Judge denied Epstein accuser's request to depose Bill Clinton, 'Epstein list' records show

Former President Bill Clinton wasn't required to testify in a defamation case against Jeffrey Epstein's socialite former girlfriend after a judge ruled an Epstein accuser hadn't proven his testimony was relevant, newly-unsealed documents show.

The 2016 ruling was part of a third drop of unsealed documents in the defamation case filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of helping him sexually exploit and abuse minor girls, and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The 1000-plus pages released on Friday show lawyers for Giuffre and Maxwell battling over witnesses, evidence, and old recollections in a high-stakes lawsuit in which millions of dollars and dozens of reputations were on the line.

Like previous releases on Wednesday and Thursday, the Friday documents contained no allegations of criminal wrongdoing against Clinton, former President Donald Trump, and several other prominent people whose names appear in the court records. This batch dealt largely with pre-trial maneuvering in Giuffre's lawsuit, including the effort to force Clinton to appear for closed-door questioning.

Seeking Clinton's testimony

In the documents released this week, Giuffre walked back a claim that Maxwell flew Clinton onto Epstein's private Caribbean Island. According to a deposition transcript, Giuffre said Maxwell had told her she had flown Clinton onto the island, adding that Maxwell often said things that sounded "fantastical," and that Giuffre didn't know "whether it's true or not."

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Maxwell had zeroed in on Giuffre's claim about the purported Clinton island visit as part of an effort to discredit her accuser, which contributed to Clinton's repeated appearance in the unsealed documents.

A British tabloid reported in 2011 that Giuffre said she had seen Clinton on Epstein's island shortly after his presidency ended, had dinner with him, and claimed to have witnessed Maxwell flying Clinton to the island in a "big, black helicopter." But in the 2016 deposition, Giuffre suggested the journalist had twisted her words.

While her request to depose Clinton was denied, Giuffre was allowed to depose several other individuals, including Maxwell, the Friday documents show. Giuffre's lawsuit against Maxwell ended with a settlement in 2017.

A Clinton spokesperson said in 2019 that Clinton didn't know anything about Epstein's illegal behavior.

"He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida," the spokesperson said.

Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

Attempts to uncover evidence

In 2016, attorneys for Giuffre asked Maxwell for all emails she may have sent or received containing any of more than 360 search terms or names, including "slave," "erotic" and "illegal."

More: Jeffrey Epstein document release highlights his sprawling connections across states

The attorneys also accused Maxwell of withholding evidence, and argued the judge should instruct any jury in the case to draw an inference against Maxwell for her alleged failure to turn over evidence.

"Most notably, Defendant claims to have run search terms and reviewed over 10,000 documents, but, remarkably, claims that not a single document − not one − is relevant to this litigation, and therefore produced nothing with respect to the search," Giuffre's lawyers wrote.

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Attorney Alan Dershowitz, who was himself accused by Giuffre before she dropped the allegation, said people should focus on what he called exculpatory evidence in the newly-released files.

"I want everything in the Epstein case unsealed," he said on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). "That’s why I demanded unsealing from the beginning because I have nothing to hide."

Giuffre also claimed to have been trafficked to Prince Andrew, which he denied. He settled her lawsuit against him for an undisclosed sum in 2022.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Request for Bill Clinton's testimony was denied in 'Epstein list' case