On Wednesday, hundreds of pages of unsealed documents from a lawsuit involving accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were made public. This is the first set of Jeffrey Epstein documents to be unsealed under a court order issued on December 18, with more to follow in the coming weeks.
The documents, including previously unsealed material, are expected to contain nearly 200 names, including some of Epstein’s accusers, prominent businesspeople, politicians, and possibly others.
While much of the information has already been released through other channels, such as media interviews, this is the first time these documents, which were filed with a court, have been made public through the legal system.
The first set of Jeffrey Epstein documents includes several prominent names
The documents include excerpts from Maxwell and Giuffre’s depositions. There is also a deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, who described Prince Andrew jokingly touching her breast while taking photos in the document.
Sjoberg’s story has already been made public, but this is the first time her deposition has been made public. She worked for Epstein at times, and she claims he pushed her to go beyond her comfort zone when it came to giving sexualized massages.
According to a court document filed by her attorneys on Tuesday, Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre previously reached an out-of-court settlement in her sexual abuse lawsuit against him. Andrew has denied the accusations leveled against him.
As previously reported, the deposition transcripts include references to several prominent names, including Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton.
In her 2016 deposition, Sjoberg stated that Epstein mentioned Bill Clinton to her.
“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” she went on to say.
When asked if Clinton was an Epstein friend, she stated that Epstein had “dealings” with Clinton.
In 2019, a Clinton spokesman confirmed that the former president had flown on Epstein’s private plane but that Clinton was unaware of the financier’s “terrible crimes.”
Some victims’ names have been redacted due to the sensitive nature of the crimes
Filings such as depositions from Maxwell and Giuffre are among the newly unsealed documents.
In her deposition, Giuffre claimed that Maxwell ordered her to have sexual contact with people such as former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Prince Andrew, tech guru Marvin Minsky, well-known French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and American investor Glenn Dubin.
When Giuffre’s allegations were first made public in 2019, a Dubin spokesperson stated, “Glenn and Eva Dubin are outraged by the allegations against them in the unsealed court records and categorically reject them.” The statement was widely publicized at the time, with articles appearing in the Washington Post, the Hill, and Vanity Fair.
Three unnamed people remain in the same section of that deposition that was not revealed on Wednesday. Giuffre claims Maxwell directed her to have sexual relations with an “unnamed prince,” the “owner of a large hotel chain,” and a name that has been completely redacted.
The document does not state whether Giuffre later had sexual contact with any of the people named.
Other documents that have been unsealed are legal motions filed by the attorneys.
The documents are from a settled case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an American woman who claimed Epstein sexually abused her as a minor and that Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, assisted in the abuse.
Many of the alleged victims and associates have already given public interviews and been named in the media. Inclusion in the newly unredacted documents does not imply wrongdoing or a violation of the law.
According to court filings, some victims’ names have been redacted due to the sensitive nature of the crimes.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges of running a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.
Epstein committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial. Prosecutors in New York indicted Maxwell on multiple counts of sex trafficking. She was found guilty in 2021.