Jeffrey Epstein: Documents from Ghislaine Maxwell trial give insight into sordid world of well-connected couple as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, David Copperfield among more than 170 people named in court papers

The documents are 943 pages long

It is a 943-page document that reveals more than 170 names of people with connections to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former partner Ghislaine Maxwell.

Yet, while the unsealed court documents relating to the Ms Maxwell trial offer little new information about the situation, they do provide an insight into the world of high-level connections once enjoyed by the couple, who are linked to businesspeople, politicians and celebrities.

Mr Epstein died by suicide in 2019, while in prison awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking. Ms Maxwell, who admits in the documents that she would have regarded herself as the financier’s girlfriend in the late 1990s, was jailed in 2020 for sex trafficking young girls for the billionaire.

Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell during a press conference in New York City in 2020.

The documents, which include interviews given under oath, were used as evidence as part of Virginia Giuffre’s civil claim against Ms Maxwell – a case that was settled in 2017 and now published following an order by US judge Loretta Preska, who ruled in favour of the media that it was in the public interest for the names of associates, friends and victims of Epstein to no longer be anonymised. Some names have been redacted, to protect victims of sexual abuse.

However, inclusion of a name does not necessarily mean they were accused of any wrongdoing, with some names simply put to witnesses who denied meeting them.

Ms Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, was employed by Mr Epstein as a travelling masseuse – after being approached for the job by Ms Maxwell when working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club. Another woman, Johanna Sjoberg, who says she was also recruited to work for Mr Epstein by Ms Maxwell on a pretext that she would be answering phones, claims she was forced to have sexual relations with both Prince Andrew and Mr Epstein within days of beginning her work.

The documents describe specific conversations in which Ms Sjoberg says Ms Maxwell discussed with her the need for the young masseuses to give sexual pleasure to the billionaire. Ms Sjoberg, who claimed she was naked for around a quarter to half of all massages given to Mr Epstein, says he told her he needed to be massaged to orgasm three times a day.

A protest group called "Hot Mess" hold up signs of Jeffrey Epstein in front of the Federal courthouse in New York. Picture: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Prince Andrew’s relationship with Mr Epstein – and the accusations against him – have been well-documented. The royal, whose name is mentioned in the documents more than 70 times, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. A 2019 Newsnight interview saw the prince deny sleeping with Ms Giuffre during a visit by the Epstein party to London, claiming he was at Pizza Express in Woking with his children at the time of the allegations.

Other high-profile names linked to the billionaire include the prince, the Duke of York, former president Bill Clinton, singer Michael Jackson, magician David Copperfield, and former president and then-businessman Mr Trump, who according to a deposition by Ms Sjoberg, was contacted when the businessman’s plane could not land in New York and would need to stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, en-route to a casino.

"Jeffrey said 'great, we'll call up Trump'," she claimed. Mr Trump, as well as some of the other people mentioned as being associates or friends of Mr Epstein in the papers, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

When asked in the deposition whether she ever gave Mr Trump a massage, Ms Sjoberg replies: "No."

Mr Trump’s campaign immediately criticised the ruling

Ms Sjoberg says in the documents that Mr Epstein had told her Mr Clinton “likes them young, referring to girls” during her interview under oath.

In 2019, Mr Clinton’s spokesman said he knew “nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to” and added the pair had not spoken “in over a decade”.

British academic Stephen Hawking is also mentioned, in relation to claims by Ms Giuffre that he had taken part in an orgy with underage girls. In an email sent in 2015, Mr Epstein said he was happy to reward friends of Ms Giuffre if they could “prove her allegations false”, including that Professor Hawking had participated in the orgy. The professor had previously visited Mr Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St James, in 2006 as part of a conference funded by the billionaire.

In the documents, Ms Sjoberg also claimed Copperfield asked her if she was “aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls”, after performing magic tricks over dinner at one of Mr Epstein’s properties.

Prince Andrew, who was a close personal friend of Mr Epstein, paid millions a year ago to settle a civil case out of court with Ms Giuffre with no admission of guilt. Ms Giuffre had accused the Duke of York of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. Prince Andrew stepped down from royal duties over his friendship with convicted sex offender Mr Epstein in 2019.

Ms Sjoberg has previously recounted an incident in which she says Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo, while the hand of a Spitting Image-style puppet of the royal was placed on Ms Giuffre’s breast.

The latest documents, which bring back to the surface the accusations made against the Duke, come just weeks after he walked to church on Christmas Day with his brother, King Charles III, and the rest of the royal family.

The documents detail a deposition given in 2016 by Ms Sjoberg, who says she knew Ms Giuffre was underage when she met her in 2001 because she could not get into a casino. Ms Sjoberg said Ms Maxwell would refer to some of the girls in Mr Epstein’s employment as her “children”.

“At the time I had the impression that she [Ms Giuffre] did not have a family or she had walked away from her family,” Ms Sjoberg said. “And it seemed to me, you know, they had just sort of adopted her, not as a child, but they would take care of her.”

Lawyers for Ms Maxwell said: "She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence."