By Anna Armas
ATLANTA (Court TV) — More court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein have been released following several years of hype surrounding the potential names of people who could be mentioned in the documents and what that would mean regarding alleged criminal activity, if any.
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference, in New York on July 2, 2020. ( AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Among the 943 pages of documents are emails between Epstein and his girlfriend, the British former socialite Ghislane Maxwell, as well as depositions, transcripts, and police reports. Last month, a judge ordered a total of 250 documents to be unsealed. The records are part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, one of the victims who says Epstein sexually abused her. Giuffre is only one of dozens of victims with horrific allegations against the couple.
Epstein, a millionaire known for mingling with celebrities and politicians, was charged with sex trafficking in 2019. He killed himself in jail before he went to trial. Maxwell was charged with recruiting his underage victims and was convicted in 2021. She is serving a 20-year prison term.
Most of the people named in the first, second and third batches were already known to have associated with Epstein in some way. And there were no bombshells. But there are new interesting, and some disturbing, details. Here’s what the documents reveal about some of the most well-known people named:
Former President Bill Clinton: In a deposition, Maxwell’s attorneys ask Giuffre about inaccuracies in stories in the news. They asked her if it was true that she had ridden in a helicopter with the former president. She said she hadn’t.
In a 2016 deposition, Johanna Sjoberg, another Epstein victim, recalled Epstein telling her, “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
FILE – Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court following the jailhouse death of Jeffrey Epstein, Aug. 27, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
There are no allegations of any criminal activity or wrongdoing.
Former President Donald Trump: In a deposition, Maxwell’s attorneys asked Giuffre if it was true that she had flirted with Trump, as reported in a newspaper article. She says that did not happen.
In a 2016 deposition, Sjoberg recalls when she was in Epstein’s plane with Giuffre, and the pilot could not land in New York because of a storm. When told they could not land, Epstein said, “Great, we’ll call up Trump.” They landed in Atlantic City and went to one of Trump’s casinos for a few hours. They then got back on the plane and flew out of Atlantic City. She said she never gave the former president a massage. There are no allegations of any criminal activity or wrongdoing.
Michael Jackson: In the same 2016 deposition, Sjoberg is asked, “Did you ever meet anybody famous when you were with Jeffrey?” She answered, “I met Michael Jackson…at Jeffrey’s house in Palm Beach.” Sjoberg said she did not massage the King of Pop.
David Copperfield: In the same 2016 deposition, Sjoberg says she also met David Copperfield at a dinner at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. Copperfield performed magic tricks.
An attorney asked Sjoberg, “Did Copperfield ever discuss Jeffrey’s involvement with young girls with you?” She answered, “He questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” Sjoberg was then asked, “Did he say whether they were teenagers or anything along those lines?” and she answered, “He did not.” There are no allegations of any criminal activity or wrongdoing.
Prince Andrew: It is well-known that Giuffre alleges she was pressured into having sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 years old. In 2022, she settled a lawsuit against him.
FILE – Britain’s Prince Andrew speaks during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, April 11, 2021. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, File)
In the now-unsealed documents, Sjoberg’s testimony sheds new light on an April 2001 trip to New York in which she says Prince Andrew touched her breast while they posed for a photo in Epstein’s home. She says she and Giuffre flew with Epstein to New York and met Maxwell and Prince Andrew. According to her, Maxwell called her to a closet where they pulled out a hand puppet of Prince Andrew. The puppet had been made for television.
Maxwell brought out the puppet and showed it to Prince Andrew. Sjoberg testified, “They decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch. 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.”
Another document names Prince Andrew as participating in an orgy with underage girls.
“Perhaps even more important to her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse ring, Maxwell had direct connections to other powerful individuals with whom she could connect Epstein. For instance, one such powerful individual Epstein forced Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with was a member of the British Royal Family, Prince Andrew (a/k/a Duke of York). Jane Doe #3 was forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations: in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), in New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls). Epstein instructed Jane Doe #3 that she was to give the Prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse. Maxwell facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a “madame” for Epstein, thereby assisting in internationally trafficking Jane Doe #3 (and numerous other young girls) for sexual purposes.”
Frédéric Fekkai, famed hairstylist and beauty product entrepreneur: In a 2016 deposition, Johanna Sjoberg was asked if she ever observed Epstein on the phone talking about Fekkai. She said she did, stating, “I heard him call someone and say, Fekkai is in Hawaii. Can we find some girls for him?” Sjoberg said she was massaging Epstein then and tried not to react, saying, “I tried to remain reactionless the whole five years.” There are no allegations of any criminal activity or wrongdoing.
Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist: Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who famously suffered from a disease that left him paralyzed in a wheelchair, was named in an email sent from Epstein to Maxwell asking her to find someone to disprove rumors about them. In the email he writes, “you can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends…that can come forward and help prove her allegations are false…the strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the virgin islands that stven (sic) hawking patrica-ted (sic) in an underage orgy.”
