Epstein files: Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew among well-known names in court documents

ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers and Royal Editor Chris Ship analyses the key points to emerge from the documents release


Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew are among more than 150 people named in court documents linked to the late disgraced millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

Those listed include sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein's employees and some with only a passing connection to the businessman, who killed himself in prison as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019.

Epstein was accused of luring underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

His case has spawned countless conspiracy theories about the possible involvement of rich and powerful people in sex trafficking.

The documents being unsealed are part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who supplied Epstein with underage girls.

The Duke of York was also named in documents, which included 40 pieces of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg - who claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a sofa in Epstein's apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace previously said the allegations are "categorically untrue".

Campaign group Republic has urged the Metropolitan Police to reopen investigations into the prince, and has called on King Charles to make a public statement on the matter.

Buckingham Palace have rejected accusations against Prince Andrew as 'categorically untrue'. Credit: AP

Former US president Clinton was a high profile acquaintance of Epstein and was also named in the documents - though there is no implication of any illegality.

Larry Visoski - Epstein's long-time pilot - testified at the trial of Epstein's accomplice Maxwell, in 2021, that Clinton was among the famous guests that he flew to luxury locations around the world.

In 2008, when Epstein served 13 months in a jail work-release programme after paying a 14-year-old girl for sex, Clinton abandoned him.

Clinton previously issued a statement in 2019 saying he "knows nothing" about Epstein's crimes.

Others named in the documents include the late British scientist Stephen Hawking. Mr Hawking, who died in 2018, attended a science conference alongside a group of eminent scientists on a Caribbean island in 2006, before Epstein was charged for unlawful sex with a minor.

Mr Hawking is mentioned in an email sent by Epstein to Maxwell that was unsealed as part of the documents release. He is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Stephen Hawking was named in the documents. Credit: AP

Michael Jackson was also named in the documents. Ms Sjoberg testified in a newly released deposition that she once met Jackson at Epstein's home in Palm Beach, Florida.

But she said nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon.

Ms Sjoberg additionally described going to a dinner at one of Epstein's homes, which was attended by magician David Copperfield.

She said Copperfield performed magic tricks before asking if she was aware "that girls were getting paid to find other girls".

One of the key allegations against Epstein and Maxwell was that some of the girls he paid for sex acts then acted as recruiters to find him other victims.

Ms Sjoberg said Copperfield did not give more specifics about what he meant.

Epstein's former partner Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021.

She indicated her desire to appeal her prison sentence shortly after being convicted, with her lawyers claiming victims had "faded, distorted and motivated memories".

The appeal is scheduled to be heard in November next year.

Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

Since then, Andrew has stepped down from public life owing to the furore over his friendship with Epstein and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.

The duke was also cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style title.


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