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(NewsNation) — More than 900 pages of court documents were released Wednesday night from the investigation and trials surrounding former billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
A federal court began releasing previously secret documents Wednesday related to Epstein that disclose the names of more than 150 people associated with the disgraced financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The documents are being unsealed on a rolling basis, with two being held back until at least Jan 22. The records may include the names of those who worked for Epstein or only had weak ties to the financier as well as potential victims and witnesses. Appearing in the documents does not mean someone is connected to any wrongdoing.
The names of those mentioned so far in the documents range from politicians to Hollywood actors, including some of the nation’s most rich and powerful.
Among those named in the initial documents include former President Bill Clinton, former President Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.
Many of the names belong to people who had already been publicly connected to Epstein as his long-time associates or friends, including his former lawyer Alan Dershowitz who was mentioned in the documents 137 times. Dershowitz pushed hard for all of the court documents to be released to clear his name.
It’s imperative to note the list does not imply that everyone is accused of wrongdoing or illegal and immoral behavior.
The documents come from a settled civil lawsuit that Virginia Giuffre, who alleges she was a victim of sex trafficking, filed against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.
The Miami Herald has been fighting to unseal documents filed as part of that lawsuit since 2018. The legal battle came to a head in December when U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the names could be unsealed beginning Jan. 1.
At the time, Preska said many of the people named in the documents had already given media interviews or their names were listed in other public court documents pertaining to the case.
She ordered that some names be redacted to protect the anonymity of minors who were victims of sex crimes.
You can read the full document below:
Maxwell’s attorneys, Arthur L. Aidala and Diana Fabi Samson, on Thursday, said Maxwell “took no position” on the decision to unseal documents in the Giuffre v. Maxwell case.
“These disclosures have no bearing on her or her pending appeal. Ghislaine’s focus is on the upcoming appellate argument asking for her entire case to be dismissed. She is confident that she will obtain justice in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence,” the attorneys said in a statement.
Social media has been rife in recent weeks with posts speculating that the documents would include a list of rich and powerful men who were Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.”
There was no such list. The initial collection of around 40 documents made public largely contained material that had been released previously, or exhaustively been covered in nearly two decades’ worth of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews and books about the Epstein scandal.
Still, the records — which included transcripts of interviews with some of Epstein’s victims — included reminders that Epstein surrounded himself with famous and powerful figures, including a few who have also been accused of misconduct.
Giuffre says Epstein and Maxwell pressured her as a teenager to engage in sexual relationships with powerful men, including Prince Andrew. Those men denied the allegations, and Giuffre later settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew out of court.
One of the documents unsealed Wednesday is an email that appears to be from Epstein to Maxwell about trying to pay off Giuffre’s friends and family to refute her allegations, one of those being that Stephen Hawking allegedly participated in an underage orgy. Hawking was seen in pictures with Epstein in 2006 on his infamous island, Little St. James.
People named in the documents are unlikely to face prosecution if they haven’t already, criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson told NewsNation on Monday before the files were released.
“These names were actually kept secret because the judge found that because they did not do anything wrong. There wasn’t any reason at that point to release them and embarrass them,” Johnson said.
Reports in anticipation of the release focused on Clinton’s name appearing about 50 times throughout the documents’ pages. That could be because Maxwell wanted Clinton to give a deposition in her case, Johnson said. Maxwell took the matter to court and lost.
Clinton’s name came up because Giuffre was questioned by Maxwell’s lawyers about inaccuracies in newspaper stories about her time with Epstein, including a story quoting her as saying she had ridden in a helicopter with Clinton and flirted with Trump. Giuffre said neither of those things actually happened.
“This isn’t just going to be a list of names,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be a dump of hundreds and hundreds of pages, including deposition transcripts.”
That includes the transcripts from the deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, who says she was hired by Maxwell and sexually abused by Epstein. Sjoberg testified that Epstein told her that “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
Sjoberg’s testimony also references Copperfield, presumably the magician. Sjoberg claimed Copperfield asked her about the system that was in place for girls to find other girls for Epstein.
Copperfield was at a dinner at Epstein’s, and there was another girl present who looked young. Sjoberg asked what school she went to but did not recognize the school name as being a college.
She testified it was possible the girl was in high school. Sjoberg testified that Copperfield “questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls.”
Allegations against Epstein first surfaced publicly in 2005.
He pleaded guilty to sex charges in Florida and served 13 months in jail. He spent much of that time in a work-release program as part of a deal critics called lenient. He ultimately was required to register as a sex offender.
Federal prosecutors in New York went on to revive the case against Epstein after a series of stories by the Miami Herald in 2018 brought renewed attention to the matter.
In 2019, New York prosecutors said they weren’t bound by the previous non-prosecution deal, and Epstein was again arrested. He killed himself a month later.
Maxwell was arrested at a New Hampshire estate less than one year after Epstein’s death.
A jury convicted her in December 2021 of multiple charges including sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The Associated Press and NewsNation digital producers Tyler Wornell and Devan Markham contributed to this report.
