Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer, arrives for his deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime personal attorney testified Thursday before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door deposition that he had “no knowledge whatsoever” of Epstein’s crimes against women and girls.
Darren Indyke, one of several witnesses called before the committee including former President Bill Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell, worked for Epstein for more than two decades until the sex offender’s death in 2019. He is widely considered part of Epstein’s inner circle, along with the disgraced financier’s former accountant Richard Kahn. Kahn also testified before the committee last week that he was “not aware” of the sex offender’s crimes.
“My complete lack of involvement in that misconduct is a matter of record: not a single woman has ever accused me of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she or anyone else reported to me any allegation of Mr. Epstein’s abuse,” Indyke said, according to a copy of his prepared opening statement obtained by NPR. Indyke said if he had known of the abuse and trafficking of women, he would have quit and “severed all ties” to Epstein.
The Republican-led committee subpoenaed Indyke, who also testified about the existence of hard drives held by Epstein’s private investigators, according to a statement by California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee. The House committee has not seen these hard drives, Garcia said.
“Darren Indyke played a central role in facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of women and girls and managing legal strategies that helped Epstein avoid government scrutiny,” Garcia said.
Two days before his death, Epstein made Indyke and Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, coexecutors of his estate. Both are named as beneficiaries of the estate.
After the testimony, multiple Democrats on the committee posted to social media that Indyke was more involved than he claimed to be, calling him a “key insider and enabler.”
“Epstein’s sex trafficking operation would not have been possible without Mr. Indyke’s services,” Virginia Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw told reporters. Walkinshaw said he found it “very hard to believe” that Indyke knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes after working with him closely for more than two decades.
Committee Chair, Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer said after a few hours of testimony, Indyke told the committee Epstein convinced him the 2008 conviction was a mistake.
“As with all the other witnesses, they all claim they never had any knowledge before it became public that Mr. Epstein was involved with women, doing anything inappropriately with young women,” Comer said.
Kahn and Indyke have faced intense scrutiny about their alleged involvement in Epstein’s sexual trafficking network. A 2020 lawsuit brought by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands against Epstein’s estate alleged that Indyke and Kahn were participants in an “expansive criminal enterprise” that included trafficking of young women. The lawsuit was settled in 2022 for over $105 million.
During his time working for Epstein, Indyke was implicated in emails about erasing hard drives, and FBI interviews show that Epstein referred victims to Indyke in the event they were contacted by law enforcement, according to Department of Justice documents. In 2017, Indyke was flagged for taking out “structured cash transactions” from Epstein’s account to avoid federal requirements.
California Democratic Rep. Dave Min said on social media that there is a lot of evidence that Indyke was “central to Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit” and played a major role in the sex trafficking operation. Min also said women have said that when the authorities started asking about Jeffrey Epstein, Indyke advised them not to talk to the police.
NPR verified an instance in which a woman reported this.
Min said he was “very surprised” that Indyke would “tell us he knew nothing about this.”
Since Epstein’s death, Indyke and Kahn have managed settlements from Epstein’s estate to his victims. The Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program awarded over $121 million to 136 survivors, according to Indyke.
In his prepared opening statement, Indyke said allegations that he facilitated Epstein’s sexual abuse or trafficking of women are “categorically false.” He said he was “one of many attorneys” who Epstein consulted.
“My primary role was to provide corporate, transactional and general legal services to Mr. Epstein and his companies, and I did so,” Indyke said.
As for the cash withdrawals, Indyke said he “was not attempting to ‘structure'” the withdrawals to avoid federal reporting requirements, but rather to “comply with the bank’s internal requirements and limits, with the bank’s full knowledge.”
“For a person in Mr. Epstein’s financial position – with five multimillion-dollar residences staffed by dozens of employees and with an extensive travel itinerary – it did not strike me as unusual that Mr. Epstein’s business, household and personal needs required large amounts of cash on a regular basis,” Indyke said.
Indyke also denied accusations of facilitating “sham marriages” between women associated with Epstein, calling them “100% untrue.”
After Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea deal for soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution, Indyke said Epstein appeared “devastated and extremely contrite.”
“That I did not know what my client did in his private life may be difficult for some to believe, but it is true,” Indyke said.
