Court records bring new, unwanted attention to rich and famous in Jeffrey Epstein’s social circle
NEW YORK (AP) — Before and after he was exposed as a pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein loved to mingle with the world’s elite.
The millionaire invited politicians and academics to his private island and luxury homes. He offered celebrities rides on his private jet. He and his girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, hung out with princes and supermodels. They made donations that brought them into contact with leading philanthropists.
After Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, many of those people have apologized for associating with him and said they were unaware he was habitually abusing underage girls.
Newly released court records have revved up interest again in the big names who associated with Epstein and Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for helping recruit and abuse Epstein’s victims.
Many of those people have never been accused of any wrongdoing, but have nonetheless become the subject of a whirlwind of conspiracy theories. Others have, for years, been denying claims made by one of Epstein’s victims — Virginia Giuffre — that they participated in illicit sex.
Here is a look at some of the people who have been getting renewed attention because of the release of the documents, which included deposition testimony by Epstein’s victims, people who worked for him, Giuffre and Maxwell.
Jean-Luc Brunel
The court records contain repeated references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent and close friend of Epstein who killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls. Brunel was accused by Giuffre and others of using promises of modeling work to induce people, including minors, into sexual encounters.
Brunel’s estate was sued this week in California by a woman who alleges that he and others sexually assaulted her while she was working as a model in New York. She says that on one occasion, she was driven to a home in Canada and kept there for several days while men abused her.
Brunel’s attorneys have maintained his innocence, saying his suicide “was not guided by guilt but by a deep sentiment of injustice.”
Leslie Wexner
The records also contain fleeting references to Leslie Wexner, the retail titan behind Victoria’s Secret, The Limited and other store chains. Epstein had managed Wexner’s money for years, but their relationship soured following Epstein’s 2006 arrest in Florida and jail term for paying an underage girl for a sexual act.
After Epstein was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges and killed himself in jail, Wexner said he had been embarrassed by his ties to Epstein. He also publicly accused Epstein of misappropriating “vast sums” of his fortune but didn’t offer details.
Alan Dershowitz
Among the more familiar names in the records is Alan Dershowitz, a former Epstein attorney and retired Harvard University law professor. Giuffre had long accused Dershowitz of sexually abusing her a half-dozen times in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
But Giuffre withdrew her claim against Dershowitz in 2022, saying she “ may have made a mistake ” in identifying him as one of the men she had sex with at the request of Epstein or Maxwell. “I was very young at the time,” she said, and “it was a very stressful and traumatic environment.” Dershowitz said at the time that she deserved credit for acknowledging her error.
Prince Andrew
Some of the most sensational allegations have involved Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was a longtime friend of Maxwell’s and continued visiting Epstein even after his imprisonment in Florida for a sex crime.
Giuffre sued the prince in 2021, claiming that when she was 17 she had sex with him multiple times at Maxwell’s request.
Andrew denied her claims, saying he didn’t remember ever meeting her. The allegations damaged his public standing and led Andrew to withdraw from some royal duties.
Giuffre and Andrew settled the lawsuit in 2022 without it ever going to trial.
The newly released records include mentions of Giuffre’s allegations and a transcript of a deposition in which she was questioned by Maxwell’s attorneys about whether she made up some of her stories about powerful men to impress reporters.
Giuffre insisted she was telling the truth, and that inaccuracies in some of her published interviews were the fault of reporters.
The unsealed court papers also included a more detailed version of a well-known story by one of Epstein’s victims, Johanna Sjoberg, who described an evening at his New York home involving Giuffre, Maxwell and Prince Andrew.
At one point, she testified, they pulled out a puppet of Prince Andrew that had been made for a British television program.
“And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch,” Sjoberg said. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap, and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo.”
Bill Clinton
The former president flew several times on Epstein’s private jet, and once publicly praised the financier’s intellect and philanthropic efforts.
Sjoberg testified in her deposition that, while she never met Clinton, Epstein once remarked to her that “Clinton likes them young.” She took the remark as a reference to young women or girls.
Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing, though, by any of Epstein’s victims. He has previously said through a spokesperson that while he traveled on Epstein’s jet he never visited his homes, had no knowledge of his crimes and hasn’t spoken to Epstein since his Florida conviction.
Other documents released included legal arguments over whether Clinton should be deposed. Giuffre’s attorneys argued the former president was a “key person who can provide information about his close relationship” with Epstein.
Donald Trump
The records briefly mention former President Donald Trump, who socialized with Epstein but also is not accused of misconduct. Video footage unearthed by NBC News following Epstein’s federal indictment in 2019 showed the two chatting at a party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 1992.
The video had been recorded as part of a profile of Trump, who was newly divorced at the time. It shows the future president surrounded by young women, whom NBC identified as cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills.
Later in the video, Epstein arrives at Trump’s Florida estate, and the two men are seen talking and gesturing at the women on the dance floor.
“I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump said when the video emerged. “He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years.”
Stephen Hawking
The new records include a single reference to the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. His name appears, misspelled, in an email Epstein sent proposing a reward be paid to anyone who could debunk a baseless claim that Hawking had participated in “an underage orgy.”
Hawking, who died in 2018, had attended one of Epstein’s academic gatherings in 2006.
Glenn Dubin
The records include a claim from Giuffre that she was pressured to have sex with billionaire Glenn Dubin, a claim he denies. Giuffre said in a deposition that Maxwell “told me to go to Glenn Dubin and give him a massage, which means sex.”
Dubin has said he has flight records and other evidence proving Giuffre’s allegations against him are false.
Epstein dated Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former Miss Sweden, off and on in the mid-1980s, and the two remained friends after breaking up. Andersson-Dubin later married Dubin with whom she had three children. Andersson-Dubin testified in Maxwell’s federal trial, saying she trusted Epstein with her young daughters and denying taking part in a group sexual encounter with a key accuser.
Bill Richardson
Giuffre also claims she was pressured to have sex with former U.S. ambassador and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. The new documents include a few mentions of Richardson, including a deposition in which Giuffre says she had been ordered to give him a massage.
Richardson, who died last year, previously said that Giuffre’s claims were fabricated. A spokesperson in 2019 denied that he had ever met Giuffre.
George Mitchell
Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell was also among the men Giuffre claims abused her. Like Richardson, Mitchell also denied ever meeting her. The new records contain little mention of Mitchell.