The identities of dozens of well-known figures linked to Jeffrey Epstein have been revealed in court papers unsealed in the US overnight.
The files are part of a defamation case brought against Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in jail for sex trafficking underage girls to him.
She was sued by Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York three times in 2001 when she was 17 – claims the duke vehemently denies.
Prince Andrew
A 2014 court filing alleges that she was ‘forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations.’ She claims this happened ‘in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), in New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls).’
The newly unsealed docs claim Epstein told Jane Doe 3 to ‘give the Prince whatever he demanded’. Jane Doe 3 claims that Ghislaine Maxwell ‘facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a ‘madame’ for Epstein’.’
Bill Clinton
There are also mentions in the documents of Jeffrey Epstein’s past friendship with former US president Bill Clinton – who is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Jeffrey Epstein claimed Bill Clinton ‘liked them young’, Johanna Sjoberg told lawyers.
Deposition documents show Ms Sjoberg was asked if she knew the former US president was a friend of Epstein.
Ms Sjoberg said: ‘I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton.
‘I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together.’
Asked if Epstein had ever talked about the former president, Ms Sjoberg said: ‘He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.’
Other mentions included legal arguments over whether Virginia Giuffre should be allowed more time to depose potential witnesses, including Clinton.
Giuffre never alleged he was involved in illegal behavior, but her attorneys said the former president was a ‘key person who can provide information about his close relationship’ with Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein.
Maxwell’s attorneys countered that Clinton testimony was not relevant.
Donald Trump
Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said she and Virginia Giuffre had flown with Jeffrey Epstein to New York on his private jet.
On the way to New York, Sjoberg testified, Epstein’s jet diverted to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and spent a few hours at one of Donald Trump’s casinos, because of bad weather.
Upon hearing the change of plans, Sjoberg recalled Epstein saying, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to’ the casino. Sjoberg wasn’t asked if they’d met up with Trump that night. Later in her testimony, she said she was never asked to give Trump a massage.
Trump previously said that he once thought Epstein was a ‘terrific guy,’ but that they later had a falling out.
In her deposition, Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a ‘masseuse’ for Epstein – a job that involved performing sexual acts.
Stephen Hawking
Jeffrey Epstein was ready to reward one of his victim’s friends if they could ‘prove her allegations false’ – including that Professor Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy, the court documents revealed.
An email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell showed he was content for her to ‘issue a reward’ to any of Virginia Giuffre’s friends to counter her claims, shortly after she filed a civil claim in the US in 2015.
The email read: ‘You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaints, 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 that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.’
Hawking died in 2018 aged 76.
David Copperfield
In her May 2016 deposition, Jeffrey Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg described going to a dinner at one of Epstein’s homes also attended by magician David Copperfield.
She said Copperfield did magic tricks before asking if she was aware ‘that girls were getting paid to find other girls.’
One of the key allegations against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell was that some of the girls he paid for sex acts then acted as recruiters to find him other victims.
Sjoberg said Copperfield was not more specific about what he meant.
A publicist for Copperfield has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Michael Jackson
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg testified in the newly-released deposition that she once met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
But she added that nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon.
Jackson died in Los Angeles aged 50 in June 2009.
Tom Pritzker
In her deposition, Virginia Giuffre said she had sex with several politicians and financial leaders.
Giuffre’s deposition named several prominent figures who have previously denied her allegations of wrongdoing, including billionaire US businessman Tom Pritzker.
A spokesperson for Pritzker said the businessman ‘continues to vehemently deny’ the allegation.
Alan Dershowitz
In 2022, Virginia Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Jeffrey Epstein’s former attorney, law professor Alan Dershowitz, saying she ‘ may have made a mistake ‘ in identifying him as an abuser.
According to one of the documents, Epstein allegedly forced a woman named as Jane Doe #3, who was a ‘minor’ at the time, to ‘have sexual relations’ with Dershowitz.
It also claimed: ‘In addition to being a participant in the abuse of Jane Doe #3 and other minors, Dershowitz was an eye-witness to the sexual abuse of many other minors by Epstein and several of Epstein’s co-conspirators.’
But Dershowitz said in a statement to People: ‘The woman who initially accused me subsequently stated that she may have misidentified me and she withdrew her lawsuit against me.’
The high-profile lawyer supported the release of the documents.
He told NewsNation: ‘I want everything out, every document, every piece of paper, half-truths or lies, and I wanted them out for personal reasons because I know that they would prove what I’ve said from day one, that I did nothing wrong.
‘There are some people who may be ashamed of the fact that they hung out with Epstein but remember a lot of people hung out with Epstein before he was convicted.
‘Presidents of Harvard, deans, Nobel quality scientists, he was very well thought of in the beginning.’
Frédéric Fékkai
Celebrity hair stylist Frédéric Fékkai was named in the court documents, although it is unclear what relationship – if any – he had with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a deposition in May 2016 relating to Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg, she was asked by attorney Sigrid McCawley: ‘Did you ever hear or observe Jeffrey talking on the phone about Frédéric Fékkai?’
‘I heard him call someone, and say, Fékkai is in Hawaii,’ Sjoberg responded over the objection of the Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney Laura Menninger. ‘Can we find some girls for him?’
‘And what was your reaction to that?’ McCawley asked.
‘Well, I was massaging and I didn’t have a reaction,’ Sjoberg replied. ‘I tried to remain reactionless the whole five years.’
Fékkai has not yet commented on the claims.
Leslie Wexner
He was referred to when Ghislaine Maxwell was asked if she provided a woman with an outfit of a sexual nature to wear for Wexner.
‘Categorically no,’ Maxwell replied. ‘You did get that, I said categorically no.’
She also denied that she had communicated with Wexner about the lawsuit.
Wexner previously said in a letter to his employees that that he ‘was never aware of the illegal activity’ that Epstein was charged over.
Glenn Dubin
Virginia Giuffre claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Jeffrey Epstein’s social orbit, including the billionaire hedge fund Glenn Dubin, among others.
She said she also had sex with other political leaders whose names she could not remember.
All of those men, including Dubin, said her accounts were fabricated.
Dubin has not yet commented on the documents.
Jean-Luc Brunel
The documents name many public figures known to have associated with Jeffrey Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere, according to the judge.
One of them is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022.
Virginia Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse. His name was peppered throughout the documents released today.
The documents show that Giuffre said during a 2016 deposition that she had been told by Ghislaine Maxwell to have sex with several men.
After asking Giuffre in turn about each of the men, Laura Menninger, a lawyer who was part of Maxwell’s legal team at the time, asked: ‘Other than Glenn Dubin, (redacted), Prince Andrew, Jean Luc Brunel, Bill Richardson, another prince, the large hotel chain owner and Marvin Minsky, is there anyone else that Ghislaine Maxwell directed you to go have sex with?’
Ms Giuffre replied: ‘I am definitely sure there is. But can I remember everybody’s name? No.’
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, is claimed to have met with Jeffrey Epstein on various occasions.
The politician was allegedly a regular guest of Epstein’s at his Upper East Side townhouse and also flew on Epstein’s jet.
In her deposition, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg denied ever meeting Barak.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in April last year, Barak accepted that he met with Epstein while in New York and that Epstein ‘often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy.’
But he insisted that he never met Epstein ‘with girls or minors, or even adult women in improper context or behaviour’.
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey was also mentioned in the documents once, in which Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg denied meeting him.
Sjoberg was asked by an attorney: ‘I may have already asked you, but have you met Kevin Spacey?’ She replied: ‘No’.
Separately, in July last year, Oscar-winning actor Spacey was cleared at Southwark Crown Court in London of a string of alleged sex attacks on younger men which were said to have taken place between 2001 and 2013.
Bill Richardson
She said Ghislaine Maxwell asked her to give Mr Richardson a massage but added: ‘I don’t know dates.’
Giuffre added: ‘I can’t tell you where we were. I know where I was sent to. I don’t know where we were when she told me to do that.’
Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg was also asked whether she had met Governor Richardson.
She replied: ‘Hmm, I want to say that he was supposed to come to dinner when we were in New Mexico. I don’t know if I met him. I believe that he and Ghislaine had dinner separate from myself.’
Mr Richardson died aged 75 in September last year.
Al Gore
Former Vice President Al Gore, who served under Bill Clinton, was also among the well-known names mentioned in the documents.
He was referred to regarding materials that Ghislaine Maxwell sought from Virginia Giuffre before trial in the civil defamation lawsuit.
The document said Maxwell asked Giuffre to produce any photos or videos that she had that showed with a number of high-profile people, including Gore.
But Giuffre’s attorneys said she objected because any such alleged photographs were in the ‘custody and control’ of Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
While Guiffre previously claimed that Mr Gore travelled on Epstein’s private plane, a photo of Gore and Giuffre has never been released.
Gore has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
George Lucas
Star Wars creator George Lucas was also named in the documents, although with no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg was asked in May 2016 whether she had ever met or given massages to a number of high-profile celebrities including Lucas.
But she denied having done so – and that was the only mention of Lucas in the document.
What else can we expect to see in the coming days?
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who evaluated the documents to decide what should be unsealed, said in her December order that she was ordering the records released because much of the information within them is already public.
Some records have been released, either in part or in full, in other court cases.
The people named in the records include many of Epstein’s accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell’s trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren’t accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a police detective.
There are also boldface names of public figures known to have associated with Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere, the judge said.
One of them is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.
His name was peppered throughout the documents released Wednesday.
Clinton and Trump both factor in the court file, partly because Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell’s lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein. One story quoted her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened. She hasn’t accused either former president of wrongdoing.
The judge said a handful of names should remain blacked out in the documents because they would identify people who were sexually abused. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Giuffre has done.
When will all the documents be released?
The judge hasn’t set a target for when all of the documents should be made public, but more documents are expected to come in the next few days.