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New batches of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse were released on Friday afternoon, bringing renewed attention to his long-time friendship with Prince Andrew and prior claims that the royal “spent weeks” at the late financier’s Palm Beach home.
Juan Alessi, Epstein’s former house manager, said he routinely saw famous faces around the south Florida house – including the Duke of York. Alessi also said he saw Andrew’s wife, Sarah Ferguson.
“Did – did they ever have massages when they were there?” Alessi was asked about Epstein’s tony guests.
“Prince Andrew did,” Alessi claimed. “I think Sarah was there only once and for a short time. I don’t think she slept in there. I cannot remember. I think she was visiting Wellington and she came to the house and we met her.”
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“But Prince Andrew, yes, Prince Andrew spent weeks with us.”
“Where would he sleep?”
Alessi said that Andrew would sleep in the “main guest bedroom”.
“And, so, when he would come and stay, during that time would he frequently have massages?”
“I would say, daily massages. They have a daily massage.”
Alessi also talked about seeing Trump around Epstein’s house. He didn’t stay at the home, Alessi said, “never”.
“He would come over, have dinner. He never sat at the table. He eat with me in the kitchen,” Alessi said.
Asked whether Trump had massages at Epstein’s house, Alessi replied, “No. Because he’s got his own spa.”
The additional documents, totalling more than 1,300 pages, add to some 1,600 pages already unsealed on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the first release of which prompted an online frenzy that crashed a website hosting the documents.
The documents unsealed on Friday do not appear to include bombshell new revelations about Epstein’s sex trafficking or his high-profile associates’ alleged involvement. They include still more deposition excerpts from Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s procurer – and Johanna Sjoberg, one of the late financier’s many accusers.
[ Epstein is dead but misogyny is attracting a whole new generation ]
Sjoberg’s additional deposition excerpts appear to provide more insight into how Epstein and Maxwell drew teen girls and young women into their exploitative orbit. The Epstein accuser was asked in a deposition whether she had any observations about a woman, whose name is redacted from the document; she suggested that the duo provided perks to this individual.
“To speak with, she was a little rough around the edges and I could see the progression of her being groomed a little. They got her braces,” Sjoberg said. “She had terrible posture. And with a lot of massages, she learned to stand up straight. So I just saw her become a much more confident person.”
Sjoberg said she thought this person was 18 when they met, but wasn’t sure. Her deposition testimony also suggested that Maxwell could draw people into their orbit by wowing them with her many interests and sophisticated-seeming behaviour.
“She definitely had a great sense of humour, she loved making jokes. I mean, in a very British way. I don’t remember her ever laughing, but she was funny,” Sjoberg said. “And I remember just thinking, she – the first weekend that we flew to the Virgin Islands, she flew the helicopter from Saint, wherever we were to little Saint Jeff [sic] or whatever the name of the island was, and I just thought, wow, who is this woman.”
Asked whether she respected Maxwell, Sjoberg said yes.
“I remember her cooking dinner. That was another way she impressed me: she knew how to cook like a chef. She had done some culinary training,” Sjoberg also recalled.
The filings also include paperwork over the production of documents related to Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. Giuffre accused Maxwell and Epstein of trafficking her to the British royal Prince Andrew; she filed suit over Maxwell’s denials of these allegations.
Among the documents was a list of search terms for Maxwell’s electronics as part of the evidence-gathering process; they included names such as “Clinton”, “Andrew”, and nouns such as “schoolgirl” and “gerbil”. Clinton was also among the high-profile men with whom Epstein associated; he is not accused of wrongdoing.
In addition to Bill Clinton and Andrew, other high-profile names included in the documents released so far this week include the singer Michael Jackson and the illusionist David Copperfield.
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of sex trafficking and similar charges for procuring teenage girls for Epstein. He killed himself in jail several weeks after his July 2019 arrest for sex trafficking.
Before the unsealing, the names were listed in court papers as variants of J Doe. Many of the names are people who had been publicly identified as Epstein associates before this unsealing. – Guardian