Key Takeaways
- Playboy founder Hugh Hefner allegedly called the FBI multiple times in 2005 to report Jeffrey Epstein for sexually assaulting and trafficking former Playmate Audra Christiansen, but agents did not interview her until 2020, years after both men were dead.
- Ex-FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer says there is “no excuse” for the 15-year delay, arguing the case was wrongly “back-burnered” even as the bureau focused on counterterrorism and public corruption post-9/11.
- Christiansen claims the FBI still resisted speaking with her even after she reached out in 2020 with a lawyer, says other Playmates are too afraid to come forward, and criticizes the Justice Department for briefly exposing identifying details in her records as Epstein survivors push for less-redacted government files.
Hugh Hefner repeatedly warned the FBI in 2005 that Jeffrey Epstein had allegedly sexually assaulted and trafficked former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen, according to federal court filings. But investigators did not interview Christiansen until 2020—15 years after Hefner’s reported calls and more than a year after Epstein died in federal custody. Now, former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said the delay has “no excuse.”
Christiansen, Playboy’s Miss October 2003, said she approached Hefner at the Playboy Mansion and asked him to contact federal authorities on her behalf. She believed the publisher’s name and influence would make the bureau take her allegations seriously. Hefner subsequently placed multiple calls, and Christiansen said the FBI indicated it would follow up.
That promised follow-up never happened.
According to Audacy, a federal complaint filed by 34 Epstein survivors states that “for about fifteen years, the FBI did not investigate Ms. Christiansen’s tips or follow up on her allegations.”
The alleged warning came years before Epstein received a widely criticized plea agreement in Florida. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to state charges connected to soliciting prostitution, including from a minor, and served much of his sentence under a work-release arrangement.
Federal authorities arrested him again in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, but Epstein died in jail before the case went to trial. His death was ruled a suicide.
Hefner died in 2017, meaning neither man was alive when the FBI finally contacted Christiansen.
“To wait 15 years to conduct this interview and to actually get down to the nitty gritty…that is just too long to wait,” Coffindaffer told NewsNation. “Somehow, this got back-burnered, and it should have never happened that it would take so long for this investigation to follow through.”
Coffindaffer acknowledged that the FBI was heavily focused on counterterrorism and public corruption after September 11, but rejected that as a justification. “I’m not trying to provide some sort of excuse, because there is no excuse, but merely an explanation,” she said.
Christiansen said she contacted the FBI herself in 2020 after her family received threats, even hiring an attorney in an effort to secure a meeting. She claimed the bureau still declined to speak with them. “My attorney was blown away; they didn’t want to hear from me,” Christiansen said.
She also said other Playmates encountered Epstein or people around him but remain afraid to come forward. “I was not the only Playmate that had issues with perpetrators Epstein or otherwise,” she said. “They are too afraid to step forward, but it was a big deal back then. Hef was trying to keep us all safe.”
The allegation places Hefner in a complicated position within the expanding public record surrounding Epstein. Hefner was accused after his death of coercion, drugging, and sexual misconduct by women featured in the 2022 docuseries Secrets of Playboy.
Playboy responded to those accounts by distancing the modern company from its founder, declaring that “today’s Playboy is not Hugh Hefner’s Playboy.”
Epstein survivors continue to press for accountability and the release of government records—many of which have been released with extensive redactions.
Christiansen has also accused the Justice Department of temporarily exposing a detail in her FBI records that made her identifiable as a former Playmate, saying it took media intervention to have the information redacted again.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, confidential help is available through the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or by texting HOPE to 64673.
