Second batch of unsealed Epstein documents contains few revelations

There seems to be no end to the flood of paper. A day after unsealing 40 documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a court on Thursday released another batch of 19 documents with hundreds of additional pages tied to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by one of the victims, Virginia Giuffre, against Epstein’s lover and partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement. Unlike the first batch, which contained statements of some interest about Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton as well as incriminating statements against businessmen and politicians, the new documents are of less interest.

The nature of the filings range from court transcripts to emails, references to medical and psychological reports on Virginia Giuffre, depositions by secondary witnesses, proposals for additional witnesses and motions and briefs containing legal technicalities. The most interesting parts are probably the ones that have been redacted. There are several such documents that have concealed the names of several witnesses with ties to Epstein, who was found dead in August 2019 in his cell in a high-security Manhattan prison ahead of his trial for sex crimes against minors.

Unlike the first batch, in this case there is no exhaustive deposition by Epstein’s victims. Among the emails there are numerous messages exchanged between the plaintiff and Sharon Churcher, a journalist for the British tabloid Sunday Mail who revealed the story of Giuffre and her relationship with Prince Andrew. A statement from the victim is also included in which she does not seem very convinced about the content of the published news.

There is also another email in which Giuffre claimed that she was afraid to discuss her case with Vanity Fair because she’d heard that “B.Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficing (sic) articles about his good friend J.E.”

There are some repeat documents that were already known about, including one from another case in Florida. In it, two victims whose identity remains anonymous ask to join a lawsuit alleging that they have been forced to have sex with celebrities, politicians, presidents, “a well-known prime minister” and others. More details are given about Prince Andrew. According to the documents, one victim was forced to have sexual relations with the prince when she was a minor in three different geographical locations: London (in Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands.

A schedule of the depositions has also been unsealed, as well as a list of a hundred proposed witnesses, similar to the one that was released in the first batch, where names that had already been revealed are repeated, but others are kept hidden; there are requests for medical reports; a deposition by an unidentified victim; a statement by a doctor, by an ex-boyfriend of the victim, and by a detective who was working on the case.

In general, the new batch adds little to what had already emerged from the wide-ranging pedophilia and sex abuse scandal involving Epstein.

Epstein was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after being accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. Dozens of other minors described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors finally allowed the financier to plead guilty in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a work release program.

Investigations by The Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He took his own life in prison while awaiting trial. His partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the media mogul and fraudster Robert Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking of minors and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022. It was The Miami Herald that requested the release of these documents.

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