New round of Epstein documents offer another look into his cesspool of sexual abuse | CityNews Calgary

Nearly 100 extra court docket information had been unsealed Friday in a lawsuit involving Jeffrey Epstein, offering but extra element concerning the late millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of underage ladies and interactions with celebrities.

The newest spherical of paperwork included extra excerpts of testimony from individuals who labored for Epstein, copies of telephone messages he acquired — together with one from movie producer Harvey Weinstein — and plenty of authorized memos with attorneys discussing who might doubtlessly have been referred to as as a witness in his case, if it ever went to trial.

No new blockbuster revelations had been instantly obvious, and plenty of the data coated materials that has been the topic of many previous news tales about Epstein and his victims. But like different paperwork beforehand made public in lawsuits associated to Epstein, they supply a window into the rarified world he inhabited.

The data are all associated to a defamation lawsuit that certainly one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, filed in 2015 in opposition to the millionaire’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was accused by a number of ladies of serving to Epstein recruit underage victims. Maxwell is serving a 20 yr jail sentence.

Here are some takeaways from the most recent batch of launched paperwork:

PRINCE ANDREW

The data launched Friday embrace the 2009 deposition of a former housekeeper at Epstein’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, who talked about how a lot time the financier spent with Prince Andrew, the British royal who was a longtime buddy of Maxwell’s.

Juan Alessi testified that “Prince Andrew spent weeks with us” and when he visited, he would obtain day by day massages on the mansion.

Alessi stated Andrew would keep in the principle visitor bed room, which he described as “the blue room.” He recalled seeing Andrew’s former spouse, Sarah Ferguson, on one event, however added, “I don’t think she slept in there.”

Alessi additionally remembered seeing different celebrities together with Donald Trump and “a lot of queens and other famous people that I can’t remember.”

Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago membership can be in Palm Beach, would come over to Epstein’s residence for dinner, Alessi stated, however he “never sat at the table,” eating as an alternative with Alessi within the kitchen. Asked whether or not Trump ever acquired massages, he stated, “No. Because he’s got his own spa.”

Alessi, who labored at Epstein’s sprawling residence from 1990 to 2002, beforehand testified at Maxwell’s 2021 trial that he noticed “many, many, many” younger grownup feminine guests, typically lounging topless by the pool. He additionally admitted to stealing $6,300 from Epstein’s desk.

Prince Andrew was publicly criticized when photographs emerged of him visiting Epstein in New York even after the financier was imprisoned in Florida for a intercourse crime.

Giuffre sued Andrew, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was 17. Andrew stated he didn’t keep in mind ever assembly Giuffre. The lawsuit was settled in 2022 with out ever going to trial, however the allegations broken his public standing and led Andrew to withdraw from some royal duties.

The Associated Press sometimes doesn’t identify individuals who say they’re the victims of sexual abuse until they’ve come ahead publicly with their story, as Giuffre has.

PHONE RECORDS

One doc unsealed Friday incorporates copies of telephone messages Epstein acquired, handwritten by staffers, in 2004, a yr earlier than police in Palm Beach began investigating allegations that he was paying underage ladies for intercourse.

At the time, Epstein was getting consideration for hobnobbing with the wealthy and highly effective, providing free rides on his non-public jet to celebrities together with former President Bill Clinton and actor Kevin Spacey.

The telephone messages, whereas largely mundane, give a small style of these associations.

“She had on the phone Mr. Harvey Weinstein,” reads one message a few missed name.

Weinstein, then a pressure in Hollywood, was as soon as a part of a media funding group that included Epstein. Weinstein can be charged years later with raping and sexually assaulting ladies within the leisure business and is serving prolonged jail phrases after convictions in New York and Los Angeles.

Weinstein’s spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a message searching for remark Friday.

There are additionally a number of messages about missed calls from Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who was near Epstein. Brunel was awaiting trial on expenses that he raped underage ladies when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022.

RECRUITING YOUNG GIRLS

When Epstein was initially investigated by Palm Beach police in 2005, detectives spoke to various ladies from an space highschool who stated that they had been paid cash to provide massages to Epstein.

Tony Figueroa, who labored as a driver for Epstein and as soon as dated Giuffre, talked concerning the effort to recruit these ladies throughout his 2016 deposition.

“Jeffrey was giving us $200 apiece for every one that we brought over,” he stated. “I would get friends that I went to school with and I would take them over there and introduce them, and then I would just leave.”

He stated Maxwell would additionally name him sometimes, “asking me to get girls.”

Figueroa has informed the identical story in media interviews within the years since that deposition.

PUBLIC RELATIONS DISASTER

The authorized storm that Epstein and Maxwell had been dealing with is captured nicely in a Jan. 11, 2015, e-mail by her legal professional Philip Barden, who referred to Maxwell as “G,” and to Epstein as “JE.”

He urged a robust public response to Giuffre’s claims as a result of silence was “reputational suicide.”

“Now it is reported that G engaged in direct abuse — as I feared would happen. Next reports to the authorities will be made,” Barden wrote in a message to a person whose identify was blacked, with Maxwell copied on the missive.

“It is necessary from a litigation, investigatory and reputational reason to issue a cogent denial. I can see why JE doesn’t want this as it may not suit him but he is already toast,” he added.

Four years later Epstein can be useless by suicide, present in a jail cell after he was arrested in July 2019 on intercourse trafficking expenses. It can be two extra years earlier than a jury in New York agreed that Maxwell helped Epstein recruit and groom teenage ladies for sexual abuse and generally joined within the abuse.

The Associated Press