Epstein ducked questions on sex abuse
2016 transcript shows registered sex offender plead the Fifth multiple times
NEWYORK — Confronted about allegations that he orchestrated a sex trafficking ring that delivered girls to him and his high-profile acquaintances, financier Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly refused to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself, according to court records released Friday.
A partial transcript of a September 2016 deposition stemming from a defamation lawsuit was included in hundreds of pages of documents placed in a public file by a federal appeals court in New York.
The deposition happened almost three years before Mr. Epstein’s July 6 arrest on sex trafficking charges in a case that has brought down a Cabinet secretary and launched fresh investigations into how authorities dealt with Mr. Epstein over the years. The 66-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Epstein was asked in the videotaped deposition whether it was standard operating procedure for his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, to bring underage girls to him to sexually abuse.
Mr. Epstein replied “Fifth,” as he did to numerous other questions, citing the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment that protects people against incriminating themselves.
He also was asked whether Ms. Maxwell was “one of the main women” he used to procure underage girls for sexual activities. “Fifth,” he replied. And he was asked whether Ms. Maxwell met one of the females she recruited for massages at the Mar-a-Lago resort owned by President Donald Trump in Palm Beach.
“Fifth,” he replied. Asked if he was a member of Mar-a-Lago in 2000, he replied once again, “Fifth,” according to the transcript.
After Mr. Epstein’s arrest, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he knew Mr. Epstein but said he “had a falling out with him a long time ago.”
Over 2,000 pages of documents made public by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pertained to a since-settled lawsuit against Ms. Maxwell filed by Virginia Giuffre, one of Mr. Epstein’s accusers.
The court records contain graphic allegations against Mr. Epstein, who is accused in Manhattan federal court of trafficking young girls internationally to have sex with prominent American politicians, business executives and world leaders. The papers portray Mr. Epstein as a sex slave-driver with an insatiable appetite for underage girls.
Mr. Epstein’s lawyers say the federal charges that accuse Mr. Epstein of recruiting and abusing dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s should never have been brought. They say Mr. Epstein is protected by an agreement he reached with federal prosecutors in Florida a dozen years ago. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.
Attorney Martin Weinberg has said Mr. Epstein has not committed crimes since pleading guilty to charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008.
At the time of Mr. Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said they found a trove of pictures of nude and seminude young women and girls at his $77 million Manhattan mansion. They also say additional victims have come forward since the arrest.