Clinton and Trump are named in Jeffrey Epstein documents; no wrongdoing alleged

Editor's note: New documents were released Thursday, with references to powerful politicians, celebrities and billionaires. You can read the updated report here.

WASHINGTON − Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are mentioned in newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein-related court documents, but they are not accused of any wrongdoing involving the disgraced sex trafficking financier.

Clinton, who sometimes flew aboard Epstein's private plane, is listed repeatedly in the documents. He was the topic of an argument over the credibility of a witness who said she saw the former president when he was a guest of Epstein's.

Trump's name appears in a document in which Epstein is quoted as saying he would invite the then-real estate mogul to join him at a casino. In another document, a witness said she was never asked to engage in sexual relations with Trump.

Guilt by association with Jeffrey Epstein?

The unsealed documents also list prominent people who have denied accusations against them, including Prince Andrew of Great Britain and prominent litigator Alan Dershowitz.

"The Epstein list and guilt by association," Dershowitz said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. On Fox News, Dershowitz said that “the woman who accused me has now stated categorically that she may have misidentified me continuously with someone else. … I never met her, never heard of her, never spoke to her.”

More: Woman who accused Prince Andrew drops 'mistaken' allegations against Alan Dershowitz

Among others named: billionaire hedge fund founder Glenn Dubin, high-powered fashion CEO Les Wexner, and deceased modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

All of the accused have denied allegations of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. Most of the documents unsealed late Wednesday were part of a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims. More documents − and names − were expected to be released on Thursday.

Disclosure helps survivors of abuse, lawyers say

One of Giuffre's attorneys, Sigrid McCawley, said that more needs to be known about "who enabled and facilitated" Epstein's trafficking network and that survivors of his abuse deserve more justice.

"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," McCawley said.  "The unsealing of these documents gets us closer to that goal."

Other names released Wednesday include sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, and Epstein associates and employees. Many had only a tangential connection to the financier, who was accused of operating an international sex trafficking ring targeting underage girls. Some of the people named are now deceased.

Related: Epstein list brings a frenzy of Clinton and Trump conspiracies

More: What's true and false about Jeffrey Epstein and the individuals on his list

David Ring, a California-based trial lawyer who has represented many sexual abuse victims, said public release of information can help victims gain closure. He noted that victims are often restricted by civil settlements from talking about the abuse they experienced.

"Anytime that there's a spotlight that's shown on the perpetrator and his circle of friends and what went on there, I think that's a good thing," Ring said. "It gives the victims a lot of closure, frankly, instead of just secrecy where they're not even allowed to talk about it."

Trump and Clinton supporters trade accusations

Earlier releases listed Clinton and Trump as passengers on Epstein's private plane, but neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

For years, supporters of Trump and Clinton have accused each of the former presidents of greater involvement with Epstein. But nothing in the new documents backs up those claims.

Trump posed with Epstein and partner Ghislaine Maxwell in a now-famous photo taken in 2000 at Mar-a-Lago, his private Palm Beach club. In 2002 he referred to Epstein as a "terrific guy” in an interview with New York Magazine.

“He’s a lot of fun to be with," Trump said. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

Trump later said he had broken with Epstein. "I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years," Trump said in 2019. "I wasn't a fan."

More: Jimmy Kimmel strikes back at Aaron Rodgers after he speculates comedian is on Epstein list

Spokespeople for Clinton have said that he made trips to Europe, Asia and Africa on Epstein's plane and that the former president had met with the financier in his Manhattan office in 2002.

"President Clinton 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,” a Clinton spokesman said in 2019.

Among the documents released Wednesday is the transcript of a 2016 deposition in which a second Epstein victim testified that Epstein "said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls." She didn't elaborate.

That victim testified that after landing in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on one occasion, "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.'" She also said in the deposition that Prince Andrew had inappropriately touched her at Epstein's mansion in New York.

Victim's lawsuit led to years of litigation

U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered the unsealing of more documents in mid-December, noting that most of the information was already public and that people named in the documents had not objected to their release.

Hours before the release, Judge Preska wrote Wednesday that two people identified as "Doe 107" and "Doe 110" had asked that their names remain under seal pending future court action.

The documents stem from a now-settled 2015 lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein and Maxwell of directing her involvement with prominent men.

Epstein's private island

In pretrial litigation, Maxwell said that Giuffre lied about seeing Clinton on Epstein's private Caribbean island and that this assertion undercut her credibility in general. This dispute is the reason the former president's name pops up so frequently in the documents.

Clinton's office said in 2019 that the former president had never been to Epstein's island and had "not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade.”

More: 'Friends' actor Matthew Perry was not on Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs | Fact check

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein was a wealthy financier known for mixing with celebrities, scientists, politicians and billionaires. He was first arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 on charges he paid a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Even though other girls described similar abuse, a now-controversial deal allowed Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to a single charge, and he was allowed to spend days at his office while sleeping at the county jail during his 13-month sentence.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Epstein with sex trafficking in 2019 after the Miami Herald renewed interest in the case. He died by suicide in jail awaiting trial. Since then, dozens of boldfaced names have seen their reputations suffer for associating with Epstein.

“He’s going to haunt a lot of people,” said George Arzt, a veteran Democratic political consultant.

A jailhouse suicide and unanswered questions

The Miami Herald intervened for access to records from Giuffre's suit in 2018. This was the eighth round of releases involving the Epstein case.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

More: Jeffrey Epstein survivor who testified against Ghislaine Maxwell dies in Florida

Maxwell’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, told NewsNation that she probably would have little to say about the latest Epstein document release.

“I don’t think she has anything to talk about, except, maybe, that if you look at this crime − this overall crime − it’s all about men abusing women for a long period of time," he said. "And it’s only one person in jail − a woman."

In a written statement, Aidala and attorney Diana Fabi Samson said the documents have no bearing on Maxwell's appeal.

The statement said that "Ghislaine’s focus is on the upcoming appellate argument asking for her entire case to dismissed. ... She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Court releases names of Jeffrey Epstein associates including Clinton and Trump