THE years-long delay in the release of dozens of previously sealed court documents involving Jeffrey Epstein was unjustified and helped to fuel already rampant conspiracy about the late pedophile financier, a legal expert says.
More than 1,000 pages of documents were unsealed by a judge earlier this week as part of a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein‘s ex-girlfriend and confidant who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for helping him to groom and abuse girls.
Dozens of high-profile figures who rubbed shoulders with Epstein were named in the files, including Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Stephen Hawking, and Donald Trump.
The release of the much-hyped trove had prompted rumors the files contained lists of “clients” and even “co-conspirators” of Epstein’s.
However, so far, the documents have unveiled no new allegations about Epstein nor any bombshell revelations about his associates, a legal expert says.
The files are being unsealed as part of a 2015 lawsuit filed against Maxwell by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre was among dozens of women who accused Epstein of abusing them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and New Mexico.
Her lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the court kept some of the documents redacted or sealed over concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and others whose names had been mentioned during the legal battle.
Then in December 2023, U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered the records to be released because much of the information they contain is already public knowledge.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, told The U.S. Sun on Thursday that he believes the documents should’ve been released years ago.
The delay in unveiling them has allowed conspiracy to spread rampantly, he said, despite the documents largely proving to be a “nothing burger” so far.
“With about 20% of the documents released so far, it’s a nothing burger. There’s nothing unexpected, no juicy tidbits, and no speculation about what could actually be true,” said Gillers.
“They were probably kept under seal longer than they should’ve been.
“In the United States, there’s a very strong presumption that all court records are public unless there’s a persuasive reason to conceal them, so they probably should’ve been revealed sooner.
“And the failure to do so has probably increased people’s speculation about what terrible news it would be for the people who are named – but that didn’t turn out to be true.”
A ‘WIN’ FOR TRUMP
Mentioned prominently in the documents are Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton, though the records do not indicate any evidence of illegality on Clinton’s part.
Prince Andrew, meanwhile, is accused of groping a woman’s breast during a party in 2001 – an allegation he denies.
The same woman, Johanna Sjoberg, claimed during a deposition that Epstein told her Clinton “likes them young” when talking about girls, the documents show.
Mentioned fleeting in the files is former President Donald Trump, who has been on the list of known Epstein associates for years – thanks in part to a handful of photographs showing the pair together at various functions throughout the years.
In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump said he’d known Epstein for 15 years and described him as a “terrific guy.”
“He’s a lot of fun to be with,” said Trump. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.
“No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
He flew on Epstein’s private jet a number of times but appeared to distance himself from the financier in the years following Epstein’s 2006 arrest for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Sjoberg claimed during her deposition that she traveled from Florida to Atlantic City in 2001 with Epstein and visited one of Trump’s casinos.
“Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to’—I don’t recall the name of the casino, but—’we’ll go to the casino,'” Sjoberg said, according to her testimony.
While in Atlantic City, they visited one of Trump’s casinos, according to Sjoberg, who said Giuffre was not allowed in because she was underage.
Later, when asked if she’d ever massaged Trump, Sjoberg twice responded that she never had.
In a statement to Newsweek, Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said that any claims or insinuations about Trump’s relationship with Epstein were “thoroughly debunked” by Wednesday’s document dump.
Professor Gillers also called the file unsealing a “win” for the former president.
“Anytime Trump escapes it’s a win. Whatever he’s escaping it’s a win,” Gillers wryly stated.
“I would not expect Trump to get involved in any of Epstein’s exploitative behavior, he’s smart enough to recognize […] that would be a killer.
“It’s a win for him because there’s nothing there.
“And there’s nothing there because there is nothing there.”
SECOND BATCH RELEASED
Another batch of Epstein documents was released on Thursday, featuring 19 exhibits and totaling 327 pages.
The names of more high-profile figures were included in the latest files, including former aide to Bill Clinton, Doug Band.
Clinton is listed in the newest tranche as having traveled with Epstein and Maxwell and it’s alleged he “may have information” on the duo’s “sexual trafficking conduct.”
Clinton has always denied any wrongdoing and representatives for the former president say they did not object to the files being unsealed.
Also included in the documents is a 2011 email in which Giufrre alleges to a journalist that Clinton threatened Vanity Fair “not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend J.E.”
Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief at the time, Graydon Carter, emphatically denied Giuffre’s claim to The Telegraph, stating: “This categorically didn’t happen.”
Prince Andrew is also accused of being privy to Maxwell and Epstein’s “sexual trafficking conduct and interaction with underage minors,” including Giuffre.
Giuffre settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
He did not admit any liability and has denied Giuffre’s allegations.
Hundreds more Epstein-related records are to be released in the coming days and weeks.
Judge Preska did not set a deadline for when all of the documents should be made public.
Their release comes almost five years after Epstein was arrested in New York on sex trafficking charges in June 2019.
He killed himself in his jail cell less than two months later while awaiting trial.
Maxwell, 62, is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking.
