Jeffrey Epstein: List of names in court files released – BBC News
Prince Andrew and the former President Bill Clinton have been named in newly released court documents relating to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein they include Associates friends and alleged victims of the disgraced billionaire who died in jail five years ago the papers relate to a case that was brought against Epstein’s associate gillain
Maxwell she’s currently serving a 20-year jail sentence for child sex trafficking our correspondent in Los Angeles Peter Bose told us more about what’s in the document there are 943 pages in all transcripts of interviews depositions all part of a a civil lawsuit brought by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers against galain
Maxwell his longtime friend and Associate who is now serving 20 years in prison for crimes that she committed with him and yes these documents have references to several of the very high-profile people that we know were Associates of Jeffrey EP over the years there are more than 60 references to
Prince Andrew there’s the repeating of at least one allegation against him that in the past Buckingham Palace has described as categorically untrue former President Bill Clinton is also mentioned as expected he was known sometimes to use Jeffrey Epstein’s planes to fly on humanitarian trips to Africa but again
There is no suggestion in these documents that he did anything illegal there are also some references to Donald Trump and again no suggestion that he was involved in any wrongdoing and also references and the names of many other people who are not famous in fact it’s notable that the judge um who authorized
The release of these documents said that many of those people had not objected to the release of these documents which suggests that for those people this could be in a sense a clearing of the a that yes they may well have crossed paths with Epstein at some point in some
Way in the past but for them there is certainly no suggestion that they are implicated in his crimes there is still more to come on this there are some more documents that are due to be released in the coming days our correspondent in Los Angeles Peter Bose there well let’s go
Live now to Luchia Osborne Crowley who’s a legal Affairs reporter with legal news service law 360 and the author of a forthcoming book on the galain Maxwell trial the lasting harm thank you so much for joining us Luchia this is a long awaited uh long anticipated list why have the names been released
Now well this I think is one of the most important things to talk about today because um as we’ve just heard this lawsuit was filed in 2015 it’s a it’s a lawsuit that’s almost 10 years old and these names have been protected by um judges uh for again and again over those
Nine years um and it’s really significant that judge Loretta presca has made this decision um to make these documents public because I think it shows that there has been a a shift both in the legal system and in the culture in terms of um uh taking these kind of
Sexual offenses more seriously of course in the time between so this this this is a um defamation lawsuit against gain Maxwell brought by Virginia je who as we know has been fighting for justice for herself and and other survivors of Jeffrey Epstein for a very very long
Time and um in in the time since this lawsuit was filed of course um as Peter just mentioned um gillain Maxwell has has been convicted um uh in a in a federal trial so the the fact that a decision has been made to stop protecting um the names of these people
Um just shows us that I think the legal landscape is is changing um that judges are more willing to be transparent and and more willing to stand up to wealth and power when it comes to um the impunity that that they have operated with for a very long time what’s the
Legal implication for the names on the list so um as we’ve just heard for a number of the names there there is no allegation of um any illegal conduct so any um involvement in the trafficking or sexual abuse itself um there is a repetition of um an allegation we have
Heard before um but this is in um sworn testimony so there’s a another victim who alleges that prince Andrew groped her in one of uh Jeffrey Epstein’s homes um the fact that that allegation has been repeated in a deposition um is is significant I think he will have to
Answer questions about that uh as we know the the palace and he himself have vly denied uh all allegations but the the repetition of of this allegation by a second victim um apart from Virginia je who who sued him personally um is significant um and the legal
Implications also you know the fact that these are now in the public domain um might make it easier for victims um to come forward and file their own lawsuits because this is a whole Trove of new evidence that was uh kep Secret by the by the court system for a very long time
Um for for not particularly good legal reason and so now there is and there’s more to come as we know this is only the first 950 or so Pages um and I know that there’s many many many more names to come and so this will give um victims
The legal permission to to go forward and seek legal action if if that’s what they want to do just briefly Luchia why why have the names not all been released in one go because in a way delaying the release of them means more speculation which we have seen on social media which
Obviously we won’t repeat here but why not do it all in one go yeah it’s a very good question um and uh the answer is that just it mainly comes down to the fact that um this it’s very it’s a very hard task for the judicial system um to unseal all of
These documents some because these documents are still partially redacted to protect the identities of some of the victims who are named who who don’t wish to have their identities revealed so uh it’s a long process of going through all of the documents redacting certain names um and then uploading them to the court
Docket um it could just be that uh this is all that they could upload in one day we might have exactly the same number of pages tomorrow um so unfortunately it’s a very boring answer I think um about about the clerical nature of the justice system um and we often see this with
Huge tranches of documents that all makes sense Luchia thank you boring but very effective and helpful answer thank you so much uh Luchia for giving us a thorough overview of that that’s the legal Affairs reporter uh Luchia Osborne Crowley there
Prince Andrew is among high-profile figures named in newly released US court documents detailing connections of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A judge ordered the release of the records as part of a legal case related to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are also named, though neither is accused of illegality.
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