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On Thursday, nineteen court documents that were previously sealed were made public. These documents are related to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier and registered sex offender.
A New York judge granted their release the day after initial documents were revealed in a lawsuit against Epstein brought by one of his victims.
The additional set of records did not provide significant new information on the case and contained several names that were already disclosed to the public.
The identities of more than 100 individuals, including victims, associates, and friends of Epstein, were hidden in these documents through sealing or redaction. They were all referred to as “J Doe” and each had a unique identifying number.
The initial batch of papers was revealed in accordance with a court order on December 18th and additional documents will likely be made public in the following weeks.
Judge Loretta Preska of the United States has issued a ruling to unseal the court documents in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, brought by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. The names of approximately 200 individuals referred to as “John and Jane Does” will also be revealed without redaction.
She stated that a large number of people did not object to the publication of the papers. Judge Preska gave orders for specific names to be censored in order to safeguard the anonymity of victims of sexual abuse.
The initial release did not contain any shocking information, as most of it had already been widely reported. The list of names consisted of a combination of well-known individuals, with the majority not facing any accusations of wrongdoing. This included “purported victims, individuals not facing allegations…and third parties who were not present.” Being mentioned in the court documents does not necessarily implicate the person in any unlawful actions connected to Epstein.
Some important points to remember are:
Several individuals mentioned in the recently unsealed court documents have been previously associated with Epstein. The list includes former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, late former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, and late AI pioneer Marvin Minsky. Other notable names mentioned include David Copperfield and Michael Jackson.
Prince Andrew:
The recently released legal papers mention Johanna Sjoberg, who has accused Prince Andrew, a member of the British royal family, of touching her breast in Epstein’s New York City residence in 2001. Buckingham Palace has strongly denied these accusations.
During a legal testimony, Sjoberg alleged that Prince Andrew touched her breast. In 2022, the royal reached a settlement in a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, which was filed by another accuser, Virginia Giuffre.
The paperwork, submitted in the federal court in Manhattan, offers more information to help understand the relationships that Epstein had formed with powerful individuals over time. These individuals include former presidents, Mr. Trump and Mr. Clinton, as well as a member of the British royal family, Prince Andrew.
Most of the names listed in the documents were already familiar connections of Epstein. However, some new information has surfaced, particularly from the testimony of Sjoberg, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein from 2001 to 2006.
Bill Clinton:
During her deposition in 2016, Ms. Sjoberg was asked if Epstein had ever mentioned former president Bill Clinton. She stated that Epstein had made a comment once about how Clinton “likes them young,” referring to girls.
In 2019, Mr. Clinton’s representative denied allegations regarding his connection to Epstein. In a statement on X/Twitter, it was stated: “President Clinton is not aware of the abhorrent crimes that Jeffrey Epstein admitted to in Florida several years ago, or the charges against him in New York.”
Mr. Clinton has been referenced a total of 73 times in the current documents, including footnotes.
In the second set of papers, a 2011 email from Ms. Giuffre to journalist Sharon Churcher contained an allegation that Bill Clinton had warned Vanity Fair journalists against investigating and reporting on Epstein.
According to an email from Ms. Giuffre, former President B. Clinton entered Vanity Fair and warned them against publishing any articles about his close associate, Jeffrey Epstein, who has been accused of sex trafficking.
Donald Trump:
Ms. Sjoberg alleged that she had been on a private flight with Epstein that unexpectedly stopped in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She stated that Epstein had remarked, “Great, we’ll call Trump.” Sjoberg also mentioned that Epstein proposed they visit Mr. Trump’s casino.
In another location, Ms Sjoberg was questioned about whether she had ever provided Mr Trump with a massage, and she answered “no”.
In 2019, when questioned about his connection to Epstein after the financier’s arrest, Mr. Trump stated that he was familiar with him, as were many people in Palm Beach. However, the former president also mentioned that he had a disagreement with Epstein and had not communicated with him in 15 years. He made it clear that he was not a supporter of Epstein.
David Copperfield and Michael Jackson:
During her testimony, Ms Sjoberg disclosed two names that had not been mentioned before: David Copperfield and Michael Jackson. She stated that she had met Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach home and encountered Copperfield at another one of Epstein’s properties where he performed “magic tricks.”
Ms. Sjoberg alleged that Copperfield asked her if she knew that girls were being compensated for finding other girls.
“Let’s start a family together.”
In a newly released testimony, Ms. Sjoberg disclosed that the discredited financier had made repeated advances for her to bear his child. She mentioned that Epstein expressed his wish for her to be the mother of his offspring, to which she did not explicitly decline, but instead responded with an indifferent tone, saying, “Is that so?”
“Basically [he] just said, I want you to be the mother of my baby,” Ms Sjoberg said. “I don’t believe that I said flat-out no. I didn’t agree to it. I would just say, Oh, yeah, really?”
Stephen Hawking:
In the year 2015, following Ms. Giuffre’s lawsuit in the United States, an email from Epstein to Maxwell was uncovered. The email stated that Epstein had asked Maxwell to provide a reward as a means to refute Giuffre’s accusations involving Professor Stephen Hawking in a supposed underage group sex incident.
The email recommended concentrating on disproving individual accusations, like the assertion that Hawking was involved in an event at a dinner in the Virgin Islands. However, there have been no allegations of Hawking committing a crime related to Epstein, who passed away in 2018.
Ehud Barak:
Based on records, it has been noted that Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel, regularly visited Epstein’s residence on the Upper East Side from 2013 to 2017. Barak has confirmed these encounters in the past, stating that Epstein would often introduce him to individuals from various industries such as art, culture, law, science, finance, diplomacy, and philanthropy. However, he denies ever meeting Epstein in any inappropriate or improper context involving girls, minors, or adult women.
Noam Chomsky:
Based on records, Epstein organized several gatherings with Noam Chomsky in 2015 and 2016. At the time, Mr. Chomsky was a professor at MIT, a school that had received sizable donations from Epstein. These planned meetings included a group of scholars, and Mr. Chomsky even flew on Epstein’s personal airplane to New York.
A particular occasion featured a supper at Epstein’s residence with movie director Woody Allen and his spouse, Soon-Yi Previn.
On July 6, 2019, Epstein was taken into custody for charges related to sex trafficking. He later died by suicide while in jail. Following his death, Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend, was prosecuted by the US attorney in Manhattan for her involvement in recruiting underage victims. In 2022, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maxwell’s lawyers, Arthur L Aidala and Diana Fabi Samson, stated to the Guardian that “Ghislaine Maxwell did not support the court’s ruling to unseal documents in Giuffre v Maxwell as they do not affect her or her current appeal.”
Source: independent.co.uk
