BY MICHAEL R. SISAK, REBECCA BOONE and DAVID B. CARUSO (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Amid nice hype, a brand new batch of beforehand secret courtroom paperwork was unsealed late Wednesday associated to Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who killed himself in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking costs.
Social media has been rife in current weeks with posts speculating the paperwork amounted to an inventory of wealthy and highly effective males who had been Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.”
There was no such record. The first 40 paperwork within the court-ordered launch largely consisted of already public materials revealed by almost 20 years of newspaper tales, TV documentaries, interviews, authorized instances and books in regards to the Epstein scandal.
Still, the information — together with transcripts of interviews with a few of Epstein’s victims and previous police reviews — contained reminders that the millionaire surrounded himself with well-known and highly effective figures, together with a number of who’ve additionally been accused of misconduct.
There had been mentions of Epstein’s previous friendship with Bill Clinton — who will not be accused of any wrongdoing — and of Britain’s Prince Andrew, who beforehand settled a lawsuit accusing him of getting intercourse with a 17-year-old lady who traveled with Epstein.
Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg testified in a newly launched deposition that she as soon as met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, dwelling, however that nothing untoward occurred with the late pop icon.
The paperwork being unsealed are associated to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by considered one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. She is considered one of dozens of girls who sued Epstein for abusing them at his properties in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico. This swimsuit was in opposition to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who’s now serving a 20-year jail time period for serving to recruit and abuse his victims.
Giuffre’s lawsuit was settled in 2017, however the courtroom had saved some paperwork blacked-out or sealed due to issues in regards to the privateness rights of Epstein’s victims and others whose names had come up throughout the authorized battle. More paperwork had been to be launched in coming days.
Among newly unsealed information had been courtroom memos wherein Giuffre’s legal professionals complained that some girls who had labored for Epstein had been proving troublesome to serve with subpoenas, as was Epstein himself. Two of these girls had invoked their Fifth Amendment proper in opposition to self-incrimination when questioned in different lawsuits about whether or not they had helped procure younger girls for Epstein to abuse.
Maxwell, in her deposition, chaffed at being requested about Giuffre’s allegations that she had organized for her to have sexual encounters with Prince Andrew. She additionally reacted angrily to being requested about whether or not she had bought intercourse toys or revealing outfits, or seen younger, topless girls at Epstein’s dwelling.
One former member of Epstein’s home employees mentioned in a deposition that he felt uncomfortable with the variety of younger girls exhibiting up on the home, and felt threatened by Maxwell to remain quiet.
Other paperwork included authorized arguments over whether or not Giuffre ought to be allowed extra time to depose potential witnesses, together with Clinton. Giuffre by no means alleged he was concerned in unlawful habits, however her attorneys mentioned the previous president was a “key person who can provide information about his close relationship” with Maxwell and Epstein.
Maxwell’s attorneys countered that Clinton testimony was not related.
The information included depositions of a number of Epstein victims, a lot of whom have instructed their tales publicly beforehand.
In her May 2016 deposition, Sjoberg described going to a dinner at considered one of Epstein’s properties additionally attended by magician David Copperfield.
She mentioned Copperfield did magic methods earlier than asking if she was conscious “that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” One of the important thing allegations in opposition to Epstein and Maxwell was that among the women he paid for intercourse acts then acted as recruiters to seek out him different victims. Sjoberg mentioned Copperfield didn’t get extra particular about what he meant.
A publicist for Copperfield didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail searching for remark.
Sjoberg additionally shed new mild on an April 2001 journey to New York wherein she mentioned Prince Andrew touched her breast whereas they posed for a photograph at Epstein’s Manhattan city home.
In the testimony, a few of which appeared as excerpts in earlier courtroom filings, Sjoberg mentioned she and Giuffre had flown with Epstein to New York on his non-public jet. Maxwell and Prince Andrew met them there.
At one level, she testified, Maxwell known as her to an upstairs closet the place they pulled out a puppet of Prince Andrew that had been made for a tv program.
“It looked like him,” Sjoberg mentioned. “And she brought it down and presented it to him; and that was a great joke, because apparently it was a production from a show on BBC.”
“And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap, and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo.”
On the best way to New York, Sjoberg testified, Epstein’s jet diverted to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and spent a number of hours at considered one of Donald Trump’s casinos, due to dangerous climate.
Upon listening to the change of plans, Sjoberg recalled Epstein saying, “Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to” the on line casino. Sjoberg wasn’t requested in the event that they’d met up with Trump that night time. Later in her testimony, she mentioned she was by no means requested to offer Trump a therapeutic massage.
Sjoberg additionally testified that although she by no means met Clinton, Epstein as soon as remarked to her that “Clinton likes them young,” a comment she took as a reference to younger girls or women.
Clinton has beforehand mentioned by a spokesperson that whereas he traveled on Epstein’s jet a number of instances, he by no means visited his properties, had no data of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him since his conviction. Trump has additionally mentioned that he as soon as thought Epstein was a “terrific guy,” however that they later had a falling out.
In her deposition, Giuffre mentioned the summer time she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership to develop into a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that concerned performing sexual acts.
She settled a lawsuit in opposition to Prince Andrew in 2022 wherein she claimed he had sexually abused her throughout a visit to London. That identical yr, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made in opposition to Epstein’s former lawyer, legislation professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she “ may have made a mistake ” in figuring out him as an abuser.
The information launched Wednesday included many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent near Epstein who was awaiting trial on costs that he raped underage women when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022. Giuffre was among the many girls who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.
Clinton’s identify additionally got here up as a result of Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell’s legal professionals about inaccuracies in newspaper reviews about her time with Epstein, together with a narrative quoting her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre mentioned neither of these issues really occurred.
The decide mentioned a handful of names ought to stay blacked out within the paperwork as a result of they might determine individuals who had been sexually abused. The Associated Press doesn’t usually determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault until they determine to inform their tales publicly, as Giuffre and Sjoberg have carried out.
Even earlier than the paperwork had been launched, misinformation about what was in them abounded. Social media customers wrongly claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s identify would possibly seem within the paperwork, spurred by a crack New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Kimmel mentioned in a response on X that he had by no means met Epstein and that Rodgers’ “reckless words put my family in danger.”
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Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Larry Neumeister in New York contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”