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Newly Released Records in Ghislaine Maxwell Case Reveal Correspondence With Jeffrey Epstein

Capping off a yearlong open-records battle, Jeffrey Epstein’s correspondence with his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell became public in a late-night release on Thursday, together with dozens of other formerly secret files.

MANHATTAN (CN) — From an explosive correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein to more allegations against powerful men like Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew, newly released files from an old lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell became public on Thursday following a yearlong records battle.  

One five-year-old email has what reads like a statement by Maxwell slamming the press and denying any participation in a sex-trafficking scandal. 

Only it was Epstein who wrote it. 

“Since JE was charged in 2007 for solicitation of a prostitute I have been the target of outright lies, innuendo, slander, defamation and salacious gossip and harassment,” Epstein wrote “GMax” in an email dated Jan. 21, 2015.   

The remainder of the wordy missive slams the press for “headlines made up of quotes I have never given, statements l have never made, trips with people to places I have never been, holidays with people i have never met, false allegations of impropriety and offensive behavior that l abhor and have never ever been party to, witness to events that l have never seen, living off trust funds that l have never ever had, party to stories that have changed materially both in time place and event depending on what paper you read, and the list goes on.” 

Maxwell wrote days later: “I would appreciate it if shelley would come out and say she was your g'friend — I think she was from end 99 to 2002."

The identity of the “shelley” whom Maxwell wanted to depict as Epstein’s girlfriend is unclear.    

“ok, with me,” Epstein replied a day later. “You have done nothing wrong and i woudl [sic] urge you to start acting like it. go outside, head high, not as an esacping [sic] convict.” 

In a failed bid to win bail, Maxwell claimed that she has not been in touch with Epstein in more than a decade, an assertion undermined by the correspondence. 

Previously anonymous, Maxwell’s prominent accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre had been known as “Jane Doe 3” before publicly claiming to witness Clinton on Epstein’s private island and to have been passed on for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew and Dershowitz. Newly unsealed documents add more detail to those claims.  

“One such powerful individual that Epstein forced then-minor Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with was former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a close friend of Epstein’s and well-known criminal defense attorney,” the document continues. “Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on numerous occasions while she was a minor, not only in Florida but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”  

That claim is not new: Giuffre and Dershowitz have sued each other over the allegations, but the unsealed records show her alleging that Dershowitz had self-interested motives to negotiate a controversial plea deal for Epstein that purported to shield his co-conspirators.  

“Thus, Dershowitz helped negotiate an agreement with a provision that provided protection for himself against criminal prosecution in Florida for sexually abusing Jane Doe #3,” the Jan. 2, 2015, document states. 

In a much earlier document from 2011, Giuffre gave an initial interview with her attorneys Brad Edwards and Jack Scarola, where she mentioned Clinton’s name six times among the cast of characters whom she saw on Epstein’s island. 

When asked whom else she saw with the former president, Giuffre replied: “Ghislaine, Emmy, and there was 2 young girls that I could identify.” 

Clinton denies any wrongdoing, and Giuffre does not accuse him of misconduct, though she called sexual orgies a “regular occurrence” at Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands home. 

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Asked about hearing Epstein boast “Bill Clinton owes me favors,” Giuffre mused: “Yes. I do. It was a laugh though. He would laugh it off.” 

Emphasizing she did not know whether Epstein was serious, she added: “It was just a joke.”

President Trump also received a name-check in the interview in recounting how she met Maxwell in the first place.

"I was working at Donald Trump’s spa in Mar-a-Lago, and I was prompted by Ghislaine to come to Jeffrey’s mansion in Palm Beach that afternoon after work to make some extra money and to learn about massage," she told her lawyers in 2011, an account she would continue to repeat in the future.

Asked whether Prince Andrew would have information, Giuffre told her lawyers in 2011: “Yes, he would know a lot of the truth.”  

“Again, I don’t know how much he would be able to help you with, but seeing he’s in a lot of trouble himself these days, I think he might,” she added. “So, I think he may be valuable. I’m not too sure of him.” 

Those exchanges, and others, hit the public after a federal judge angrily told Maxwell that she can no longer delay their release. 

Fighting bitterly against the new rush of documents, Maxwell kept filing new challenges until hours before a deadline first imposed last week.  

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska skewered one “eleventh-hour request” on Wednesday and wrote another blistering ruling to offer new reasons to delay again as the countdown ticked toward the close of business Thursday. 

“The court is troubled — but not surprised — that Ms. Maxwell has yet again sought to muddy the waters as the clock ticks closer to midnight,” Preska wrote in a ruling that hit the court’s docket 4:55 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Minutes later, Maxwell’s attorney Laura Menninger asked for "emergency forthwith phone conference,” but the docket remained silent for roughly an hour and a half before Preska neatly rejected the request. 

“Counsel shall proceed with unsealing as previously ordered,” she added at 6:39 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Another three hours would pass for the highly anticipated documents to finally see the light of day. 

Giuffre filed suit five years ago against Maxwell, whose depositions in that case form the basis of two now-pending perjury charges against her. 

One of those transcripts, from Maxwell’s testimony in April 2016, originally had been ordered unsealed until the British socialite complained that prosecutors wrongly quoted portions of it marked “confidential” in their indictment. 

In a 2015 defamation suit, Giuffre accused Maxwell of grooming her to become Jeffrey Epstein’s “sex slave.” 

While medical information will remain under seal, Giuffre’s psychiatrists are mentioned in the files. Giuffre’s counsel notes last year that their client went to them to cope with trauma and said the doctor’s records corroborate her tale. 

The Epstein conspiracy has been described as a pyramid scheme of sexual abuse, where underage girls were recruited to perform massages for the convicted pedophile that escalated to assault. Prosecutors say that the victims were sent to find others for the disgraced financier’s predation.  

Reflecting the scale of the alleged crimes, the documents contain references to “Doe #67” and “Doe # 151.” 

Since a settlement in 2017, those files had been mostly sealed or heavily redacted, but the watershed Miami Herald exposé “Perversion of Justice” led to a widely publicized public-access battle that went to the Second Circuit last year.  

That New York-based court ordered sunlight one year ago for nearly 2,000 pages of files related to Epstein, Maxwell and their dozens of accusers. In one partly released deposition from the time, Guiffre testified that she received orders from Maxwell to have sex with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, financier Glenn Dubin, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel, former Senator George Mitchell and others. 

Denying the allegations, those men never have been charged with wrongdoing.  

Maxwell pleaded not guilty earlier this month to the six counts accusing her of grooming Epstein’s victims and perjuring herself to cover it up. Her trial has been scheduled next year in July.  

Her attorneys have asked the Second Circuit to rule by Friday on their request to delay the release of Maxwell's deposition that prosecutors claim shows her committing perjury. If the court denies that request, it will go public on Monday.

Categories / Courts, Criminal

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