NEW YORK (AP) — A brand new batch of unsealed paperwork pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage ladies was launched Thursday, including a number of hundred pages to the fountain of knowledge detailing how the financier leveraged connections to the wealthy, highly effective and well-known to recruit his victims and canopy up his crimes.
The 19 paperwork, or about 300 pages, have been half as many because the over 40 paperwork launched Wednesday. The paperwork thus far — with extra to return — have been sprinkled with names of celebrities and politicians who socialized with Epstein or labored with him within the years earlier than he was publicly accused almost 20 years in the past of paying underage ladies for intercourse.
Most of these names have been acquainted to anybody who has adopted the scandal intently, together with the legal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s former girlfriend, family supervisor and chief recruiter of younger, weak females.
It was throughout Maxwell’s legal trial two years in the past that Epstein’s victims, a few of whom aspired to be fashions or artists, described how he dropped the names of his well-known and influential buddies to counsel that he was the victims’ ticket to reaching their goals. Maxwell, 62, was convicted of intercourse trafficking prices and is serving a 20-year jail sentence.
The roughly 250 paperwork being unsealed, beginning this week, in one of many lawsuits in opposition to Maxwell principally rehash what has lengthy been identified a few man who traveled in elite circles till his July 2019 sex-trafficking arrest left him so cornered that he took his personal life in jail.
However they’ve included a number of contemporary particulars a few pyramid of abuse that grew over three many years and broken dozens of teenage ladies and younger girls.
Among the many well-known individuals in Epstein’s orbit earlier than he was uncovered as a sexual predator have been former Presidents Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton, singer Michael Jackson and magician David Copperfield, in keeping with the accounts of his victims and different witnesses quoted in newly launched paperwork. None of these males have been accused of wrongdoing.
There have been additionally repetitions of well-known tales about Britain’s Prince Andrew. He was sued by considered one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, who mentioned she had sexual encounters with the royal when she was 17. The prince, who denied the allegations, settled the lawsuit in 2022.
The courtroom paperwork being launched now are associated to a 2015 lawsuit that Giuffre introduced in opposition to Maxwell. 1000’s of pages of paperwork in that lawsuit had been made public beforehand, however some sections had been blacked out due to privateness considerations.
U.S. District Choose Loretta A. Preska ordered final month that these redactions be lifted, principally as a result of names within the paperwork had already been made public by way of information protection or by way of different courtroom proceedings.
Among the many extra fascinating paperwork launched Wednesday was the Could 2016 deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, who labored as a masseuse in Epstein’s family. Sjoberg mentioned she as soon as met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Seashore, Florida, dwelling, however that nothing untoward occurred with the late pop icon. Epstein additionally had houses in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.
She additionally described an April 2001 journey to New York during which she mentioned Prince Andrew touched her breast whereas they posed for a photograph at Epstein’s Manhattan city home.
Clinton beforehand mentioned by way of a spokesperson that though he traveled on Epstein’s jet a number of instances, he by no means visited his houses, had no data of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him since his conviction. Trump has additionally mentioned he as soon as thought Epstein was a “terrific man,” however that they later had a falling-out.
Sjoberg additionally testified that she as soon as went to a dinner at considered one of Epstein’s houses that was additionally attended by magician David Copperfield.
She mentioned Copperfield did magic methods earlier than asking if she was conscious “that ladies have been getting paid to seek out different ladies.” One allegation in opposition to Epstein and Maxwell was that some ladies he paid for sexual acts later recruited different victims. Sjoberg mentioned Copperfield didn’t get extra particular about what he meant. A Copperfield publicist didn’t reply to an e mail in search of remark.
The newly launched information additionally embody many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who was near Epstein and who killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022 whereas awaiting trial on prices that he raped underage ladies. Giuffre was among the many girls who accused Brunel of sexual abuse.
Individually, Brunel’s property was sued this week by a lady who alleges that he and others sexually assaulted her whereas she was working as a mannequin in New York. She says that on one event, she was pushed to a house in Canada and stored there for a number of days whereas males abused her. The lawsuit, filed in state courtroom in California, doesn’t point out Epstein or Maxwell.