Prince Andrew 'visited Jeffrey Epstein's private island', court documents claim, as Bill Clinton also named
4 January 2024, 00:00 | Updated: 4 January 2024, 05:55
Prince Andrew is among over 170 famous people named in newly-released court papers that describe links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
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The names of some associates of Epstein, previously referred to as John Doe or Jane Doe, have been revealed from the 934 pages of documents.
The fact that people are named in the documents does not mean they are accused of any wrongdoing, and include "alleged victims, people not accused of wrongdoing…and absent third parties". Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.
A US judge, Loretta Preska, ordered that materials connected to Virginia Giuffre's 2015 defamation case against Maxwell be released. The case was settled in 2017 but the names have remained a secret up until now. Judge Preska said that some individuals should be named because they had already spoken to the media.
Among the claims in the papers are that Andrew visited Epstein's Caribbean island, according to Epstein's former fixer Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell said she only remembered being on the island one time when Andrew was there.
She said, according to the documents: "There were no girls on the island at all. No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house.
"Girls meaning, I assume you are asking if they were underage. But there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the cleaners."
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.
Maxwell was questioned under oath about her relationship with Epstein in her 2016 deposition.
The files show she was asked about her travels with Epstein and Bill Clinton - Epstein had visited the former president at the White House on several occasions.
The documents show Maxwell said that Bill Clinton dined on Epstein’s private jet while travelling around the world. She denied, however, that the former US president ever visited the paedophile’s Caribbean Island, Little St James.
"The allegation that Clinton had a meal on Jeffrey's island is 100 percent false," Maxwell said. But she said she was "sure" he did have a meal on Epstein's plane.
A lawyer for Maxwell also said that the former US president "did not, in fact travel to, nor was he present on, Little St James Island between January 1, 2001 and January 1, 2003".
In one document, a woman named Johanna Sjoberg claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire's Manhattan apartment in 2001, while giving testimony in May 2016.
Buckingham Palace previously said the allegations are "categorically untrue".
Ms Sjoberg, now a hairdresser, 42, living in Florida, has previously said Maxwell recruited her to provide massages for Epstein in 2001 when she was at college.
She said she had no massage experience and was forced to perform sex acts on Epstein.
According to the files, Ms Sjoberg was asked in her deposition if she knew former US president Bill Clinton was a friend of Epstein.
Ms Sjoberg said: "I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton.
"I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together."
Asked if Epstein had ever talked about the former president, Ms Sjoberg said: "He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls."
Clinton previously travelled on Epstein’s plane on humanitarian trips to Africa, the former president praised Epstein as a committed philanthropist at the time but said he later cut ties with him.
Asked to comment, a spokesman for the former president referred to Clinton's 2019 statement, where he said he "knows nothing" about Epstein's crimes.
Prince Andrew is also mentioned in the unsealed documents, as one file shows Maxwell said under oath that she “did not recall” being in London with Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew, despite photos showing the three together.
The Duke of York said he had never met Ms Giuffre and denied her allegations.
In other documents, Maxwell could be seen sending an email in January 2015, shortly after a civil claim had been filed against her, in which she described herself as "out of my depth".
She added: "I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few days that I can't even see what life after press hell even looks like - statements that don't address all just lead to more questions... what is my relationship to Clinton? Andrew on and on."
Many of the names from the unsealed documents have already been linked to Epstein and some others have been interviewed by the media.
Another testimony from Ms Sjoberg also shows former US president Donald Trump named.
In it she said that Epstein said he would contact Donald Trump on the way to one of his New Jersey Casinos.
She said after pilots informed them that their plane could not land in New York and would need to stop in New Jersey, to which Epstein replied, “Great, we'll call up Trump”.
An email from Epstein to Maxwell also showed the paedophile was content for Maxwell to "issue a reward" to any of Virginia Giuffre's friends to counter her claims, shortly after she filed a civil claim in the US in 2015.
The email read: "You can issue a reward to any of Virginia's friends, acquaints, family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false."
The documents also include the transcript of Ms Giuffre being asked about the location of the photograph showing her with Andrew.
Asked during a 2016 interview where the picture was, she said: "I probably still have it. It's not in my possession right now."
Ms Giuffre added it may have been in storage boxes at her mother and father in-law's in Sydney.
She also said documents related to the case may have also been in the storage boxes which were "full of Nerf guns, my kids' toys, photos."
During the deposition, Ms Giuffre said she had given the picture to the FBI in 2011 but had last seen it before she packed up her home to emigrate to Australia from Colorado.
Ms Giuffre said during the same interview that she had been told by Maxwell to have sex with several men, according to the documents.
After asking Ms Giuffre in turn about each of the men, a lawyer who was part of Maxwell's legal team at the time, asked: "Other than Glenn Dubin, (redacted), Prince Andrew, Jean Luc Brunel, Bill Richardson, another prince, the large hotel chain owner and Marvin Minsky, is there anyone else that Ghislaine Maxwell directed you to go have sex with?"
Ms Giuffre replied: "I am definitely sure there is. But can I remember everybody's name? No."
Stephen Hawking is also mentioned in the papers, including a claim by Epstein that untrue allegations had been made, including one that he called "the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy".
Three people filed appeals against the release of their names. One, Jane Doe 107, had her appeal granted while another filed by John Doe 110, is under review.
Epstein took his own life while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019.
