HIGH PROFILE CELEBRITIES, politicians and royalty have been named in court documents relating to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson are all referenced in the first tranche of files, which were published as part of Epstein victim – and Andrew accuser – Virginia Giuffre’s civil claim against disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
Here are the key extracts from the documents and what it might mean for those involved.
The documents were used as evidence as part of Giuffre’s civil claim against Ghislaine Maxwell – a case that was settled in 2017.
Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes for almost three decades.
Epstein, a financier with a powerful network in the United States and abroad, was himself accused of raping young girls, but his death by suicide in a New York prison in August 2019 halted his prosecution.
In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein.
The documents were published following an order by a US judge, who ruled in favour of the media that it was in the public interest for the names of associates, friends and victims of Epstein to no longer be anonymised.
The documents show interviews given under oath by Maxwell, Giuffre and a woman named Johanna Sjoberg, who previously said Andrew touched her breast while sat in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.
Also included in the files are emails between Epstein and Maxwell; Giuffre and the FBI; and Maxwell and her lawyers in the UK.
Prince Andrew features heavily in the documents, as well as former US president Bill Clinton.
Other famous faces include: Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, Stephen Hawking and David Copperfield.
Court filings from 2014 resurfaced about Andrew allegedly having sex with an underage girl during an orgy with other underage girls on Epstein’s private island, named Little St James.
Sjoberg’s interview under oath also revealed how she claimed Andrew touched her breast while she and Giuffre were in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.
Andrew denies any wrongdoing.
Andrew was seen as recently as Christmas Day walking to church with King Charles and other members of the royal family, just months after appearing publicly at Charles’s coronation in his garter robes.
He reached a multi-million pound settlement with Giuffre in 2022 after she claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, but the resurfacing of the allegations against him are likely to be seen as a setback, potentially jeopardising his hopes of any future public appearances alongside his family.
Sjoberg can be seen saying that Epstein had told her Clinton “likes them young, referring to girls” during her interview under oath.
In 2019, Clinton’s spokesman said he knew “nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to” and that the pair had not spoken “in over a decade”.
Trump also featured in Sjoberg’s evidence after she said Epstein had called him and visited one of his casinos due to his private plane being diverted.
Epstein sent an email to Maxwell saying he would be content with rewarding Giuffre’s friends to counter her allegations of wrongdoing after she filed her civil claim – including that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.
Michael Jackson was mentioned in Sjoberg’s interview as someone she had met at Epstein’s house in Florida – but said their relationship was not sexual.
According to Sjoberg, US magician David Copperfield asked her if she was “aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls” and that he performed magic tricks over dinner at one of Epstein’s properties.
There are still a number of documents that are yet to be released, with only 40 of about 250 published so far.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say