2024-01-04 16:31:55
Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who committed suicide in 2019 / Photo: Archive
The New York Justice Department began to declassify documents linked to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who committed suicide in 2019 while waiting to be tried for sexual crimes, in which a series of names of public people appear, including the former US presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, although this does not imply that they would have criminal responsibility in the case.
The starter set includes 40 undisclosed documents previously with almost 1,000 pages of testimonies and statements, reported the AFP news agency.
It is expected that in all the material, which will be released in its entirety in the coming days, about 200 names appear.
Those named will include a series of people linked to Epstein previously identified as “John” or “Jane Does” in a lawsuit filed against the financier’s former lover, Ghislaine Maxwell. However, no complicity in Epstein’s crimes is alleged.
However, it does not mean that there is complicity in Epstein’s crimes.
Judge Loretta Preska, who ordered the documents to be released, said some names will be withheld because they could reveal the identity of victims of sexual abuse.
To justify revealing names – including personalities already mentioned in the press – the courts rely on the fact that some are easily identifiable in interviews published in recent years.
The US Justice Department began to declassify the identities of people linked to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who committed suicide in 2019 while waiting to be tried for sexual crimes.
There are 40 documents and it is expected that the batch will include names of public figures. pic.twitter.com/7n9LNs0vNm
— Télam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) January 4, 2024
Former President Donald Trumpfor example, is mentioned in the documents as an acquaintance of Epstein, but no criminal behavior is mentioned.
Also former president Bill Clintonwho was very close to the financier and traveled with him in the 2000s, is mentioned dozens of times, but without any clear indication of illegal activity.
A spokesman for the former president confirmed in 2019 that Clinton had traveled on Epstein’s private plane, but that he knew nothing of the financier’s “terrible crimes.”
The revelation is part of a defamation process between Maxwell, sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison, and a plaintiff, Virginia Giuffre.
Among those mentioned is also Prince Andrew, brother of the British King Charles III.who had been accused of sexual assault by Giuffre, now 40, during the Epstein trial.
Giuffre, who claimed to have been a victim of sex trafficking by Epstein, said she was taken by Epstein to London, where she was introduced to Prince Andrew.
One image, which has since gained notoriety, shows the prince with his arm around Giuffre and Maxwell appears smiling in the background.
The king’s brother declared that he did not remember having met Giuffre and denied the accusations that she has made against him.
However, in February 2022, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in a civil sexual assault case in the United States.
According to the BBC, the documents also contain testimony from Johanna Sjoberg, now 42, who alleges that Prince Andrew groped her while she was sitting on an armchair in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001, an allegation that the Palace Buckingham previously denied.
Last month, a judge listed about 180 cases in a 50-page document -under pseudonyms- ordering that their identities be made public in the first days of January.
Some of those people have objected to the disclosure of their identities.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier’s former lover, with Jeffrey Epstein / File photo: AFP.
Attorneys for one individual, “Doe 107,” wrote to the judge in the case arguing that they could face victimization in their home country and requested time to state why their name should remain secret.
According to the British media, Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit against Maxwell, 62, dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year. But the Miami Herald then took legal action to access the file and investigate Epstein’s network.
Several documents in the case were made public in 2019, days before Epstein hanged himself in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
About the case
Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early ’90s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices of sexual crimes for almost three decades.
Different media outlets around the world named with their respective identities those personalities mentioned in the file, figures of maximum public exposure in the world of cinema, music, entertainment in general and politics.
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