By Sayer Ji - February 20, 2026

Newly released DOJ files show that Jeffrey Epstein funded research tied to key figures in transgender medicine, encouraged academic work on ‘transgender biology,’ and circulated the topic among elite institutional networks

The financial architecture tells a more complicated story.

Independent investigators had already traced billionaire funding networks that helped build the infrastructure of gender clinics, advocacy organizations, and media campaigns.

My own reporting documented medical systems transitioning toddlers and research linking prenatal synthetic estrogen exposure to transgender identification rates up to 100 times the baseline.

But what was missing was primary documentation — evidence capable of moving the debate beyond journalism and into courtrooms and congressional hearings.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act provided that documentation.

Six documents released in January and February 2026, drawn from Jeffrey Epstein’s private correspondence, connect him directly to key institutional nodes in transgender medicine.

They show him funding the surgeon who built America’s first comprehensive academic transgender surgery program at Mount Sinai. They show him commissioning and financing research into “transgender biology.”

And they show him circulating the topic among elite contacts — including Bill Gates, MIT affiliates, and Obama’s former White House Counsel — during the years the field was consolidating its institutional power.

This is not a story about social proximity or island visits. It is a story about influence — about who financed, shaped, and legitimized a rapidly expanding medical industry that has overridden informed consent, bypassed parental rights, and subjected children to irreversible procedures.

What follows relies exclusively on primary documents and independently published reporting.

The Surgeon: Dr. Jess Ting And Mount Sinai

Dr. Jess Ting is a plastic surgeon at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System. In 2016, he became the surgical director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery — described at its launch as the first full-spectrum academic program in the United States focused on transgender surgery and care.

He would go on to spearhead Mount Sinai’s first transgender-related vaginoplasty and become one of the most prominent figures in gender-affirming surgical practice in the country.

His connection to Jeffrey Epstein predates his transgender work by years — and it runs deep.

The Island Visit

In March 2013, Ting accepted an invitation — extended through an Epstein assistant — to visit Little St. James, Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ting proposed bringing a female friend and her three young children, ages eight and under.

An Epstein assistant subsequently wrote to Ting: “I hope you had a nice visit to Jeffrey’s island last Friday”.

The $50,000 Grant

Correspondence shows that Epstein agreed to provide Ting with a $50,000 grant for breast cancer research. Ting described the offer as “extremely generous.” By May 2016, Ting emailed Epstein to report that “the research you supported with a $50,000 grant has borne fruit,” noting that a paper summarizing the results had been submitted for publication.

The research — examining how . . .

[SNIP]