Brad Karp has not been charged with any offence, and neither has Leon Black. Paul Weiss states that Karp interacted with Epstein to negotiate a series of fee disputes on Black’s behalf. Nardello & Co. confirmed it worked for Black’s legal counsel but denied any contact with Epstein, and said it did not know its work product was being shared with him. Karp resigned as chairman in February 2026 citing distraction, not wrongdoing. The emails quoted below are from the Justice Department release and were first reported by Bloomberg, Law.com, the Guardian and Business Insider.
This archive has spent forty pages documenting an unregulated reputation industry. This page documents the same work being done inside a regulated profession, at the very top of it.
Law has all three. And here the work is not being commissioned from a crisis firm. It is being coordinated by the chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison — a firm that led litigation after Charlottesville, sued participants in the January 6 attack, and mobilised its lawyers against family separation at the border.
What the released emails show is a week of surveillance on a private woman. Nardello & Co. retained to watch her. Transcripts made of secret recordings. Her movements reported back. Her location in Moscow tracked. And an enquiry into her visa status, in a thread that discusses having her deported or jailed.
Paul Weiss’s position is that the relationship concerned fee disputes. The firm continues to serve clients, Karp resigned citing a distraction rather than misconduct, and Nardello has denied any contact with Epstein at all. None of these accounts has been tested.
What is not in dispute is that the emails exist and say what they say.
And they now sit underneath the Senate Finance Committee’s June 2026 referral to House Oversight — that Epstein surveilled women on Black’s behalf, and that Black appears to have routed payments to women using Epstein as an intermediary. Those remain allegations under investigation, and Black denies wrongdoing.
Epstein: “Did we get a report on where she went after lunch?”
Karp: “To the Cielo apartment bldg on 83rd and York where she stayed until she traveled to JFK. She was snuck out through the garage, in a car with tinted windows, and we have license plate numbers.”
Karp, separately: “GG is in Moscow; the transcript should be completed tomorrow.”
And: “Is it possible for your contacts to get her current visa status?”
The woman is identified in the correspondence only as “GG.” This archive does not attempt to name her.
Section 01
The Record
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is among the most prestigious law firms in the United States. Brad Karp chaired it from 2008. The firm led litigation after the 2017 Charlottesville demonstration, sued participants in the January 6 attack, and mobilised lawyers against family separation at the border. Karp personally represented Leon Black.
Paul Weiss says Karp interacted with Epstein to “negotiate a series of fee disputes” on behalf of Black. The released emails show the contact extended considerably further than fees.
Epstein to Karp: “Did we get a report on where she went after lunch?” Karp’s reply: “To the Cielo apartment bldg on 83rd and York where she stayed until she traveled to JFK. She was snuck out through the garage, in a car with tinted windows, and we have license plate numbers.” The woman is referred to in the correspondence only as “GG.”
Karp agrees with Epstein’s recommendation to have the investigations firm Nardello & Co. surveil the woman for “a full week.” The files show the firm made transcripts of secret recordings with her. Nardello confirmed it worked for Black’s legal counsel but denied any contact whatsoever with Epstein, and said it did not know Black’s counsel was sharing its work product with him.
A 24-page draft transcript of a covertly recorded two-hour lunch is delivered by Nardello to Brad S. Karp and Lorin L. Reisner. Its header: “The recording was made with the consent of JD.” The woman did not know. Inside: an offer of “a million dollars a year after tax,” an investor’s visa, a passport, a trust — and the man explaining Mutually Assured Destruction to her. She says: “It could be seen as a blackmail case.” He advises her against retaining a lawyer.
Karp updates Epstein on a meeting transcript from the Four Seasons: “GG is in Moscow; the transcript should be completed tomorrow.” Per Wyden’s letter to House Oversight: “Leon wants to nail down the fact that she is a pro. Have Nardello use Russian…”
The correspondence explores having the woman deported or jailed. “Is it possible for your contacts to get her current visa status?” Immigration status as leverage — the mechanism this archive documents being sold commercially, here performed by a law firm chairman.
Epstein writes to Karp about Black’s office, calling it sloppy and amateurish and warning it exposed him to tax and reputational risk while making sensitive payments. “He MUST be more careful.” Karp: “I understand. Can’t wait. :)”
Paul Weiss submits a memorandum on Black’s behalf to the Senate Finance Committee, arguing Epstein did not originate the tax strategies: “This idea was in the public domain and originated with his other legal advisors. Nevertheless, Mr. Epstein tried to take credit for the idea and secure compensation.”
Black publicly acknowledged paying “substantial” sums to a Russian model to cover up what he described as a consensual affair. His own statement, made years before the emails surfaced.
After an executive order targeting the firm, Karp reached a deal with the Trump administration: $40 million in free legal work for causes the President supports, and the removal of the firm’s internal diversity policies. Lawyers protested outside the firm’s offices. A separate matter — recorded here because it concerns the same chairman under pressure.
Karp steps down as chairman of Paul Weiss shortly after the emails become public. “Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.” The firm said it would continue serving clients. He has not been charged with any offence.
The Senate Finance Committee refers to House Oversight its finding that Epstein surveilled women on Black’s behalf, and that Black appears to have routed payments to women using Epstein as an intermediary. Allegations under investigation. Black denies wrongdoing and has not been charged.
Section 02
The One Regulated Corner
This archive’s recurring complaint is that the reputation trade has no rules. Here it does, and the outcome was the same.
Astroturfing, seeded narratives, search manipulation — with untraceability as a stated design goal. Sold commercially, by firms that never describe it in those terms outside the engagement.
A week of physical surveillance. Licence plate numbers. Transcripts of secret recordings. Enquiries into a woman’s visa status and whether she could be deported or jailed. Coordinated by the chairman of a major law firm, with a convicted sex offender copied in.
Public relations is unregulated. Law is not. A crisis firm answers to nobody. An attorney is licensed, bound by professional conduct rules, and subject to a disciplinary body with the power to investigate and to disbar.
A resignation, citing distraction. No charge, and no publicly reported referral to any bar authority. The one corner of this archive with a real regulator produced the same outcome as the corners with none.
Every remedy this site has proposed rests on the idea that disclosure and accountability need a body with the power to enforce them.
Attorneys have exactly that. They are licensed, bound by rules of professional conduct, and answerable to a disciplinary authority that can suspend or disbar. If the surveillance of a private woman and discussion of her deportation, coordinated with a convicted sex offender, does not trigger that machinery, it is worth asking what would.
No bar authority has announced an inquiry. Karp resigned his chairmanship and remains a lawyer. He has not been accused by any regulator of violating any rule.
Section 03
Open Questions
Section 04
Sources
Wyden Letter to House Oversight
June 2026. The referral, the “nail down the fact that she is a pro” passage, and the underlying DOJ citations.
finance.senate.gov →The Surveillance Emails
Feb 2026. Nardello’s week of surveillance, the Four Seasons transcript, Moscow, and Nardello’s denial in full.
Read the report →Epstein’s Fondness for an Elite Lawyer Ends in Downfall
Feb 2026. The resignation, the 2017 “He MUST be more careful” exchange, and the Trump agreement.
fortune.com →The Deportation Thread
Feb 2026. The visa-status enquiry and the identification of “Leon” as Black.
boingboing.net →The March 2026 Letter to Black
The “hush money” framing, and the four-year investigation behind it.
The letter →Watching People
Four instruments — an investigations firm, a written instruction, a staff dossier, and a lawsuit.
Read the report →Nardello & Co.
The investigators — and why their denial is the most revealing fact in the episode.
Read the profile →Leon Black
The $170 million, the structuring memoranda, and the Senate referral.
Read the profile →The Guild
Why the unregulated version of this work is the one the archive usually documents.
Read the report →“We Can Bury Anyone”
Surveillance and leverage sold as a commercial service.
Read the report →