Numerous court documents identifying associates of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed on Wednesday, revealing high-profile names including Prince Andrew, former US president Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and David Copperfield. The documents were filed as part of a lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite convicted in 2021 for trafficking teenage girls for Epstein.
The unsealed papers include depositions and motions from the case. Many of the names had previously been linked to Epstein publicly, but were listed under pseudonyms like 'J Doe' in court records until now. The inclusion of a name does not necessarily imply wrongdoing; some individuals are merely mentioned in passing.
In a deposition, Maxwell reportedly confirmed that Prince Andrew visited Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands. When asked if there were girls on the island at the time, she insisted: 'There were no girls on the island at all. No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house.'
Another deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, whom Maxwell allegedly procured for Epstein, included a claim that Epstein said 'Clinton likes them young, referring to girls'. A spokesperson for Clinton denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes in a 2019 statement. Sjoberg also said she met Michael Jackson at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, though she did not massage him, and recalled David Copperfield performing magic tricks at dinner. Copperfield asked Sjoberg if she was 'aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls', but did not specify ages.
Former US president Donald Trump, whose association with Epstein has been widely reported, was also mentioned. Sjoberg said they visited one of Trump's casinos in Atlantic City when a storm prevented Epstein's plane from landing in New York. She denied giving Trump a massage. The documents also detail an incident involving a puppet of Prince Andrew, which Sjoberg said she was asked to fetch from a closet at Epstein's New York home.
