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In what is expected to be a series of releases over the next several weeks, the names of a couple of former presidents and dozens more were revealed today as associates of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Among the over 180 individuals named in the 943 pages, which saw the federal court website crash for a while as the names become public, were Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. The numerous references to the men, as well as Britain’s Prince Andrew, was unsurprising. In varying degrees, Trump and Clinton had long been publicly known to be associated with Epstein over the past decades.
(L-R) Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew
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Full of depositions, discovery inquires, pleadings, objections and more from a long-closed civil case of alleged Epstein sex slave Virginia Giuffre against the now incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell, Wednesday’s heavily anticipated document dump is not Jeffrey Epstein’s black book, at least not on initial inspection.
Much of it seems to name people and situations that have long one been out there. For instance, in one January 10, 2015 email, Maxwell laments the latest accusations against Epstein and worries about facing questions of “what is my relationship to clinton ? Andrew on and on.”
In another document from June 2016 there is discussion about getting a deposition from “William Jefferson Clinton” to illuminate his “personal relationship” with Epstein and Maxwell. The former president “is a key person who can provide information about his close relationship with Defendant and Mr. Epstein and disprove Ms. Maxwell’s claims.” After press reports that Clinton had been on Epstein’s private island in the early 2000s were disavowed by Giuffre herself as well as the FBI, the request to depose Clinton was denied by a federal judge.
In a 2016 deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s accusers, she is asked, “Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Bill Clinton?”
“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” Sjoberg said.
But Clinton is not accused of wrongdoing in the sordid Epstein saga
Clinton’s representatives have previously told reporters that he “knows nothing” about Epstein’s crimes, and said that he had taken a total of four trips on his plane in 2002 and 2003 — one to Europe, one to Asia and two to Africa, in connection with the Clinton Foundation.
The former president’s name appears elsewhere in the documents, including as someone that Maxwell’s team argued could refute some of Giuffre’s claims.
Former president and current leading GOP candidate Trump is mention by Sjoberg as someone Epstein “called up” and hung out with at one of the then real estate mogul’s casinos in Atlantic City during an unexpected visit to the Garden State town.
Also mention in the documents were Prince Andrew, another publicly known friend of Epstein’s, and modelling executive Jean -Luc Brunel. Accused of being a procuring of women for Epstein, Brunel was arrested in December 2020 by French police for sexually assaulting minor. He was found dead in his jail cell in a Paris prison on February 19, 2022. The cause of death was determined to be suicide by hanging.
Litigator Alan Dershowitz and the late Bill Richardson, former New Mexico governor, UN Ambassador and presidential candidate are mentioned, along with Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew in a 2016 list of “IDENTITIES OF INDIVIDUALS LIKELY TO HAVE DISCOVERABLE INFORMATION RELEVANT TO DISPUTED FACTS ALLEGED WITH PARTICULARITY IN THE PLEADINGS.”
Just because someone’s name is mentioned in the documents doesn’t mean they were a so-called client of Epstein’s. Nor does it mean they were involved in the abuse that the well-connected millionaire was convicted of in 2008 and later arrested again for again five years ago. A pal of presidents, princes and more, Epstein committed suicide by hanging on August 10, 2019 as he awaited federal charges out of New York and Florida
Ordered by a New York state Judge Loretta Preska last month and with the deadline for individuals to appeal their identities being released, the names were unsealed as an epilogue of sorts to Giuffre’s 2017 closed assault and slander case against Maxwell. A long-time partner to Epstein, one-time socialite Maxwell is currently serving the second year of a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking and grooming. A perjury trial also looms for Maxwell for lying under oath about Epstein’s sexual abuse of minors over the year.
“Pursuant to the Court’s December 18, 2023, unsealing order, and following conferral with Defendant, Plaintiff files this set of documents ordered unsealed,” lawyer Sigrid S. McCawley at said in a letter to Judge Preska today. “The filing of these documents ordered unsealed will be done on a rolling basis until completed,” the Giuffre lawyer from Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP Ft. Lauderdale offices added. “This filing also excludes documents pertaining to Does 105 …107, and 110 …while the Court’s review of those documents is ongoing.”
First filed on September 21, 2015, Giuffre’s federal case against Maxwell was “terminated” on May 25, 2017
In addition to her legal action against the daughter of British media baron Robert Maxwell, Giuffre was involved in a suit against Prince Andrew. While the brother of King Charles III has denied ever having sex with the then teen Giuffre or, despite photographs of them together, ever meeting her, Prince Andrew ended up paying her millions in a settlement in 2022. The payment came mere weeks before the royal was set to have to testify in open court.
In February 2022, both parties submitted paperwork to the district court in the Empire State to have Giuffre’s case dismissed with prejudice. More Epstein documents and names of associates are anticipated to be made public in the next few months
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