Award-winning drama with over 500 episodes 'predicted' Epstein file 20 years before it actually happened

Warning: This article contains discussion of child sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.

Fans on X have realised that a beloved show not only ‘predicted’ the Epstein files 20 years before he was arrested, but there was actually an episode which is almost exactly the same as the horrific crimes he committed before his death.

The Epstein files are now a worldwide short-hand for the documents released by the US State Department after an investigation into the late-financier’s paedophile ring that has implicated numerous high-profile names.

Though featuring in the files is not a sign of guilt Donald Trump was heavily criticised for his featuring in the files, with Jeffrey Epstein being pictured alongside the now-President multiple times.

Fans were therefore shocked when a viral X post showed that the TV show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit included a file labelled ‘Epstein’ in its very second episode.

The show is now the most famous edition of Law and Order and features a ‘Special Victims Unit’ who specifically deal with crimes related to sexual assault and harassment.

Whilst Epstein is a pretty common name, which likely explains it even though it's spawned crazy conspiracy theories, fans still found it pretty shocking to see an ‘Epstein file’ in the show.

One replied saying: “This is crazy that I even came across this picture. I’m literally watching SVU so I decided to go see if it’s real and it is.”

The episode was released in 1999, seven years prior to Epstein’s first arrest and 20 years prior to his New York federal indictment for sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to traffic minors.

One tweet specifically noted however that this isn’t the only episode to have creepy parallels with the late paedophile’s horrific sex trafficking ring.

A 2011 season 12 episode when a 12-year-old girl tells detectives she had been flown to New York on a private jet, thinking she was coming for a modelling job.

She instead is sexually assaulted as the billionaire who invited her brought her and several other young girls to a party as ‘presents’, having them give massages before forcing them to unclothe.

The billionaire in question, called Jordan Hayes in the show, manages to skirt responsibility using his high powered lawyers and, even when they do eventually successfully get him, he is whisked away to a white-collar prison by feds.

This led to several re-examining the episode after his arrest, with clear parallels being drawn between the episode itself and the crimes of Epstein. This aired after his first arrest for solicitation of a minor but still was released seven years prior to the story which told the world about Epstein’s crimes, and eight years before he was arrested for sex trafficking.

The fake version of Epstein in the episode Hayes was a major donor towards the NYPD, with Vanity Fair noting that the real NYPD were ‘lax’ in their monitoring of Epstein’s sex offender registration.

Every episode of SVU opens with a disclaimer that these are not based on real people, but in this case it appears that through prescience or coincidence, they managed to tell stories that were incredibly close to an uncomfortable truth.

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