An accuser of the late Jeffrey Epstein testified the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender once told her Bill Clinton “likes them young, referring to girls,” but said she never met the former U.S. president herself.
Clinton’s name appears repeatedly in a trove of new court documents unsealed Wednesday stemming from a 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell, a close associate and former girlfriend of Epstein. New York District Court Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents to be unsealed last month.
While the depositions, legal filings and other documents mention Clinton flew with Epstein on his private plane and travelled with Epstein and Maxwell at least once, they do not include any specific indications that Clinton was engaged in any sexual activity with underage girls or any other wrongdoing, criminal or otherwise.
In an email to Maxwell in 2015 included as evidence, however, Epstein gives permission to offer rewards to anyone who proves allegations against them are false. He says the “strongest” allegations are the “Clinton dinner” and an “underage orgy” in the U.S. Virgin Islands he says late physicist Stephen Hawking participated in.
The documents implicate other notable people, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and French fashion model scout Jean Luc Brunel.
In her deposition in which she relayed Epstein’s comment about Clinton, accuser Johanna Sjoberg, who says she was abused by Epstein after being hired as a masseuse, denies meeting or engaging in sex with a number of other famous names, including Donald Trump, Al Gore and George Lucas.
She says Prince Andrew once groped her at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001, an incident that has been previously reported and Andrew has denied.
Sjoberg said Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo with Epstein, Giuffre and Maxwell. Sjoberg said the photo also included a puppet that said “Prince Andrew” on it.
The names were included in court proceedings after Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre filed a 2015 defamation claim against Maxwell. Giuffre sued Maxwell after the British socialite told the media that Giuffre’s claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell were “obvious lies.”
The parties eventually settled out of court in 2017, but that initial claim laid the groundwork for further legal action.
Get the latest National news.
Sent to your email, every day.
In a deposition, Giuffre said she had sex with several prominent politicians and financial leaders, including billionaire U.S. businessman Tom Pritzker. She did not say whether she was underage at the time or whether the sex was nonconsensual.
Giuffre’s allegation against Pritzker appeared to be previously unreported.
In her deposition, she also said she had sex with other prominent figures who have previously denied her allegations, including Richardson, hedge-fund owner Glenn Dubin, and former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
The names in the newly unsealed documents included people who flew on Epstein’s planes and visited his many properties, including a New York mansion, a Palm Beach villa, a ranch in Santa Fe and a pair of private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands called Little St. James and Great St. James — the former notoriously and infamously known as “Epstein’s Island.”
Preska had given the individuals on the list 14 days to contest having their names go public. The deadline for objections passed at midnight on Monday, but the judge extended the deadlines for two people who have only been referred to as “Does.”
Some of the names of Epstein’s accusers were redacted, specifically those who allege they were victims of child sexual abuse. Preska ruled that revealing their identities would “disclose sensitive information regarding an alleged minor victim of sexual abuse who has not spoken publicly and who has maintained his or her privacy.”
Preska noted in her decision that many of the listed individuals have already been publicly identified as connected to Epstein through the media and other legal proceedings. Many others “did not raise an objection” to the release of the documents.
(You can read the released documents in full, below, via Scribd.)
Giuffre went on to sue Prince Andrew in 2021 for sexually assaulting and battering her at Maxwell’s London home. Prince Andrew’s lawyers called the allegations “baseless” and the lawsuit was eventually settled out of court. The prince is estimated to have paid 12 million pounds to Guiffre and her victim support charity.
In late 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking charges for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual abuse at the hands of Epstein, and in some cases, Maxwell herself. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
— with files from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield and Reuters
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.