Fresh glimpse into Epstein and Maxwell’s world
◆ The release of court papers gives an insight into the people the couple mixed with, from presidents to professors
is a 943-page document that reveals more than 170 names of people with connections to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Yet, while the unsealed court documents relating to the Maxwell trial offer little new information about the situation, they do provide an insight into the world of high-level connections once enjoyed by the couple, who are linked to businesspeople, politicians and celebrities.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019, while in prison awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking. Maxwell – who admits in the documents that she would have regarded herself as the financier’s girlfriend in the late 1990s – was jailed in 2020 for sex trafficking young girls for the billionaire.
The documents, which include interviews given under oath, were used as evidence as part of Virginia Giuffre’s civil claim against Maxwell – a case that was settled in 2017 – and are now published following an order by US judge Loretta Preska, who ruled in favour of the media that it was in the public interest for the names of associates, friends and victims of Epstein to no longer be anonymised. Some names have been redacted to protect victims of sexual abuse.
However, inclusion of a name does not necessarily mean they were accused of any wrongdoing, with some names simply put to witnesses who denied meeting them.
Ms Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, was employed by Epstein as a travelling masseuse after being approached for the job by Maxwell when working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-lago club.
Another woman, Johanit na Sjoberg, who says she was recruited to work for Epstein by Maxwell on a pretext that she would be answering phones, claims she was forced to have sexual relations with both Prince Andrew and Epstein within days of beginning her work.
The documents describe specific conversations in which Ms Sjoberg says Maxwell discussed with her the need for the young masseuses to give sexual pleasure to the billionaire. Ms Sjoberg – who claimed she was naked for around a quarter to half of all massages given to Epstein – says he told her he needed to be massaged to orgasm three times a day.
Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein and the accusations
It seemed to me they had just sort of adopted [Virginia Giuffre] … they would take care of her Johanna Sjoberg
against him have been well documented. The Duke of York has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. A 2019 Newsnight interview saw him deny sleeping with Ms Giuffre during a visit by the Epstein party to London, claiming he was at Pizza Express in Woking with his children at the time.
Other high-profile names linked to the billionaire include former president Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson, magician David Copperfield, and former president and then-businessman Mr Trump, who according to a deposition by Ms Sjoberg, was contacted when Epstein’s plane could not land in New York and would need to stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, en route to a casino. “Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump’,” she claimed.
Mr Trump, as well as some of the other people mentioned as being associates or friends of Mr Epstein in the papers, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
When asked in the deposition whether she ever gave Mr Trump a massage, Ms Sjoberg replied: “No.”
The late British academic Stephen Hawking is also mentioned in relation to claims by Ms Giuffre he had taken part in an orgy with underage girls. In a 2015 email, Epstein said he was happy to reward friends of Ms Giuffre if they could “prove her allegations false”, including that Prof Hawking had participated in the orgy. The professor previously visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St James, in 2006 as part of a conference funded by the billionaire.
In the documents, Ms Sjoberg also claimed Copperfield asked her if she was “aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls”, after doing magic tricks over dinner at one of Epstein’s properties.
Prince Andrew, who was a close personal friend of Epstein, paid millions to settle a civil case out of court with Ms Giuffre with no admission of guilt. She had accused the Duke of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. Prince Andrew stepped down from royal duties in 2019 over his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein.
Ms Sjoberg has previously recounted an incident in which she says Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo, while the hand of a Spitting Image-style puppet of the royal was placed on Ms Giuffre’s breast.
The latest documents, which bring back to the surface the accusations made against the Duke, come just weeks after he walked to church on Christmas Day with his brother, King Charles III, and members of the royal family.
The documents detail a deposition given in 2016 by Ms
Sjoberg, who says she knew Ms Giuffre was underage when she met her in 2001 as she could not get into a casino.
Ms Sjoberg said Maxwell would refer to some of the girls in Epstein’s employment as her “children”. She said: “At the time I had the impression that she [Ms Giuffre] did not have a family or she had walked away from her family. And it seemed to me, you know, they had just sort of adopted her, not as a child, but they would take care of her.”
Lawyers for Maxwell said: “She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence.”