Last batch of unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents released
Last batch of unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents released
Another round of documents involving accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was released Tuesday, expected to be the last of the materials that were ordered unsealed by a federal judge as part of a settled lawsuit.
In total, the roughly 250 documents make public the names of more than 150 people connected to or mentioned in legal proceedings related to Epstein and his network, which allegedly centered around paying teenage girls and young women to engage in sexual acts with the wealthy financier and other powerful men under the guise of massage therapy.
The first batch of documents was released publicly last Wednesday.
The identities scattered across hundreds of pages were largely known from previous public documents and interviews — one reason why U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska approved their disclosure — and many had only a passing connection to the scandal and were not part of any criminal investigation. The alleged minor victims of Epstein were allowed to remain confidential.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were mentioned in unsealed depositions from Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell and an Epstein accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, who said Maxwell recruited her as a massage therapist while she was attended Palm Beach Atlantic College in 2001. Neither of the former presidents are accused of wrongdoing in the depositions.
In the latest documents released Monday, another alleged victim of Epstein’s, Sarah Ransome, claimed in emails to a New York Post columnist in 2016 that Trump, Clinton and others were involved in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking scheme. Ransome recanted the allegations in a followup email to the columnist. Ransome later came forward publicly with her accusations against Epstein when she and other victims were invited to speak at a court hearing following his death by suicide in August 2019.
Attorneys for Ransome did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
In response to the release of Ransome’s 2016 emails, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said “these baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit.”
Trump has previously said he had not been in touch with Epstein for 15 years before his death, and in 2019, he said he was “not a fan“ of Epstein’s.
A Clinton spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the former president has previously denied any knowledge of criminal activity by Epstein and stressed in 2019 that they had not spoken to each other in over a decade.
The newly released documents are part of a settled defamation lawsuit against Maxwell by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was a victim of sex trafficking and abuse under Epstein when she was a teenager in the early 2000s.
Giuffre’s suit was settled out of court in 2017, and while some records have been released over the years, other materials were kept sealed or with names redacted in part because of privacy concerns.
Epstein, who killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 as he faced multiple sex-trafficking charges, has been the subject of internet conspiracy theories, which the documents released have done little, if anything, to justify.
The documents do include celebrity names and known figures, and although they provide few new details, Giuffre’s lawyer said they help to widen the public’s understanding of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking scheme and give greater context to the elite circles and control he exerted over vulnerable young females.
Giuffre said in a deposition released last week that at different times she was directed to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew, another prince, the unnamed owner of a large hotel chain and Glenn Dubin, a billionaire hedge fund manager, according to a transcript.
A U.S. attorney for Andrew declined comment Monday. A spokesperson for Dubin in 2019 and again Jan. 3 said he “strongly den[ies] these allegations” and described them as unsubstantiated statements. Andrew has vigorously denied the claims, as has Dubin.
In 2022, Giuffre also settled a high-profile lawsuit out of court against Andrew, who said he has no recollection of ever having met her.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury in 2021 on five federal sex-trafficking charges. She is currently appealing her conviction, and in the documents, accused Giuffre of being an “awful fantasist.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com