Edited by Deepali Verma
The latest batch of unsealed documents of Jeffrey Epstein’s case have unveiled that the late financier recorded ‘sex tapes’ of prominent people such as former US President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson and Britain’s Prince Andrew.
The allegations were brought to light by Sarah Ransome who is one of the witnesses in the case. However, Epstein’s defence team has shown tremendous effort to undermine the reliability of Ransome’s allegations.
Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz is of the view that Ransome’s claims “manifestly lack credibility”. Firstly, the court was not provided with any proof of the existence of any tapes. Secondly, the allegations initially made were retracted by Ransome soon after. The lawyer further stated that Ransome gave a victim impact statement prior to the sentencing of Ghislaine Maxwell -Epstein’s former girlfriend- for sex trafficking.
She wrote extensively in the emails, “When my friend engaged in sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were filmed on each separate occasion by Jeffrey Epstein. She managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes that clearly identifies the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her. When my friend eventually gathered courage to speak out and approached the police in 2008 to report what had happened, no action was taken and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson, and Prince Andrew,” the court documents revealed.
Ransom also engaged in serious accusations against former US President Donald Trump.
The former US President has also found his name among the accused in the email extracts from Ransome, who alleges that he “had sexual relations with her friend at Jeffrey’s New York mansion on regular occasions”.
However, Ransome soon withdrew her claims, saying: “I want to walk away from this … I shouldn’t have contacted you and I’m sorry I wasted your time. It’s not worth coming forward and I will never be heard anyhow and only bad things will follow as a consequence of me going public”.
WHO IS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?
A millionaire with associations involving celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars, Epstein became the centre of a police investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after he faced the accusation of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. He was arrested in 2006.
Dozens of other underage girls came forward and 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 programme.
The Miami Herald renewed interest in the scandal and federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking where he killed himself in jail while awaiting trial.
