4 Biggest Revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein Docs

Hundreds of pages of sealed records related to Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Wednesday, revealing previously unknown details about the late accused sex trafficker who called some of the world’s most wealthy and influential people his friends, from Bill Clinton to Prince Andrew.

The release comes after a judge’s December ruling that the documents, which until Wednesday had been redacted, should no longer be concealed from the public. More than 200 documents were on that list, though only 40 have been released to the public so far. Previously, the documents had been part of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 civil case against Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking in 2022 and is currently serving a 20-year sentence, though she is appealing; Epstein was facing 45 years in prison for his alleged crimes, but was found hanged in his Manhattan prison cell in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.) 

After the announcement in December, many speculated as to what would be found in the unsealed documents — what we got was mostly known names, though some new, unsettling allegations. Here are some of the biggest bombshells we learned: 

Jeffrey Epstein allegedly said Bill Clinton “likes them young”

It’s no secret that Bill Clinton was friends with Epstein for years, and he was widely speculated to be one of the high-profile figures that would appear in the documents. In a transcript of a deposition given by Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg, she said Epstein once told her that Clinton “likes them young, referring to girls.”

Clinton is not accused of any misconduct in the unsealed documents. In a statement after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Clinton said he had not spoken to Epstein in “well over a decade” and had known “nothing about the terrible crimes” of which his former friend stood accused. He acknowledged having flown on Epstein’s private plane on four occasions, but denied ever visiting his private island. (A spokesperson for Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.)

Prince Andrew and his puppet

In Feb. 2022, Prince Andrew reached a settlement with Giuffre over accusations that he’d sexually abused her numerous times when she was still a minor. He denied the allegations, but was officially stripped of his royal and military titles in the midst of the legal proceedings against him.

The newly unsealed documents contain details about the former British royal’s alleged abuse. In her deposition, Sjoberg said she and Giuffre once met Prince Andrew at Epstein’s home, and that Maxwell brought out a puppet that looked like the royal. “There was a little tag on the puppet that said ‘Prince Andrew’ on it, and that’s when I knew who he was,” Sjoberg testified.

And then out came the camera. “They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap, and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo,” Sjoberg said. (Prince Andrew’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Dershowitz was allegedly a regular

Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s former attorney who helped him clinch the 2006 “sweetheart deal” in which he avoided prosecution for sex crimes against minors, also plays a big role in the unsealed documents.

According to testimony from Epstein’s former household staff, Dershowitz visited Epstein’s Florida home “very often,” allegedly going there by himself and spending time “in the presence of young girls.” They also said he would get massages there — a tactic Epstein frequently employed in initiating his alleged sexual abuse. 

Dershowitz has denied these claims, and in a rambling livestream Thursday bemoaned “that people can make false accusations [in legal filings] with impunity without fear of being sued.”

Stolen passports and “kissing games”

The abuse described in the court filings shows just how far Epstein and Maxwell allegedly went to control the young women in their orbit. Rinaldo Rizzo — a former household manager for Epstein’s billionaire friends Glenn and Eva Dubin — testified that Maxwell once threatened a “terrified” 15-year-old and “confiscated her passport to try to make her have sex with Epstein” while on his private island. 

Rizzo also said Maxwell had instructed a group of eleven girls as young as 14 to “play a ‘kissing game’ with and for” Epstein.