Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton, and previously unknown individuals are named in nearly 1,000 pages of previously sealed court records released on Wednesday in a case involving Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a long prison term for trafficking minor girls to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The first tranche included nearly 40 unsealed court filings, featuring sealed depositions, emails, and other evidence filed as part of a 2015 defamation lawsuit filed against Ms. Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who says Mr. Epstein and his associates abused her. This case was settled in 2017.
More previously sealed court records will be disclosed “on a rolling basis until completed,” according to a court order dated Wednesday.
Prince Andrew was identified in a filing from the unsealed deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, who was already known as an alleged victim of Mr. Epstein.
During a deposition, Ms. Sjoberg said Prince Andrew “touched my breast” while she was sitting in his lap and, when asked if she had ever massaged former President Donald Trump, said “no.”
“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,” she said, referring to Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein.
Mr. Epstein once told Ms. Sjoberg, according to her deposition, that “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
The records, when released in their entirety, are expected to disclose the previously redacted names of 157 people who knew and spent time with Mr. Epstein, including prominent figures in the business and political worlds, as well as previously unknown parties, employees, former associates, alleged victims, and journalists who investigated him, according to court filings. Mr. Epstein died in prison in 2019, in a death ruled a suicide by a medical examiner.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, an appointee of President George H. W. Bush, ordered the release of the filings last month.
The name of former President Bill Clinton, who is already known to be linked to Mr. Epstein, was featured in a newly disclosed email from Mr. Epstein to Ms. Maxwell that was sent in 2015.
According to an unsealed court filing, Mr. Epstein emailed Ms. Maxwell in 2015 regarding Ms. Giuffre’s lawsuit, in which the late sex offender suggested offering a “reward” to Ms. Giuffre’s friends and family to “help prove her allegations are false.”
“You can issue a reward to any of virginias friends acquaionts (sic) family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false the strongest is the clinton dinner, and the new version in the virgin islands (sic) that stven (sic) hawking partica-ted (sic) in an underage orgy,” the unedited email, sent Jan. 12, 2015, reads.
The email from Mr. Epstein appeared to make reference to physicist Stephen Hawking, who had been photographed at Mr. Epstein’s private island.
The following month, Ms. Maxwell received a report from Ross Gow at reputation management firm Acuity Reputation, updating her on “some helpful leakage.” The email included a link to two news articles that reported on claims questioning Ms. Giuffre’s credibility. One article was published by the Daily Mail on Feb. 24, 2015, and the other was published by NY Daily News on Feb. 23, 2015.
The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Gow for comment.
The late singer Michael Jackson also visited Mr. Epstein’s home in Florida, while billionaire Thomas Pritzker slept with Ms. Giuffre once, according to the newly released information.
Ms. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 after being convicted on five of six counts of sex trafficking, including one count of trafficking a minor.
Ms. Giuffre, who in 2011 said that President Clinton has a “close personal relationship” with Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein, also tried to have President Clinton deposed, according to an unsealed filing, which noted that she “made no allegations of illegal actions by Bill Clinton.”
“While Ms. Giuffre made no allegations of illegal actions by Bill Clinton, Ms. Maxwell in her deposition raised Ms. Giuffre’s comments about President Clinton as one of the ‘obvious lies’ to which she was referring in her public statement that formed the basis of this suit,” the unsealed filing reads. “Apart from the Defendant and Mr. Epstein, former President Clinton is a key person who can provide information about his close relationship with Defendant and Mr. Epstein and disapprove Ms. Maxwell’s claims.”
In 2019, a spokesperson for President Clinton confirmed that he had flown in Mr. Epstein’s private plane but that he knew nothing about the sex offender’s “terrible crimes.” The Epoch Times contacted the Clinton Foundation for further comment.
From The Epoch Times
