This past Super Bowl Sunday featured a TV spot in which a group of Epstein survivors assail the fact that some three million documents pertaining to the billionaire still have not been released as required by law, declaring, "we all deserve the truth."

The ad renewed questions about why the survivors themselves have not named who other than Epstein raped them. Defenders say doing so would open themselves up to defamation suits if the government does not release the evidence necessary to corroborate their claims; critics retort that to protect themselves they could file police reports or share the name in closed testimony with members of Congress. 

Chiming in on one such argument, Musk offered, "I will pay for the defense of anyone who speaks the truth about this and is sued for doing so."

The offer comes days after Musk's own name appeared in the Justice Department's latest release of another 3.5 million Epstein documents on January 30. According to one 2012 email exchange, Musk discussed coming to Epstein's private island via helicopter with his then-wife Talulah Riley for "wildest" partying.

Musk has responded to the revelation by noting that "as the email shows, I obviously didn't anticipate anything actually shady, as I was bringing my wife at the time," and ultimately "came to my senses and declined to go. Epstein tried to get me to go to his island so many times that eventually I just blocked him."

The dispute comes amid a tangled web of tensions over the extent of Epstein's influence, more than six years after he killed himself in his prison cell while being held on charges of trafficking underaged girls to be raped by himself and wealthy associates.

In November, President Donald Trump signed legislation giving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) 30 days to release whatever documents it still has in its possession pertaining to Epstein in a reversal from his previous dismissal of the effort as a "hoax" and distraction amid months of discontent over his administration's handling of the situation since returning to office. In a January 5 court filing, the DOJ admitted more than two million unreleased documents were still in "various phases of review and redaction," and that the government had released "less than 1 percent of the total" material in its possession.