The fallout of Epstein's crimes spans the globe. Here's a look at some of those paying the cost

The fallout from Jeffrey Epstein's transgressions spans oceans and continents, from the vulnerable girls he exploited to the privileged people and institutions that chose to associate with him, cover up his activities — or look away. No one has paid a higher cost than Epstein's victims, who number more than 1,000, according to the Justice Department.

The world will soon have more information. President Donald Trump, friends with Epstein for years before he says they had a falling out in the early to mid-2000s, signed a bill late Wednesday forcing the Justice Department to make public many of its files on Epstein. The president's reversal was a rare bow to the fact that his fight to quash the files was doomed in the Republican-led Congress, a development noted in foreign news outlets as a moment of exposure on the home front for the brash American president who had dominated geopolitics all year.

It's worth noting that elected representatives of a nation bitterly divided on so much else at least could agree that the web of Epstein's sex trafficking must be exposed. Yet even that has limits, because the legislation shields some of the case files from public view. Trump has insisted throughout that he has done nothing wrong and did not know of Epstein's activities.

But even in death, Epstein bedevils not only the president but academics, government leaders, royalty, journalists and banks, across borders and parties. Public trust has suffered, too. Here's a look at the escalating cost of the truth in the ongoing scandal.

Economist Lawrence Summers has bounced back before after falling from the pinnacles of academia, government and punditry. That's not likely for now, in the face of newly released emails showing that Summers stayed in touch with Epstein years after the disgraced financier pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The letters reveal that Summers appeared to ask Epstein for advice about women — and Epstein dubbed himself Summers' “wing man” — as late as 2019. That has cost the economist his positions with OpenAI, the Center for American Progress, a think tank, and the Budget Lab at Yale University. At first, Summers pledged to keep teaching classes at Harvard, captured in an eyebrow-raising video Wednesday in which he opened a class by noting his shame about the relationship with Epstein. Then he stepped away from that job, too, the university said.

The 70-year-old Summers, a former treasury secretary and onetime contender to lead the Federal Reserve, has had to give up responsibilities at Harvard before. In 2006, he stepped down as president of the elite school after a speech in which he suggested that women were less represented in math and science fields because of “intrinsic aptitude.”

This week, Harvard said it was conducting its own review. In 2020, the elite school reported that Epstein visited its Cambridge, Mass., campus more than 40 times after his 2008 plea deal. It said he was given his own office and unfettered access to a research center he helped establish. It also found that Harvard accepted more than $9 million from Epstein during the decade leading up to his conviction but barred him from making further donations after that point.

A well-documented connection with Epstein has cost Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor his home on castle grounds and his title as prince of the realm.

Revelations about the king's brother trickled forth for years and left little doubt that Mountbatten-Windsor, as Prince Andrew is now known, not only was involved in Epstein's sex crimes against minors but stayed in touch with the disgraced financier after his conviction.

The evidence against Andrew grew increasingly hard to ignore even by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who was said to consider Mountbatten-Windsor her favorite child and may have shielded him from the full consequences of his scandals.

That became impossible after Andrew gave a disastrous interview to the BBC in 2019. He was widely panned for failing to show empathy for Epstein’s victims and for offering unbelievable explanations for the friendship.

In her posthumous memoir, Virginia Giuffre said she was only 17 when she was trafficked to Andrew and that Epstein took a now-famous photograph that showed the then-prince with his hand around her waist.

Andrew denied ever meeting Giuffre, did not recall the photo being taken and committed no crimes. But he did reach a settlement with her. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

“I can't take any more of this,” a sender identified in Epstein’s contacts as “The Duke” wrote to him in 2011 of the scrutiny of their friendship, according to the partly redacted emails released by the House.

The flood of tawdry stories threatened to undermine support for the British monarchy at a time when Charles, 77 and in cancer treatment, is seeking ways to buttress the institution for his son, Prince William, to inherit.

Charles stripped Andrew of his title and forced him to move out of Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where Mountbatten-Windsor has lived for more than 20 years. Mountbatten-Windsor is banished to Sandringham, the king's remote and private estate in the east of England.

This time, the president failed to control a crisis of his own making — then claimed credit for resolving it.

In fact, Trump signed the bill to release files only after he’d lost a highly visible political fight, including with some of his fiercest MAGA defenders. That started a 30-day clock ticking for the release.

But six years after Epstein’s death, his friendship with Trump continues to chip away at the president’s time, attention and support.

Trump increasingly began paying those costs in July, when the Justice Department abruptly reversed course and announced that no “further disclosure” of the Epstein files would be forthcoming. MAGA supporters, expecting Trump to make good on his campaign promise to release the files, edged toward rebellion.

Trump claimed he no longer wanted the support of such “stupid people” and “weaklings” — but that didn’t quiet them. He tried lashing out at reporters who asked about Epstein, but they kept doing so. A White House effort to lean on key Republicans supporting the files’ release didn't work.

Major developments that Trump has trumpeted as achievements didn't quiet the Epstein issue for long. Democrats made sure of that, releasing their choice Epstein emails on Nov. 12, the same day Congress and Trump ended a record 43-day government shutdown.

The president thundered on social media that Epstein’s email claiming that Trump “knew about the girls” was a “hoax.” At another point, the president was forced to respond to a Wall Street Journal report that he’d written and signed a bawdy birthday note to Epstein that referred to secrets. Trump denied writing the note and filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the news outlet. Earlier this month, the president directed the Justice Department to investigate Democrats linked to Epstein.

Then, faced with the fact that all but one Republican in Congress would vote to release the FBI files, Trump abruptly backtracked.

“I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in a social media post. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”

This story corrects Charles' age to 77.

Danielle Bensky talks to reporters as a World Without Exploitation projection is seen on the wall of the National Gallery of Art calling on Congress to vote yes on the Epstein files transparency act in Washington, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

FILE - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, poses backstage before discussing her novel "A Most Intriguing Lady" at the 92nd Street Y on Monday, March 6, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Virginia Giuffre speaks during a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

FILE - Britain's Prince Andrew speaks during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge in Windsor, April 11, 2021. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, File)

A World Without Exploitation projection is seen on the wall of the National Gallery of Art calling on Congress to vote yes on the Epstein Files Transparency Act in Washington, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

PARIS (AP) — Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea Channel Tunnel connecting the U.K. and continental Europe on Tuesday, stranding passengers and ruining vacation plans during the busy end-of-year holiday period.

At Paris' Gare du Nord station, Jamie and Issy Gill scrambled to find a flight back to the U.K. after their Eurostar train to London was canceled, desperate to be reunited with their baby boy after enjoying a getaway together in the French capital.

“We came for my 30th birthday and we were supposed to go back on the Eurostar, but everything is canceled,” she said. "We have a 1-year-old at home, with my mum and dad. I'm going to get upset,” she said, wiping away tears.

“It’s a stressful situation,” Jamie Gill said. He said that they'd now have to take a roundabout route back, with a flight via Birmingham on Wednesday.

“It's just, like, the first time we came away without him,” she said.

Eurostar — which runs passenger trains between London and Paris and other European destinations — blamed “overhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel” and what it said was a failed train operated by LeShuttle, which transports vehicles and their passengers by rail through the tunnel between the ports of Calais, France, and Folkestone, England.

Eurostar said in a statement that its services “are suspended until further notice," and advised its passengers to rebook their journeys for other days.

In London, disappointed would-be traveler John Paul had been expecting to enjoy a romantic river cruise in Paris and a trip to the Eiffel Tower with his partner Lucy, but their early morning Eurostar got turned back before reaching the continent.

“We got probably about an hour down the track, maybe 40 minutes, and then they basically said the train’s got to stop, because the train ahead got a braking issue,” the 46-year-old Paul said.

“They kept telling us that the driver was trying to fix the brakes on this other train and that the other trains were then backed up," he said. "There’s no clear information and, obviously, we’ve lost a lot of money, haven’t we?”

“We’ll have to put romance on hold for a while," he said.

The Channel Tunnel's operator, Eurotunnel, said in a separate statement that the power supply problem started overnight Monday in part of the tunnel, impacting both passenger and vehicle travel by rail in both directions through the tunnel.

It said that traffic is expected to resume gradually on Tuesday afternoon.

“A technical intervention is required, which is currently underway,” it said. “Our teams are working to restore the situation as quickly as possible.”

John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Danica Kirka in London, contributed to this report.

Travelers wait at the Gare du Nord station after an incident related to the power supply to trains occurred last night in part of the Channel Tunnel, affecting train and shuttle traffic. Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Travellers queue for Eurostar services at St Pancras International station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 after Eurostar asked train customers not to travel because of disruption in the Channel Tunnel. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The screen board displays the trains' arrival status at St Pancras International train station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 after Eurostar asked train customers not to travel because of disruption in the Channel Tunnel. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Travelers queue for Eurostar services at St Pancras International station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Passengers queue to enter the Eurotunnel site in Folkestone in Kent, England, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

FILE - A train coming from London leaves the Northbound Channel tunnel in Calais, northern France, on Jan. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)