Epstein Scandal: Celebrities including Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton named in sex crime court documents
US court documents relating to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been made public and include the names of many well-known figures, including British Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton.
The court records are part of the case against Epstein’s girlfriend Gillian Maxwell. Maxwell is in prison for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls.
However, the documents do not contain any new allegations against Epstein. Nor are these documents revealing about his accomplices.
In the documents, Prince Andrew is accused of touching a woman’s breast without her permission. However, he denies the allegation. Other names in the documents include singer Michael Jackson, magician David Copperfield. However, no charges were brought against them.
Former US President Bill Clinton is mentioned several times in these documents. He acknowledges that he has been an associate of Epstein’s in the past. However, he has shown ignorance of these crimes.
The initial files of the documents are about 900 pages long. He was released on Wednesday by order of New York Judge Loretta Preska. The judge held that many of these names had already surfaced in the media and during Maxwell’s criminal trial.
Judge Priska said that several people did not object to the documents being made public. However, he ordered that the names of some victims of sexual crimes be withheld.
About 100 people on the list make accusations against other people. Or they are potential eyewitnesses. More court documents are likely to be released in the coming days.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of forcing minors into prostitution. He was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges when he committed suicide in 2019.
Prince Andrew accused of sexual harassment
The new files mention the victim, Johanna Schoberg, who has accused Prince Andrew of touching her breasts. They claim the incident happened in 2001 when the two were sitting on a couch in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment.
Buckingham Palace has denied the allegations in the past. She has refused to comment on the new documents as the Duke of York has been stripped of royal duties.
At one point in the documents, Miss Schoberg alleges that Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast while taking a photo. Meanwhile, another victim, Virginia Joffre, was there with a mannequin with the words ‘Prince Andrew’ written on it.
In 2022, the British prince gave Miss Joffre millions of dollars as a settlement. The woman alleged that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her when she was 17 years old.
Prince Andrew has said he has never met Miss Joffre and denies the allegations.
Bill Clinton’s trip on Epstein’s plane
Bill Clinton’s name is also listed in the court documents, but he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. When contacted for comment, their representatives shared a statement released in 2019 on Epstein’s crimes. In it, he showed ignorance in this regard.
According to court records, Schoberg told the court that Bill Clinton “likes young girls.” Clinton had an affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky while he was president.
In those files, Maxwell confirmed that Clinton traveled on Epstein’s private plane. However, he did not say how many times this happened.
In the early 2000s, Bill Clinton is believed to have traveled to Africa on Epstein’s ship while on humanitarian aid trips. At that time, he described Epstein as a humanitarian. However, Clinton later broke up with Epstein.
The former US president said in his statement in 2019 that on these trips to Africa on the plane, he was accompanied by his staff and workers from the Clinton Foundation charity. “Each step of the tour was accompanied by Secret Service personnel.”
According to court documents, Maxwell’s lawyers denied media reports that Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean after he left office in January 2001.
Maxwell’s lawyer said the former US president did not make such a trip but was “absent from Little Saint Island between January 1, 2001 and January 1, 2003.”
If the claim is true, Secret Service agents should have accompanied him on the trip and his travel logs would have revealed it, the lawyer added.
Why mention Trump?
In the documents, Shoberg says Epstein told her in 2001 that he would contact Donald Trump when he went to a casino in New Jersey. He said, “Jeffrey said, ‘Fine, we’ll give Trump a call.'” Earlier, the plane’s pilots said they could not land in New York and would have to stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The documents did not incriminate Trump.
Shoberg is asked if she ever massaged Trump, to which she says no.
Who else is mentioned in the documents?
Michael Jackson and David Copperfield: Schoberg said she met the singer and magician through Epstein. However, he did not charge them both.
Jean-Luc Brunel: The French modeling agent committed suicide in a Paris prison in 2022. He had been accused of rape which has been mentioned many times.
Miss Joffre was asked in court whether she was coerced into having sex by any dignitaries, including New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Before his death last year, Richardson denied ever meeting Joffre. He denied all the allegations.
Alfredo Rodriguez: Epstein’s security housekeeper whom Maxwell referred to as “kiss” in court filings.
Rodriguez died in 2015. He was often given the responsibility of giving money to school girls. According to court documents, he also paid visits to girls who were recruited for Epstein.
According to 2014 court documents, Epstein sex-trafficked victims to provide “sexual benefits” to powerful figures, including “a known prime minister” and other world leaders.
The documents state that Epstein used “politically and financially powerful individuals” to “establish business, personal, political and financial connections with them and obtain information about potential blackmail.”
According to the documents, Epstein’s female victim, ‘Jane Doe number three’, was sex-trafficked to ‘prominent US politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents and a well-known prime minister and other world leaders’.
Epstein allegedly collected information from victims ‘so he could blackmail them.’
Epstein and Maxwell
The New York Medical Examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide in 2019.
Maxwell, on the other hand, is the daughter of a publishing tycoon, Robert Maxwell. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting victims for Epstein. His lawyers are filing an appeal against the sentence.
According to CNN, Maxwell’s lawyers said, “He has always and consistently maintained that he is innocent.”