Release of documents revealing identities of Jeffrey Epstein associates imminent
NEW YORK — A trove of documents is expected to start hitting the docket imminently in Manhattan federal court, potentially revealing the identities of high-profile Jeffrey Epstein associates years after the disgraced financier’s death, a judge wrote Wednesday. Among those who may be included in today’s release are former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
The batch of court filings, expected to remove redactions on almost 150 names, may lift the veil on powerful John Does in the multimillionaire predator’s orbit who managed to avoid detection and public scrutiny in the wake of damning allegations he trafficked teenage girls for sex for decades. Along with Epstein-linked associates and alleged accomplices, the identities of several victims are expected to be made public.
Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents’ unsealing last month in a settled lawsuit against Epstein’s convicted former right-hand, Ghislaine Maxwell, brought by Virginia Giuffre, one of the first women to accuse them of abuse. Preska allowed victims to request their continued anonymity.
In a Wednesday filing shortly before 2 p.m., the judge said lawyers would begin uploading the paperwork “later today.”
Clinton, 77, whose affiliation with Epstein is already public knowledge, is expected to feature in the document dump. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing. He came up several times in the years-old litigation, with Giuffre seeking to depose him, claiming she’d seen him on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, where the Brooklyn-born financier committed much of his abuse.
Clinton’s lawyers recently told ABC News he was never on the island and that his inclusion on private flight logs included in evidence at Maxwell’s trial documented trips to other locations. Donald Trump’s name was also featured on the flight logs.
Epstein’s pal Prince Andrew’s name may also come up. He settled a sexual abuse lawsuit brought by Giuffre, who’s now 40, in February 2022, which accused him of raping her when she was 17.
The disgraced British royal was pictured with his arm around a teenage Giuffre’s waist in an infamous photograph taken at Maxwell’s London townhouse in the early 2000s, which he previously claimed was doctored. His settlement with Giuffre, which did not require an admission of wrongdoing, was reportedly in the ballpark of $16 million.
Epstein hanged himself at age 66 on Aug. 10, 2019, in the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. A report in June blamed his death on the “negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures” of federal Bureau of Prisons staff, who left him unattended in his cell with excess prison linens despite a recent suicide attempt.
Maxwell, 62, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in 2022. Testimony during her trial revealed how the socialite instructed teen victims as young as 14 on how to pleasure Epstein and sometimes joined in the abuse.
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