Home NEWS International News Second batch of Epstein court documents released
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A second batch of court papers connected to late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein has been released.
The 300 pages of documents appeared to offer little in the way of blockbuster new revelations.
They were unsealed a day after 900 pages were disclosed following an order by a US federal judge.
The documents were part of a case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend.
The court records unsealed on Wednesday and Thursday both contain references to the UK’s Prince Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton.
New York Judge Loretta Preska ruled last month there was no longer any legal justification to withhold the names of more than 150 people mentioned in a 2015 defamation lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein accuser, against Maxwell, a former British socialite.
Many names in the documents have already been publicly disclosed, or are mentioned in passing as part of various legal proceedings, and their inclusion does not necessarily suggest wrongdoing related to Epstein.
Among the previously detailed claims against Prince Andrew is that he sexually abused a minor in London, New York and on Epstein’s island in the Virgin Islands, after the teenager was told to do it by Maxwell.
The Duke of York has already denied these allegations.
The new documents also include a suggestion from a lawyer for Virginia Giuffre that former President Clinton “may have information” on Maxwell and Epstein’s activities because he had travelled with them.
Mr Clinton has acknowledged being a former associate of Epstein and taking flights on the financier’s private jet, but has denied wrongdoing or knowledge of his crimes. There is no suggestion of illegality by Mr Clinton in any of the documents.
In another file – a 2011 email exchange between Ms Giuffre and a former Mail on Sunday journalist Sharon Churcher – Ms Giuffre claims Mr Clinton “walked into VF [Vanity Fair magazine] and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend J.E [Jeffrey Epstein]”.
The BBC approached the Clinton Foundation for comment, and a spokesperson cited media reports of a statement from former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, saying the alleged incident “categorically did not happen”.
The BBC has contacted Conde Nast, Vanity Fair’s parent company, for comment.
In the email threads, Ms Churcher and Ms Giuffre also discuss the latter’s attempts to secure a book deal.
One email shows Ms Giuffre emailing a literary agent to pitch a book she is writing titled The Billionaire’s Playboy Club.
She describes the memoir as “a Woman’s story of glitz, glamor, sorrow, compassion, and true love”. It was never published, but was submitted in court evidence.
In another email thread, Ms Churcher and Ms Giuffre discuss an approach from Vanity Fair magazine to buy a photo from Ms Giuffre.
The Mail on Sunday journalist advises Ms Giuffre to say she has no more to disclose at that time about how she was allegedly sex-trafficked to “two of the world’s most respected politicians”. The alleged politicians aren’t named in the email threads.
In another court filing released on Wednesday an accuser identified as Jane Doe #3 alleges she was trafficked by Epstein “for sexual purposes to many other powerful men, including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders”.
Jane Doe #3 has previously been named in media reports as Virginia Giuffre.
The documents shed more light on the scope of Epstein and Maxwell’s illicit activities.
In a 2016 deposition, Joseph Recarey, a police detective in Palm Beach, Florida, says that approximately 30 women had spoken to him about “performing massage and work at Epstein’s home” in the beachfront community.
He says Maxwell was involved in recruiting the girls to give massages at the mansion.
Mr Recarey testified that only two of the girls had any massage experience and the majority of them were under the age of 18.
When asked how Epstein was able to gain access to so many underage girls the detective said: “Each of the victims that went to the home were asked to bring their friends to the home.”
He added: “When they went to perform a massage, it was for [Epstein’s] sexual gratification.”
The new trove includes filings from Maxwell’s lawyers in which they argue that the journalist, Ms Churcher, had helped “concoct” allegations against Prince Andrew as well as prominent US attorney Alan Dershowitz.
The BBC has contacted Ms Churcher and the Mail on Sunday for comment.
Mr Dershowitz filed a motion seeking the release of the documents earlier on Thursday, following a request by the Miami Herald newspaper. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The former Harvard Law professor told Fox News Digital Thursday: “There are smoking guns that are not being released.
“They relate to credibility – and lack thereof – of some accusers and some accused. I have seen these suppressed documents. Nothing should be suppressed.”
Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2009 and took his own life in 2019 while awaiting trial over sex-trafficking charges.
Maxwell, the daughter of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role as a recruiter for Epstein.
Her lawyers are appealing against the sentence.
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