Following the order of the judge overseeing the case, a first batch of court documents was revealed that mention renowned men in art and politics who were related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking and abuse. juvenile. The list drawn from the now declassified reports includes Prince Andrew of England, former US President Bill Clinton, illusionist David Copperfield and Michael Jackson, among others. However, being mentioned in the process phase does not imply any type of illegal behavior or guilt.
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Court documents with some of the names of people related to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are now public.
About 1,000 pages are part of the first batch of declassified reports that identify about 150 people. The individuals named fThey form part of the files of a complaint by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's most prominent plaintiffs, against Ghislaine Maxwellex-partner of the financier and daughter of Robert Maxwell, British media magnate.
Giuffre accused Maxwell of recruiting her and other minors to be abused by Epstein and other men. The tycoon – who interacted with Wall Street titans, British royalty and entertainment celebrities – sHe pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008 and committed suicide in his cell in a New York jail in 2019.just when he was awaiting trial in which he faced charges of sex trafficking and abuse against women, including minors.
Figures such as Prince Andrew of England, former US President Bill Clinton, illusionist David Copperfield and Michael Jackson appear in the documents. But the vast majority of those named have not been charged with any crime; their mention in the documents does not necessarily mean that they were involved in Epstein's crimes.
Although the names revealed had already been related to the financier in leaks to the press and interviews of some of the plaintiffs, this is the first time that legal reports that mention them have been known, since for almost two decades the US Justice Department kept under secret.
They are now available to the public after US District Judge Loretta Preska determined last December that as of January 1, 2024, they should be declassified. Finally, they were revealed on the night of Wednesday, January 3. The judge argued her decision by indicating that to a large extent their names had already been published by different media over almost 20 years.
What do the declassified documents contain?
Giuffre claims that in the summer of her 17th birthday, she was persuaded to leave her job as a spa attendant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club to become Epstein's “masseuse,” a job that involved sexual acts.
The documents also include a statement from Johanna Sjoberg, another of the plaintiffs, whom Maxwell allegedly procured for the purpose of having sexual relations with Epstein.
Sjoberg mentions that Epstein “once said that (Bill) Clinton likes young women, meaning girls.” However, there is no indication of the sexual crimes of which Epstein was accused.
In 2019, former President Clinton's spokesman, Ángel Ureña, denied the statements that would affect the former president. “President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes to which Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida a few years ago, nor those with which he has recently been charged in New York,” he posted on the platform then known as Twitter.
Sjoberg also points out that the late singer Michael Jackson was at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach and that he met the famous magician David Copperfield, but he does not accuse them of sexual crimes.
As for Copperfield, Sjoberg indicated that he once asked her “if she knew that girls were paid to find other girls,” but that he did not elaborate in his question.
Donald Trump, whose friendship with Epstein has been widely publicized, was also mentioned in the documents. The former president of the United States is not accused of any crime in this case. In Sjoberg's deposition, she claimed that they went to one of her casinos in Atlantic City when a storm prevented Epstein's plane from landing in New York City.
Jeffrey said, “Great, we'll call Trump and we'll go to… I don't remember the name of the casino, but we'll go to the casino.”
When asked if he had ever given Trump a massage, Sjoberg responded “no.”
The upper echelons and the Epstein case
In a separate statement, Johanna Sjoberg maintained that the prince andrew He put his hand on her chest to pose for a photo with Epstein, Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell.
For her part, Virginia Giuffre also claimed that she was pressured to have sexual relations with men in Epstein's social orbit, among the most renowned she pointed out Prince Andrew.
The monarch denied the accusations. However, in 2022, the parties reached a settlement that included an undisclosed payment.
But following the scandal, the royal family removed military titles and said he would no longer be known as “your royal highness.”
Another of the accused is Jean-Luc Brunela French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial accused of raping underage girls when he committed suicide in a Paris jail in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.
Despite what was revealed, the judge ruled that some names must remain crossed out in the documents because they would identify people who suffered sexual abuse.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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