On February 25, 2018, someone using the email address [email protected] sent a brief message to Baroness Ariane de Rothschild at her personal email address. The message was casual: "I see alice got her tattoo. how ar= you"
Her response was anything but casual.
"Didn't know about Alice - Actually having a hard time- very annoyed to have to put up, yet agai=, with B s abuses," the Baroness replied, according to EFTA02521921.pdf.
This two-message exchange now sits in the federal archive of documents related to the Epstein investigation, labeled as DOJ_DS11 material. The document has been viewed 130 times, which is relatively low compared to other items in the archive. But the presence of this particular correspondent raises questions about the scope of the investigation and the breadth of Epstein's social network at the highest levels of international finance.
Who Is Ariane de Rothschild?
Ariane de Rothschild is not a peripheral figure in global banking. She serves as chairwoman of Edmond de Rothschild Group, a private banking empire managing tens of billions in assets. She married into the Rothschild family in 1999 and has been a prominent figure in European finance for decades.
The email address she used, [email protected], aligns with her position. The "ch" domain indicates Switzerland, where the Edmond de Rothschild Group is headquartered. The address appears to be a personal account, not a corporate one.
There is no public record of criminal allegations against Ariane de Rothschild related to the Epstein case. Her appearance in this archive seems to stem from this email exchange being part of communications seized during the investigation.
The "B" Reference
The Baroness writes that she is "very annoyed to have to put up, yet agai=, with B s abuses." The identity of "B" is not specified in the document. The phrasing suggests this is someone both correspondents know, and that there is a history ("yet again") of problematic behavior.
The term "abuses" is strong. It could refer to personal mistreatment, professional misconduct, or something else entirely. Without additional context, the document does not clarify what these abuses involve or whether they have any connection to the criminal investigation.
What is clear is that the Baroness felt comfortable sharing this frustration with whoever was using the [email protected] account.
The Email Address Problem
The document shows the sender as "jeffrey E." using [email protected]. This email address appears throughout the Epstein archive. It was clearly an account he used or controlled.
But Jeffrey Epstein died on August 10, 2019. This email was sent February 25, 2018, more than a year before his death and about 16 months before his July 2019 arrest.
The email includes a signature block claiming attorney-client privilege and inside information protections. It states the communication is "the property of JEE" and that unauthorized use is "strictly prohibited and may be unlawful." This kind of legal language is unusual for a personal Gmail account and suggests an attempt to create formal protections around casual correspondence.
The Alice Tattoo Detail
The initial message mentions "alice got her tattoo." The Baroness responds that she "didn't know about Alice." This appears to be a reference to someone both parties know or know of, but the identity is not provided in the document.
The casualness of this mention contrasts with the serious tone of the Baroness's response about "B's abuses." It suggests the email exchange moved from light social updates to more serious personal matters.
What This Document Shows
The presence of this email in federal files demonstrates several things about the investigation:
First, investigators obtained access to the [email protected] account and its contents. This was clearly part of a broader seizure of Epstein's digital communications.
Second, the scope of contacts in those communications extended to the highest levels of international finance. The Rothschild family is synonymous with European banking history going back centuries.
Third, the archive includes personal correspondence that appears unrelated to criminal activity. The Baroness's complaint about "B's abuses" and the Alice tattoo reference seem to be personal matters, not evidence of wrongdoing.
The Document's Limitations
Like many items in the Epstein archive, this document raises more questions than it answers. We don't know who "B" is, what "abuses" occurred, or who "Alice" is. We don't know the nature of the relationship between the sender and the Baroness.
The document is also clearly the result of email encoding issues. The "=" symbols scattered throughout suggest problems with how the email was converted to text for archival purposes. These technical artifacts make the document harder to read but don't obscure the basic content.
Why It Matters
Documents like this one illustrate how federal investigations work in the digital age. When investigators seize email accounts, they get everything. Personal exchanges, business communications, spam, calendar invites, and random social updates all become part of the official record.
For people who corresponded with Epstein about matters unrelated to his crimes, this creates an uncomfortable reality. Their names, email addresses, and personal comments now sit in a public archive, subject to scrutiny and interpretation.
The document also shows that Epstein maintained contact with extremely prominent figures in international finance as late as February 2018. This was years after his 2008 conviction and well into the period when he was supposedly a pariah in polite society.
The fact that a Rothschild baroness was exchanging personal emails with him suggests that whatever social exile he faced was incomplete at best.