The journalist who first brought Jeffrey Epstein's crimes to widespread public attention is now seeking answers from the US Department of Justice after discovering her personal travel details were included in a massive document release related to the convicted sex offender.
Flight Itinerary Raises Alarms
Julie K. Brown, the award-winning Miami Herald reporter, publicly questioned why a heavily redacted document from the Epstein files contained her full name and a detailed itinerary for American Airlines flights booked to Little Rock, Arkansas in July 2019. The document was part of a release of roughly 130,000 pages by the DOJ, mandated by an act of Congress.
In a post on X on Sunday, Brown shared the document and directly addressed the Justice Department. "Does somebody at the DOJ want to tell me why my American Airlines booking information and flights in July 2019 are part of the Epstein Files?" she asked. Noting the itinerary included her maiden name, she pressed further: "Why was the DOJ monitoring me?"
The Purpose of the Cancelled Trip
In a subsequent Substack post, Brown provided context for the planned journey. She was travelling to Arkansas's state capital to interview two of Epstein's most significant victims: sisters Maria and Annie Farmer. Maria Farmer was the first person to report Epstein to the FBI back in 1996, while Annie Farmer has become one of the most prominent voices among the survivors.
Brown had intended to include their interviews in follow-up reporting to her groundbreaking 2018 series, Perversion of Justice, which reignited the legal pursuit of Epstein. However, the trip was abruptly cancelled when Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Her editors at the Miami Herald redirected her to cover his arraignment in New York instead.
Broader Subpoena and Unanswered Questions
Brown observed that her flight log was among six to eight others attached to a Grand Jury subpoena signed in February 2020. One of the other itineraries belonged to Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, showing a flight to Manchester, New Hampshire in August 2019, shortly before Epstein's death. Maxwell was later arrested at a property in Bradford, New Hampshire.
The American Airlines subpoena was issued after Epstein's death in August 2019, as investigators shifted focus to Maxwell, who was charged in July 2020. Brown noted that most other names on the itineraries were redacted, possibly because they were victims. She stated she has received no explanation from the DOJ regarding why her travel records were gathered or included in the release.
"I have no idea whether the DOJ was monitoring me, or whether it was monitoring Annie and Maria," Brown wrote. "Either way, the DOJ has some explaining to do. I’m not sure why they would have been monitoring any of us during this time span." Both Brown and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Mail on the matter.
The inclusion of Brown's personal information highlights the complex and often opaque nature of the ongoing Epstein case disclosures, raising fresh questions about the scope of investigative subpoenas and the privacy of journalists and victims involved in high-profile criminal probes.
