Since a judge unsealed court documents containing details about the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it has been a race to uncover new details about the late financier’s sex-trafficking case and identify his famous associates, especially anyone with an Oscar.
Released to the public on January 3, the filings were a part of a 2015 defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell brought by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who claimed the disgraced socialite branded her a liar over Giuffre’s allegations that she was abused as a child. The case ended in a settlement two years later, but these 40 documents still need some debunking.
Throughout a 900-page-long trove of material containing depositions, motions, and various court documents, the unsealed papers do not function as a client list or Epstein’s contact directory. Being named does not indicate wrongdoing, despite what a random person on Twitter will tell you, though one mention of the late Stephen Hawking in an email between Epstein and Maxwell was shocking:
Epstein wrote to Maxwell in 2015 about trying to find people to combat the Virginia Guffrie allegation that “stven hawking partica-ted in an underage orgy,” read the email. Some were even speculating appearances in the documents with quarterback Aaron Rodgers suggesting Jimmy Kimmel would be named. Spoiler alert: He wasn’t, and Kimmel was pissed to even be brought up.
Others were actually mentioned in the documents, though in a not-so-stunning manner. In one deposition, alleged victim Johanna Sjoberg is examined by attorney Laura Menninger, who asked Sjoberg about press reports saying she met Cate Blanchett and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Sjoberg affirms that she never met either Blanchett or DiCaprio, only that Epstein name-dropped and claimed to be taking calls from the two A-list actors in front of her. “He would be on the phone a lot at that time, and one time he said, ‘Oh, that was Leonardo,’ or, ‘That was Cate Blanchett,’ or Bruce Willis,” she told the attorney, according to documents reviewed by Vulture. Sjoberg added that she did not meet Cameron Diaz or Naomi Campbell, either.
In the case of Campbell, her name did come up in other places — Giuffre alleged Ghislaine Maxwell forced her to have sex with the owner of a large hotel chain around the time of Campbell’s birthday party in the latest batch of unsealed docs. The year was not indicated. In filings released in 2023, one of Epstein’s accusers alleged the late sex offender used Campbell’s name to lure victims with the promise of introducing them to modeling contacts and went to a Paris event hosted by the supermodel in 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Sjoberg’s deposition also mentioned other big names — magician David Copperfield and Michael Jackson. She claimed she met the late King of Pop but did not give him a massage. As for Copperfield, Sjoberg said he “questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid
to find other girls.” New details also emerged about Donald Trump, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and Jean-Luc Brunel. Previously released documents revealed scholar Noam Chomsky accompanied Epstein on a flight to have dinner with Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, per The Wall Street Journal, together with designer Vera Wang and tech mogul Bill Gates. There’s being named and there’s being named, and so far, celebrities like DiCaprio and Blanchett are on the former side of the coin.
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