Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have been pleasant with and traveled with Jeffrey Epstein throughout years when he allegedly victimized ladies. Both say that they had no information of Epstein’s conduct. One alleged sufferer says Epstein’s highly effective acquaintances “had to be blind” to not know.

Ted Shaffrey/AP

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Ted Shaffrey/AP

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have been pleasant with and traveled with Jeffrey Epstein throughout years when he allegedly victimized ladies. Both say that they had no information of Epstein’s conduct. One alleged sufferer says Epstein’s highly effective acquaintances “had to be blind” to not know.

Ted Shaffrey/AP

The new trove of paperwork linked to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, which was launched by a federal courtroom over the previous two weeks, did not unmask any main public figures or embody stunning revelations.

But the paperwork embody claims from Epstein’s alleged victims who say outstanding males who socialized with Epstein should have identified what was happening and didn’t blow the whistle — even when they did not interact in prison conduct themselves.

“If you walked foot into Jeffrey Epstein’s house and you went in there and you continued to be an acquaintance of his then you would have to know what was going on there,” Virginia Giuffre, considered one of Epstein’s alleged victims, testified in a newly revealed 2016 deposition.

“I would say the first time they came to [Epstein’s home] there is nude pictures everywhere. These are [photographs of] salacious acts of girls, young girls doing things to each other that would be considered child pornography,” she added.

Those named within the Epstein paperwork embody former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, and Harvard professor and legal professional Alan Dershowitz, amongst many others.

The undeniable fact that a person is called or that they socialized with Epstein doesn’t point out wrongdoing. But the paperwork elevate questions on who knew what about Epstein’s exercise.

At one level in testimony made public for the primary time, Giuffre mentioned former President Bill Clinton was among the many males conscious of Epstein’s exercise:

“Yes, he would be a witness because he knew what my purpose there was for Jeffrey and he visited Jeffrey’s island,” she mentioned, including that sexual exercise involving women was “something that Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t shy about admitting to people.”

Photographs have emerged of Clinton receiving a neck massage at an airport from a younger girl who now describes herself as considered one of Epstein’s victims.

But in a 2019 statement, Clinton — who is called steadily within the paperwork — mentioned he by no means visited Epstein’s non-public island within the Virgin Islands and “knew nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida.”

Angel Ureña, a spokesman for Clinton, mentioned it had been almost 20 years since Clinton final had contact with Epstein and that the previous president has by no means been accused of any wrongdoing.

In separate sworn depositions, alleged sufferer Sarah Ransome mentioned Epstein was clear about trafficking women to guests who got here to his dwelling in New York City and his non-public island within the Virgin Islands.

“There were various buildings around the island … like little shelter things, where him and his guests used to have sex with the girls, like beds set up for instant sexual entertainment,” Ransome mentioned in 2017.

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims mentioned younger ladies have been supplied to visitors for “instant sexual entertainment” at his property on Little St. James Island. The highly effective males who socialized with Epstein say that they had no thought intercourse trafficking occurred.

Gabriel Lopez Albarran/AP

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Gabriel Lopez Albarran/AP

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims mentioned younger ladies have been supplied to visitors for “instant sexual entertainment” at his property on Little St. James Island. The highly effective males who socialized with Epstein say that they had no thought intercourse trafficking occurred.

Gabriel Lopez Albarran/AP

“At his town house [in New York] I was also lent out by him to his friends and associates to have sex,” she alleged below oath.

At least one public determine, former President Donald Trump, has acknowledged in a 2002 interview being conscious that Epstein “liked beautiful women…on the younger side.”

Trump, who can also be named within the paperwork and acknowledged being pals with Epstein for “fifteen years” has mentioned he did nothing flawed and knew nothing of Epstein’s prison conduct.

“Did any of us know what was going on?”

Harvard Professor and outstanding legal professional, Alan Dershowitz, who represented Jeffrey Epstein, says he knew nothing about wrongdoing whereas the 2 have been pals. “Did any of us know what was going on? I can’t vouch for other people. I can only tell you, I didn’t know.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Harvard Professor and outstanding legal professional, Alan Dershowitz, who represented Jeffrey Epstein, says he knew nothing about wrongdoing whereas the 2 have been pals. “Did any of us know what was going on? I can’t vouch for other people. I can only tell you, I didn’t know.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

In an interview this week with NPR, Harvard legislation professor and legal professional Alan Dershowitz, who was pals with Epstein and represented him, mentioned Epstein stored his predatory conduct fastidiously closeted.

“Did any of us know what was going on? I can’t vouch for other people. I can only tell you, I didn’t know,” he mentioned.

“That was shocking that could have happened without us knowing, without us seeing, because as you say there were so many people around them.”

Federal prosecutors now say Epstein, who labored for many years as a non-public financier for a secretive record of rich shoppers earlier than taking his personal life in a federal jail in 2019, operated sex-trafficking ring, which at instances concerned minors, from 1994 till no less than 2004.

He allegedly developed a scheme to identify and exploit “dozens” of vulnerable girls and younger ladies, some as younger as 14 years previous. His confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving a 2o-year sentence for perpetrating what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams known as “heinous crimes against children.”

Dershowitz, who denies any wrongdoing, acknowledges being near Epstein from 1996 via 2008, describing visits to Epstein’s houses in addition to telephone conversations and conferences at social {and professional} gatherings.

He labored on the high-powered authorized workforce that crafted a controversial deal in 2008 permitting Epstein keep away from federal costs.

Epstein as a substitute pleaded responsible to comparatively minor state-level prostitution costs in Florida and was allowed to serve most of his 18-month sentence in a work-release program.

Dershowitz informed NPR he now believes Epstein did interact in prison, abusive conduct, and says their private relationship ended after 2008. But he says he noticed no purple flags involving younger ladies whereas they have been socializing.

“One of my sons said, ‘Stay away from this guy, I don’t like him financially,” Dershowitz recalled, referring to the monetary and consulting companies Epstein offered to shoppers. “But nobody warned me about anything having to do with sex.”

“You would have to be blind not to know”

In 2016 testimony, revealed within the new paperwork, Giuffre provides a unique narrative, saying below oath that Dershowitz was one of many highly effective males current at social occasions the place it was apparent that younger ladies like herself have been susceptible.

Giuffre: The solely factor I can say to that’s that there have been minors round and did Dershowitz know that Jeffrey Epstein was utilizing these minors for sexual
functions, sure, he did.

Q. How have you learnt that?

Giuffre: How do I do know what he knew, as a result of he was round Jeffrey Epstein so many instances that you would need to be blind to not know what Jeffrey Epstein was doing.

Asked by NPR about these statements, Dershowitz described Giuffre as unreliable and mentioned claims by her and Ransome that he had sexual encounters with them have been false.

Dershowitz pointed to the very fact Giuffre has since expressed uncertainty about her claims that she had met and had intercourse with him.

Asked extra broadly by NPR how he and others might have missed indicators Epstein and Maxwell have been abusive to younger ladies, Dershowitz mentioned Epstein “kept his private life completely secret.”

“I regret having ever met him. I think it was the worst thing that ever happened in my life meeting him,” Dershowitz mentioned.

Asked about his function as an legal professional, serving to Epstein keep away from extra critical federal prison costs for trafficking underage women, Dershowitz mentioned he acted professionally:

“I don’t know how I could have done anything different. That’s just in my wheelhouse, what I do. I regret the outcome, of course, I regret having ever met him, but I can’t say I feel guilty about anything I did.”

After that deal was struck, Epstein, a registered intercourse offender, continued to reside freely for years. According to an investigation published last month by The Wall Street Journal, he continued his follow of touring to conferences with highly effective males within the firm of younger ladies.

There’s no proof that at any level any of the lads who interacted with Epstein raised considerations about his conduct with authorities.

In 2019, after the Miami Herald revealed an expose about Epstein, he was lastly arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He took his personal life in jail whereas awaiting trial.