Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking scandal continues to rock the world as the latest unsealed documents have shown. They include the names of former US President Bill Clinton and disgraced royal family member Prince Andrew among others.
These are the first of the unsealed documents that were released on December 18, as per a US District Court's orders. Epstein committed suicide in jail while the court was hearing the cases of sexual abuse.
The new set of documents includes filings by an American woman identified as Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims to have been sexually abused by Epstein when she was a minor. Giuffre is now an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex-trafficking.
In the filings, Giuffre has also accused Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of being party to the crime. This marks the first time since Maxwell's 2021 indictment that the details of the documents have been released legally.
Giuffre's deposition also states that Maxwell directed the former to have sexual contact with people including former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, disgraced Royal, Prince Andrew, tech guru Marvin Minsky, well-known French modelling scout Jean-Luc Brunel and American investor Glenn Dubin.
The documents also carry details of another alleged sexual abuse victim identified as Johanna Sjoberg, who named Prince Andrew as the abuser.
While Sjoberg's details were already public, CNN quoted her depositions in the documents noting that Prince Andrew touched her breast in a joking manner while taking photos.
While Guiffre had alleged that she was also abused by Prince Andrew, the latter recently reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre after he denied all the allegations, per a court document filed by her attorneys on Tuesday.
Furthermore, Sjoberg's depositions also include another instance where she claimed that Epstein had mentioned the name of former president Bill Clinton while speaking with her, and had said, “He (Clinton) said one time that he likes them young, referring to girls."
Referring to a question on whether Epstein was a friend of Clinton's, Sjoberg reportedly said that the two had some "dealings".
A spokesperson for Clinton, on Wednesday, affirmed "It has been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.”
Earlier in 2019, Clinton's spokesperson had claimed that "Clinton flew on Epstein’s private plane, but knew nothing of the financier’s (Epstein's) terrible crimes.”
Meanwhile, Sjoberg's deposition in the unsealed documents also includes excerpts where she said she was on a plane with Epstein, and the pilot informed that they were landing in Atlantic City. She further said that Epstein had asked her to contact former President Donald Trump. But, Sjoberg goes on to clarify in her deposition that "Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein and his cases."
The documents are expected to include nearly 200 names, with The Independent noting that others such as magician David Copperfield, ex-Israel PM Ehud Barak, disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, and former Vice President Al Gore among others. However, references to their names do not automatically indicate wrongdoings.
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