Breaking: Court Releases First Names on Epstein List
A mix of old and new peppered the list of more than 150 people linked to alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that a federal court unsealed from a 2015 civil suit of Epstein.
Some of the names released include: former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, former President Donald Trump, astronaut John Glenn, and Alan Dershowitz.
The list of names was part of a defamation lawsuit, which is 2,024 pages long, that Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre filed against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015 and has since been settled. However, documents gathered in the case have been sought by media outlets.
The list was expected to include a wide variety of people, according to PBS, which stressed that the list is not a client list.
Epstein’s accusers, staff members, witnesses at Maxwell’s trial, individuals deposed as part of the case and others who were contacts in some form were expected to be on the list, the outet reported.
Alan Dershowitz, a former lawyer for Epstein who has fought back against allegations he was a client, told NewsNation that releasing the list will allow those on it to make their own case to the public of their connections to Epstein.
“He was very well thought of in the beginning. None of us knew about his private life that he kept so secret,” Dershowitz said.
“There is a difference between what happened after he was convicted and the nature of the relationship after he was convicted, and everybody should judge for themselves,” he said.
As noted by the Associated Press, in June 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18.
Although Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, he was found dead in his jail cell before the trial. His death was labeled a suicide. Maxwell, Epstein’s partner, was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska last month ordered the materials to be released after Jan. 1, according to NBC.
She held back some names of individuals who have objected to the disclosure.
In one instance, an attorney for J. Doe 107 has said his client resides in a “culturally conservative country” outside of the U.S. and is “in fear of her name being released.”
Preska has said that the names of minor victims who did not testify or have not been made public will remain sealed.
Political analyst Charlotte Clymer said releasing the names would cause a problem “if our nation’s leaders and political media attempt to downplay the Epstein list and cover up any crimes against innocents,” according to USA Today.
Pre-release speculation expected some names, such as Prince Andrew, who settled a lawsuit against him by Giuffre.
A report from ABC said that former President Bill Clinton — who was identified in the court records as “Doe 36” — is mentioned in more than 50 redacted filings connected to the case.
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