The names of wealthy banker Jeffrey Epstein’s acquaintances and connections, including previous U.S. presidents and the British monarchy, were published on Wednesday evening in a collection of court records that were part of a 2015 lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell.

The documents are part of a defamation case filed by victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre and are the first of more than 200 that are anticipated to be unsealed in the coming days. Maxwell earlier referred to Giuffre as a liar when she claimed that Epstein and Maxwell abused her. (That case was eventually settled in 2017, although Maxwell was later sentenced to 20 years in jail for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually exploit in the course of a criminal investigation into Epstein’s actions following his death.)

The court records cited the names of figures previously associated with Jeffrey, such as Prince Andrew and former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, but there needed to be more fresh material beyond what was already known to the public. Some records had previously been published in other court proceedings, and Epstein’s high-profile contacts had been widely publicized.

The Biggest Names From Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Court Documents

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the data disclosed in December, but she gave them until January 1 to appeal if they did not want their identity known. The names of victims who were juveniles at the time of the abuse were not revealed, even though some of them had previously spoken out about Epstein’s behaviour in media appearances.

The documents contain little about the acts of persons other than Jeffrey, while a 2016 deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s victims, cites politicians and figureheads in the United States and abroad.

While Bruce Willis, Cameron Diaz, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Spacey, Naomi Campbell, and Leonardo DiCaprio are named in the records, they have not been accused of assisting Jeffrey in any way. Sjoberg was questioned if she had met the previously listed individuals, which she rejected.

Connections to Jeffrey have previously caused high-level executives, including Barclays CEO Jes Staley, to retire. In 2022, Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent suspected of hunting girls for Jeffrey, committed suicide in a Paris jail while awaiting trial on rape charges.

The Biggest Names From Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Court Documents

The records released on Wednesday confirmed the scope of Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking enterprise as well as his extensive social network. One of the individuals named in the documents was Prince Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, who a witness cited for stroking her breast.

Andrew was previously accused of raping Giuffre as a youngster. Andrew was forced to renounce his military titles and official obligations following a lawsuit launched by Giuffre in 2021, despite his continuous denials of the claims. Andrew paid Giuffre an undisclosed sum to settle the claim in 2022.

According to the 2019 indictment, Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender who would entice young females into giving him massages that would then “become increasingly sexual in nature.” One of the victims, Jennifer Araoz, stated that Jeffrey would invite her to his home and give her hundreds of dollars after each visit. While they originally discussed her life and objectives, he later became abusive, according to Araoz.

Epstein has avoided facing any consequences for his actions for a long time. He was originally probed for sexual misconduct in 2005 after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her adolescent stepdaughter. In May 2006, Palm Beach police accused Jeffrey of unlawful intercourse with a minor, but State Attorney Barry Krischer referred the case to a grand jury, which indicted him on one count of soliciting prostitutes. The allegation was minor, prompting widespread condemnation and prompting the FBI to launch a criminal probe into Jeffrey.

However, Epstein received a brief 18-month term in 2008 for recruiting an underage girl for prostitution after striking a plea deal with U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta to avoid being charged with any federal offences.

Epstein was scrutinized again in 2018 after the Miami Herald investigated Acosta’s role in obtaining a low sentence for Jeffrey. Jeffrey was detained in July 2019 after federal prosecutors investigated his activities between 2002 and 2005.

The prosecution’s case established that the victims, some as young as 14, were paid to provide sexual services for him and his friends, as well as to recruit more young females into his circle of victims. Employees of Epstein would also sexually abuse underage females.

The Biggest Names From Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Court Documents

In July 2019, he was facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges when he committed suicide in a federal prison in New York. After his death, the inquiry continued, and prosecutors charged Maxwell with sex crimes in connection with her dealings with Epstein.

Other prominent names referenced in the papers include:

In the documents revealed on Wednesday, Sjoberg testified thatJeffrey told her, “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.” She also stated that she was aware of Epstein’s “dealings” with Clinton but was unaware of their friendship until subsequent media stories.

The former president’s relationship with Jeffrey has long been the focus of journalistic investigation, which has increased in the aftermath of the financier’s prosecution. They met while Clinton was working on his nonprofit organization, the Clinton Foundation, and they travelled to Africa on Epstein’s private jet in 2002.

Mr. Donald Trump
Sjoberg’s 2016 deposition also cited the former president, whose friendship with Jeffrey was publicly publicized. Sjoberg testified that she and Epstein made an unplanned stay in Atlantic City due to bad weather. Sjoberg stated she had not given Trump a massage. Trump once called Epstein a “terrific guy,” but later stated they had a falling out. “I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years.” “I was never a fan of his,” Trump admitted in 2019.

Sjoberg recalled meeting late musician Michael Jackson at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, but she denied massaging him.

The Biggest Names From Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Court Documents

Sarah Kellen Kellen, Epstein’s former aide, was mentioned in victim testimonials about their contacts with Jeffrey. She was accused of assisting in the scheduling of his “massages,” which his victims claimed were a euphemism for sexual services.

A judge identified Kellen as “a criminally responsible participant” in Epstein’s scam.

On the other hand, Kellen was never charged and has remained out of the public glare. Kellen stated through a spokesperson in 2020 that Jeffrey had sexually and psychologically tortured her for years.

Brunel, Jean-Luc
In 2022, Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent suspected of hunting girls for Jeffrey, committed suicide in a Paris jail while awaiting trial on rape charges.

In her deposition, Giuffre stated that Maxwell sent her to have sex with Brunel “at many places.” Brunel, according to the records, would bring girls as young as twelve “to the United States for sexual purposes and farm them out to his friends, particularly Jeffrey.”

SOURCE – (time)