Elon Emails

Musk forwards Epstein's solar query: 'Are we in New Mexico?'

From:
Elon Musk
Date:
October 2012 (forwarded after Epstein's 4 Oct 2012 email; exact date not given)
To:
Peter Rive (SolarCity)

Excerpt. Only this much of the email has been made public.

Are we in New Mexico?

About this email

Musk forwards Epstein's request for a SolarCity contact to his cousin Peter Rive, asking whether SolarCity operates in New Mexico.

Notes

Released by the U.S. Department of Justice on 2026-01-30 as part of the Epstein files (about 3 million pages). The text here is only what news outlets quoted from the DOJ PDF; the DOJ file itself sits behind an age-verification page and could not be retrieved, and '=' characters are encoding artifacts in the released files. Being named in the files is not evidence of wrongdoing, and no record of Musk actually visiting the island appears in the reporting. Musk's public response on X (31 Jan 2026, as quoted by TIME): "No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I'm glad that has finally happened" and "I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his 'Lolita Express'"; NBC also quotes him: "I have never been to any Epstein parties ever and have many times call for the prosecution of those who committed crimes." Fortune identifies the recipient of the forward as Peter Rive; no further replies are recorded in the reporting.

Where it came from

Government release; attribution widely reported.

Personal, executive & internal. Tags: epstein-files, solarcity