Newly unsealed court documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case reveal a surprising connection: RFK Jr. once joined the convicted sex offender and Ghislaine Maxwell on a “dinosaur bone hunting” excursion. The detail emerges from the latest batch of files released by the Department of Justice, shedding light on the social circles of the late financier.
RFK Jr’s bone hunting mentioned in Epstein files
The Department of Justice released millions of pages from the Epstein investigations on January 30. Within the files, an email exchange from August 2012 confirms the unusual outing. Epstein wrote to Maxwell about “dinosaur and fossil hunting” with a paleontologist, mentioning they found “90 million year old clams and fossils.” Maxwell’s reply the next day directly referenced RFK Jr.: “Love that – didn’t we go fossil hunting with him and Bobby Kennedy in N Dakota?” Epstein responded, “Yes.” (via People)
This trip was further corroborated in a separate interview. According to a 2023 deposition with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell confirmed the event. She stated she had no memory of flying with Kennedy but said, “Because we went on a trip together. … We went dinosaur bone hunting in the Dakotas (via Politico).
Reported flight records also show other connections. RFK Jr., his then-girlfriend Mary Richardson Kennedy, and two of his children traveled on Epstein’s plane from New Jersey to Florida in 1994. Kennedy has publicly addressed these travels. In a December 2023 interview on Fox News, he stated, “I was on Jeffrey Epstein’s jet two times.” He explained the South Dakota trip was for a fossil-hunting weekend with family and that the flights happened long before Epstein’s crimes were known.
“I’ve been very open about this from the beginning,” Kennedy said, adding that his wife knew Maxwell. In a January 2024 interview with NewsNation, he emphasized, “had no relationship with… I knew nothing about Jeffrey Epstein.” The files only show a social intersection.
