200 names linked to Jeffrey Epstein expected to be made public

Mon, 01 Jan, 2024 - 19:16

Edward Helmore

Nearly 200 names connected to the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy could be released by a New York judge as soon as Tuesday, exposing or confirming the identities of dozens of associates of the disgraced financier that until now have only been known as John and Jane Does in court papers.

A deadline for objections to the unsealing of name passes at midnight on Monday, nearly nine years after victim Virginia Giuffre filed a single defamation claim against Maxwell, daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, in 2015, that in turn produced the names in legal depositions.

A year later, in 2016, US district court judge Robert Sweet rejected Maxwell’s motion to dismiss the case, finding that “the veracity of a contextual world of facts more broad than the allegedly defamatory statements” and that Guiffre “was a victim of sustained underage sexual abuse between 1999 and 2002”. The parties settled out of court in 2017.

From that wellspring came not only the names now set to be released, but a series of civil lawsuits including Guiffre’s action against Britain’s Prince Andrew for “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress” that was settled out of court without admission of liability for a reported $12m. The prince has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The defamation suit also set the stage for a federal sex trafficking case against Maxwell, who was found guilty on five of six charges, and sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence in December 2021.

But expectations that the release of the names from the ageing defamation suit could transfer to criminal charges are likely overblown. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019, and after Maxwell’s conviction federal prosecutors made it clear that they considered their work done.

Still, US district judge Loretta Preska’s 51-page order explaining her reasoning on whether to unseal or continue to redact the names of about 180 John and Jane Does offers will probably be a serious embarrassment to many high-profile figures.

Many on the list will already be publicly known as associates, employees of Epstein and Maxwell, or people who had flown on his planes. It may also name Epstein’s alleged victims who had been taken to homes, including a mansion in New York, a Palm Beach villa, a private island in the US Virgin Islands and a ranch outside Santa Fe.

Its the names of the John Does that will be mostly scrutinized, and is almost certain to include a former US president, actors, academics and, notoriously, the now reclusive British prince.

According to ABC News on Monday, “Jane Doe 162” is a witness who testified she was 17 when she was with Andrew, Maxwell and Giuffre at Epstein’s home in New York mansion.

Former US president Bill Clinton was identified by ANC News as “Doe 36” and is mentioned in more than 50 of the redacted filings, according to court records. Giuffre made no allegations of wrongdoing by Clinton, but maintains she met him on the island – which Clinton has said he never visited.

But personal flight logs kept by one of Epstein’s pilots showed that Clinton flew extensively on Epstein’s plane, including on trips to Paris, Bangkok and Brunei in the years after he left office in 2001.

According to ABC, Giuffre’s lawyers contacted Clinton’s legal representatives about a deposition but they responded that his testimony would not be helpful. Maxwell’s lawyers also rejected the idea, calling it a “transparent ploy by Guiffre to increase media exposure for her sensational stories through deposition side-show”.

But Clinton’s name repeatedly came up in connection with Epstein, including in a New York magazine article in 2002 in which he said through a spokesman that Epstein was “both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of 21st-century science”.