DOJ explains why famed Epstein reporter's flight log was included in latest batch release

A reporter whose work led to the arrests of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell was surprised to find her name among flight records released by the Department of Justice.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown's work on the “Perversion of Justice” published by the newspaper in 2018 spurred New York federal prosecutors to open a new criminal case into Epstein, emails in the newly released files show, and the journalist's name also came up in documents in connection with a flight she took July 6, 2019 – the same day the convicted sex offender was arrested again.

"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 (attached to a grand jury subpoena)?" Brown posted last week on social media. "As the flight itinerary includes my maiden name (and I did book this flight) why was the DOJ monitoring me?"

The heavily redacted flight documents appear to be a respond to a grand jury subpoena from 2010, which a former federal prosecutor said was likely a typo, and DOJ told the Herald they were not tracking Brown but were obtaining flight records for victims as part of an investigation into Maxwell in 2020, after Epstein was found dead in federal custody while awaiting trial.

“[The] FBI was determining all victim flights [that were] not on Epstein’s plane,” a DOJ official said. “The search warrant return would include records [of] flights booked on behalf of a victim.”

The reporter had been scheduled set to meet July 7, 2019, with two of Epstein’s victims, Maria and Annie Farmer, in Arkansas.

"Brown’s name was apparently on that itinerary because she booked the flight for Annie Farmer on her company credit card," the newspaper reported. "The Herald agreed to pay for Farmer’s flight to the interview so a reporter and photographer could meet with both sisters together in one location."

Annie Farmer had been flown in 1996, when she was 16, by commercial airline to Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, and she testified during Maxwell's trial that she was sexually abused there, and her sister filed the first known criminal complaint against Epstein that same year, but there's no evidence the FBI looked into her allegations.