Litigation involving Jeffrey Epstein
file:Jeffrey epstein 2008 mugshot.jpg|thumb|Mug shot of Epstein in 2008
American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ran a ring of female sex traffickers, who were tasked with recruiting underage females into his orbit for his sexual gratification. His close friend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was the chief recruiter and some-time participant in his crimes.
The New York Times in 2019 reported that Sarah Kellen, Lesley Groff, Adriana Ross and Nadia Marcinkova were part of the Epstein system, as well as Haley Robson, and published that "Recruiters were allegedly told to target young, financially desperate women, and to promise them help furthering their education and careers." Rina Oh is another Epstein recruiter who spoke to the press in 2021. Kellen, Groff, Ross and Marcinkova were listed as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the Acosta 2007 plea deal, and Judge Nathan in her 2022 judgment of Maxwell fingered Kellen as "a knowing participant in the criminal conspiracy" and said she was "a criminally responsible participant." Journalist Nick Bryant maintained in an October 2024 interview with Shawn Bryant that Epstein trafficked girls below the age of 10 in part from places like Yugoslavia, which in the 1990s was undergoing a particularly brutal civil war. It is written in Politico magazine that:
The co-executors of Epstein's estate, Darren K. Indyke and Richard Kahn, have inserted a clause in the estate's victim compensation fund whereby applicants cannot sue Epstein's employees.
''Jane Doe v. Epstein'' (2008)
On February 6, 2008, an anonymous Virginia woman, known as Jane Doe No. 2, filed a $50-million civil lawsuit in federal court against Epstein, saying that when she was a 16-year-old minor in 2004 and 2005, she was "recruited to give Epstein a massage". She claims she was taken to his mansion, where he exposed himself and had sexual intercourse with her, and paid her $200 immediately afterward. A similar $50-million suit was filed in March 2008 by a different woman, who was represented by the same lawyer. These and several similar lawsuits were dismissed. All other lawsuits had been settled by Epstein out of court; Epstein made many out-of-court settlements with alleged victims.Victims' rights: ''Jane Does v. United States'' (2014)
A December 30, 2014, federal civil suit was filed in Florida by Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 against the United States for violations of the Crime Victims' Rights Act by the U.S. Department of Justice's NPA with Epstein and his limited 2008 state plea. There was a later, unsuccessful effort to add Virginia Roberts and another woman as plaintiffs to that case. The addition accused Alan Dershowitz of sexually abusing a minor, Jane Doe 3, provided by Epstein. The allegations against Dershowitz were stricken by the judge and eliminated from the case because he said they were outside the intent of the suit to re-open the plea agreement. A document filed in court alleges that Epstein ran a "sexual abuse ring", and lent underage girls to "prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders".This long-running lawsuit is pending in federal court, aimed at vacating the federal plea agreement on the grounds that it violated victims' rights. On April 7, 2015, Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that the allegations made by alleged victim Virginia Roberts against Prince Andrew had no bearing on the lawsuit by alleged victims seeking to reopen Epstein's non-prosecution plea agreement with the federal government; the judge ordered that allegation to be struck from the record. Judge Marra made no ruling as to whether claims by Roberts are true or false. Though he did not allow Jane Does 3 and 4 to join the suit, Marra specifically said that Roberts may later give evidence when the case comes to court.
On February 21, 2019, in the case of Two Jane Does v. United States, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Kenneth Marra said federal prosecutors violated the law by failing to notify victims before they allowed him to plead guilty to only the two Florida offenses. The judge left open what the possible remedy could be.
''Virginia Giuffre v. Epstein'' (2015)
In a December 2014 Florida court filing by Bradley Edwards and Paul G. Cassell meant for inclusion in the Crime Victims' Rights Act lawsuit, Virginia Giuffre, alleged in a sworn affidavit that at age 17, she had been sexually trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for their own use and for use by several others, including Prince Andrew and retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre also claimed that Epstein, Maxwell and others had physically and sexually abused her. She alleged that the FBI may have been involved in a cover-up. She said she had served as Epstein's sex slave from 1999 to 2002, and had recruited other underage girls. Prince Andrew, Epstein, and Dershowitz all denied having had sex with Giuffre. Dershowitz took legal action over the allegations.Giuffre filed a defamation suit against Dershowitz, claiming he purposefully made "false and malicious defamatory statements" about her. A diary purported to belong to Giuffre was published online. In January 2015 Epstein entered an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre, as he had done in several other lawsuits. In 2019, Giuffre was interviewed by the BBC's Panorama where she continued to attest that Epstein had trafficked her to Prince Andrew. She appealed directly to the public by stating: "I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being okay." As of January 2015 these accusations had not been tested in any court of law.
''Virginia Giuffre v. Ghislaine Maxwell'' (2015)
As a result of Giuffre's allegations and Maxwell's comments about them, Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation in September 2015. After much legal confrontation, the case was settled under seal in May 2017. The Miami Herald, other media, and Alan Dershowitz filed to have the documents about the settlement unsealed. After the judge dismissed their request, the matter was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.On March 11, 2019, in the appeal of the district judge's refusal to unseal the documents relating to the 2017 defamation settlement of Giuffre v. Maxwell, the Second Circuit Court gave parties one week to provide good cause as to why they should remain under seal, without which they would be unsealed on March 19, 2019. Due to speculation of what prominent names might be exposed related to Epstein’s trafficking of minors, the documents were misrepresented on social media and news outlets as a “list”.
In testimony, Giuffre claimed that she was "directed" by Maxwell to give erotic massages and engage in sexual activities with Prince Andrew; Jean-Luc Brunel; Glenn Dubin; Marvin Minsky; Governor Bill Richardson; another unnamed prince; an unnamed foreign president; "a well known Prime Minister"; and an unnamed hotel chain owner from France, among others. Giuffre testified: "my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy. Their whole entire lives revolved around sex."
On August 9, less than 24 hours before Epstein's death, 2,000 pages of previously sealed documents from the case were released. Two sets of additional sealed documents were expected to be analyzed by a federal judge to determine whether they should also be made public. A "John Doe" asked the judge on September 3 to permanently keep the documents secret, claiming "unproven allegations of impropriety" could damage his reputation, though he had no evidence his name was included.
''Jane Doe v. Epstein and Trump'' (2016)
A federal lawsuit filed in California in April 2016 against Epstein and Donald Trump by a California woman alleged that the two men sexually assaulted her at a series of parties at Epstein's Manhattan residence in 1994, when she was 13 years old. The suit was dismissed by a federal judge in May 2016 because it did not raise valid claims under federal law. The woman filed another federal suit in New York in June 2016, but it was withdrawn three months later, apparently without being served on the defendants. A third federal suit was filed in New York in September 2016; the plaintiff, who resided in California, demanded a jury trial. The plaintiff alleged that Epstein raped her:The two latter suits included affidavits by a Tiffany Doe who attested to the accusations in the suits, asserting that Epstein employed her to procure underage girls, including Jane at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, for him and that she had witnessed the rape by Epstein; and a Joan Doe who declared the plaintiff had told her about the assaults at the time they occurred. The plaintiff, who had filed anonymously as Jane Doe, was scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles press conference six days before the 2016 election, but abruptly canceled the event; her lawyer Lisa Bloom asserted that the woman had received threats. The suit was dropped on November 4, 2016. Trump attorney Alan Garten denied the allegations, while Epstein declined to comment.