Epstein list: New docs reveal paedophile’s responses to sex trafficking claims

For years, it was known to victims as the “paedophile island”.

It was a place where Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell lured girls and vulnerable young women, dazzled by the glamour of a spectacular, paradise Caribbean island.

Once there – and with no way of getting off the islands – these victims were sexually abused by Epstein and allegedly trafficked to his powerful, wealthy circle of clients.

Dozens of celebrities and famous figures also visited the 70-plus-acre island of Little St. James and 160-plus-acre island of Great St. James – visits that, based on what later came to light, many would rather erase from public memory.

There’s no denying that these islands have dark pasts.

But, they are now having a total makeover – courtesy of a new owner and his grand plans to transform the infamous hideaway into a luxury, five-star resort…

The Clinton Presidential Center briefly posted on X wondering to whom former president Bill Clinton sent his first email after his name was revealed in the unsealed Epstein documents.

“On November 7, 1998, Pres. @BillClinton typed out and sent his first-ever email. Can you guess who it was to? #WorldTying Day,” the tweet said from the @ClintonCenter account, according to screenshots circulating on X.

The X post featured a photo of Mr Clinton typing on a clunky 1990s laptop and tagged the Clinton Presidential Library.

If Epstein kept a physical list of the men who paid him to have sex with young women, it has never come up in legal filings.

Items seized by the Palm Beach Police Department during their initial investigation in 2005-06 included phone messages left for Epstein, and grocery lists, as recently unsealed documents show, but there is no mention of a compiled list of alleged clients.

In 2015, Gawker published Epstein’s “Little Black Book,” which appeared to be a directory with hundreds of celebrity names. According to a 2009 article in The New York Times, Epstein’s house manager Alfredo Rodriguez tried to sell the book before it was published.

However, there was no indication that the names listed in the book were clients of Epstein, and some of those listed have contested they never even met Epstein.

Unsurprisingly, Epstein’s partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell is one of the names that features the most, appearing over 1000 times in the first five batches of documents.

The British socialite’s name appears in full hundreds of times, due to the files being part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against her, though the name “Maxwell” appears still more, sometimes in reference to legal matters and footnotes.

References to Maxwell were made throughout the documents, with various other witnesses being asked about her involvement with Epstein in their separate testimonies.

Much of the information in the third and fourth tranches of evidence, released on Friday, was taken from Maxwell’s own despositions. They included questions over her interactions with Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre as well as with former president Bill Clinton and others.

She is currently serving 20 years in prison, having been convicted sex-trafficking underage girls in June 2022.

A request by The Miami Herald for a master list of all the J Does in the case to be released, seconded by Alan Dershowitz, was denied last week by Judge Preska. The names of 10 Jane Does mentioned in the filings will remain under seal because their right to privacy as victims outweighed the public’s right to know.

A J Doe, 107, has until 22 January to submit proof to the court that the release of their name will put them at risk of physical harm.

Meanwhile, a request by a second J Doe, 110, to keep their name under seal is currently being reviewed by the court.

Graphic details about Donald Trump’s alleged “sexual proclivities” have emerged in the latest round of court documents containing details of late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates.

The new documents contain “incendiary claims” about the former president, including accusations that he had sexual relations with “many girls”, made by one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Sarah Ransome.

Mr Trump’s name has appeared a handful of times previously in the documents and, while not accusing him of wrongdoing, appears to illustrate the good relationship he had with the disgraced financier.

In the newly unsealed documents, Ms Ransome testified that her unnamed friend “was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump” – including at Epstein’s New York townhouse.

Ahead of the unsealing, social media had been fascinated with the possibility that some of the rich and powerful men in Epstein’s social circle were also involved in the abuse. Being identified through the recently unsealed court documents does not mean that the individual was involved in or aware of any wrongdoing by Epstein.

New allegations emerged against and former Victoria Secret’s CEO Les Wexner, who Virginia Giuffre alleged she was trafficked to during a 2016 depositions. Mr Wexner has previously denied any involvement in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

“Mr Wexner was unaware of, and was never a participant in, any of the abhorrent behavior engaged in by Epstein against Epstein’s victims … Mr Wexner ha[s] never met Ms Guiffre, and … any claims to the contrary were not true,” a spokesperson told Business Insider.

Most of the figures alleged of taking part in crimes had already been named in previously released court dockets.

Ms Giuffre said she was trafficked to a prince and a former prime minister but declined to name them out of fears of retaliation, she said. Other names that have been linked to the same allegations are the late New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, former senator George Mitchel, AI pioneer Marvin Minsky, Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, and Prince Andrew.

Mr Dershowitz previously denied allegations in 2015 that he had sex with an underage girl. Mr Dershowitz has again strongly denied those allegations in recent days.

A spokesperson for Senator Mitchell referred The Independent to a previous statement in which he categorically denied any wrongdoing, and pointed out that no new allegations have emerged regarding Senator Mitchell in the filings recently unsealed.

A representative for Mr Pritzker also said that he first rejected Ms Giuffre’s allegations in 2019 and “continues to vehemently deny” them.

A spokesperson for Mr Dubin told The Independent in a statement: “The Dubins strongly deny these allegations, as we first said in 2019 when these unsubstantiated statements first surfaced as part of this same civil court proceeding.”

The Duke of York has also strongly denied Ms Giuffre’s allegations in the past.

The names of two people who Ms Giuffre alleged she was trafficked to, one of them a politician, remain redacted.

Virginia Giuffre claimed that dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had a room known as “the dungeon” inside his New York City townhouse in a 2016 deposition.

Among the newly-unsealed court documents released on Tuesday was testimony the Epstein victim gave as part of a lawsuit brought against Ghislaine Maxwell.

“So there was pictures on his desk in the office and around that room, and then there’s this room that I refer to as the dungeon and that had a huge photograph of me and another girl, I mean huge as in bigger than that wall cabinet,” she testified.

“There’s a painting of both of us doing salacious acts together.”

When asked what she meant by “salacious acts”, she replied: “Sexual acts, you know what I’m saying?”

Ms Giuffre said that there “nude photographs” of victims around the paedophile’s property.

In emails sent by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome – sections of which were included as exhibits in one of the filings unsealed on 8 January – she said that an unnamed friend “had sexual intercourse with former US President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Virgin group magnate Richard Branson” and that these encounters had been filmed by Epstein and that she herself had later seen the sex tapes.

All three strongly deny the allegations against them.

A Virgin Group spokesperson referred The Independent to the New Yorker’s article, adding: “We can confirm that Sarah Ransome’s claims are baseless and unfounded.”

“We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the ‘tapes’ had been ‘invented’. The allegations are baseless and unfounded,” the statement read.

“The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.”

The unsealed extracts were included along with a letter sent by attorneys representing Alan Dershowitz in 2017, seeking to undermine Ms Ransome’s credibility.

In a New Yorker article released two years later in 2019, Ms Ransome admitted that “she had invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behaviour, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he harmed me’”.

Ms Ransome, who delivered a victim impact statement at Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentencing for sex-trafficking charges, has since doubled down on her allegations during a media appearance on 9 January.

Ms Ransome said it is “no secret” that the alleged tapes were made, but she did not elaborate this time on who was in the tapes.

“There are videos that exist. The people that know they exist I’m sure are very frightened of them being released,” she told Good Morning Britain.