What exactly do we know about this “list” of personalities who have been linked to Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex crimes?
Is the Epstein affair at a turning point? Are we going to discover hidden truths about the large-scale sex trafficking and crimes of which the American businessman was accused before committing suicide? It’s quite unlikely in reality. Why then such excitement on social networks around this famous list of “personalities” linked to the investigation? Quite simply because the conspiracy circles assure that influential figures were involved in Epstein’s crimes, who would have been protected. In reality, this “list” doesn’t say any of that.
What are we talking about then? A New York judge began revealing on Wednesday January 3, 2024, the names of people mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But these names are those of contacts, relatives, or even acquaintances or alleged victims. People suspected of complicity are also cited there. In the 943 pages of the forty documents made public on this link, we find very well-known names: those of former American presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but also those of the British Prince Andrew, or those of other personalities such as Michael Jackson or the magician David Copperfield. The Frenchman Jean-Luc Brunel, accused of rape of minors and found hanging dead in prison in Paris in 2022, is also cited several times in the documents.
Remember that in July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, close to Donald Trump, was accused of sex trafficking of minors, in particular of having paid minor girls in return for sexual acts between 2002 and 2005. For his part, his mistress Ghislaine Maxwell was accused of corrupting underage girls for exploitation from 1994 to 2004. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.
The revelation of this list of names linked to Jeffrey Epstein is not a leak or an extraordinary revelation: it was provided for by an order of December 18 from Judge Loretta Preska, which is part of the defamation proceedings between Ghislaine Maxwell and an American plaintiff against the couple, Virginia Giuffre. The judge had listed between 180 and 200 people, under numbers, ordering that their identity be “completely” made public no later than 14 days after December 18 and 19.
And some other names that could be revealed by The Guardian should speak to the general public. “It is almost certain” to find “actors and academics” says the British daily. But that’s not all. CIA Director William Burns and Barack Obama’s White House lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler are also said to be on the famous list. Director Woody Allen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and former prime ministers of Norway Thorbjørn Jagland and Israel Ehud Barak could also be part of this list of associates and connections of Epstein and Maxwell.
But be careful, once again, if this list attracts all the attention, it says nothing about the involvement of these personalities, at this stage in the crimes of which Epstein was accused. If the names appear in legal documents, making the link between these personalities and the networks of influence of the accused, there is nothing to link them to sexual crimes. Some were simply cited during legal proceedings.