Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, returned to national infamy this year after a federal judge ordered the unsealing of hundreds of documents about allegations against him in a civil lawsuit.
While Epstein’s brother, Mark, is not alone in questioning the government’s conclusion that he died of suicide in federal custody, there is also great public interest in the disgraced financier’s associates, clients and potential accomplices.
Here are some of the biggest Epstein revelations of 2024:
The Jeffrey Epstein list: Court unseals names in Ghislaine Maxwell lawsuit
Nearly 200 names that had previously been redacted from court documents in a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s former lover and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell were made public on orders of a federal judge in New York. Hundreds of documents were released in multiple waves in January.
Epstein had many high-profile connections, including former U.S. presidents, foreign prime ministers and Britain’s Prince Andrew, as well as Hollywood stars, leading academics, people in the modeling and fashion industries and other public figures. Some of the names were previously known through other means despite having been withheld from the public’s eye in the lawsuit.
Many of the names belong to people who have not been accused of wrongdoing, like former President Bill Clinton, who could have asked the court to have his name remain sealed but declined. A spokesperson for Clinton also denied claims in one of the documents that alleged the former president and Epstein had a “close personal relationship.”
Other names unsealed included billionaire Glenn Dubin and his former private chef, Rinaldo Rizzo, the magician David Copperfield, Tony Figueroa, Limited Brands founder and former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, and Epstein accusers such as Johanna Sjoberg and Annie Farmer.
Bill Clinton denies visiting Epstein island in new memoir
Former President Clinton, who had a brief business relationship with Epstein, wrote in his new memoir that he wishes he “had never met him.”
Clinton took flights on Epstein’s private jet on trips for the Clinton Foundation. He wrote that they only discussed “politics and economics” and that he never traveled to Epstein’s infamous Little St. James Island.
“Traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward,” he wrote in “Citizen,” a new book about his life after leaving the White House.
In a deposition from Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg, which was unsealed during the January document dump, she said Epstein bragged about knowing the former president.
“I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton,” she said. “I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together.”
Under questioning, she later added, “He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and spokesperson Angel Urena has denied claims in the documents that Clinton and Epstein had any kind of personal relationship.
“I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing,” the former president wrote in his book.
Former model recounts Jeffrey Epstein abuse on his private island
Lisa Phillips, a former model-turned-talent scout and agent, was seeing her career take off when she encountered Jeffrey Epstein.
The former cover girl, who said she was abused by the late convicted sex offender on his private island, recounted her alleged harrowing ordeal on a podcast in October, “From Now On,” aiming to raise awareness of human trafficking and how it can impact anyone.
On a free day after a photo shoot in the Virgin Islands, another model invited her to visit Epstein’s private island, Little St. James.
Epstein asked her for a massage, then slowly escalated the situation into an outright sex assault, she said.
“It wasn’t a straight, ‘Let me pull you into a room and abuse you,’” Phillips recalled. “He eases into things, like, ‘It’s just a massage, right?’ The girl went along with it and brought me into the room to do this massage with him. It was a slow thing that escalated into abuse. The whole process was very confusing to me.”
Over the years, she’s met other victims who were attacked in the same way, she said.
“I was on an island,” she said. “I wasn’t in a house where I could say, ‘Excuse me, I need to leave,’ and grab my stuff. I was far away from home on an island I should never have been on.”
Epstein grand jury records released
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new anti-trafficking law that cleared the way for state investigators to release confidential grand jury records from the slap-on-the-wrist punishment Epstein received for child sex trafficking in the 2000s. Hours after the law took effect, Palm Beach County Court Clerk and Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo announced the release.
Palm Beach police initially opened the case after a fight between girls at a local high school, according to the transcripts. One, just 16, had been accused of prostitution by a classmate, and a school official later found $300 in her purse, which originally came from Epstein.
She testified that she had been instructed to concoct a fake life story and pretend to be 18 to get $200 to give Epstein a massage before the first time she met him. Then she revealed she was asked to strip down to her underwear and had a graphic sexual encounter with him.
In a court order authorizing the release of the documents, Circuit Judge Luis Delgado warned that the contents were disturbing.
“It is widely accepted that Epstein is a notorious and serial pedophile,” the order reads. “The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape – all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal. The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people.”
Fox News’ Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.
