut I am just not able to do a real relationship right now \u2026\u00a0We would see each other on weekends and when we can and focus it on fun stuff.\u201d Sarah forwarded this email to two people, one of them being Epstein, and the other restaurant mogul Steve Hanson, who appears in the emails to have occasionally discussed Sarah\u2019s career with her and Epstein. (Hanson had not responded to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s requests for comment before press time.)<\/p>\n \u201cThoughts?\u201d Sarah asks the two. \u201cI just don\u2019t think I\u2019d EVER be a priority.\u201d Epstein responded: \u201cok, good news now i have you back again, full time,\u201d telling her to come to the \u201cranch\u201d; likely referring to his New Mexico Zorro Ranch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hanson chastised Sarah in her response for giving too much \u201ctoo quick\u201d and staying with Kimbal Musk for so long. \u201cLeave NOW. In 1 week we will have. A plan for u,\u201d Hanson wrote. \u201cU have to control this. It\u2019s a game. Your losing. You\u2019re not even playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein also asked Sarah where she was, believing she was with Kimbal Musk in Los Angeles. But she reminded him that \u201cyou said to stay\u201d with her family during her grandfather\u2019s funeral. She added she would \u201cprefer not to stay w Kimbal if we\u2019re \u2018dating.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Three days later, Epstein pointed out in an email how he had lost the connection to Elon: He wrote to someone to instruct them to skip that year\u2019s Milken Institute conference and fly straight to New York. Since Sarah \u201cbroke up with kimbal therefore no elon and most of the fun things will be this afternoon,\u201d he wrote. Epstein sent two emails to Elon: one that said he was staying at the Hotel Bel-Air, which Elon ignored, and another\u2014\u201csorry to have missed you\u201d\u2014to which Musk replied that he\u2019d only been at the Milken conference \u201cfor a few hours.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Epstein would continue to try to maintain the connection, however: emailing Elon about a former minister of defense of Israel, and with invitations to a visit in Santa Fe, to a breakfast, or to come visit his New York mansion during the opening of the UN General Assembly. Most of them received muted responses or no response at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elon Musk did initiate the planning around dates for visiting the island over the holidays in 2013, though in that case it was Epstein who backed away last-minute owing to his \u201cschedule.\u201d Epstein wrote: \u201cI was really looking forward to finally spending some time together with just fun as the agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Overall, apart from what Epstein described as a \u201cwild\u201d dinner with Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman, it appears Elon Musk never attended any other event with Epstein. The former staffer who worked in Epstein\u2019s home didn\u2019t recall ever seeing Elon Musk again after the 2012 lunch.<\/p>\n Stephanie Keith\u2014Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n But behind the scenes, Epstein appeared to still be coordinating at least one other woman\u2019s interactions with Kimbal Musk.<\/p>\n In June of that same year, Epstein wrote to a woman, Alice (name changed), who, in May, appeared to be angered about Epstein suggesting that she would give a massage in exchange for personal help. \u201cI am not a massage girl \u2026 If I would know about everything before, wouldn\u2019t even go for a meeting \u2026\u00a0I don\u2019t do these exchanges \u2026\u00a0It is dirty,\u201d Alice wrote.<\/p>\n Epstein replied, \u201cI gave another girl to kimball and he is thrilled.\u201d\u00a0(Epstein would often misspell \u201cKimbal\u201d and other names and words in his correspondence.)<\/p>\n Epstein never laid out in emails what precisely he was trying to achieve by getting closer to Kimbal and Elon Musk. But his attempted befriending of the brothers was in line with how Epstein amassed his own fortune\u2014by buddying up to people with money, maintaining complex relationships with them, and sometimes utilizing leverage to stay in their orbit.<\/p>\n Some of the world\u2019s wealthiest and most powerful individuals continued to correspond and spend time with Epstein even after he had to register as a sex offender in 2008. These relationships became heavily scrutinized after the Miami Herald<\/em> published its explosive investigation in 2018 about how Epstein had managed to evade a potential lifetime prison sentence, and after the Department of Justice later charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors in 2019. People questioned why so many powerful and wealthy individuals continued to spend so much time with him and how they had lent credibility to the man.\u00a0<\/p>\n None of the emails directly suggest that Kimbal Musk knew Sarah was employed by Epstein or was giving regular updates to Epstein about their relationship and travel plans, and getting advice from others. But in the emails from October 2012, written shortly after Kimbal and Sarah had been introduced, Nikolic told Kimbal to \u201cbe nice\u201d to Sarah, as she was one of Epstein\u2019s \u201cgirls\/friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Musk brothers have pushed back vehemently against speculation about their ties to Epstein, and Elon Musk said he would cover legal fees for any victim who \u201cspeaks the truth\u201d about Epstein and was subsequently sued.<\/p>\n The vast new DOJ email trove reveals little as to why<\/em> so many eminent people continued to correspond with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution and soliciting a child for prostitution, even after it became widely known. Those interactions, however, had implications: Epstein was able to burnish his reputation in the eyes of women looking for a better life\u2014many of whom would later become his victims.<\/p>\n As for powerful people who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein, \u201ceven if they claim they never knew any abuse happened to a lot of young women from Eastern Europe\u2014let\u2019s say they never questioned that,\u201d the staffer from Epstein\u2019s home said. \u201cThey would legitimize someone like him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #gave #girl #Kimbal #Epsteins #honeytrap #targeting #Elon #Musk #brother<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was the week of Kimbal Musk… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[13256,885,554,12118,2813,13253,13255,3253,13254,886,795,2256],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kimbal](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1216515608-e1770932599475.jpg?format=webp&w=1440&q=100\"\/)
<\/div>\u2018Controlling every step\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Did your brother tell you?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Kimbal](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-143633618-e1770933010924.jpg?format=webp&w=1440&q=100\"\/)
<\/div>A breakup damages the connection<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"protestor](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1154615743-e1770932985410.jpg?format=webp&w=1440&q=100\"\/)
<\/div>Legitimizing him<\/strong><\/h2>\n