Moulton cherrypicks Epstein files to turn tenuous connection to Ed Markey into campaign attack

Weeks before Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate primary election, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton unleashed a new attack on his Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, trying to link him to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Why would you even take a meeting with a lobbyist on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein?” Moulton said during the Aug. 3 debate. Moulton said Markey had done “a favor for one of Epstein’s pals” but didn’t explain the reference. 

Markey fired back that he had never met Epstein and accused Moulton of “character assassination.”

Two days later, Moulton followed up with an Instagram slideshow post that included a graphic showing Markey and two men, one of them Epstein. “Senator Ed Markey’s role in the Epstein Files,” the post’s opening slide read. “DOJ Epstein files reveal Senator Ed Markey was part of Epstein lobbying effort.”

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty on state charges for soliciting prostitution from girls and in 2019 died by suicide in a Manhattan jail as he faced federal charges of recruiting dozens of underage girls for sex acts.

The claim against Markey is obviously incendiary and potentially devastating. So let’s get to the bottom of it — step by step. 

Epstein files show a lobbyist claimed to have contacted Markey on behalf of Karim Wade

Moulton’s Instagram slides show that Moulton was referring to an email in the Justice Department’s Epstein files about Markey’s 2015 interaction regarding a person named Karim Wade. 

Wade is the son of the former president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, who served from 2000 to 2012. In 2015, Karim Wade was jailed in Senegal for corruption. Emails show Epstein offered to pay for U.S. lobbying on Wade’s behalf for his release from detention.

A December 2015 email said Bob Crowe, a partner with the lobbying firm Nelson Mullins, had contacted the State Department regarding Wade’s case. The email, written by Crowe’s colleague to a Wade ally, said, “We are engaging Congress and had an initial briefing with Senator Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Africa.”

Crowe, who was copied on that message, forwarded the email to Epstein, Justice Department documents show. 

The email doesn’t show Markey knew of Epstein’s involvement in Wade’s case. Nor does it include any details about the briefing Markey was said to have received. Was it Markey himself? Was it his staff? Was it an email? A phone call? A visit? The email doesn’t say. The lobbying firm Nelson Mullins did not return our request to learn more.

Whatever happened, we know that in June 2016 the Senegalese government released Wade from prison. And shortly before his release, Crowe sent an email to Epstein that said, “I was told by the congressional delegation that they put pressure on (Senegal President) Macky Sall and they are going to release (Wade).”

The email included no names of who was in that congressional delegation, and provided no further details what the pressure was.

Markey said he wasn’t briefed on Wade’s case

The federal government released millions of files related to the Epstein case, including these emails, under pressure, in 2025. And that’s how we — and Moulton — know about any of this.

Being in the Epstein files is not in itself evidence of wrongdoing — many politicians’ names are in the records. Markey called on President Donald Trump to release the Epstein files in 2025.

In an Aug. 5, 2026, interview, WGBH, Boston’s public radio station, asked Markey about getting Wade released from jail in Senegal.

“I was not briefed on that case,” Markey said. “I never had a briefing.”

PolitiFact asked Markey campaign spokesperson Jonathan Ng if the December 2015 email that said Markey had been briefed on the Wade case was inaccurate.

“Neither Sen. Markey nor his staff were briefed by any lobbyists nor had any meetings related to Jeffrey Epstein and the case of Karim Wade,” Ng said in an email.

PolitiFact asked Moulton’s campaign for evidence showing Markey knew Epstein was involved in Wade’s case. 

“Nowhere in our post do we claim that Markey knew that Epstein was involved in Wade’s case,” Moulton spokesperson Taylor Hebble responded in an email. 

Other citations in Moulton’s Instagram posts

Although Moulton’s Instagram post included news organizations’ logos, none of the organizations (PolitiFact, Al Jazeera and the Miami Herald) endorsed Moulton’s accusation. 

• PolitiFact covered the Aug. 3 Moulton-Markey debate as part of its partnership with WCVB-TV, including fact-checking Moulton’s Epstein allegation.
• The Miami Herald wrote a 2026 story about Epstein’s efforts to amass power and women in Africa. The Herald found Epstein paid at least $500,000 to a Senegalese lawyer representing Wade and $100,000 to Nelson Mullins. The article did not mention Markey.
• Al Jazeera published a 2016 article about Wade’s prison release after receiving a presidential pardon. The article did not include Markey or Epstein.

Moulton’s post also cited a 2016 press release from Markey’s office after Markey led a congressional delegation to Senegal to meet with Sall to discuss security cooperation. It didn’t mention Wade or Epstein.

Our ruling

Moulton’s Instagram post said, “DOJ Epstein files reveal Senator Ed Markey was part of Epstein lobbying effort.”

There’s some sleight of hand here. The phrase “DOJ Epstein files” might lead you to believe these documents are somehow created or vetted or investigated by the federal government. In reality, they’re part of a massive release of Epstein emails. Epstein’s emails contain lots of very serious, sensitive material, and lots of inconsequential stuff. 

The phrase “Epstein lobbying effort” in isolation may leave you thinking Moulton is talking about child sex trafficking. He’s not.

A 2015 email included in files released by the Justice Department says a lobbyist briefed Markey on a corruption case in Senegal. That’s the element of truth this claim rests on. But there’s no primary evidence the briefing took place, and Markey denies it happened. 

Further, nothing in the email showed that Markey knew Epstein was involved with the case. There was no joint effort between Markey and Epstein.

Moulton has no more evidence than we do, and his words brazenly stretch the facts to the most menacing interpretation. 

We rate this statement Mostly False. 

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