A New York judge began declassifying this Wednesday the identities of people linked in court documents to Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who committed suicide in 2019 in his cell at a high-security Manhattan prison while awaiting trial for sexual crimes. . Among them are Prince Andrew of England and former US President Bill Clinton related to this pedophile and sexual predator.
The initial set includes 40 previously undisclosed documents with nearly 1,000 pages of testimony and statements, and the total batch of files includes the names of prominent people. Among those named will be a series of people linked to Epstein previously identified as “John” or “Jane Does” in a lawsuit filed against the financier's former lover, Ghislaine Maxwell. However, no complicity in Epstein's crimes is alleged.
To justify revealing names – including personalities already mentioned in the press – the courts rely on the fact that some are easily identifiable in interviews published in recent years. In the case of Donald Trump, the billionaire former US president is mentioned in the documents as an acquaintance of Epstein, but no criminal behavior is mentioned.
As for Bill Clinton, who was much closer to the financier and traveled with him in the 2000s, his name is mentioned dozens of times, but again without any clear indication of illegal activity. The revelation is part of a defamation process between Maxwell, sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison, and a plaintiff against the former couple, Virginia Giuffre.
Last month, a judge listed some 180 cases – under pseudonyms – in a 50-page document, ordering that their identities be made public in the first days of January. Some of those people have objected to the disclosure of their identities, such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who was reunited with him for philanthropic projects. Some popular names mentioned without being charged with a crime include scientist Marvin Minsky, filmmaker George Lucas, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
Lawyers for one individual, “Doe 107,” wrote to the judge in the case arguing that they could face victimization in their home country and requested time to explain why their name should remain secret. According to British media, Giuffre's defamation lawsuit against Maxwell, 62, dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year. But the Miami Herald then took legal action to access the file and investigate Epstein's network.
Several documents in the case were made public in 2019, days before Epstein hanged himself in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in sexual crimes for almost three decades. The tycoon was arrested in 2005 after being accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sexual relations.
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