Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend the Batman Forever/R. McDonald Event in New York City on June 13, 1995.
Patrick McMullan | Getty Images
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New York federal court documents containing previously hidden names of people associated in some way with the late notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein began being unsealed Wednesday evening.
Many of the more than 150 people named in the civil court filings have previously been publicly disclosed as connected in some way with Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. They include victims of Epstein who testified at the criminal trial of his procurer and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
The documents were filed in connection with a Manhattan federal court lawsuit by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell.
Among the documents unsealed Wednesday was a deposition taken of Giuffre by lawyers for that suit and requests to take other depositions of other individuals by her lawyers.
One such request details how Maxwell in her deposition was unable to recall details about Epstein’s contacts with Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton, who both had been friends of the pedophile.
HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York on July 11, 2019 in Harrogate, England.
Ian Forsyth | Getty Images
Another Epstein accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, in a deposition unsealed Wednesday, was also asked about Clinton by Giuffre’s lawyer.
“Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Bill18 Clinton?” Giuffre’s attorney asked
Sjoberg responded, “He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
Sjoberg also testified about an incident involving Prince Andrew at Epstein’s home in Manhattan, when Maxwell went to a closet and pulled out a puppet of Andrew, and then brought it to where the prince was sitting with Giuffre on a couch, and someone suggested taking a photo.
“And so Andrew and Virginia sat on the couch, and they put the puppet, the puppet on her lap,” Sjoberg testified. “And so then I sat on Andrew’s lap, and I believe on my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”
Puppets of Britain’s Prince Andrew and his fiancée Miss Sarah Ferguson in London on March 30, 1986, which can be seen on the ITV television program “Spitting Images.”
In Maxwell’s deposition, which was filed Wednesday, she was asked about the billionaire Glenn Dubin, a co-founder of the Highbridge Capital hedge fund.
“Did you ever instruct [Giuffre] to have sex with Glenn” Dubin,” Giuffre’s lawyer asked Maxwell.
Maxwell replied: “I have never instructed Virginia to have sex with anybody ever.”
Dubin’s spokesman in 2019 denied claims by Giuffre that Maxwell had ever instructed her to have sex with him.
“Things should start getting unsealed today,” Edward Friedland, the district executive for that court, told CNBC.
The fact that peoples’ names appear in the files does not necessarily mean they engaged in wrongdoing.
Only Epstein and Maxwell have been criminally charged in connection with his longstanding abuse of girls and young women at residences in New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and elsewhere.
Judge Loretta Preska ordered the unsealing in mid-December.
Preska has granted a 30-day extension barring the disclosure of two names, including a woman identified as Doe 107 to review her claim that she faces a risk of physical harm in her home country if her identity is publicly revealed.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence on charges related to recruiting and grooming young women to be abused by Epstein.
Epstein for years had socialized with Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as Britain’s Prince Andrew and many other rich and powerful people.
On Tuesday, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, during an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” said in regard to the list of names, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel are really hoping that doesn’t come out.”
“I’ll tell you what, if that list comes out, I definitely will be popping some sort of bottle,” Rodgers said.
Kimmel, the host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show, quickly fired back at Rodgers in a tweet on the social media site X, suggesting he would sue the football player if he persisted in implying Kimmel had a connection with Epstein.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (L) and TV Host Jimmy Kimmel.
Reuters
“Dear A——-: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any ‘list’ other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality,” Kimmel wrote in the tweet.
“Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”
McAfee apologized Wednesday on his show.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Dawn Giel
