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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of girls and young women began as early as 1985 and targeted victims as young as 13 years old, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by nine accusers against his estate.

The accusers, known as Jane Doe I through Jane Doe IX, are among more than 20 women so far to formally seek compensation from Epstein's $577 million estate, after he killed himself on Aug. 10 in a Manhattan jail cell.

Epstein's death at age 66 was ruled a suicide, and came five weeks after his arrest on federal charges he trafficked dozens of underage girls from at least 2002 to 2005. He had pleaded not guilty. Many accusers have said his abuses occurred last decade.

Lawyers for Epstein's estate did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in a New York state court in Manhattan.

The nine women said Epstein's abuses spanned more than two decades, often with help from associates, and six said they were raped.

One accuser, Jane Doe II, said Epstein sexually assaulted, abused and battered her starting around 1985, when she was 23.

Another accuser, Jane Doe I, said she was 14 when abuse began around 1990, while Jane Doe III said she was just 13 when her abuse began around 2003.

Jordan Merson, a lawyer for the nine women, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Nov. 14, the executors of Epstein's estate, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, asked a judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands to establish a voluntary restitution fund to compensate Epstein's victims.

The fund's administrators would include Kenneth Feinberg, who has overseen payments on claims tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the BP oil spill in 2010, and General Motors Co vehicles with defective ignition switches.

Epstein had originally escaped federal prosecution by pleading guilty in 2008 in a Florida state prostitution case. That plea is now widely considered too lenient.

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judicial process / court cases / court decisions

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Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuses began by 1985, targeted 13-year-old, lawsuit claims

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of girls and young women began as early as 1985 and targeted victims as young as 13 years old, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by nine accusers against his estate.

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He also said that he was willing to help law enforcement agencies in their investigations, and that he "unequivocally" regrets the "ill-judged association."

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Prince Andrew in September. He said his relationship with Mr. Epstein had become "a major disruption to my family's work." Credit... John Thys/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

LONDON - Prince Andrew announced on Wednesday that he would step back from public life, seeking to contain a firestorm over his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that threatened to scorch the entire British royal family.

The prince's extraordinary statement capped a tumultuous four days since his televised interview about Mr. Epstein, which brought a storm of negative coverage, prompted companies with ties to the prince's charities to distance themselves from him, and rekindled calls for him to testify to the F.B.I. about his tangled history with Mr. Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking.

"It has become clear to me over the past few days that my association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support," Prince Andrew said in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace.

"Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I can step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission," said the prince, who is also known as the Duke of York and is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II.

The duke, 59, had hoped that the interview, broadcast Saturday by the BBC, would put to rest lingering questions about his ties to Mr. Epstein, as well as accusations that he had sex with a teenagegirl who had been supplied to him by his friend.

Instead, after the duke submitted to 50 minutes of polite but relentless grilling by the BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, his unsavory association with Mr. Epstein - fodder for tabloid newspapers and society magazines - had mutated into a full-blown scandal, one that eclipsed the British general election on front pages.

Viewers expressed shock and anger at Prince Andrew's lack of sympathy for Mr. Epstein's victims, as well as his unpersuasive denials of sexual misconduct, which included peculiar assertions, such as that he has been medically unable to perspire since his combat tour in the Falklands War.

Experts on the royal family have described the interview as the biggest public relations debacle for the British royal family since the turbulent aftermath of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in 1997.

People with ties to Buckingham Palace said they could not recall a senior member of the royal family having been suspended so abruptly and publicly from his or her duties. Some praised the decision, saying it would take the prince out of the spotlight and buy time for the palace to try to rehabilitate his image.

In his three-paragraph statement, Prince Andrew attempted to undo some of the damage himself. He expressed regret for "my ill-judged association" with Mr. Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August.

"His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for the victims," the prince said, "and I deeply sympathize with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure."

Prince Andrew said he would be ready to help "any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigation, if required." During the BBC interview, the prince said he would have to consult with his lawyers before testifying under oath about his ties to Mr. Epstein.

On Monday, a woman who has accused Mr. Epstein of sexually abusing her as a child called on the prince to speak to the American authorities.

"Prince Andrew, and any others who were close to Epstein, should come forward and give a statement under oath on what information they have," said the woman, who calls herself Jane Doe 15, at a news conference in New York.

In August, another woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, accused the prince of having sex with her three times when she was 17 years old and had been offered to him by Mr. Epstein. Under insistent questioning by Ms. Maitlis, Prince Andrew insisted he had "no recollection" of meeting Ms. Giuffre.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, second from left, with her lawyer after a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan in August. Credit... Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

Prince Andrew's public duties have included stewardship of Pitch@Palace, a five-year-old effort to "accelerate the work of entrepreneurs" by helping them connect with potential advisers and investors.

Several companies have already moved to distance their brands from Pitch@Palace. Those companies included Cisco Systems; Aon, a British insurer; and KPMG, a consulting firm. Aon asked for its logo to be removed from the Pitch@Palace website because it was not a partner of the organization and never had been.

Even before the duke agreed to speak, his decision to go before the cameras had opened divisions inside Buckingham Palace. The Sunday Times reported that the prince's public relations adviser, Jason Stein, resigned two weeks ago because he believed that the interview "could backfire."

As the furor following the interview built, Prince Andrew canceled a planned visit to flood-hit areas of Yorkshire on Tuesday, The Sun newspaper reported.

British papers were full of analysis of his future role in the family, particularly after the death of the queen, who is 93. People close to the palacesaid she has traditionally favored Prince Andrew and forgiven his indiscretions.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, is said to be frustrated with his brother's behavior, viewing him as a liability. Once he ascends to the throne, people who follow the royal family expect him to push for a more "streamlined" structure, in which fewer family members would have a conspicuous public role.

The British public has also proved less forgiving. While viewers found many things about the interview offensive, many reacted most viscerally to Prince Andrew's reply when he was asked whether he regretted his relationship with Mr. Epstein, which continued after the financier had served time for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

"Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes," he said.

"Unbecoming?" the BBC interviewer, Ms. Maitlis, replied with a tone of incredulity. "He was a sex offender."

The duke quickly backtracked, saying: "Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm being polite. I mean, in the sense that he was a sex offender."

Equally damaging was his explanation about why he stayed with Mr. Epstein at his Manhattan mansion in 2010, after his host was released from prison. It was "convenient," the prince said, though he insisted that he had made the visit solely to break off their relationship.

The questions about Prince Andrew's association with Mr. Epstein have simmered for years. But they exploded back into view last summer, after Mr. Epstein's arrest on sex trafficking charges and the publication by The Daily Mail of a photograph of the prince walking with his friend in Central Park.

"That's the bit that, as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family," he said in the interview. "We try and uphold the highest standards and practices, and I let the side down, as simple as that."

Members of the royal family have often lost their way when they have talked about their personal problems on television. Prince Charles confessed to adultery in a 1994 documentary,and Diana told an interviewer a year later that " there were three of us in this marriage," referring to Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, who later became his second wife.

Until the latest tempest over Prince Andrew, the royal family was most distracted by the trials of Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. The couple opened up in a TV interview, discussing her struggles with being a royal and new mother, and his tensions with his brother, Prince William.

The brothers, Prince Harry said, were on "different paths at the moment."

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After Disastrous Epstein Interview, Prince Andrew Steps Down From Public Duties (Published 2019)

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He also said that he was willing to help law enforcement agencies in their investigations, and that he "unequivocally" regrets the "ill-judged association." Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.

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Among Epstein and Maxwell's victims is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who made allegations of sexual assault against Prince Andrew - who had a friendship with both Maxwell and Epstein.

Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre?

Virginia Roberts Giuffre - now a mother of three - made claims against Brit socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-lover and partner of Jeffrey Epstein.

Giuffre has alleged in court docs that she was procured by Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, as a teenage "sex slave" for Epstein.

She released a manuscript just hours before Epstein's death, which added to more than 2,000 documents of a lawsuit pending against the former financier and his pals.

The legal documents were released in a defamation case involving Giuffre, who has claimed in court docs that Prince Andrew slept with her three times, and Maxwell.

How is Virginia linked to Prince Andrew?

In 2019, Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed that she had sex with Prince Andrew in a bathroom when she was 17, after a night where he had allegedly been plying her with vodka in a London club.

The royal has vehemently denied the accusations against him, branding them "false" and "without foundation."

When called by The Sun Online, Buckingham Palace stated: "It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts."

However, Roberts has stood by her accusations, saying the Prince "was an abuser, he was a participant."

In September of 2021, her legal team then confirmed that they had issued Andrew with a writ ahead of his pre-trial in New York.

The summons warned the Duke that he had 21 days from a set date to respond or face a default judgment on the charges.

Was Virginia's case against Prince Andrew settled?

On March 8, 2022, news broke that uncovered the outcome of Virginia's sexual assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew.

Judge Lewis Kaplan closed the case by signing a dismissal stipulation.

Judge Kaplan's dismissal comes on the heels of Virginia and Prince Andrew reaching a settlement agreement on February 12 of 2022.

In a letter regarding the settlement, Prince Andrew and his legal team penned: "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks."

They further stated: "It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years."

"Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others."

In a statement to the press, Virginia's lawyer - David Boies - disclosed: "We are pleased that the settlement that was agreed to last month has now been completed."

Boies added: "This is an important step, but it should not be the last step in holding Jeffrey Epstein's enablers and participants to account."

What did Virginia accuse Jeffrey Epstein of?

Virginia claims she first met Prince Andrew on a trip to London in 2001 when she was 17 and Epstein and Maxwell were also there.

The Prince strongly denied having sex with her in London and New York, and a year later at an orgy on Epstein's private island in the Virgin Islands.

Virginia was 18 when she had her third alleged sexual encounter with the royal on Little St James Island, where she says he engaged in an orgy with nine girls, according to court docs.

Channel 4's Dispatches program revisited evidence Virginia gave a Florida court in 2015.

She said at the time: "Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls and I had sex together.

"The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn't really speak English.

"Epstein laughed about the fact they couldn't really communicate, saying that they are the 'easiest' girls to get along with."

Buckingham Palace said: "This relates to proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York is not a party.
"Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.

"It is emphatically denied that the Duke had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.

"Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."

Maxwell has rejected allegations that she has acted as a procurer for Epstein, but was found guilty by a jury of six women and six men who convicted her on five out of six counts of grooming girls in December of 2021.

A spokesperson said "the allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue" and she "strongly denies allegations of an unsavory nature, which have appeared in the British press and elsewhere, and reserves her right to seek redress at the repetition of such old defamatory claims."

Maxwell was arrested on July 2, 2020, on charges of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors and appeared via video in a federal court the same day.

Did Virginia Roberts comment on Epstein's death?

Virginia, who now lives in Australia with her husband and three children, has said the pedo's victims deserve justice.

Her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, said in a statement to The Courier-Mail: "The reckoning of accountability begun by the voices of brave and truthful victims should not end with Jeffrey Epstein's cowardly and shameful suicide.

"The fact that Epstein took his own life within 24 hours of the unsealing of detailed and devastating documents and exhibits in Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, which informed the public of the scope, scale and sophistication of the international sex trafficking operation Epstein conducted, is no coincidence."

She added: "We are hopeful that the government will continue to investigate and will focus on those who participated and facilitated Epstein's horrifying sex trafficking scheme that damaged so many."

On January 13, 2022 in light of Prince Andrew's case in court Virginia took to Twitter to praise the judge on proceeding the case against Prince Andrew.

"I'm pleased with Judge Kaplan's ruling yesterday that allows my case against Prince Andrew to go forward. I'm glad I will have the chance to continue to expose the truth & I am deeply grateful to my extraordinary legal team.

"Their determination helps me seek justice from those who hurt me and so many others. My goal has always been to show that the rich and powerful are not above the law & must be held accountable.

"I do not walk this path alone, but alongside countless other survivors of sexual abuse & trafficking," she concluded.

What happened to Ghislaine Maxwell?

On Wednesday, December 29, 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of grooming minors for her partner, Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell was found guilty on five out of six charges, and faces up to 65 years in prison if she receives the maximum sentence.

Bobbi Sternheim, a member of Maxwell's defense team, said: "we firmly believe in Ghislaine's innocence. We are very disappointed in the verdict. We have already started working on an appeal and we are confident that she will be vindicated."

Her defense attorneys have revealed they plan to appeal the conviction.

Aside from her original trial, Maxwell is still due for a second court visit for two counts of perjury, based on allegations that she lied under oath during Guiffre's 2016 civil case against Epstein.

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Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre and what allegations has she made against Prince Andrew, Epstein and his 'friends'?

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Among Epstein and Maxwell's victims is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who made allegations of sexual assault against Prince Andrew - who had a friendship with both Maxwell and Epstein. Virginia Roberts Giuffre - now a mother of three - made claims against Brit socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-lover and partner of Jeffrey Epstein.

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transcript

The First Women to Report Jeffrey Epstein

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Eric Krupke, Julia Longoria and Michael Simon Johnson, and edited by M.J. Davis Lin and Lisa Tobin

Maria and Annie Farmer made the earliest known sexual assault allegations against the financier in 1996, but their reports went nowhere.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

Today: Nearly a decade before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for predatory activities with dozens of young girls, two sisters came forward with their story of being lured in by Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Now that he's gone, the sisters are wrestling with what might have happened if someone had listened. My colleague Mike Baker spoke with them and shared their story with Natalie Kitroeff.

It's Monday, August 26.

mike baker

Alright, just pulling up here to Maria Farmer's house. I think this is the right one.

Looks like it is.

maria farmer

Hey, Mike.

mike baker

Hey, Maria. Hi.

mike baker

So for Maria Farmer, her story really begins in the spring of 1995. She really was someone who was growing into the art world in New York. She's already sort of developing a style that is sort of a voyeuristic style. She's exploring with a lot of nude artwork, a lot of paintings of girls sort of in their transition through puberty. And by the spring of '95, she's already starting to sell some of her pieces. She ends up in this graduation gallery event, where students are there to really showcase the work that they've been doing, and to potentially sell some of them. And one of the paintings she has at this graduation event is inspired, she says, by Edgar Degas's famous piece that's sometimes known as "The Rape." And at the time she's in the process of selling it, one of the leaders of the art institute comes over and introduced her to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and as she recalls, basically told her, you got to sell this painting to them. You know, they're big supporters of us. They can be big supporters of you. They want this painting, and so you're going to sell it to them.

natalie kitroeff

And so where does their relationship go from there?

mike baker

It was soon after that Maria sort of gets offered a job with Jeffrey Epstein. You know, at first, it's a job in the art world still, in which she's supposed to be collecting artwork or purchasing artwork on his behalf. And the job evolves over time to a point where she's serving as a doorman, essentially, in his New York City townhouse.

mike baker

She remembers sort of like, leaders in the business and finance world coming to the townhouse.

mike baker

She remembers Maxwell frantically preparing for a visit. She doesn't remember Bill Clinton actually showing up, but remembers sort of the rush to prepare the house for that potential visit. And then she remembers seeing Donald Trump in Epstein's office one night.

mike baker

The other thing she talks about is getting to know Ghislaine Maxwell, who is sort of being described as Jeffrey Epstein's wife at the time.

mike baker

Maria remembers Ghislaine as just really someone who was the companion there of Jeffrey Epstein, offered this level of assurance that what was going on in the townhouse was on the up and up. There would be young girls or women coming through that she noticed. She says she would ask Ghislaine Maxwell, you know, what are these girls, young women doing here? Some of them are wearing their school uniforms. What's this all about? They'd go upstairs to apparently where Jeffrey Epstein was at the time. And the response she got was basically, well, they're here to try out for Victoria's Secret modeling gigs. So that's their purpose for being here.

mike baker

And so how many - I mean, how many girls are we talking about that are coming in for these supposed modeling -

maria farmer

Hundreds. Hundreds. Hundreds. Hundreds.

mike baker

Do you have a sense of their age?

maria farmer

13, 14, 15.

mike baker

I'm just trying to understand, though, how much is recruiting just for Jeffrey, and how much is recruiting supposedly for Victoria's Secret, or are they all one and the same? And how would they be one and the same?

maria farmer

Well, I was told - at the time I still believed all of these girls were coming for Victoria's Secret. I thought she was going out and getting models. She told me that was her position, to go and get models.

mike baker

It made sense that in that world, that Ghislaine Maxwell would have some sort of role herself. And so Maria remembered a bunch of times when Ghislaine and her would be out of the house, and Ghislaine would be looking for getting girls to bring to Jeffrey. I've got to go get girls for Jeffrey, is what Maria remembered Ghislaine saying.

natalie kitroeff

Wow. And at any point does Maria begin to question some of this behavior?

mike baker

I think at that point she's feeling a little weird about it. Maria's spending a lot of time with Ghislaine, but she's also finding Ghislaine to be quite the volatile person. Jeffrey, on the other hand, is much more of a steady force of friendliness in the house. She remembers him as being sort of the good cop. And one of the ways he was kind of doing that was in taking an interest in Maria's younger sister. Her younger sister Annie was 16 years old at the time, living in Arizona. And she was talking about going to college. And Epstein starts talking to Maria about ways that he might be able to help. So to December 1995 now, and one thing he suggests is bringing Annie, the younger sister, up from Arizona to New York.

mike baker

Annie has this journal from that time period. It's a spiral journal with a picture of two sisters on the front.

annie farmer

Actually, this one doesn't have - it doesn't have a date on it. But it says, I'm so excited. Maria's boss bought me a ticket to come out and see her. It has been almost a year.

He is very wealthy and might help me get into or pay for college. I don't want to get my hopes up, because I hate disappointment. But it would be really cool if it happened. And even if it doesn't, it's so great I get to go see her.

maria farmer

That's a good one.

annie farmer

So it's just, like, a short -

mike baker

Sure, yeah.

annie farmer

- colored pencil.

mike baker

Interesting.

annie farmer

But that was my understanding. Right?

natalie kitroeff

So what happens when Annie gets to New York?

mike baker

They have a limo come pick them up and take them up to Jeffrey Epstein's residence at the time. He's also given Maria some money so that Annie can get a dress. They describe this sort of scene in Jeffrey Epstein's residence where, you know, he's pouring champagne, but he's really relaxed, as someone who always wear sweatpants. And they have a conversation about how U.C.L.A. is a great school, and that's an option. And they're just sort of talking about things ahead. And then they go off to see "Phantom of the Opera."

natalie kitroeff

So for a 16-year-old, this kind of weekend in New York - it must just seem pretty fairytale-like.

mike baker

Yeah. I think this is a whole new experience for her. And there's some parts that are getting a bit unusual.

mike baker

She's trying to process during the movie - what is happening here, is this normal?

mike baker

And so this is something she's really sort of struggling to process. She doesn't want to mess anything up between her sister and her boss.

mike baker

So did you share that with Maria at all?

annie farmer

No. No. And so that -

maria farmer

No. I would have died. I would have died. I'm going to be really clear on this. Somebody touching my baby sister? I would have slapped him. You know, I - no. No, no. Uh-uh. No way.

mike baker

Yeah. I'd be interested in hearing that journal entry.

[music]

mike baker

So after she gets back from New York, Annie spends a little bit of time writing in her journal.

mike baker

In the first entry, she's really sort of giving a glowing review of what had happened there, and talking about the chance to go see "Phantom" -

mike baker

- and just how magical the overall experience was. And then later on, sort of at the end of January, she comes back to the journal and talks a little more.

mike baker

You can pretty clearly see that she's still struggling to process what had happened in that movie theater.

[music]

natalie kitroeff

So what happens after Annie goes home?

mike baker

The relationship kind of continues. Maria and Annie's mother recall that Jeffrey Epstein would call down sometimes to Arizona, you know, check in on them, continue the conversation about her college. And he was talking about the idea of sending Annie on maybe an international trip of some sort. In anticipation of doing that kind of international trip, he was telling Annie's mom, why don't you have her come out to New Mexico? I've got a ranch in New Mexico.

mike baker

In talking to their mom, she remembers that Jeffrey told her that Ghislaine was going to be there to host, that she was going to be the one sort of making sure that all was going O.K. And so that seemed acceptable to her.

mike baker

And pretty soon she realizes that there are no other students there. She is the only one. It's her and Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell together.

annie farmer

Ghislaine was exactly as Maria described, very charming from the get-go. She made you feel special. She's like, oh, let's pick out some - I've got some henna to dye my hair with. They took me to buy cowboy boots at a Western store in town. And they made a big thing of me, you know, trying on all these boots. And I thought, oh, my gosh. These must be really nice, because were, like, $100. So kind of this female bonding experience.

maria farmer

Yeah.

mike baker

But then pretty quickly, things start taking progressively more unusual turns.

mike baker

They're there together. Ghislaine's massaging one foot, Annie's massaging the other.

mike baker

Ghislaine's giving pointers about how to perform it.

mike baker

They go to another movie, this time, "Primal Fear." And Jeffrey Epstein sort of performs another round of petting touches in the theater. And then one morning, she remembers waking up in the house.

mike baker

And Jeffrey Epstein coming into the room -

mike baker

And so he climbs into bed with Annie. And remember, she's 16 years old at this point.

mike baker

Annie then remembers Ghislaine repeatedly asked whether -

mike baker

- Annie wanted a massage.

mike baker

And she eventually relents.

mike baker

Ghislaine performs the massage.

mike baker

And she remembers how Ghislaine then went on to massage her chest.

mike baker

And all this time, she's struggling to figure out what's going on. Jeffery Epstein, she says, wasn't participating in the massage. But she has this sense that he's in the area, that the doors are open, it's kind of an open area where she's getting the massage.

[music]

natalie kitroeff

And she's - I mean, she's isolated in New Mexico with these two people. It's not really like she has the power to stop this. Right?

mike baker

No, that's true. And at the same time, she's still - she has an older sister who works for these people. And she's still considering the possibility of this international trip, and college, and that potential for support that would be a big help for her future. And she's there and not wanting to be disruptive or raising alarms in a way that would complicate her life or her sister's life.

annie farmer

And again, I never thought of Maria being in danger. I never thought like, oh, this is something that he's doing to me. And maybe that means that he could do something weird to Maria.

I couldn't - I didn't put those pieces together.

natalie kitroeff

So what happens after the trip?

mike baker

She's getting ready for prom. She's about to go on that international trip. She ends up going. Meanwhile, her sister Maria is back in New York, progressing in her art career. She's working on an art project at the time.

mike baker

Jeffrey Epstein actually offers that she can use his Ohio estate to do some of that art, to have a place where she can have space and time and peace to work on her project. And so Annie's off in Thailand, thanks to Jeffrey Epstein. Maria is now in Ohio, thanks to Jeffrey Epstein. She was spending weeks there. So Maria remembers Ghislaine and Jeffrey coming to visit in Ohio.

mike baker

But it was really that same day, that night, that things took a really dark turn.

mike baker

Maria remembers Ghislaine coming to ask her -

mike baker

- if she could give Jeffrey Epstein a foot massage.

mike baker

And at first she's like, no. She kind of sees it as a degrading request for someone who's there for the purpose of doing art.

mike baker

But, you know, she remembers Ghislaine sort of persisting. And then she's like, O.K., I'll do it. She goes into the bedroom where Jeffrey is.

mike baker

He's there watching a PBS show about math, she remembers.

mike baker

And at that point, Maria says Ghislaine joined her on the other side. So now she's between Jeffrey and Ghislaine.

mike baker

They start groping her.

mike baker

It was Jeffrey and Ghislaine together, almost mirroring each other -

natalie kitroeff

Ugh.

mike baker

- commenting on her features, twisting her nipples to the point that later they were bruised. She's fearing, believing that she's about to be raped. And Maria has this sort of realization in that moment.

natalie kitroeff

So in this moment, Maria is putting all the pieces together.

mike baker

Right. I think there's this big moment of clarity for her that recasts her whole relationship with Jeffrey and Ghislaine. Perhaps all along, Jeffrey Epstein was only interested in her artwork because she focused primarily on adolescent girls. She's wondering about that. She's struggling to process everything that had happened.

[music]

mike baker

The following morning, Jeffrey and Ghislaine leave the property. She hears them leave while she's still barricaded in this room. And Maria's father drives up from Kentucky to get her out of the house.

michael barbaro

After she left Epstein's house, Maria Farmer said Ghislaine Maxwell called her, warning that she planned to destroy all of the art that Maria had left at Epstein's house.

michael barbaro

Soon after, Maria said she contacted several law enforcement agencies, including the New York City Police Department, which referred her to other agencies, including the F.B.I. The Times has obtained the N.Y.P.D. police report. The F.B.I. has declined to comment. A few years later, Maria and Annie told their story to Vanity Fair magazine, which was writing a profile of Epstein. But when the story eventually ran, it made no mention of either the sisters or their allegations. Maria says she left New York and the art world, fearing for her safety. She says it wasn't until years later, in 2006, when the F.B.I. knocked on her door, that she felt hope that Epstein might finally be held accountable. We'll be right back.

[music]

natalie kitroeff

This experience has obviously cost the sisters so much.

mike baker

Yeah. For Annie, it's - Annie is doing well. She went on to get her Ph.D. She has her practice in psychotherapy now. She seems to have come out of it O.K. There's still struggles. There's still this constant issue that she has to deal with in her life. For Maria, this cost her a lot more.

mike baker

So Maria has a lot of trouble now listening to these stories of more women coming forward. She looks back at 1996, when she first went to law enforcement to talk about Jeffrey Epstein, as a moment that could have been a turning point.

mike baker

She sees these women coming forward now that have stories in the subsequent years that Jeffrey Epstein had victimized people over and over again. She talked in particular about Jennifer Araoz, who came forward in recent weeks to tell her story of being a teenager and being raped by Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.

natalie kitroeff

And now Epstein's dead. He committed suicide in jail, and the sisters are never going to get any kind of accountability.

mike baker

Epstein's death was something that was really another immense disappointment for them.

mike baker

What were the emotions you were going through when you - in those immediate moments after hearing his death?

maria farmer

Shock and anger.

mike baker

At the same time, Maria has a very just complicated view of the whole thing.

mike baker

He was a sick man. And she felt sympathy for him in those last days in jail, a man she had looked up to at some point, and feels like she wished he had gotten help at some point along the way.

maria farmer

I'm sorry to keep you.

mike baker

You don't have anything to apologize for, Maria. I really appreciate it.

maria farmer

[CRYING] Thank you.

mike baker

And, you know, you're welcome call me anytime.

maria farmer

Thank you.

mike baker

O.K.? Thank you.

maria farmer

You're welcome.

mike baker

We'll talk to you soon.

maria farmer

O.K.

mike baker

Again, I'm around in the morning. So feel free to - feel free to call.

maria farmer

O.K. Thank you. I'm going to go swimming. Thank you so much.

mike baker

All right. Thank you, Maria.

maria farmer

O.K. It was nice meeting you, Mike.

mike baker

Yeah. Nice to meet you, too.

maria farmer

I'm sorry. I just can't be anybody but who I am. O.K.

mike baker

I appreciate it.

maria farmer

Thank you.

mike baker

All right. Bye.

[EXHALES]

[music]

natalie kitroeff

Mike, thank you so much.

mike baker

Thank you.

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today.

archived recording

Do you have second thoughts on escalating the trade war with China?

archived recording (donald trump)

Yeah, sure. Why not? Might as well. Might as well.

archived recording

Do you have second thoughts about escalating the war with China?

archived recording (donald trump)

I have second thoughts about everything.

michael barbaro

On Sunday, during the G7 economic summit, President Trump suggested that he regretted his trade war with China and planned to back away from his most recent threats to escalate it. But he then reversed course a few hours later, saying through his press secretary that his only regret was not imposing higher tariffs on China.

michael barbaro

During the summit, the new prime minister of Britain, Boris Johnson, gently scolded Trump for the trade war, and called on the president to dial back the battle.

michael barbaro

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Maria and Annie Farmer made the earliest known sexual assault allegations against the financier in 1996, but their reports went nowhere.

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Eric Krupke, Julia Longoria and Michael Simon Johnson, and edited by M.J. Davis Lin and Lisa Tobin

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Nearly a decade before any police investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's predatory actions toward young girls, two sisters came forward to say they had been lured in and abused by the financier and his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell. Now that he's dead, the sisters are wrestling with what might have happened if someone had listened.

This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault.

On today's episode:

Mike Baker, a national correspondent for The New York Times, spoke with Maria and Annie Farmer.

Natalie Kitroeff, a business reporter for The Times.

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Maria Farmer said she contacted law enforcement, leaders in the New York art world and a national magazine about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's troubling behavior with young girls, but few took her seriously. Credit... Andrea Morales for The New York Times

Mike Baker and Natalie Kitroeff contributed reporting.

"The Daily" is made by Theo Balcomb, Andy Mills, Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Alexandra Leigh Young, Jonathan Wolfe, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, Adizah Eghan, Kelly Prime, Julia Longoria, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Jazmín Aguilera, M.J. Davis Lin and Dan Powell. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Mikayla Bouchard, Stella Tan and Julia Simon.

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The First Women to Report Jeffrey Epstein (Published 2019)

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transcript Maria and Annie Farmer made the earliest known sexual assault allegations against the financier in 1996, but their reports went nowhere. michael barbaro From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

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Sunday's much-anticipated interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry included a number of troubling revelations. The couple disclosed that Meghan had struggled with suicidal ideation as a result of the constant onslaught of abuse and harassment from the press, that an unnamed member of the palace had expressed "concerns" about Archie's skin color, and that the royal family didn't want to give Archie a royal title and, by extension, the security that comes with it.

The Palace's total failure to protect Meghan - by not defending her in the press, by not ensuring she and her child received adequate security, and by preventing her from checking in to a treatment center when she asked for help - stands in stark contrast to how it has consistently rallied around another member of the royal family: Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son and an accused sex offender.

Andrew had close ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased child sex trafficker. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, alleged in 2015 that she had been forced to have sex with the prince on three separate occasions when she was underage.

The prince has vehemently denied these claims, as has Buckingham Palace, which has thrown its full support behind Andrew from the beginning. In what the described as a " highly unusual statement " in 2015, the Palace - which usually doesn't comment on reports about royal family members - categorically denied the allegations against the prince, saying, "It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with [Giuffre]. The allegations made are false and without any foundation."

Additionally, while Buckingham Palace announced earlier this month that it had launched an internal investigation into claims that Meghan had "bullied" her U.K. staff, there has never been any palace investigation into the criminal claims against Prince Andrew.

In an interview with Sky News earlier this month, Caroyln Durand, a co-author of Finding Freedom, the unauthorized biography of Meghan and Harry, noted this discrepancy in the Palace's approach, adding, "Why hasn't he been urged to cooperate with U.S. authorities? Why were Prince Harry's military honors stripped but Prince Andrew's haven't been?"

Eventually, in November 2019, Prince Andrew did step back from his public duties for the crown, saying in a statement that his ties to Epstein had become a "major disruption" to his family's work. And yet he has been allowed to maintain his royal titles (while reports allege that officials are threatening to remove Harry's and Meghan's) and to keep his £300,000-a-year bodyguards at the Palace's expense, while Harry and Meghan lost their official security and have had to finance their protection on their own.

Still, it hasn't all been easy for Prince Andrew. The Queen did take the severe step of downgrading the massive party they had planned for his 60th birthday to a "small family dinner." Devastating.

At the end of Sunday's interview, Meghan said she had only one regret from her time within the royal family: "My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected. I believed that." It makes sense that she believed it because the royals have alwayschosen to protect those within their ranks. They just didn't protect her.

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Sunday's much-anticipated interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry included a number of troubling revelations. The couple disclosed that Meghan had struggled with suicidal ideation as a result of the constant onslaught of abuse and harassment from the press, that an unnamed member of the palace had expressed "concerns" about Archie's skin color, and that the royal family didn't want to give Archie a royal title and, by extension, the security that comes with it.

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Prince Andrew case: High Court to notify duke of US civil proceedings

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Virginia Giuffre is suing the prince in New York over allegations of sexual assault.

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PARIS - A modeling agent who was close to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell, where he was being held in an investigation into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

Victims of the alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the agent, Jean-Luc Brunel, will never face trial. They described his death as a double blow, after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting sex-trafficking charges.

Paris police are investigating Brunel's death, the prosecutor's office said. The circumstances of his death were not made public and Brunel's lawyers did not comment on it.

Brunel denied wrongdoing and said via his lawyer that he was willing to talk to investigators. Brunel's legal team had repeatedly complained about the conditions of his detention and sought to have him released pending trial.

Brunel, who was in his 70s, was detained at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking charges against Epstein.

A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was considered central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein traveled often to France and had apartments in Paris.

Multiple women who identified themselves as victims have spoken to police since the French probe was opened in 2019, and at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.

One of them, Thysia Huisman, said the news of Brunel's death sent her into "shock."

"It makes me angry, because I've been fighting for years," Huisman, a Dutch former model who told police she was raped by Brunel as a teen, told The Associated Press. "For me, the end of this was to be in court. And now that whole ending - which would help form closure - is taken away from me."

A lawyer representing Huisman and other victims, Anne-Claire Lejeune, said other women involved in the case feel the same.

"Great disappointment, great frustration that (the victims) won't get justice," she told The AP.

She expressed doubt that the investigation would lead to a trial because Brunel was so central to the case. She also voiced concerns that Brunel's death mean his accusers won't get official recognition of their status as victims.

"To rebuild yourself (after abuse), that is one of the essential steps," Huisman said.

She expressed hope that Brunel's death won't discourage women from continuing to speak out about abuse. The investigation, along with a growing reckoning about sexual misconduct in France, has "freed up women to talk about it," she said. "It's a difficult step that requires a lot of courage and strength."

One of Epstein's main accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured women, some of them minors, for sex with Epstein and other people, luring them with promises of modeling work.

Britain's Prince Andrew recently agreed to settle a case in which Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse when she was 17. Guiffre says she was supplied to Andrew by Epstein, charges that Andrew denies. The settlement, in which Andrew agreed to make a substantial donation to Giuffre's charity, avoids a trial.

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Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel is found dead in a French jail cell

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PARIS - A modeling agent who was close to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell, where he was being held in an investigation into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

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Jeffrey Epstein 's death by suicide in federal custody on August 10th means that the wealthy financier will never be criminally prosecuted for sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy. The July indictment alleged that Epstein "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes" in New York City, Palm Beach, Florida, the US Virgin Islands and other locations from 2002 to 2005.

According to Attorney General William Barr, the FBI probe into Epstein's alleged crimes is far from over, and possible co-conspirators "should not rest easy."

"Let me assure you that this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein," Barr said.

Those who associated with Epstein include well-known heads of state and successful businessmen, as well as at least one high-powered lawyer, science luminary, and loyal ex-girlfriend. Some of them have already been accused of participation in Epstein's alleged sex trafficking ring; newly unsealed court documents from a civil lawsuit filed in 2015 by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre (neé Roberts) revealed some people for the first time, including former Democratic Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Here's a look at Epstein's inner circle, some of whom may find themselves in the FBI's crosshairs in the coming months.

Ghislaine Maxwell
Epstein's closest associate and former lover is the daughter of ex-British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, who drowned off the coast of the Canary Islands in 1991, while sailing his yacht, Lady Ghislaine. Although his death was ruled an accidental drowning, the press speculated that he was murdered or committed suicide, as his death occurred amidst mounting debt and allegations that he was a secret agent for the Israeli government.

Shortly after her father's death, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to the United States, where she soon became close to Epstein, and became a regular fixture on the New York social scene. Epstein and Maxwell had a romantic relationship for several years and a decades-long friendship that allegedly involved trafficking underage girls. According to the Miami Herald, Maxwell has been accused of acting as Epstein's "madame," recruiting and grooming an untold number of girls to be used by Epstein and his wealthy friends for sexual purposes at his homes in Manhattan, West Palm Beach, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In 2009, Epstein accuser Giuffre sued Epstein in federal court, accusing him and Maxwell of sexually abusing her at age 16; years later, when Maxwell called the allegations "obvious lies," Giuffre sued for defamation and was awarded an undisclosed settlement. Maxwell had not been seen publicly in three years, but now that Epstein is dead, his "lady of the house" - as one former employee referred to her - appeared at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles, having a meal while reading a book about CIA operatives. (It's unclear whether or not this photo is authentic; according to a report from the Daily Mail, it was staged with the help of her lawyer.)

The billionaire behind U.S. fashion retailer L Brands, which owns Victoria's Secret, hired Epstein as his financial advisor in the 1980s. Wexner is presumed to be the source of the majority of Epstein's wealth, and remains the only publicly identified client of Epstein's company, J. Epstein & Co. Wexner said he ended their relationship more than a decade ago, when Epstein was facing sex crimes charges in Florida; earlier this month, according to the New York Times, Wexner broke his silence in a letter to the Wexner Foundation, detailing his history with Epstein. Wexner also alleged that his former money manager "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him and his family. There are currently no allegations that Wexner was involved in sex trafficking.

Jean-Luc Brunel
French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel became a member of Epstein's inner circle in the early 2000s. In 2010, the Daily Beast reported that Epstein invested up to a million dollars in the launch of Brunel's modeling agency, MC2 Model Management, in 2004. (Brunel has denied receiving any funding from Epstein.) In January 2015, Brunel sued Epstein, claiming that his business lost millions of dollars "due to the adverse publicity surrounding Epstein and his illegal activities," and "publicity falsely linking [him] ... with sex trafficking." Brunel also alleged he was "emotionally destroyed" and fell into a deep depression as a result of Epstein's actions.

And yet, according to a 2015 affidavit, Giuffre claimed that Brunel "could get dozens of underage girls and feed Epstein's (and Maxwell's) strong appetite for sex with minors." Brunel would offer modeling jobs to young girls from "poor backgrounds," Giuffre alleged, and "lured" them in with "a promise of making good money." Instead, Brunel would "farm them out to his friends," including Epstein, "for sexual purposes."

Giuffre also alleged that Epstein and Maxwell forced her to have sex with Brunel when she was underage, and claimed that Epstein told her he'd "slept with over 1,000 of Brunel's girls." Among the newly unsealed documents are several written phone messages for Epstein, including message from Brunel offering him first dibs on a "2 X 8 [16] years old not blonde" girl who could "teach [him] how to speak Russian."

In a statement released in 2015, Brunel denied any involvement, "directly or indirectly", with Epstein's crimes. "I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work as a scouter or model agencies manager," Brunel stated.

Prince Andrew
Giuffre's lawsuit includes allegations that she was forced to have sex on three occasions with the Duke of York (whose nickname from the British press is "Randy Andy") when she was just 17 years old. The recently unsealed records include a photograph from 2001 showing the middle-aged prince with his arm wrapped around the teenager's waist. In a separate deposition, a woman named Johanna Sjoberg alleged that Prince Andrew groped her breast in Epstein's New York home in 2001. A statement issued by Buckingham Palace dismissed the allegations as "categorically untrue."

Both allegations about Prince Andrew were made in 2015, as Giuffre and Sjoberg tried to join a civil lawsuit against the U.S. government, in which other alleged victims were seeking to reopen Epstein's non-prosecution agreement. The allegations were struck from the court record by District Judge Kenneth Marra, who wrote, "The factual details regarding with whom and where the Jane Does engaged in sexual activities are immaterial and impertinent to this central claim."

There are no criminal charges against the Duke of York, but in the wake of the new documents, Buckingham Palace has gone on a PR offensive, issuing two statements, the the first denying any impropriety, and the second stating that the royal "has been appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged crimes."

Alan Dershowitz
After Epstein was charged in Florida in 2006, the high-powered lawyer and Harvard Law professor helped broker a deal with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta. Before the FBI's proposed indictment could be presented to a grand jury, Epstein signed a seriously lenient non-prosecution agreement, pleading guilty to a single count of solicitation of a minor in exchange for a cushy 13-month sentence.

Dershowitz has made a lucrative career defending a number of other wealthy, high-profile clients, including O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson and Jim Bakker. He also has some controversial opinions when it comes to sex and the law. In 1985, Dershowitz wrote an article for the Gainesville Sun which argued in favor of arresting sex workers, but against arresting men who hire them; according to The New Yorker, one of Dershowitz's former students remembered him discussing the topic in class. "He said, 'Prostitutes know what they're doing - they should be prosecuted. But you shouldn't ruin the john's life over that.'"

In 1997, Dershowitz wrote a controversial op-ed for the Los Angeles Times titled "Statutory Rape is an Outdated Concept," which advocated for lowering the age of consent to 15, no matter how old the partner was. "There must be criminal sanctions against sex with very young children," Dershowitz wrote, "but it is doubtful whether such sanctions should apply to teenagers above the age of puberty, since voluntary sex is so common in their age group."

Dershowitz's views are particularly interesting in light of Giuffre's 2015 claim that Epstein and Maxwell directed her to have sex with Dershowitz at least six times when she was underage. According to the New Yorker, Dershowitz defended his "unscathed reputation," saying Giuffre was a "prostitute" and a "bad mother," who "made the whole thing up out of whole cloth" and was in search of "a big payday." When a TV news reporter questioned why he would call Giuffre a "prostitute," Dershowitz replied, "She made her own decisions in life." Like Prince Andrew, the allegations made against Dershowitz were part of Giuffre's civil defamation lawsuit in 2015, and struck from the court record.

Dershowitz was also named in a 2018 civil lawsuit filed by Sarah Ransome, accusing Epstein and Maxwell of trafficking her for sex from 2006 to 2007. Ransome alleged that Epstein also directed her to have sex with other third parties, including Dershowitz, which he vehemently denied. "I never met her," Dershowitz said in a statement to the Daily Beast in 2018. "If she claims I did, I challenge her to go on the record and accuse me of having sex with her. She won't because it never happened and if she were to falsely allege that it did, I would sue her for defamation."

Though Dershowitz is not being criminally charged, given his close contact with Epstein, he could possess information that's valuable to the FBI; however, he might be able to keep much of it out of the courts, since a ttorney-client privilege continues even in death.

Marvin Minsky
Epstein called himself a "science philanthropist," investing millions of dollars to sponsor conferences and fund research, and formulating many of his own bizarre scientific and philosophical ideas. For example, Epstein believed starvation is necessary for population control, and according to the New York Times, he also had a vision of one day "seeding the human race with his DNA" by impregnating 20 women at his ranch in New Mexico. Epstein befriended a number of celebrated scientists and academics, including Marvin Minsky, a cognitive scientist best known for his research on artificial intelligence. In 2001 and 2012, Epstein sponsored two major conferences organized by Minsky on his private compound in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In an unsealed deposition from 2016, Giuffre alleged that Maxwell directed her to have sex with Minsky during one of his trips to the private island. She was unable to recall the timeframe, but a second witness recalled taking a trip to the island with Giuffre and Minsky in 2001, when she was 17 and he was 73.

Minsky evaded any possibility of being indicted when he died in 2016.

Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin
The relationship between Epstein and billionaire power couple Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin predates their 1994 marriage; Andersson-Dubin is Epstein's ex-girlfriend, and she and her money-manager husband remained loyal to him for years. Andersson-Dubin, a former Ford model, wrote a letter to his probation officer in 2009 which stated that she was "100% comfortable" with Epstein being around her underage kids, despite his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.

The Dubins responded very differently after Epstein was arrested in July. Andersson-Dubin told the New York Times that she was shocked by the allegations, which were "completely counter to the person she is familiar with." The couple later released a statement saying they were "horrified" to learn of Epstein's "vile and unspeakable conduct," and had they known, they would have "cut off all ties" and not allowed him to be around their children.

However, newly unsealed documents raise questions as to the couple's supposed lack of knowledge. A deposition from the Dubins' former house manager described a 2005 encounter with the family's new nanny - a 15-year-old Swedish girl, hand-delivered by Maxwell. The girl alleged that Maxwell pressured her to have sex with Epstein, and then threatened her and took her passport when she refused. A month into her employ, according to the Daily Beast, the Dubins took the girl with them to Sweden, where she was dropped off at an airport.

Most significantly, Giuffre claimed in her lawsuit that Glenn Dubin is one of the men Epstein and Maxwell forced her to have sex with. In a statement emailed to Rolling Stone, a representative for the Dubins vehemently denied the new allegations. "Glenn and Eva Dubin are outraged by the allegations in the unsealed court records, which are demonstrably false and defamatory. The Dubins have flight records and other evidence that definitively disprove that any such events occurred."

President Bill Clinton
Epstein called Bill Clinton " the world's greatest politician," while Clinton praised the financier's charitable work. Together, the two did quite a bit of jet setting on the "Lolita Express," the press nickname for Epstein's private Boeing 727 jet. In 2002, Epstein took Clinton, along with actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, on a tour of Africa, one of four trips Clinton admitted the pair made to the continent to promote the work of the Clinton Foundation and other charitable ventures. But according to flight logs published by Gawker in 2015, Clinton made at least a dozen other trips on the private jet, often in the company of Epstein, Maxwell and various women, who were mostly identified by only first names.

Though the former President has not been named as one of Epstein's co-conspirators or charged with any crimes, his name became inextricably linked with Epstein's in the immediate aftermath of his death, when a conspiracy theory started trending, suggesting that Clinton and his wife, former Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), were responsible. There is no evidence to support this theory, and his death has been officially ruled a suicide.

President Donald Trump
While he has minimized his relationship with Epstein in recent years, Trump's previous comments speak for themselves. "I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy," Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." According to the Washington Post, the two were on good terms until about 15 years ago, when they had a falling-out. Trump won't clarify what happened, though the Post connected it to a real estate deal in Palm Beach that supposedly got between them.

Yet for a long time, they were close - "wingmen," as one source told the Post. Epstein and Trump were photographed together at the President's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach on multiple occasions in the 1990s, and Epstein's little black book contained 14 phone numbers for Trump and his staff. According to the Miami Herald, Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, was working at Mar-a-Lago when she was introduced to Epstein, and soon after, the alleged sexual abuse began.

In June 2016, Trump was sued by an anonymous accuser, who alleged, in detail, that he raped her at a party at Epstein's Manhattan apartment in 1994, when she was 13 years old. Trump denied the allegations, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped.

Former Senator George Mitchell
Thought he might not be a household name anymore, George Mitchel, the former U.S. Attorney and Democratic Senate majority leader was a special advisor to President Clinton, and even helped to broker the peace deal in Ireland in the 1990s. According to Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit, as Epstein and Maxwell's "sex slave," she was "required to be sexually exploited" by a select group of male friends. She claimed she was "instructed to go to" Mitchell, but the unsealed documents don't indicate whether there was ever any sexual contact. In 2003, the one-time Senate Majority Leader told Vanity Fair, "[Epstein] supported some philanthropic projects of mine and organized a fundraiser for me once. I would certainly call him a friend and a supporter."

Earlier this month, Mitchell - who now works for the law firm DLA Piper - released a statement saying he has "never met, spoken with or had any contact" with Giuffre, and vehemently denied participating in or having any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. "I never observed or suspected any inappropriate conduct with underage girls." He and Epstein did not have any further contact after Epstein was charged in Florida in 2006, Mitchell said.

Mark Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein and his brother Mark don't appear to have had a close relationship as adults, but Mark did offer up his house to secure his older brother's bond following his arrest last month. Thus far, Mark has not been implicated in his brother's crimes, but according to New York magazine, the two had several business ties that could put Mark in the FBI's crosshairs. For starters, Mark's real estate company, Ossa Properties, is run by a former employee of J. Epstein & Co., the company that managed Les Wexner's assets. Those assets included an Upper West Side condominium that Mark purchased from Wexner in the 1990s. While Epstein didn't own a share in the building, many of his friends, business associates and employees have lived there over the years, including models from MC2 Model Management. "Jeffrey rents several apartments there where he keeps his girls," Florida attorney Brad Edwards, who represents several of Epstein's victims, told Page Six in 2009.

Mark Epstein has denied any involvement or knowledge, despite the real-estate connection. "I don't live in that building," he told Crain's in July. "I don't monitor who uses those apartments."

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Jeffrey Epstein: Who's Who in Underage Sex Trafficking Case

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Jeffrey Epstein 's death by suicide in federal custody on August 10th means that the wealthy financier will never be criminally prosecuted for sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy. The July indictment alleged that Epstein "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes" in New York City, Palm Beach, Florida, the US Virgin Islands and other locations from 2002 to 2005.

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Millionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein put on suicide watch after being found injured in jail: Source

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Millionaire Jeffrey Epstein was found in his jail cell with injuries to his neck.

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Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty Of Sex Trafficking Young Girls For Jeffrey Epstein

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Maxwell could spend up to 65 years in federal prison.

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/ CBS News

Haley Robson said she spent two years in Jeffrey Epstein's world of alleged sex trafficking. She first met Epstein in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old high schooler in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was during this time she said she was recruited by a classmate.

"I was told the more you do, the more you make," Robson told CBS News' Mola Lenghi. "I was told it would be possibly in your bra and underwear, but it would just be a massage."

Desperate to leave behind childhood trauma, Robson agreed to go to Epstein's Palm Beach estate.

She said the massage turned into something more when Epstein masturbated and fondled her. When Epstein tried to take it further, she said she refused and he then offered to pay her $200 for every girl she brought to him.

Robson said she did not realize at the time the damage that Epstein was doing to her.

"I did not understand that I was being sexually abused. I didn't understand how to really classify that. Is it sexual assault? Is it rape? Is it molestation? I am 16," she said.

Robson said she will never forget when she saw a girl come out of the bathroom with Epstein, both were in towels.

"She was just very closed off, like holding herself like this and walking out of the room with her head down and I know that look. It was probably one of the only images besides the actual abuse that I have flashbacks... I'll never forget it," Robson said.

"It's difficult to get out. And you may not realize how deep you're in," said Andrea Powell, the founder of Karana Rising, a support group for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.

She says most sex trafficking victims are subjected to a complicated cocktail of reward and abuse.

"If you break it down, traffickers have three strategies and one is, I can be your daddy, I can be your protector. The other is, I can be your lover. I can be your boyfriend, your partner and the other, I can make your life better. I can fulfill your dream. And Epstein was able to kind of combine all of that," said Powell.

"I mean, take away the shiny toys, take away the money, take away the fancy names, human trafficking, sex trafficking at its core, is about exploiting somebody's vulnerabilities," Powell added.

Robson says she went on to recruit eight other girls and was told to recruit younger girls. She said she brought people she hung out with and thought at the time she was helping them.

"When I was 16, I felt like, 'Hey, you know, I made money like, do you guys want to make money,'" Robson said,

Robson has been working with therapist Randee Kogan for the last two years. Kogan said there was a lot of work that had to be done with Robson so she could forgive "herself for making decisions that she did not have any choice in making."

While Robson says she never met Ghislaine Maxwell and is not part of the government's case against Maxwell, she has been compared to her.

"She used her gender to ultimately build trust with underage girls and it's not like she's 16 and doesn't know any better, she's an adult," said Robson.

"Where is the line between recruiting while still being victimized and an actual criminal accomplice?" Lenghi asked.

"The line is can you walk away? Can you get out? And I don't just mean physically, I mean, psychologically," Powell responded.

Maxwell denies knowing anything about Epstein's alleged sex abuse ring. She has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges against her.

Robson remembers she was showering when the reality of everything she experienced hit her.

"I was sitting in the shower just scrubbing my skin. Scrubbing it. Because I just felt so dirty," she said.

But some stains don't wash away and she now doesn't trust people and is extra protective of her daughter - wanting to protect her better than she protected her friends.

"The guilt will never go away. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about the other girls," said Robson.

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Jeffrey Epstein accuser reflects on being a sex trafficking victim - and recruiting other girls: "The guilt will never go away"

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CBS News Haley Robson said she spent two years in Jeffrey Epstein's world of alleged sex trafficking. She first met Epstein in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old high schooler in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was during this time she said she was recruited by a classmate.

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Here’s What to Know About the Sex Trafficking Case Against Jeffrey Epstein

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A criminal indictment claims Epstein sexually exploited dozens of minor girls starting in 2002

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NEW YORK (AP) - From the moment he first faced criminal charges, in 2006, Jeffrey Epstein has been the object of public fascination, conspiracy theories and outrage - especially after his lawyers got prosecutors to agree to a lenient plea deal that spared him from serious prison time.

Epstein was eventually arrested again, but died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. Here is a timeline of the case against him and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for helping him abuse teenage girls.

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March 2005: Police in Palm Beach, Florida, begin investigating Epstein after the family of a 14-year-old girl reports she was molested at his mansion. Multiple underage girls, many of them high school students, would later tell police that Epstein hired them to give sexual massages.

May 2006: Palm Beach police officials sign paperwork to charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, but the county's top prosecutor, State Attorney Barry Krischer, takes the unusual step of sending the case to a grand jury.

July 2006: Epstein is arrested after a grand jury indicts him on a single count of soliciting prostitution. The relatively minor charge draws almost immediate attention from critics, including Palm Beach police leaders, who assail Krischer publicly and accuse him of giving Epstein special treatment. The FBI begins an investigation.

2007: Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein. But for a year, the money manager's lawyers engage in talks with the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, about a plea bargain that would allow Epstein to avoid a federal prosecution. Epstein's lawyers decry his accusers as unreliable witnesses.

June 2008: Epstein pleads guilty to state charges: one count of solicitating prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. He is sentenced to 18 months in jail. Under a secret arrangement, the U.S. attorney's office agrees not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes. Epstein serves most of his sentence in a work-release program that allows him to leave jail during the day to go to his office, then return at night.

July 2009: Epstein is released from jail. For the next decade, multiple women who say they are Epstein's victims wage a legal fight to get his federal non-prosecution agreement voided, and hold him and others liable for the abuse. One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, says in her lawsuits that, starting when she was 17, Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, set up sexual encounters with royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and other rich and powerful men, including Britain's Prince Andrew. All of those men deny the allegations.

November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the handling of Epstein's case in a series of stories focusing partly on the role of Acosta - who by this point is President Donald Trump's labor secretary - in arranging his unusual plea deal. The coverage renews public interest in the case.

July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges after federal prosecutors in New York conclude that they weren't bound by the terms of the earlier non-prosecution deal. Days later, Acosta resigns as labor secretary amid public outrage over his role in the initial investigation.

Aug. 10, 2019: Guards find Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City. Investigators conclude he killed himself.

July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York charge Ghislaine Maxwell with sex crimes, saying she helped recruit the underage girls that Epstein sexually abused and sometimes participated in the abuse herself.

Dec. 30, 2021: After a monthlong trial, a jury convicts Maxwell of multiple charges, including sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity.

June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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A timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell scandal

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NEW YORK (AP) - From the moment he first faced criminal charges, in 2006, Jeffrey Epstein has been the object of public fascination, conspiracy theories and outrage - especially after his lawyers got prosecutors to agree to a lenient plea deal that spared him from serious prison time.

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Sarah Ransome is the author of "Silenced No More" about her ordeal in Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking operation.
When I heard the eerie clink of shackles as Ghislaine Maxwell entered her sentencing hearing in a New York courtroom last month, I thought: "I will never doubt myself again."

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, and she continues to insist that she is being punished for his crimes, even after the jury's guilty verdict. I read a statement at the sentencing to make clear that Maxwell is guilty of her own crimes, and to speak up for all victims - both underage and those, like me, who were "of age" when trafficked.

News coverage of Epstein and Maxwell's sex crimes has mostly focused on the young girls recruited near Epstein's Florida mansion and the rich and powerful men who visited his Caribbean island. I struggled with this because the trafficking operation snared not only underage girls, who were coerced into nude massages, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse. There was also a large group of women like me who were trafficked and raped for more than three decades. I was 22. And when you're a legal adult, you face a barrage of "you should have known better" victim-blaming and "you deserved it" gaslighting. Since coming forward in 2016, I have been called a "gold digger," a "whore" and a "prostitute." Even my own father said, "You made your bed, you can lie in it."

I didn't know the FBI began investigating Epstein in 2005. I wish I had. I was recruited in 2006 by a woman I thought was my friend. She told me Epstein and Maxwell could help get me into fashion. I didn't know I'd have my passport and phone taken away when I boarded Epstein's private plane to his island. He wasn't some old geezer in a bar saying, "Come to my island." It was a carefully scripted, well-oiled machine. This was a professional sex trafficking ring. Epstein and Maxwell taught girls to recruit girls, women to recruit women. They knew what they were looking for.

I was born into a generationally dysfunctional family. Alcoholism runs in my family. I was first sexually abused when I was 11 by a man my mother brought home. At 14, I was raped by another student. All I've ever known is rape, abuse, trauma. Being a child like that, you don't know what's normal and what's not. Your boundaries are broken down.

I was the perfect target. But even if you were from a "good family" you could be snared. Several women over 17 or 18 who were abused by Epstein and Maxwell have stated that they were offered work as Victoria's Secret models through a scouting agency run by Epstein's associate, Jean-Luc Brunel. Both men were jailed on sex crime charges they denied and hanged themselves in prison while in custody awaiting trial

People can judge survivors and say we should have done more to speak out or that we should name more names. Doing so threatens a group of wealthy, well-respected powerbrokers with influential friends and lawyers trained to silence accusers.

I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I've had my dignity stripped from me. I've had to question my own mind, my own thoughts. I have been ridiculed by lawyers and ignored by law enforcement. I tried to kill myself twice throughout this. The first time was when Epstein's lawyers, including Kenneth Starr and Alan Dershowitz, made a secret deal with Miami's U.S. attorney, then Alexander Acosta, that protected Epstein from federal charges and allowed him to work at his office during the day throughout his 18-month sentence for state crimes. Acosta later became Donald Trump's labor secretary.

I think a lot of survivors don't come forward because it's one thing for a stranger to judge you, but it's another when your loved ones join the victim shaming and law enforcement says you don't qualify as a victim because of your age. The re-traumatization can undermine your efforts at recovery. I know it did mine.

Among all the survivors, only seven gave victim impact statements at the sentencing. Having the judge allow me to read mine in court even though I didn't fall squarely within the contours of the charged conspiracy and seeing Maxwell sentenced was life changing. It went a long way to restoring the self-worth and dignity that Epstein and Maxwell took from me.

Still, I do not think that justice has been completely served with Maxwell's sentencing. There are so many others involved in the crimes who have not been held accountable. No survivor should have to go through the journey from hell and back that I went through. That's why I wrote to all 150 members of the New York State Assembly to urge passage of the Adult Survivors Act. I'm pleased they listened and passed the law. Now, survivors who were over 18 when they were sexually assaulted can sue without defendants skirting away on a statute-of-limitations defense.

This is not just about young girls, I can assure you. Every survivor of rape and trafficking deserves compassion. Your age, sex, gender, skin color and class don't matter. What happened to me should never happen to any human being. My job now is to make sure others - victims, perpetrators, law enforcement and society at large - know that, too.
As told to Washington Post Opinions senior producer Kate Woodsome.

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Opinion | I survived Epstein and Maxwell's sex ring. Then the gaslighting began.

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Sarah Ransome is the author of "Silenced No More" about her ordeal in Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking operation. When I heard the eerie clink of shackles as Ghislaine Maxwell entered her sentencing hearing in a New York courtroom last month, I thought: "I will never doubt myself again."

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"I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an 'offender,'" Jeffrey Epstein told the New York Post in 2011. "It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel."

Epstein died in a New York prison cell on 10 August as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.

It came more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.

This time, he was accused of running a "vast network" of underage girls for sex. He pleaded not guilty.

The 66-year-old in the past socialised with Prince Andrew, President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.

But who was Jeffrey Epstein?

'Terrific guy'

Born and raised in New York, Epstein taught maths and physics in the city at the private Dalton School in the mid 1970s. He had studied physics and maths himself at university, although he never graduated.

A father of one of his students is said to have been so impressed that he put Epstein in touch with a senior partner at the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns.

He was a partner there within four years. By 1982, he had created his own firm - J Epstein and Co.

The company managed assets of clients worth more than $1bn (£800m) and was an instant success. Epstein soon began spending his fortune - including on a mansion in Florida, a ranch in New Mexico, and reputedly the largest private home in New York - and socialising with celebrities, artists and politicians.

"No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

In 2002, Epstein flew former President Bill Clinton and the actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker to Africa on a customized private jet. He made an unsuccessful bid to buy New York magazine with then film producer Harvey Weinstein in 2003 - the same year he made a $30m donation to Harvard University.

But he also strove to keep his life private, reportedly shunning society events and dinners in restaurants.

He dated women like Miss Sweden winner Eva Andersson Dubin and Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of publisher Robert Maxwell, although he never married.

Rosa Monckton, the former CEO of Tiffany & Co, told Vanity Fair for a 2003 article that Epstein was "very enigmatic" and "a classic iceberg".

Conviction and plea deal

In 2005, the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home. A police search of the property found photos of girls throughout the house.

"This was not a 'he said, she said' situation," Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the newspaper. "This was 50-something 'shes' and one 'he' - and the 'shes' all basically told the same story."

"At one point, when his troubles began, he was talking to me and said, 'What can I say, I like young girls.' I said, 'Maybe you should say, 'I like young women.'"

However, prosecutors forged a deal with the hedge fund manager in 2008.

He avoided federal charges - which could have seen him face life in prison - and instead received an 18-month prison sentence, during which he was able to go on "work release" to his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week. He was released on probation after 13 months.

The Miami Herald says that the federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta - who was Secretary of Labour in the Trump administration - struck a plea agreement hiding the extent of his crimes and ending an FBI investigation into whether there were more victims or more powerful people who took part. The paper described it as the "deal of the century".

Since 2008 Epstein had been listed as a level three on the New York sex offenders register. It is a lifelong designation meaning he was at a high risk of reoffending.

But Epstein maintained his properties and his assets after his conviction.

In December 2010, Prince Andrew, the third child of the Queen, was pictured in New York's Central Park with Epstein, drawing controversy.

In a BBC interview in November 2019, the prince, who had known Epstein since 1999, said he had gone to New York to break off their friendship. He said he regretted staying at the financier's house while he was there, and that he had "let the side down" by doing so.

An Epstein accuser, Virginia Roberts - now Virginia Giuffre - would later allege that she was made to have sex with Prince Andrew in the early 2000s when she was 17.

Prince Andrew categorically denied having sex with her and said he has no recollection of a photo of the pair being taken together in London.

Epstein was arrested in New York on 6 July 2019 after flying back from Paris on his private jet.

Prosecutors were reportedly seeking the forfeiture of his New York mansion, where some of his alleged crimes occurred.

Epstein always denied any wrongdoing, and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

At his last court appearance on 31 July, it became clear that he would spend a year in prison, with a trial no earlier than summer 2020. Prosecutors said they wanted no delay, and bringing the trial quickly was in the public interest.

Now, Epstein will never face the trial at all.

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Jeffrey Epstein: The financier charged with sex trafficking

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"I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an 'offender,'" Jeffrey Epstein told the New York Post in 2011 . "It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel." Epstein died in a New York prison cell on 10 August as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.

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