Cameron Diaz had no connection to late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein despite being mentioned by one of his former accusers of sexual abuse in newly unsealed court documents, the actress’ publicist says.

In the documents, as seen on Page Six, Johanna Sjoberg alleged in a deposition that the late financier spoke about his ties to several celebrities, noting that he engaged in “name-dropping.” She was asked if she met Diaz and she responded, “No.”

“Cameron never met Jeffrey Epstein, nor was she ever in the same place as him or had any association with him whatsoever,” the actress’ rep said in a statement to multiple outlets Jan. 5,” regardless of the fact he may or may not have mentioned her name or implied that he knew her.”

The documents were unsealed by a federal judge as part of a settled civil defamation lawsuit that another accuser, Virginia Roberts Guiffre, had filed in 2015 against Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging she was a victim of sex trafficking and abuse. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Hollywood’s Many Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct

The late multimillionaire financier had socialized with many celebs, royalty, politicians and businessmen throughout his life. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and served over a year in a jail work-release program.

In July 2019, he was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14, from at least 2002 to 2005. He pleaded not guilty.

A month after his arrest, while awaiting trial, Epstein died in prison at age 66 from an apparent suicide.

Donald Trump sometimes ate meals at the Florida home of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, but the former president never received massages from women there, a housekeeper for Epstein once testified, according to court records unsealed Friday.

The testimony was one of several times Trump’s name has appeared in court documents that since Wednesday have been made public in New York.

None of the documents suggest wrongdoing by Trump, who had been friends for years with Epstein before they had a falling out in the 2000s.

Epstein, who died in 2019 by suicide in jail after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges, had an obsession with receiving multiple massages each day from young women at his residences in Florida, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands, other court records and testimony have previously shown.

Multiple women have said Epstein sexually abused and exploited them.

The document unsealed Friday in Manhattan federal court was filed in connection with a since-settled lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who procured young women to give massages to Epstein.

The document contains a transcript of a legal deposition of Epstein’s housekeeper, Juan Alessi.

“Now, Mr. Trump had a home in Palm Beach [Florida], correct?” a lawyer asked Alessi.

Alessi answered, “Uh-huh.”

The lawyer asked, “So he didn’t come and stay there, did he?”

“No, never,” Alessi answered.

The attorney then asked, referring to Trump, “He would come for a meal?”

The housekeeper said, “He would come, have dinner. He never sat at the table. He eat with me in the kitchen.”

The lawyer asked, “Did he ever have massages while he was there?”

Alessi answered, “No. Because he’s got his own spa.”

“Sure,” the lawyer said.

CNBC has requested comment on Alessi’s interview from a lawyer for Trump.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence on charges related to recruiting and grooming women to be abused by Epstein.

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The release comes one day after the first group of documents, encompassing 942 pages of filings, was released Wednesday, making public testimony from dozens of people deposed as part of a settled lawsuit involving Epstein.

Thursday’s fillings contain 19 exhibits, totaling 327 pages of previously sealed documents.

The new fillings focus on details from Palm Beach police Det. Joseph Recarey of how Epstein recruited girls to give massages in his home and asked them to invite friends in exchange for payment.

In one instance, a woman who was 16 or 17 at the time said she had no massage experience and no assumption or expectation that the visit would involve sexual activity.

“Jeffrey took my clothes off without my consent the first time I met him,” the woman said in her deposition, whose name has been redacted.

In the filing, Recarey said he interviewed around 33 women and most of them were younger than 18 and only two had massage experience.

“Each of the victims that went to the home were asked to bring their friends to the home. Some complied and some didn’t,” Recarey said in the filings.

In the first batch released Wednesday, there were mentions of Epstein’s past friendships with Clinton and Donald Trump — who are not accused of any wrongdoing — and of Britain’s Prince Andrew.

The documents being unsealed are related to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She is one of dozens of women who sued Epstein for abusing them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico. This suit was against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant who is now serving a 20-year prison term for helping recruit and abuse his victims.

Giuffre’s lawsuit was settled in 2017, but the court had kept some documents blacked-out or sealed because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and others whose names had come up during the legal battle. More documents are expected to be released in the coming days.

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In her deposition, Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.

Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein’s social orbit, including Prince Andrew, another unnamed prince, the former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, the owner of a large hotel chain and Glenn Dubin, the billionaire hedge fund manager, among others. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated.

A request from NBC News for a response from Prince Andrew was not immediately returned Wednesday night, but Andrew has long denied her allegations. She settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2022 in which she claimed he had sexually abused her during a trip to London.

A spokesperson for Dubin told NBC News Wednesday that he “strongly den[ies] these allegations” and described them as unsubstantiated statements.

In her deposition, Maxwell disputes most of the accusations made by Giuffre and denies any knowledge of illegal behavior from Epstein.

In a 2016 deposition unsealed Wednesday, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg testified that she once met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., home, but that nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon.

Sjoberg also testified that though she never met Clinton, Epstein once remarked to her that “Clinton likes them young,” a remark she took as a reference to young women or girls. Sjoberg added she had never met Clinton and never saw him on Epstein’s island.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Clinton referred to a 2019 statement that said while the former president acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s jet several times, he never visited his homes, had no knowledge of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him in over a decade.

In a deposition, Maxwell said Clinton had dined on Epstein’s plane, but testified Clinton had never visited Epstein’s Caribbean Island, Little St. James.

Trump also appears in Sjoberg’s deposition, but it contains no allegations of wrongdoing.

On one occasion, Sjoberg testified she was on a plane with Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre that landed in Atlantic City after the plane could not land in New York. Upon hearing the change of plans, Sjoberg recalled Epstein saying, “Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to” the casino. Sjoberg wasn’t asked if they’d met up with Trump that night. Later in her testimony, she said she was never asked to give Trump a massage.

Trump was also found to have flown on one of Epstein’s planes at least once, and video emerged in July 2019 of Epstein and Trump partying together at Mar-a-Lago in the early 1990s.

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday but has previously said he had not talked to Epstein for 15 years before his death.

Sjoberg described going to a dinner at one of Epstein’s homes also attended by magician David Copperfield.

She said Copperfield did magic tricks before asking if she was aware “that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” One of the key allegations against Epstein and Maxwell was that some of the girls he paid for sex acts then acted as recruiters to find him other victims. Sjoberg said Copperfield didn’t get more specific about what he meant.

A publicist for Copperfield did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The records released Wednesday included many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.

A former member of Epstein’s domestic staff said in a deposition that he felt uncomfortable with the number of young women showing up at the house, and felt threatened by Maxwell to stay quiet.

Sworn testimony from two housekeepers allege that Epstein’s former attorney, law professor Alan Dershowitz, came “pretty often to Epstein’s Florida mansion and got massages while he was there.”

In the newly unredacted filings, attorneys for Giuffre reveal that at some point during his deposition, Epstein invoked his Fifth Amendment right rather than answer a question about Dershowitz. It is not known what question prompted that response from Epstein.

Dershowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has strenuously denied any involvement with underage girls. He has said he was looking forward to the document release to help clear his name.

In 2022, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Dershowitz, saying she “may have made a mistake ” in identifying him as an abuser.

Who is Jeffrey Epstein?

A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately allowed the financier to plead guilty in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.

Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison term. Now 62, Maxwell is in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla., and has filed an appeal of the verdict, claiming prosecutors used her as a scapegoat.

What was Jeffrey Epstein convicted of?

Epstein was arrested in Florida in 2005, accused of paying a teenage girl for sex. Despite that dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse around that time, prosecutors ultimately allowed him to plead guilty to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

In 2019, with renewed attention on Epstein and his past, federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking — he then killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

What was Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death?

Epstein hanged himself in his cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Documents obtained by the Associated Press in 2023, including emails between jail officials and psychological evaluations, shed light on the moments leading up to his death. According to the thousands of pages of records obtained, Epstein was anxious and despondent during much of his time in jail, prompting concern from jail guards and psychological experts about his mental state. He complained often about jail life, including poor sleep, constipation, the color of his uniform and his treatment by other detainees. The noise from a broken toilet in his cell left him sitting in the corner with his hands over his ears, according to one psychologist.

These records showed he was moved from the jail’s general population to specialized housing. He also was briefly placed on suicide watch before being downgraded to psychiatric observation — which was his status when he killed himself.

Epstein was found dead on the morning of Aug. 10, 2019. He had hanged himself with a bedsheet, according to the medical examiner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Social media has been rife in recent weeks with posts speculating the documents amounted to a list of rich and powerful men who were Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.” There was no such list.

The first 40 documents in the court-ordered release largely consisted of already public material revealed through nearly two decades of newspaper stories, TV documentaries, interviews, legal cases and books about the Epstein scandal.

Still, the records — including transcripts of interviews with some of Epstein’s victims and old police reports — contained reminders that the millionaire surrounded himself with famous and powerful figures, including a few who have also been accused of misconduct.

There were mentions of Epstein’s past friendship with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — who are not accused of any wrongdoing — and of Britain’s Prince Andrew.

The documents being unsealed are related to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She is one of dozens of women who sued Epstein for abusing them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico. This suit was against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant who is now serving a 20-year prison term for helping recruit and abuse his victims.

Giuffre’s lawsuit was settled in 2017, but the court had kept some documents blacked-out or sealed because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and others whose names had come up during the legal battle. More documents are expected to be released in the coming days.

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In her deposition, Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.

Giuffre also claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein’s social orbit, including Prince Andrew, another unnamed prince, the former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, the owner of a large hotel chain and Glenn Dubin, the billionaire hedge fund manager, among others. All of those men said her accounts were fabricated.

A request from NBC News for a response from Prince Andrew was not immediately returned Wednesday night, but Andrew has long denied her allegations. She settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2022 in which she claimed he had sexually abused her during a trip to London.

A spokesperson for Dubin told NBC News Wednesday that he “strongly den[ies] these allegations” and described them as unsubstantiated statements.

In her deposition, Maxwell disputes most of the accusations made by Giuffre and denies any knowledge of illegal behavior from Epstein.

In a 2016 deposition unsealed Wednesday, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg testified that she once met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., home, but that nothing untoward happened with the late pop icon.

Sjoberg also testified that though she never met Clinton, Epstein once remarked to her that “Clinton likes them young,” a remark she took as a reference to young women or girls. Sjoberg added she had never met Clinton and never saw him on Epstein’s island.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Clinton referred to a 2019 statement that said while the former president acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s jet several times, he never visited his homes, had no knowledge of his crimes, and hadn’t spoken to him in over a decade.

In a deposition, Maxwell said Clinton had dined on Epstein’s plane, but testified Clinton had never visited Epstein’s Caribbean Island, Little St. James.

Trump also appears in Sjoberg’s deposition, but it contains no allegations of wrongdoing.

On one occasion, Sjoberg testified she was on a plane with Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre that landed in Atlantic City after the plane could not land in New York. Upon hearing the change of plans, Sjoberg recalled Epstein saying, “Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to” the casino. Sjoberg wasn’t asked if they’d met up with Trump that night. Later in her testimony, she said she was never asked to give Trump a massage.

Trump was also found to have flown on one of Epstein’s planes at least once, and video emerged in July 2019 of Epstein and Trump partying together at Mar-a-Lago in the early 1990s.

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday but has previously said he had not talked to Epstein for 15 years before his death.

Sjoberg described going to a dinner at one of Epstein’s homes also attended by magician David Copperfield.

She said Copperfield did magic tricks before asking if she was aware “that girls were getting paid to find other girls.” One of the key allegations against Epstein and Maxwell was that some of the girls he paid for sex acts then acted as recruiters to find him other victims. Sjoberg said Copperfield didn’t get more specific about what he meant.

A publicist for Copperfield did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The records released Wednesday included many references to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent close to Epstein who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022. Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse.

A former member of Epstein’s domestic staff said in a deposition that he felt uncomfortable with the number of young women showing up at the house, and felt threatened by Maxwell to stay quiet.

Sworn testimony from two housekeepers allege that Epstein’s former attorney, law professor Alan Dershowitz, came “pretty often to Epstein’s Florida mansion and got massages while he was there.”

In the newly unredacted filings, attorneys for Giuffre reveal that at some point during his deposition, Epstein invoked his Fifth Amendment right rather than answer a question about Dershowitz. It is not known what question prompted that response from Epstein.

Dershowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has strenuously denied any involvement with underage girls. He has said he was looking forward to the document release to help clear his name.

In 2022, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Dershowitz, saying she “may have made a mistake ” in identifying him as an abuser.

Who is Jeffrey Epstein?

A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately allowed the financier to plead guilty in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.

Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison term. Now 62, Maxwell is in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla., and has filed an appeal of the verdict, claiming prosecutors used her as a scapegoat.

What was Jeffrey Epstein convicted of?

Epstein was arrested in Florida in 2005, accused of paying a teenage girl for sex. Despite that dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse around that time, prosecutors ultimately allowed him to plead guilty to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

In 2019, with renewed attention on Epstein and his past, federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking — he then killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

What was Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death?

Epstein hanged himself in his cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Documents obtained by the Associated Press in 2023, including emails between jail officials and psychological evaluations, shed light on the moments leading up to his death. According to the thousands of pages of records obtained, Epstein was anxious and despondent during much of his time in jail, prompting concern from jail guards and psychological experts about his mental state. He complained often about jail life, including poor sleep, constipation, the color of his uniform and his treatment by other detainees. The noise from a broken toilet in his cell left him sitting in the corner with his hands over his ears, according to one psychologist.

These records showed he was moved from the jail’s general population to specialized housing. He also was briefly placed on suicide watch before being downgraded to psychiatric observation — which was his status when he killed himself.

Epstein was found dead on the morning of Aug. 10, 2019. He had hanged himself with a bedsheet, according to the medical examiner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The forty exhibits released Wednesday evening in the first group encompass 942 pages of filings, some of which have not been disclosed in the case.

The vast majority of those whose names appear in the documents aren’t accused of wrongdoing. Some names in the documents may already be public in the case, and are expected to include known associates of Epstein and alleged sexual abuse victims.

The documents, expected to be released on a rolling basis, are part of a defamation lawsuit first filed in 2015 against Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

In her deposition, Maxwell disputes most of the accusations made by Giuffre and denies any knowledge of illegal behavior from Epstein.

Maxwell was also unable to recall details about Epstein’s contact with Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton, who were part of his social circle.

However, Giuffre alleged in her deposition that she was directed at different times to have sex with Prince Andrew, another prince, and the owner of a large hotel chain.

A request from NBC News for a response from Prince Andrew was not immediately returned Wednesday night, but Andrew has long denied her allegations.

In another 2016 deposition unsealed Wednesday, another Epstein accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, said Epstein spoke about Clinton.

“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” Sjoberg said in her deposition reads. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing. Sjoberg added she had never met Clinton and never saw him on Epstein’s island.

In a statement to NBC News in 2019, a spokesman for Clinton said that the former president had not spoken to Epstein in over a decade and was unaware of any criminal activity at that time.

Former President Donald Trump also appears in Sjoberg’s deposition, but it contains no allegations of wrongdoing.

On one occasion, Sjoberg testified she was on a plane with Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre that landed in Atlantic City after the plane could not land in New York.

“Jeffrey said, Great, we’ll call up Trump” and go to a casino, Sjoberg said in her deposition. She also said she never gave Trump a massage.

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday but has previously said he had not talked to Epstein for 15 years before his death.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska last month ordered the materials to be released after Jan. 1, although the names of minor victims who have not testified in the case or were not previously known to the public will remain sealed.

Epstein was facing multiple sex trafficking charges when he hanged himself in a federal jail in New York in August 2019.

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Who Is Jeffrey Epstein?

A millionaire known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein was initially arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse, but prosecutors ultimately allowed the financier to plead guilty in 2008 to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

Some famous acquaintances abandoned Epstein after his conviction, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but many did not. Epstein continued to mingle with the rich and famous for another decade, often through philanthropic work.

Reporting by the Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal, and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking. He killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, for helping recruit his underage victims. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison term. Now 62, Maxwell is in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, and has filed an appeal of the verdict, claiming prosecutors used her as a scapegoat.

What Was Jeffrey Epstein Convicted Of?

Epstein was arrested in Florida in 2005, accused of paying a teenage girl for sex. Despite that dozens of other underage girls described similar sexual abuse around that time, prosecutors ultimately allowed him to plead guilty to a charge involving a single victim. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.

In 2019, with renewed attention on Epstein and his past, federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking — he then killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.

What Was Jeffrey Epstein’s Cause of Death?

Epstein hanged himself in his cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Documents obtained by the Associated Press in 2023, including emails between jail officials and psychological evaluations, shed light on the moments leading up to his death. According to the thousands of pages of records obtained, Epstein was anxious and despondent during much of his time in jail, prompting concern from jail guards and psychological experts about his mental state. He complained often about jail life, including poor sleep, constipation, the color of his uniform and his treatment by other detainees. The noise from a broken toilet in his cell left him sitting in the corner with his hands over his ears, according to one psychologist.

These records showed he was moved from the jail’s general population to specialized housing. He also was briefly placed on suicide watch before being downgraded to psychiatric observation — which was his status when he killed himself.

Epstein was found dead on the morning of Aug. 10, 2019. He had hanged himself with a bedsheet, according to the medical examiner.

What Are These New Epstein Documents?

The documents being unsealed are part of a lawsuit filed against Maxwell in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. She is one of the dozens of women who sued Epstein saying he had abused them at his homes in Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

Giuffre said the summer she turned 17, she was lured away from a job as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to become a “masseuse” for Epstein — a job that involved performing sexual acts.

Giuffre alleged that Epstein sexually abused her and that Maxwell and Epstein directed her to have sex with other men from 2000 to 2002, starting when she was 17. The lawsuit against Maxwell, which Giuffre brought after Maxwell accused her of lying when she said Maxwell and Epstein had exploited and abused her, was eventually settled out of court in 2017.

Giuffre claimed she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein’s social orbit, most famously with Prince Andrew. All of those men have said her accounts were fabricated. She settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2022. That same year, Giuffre withdrew an accusation she had made against Epstein’s former attorney Alan Dershowitz, saying she “may have made a mistake” in identifying him as an abuser.

Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the Miami Herald went to court to access court papers initially filed under seal, including transcripts of interviews the lawyers did with potential witnesses.

About 2,000 pages were unsealed by a court in 2019. Additional documents were released in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

This next batch of records had remained sealed because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and other people whose names had come up during the legal battle but weren’t complicit in his crimes.

New York federal court documents containing previously hidden names of people associated in some way with the late notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein began being unsealed Wednesday evening.

Many of the more than 150 people named in the civil court filings that are in the process of being released have previously been publicly disclosed as connected in some way with Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

They include victims of Epstein who testified at the criminal trial of his procurer and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The documents were filed in connection with a Manhattan federal court lawsuit by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell.

The fact that peoples’ names appear in the files does not necessarily mean they engaged in wrongdoing.

Only Epstein and Maxwell have been criminally charged in connection with his long-standing abuse of girls and young women at residences in New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and elsewhere.

Among the documents unsealed Wednesday was a deposition taken of Giuffre by lawyers for that suit and requests to take other depositions of other individuals by her lawyers.

One such request details how Maxwell in her deposition was unable to recall details about Epstein’s contacts with Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton, who both had been friends of the pedophile.

Andrew in February 2022 agreed to settle out of court a lawsuit filed by Giuffre accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was under the control of Epstein and Maxwell. Andrew has long denied her allegations, but his reputation has been wrecked because of them and because of his connection to Epstein.

Another Epstein accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, in a deposition unsealed Wednesday, was also asked about Clinton by Giuffre’s lawyer.

“Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Bill Clinton?” Giuffre’s attorney asked

Sjoberg responded, “He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”

Clinton has never been accused of sexual misconduct with women or girls connected to Epstein.

A spokesman for Clinton, when asked for comment by NBC News, referred to a statement issued in 2019 that said he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.”

The same statement in 2019 said that Clinton had not spoken to Epstein “in well over a decade.”

Sjoberg in her deposition, was asked if she ever massaged Donald Trump, another former president, who at one point was friends with Epstein.

On one occasion, she testified, she was on a plane with Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre that landed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Trump had casinos, after the plane’s pilots said they could not land in New York.

“Jeffrey said, Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to — I don’t recall the name of the casino, but — we’ll go to the casino,” Sjoberg said.

Sjoberg also testified about an incident involving Prince Andrew at Epstein’s home in Manhattan, when Maxwell went to a closet and pulled out a puppet of Andrew, and then brought it to where the prince was sitting with Giuffre on a couch, and someone suggested taking a photo.

“And so Andrew and Virginia sat on the couch, and they put the puppet, the puppet on her lap,” Sjoberg testified. “And so then I sat on Andrew’s lap, and I believe on my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”

Sjoberg elsewhere testified that the magician David Copperfield was at a dinner at Epstein’s residence and that there was another young girl present.

Sjboberg said Copperfield “questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls.”

Epstein was known to receive sexual massages from girls and young women, some of whom had been recruited by other women for that purpose.

In Maxwell’s deposition, which was filed Wednesday, she was asked about the billionaire Glenn Dubin, a co-founder of the Highbridge Capital hedge fund.

“Did you ever instruct [Giuffre] to have sex with Glenn” Dubin, Giuffre’s lawyer asked Maxwell.

Maxwell replied, “I have never instructed Virginia to have sex with anybody ever.”

Dubin’s spokesman in 2019 denied claims by Giuffre that Maxwell had ever instructed her to have sex with him.

Also mentioned in documents unsealed Wednesday was the late modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, Epstein’s onetime lawyer Alan Dershowitz and the late former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Judge Loretta Preska ordered the unsealing in mid-December.

Preska has granted a 30-day extension barring the disclosure of two names, including a woman identified as Doe 107 to review her claim that she faces a risk of physical harm in her home country if her identity is publicly revealed.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence on charges related to recruiting and grooming young women to be abused by Epstein.

In a statement Wednesday, Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, said that since 2019, when Epstein was arrested and a federal appeals court issued a ruling about access to the court documents, “The public has wondered and many have rightly demanded to know how Epstein operated his vast, global sex trafficking enterprise and got away with it for decades.”

“Questions of who enabled and facilitated him and who participated in an operation that resulted in unspeakable harm and devastation to the lives of countless girls and young women quickly surfaced.  Some of those questions have been answered; many have not,” McCawley said. “Some justice for the survivors has, indeed, been achieved; not nearly enough as hoped for and deserved. The public interest must still be served in learning more about the scale and scope of Epstein’s racket to further the important goal of shutting down sex trafficking wherever it exists and holding more to account. The unsealing of these documents gets us closer to that goal.”

On Tuesday, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, during an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” said in regard to the list of names, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel are really hoping that doesn’t come out.”

“I’ll tell you what, if that list comes out, I definitely will be popping some sort of bottle,” Rodgers said.

Kimmel, the host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show, quickly fired back at Rodgers in a tweet on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, suggesting he would sue the football player if he persisted in implying Kimmel had a connection with Epstein.

“Dear A——-: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any ‘list’ other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality,” Kimmel wrote in the tweet.

“Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”

McAfee apologized Wednesday on his show for “being part of” Rodgers’ comments.

— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Dawn Giel.

The announcement comes seven months after Deutsche Bank settled a U.S. lawsuit for $75 million that claimed the German lender should have seen evidence that the late Jeffrey Epstein engaged in sex trafficking when he was a client.

Torrez’s office has been investigating several financial service companies and their role in what he says is a failure to identify sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls at Epstein’s ranch in Santa Fe County, according to the statement.

“I am pleased that Deutsche Bank recognizes its ongoing responsibility to help us combat this problem,” Torrez, a Democrat, said in the statement. “We appreciate the steps they have taken since terminating Jeffrey Epstein as a client in 2018 to strengthen their oversight capabilities and intend to use their pledge to support our ongoing efforts to apprehend traffickers and expand our victim services.”

A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said the lender is pleased to support Torrez “in this important effort, which reflects our industry’s shared responsibility to play an active role in safeguarding the financial system.”

A woman who alleged she was abused by Epstein had filed a lawsuit in New York against the bank and sought class-action status. She asserted the bank knowingly benefited from Epstein’s sex trafficking and “chose profit over following the law” to earn millions of dollars from the businessman. The settlement was reached in May.

In 2020, the bank acknowledged its mistake in taking on Epstein as a client. Epstein killed himself in prison in August 2019 while facing federal criminal charges of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

A federal judge has ordered the public disclosure of the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in a mountain of court documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying that most of the names were already public and that many had not objected to the release.

The people whose names are to be disclosed, including sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein’s employees — and even some people with only a passing connection to the scandal — have until Jan. 1 to appeal the order, signed Monday by Judge Loretta A. Preska.

For several years, Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from a civil case, filed by one of Epstein’s victims, that eventually was settled.

Many of the records related to that lawsuit were publicly released in past years, but on Monday the judge made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned in the records.

In many instances, she noted that individuals had given media interviews or that their names had previously emerged publicly in various ways, including at a trial two years ago of Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Preska concluded that some portions of the records should remain confidential, including those identifying people who were children when they were sexually abused by Epstein and had tried to maintain their privacy.

The Epstein case has spawned countless conspiracy theories about the possible involvement of rich and powerful people in sex trafficking.

news Sep 26, 2023

JPMorgan Chase settles Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking suit by U.S. Virgin Islands for $75 million

Jeffrey Epstein Aug 23, 2023

Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico ranch is sold for an undisclosed price to a newly registered company

The three criminal cases brought by federal and state authorities, however, have focused on allegations about sexual abuse by Epstein himself and Maxwell.

Epstein took his own life in August 2019 in a federal lockup in Manhattan as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. He was accused of luring numerous underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.

An attorney for Epstein’s estate, Daniel Weiner, confirmed Tuesday that the ranch had been sold for an undisclosed price, and the proceeds would be used to administer the estate and pay creditors. The property was listed in 2021 for $27.5 million. That price was later dropped to $18 million.

Weiner told Albuquerque television station KRQE that the estate would disclose the sales price in its next quarterly accounting that will be filed with the probate court in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

New York City Aug 17, 2023

New York City suggests housing migrants in infamous jail closed after Jeffrey Epstein's suicide

news Jul 31, 2023

JPMorgan moved $1.1 million from Jeffrey Epstein to ‘women or girls' after terminating client relationship, U.S. Virgin Islands alleges

Records kept by the Santa Fe County assessor list the new owner as San Rafael Ranch LLC, which registered with the secretary of state’s office in late July, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

Epstein was found dead in August 2019 in his Manhattan jail cell, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Federal watchdogs have said negligence, misconduct and job failures had enabled him to take his own life.

In New Mexico, Epstein built a 26,700-square-foot mansion with a sprawling courtyard and a living room roughly the size of the average American home. Nearby was a private airstrip with a hangar and helipad. The property also included a ranch office, a firehouse and a seven-bay heated garage.

Epstein purchased the Zorro Ranch in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King.

While Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, the state attorney general’s office in 2019 confirmed that it was investigating and had interviewed possible victims who visited the ranch south of Santa Fe.

The proposal, suggested in an Aug. 9 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration, came as New York struggles to handle the estimated 100,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since last year after crossing the southern U.S. border.

The city is legally obligated to find shelter for anyone needing it. With homeless shelters full, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has taken over hotels, put cots in recreational centers and school gyms and created temporary housing in huge tents.

The letter, written by a senior counsel for the city’s law department, identifies several other sites in which migrants could potentially be housed, including the defunct Metropolitan Correctional Center, which closed in 2021.

That shutdown came after the detention center, whose prisoners have included Mafia don John Gotti, associates of Osama bin Laden and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, came under new scrutiny because of squalid conditions and security lapses exposed following Epstein’s death.

Lawyers had long complained that the jail was filthy, infested with bugs and rodents, and plagued by water and sewage leaks so bad they had led to structural issues.

The letter didn’t make clear whether the city had actually approached the federal Bureau of Prisons about getting access to the jail as residential housing for migrants. As asylum seekers, the migrants are not prisoners and are mostly in the U.S. legally while their asylum applications are pending, leaving them generally free to travel.

In a statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons said “While we decline to comment concerning governmental correspondence, we can provide; MCC New York is closed, at least temporarily, and long-term plans for MCC New York have not been finalized.”

At least one advocacy group assailed the idea of housing migrants at the jail.

“Mayor Adams likes to say that all options are on the table when it comes to housing asylum seekers, but certain places should most definitely be off the table,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “The Metropolitan Correctional Center was a notoriously decrepit jail, and is not a suitable place to support people trying to build a new life in a new country.”

The influx of migrants to the city has created some tension between the Hochul and Adams administrations. Lawyers for the two Democrats have sparred in court filings over how best to confront an issue that carries financial, political and humanitarian implications.

In a letter this week, an attorney representing Hochul sought to reject allegations that the state had not responded to the migrant influx in a substantial way, detailing steps the governor has taken while accusing the city of failing to accept state offers of assistance.

“The City has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the State, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the State before taking certain actions,” the letter said.

Hochul’s attorney also noted the state has set aside $1.5 billion for the city to assist migrants and has advanced the city $250 million for the effort but said the city has only submitted reimbursement documents for just $138 million.

Avi Small, a spokesman for Hochul, said in a statement Thursday that “Governor Hochul is grateful to Mayor Adams and his team for their work to address this ongoing humanitarian crisis. Governor Hochul has deployed unprecedented resources to support the City’s efforts and will continue working closely with them to provide aid and support.”

The city, in its own filing, has suggested Hochul use executive orders or litigation to secure housing for migrants in upstate New York or to consider trying to get neighboring states to accept migrants.

Lawyers for the city are also requesting to use state-owned properties such as the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center or State University of New York dormitories to house new arrivals, in addition to requesting the federal government allow them to use federal sites such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail and Fort Dix.

Adams’ office did not immediately return an emailed request for comment Thursday.

The Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday that a “combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures” by the federal Bureau of Prisons and workers at the New York City jail enabled the wealthy financier to take his own life in August 2019, finding no evidence of foul play.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz blamed numerous factors for Epstein’s death, including the jail’s failure to assign him a cellmate and overworked guards who lied on logs after failing to make regular checks. Had the guards done so, Horowitz said, they would’ve found Epstein had excess linens, which he used in his suicide.

The failures are deeply troubling not only because they allowed Epstein’s suicide but also because they “led to questions about the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death and effectively deprived Epstein’s numerous victims of the opportunity to seek justice,” Horowitz said in a video statement.

Horowitz’s investigation, the last of several official inquiries into Epstein’s death, echoed previous findings that some members of the jail staff involved in guarding Epstein were overworked. He identified 13 employees with performance failures and recommended possible criminal charges against four workers. Only the two workers assigned to guard Epstein the night he died were charged, avoiding jail time in a plea deal after admitting to falsifying logs.

Horowitz’s report also revealed new details about Epstein’s behavior in the days before his death, including that he signed a new last will and testament while meeting with his lawyers two days before he was found unresponsive in his cell the morning of Aug. 10, 2019. Jail officials did not know about the new will until after Epstein’s death, Horowitz said.

Few of the cameras in the area where Epstein was housed were making recordings of the images they captured due to a mechanical failure July 29. The prison had contracted for a camera system upgrade three years before his death, but it had not been completed, in part due to serious staffing shortages.

Meanwhile, Epstein was alone the night of his death, even though the prison’s psychology department had informed 70 employees that he needed to be with a cellmate after his previous suicide attempt in July. His cellmate was nevertheless transferred Aug. 9, with no action taken to replace him. He was also allowed an unmonitored personal phone call the night before he was found dead, a violation of BOP policy.

Horowitz’s report highlighted some of the many problems plaguing the Bureau of Prisons, many of which have been exposed by The Associated Press. The agency, the Justice Department’s largest with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion, is plagued by severe staffing shortages, staff sexual abuse and criminal conduct, among other issues.

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The Bureau of Prisons said it has accepted all eight of Horowitz’s recommendations, has updated its suicide watch process and will apply other lessons learned “to the broader BOP correctional landscape.”

The agency said it will review video to ensure correctional officers are making the proper rounds in restrictive housing and will require more paperwork when prisoners are kept alone in cells. A warden must now be notified when someone is placed on suicide watch, the agency said. It is also requiring specialized training on suicide prevention.

“We make every effort to create a controlled environment within our facilities that is both secure and humane, prioritizing the physical and emotional well-being of those in our care and custody,” the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

Horowitz’s report comes nearly four years after Epstein took his own life at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. It also comes weeks after the AP obtained thousands of pages of records detailing the wealthy financier’s detention and death and its chaotic aftermath.

Horowitz’s investigators found no evidence to suggest anything other than suicide, echoing the findings of New York City’s medical examiner’s office, which determined Epstein killed himself, and a separate FBI investigation that found no crimes directly associated with the death.

No physical evidence supported any of the many conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death, Horowitz concluded, and none of the video captured from the cameras that were recording showed any indication of anyone else in the cell. Investigators probed for possible money changing hands involving guards but found no evidence of that, either.

The workers assigned to guard Epstein were sleeping and shopping online instead of checking on him every 30 minutes as required, prosecutors said.

Nova Noel and Michael Thomas admitted lying on prison records to make it seem as though they had made the checks but avoided prison time under a deal with prosecutors. They left the Bureau of Prisons in April 2022, agency spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone said.

It’s the second time in six months that Horowitz has blamed a high-profile inmate’s death on the Bureau of Prisons’ failings. In December, the inspector general found that management failures, flawed policies and widespread incompetence were factors in notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger’s 2018 beating death at a troubled West Virginia prison.

The AP obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents related to Epstein’s death from the federal Bureau of Prisons under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents, including a reconstruction of events leading to Epstein’s suicide, internal reports, emails, memos and other records, underscored how short staffing and corner-cutting contributed to Epstein’s death.

Epstein spent 36 days at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center. Two weeks before his death, he was placed on suicide watch for 31 hours after what jail officials said was a suicide attempt that left his neck bruised and scraped.

The workers tasked with guarding Epstein the night he died were working overtime. One of them, not normally assigned to guard prisoners, was working a fifth straight day of overtime. The other was working mandatory overtime, which meant a second eight-hour shift in one day.

The documents, including emails between jail officials and psychological evaluations, offer a fuller picture of Epstein as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Epstein killed himself at the federal jail in 2019. In the days and weeks that followed, corrections officials struggled to explain how such a high-profile detainee had managed to take his own life.

The records show how he was moved from the jail’s general population to specialized housing and how he was briefly on suicide watch before being downgraded to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself.

Here are takeaways from the more than 4,000 pages of documents:

An agitated inmate

Epstein was anxious and despondent during much of his time in jail, prompting concern from jail guards and psychological experts about his mental state. He complained often about jail life, including poor sleep, constipation, the color of his uniform and his treatment by other detainees. The noise from a broken toilet in his cell left him sitting in the corner with his hands over his ears, according to one psychologist.

But despite his litany of complaints, Epstein insisted that he wouldn’t take his own life. Even after he was discovered on his cell’s floor with a strip of bedsheet around his neck and placed on suicide watch for 31 hours, he denied that he was contemplating suicide, which he said was against his Jewish religion. Plus, he added, he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain.

“He described having a ‘wonderful life,’’” a psychological evaluation stated. “He said ‘it would be crazy’ to take his life. He furthered, ‘I would not do that to myself.’”

A letter to another sex offender

Among the new revelations was an attempt by Epstein to reach out to another notorious pedophile: Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexually abusing scores of young athletes.

A letter sent by Epstein to Nassar was found returned to sender in the jail’s mail room weeks after Epstein’s death. “It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him,” the investigator who found the letter told a corrections official by email. “I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?”

The letter itself wasn’t included among the documents turned over to the AP, which also don’t indicate what became of the letter.

Final phone call

Epstein was found dead on the morning of Aug. 10, 2019. He had hanged himself with a bedsheet, according to the medical examiner. Hours earlier, he appears to have successfully deceived jail guards one last time by telling them he wanted to talk on the phone to his mother, who had been dead for 15 years.

A correctional officer escorted Epstein to a shower area at around 7 p.m., where he was permitted to make a 15 minute “social call.” Reports later indicated that he had phoned his 30-year-old girlfriend.

Weeks after his death, a jail warden questioned why an employee had failed to follow policy by allowing Epstein to make an unmonitored call.

Muddled response

The documents shed light on the lurching response by the Bureau of Prisons in the critical hours of Epstein’s death.

In one email, a prosecutor involved in Epstein’s criminal case complained to an agency lawyer that it was “frankly unbelievable” that the agency was issuing public news releases “before telling us basic information so that we can relay it to his attorneys who can relay it to his family.”

In another email, the prosecutor wrote of getting “increasingly frantic calls” from Epstein’s lawyers.

“We need to know as soon as possible the very basic facts, such as time and cause of death at the absolute minimum,” wrote the prosecutor, whose name was redacted. “It has now been hours since this was reported publicly,” the prosecutor wrote, adding that it was “extraordinary frustrating to have to tell them that we have less information than the press.”

As news outlets began reporting details of the agency’s failings, a high-ranking federal prison official made the apparently baseless suggestion to the agency’s director that reporters must have been paying jail employees for information.

The aftermath

Epstein’s death touched off a wave of anger toward the Bureau of Prisons and questions about the operation of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. In an internal memo, officials blamed “seriously reduced staffing levels, improper or lack of training, and follow up and oversight” for the death.

Two guards who were supposed to be watching Epstein on the night of his death were found to have falsified records, admitting to napping and browsing the internet instead of monitoring the high-profile inmate.

The documents show other efforts to implement reforms, such as requiring jail captains to review footage ensuring that guards are completing their rounds every 30 minutes. Jail officials said they would allow psychological experts to play a larger role in determining how housing decisions are made.

In some respects, the officials may have overcorrected. A memo sent to the Bureau of Prisons director shortly after Epstein’s death warned that wardens were “defaulting to leaving inmates on suicide watch longer than the psychologists have advised.”

By 2021, the Metropolitan Correctional Center had closed down. An investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general is still ongoing.

___

For more AP coverage of Jeffrey Epstein: https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein

JPMorgan Chase in a court filing Tuesday called the U.S. Virgin Islands “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” saying the sex predator gave high-ranking officials there money, advice and favors in exchange for looking the other way when he trafficked young women to be abused on his island getaway.

“For two decades, and for long after JPMC exited Epstein as a client, the entity that most directly failed to protect public safety and most actively facilitated and benefited from Epstein’s continued criminal activity was the plaintiff in this case — the USVI government itself,” the bank said in the Manhattan federal court filing.

“Rather than stop him, they helped him,” JPMorgan said, citing millions of dollars in tax incentives and other benefits the territory gave Epstein.

That claim comes as JPMorgan defends itself against a civil lawsuit by the Virgin Islands, which alleges that the bank knowingly enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking and benefited from it when he was a customer from 1998 through 2013.

A spokesman for theVirgin Islands’ attorney general’s office told CNBC on Tuesday, “JPMorgan Chase facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, and should be held accountable for violating the law.”

“This is an obvious attempt to shift blame away from JPMorgan Chase, which had a legal responsibility to report the evidence in its possession of Epstein’s human trafficking, and failed to do so,” the spokesman said.

The bank’s filing Tuesday asked Judge Jed Rakoff to deny a motion by the Virgin Islands that would preclude JPMorgan from raising certain so-called affirmative defenses to the lawsuit.

“USVI’s motion seeks to strike only those specific defenses that threaten to expose its relationship with Epstein,” the filing said.

In a footnote, the filing said the Virgin Islands had three governors over the past 16 years: John de Jongh, Kenneth Mapp and current governor Albert Bryan Jr.

“As detailed herein, Epstein had close ties to each of them,” that footnote said.

Earlier Tuesday, another court filing for the first time revealed that Bryan is scheduled to be deposed June 6 for the lawsuit. A source familiar with the situation told CNBC that JPMorgan requested the deposition of Bryan, who has been governor since 2019.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed in the suit Friday in New York.

Rakoff last week authorized the Virgin Islands to serve a subpoena for Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his electric car company, seeking documents that Musk may have showing any communications involving him, Epstein and JPMorgan.

That subpoena is based on suspicion by the territory that Epstein may have referred Musk or tried to refer him to the bank as a client.

Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, maintained a home on a private island in the territory where he sexually abused many young women over the years. He used money from his JPMorgan accounts to pay women and fly them there.

In its filing Tuesday, JPMorgan noted that when Epstein was released from a Florida jail after pleading guilty to procuring a minor for sex, he tried to arrange for his parole to be transferred from that state to the Virgin Islands, where he registered as a sex offender. He also maintained his primary residence in the territory, which “put him under USVI law enforcement’s direct jurisdiction and supervision,” the filing said.

The bank alleges there was a “decades-long quid pro quo between Epstein and the USVI government” that took three forms.

“First, high-ranking USVI officials spent years courting and gladly accepting Epstein’s influence in the form of gifts, favors, and political donations,” the filing said.

“Second, in exchange, USVI granted Epstein preferential treatment in the form of more than $ [amount redacted] million in tax incentives, among other benefits. Third, and most troublingly, USVI protected Epstein, fostering the perfect conditions for Epstein’s criminal conduct to continue undetected.”

Specifically, the filing says Epstein supported the candidacy of Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, after she worked for the USVI Economic Development Authority, which awarded Epstein “massive tax benefits.” Plaskett had also worked at a law firm that represented him in business affairs, the filing says.

Epstein and his employees donated more than $30,000 to Plaskett’s congressional races, according to the bank.

The filing said that Epstein’s “primary conduit for spreading money and influence through” Virgin Islands government was then-first lady Cecile de Jongh, the wife of former Gov. de Jongh, who served from 2007 through 2015.

And “despite her public role and official duties, First Lady de Jongh managed Epstein’s USVI-based companies … receiving from Epstein a salary, bonuses and other benefits,” the filing said.

Much of the details of the claims related to Cecile de Jongh are redacted in the filing, but in one section the bank says that in addition to working for his companies she “extensively lobbied on his behalf with government officials, including the governor.”

In another heavily redacted section, the filing says the Virgin Islands “aided Epstein’s criminal activity.” The specific allegations as to how the government did that is blacked out.

Almost completely redacted is a section of the filing entitled, “Epstein exerted influence over USVI sex offender legislation and received lax monitoring.” In one unredacted section, the bank’s lawyers wrote, “While the USVI did conduct site visits of Epstein’s residences, those inspections were cursory at best.”

“Despite the direct infusions of lucrative tax incentives, [redacted] and lax enforcement, Epstein still could not freely transport and exploit young women without assistance from USVI government officials,” the filing said.

“In exchange for Epstein’s cash and gifts, USVI made life easy for him,” the filing said. “The government mitigated any burdens from his sex offender status. And it made sure that no one asked too many questions about his transport and keeping of young girls on his island.”

The lawsuit against JPMorgan was filed in late December by then-Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, who a month earlier had obtained a $105 million settlement from Epstein’s estate. Days after she filed that suit, Bryan fired George, who had been attorney general for four years.

The governor fired George reportedly because she failed to alert him that she planned to sue JPMorgan, which is the largest bank in the United States.

Despite George’s firing, the Virgin Islands has continued to aggressively pursue its litigation against the bank.

On Tuesday, there was another in a series of private telephone conferences with Rakoff over the case.

A public docket entry summarized the outcome of that conference, which included lawyers for the Virgin Islands, JPMorgan, former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley and an Epstein accuser who has a separate, similar lawsuit pending against the bank. JPMorgan is trying to shift any legal liability it may have in the suit to Staley, who was a point of contact for Epstein at the bank.

“The deposition of Albert Bryan, Jr. is ordered to proceed on June 6,” that docket entry says.

The entry also says that “all parties other than JP Morgan are ordered to contact former officers and directors of JP Morgan only through counsel.”

CNBC requested comment from lawyers for the Virgin Islands and from JPMorgan about the conference Tuesday.

Epstein, 66, died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, a month after he was arrested and charged in Manhattan federal court with child sex trafficking.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl and was sentenced to 13 months in jail.

His prior criminal case and stint in jail, which were known to JPMorgan at the time, came in the middle of his tenure as a customer of the bank, where he maintained accounts from 1998 until the bank severed its relationship with him in 2013.

Epstein became a customer of Deutsche Bank after that.

Deutsche Bank last week agreed to settle a Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed by another Epstein accuser who alleged that bank enabled and benefited from his sex trafficking. Deutsche Bank will pay Epstein victims $75 million in that deal.

Deutsche Bank in 2020 agreed to pay a $150 million fine to New York’s financial regulator for its dealings with Epstein and other issues.

“We acknowledge our error onboarding Epstein in 2013, and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and our shortcomings,” bank spokesman Dylan Riddle said last week.

— CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

Correction: Some previous headlines for this story were updated to reflect the correct spelling of Jeffrey Epstein’s name.

Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million to victims of sex predator Jeffrey Epstein to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the bank of enabling and benefitting from its customer’s sex trafficking of young women, sources told CNBC on Wednesday night.

The bombshell deal still leaves JPMorgan Chase to defend its own would-be class action lawsuit by Epstein accusers in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, which involves similar allegations.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has said the bank is not liable for sex trafficking by its former long-time customer Epstein, is due to be deposed in that suit, and a related one by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands on May 26.

The settlement agreement by Deutsche Bank, which will set aside $75 million for Epstein accusers, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Under the deal, victims of Epstein who were affected by his sex trafficking during the time when he was a customer of Deutsche Bank, from 2013 through 2018, would receive at least $75,000 and up to $5 million depending on an evaluation of their claims.

Deutsche Bank spokesman Dylan Riddle would not comment on the deal, but noted that his bank has spent more than 4 billion euros [$4.34 billion] to strengthen internal financial controls.

“In recent years Deutsche Bank has made considerable progress in remedying a number of past issues,” Riddle said. 

He noted that in 2020, when the bank agreed to pay a $150 million fine to New York’s financial regulator for its dealings with Epstein and other issues, Deutsche Bank had said, “We acknowledge our error onboarding Epstein in 2013, and the weaknesses in our processes, and have learnt from our mistakes and our shortcomings.”

The two law firms representing the accusers, Edwards Pottinger and Boies Schiller Flexner, in a joint statement obtained by CNBC said: “This groundbreaking settlement is the culmination of two law firms conducting more than a decade-long investigation to hold one of Epstein’s financial banking partners responsible for the role it played in facilitating his trafficking organization.”

The suit, which was seeking class-action status, was filed in November by a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe. She alleged Deutsche Bank knowingly participated in and financially benefited from participating in Epstein’s sex trafficking “by providing the requisite financial support for the continued operation” of that scheme.

“Deutsche Bank also knew that Epstein would use means of force, threats of force, fraud, abuse of legal process, exploitation of power disparity, and a variety of other forms of coercion to cause young women and girls to engage in commercial sex acts,” the suit says.

“Knowing that they would earn millions of dollars from facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking, and from its relationship with Epstein, Deutsche Bank chose profit over following the law,” the suit said. “Specifically, Deutsche Bank chose facilitating a sex trafficking operation in order to churn profits.”

Epstein, who had been a customer of JPMorgan from 1998 through 2013, became a customer of Deutsche Bank after JPMorgan ended its banking relationship with him.

“Deutsche Bank picked up exactly where JPMorgan left off and became the bank that Epstein needed to fund his sexual abuse and sex-trafficking operation,” the suit says.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019, a month after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

His arrest in that case came 10 years after he served a jail sentence or more than a year for pleading guilty in Florida state court to soliciting sex for money from an underage girl. That 2008 guilty plea was widely publicized.

The 4th District Court of Appeal overturned a December 2021 ruling by the 15th Judicial Circuit that blocked The Palm Beach Post from access to the information, NBC affiliate WPTV reported.

The ruling Wednesday said the 15th Judicial Circuit improperly relied on a legal rule to deny the request.

“Today’s ruling is the first step in the process for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims to get the answers they deserve,” Circuit Court Clerk Joseph Abruzzo wrote in a statement. “Under the direction provided today by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, a judge would have the power to review the Epstein records and the discretion to direct our office to release them.

In 2006, Epstein pleaded guilty to a single charge of solicitation of prostitution, despite claims of several underage women back then who told authorities Epstein forced them into sexual relations with him at his Palm Beach home.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 after federal prosecutors brought several new charges against him.

Records obtained by The Post show former State Attorney Barry Krischer portrayed Epstein’s teenage victims as prostitutes in front of the grand jury and sought to minimize the crimes.

Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

The Wall Street giant sued Staley in March, saying he should be held liable for any financial damages the bank might have to pay from two lawsuits that alleged the bank enabled Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.

JPMorgan has denied liability.

Staley, who worked at the bank for more than 30 years, asked a federal judge in April to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the bank was using him as a “public relations shield.”

In response, the bank this week alleged that Staley knew of Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise and engaged in “sexual activity with young women procured by Epstein,” but “acted to protect himself and Epstein (who could have exposed Staley’s misconduct),” court documents said.

Staley’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The settlement comes nearly three years after Denise N. George, the attorney general of the U.S. territory, filed the lawsuit against Epstein, a New York financier who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“This settlement restores the faith of the people of the Virgin Islands that its laws will be enforced, without fear or favor, against those who break them,” George said in a statement Wednesday. “We are sending a clear message that the Virgin Islands will not serve as a haven for human trafficking.”

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

Attorneys for Cheri Pierson, who filed the suit Monday in New York state court in Manhattan, said the “brutal attack” by Leon Black took place in a suite of the luxury townhouse that contained a massage table and was connected to a bathroom, according to court filings. 

Black, the co-founder of investment firm Apollo Global Management, stepped down as head of the firm after an independent review of his ties to Epstein in 2021. The review, carried out by a New York law firm, declared that Black was not involved in Epstein’s criminal activities. 

“Black had the opportunity and the means to rape Ms. Pierson that day because their meeting was pre-arranged by his close friend and confidant, Epstein,” the lawsuit alleges. 

Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich of Estrich Goldin, told NBC News that “we intend to defeat these baseless claims, and to pursue all of our remedies to hold the [plaintiff’s firm] legally accountable for their abusive conduct and misuse of the courts.”

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against the prominent lawyer was withdrawn Tuesday, court records in New York show. She and Dershowitz issued a joint statement saying the resolution of the lawsuit did not involve the payment of money or anything else.

In a statement, Giuffre said she had “long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations.

“I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz. This litigation has been very stressful and burdensome for me and my family, and we believe it is time to bring it to an end and move on with our lives,” she said.

Dershowitz said he was gratified that the claims were withdrawn and Giuffre has admitted she may have made a mistake.

“As I have said from the beginning, I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said,” said Dershowitz, a retired Harvard University law professor.

He added: “Ms. Giuffre is to be commended for her courage in now stating publicly that she may have been mistaken about me. She has suffered much at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combatting the evil of sex trafficking.”

The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes unless they give their consent.

Giuffre had filed a defamation lawsuit against Dershowitz after accusing a number of prominent men, including Andrew, of sexually exploiting her when she was 17 and 18 years old.

She had said in court filings that Epstein made her his teenage “love slave” and forced her to have sex with Dershowitz a half-dozen times in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She said Dershowitz also witnessed Epstein abusing other girls.

Dershowitz has consistently denied any sexual contact with Giuffre, saying he had never met her. He told The Associated Press three years ago that his documents contradicted Giuffre’s claims as to his whereabouts. He said Giuffre’s story had evolved over time and that she initially didn’t implicate him in her sex trafficking account.

In court papers in 2019, Dershowitz said Giuffre’s claims had led him to suffer severe emotional distress, including “cardiac conditions.”

Prince Andrew’s lawyer did not immediately comment on the news of Giuffre’s settlement with Dershowitz.

In February, it was announced that Giuffre’s lawsuit against Andrew was settled. The deal called for the prince to make a substantial donation to Giuffre’s charity.

In a statement, the prince said he “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.”

Andrew acknowledged that Epstein trafficked “countless young girls” over many years and said the prince “regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”

She had alleged she had sex with Andrew three times: in London during a 2001 trip, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.

Andrew repeatedly denied Giuffre’s allegations and has said he can’t recall ever meeting her, although a photograph of Giuffre and Andrew together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, was included in Giuffre’s lawsuit against him.

Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a federal Manhattan jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

His former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a Florida federal jail following her conviction last December for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Lt. Justin Stanko, of Derby police, said evidence at the scene — including a car, cell phone and a medical record — all pointed to the person being Hoffenberg. But the body could not be immediately identified because of an advanced stage of decomposition, and officials were waiting for confirmation from dental records, he said.

Stanko said it appears the person had been dead for at least seven days. An initial autopsy was inconclusive but determined there were no signs of trauma. The cause of death was pending toxicology test results.

“There’s not one thing that doesn’t point to it not being him,’ Stanko told The Associated Press.

A private investigator for a woman who identified herself as a sexual assault victim of Epstein’s called police and requested a welfare check at the multifamily home on Tuesday, saying the woman had not heard from Hoffenberg for five days and that was unusual, police said.

Officers went to the home and were able to see the body by looking through a first-floor window, Stanko said. Derby is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of Bridgeport.

It was not immediately clear when the dental records check would be complete.

Hoffenberg, 77, who once tried to buy the New York Post, was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison for one of the country’s largest Ponzi schemes. He admitted that he swindled thousands of investors out of $460 million. He was released from federal custody in 2013, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Hoffenberg, however, later claimed Epstein was the “architect” of the scam, in a 2019 interview with The Washington Post. At the time of the scheme, Epstein worked for Hoffenberg’s bill collection company, Towers Financial Corp. Epstein, however, was never charged in the fraud.

Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in New York City in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations that he sexually abused dozens of girls.

Hoffenberg briefly took over the New York Post in 1993 while bidding to own it. The Post reported that Hoffenberg funded the paper for three months and rescued it from bankruptcy. His efforts to buy the paper were derailed by civil fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to the criminal prosecution of the Ponzi case.

Denver-based Haddon, Morgan and Foreman alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday that Maxwell put her brother Kevin Maxwell in charge of paying her legal fees after she was arrested in 2020 but that he only paid a fraction of what they had charged leading up to and during her trial. Kevin Maxwell urged the firm to keep working on appeal issues after she was convicted despite the unpaid bills and had blamed Maxwell’s husband, Scott Borgerson, for getting in the way of making payments, according to the lawsuit filed in Denver.

The lawsuit alleges that Borgerson formed an LLC to buy real estate to shield his wife’s assets from creditors.

Two lawyers at the law firm — Laura Menninger and Jeffrey Pagliuca — were part of Maxwell’s legal team during her trial in New York.

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Maxwell was found guilty in December of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges. She was sentenced in June to 20 years in prison and is serving time at FCI Tallahassee, a low-security federal prison in Florida’s capital.

Emails and telephone messages left for two of Maxwell’s defense attorneys, Christian Everdell and Bobbi Sternheim, were not returned. Calls to telephone numbers listed for Borgeson were not returned. Kevin Maxwell could not be immediately located for comment. In an email, his brother, Ian Maxwell, said nobody in the family, including Ghislaine Maxwell, would comment on the litigation.

According to the lawsuit, Haddon, Morgan and Foreman — a firm founded by former public defenders that has represented other high-profile clients like basketball star Kobe Bryant and John Ramsey, the father of JonBenet Ramsey, first began representing Maxwell in a 2015 lawsuit brought by Virginia Guiffre.

In lawsuits, Giuffre claimed that starting when she was 17, Epstein and Maxwell set up sexual encounters with royalty, politicians, businessmen and other rich and powerful men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. Andrew strenuously denied the allegations and agreed to settle the lawsuit against him earlier this year.