Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is known as on a flight manifest discovered amongst hundreds of thousands of paperwork associated to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein which have been launched in latest months, displaying that he flew in 2006 from London to New York on Epstein’s private plane.
The manifest lists Phelan alongside 12 different passengers together with Epstein and apparently Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent and shut affiliate of Epstein who was going through fees of sexual assault and rape of a minor when he was found dead in his prison cell in 2022. Brunel’s title seems to have been misspelled as “Jean Luk Brunnel” on the manifest.
Six names on the listing are redacted. The flight left London touring to New York on the afternoon of March 3, 2006.
Phelan declined to remark by way of a Navy spokesperson.
An in depth pal of Phelan’s confirmed that Phelan was on board the flight, however emphasised it was the one time Phelan interacted with Epstein and that he was invited to fly by Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne, who died in 2021.
Phelan, who was working in the monetary sector on the time, didn’t know they’d be using on Epstein’s plane till they arrived, Phelan’s pal informed NCS. During the flight, Epstein pitched the opposite financiers on a tax idea that Phelan “had no interest in,” the pal mentioned, and Phelan by no means spoke or interacted with Epstein once more.
Three different passengers, all with obvious ties to the monetary sector, are listed in the doc. According to particulars on the manifest, the plane — a Boeing 727 — was one of many infamous plane owned by Epstein. There is not any proof Phelan knew of any wrongdoing by Epstein or his associates when he took the flight. Epstein was first indicted in Florida a number of months later in July 2006 for felony solicitation of prostitution.
Phelan, a businessman with no prior navy service, was beforehand the founder and chairman of Rugger Management LLC, a private funding agency he fashioned in 2022, earlier than being confirmed as secretary of the Navy in March 2025.
The manifest was a part of a doc dump from the House Oversight Committee final yr. Redactions all through the paperwork are largely used to guard the names of victims and different figuring out info, the Justice Department web site internet hosting the recordsdata says. The Justice Department launched roughly three million extra paperwork associated to Epstein last week.
Phelan and his spouse are outstanding artwork collectors and fundraised hundreds of thousands for President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign, together with holding a high-dollar fundraising dinner for Trump in August 2024.
Trump introduced Phelan as his choose for secretary of the Navy in November 2024, saying he has “excelled in every endeavor.”
“John will be a tremendous force for our Naval servicemembers, and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision,” Trump mentioned on the time. “He will put the business of the US Navy above all else.”