Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s jaw-dropping sexual abuse history
He’s a convicted sex offender, socially linked to Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, accused of assaulting dozens of teens. Now, he’s won a fresh reprieve.
He’s a billionaire money manager with connections to rich and powerful elites, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
He’s also a convicted sex offender who allegedly abused dozens of underage teens at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion — but served just 13 months in jail.
Overnight, the world was about to finally learn the extent of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sex crimes as some accusers were to testify for the first time at Florida’s state court in a civil lawsuit.
But the 65-year-old won a last-minute settlement of the case, meaning none of the women will be able to testify.
Epstein is accused of establishing a network of underage girls who he paid to come to his Florida estate and perform topless, give him nude massages or take part in sex acts including intercourse. He was also suspected of trafficking underage girls for sex parties at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Caribbean.
At the same time, Epstein was building friendships with some of the most famous people in the world.
Mr Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane, dubbed the “Lolita Express”, numerous times.
Mr Trump once said of the famous New York money manager: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. 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.”
During the 2016 election campaign, then-Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus said of Mr Clinton to Bloomberg: “When you hang out with a guy who has a reputation like Jeffrey Epstein, multiple times, on private jets, on weekends, on trips, on places at least where it’s been reported not very good things happen, it would be good to know what our former president was doing.”
A woman going by the name of Katie Johnson sued Mr Trump during the presidential race, claiming he had raped her at one of Epstein’s parties when she was 13, the Daily Beast reported. She later dropped the lawsuit.
‘MR EPSTEIN IS VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT MASSAGES’
It’s not the first time Epstein has avoided facing up to his alleged crimes. In 2008, Epstein obtained a plea deal signed by Alexander Acosta, then-US Attorney for Miami and now Mr Trump’s Labour Secretary. The billionaire pleaded guilty to a state charge of felony solicitation of underage girls and became a registered sex offender, in return for avoiding federal action.
He was jailed at a private section of the Palm Beach County jail but quickly obtained “work release” and was able to leave the compound six days a week, 12 hours a day.
The non-prosecution agreement became public in 2015, when it was unsealed by a federal judge in a civil lawsuit. Many believe Epstein would have been jailed for life if federal prosecutors had been able to pursue the 53-page indictment they had drawn up.
Mr Acosta later said he had backed away from the case after “a year-long assault on the prosecution” by Epstein’s “army of legal superstars”, including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, who led the investigation that saw Mr Clinton impeached. Fifteen Democratic politicians today called for Mr Acosta’s conduct to be investigated.
The Palm Beach trial targeted lawyers representing the alleged victims.
Bradley Edwards sued Epstein for “malicious prosecution”, and Epstein’s lawyer today read a statement in court apologising for making “totally false allegations”.
It means the women, now in their 20s and 30s, have again lost their chance to speak out about their alleged abuse at the hands of this wealthy, well-connected businessman.
He has said that any encounters he had with his accusers were consensual, and that he believed they were 18 at the time.
In one communication with Palm Beach police in 2005, his lawyer said: “Mr Epstein is very passionate about massages … The massages are therapeutic and spiritually sound for him; that is why he has had many massages.”
‘DEAL OF A LIFETIME’ FOR SERIAL SEX ABUSER
The Miami Herald last week published an explosive look at the accusations against Epstein in a piece titled, “How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime”. In it, the paper claimed to have found 80 possible victims by drawing on court and police records.
The documents allege the billionaire routinely invited underage girls to his mansion and asked them to massage him while he touched them or masturbated, sometimes also raping them.
He then allegedly gave them money to recruit other young girls, which they did at malls and house parties.
Epstein — a product of the 1980s banking boom — started out as an investment banker at Bear Stearns and steadily built an empire, taking advantage of the 1980s banking boom to go it alone, managing some of America’s biggest investment portfolios. He owned a ranch in New Mexico, the largest residential property in Manhattan and his own private Caribbean island with a flamingo-filled lagoon, where he allegedly hosted orgies.
He also threw parties attended by stars including Kevin Spacey and media mogul Robert Maxwell.
Many of the girls and women who claim they were abused by him came from disadvantaged families, single-parent homes or foster care.
“He told me he wanted them as young as I could find them,” Courtney Wild, who says she recruited 70 or 80 girls for Epstein, told the Herald. “He wanted as many girls as I could get him. It was never enough.’’
Ms Wild said she met Epstein when she was a 14-year-old middle school student and cheerleading captain, and later became a drug addict, serving three years in prison on drug charges.
One of Epstein’s accusers died of a heroin overdose last year, leaving behind a young son.
Ms Wild and another woman who alleges Epstein abused her have filed a separate federal lawsuit, seeking to invalidate his non-prosecution agreement and send him to prison.
Documents revealed ahead of the trial show Epstein paid $US5.5 million to settle with three of more than two dozen women who have sued him.
‘A PAEDOPHILE’S TOP GIRL’
Virginia Roberts, who was born in Florida and now lives in Cairns, Queensland, claimed Epstein recruited her into prostitution when she was just 15 and passed her around his friends.
Ms Roberts — who now goes by her married name Giuffre — claimed Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her into the sex trade in 1999 from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where she worked as a locker room towel girl.
She sued Ms Maxwell for defamation in 2015, but the case was settled in May 2017.
Ms Giuffre even claimed she was flown to London from the US as a “gift” to one of Epstein’s friends.
“I was a paedophile’s top girl, being trained up,” said Ms Giuffre, who alleged she was abused by Epstein for four years. “I was totally under Jeffrey’s spell. I was his personal sex slave.”
She claimed she was forced to join in an orgy with a bevy of other underage girls on the private island.
“He trained me to do whatever a man wanted. I would do anything to keep Jeffrey happy and keep my place as his number one girl,” she said.
Jen-Lisa Jones, who says Epstein abused her when she was 14, told the Herald she could never stop her thoughts.
“A word can trigger something,” she said.
“For me, it is the word ‘pure’ because he called me ‘pure’ in that room and then I remember what he did to me in that room.”
Rapist’s bombshell threat after being unmasked
A Sydney man who was unmasked by news.com.au as a rapist has engaged lawyers to have his victim’s story pulled down.
‘Grubby’: Woolies driver caught red-handed
The supermarket said they were “very disappointed” after seeing the shocking behaviour, which Aussies say is more common than you think.
Depressing reality for all Aussies revealed
One Australian university has picked its “word of the year” and it exposes a growing frustration felt by all Aussies in 2024.