**This episode contains themes of sexual abuse and grooming**

Calls to release all the Epstein files are growing, after Wednesday’s bombshell release of over 20,000 pages of documents related to the sex trafficking scandal. The private messages released by the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have increased scrutiny on what President Trump may have known about Epstein’s behaviour. The White House has told the BBC the documents ‘prove literally nothing’.

The furore continues to intensify, but there is one woman who has all the answers: Epstein’s long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell. So who is the disgraced British socialite and what is her role in the scandal?

Today we talk to the BBC’s New York correspondent Nada Tawfik, who has covered the case for over a decade.

Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller

Executive producer and senior news editor: China Collins

Mix: Travis Evans

Photo: Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. US Department of Justice/PA Wire

AEWCH 91: LYNN MARGULIS or SYMBIOSIS, GAIA, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN