Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy American investor and convicted sex offender. Utilizing high-level connections built with influential people, he was involved in the sexual abuse and trafficking of teenage girls. In 2019, he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in the United States. However, before the judicial process could begin, his hanging body was recovered from a New York jail. Epstein’s death sparked widespread global debate and various conspiracy theories about whether it was suicide or homicide. Later, the US Department of Justice officially stated that Epstein committed suicide.
In 2026, under the ‘Epstein Files Transparency Act’, the US Department of Justice released nearly 3.5 million pages of documents, over two thousand videos, and nearly one hundred eighty thousand photos. This massive collection of data and information related to Epstein is generally referred to as the ‘Epstein Files’. The names of various influential people around the world are coming up in the review of the published documents, which is generating discussion and criticism.
In such a situation, information has been circulated on social media claiming that information has been found in the discussed Epstein files that Sheikh Hasina agreed with Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff’s team on some unknown matter.
Posts circulated on Facebook with such claims state that although Sheikh Hasina’s name is not directly quoted in the Epstein file, a reference to her is found. It is claimed that in an email sent by Lesley Groff on September 21, 2018, she wrote: “Wow. Really appreciate, sorry about this but it is a bilat my team had agreed with PM of Bangladesh.”
See such posts circulated on Facebook here (Archive), here (Archive), and here (Archive).
See the same post circulated on Instagram here (Archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that the claim that Sheikh Hasina agreed with Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant on some unknown matter is not correct. In reality, a part of a conversation between Norway’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Borge Brende and Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff has been circulated with the discussed claim.
Investigating this matter, reviewing the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice, the message quoting the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh (Sheikh Hasina) was found in File Number EFTA02258065.
Reviewing the file, it is seen that this is not an email from Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff. Rather, it is a document of a conversation between Norway’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Borge Brende and Lesley Groff. From the conversation, it is known that on that day, i.e., September 21, 2018, Borge Brende was supposed to attend a dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house at 8 PM. Lesley Groff messaged him from her iPhone to reconfirm whether he would participate in it. However, although Borge Brende was appreciative of the message for reconfirmation, he informed Lesley Groff that his team had agreed to a diplomatic meeting (Bilat) with the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh (Sheikh Hasina) at that time. The message sent by Borge Brende: “Wow. Really appreciate, sorry about this but it is a bilat my team had agreed with PM of Bangladesh.”
Since there was a meeting with the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh at the same time, the two of them were subsequently seen changing the time of that dinner to 6 PM/6:30 PM.
That is, there is no information in the said document of the Epstein file about Sheikh Hasina agreeing with Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant on any unknown matter. Basically, the message from the former Foreign Minister of Norway has been circulated claiming it to be an email from Epstein’s assistant.
Therefore, the claim that information has been found in the Epstein file that Sheikh Hasina agreed with Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant on some unknown matter is completely false.
Sources
- Epstein Files
- Rumor Scanner’s Analysis