Names revealed in unsealed Epstein documents | US News

Some 40 of 250 previously sealed documents relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released by a US court.

After Judge Loretta Preska ruled they could be unsealed in December and no objections were made, the first set of court papers were published on 3 January.

They largely consist of legal arguments and interviews carried out for Virginia Guiffre’s 2015 civil lawsuit against Epstein’s former lover Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming girls for him.

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Ms Guiffre has been the most vocal of Epstein’s accusers and settled a sexual assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew for a reported $12m (£9.5m) in 2022. The Duke of York, who stepped back from public life and was stripped of his titles over his association with Epstein, vehemently denies Ms Guiffre’s claims.

One of the files released this week is evidence from a woman called Johanna Sjoberg, another of Epstein’s alleged victims.

In it are references to celebrities, politicians, and philanthropists, many of which are not accused of wrongdoing but are believed to have known or associated with the late paedophile. Epstein was first arrested in 2005 and later found dead in his New York prison cell awaiting trial on further sex trafficking charges.

Here we look at some of the most well-known names in the newly released documents.

Michael Jackson

Ms Sjoberg is asked in evidence: “Did you ever meet anybody famous when you were with Jeffrey?”

She replies: “I met Michael Jackson”, adding that it was “at Jeffrey’s house in Palm Beach”.

But asked if she “massaged him” as she alleges she was forced to do with Epstein and others, she responds: “I did not.”

Donald Trump

The former US president was pictured socialising with Epstein and Maxwell and the pair are thought to have been friends.

Asked in her evidence if she ever massaged him on Epstein or Maxwell’s request, she said no.

She later says that on one occasion she was on a plane with the pair and Virginia Giuffre, which was told it could not land as expected in New York. Instead, it was diverted to Atlantic City, where Mr Trump had a casino.

Ms Sjoberg says: “Jeffrey said ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to – I don’t recall the name of the casino, but – we’ll go to the casino’.”

Bill Clinton

A spokesperson for Clinton said in 2019 that he “knows nothing of Epstein’s terrible crimes” and cut off all contact with him after he was first arrested in 2005.

Ms Sjoberg is asked: “Do you know if Bill Clinton was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein?”

She replies: “I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together.”

Epstein flew many well-known philanthropists and politicians around the world in his private jet to visit various international development project sites.

Quizzed if Epstein “ever talked to her about Clinton”, she replies: “He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”

Stephen Hawking

As well as Ms Sjoberg’s evidence, an email from Epstein to Maxwell is included in the unsealed files from soon after Ms Guiffre filed her 2015 lawsuit.

In it, Epstein says Maxwell should “issue a reward” to any one of Ms Guiffre’s associates who can prove any of the allegations in the lawsuit to be false.

“You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaints, family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false,” it says.

“The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”

The late physicist Stephen Hawking was photographed on Epstein’s Caribbean island in March 2006, as part of a trip to a science conference on neighbouring island St Thomas.

The conference was paid for by Epstein and saw 20 other scientists attend. There is no accusation of any wrongdoing by Mr Hawking.

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