Epstein Files Search, Count & Extraction API

Search public Epstein-related files by keyword, count matching files, or extract detailed file records with AI-ready text.

This Apify Actor is built for no-code users, researchers, journalists, OSINT teams, and automation builders who want a simple way to query the Justice.gov Epstein document index without writing scraping logic.

Why People Use This Actor

• Find relevant Epstein files by one or more keywords
• Get a fast count of total matching files before launching larger workflows
• Extract structured file records with highlights and text previews
• Feed clean results into AI tools, spreadsheets, databases, and automations

Two Simple Modes

1. Fetch matching files and text

Use this mode when you want the actual dataset rows for matching files, including metadata, snippets, and extracted text when available.

Best for:

• investigative research
• legal review
• AI summarization pipelines
• bulk export to Airtable, Sheets, Notion, or BI tools

2. Count total files per keyword

Use this mode when you only want to know how many files are available for each keyword.

Best for:

• quick demand checks
• low-cost keyword validation
• pre-flight checks before large extraction runs
• dashboards and monitoring workflows

Each keyword produces one dataset row and follows the per-result pricing shown on the Pricing tab. eventName: count-keyword is a descriptive output label, not a separate charge.

What You Get

• Multi-keyword search in one run
• Fast count-only mode with one result row per keyword
• Detailed extraction mode with file metadata and text previews
• Best-effort PDF text previews, with search highlights as a fallback
• Structured dataset output ready for no-code tools and AI workflows
• Proxy-ready setup for better reliability against blocking

Input Example: Detailed Extraction

{
  "mode": "fetch-details",
  "keywords": [
    "dentist",
    "table"
  ],
  "maxItems": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": []
  }
}

maxItems behavior in detailed mode:

• 20 = up to 20 detailed results for each keyword
• 0 = fetch all detailed results for each keyword

Input Example: Count Only

{
  "mode": "count-only",
  "keywords": [
    "pinocchio",
    "massage"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": []
  }
}

In count-only mode, maxItems is ignored because the Actor returns one count row per keyword.

Output Example: Detailed Extraction

{
  "mode": "fetch-details",
  "eventName": null,
  "keyword": "epstein flight logs",
  "page": 1,
  "documentId": "doc_123",
  "chunkIndex": 0,
  "originFileName": "EFTA01638670.pdf",
  "originFileUri": "https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01638670.pdf",
  "sourceContentType": "application/pdf",
  "extractedText": "This is a parsed text preview from the original PDF...",
  "highlight": [
    "...keyword match snippet..."
  ],
  "processedAt": "2026-01-01T10:00:00Z",
  "indexedAt": "2026-01-01T10:05:00Z"
}

Output Example: Count Only

{
  "mode": "count-only",
  "eventName": "count-keyword",
  "keyword": "pinocchio",
  "totalAvailableFiles": 17,
  "totalMatchingChunks": 17,
  "countedAt": "2026-03-18T16:48:11Z"
}

totalAvailableFiles is the important count for this mode. It is based on the unique file aggregation returned by the source, so it reflects total matching files rather than individual text chunks whenever that aggregation is available.

Great Fit For No-Code Workflows

You can use this Actor as a drop-in data source for:

• n8n
• Make
• Zapier
• Google Sheets
• Airtable
• Notion
• custom webhook pipelines
• LLM and RAG workflows

Typical flow:

1. Run the Actor with one or more keywords
2. Read the dataset output
3. Filter by keyword, file name, or total count
4. Send the results into your app, sheet, or AI workflow

High-Value Use Cases

• Validate whether a keyword has enough matching files before buying or running a large extraction
• Build recurring monitors for specific names, places, organizations, or phrases
• Enrich investigations with file names, highlights, and extracted text
• Create keyword intelligence dashboards with low-friction count lookups

Quick Start

1. Open the Actor on Apify
2. Choose your mode
3. Enter one or more keywords
4. Run the Actor
5. Use the dataset output directly in your workflow

Search coverage and limitations

Results come from the public Justice.gov Epstein multimedia search index. Detailed rows represent matching indexed document chunks: the same file can appear more than once with different chunk indexes. maxItems limits rows per keyword, not unique PDFs. Count-only mode uses the source's unique-file aggregation; totalMatchingChunks reports matching index records. Counts reflect the source at run time and are not an independent completeness guarantee.

Text is a preview, not a full transcription. PDFs without readable text, scanned pages, age verification, or unavailable downloads may return search highlights or no text. The Actor does not perform OCR or save downloadable PDF copies; originFileUri links to the original file. A keyword match does not establish any allegation about a person mentioned in a document.

Justice.gov can temporarily block or rate-limit requests. The Actor keeps cookies for site verification, retries temporary failures, and tries your configured proxy if direct access fails. An unavailable search fails explicitly rather than presenting a blocked request as zero matches. A valid search with no matches returns zero in count-only mode and no rows in detail mode. If a later keyword or page fails, already collected rows remain available and the run is marked failed, so you can identify partial results.

Data Source Note

This Actor is designed to process publicly accessible document sources and return structured outputs for analysis, research, and automation.

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