Nearly a week after a trove of court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes began to be revealed last week, the latest set of photographs, files and depositions were released Tuesday.
Nearly 5,000 pages later, the scope of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, the network of powerful men he associated with, and his methods of luring female victims into prey have become clearer than ever.
Several high-profile names, from former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton to Prince Andrew and a host of Hollywood stars, were scattered throughout the transcripts, legal memos, emails and other records linked to the case.
About 215 documents in total were released, all stemming from a long-settled defamation lawsuit that Epstein’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, filed against his wife Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.
Also included were terrifying accounts from numerous accusers, who described in disturbing detail how Epstein and Maxwell trapped them in their world and then trafficked their bodies for the pleasure of the rich and powerful.
This is what we learned.
Jeffrey Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell. The new trove of documents sheds new light on the extent of his crimes. VIA REUTERS
Epstein’s network of powerful men was far-reaching, from world leaders, royals and business moguls to movie stars and entertainers and even some of the world’s brightest minds in science.
In total, at least 60 A-list names appeared in the files with varying degrees of association with Epstein.
Prominent among them was Clinton, who has long been known to have been friends with Epstein since at least 1993, during his first term in the White House.
Clinton’s name appeared many times in the files, perhaps most incriminatingly in the deposition of accuser Johanna Sjoberg, who described what Epstein told her about the former president’s sexual predilections.
“[Epstein] I once said that Clinton likes them young, meaning girls,” Sjoberg testified, according to the records.
Clinton was not implicated in any crime anywhere in the files and has never been connected to Epstein. She has continued to categorically deny having participated in or having knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Ghislaine Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010. She even skipped a quoted deposition to attend AP.
However, throughout the documents new light was shed on the depth of Clinton’s friendship and her place in Epstein’s social circle.
Photos from her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding showed Maxwell attended the 2010 ceremony, and documents revealed she even skipped a deposition because she was subpoenaed to deliver Giuffre’s allegations against Epstein to attend the lavish nuptials.
Clinton also appeared to be a point of contact for some in Epstein’s direct orbit. Model-turned-pilot and alleged Epstein accomplice Nadia Marcinkova repeatedly refused to answer questions citing the Fifth Amendment when she was questioned during a 2010 deposition about the former president’s relationship with the sex offender.
The documents showed how another Epstein accuser, Sarah Ransome, claimed in 2016 to have tapes covertly filmed by Epstein showing Clinton, Trump, Prince Andrew and British business magnate Richard Branson having sex with women.
The tapes were to be used as blackmail against the men, Ransome said, before retracting his claims. He later admitted to making them up in a 2019 New Yorker article.
Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein at the White House in 1993. The documents showed the extent of their friendship. President William J. Clinton / MEGA
Prince Andrew, also known to be a friend of Epstein, allegedly received “daily massages” (the code name for sexual services in Epstein’s lairs) from women during weeks-long stays at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, according to the testimony of the house manager. during the 1990s, Juan Alessi.
The British royal, eighth in line to the crown, was previously accused by Giuffre of participating in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. He denied the claims and the couple settled out of court in 2022.
Other notable names that appeared in the documents included pop icon Michael Jackson, whom Sjoberg claimed to have met at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, but denied any sexual contact.
Magician David Copperfield performed at one of Epstein’s homes, Sjoberg said in a statement, noting that he seemed to intimate suspicion that “girls were paid to find other girls.”
Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, then minors, in 2001. She alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with the royal. Justice Department
Even renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made an appearance. In 2006 he attended a scientific conference Epstein hosted on his private Caribbean island, Little St. James, at which Giuffre alleged the genius participated in an “underage orgy.”
A 2015 email published in the documents showed Epstein telling Maxwell about a reward he was offering to anyone who could disprove Giuffre’s claims about Hawking.
Hawking died in 2018 at the age of 76, but his colleagues vehemently told The Post that the allegations against him were outrageous and false.
The lewd activity that frequently occurred on the enclave dubbed “Pedophile Island” came to light again in new ways through the publication of the document, with a trove of new photographs showing young women frolicking on the island alongside Epstein , Maxwell and male friends.
Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St. James, was the epicenter of abuse for many underage women. Shutterstock for the New York Post
The girls were given Victoria’s Secret lingerie and bikinis provided by Maxwell when they arrived on the island, Ransome said in a statement, and were forced to take turns pleasuring Epstein throughout the day.
“We were called in as a rotating visitor for Jeffrey throughout the day and night,” Ransome testified. “I finished, Ghislaine called another girl. And when they finished, they called another girl.”
“’Jeffrey wants to see you in his bedroom,’ which means it’s your turn to be abused. That kind of thing,” she said.
Another accuser described herself as Epstein’s “sex slave” and claimed to have been forced to have sexual relations with many “powerful men,” including “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders.”
Epstein’s alleged accomplice Nadia Marcinkova with another young woman in Little St. James in 2006. SDNY
Epstein then “demanded” the girl, who Maxwell first approached when she was just 15, “to describe the events she had with these men so he could potentially blackmail them.”
Others described the fear they felt when facing a man as powerful as Epstein.
One girl, who said she met Epstein when she was “16 or 17” years old, recalled in a 2016 deposition how she heard the financier threaten people and reported him to Palm Beach police in 2005.
“You’re going to die; you’re going to break your legs,” the woman confirmed upon hearing Epstein say, among other threats.
Epstein’s body after hanging himself in his Manhattan jail in August 2019. William Farrington
Even with the release of the latest trove of Epstein documents, the man, who died in prison of an apparent suicide in 2019, and the truth of his methods and motivations remain as resistant to scrutiny as when he was alive.
The latest set of documents released Tuesday included a 2016 deposition in which Epstein was questioned about his sex trafficking ring.
After answering that his name was “Jeffrey Edward Epstein” when asked to give his name, he refused to answer further questions alleging the Fifth, refusing even to say where he lived, what his phone number was, or if he knew Maxwell.
“Fifth,” he said simply, repeating the word more than 500 times.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn