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Epstein Files, The (2024)

Posted: 03/16/24 16:08
by bunniefuu
WOMAN: Could you raise your hand,

please?

Do you solemnly swear

the testimony you're about to give

in the matter now pending shall be

the truth, the whole truth

and nothing but the truth?

Yes, ma'am.

MAN: Could you please state

your full name?

I'm Jeffrey Edward Epstein.

And my residence address is

6100 Red Hook Boulevard

in Virgin Islands.

Have you ever been convicted

of a crime?

Yes.

NARRATOR: The sex crimes of

millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein

are appalling...

FEMALE:

..more than 100 vulnerable teenagers

and young women

trapped in his depraved web.

FEMALE:

Tonight, The Epstein Files,

the latest on who knew what

in the biggest sex-trafficking ring

in history.

His elite circle of the wealthy

and powerful on notice

as thousands of damning

new court documents are unsealed.

WOMAN: They will contain

the names of people

associated with Jeffrey Epstein...

Prince Andrew and the former

President Bill Clinton

have been named...

More are expected to come out...

In the last few weeks, they've linked

Epstein to some very famous names

and exposed some very sordid details.

There are videos that exist.

We've been investigating the scandal

since Jeffrey Epstein's death

in 2019.

This is where Jeffrey Epstein

served his sentence.

That he can still shock

is extraordinary.

I won't stop fighting.

I will never be silenced.

As you'll see, this monster's

tentacles continue to reach...

from beyond the grave.

MAN: What was the crime

of which you were convicted?

Two counts.

One, soliciting prostitution and

procuring a minor for prostitution.

Did you, in fact, commit those acts?

I'm going to invoke

my Fifth Amendment right.

Refusing to answer lawyers

on the grounds

he might incriminate himself,

Epstein thought his own silence

would protect him forever.

How many times have you solicited

a minor for prostitution?

Same answer.

How many times have you solicited

a minor for prostitution

in the state of Florida?

Same answer.

Have you ever solicited a minor for

prostitution in the Virgin Islands?

Same answer.

Have you ever solicited

for prostitution in New York?

Same answer.

Have you ever solicited

for prostitution in New Mexico?

Same answer.

Have you ever solicited

for prostitution in Paris?

Same answer.

Have you ever solicited a minor for

prostitution anywhere at any time?

Again, I'm gonna assert my right.

Have you ever...

MAN: We're gonna go off the record,

thanks.

So you are terminating

the deposition at this time?

We have a recess in the deposition.

TARA BROWN: With his death by su1c1de

in 2019

and the jailing of his former lover

and right-hand woman

Ghislaine Maxwell two years ago,

Epstein's associates may well have

thought the scandal was over...

but after a decade

of legal wrangling,

more than 150 people

have been publicly identified,

linked to Epstein

and his sex-trafficking network.

He was a brilliant manipulator,

not just of vulnerable girls

and women.

He was a brilliant manipulator

of powerful men.

A really heinous crime

on an absolutely massive scale

that was allowed to continue

and continue and continue.

EPSTEIN:

Jeffrey Epstein's vast wealth gave

him access to whatever he wanted.

As we now know, the globe-trotting

multi-millionaire created a network

where young women were supplied

to him wherever he went.

EPSTEIN:

And with his own plane and plush

properties all over the world,

he felt free to abuse

in the privacy of his various homes.

This is New York, this is

Palm Beach, this is California,

this is Paris, this is London...

This is wherever

Epstein was touching down.

He needed to have girls

on constant call.

In every single state

or every place that he goes to,

he's already got people lined up

and makers making that happen.

None of this would ever have seen

the light of day

if it wasn't for Virginia Giuffre.

Her allegations of sexual abuse

against Epstein, Maxwell

and famously, Prince Andrew

have fascinated

and repulsed the world.

In 2015, Virginia sued Maxwell

for defamation.

These latest documents are,

in the main,

sworn statements

collected for that case.

It's hard.

It's really hard being back here.

We met Virginia five years ago

when she bravely returned

for the first time

to the Epstein mansion in Manhattan.

I was abused by people

that I can't even mention here.

There's a lot of scars

hidden behind those walls.

(CRIES)

It should be ripped down.

It should be burned to the ground.

(CRIES)

Some of my worst memories

are from this place.

I continue to be shocked

by just how awful this story is.

The damage that was done

to these women

is incredibly hard to even express.

This has been completely

life-altering for them.

It's incredibly unfair that this was

allowed to happen with impunity

for so long.

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

is a journalist and author

who has long covered

the Epstein case.

She believes the significance

of the new Epstein files

can't be overstated.

It's really important

that we understand the difference

between having these allegations

swirl around

and seeing that people

were willing to swear to them

under penalty of perjury.

It's an incredibly hard thing to do

and they were all willing to do it

and to swear to the truth of it.

Lucia also had a front-row seat

when victims testified

against Epstein's co-conspirator

Ghislaine Maxwell

when she was convicted

for sex trafficking in 2022.

A lot of what Jeffrey Epstein

got away with,

he wouldn't have been able to do

without her helping to recruit,

groom and entice underage girls.

But she wasn't just the organiser,

was she?

She was also an abuser herself.

Yes.

So we also heard at trial

from multiple victims

that she was in the room

when the abuse was happening

and that she engaged in the abuse

herself.

But the documents

released by the court

put the spotlight on the role

played by others

in Jeffrey Epstein's inner sanctum.

The most controversial revelation

comes from emails

sent by Sarah Ransome,

who was abused and trafficked

by Epstein.

Those emails claim she has seen

video recordings made by Epstein

of an unnamed friend having sex

with Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew

and Richard Branson.

All three men

vehemently refute the allegation

and in the past, even Sarah has

denied the existence of the tapes.

But just two weeks ago,

she stood by her original claim

in a Zoom call

with 'Good Morning Britain'.

SARAH RANSOME: It's no secret

that everything was recorded.

I've also seen recordings

in his office.

There are videos that exist.

The people that know they exist,

I'm sure,

are very frightened

of them being released.

Fear may also explain

the resounding silence

from others named in this recent

mass release of documents.

According to thousands of pages

of sworn statements

by women abused by Epstein,

the men now in the headlines

are potential witnesses.

They place them at the locations

where the abuse commonly took place.

The vast majority,

including all the names

that we're hearing about the most,

there are no allegations

of criminality.

They are just listed

as potential witnesses.

If these people are not being

accused of any wrongdoing,

why have they been named?

The question is what they saw,

who they met,

what questions they asked themselves

about why girls of that age

would be in any of the Epstein homes

and if they didn't ask themselves

questions about that,

why didn't they

ask themselves questions about that?

The documents also shed light

on the alleged dark motivation

of Epstein's sex trafficking -

to get dirt on some of the world's

most influential people.

There is, for the first time,

the idea that he was quizzing

the girls

he sent to famous people

for details of what happened,

for blackmail purposes.

That has always been the suspicion,

that this man

had cameras everywhere,

that he kept blackmail tapes.

That was his leverage.

So, I heard about Jeffrey Epstein

sort of on the social Upper East

Side grapevine in New York

for a couple of years

around the end of the 1990s

and early 2000s.

You know, he was a figure of mystery

in that

all people really knew about him

was he had kind of out of nowhere

bought the biggest townhouse

in Manhattan

and this guy who no-one really knew

very much about,

he seemed to be a bit of a recluse.

He was known to be unconventional.

People thought

he was very good-looking

and the only thing

that people really knew about him,

his sort of connector

to the outside world

was somebody I knew -

it was Ghislaine Maxwell.

TARA BROWN: With her link to

English socialite Ghislaine Maxwell,

Vicky Ward was the ideal journalist

to profile Jeffrey Epstein.

Her task in 2002

was to investigate the man

behind the $500 million fortune.

My then boss at 'Vanity Fair'

magazine, Graydon Carter,

phoned me up and he said, you know,

"I've been hearing about this guy

for years.

"Nobody knows who he is,

where he got his money from,

"what his deal is"

and that was how it all began.

But what started as a business story

quickly turned sinister.

He liked to have parties

with young women

but given that he was

a very wealthy...

at the time, you know,

good-looking bachelor in his 50s,

that didn't seem in itself

on the surface so peculiar.

But then I met this woman,

Maria Farmer,

and she told me that she had worked

for Jeffrey Epstein.

No-one immediately recognised how

significant Maria Farmer would become

in the Epstein story,

certainly not the authorities,

when, in 1996,

she was the very first to report

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

to the FBI.

MARIA FARMER: Ghislaine came in

to get me one evening.

Ghislaine escorts me

to Jeffrey's room

and he's lying there and he goes,

"Well, here, sit down," you know.

And so, right next to him.

And then Ghislaine sit on the other

side and they began assaulting me.

But really, while I was lying there,

the whole time, I'm thinking,

"My sister's

been around these people."

My sister was 16.

"She's been around them alone."

Maria's fears were well-based.

Her younger sister Annie had also

been abused by the paedophile pair.

And it was the worst thing

that's ever happened to me.

But in a pattern that would be set

in the decades ahead,

Maria's complaint of sexual abuse

against her and Annie to police

was ignored.

They just kept it all quiet,

put it in the bottom drawer

and they were so dismissive that

I just felt daunted and I stopped.

For more than 25 years,

Maria Farmer has been filling

her canvas with the Epstein story,

a tale of horror that began in 1995

when, as a gifted student

at the New York Academy of Art,

she met Jeffrey Epstein

and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein gave her a job -

to buy art for his New York mansion.

As well, she became

an unwitting witness

to a steady stream of teenagers

and young women

through Epstein's front door.

And shockingly,

she had direct evidence

of Maxwell scouting girls

for the insatiable millionaire.

What did you witness?

So, several times,

I was in the car with her

and she would ask the driver

to stop the car

and she'd dash across to the school

or the park

or wherever she was going

and she would, like,

write down her phone number

for a child, a young girl

and then I'd see that child

at the house

and she'd say,

"They're auditioning," you know.

"I found a model in the park."

And I thought it was really strange

because I did see a couple of girls

in braces

and I've never seen a model

with braces.

Do you reflect on how different

life would be for so many women today

if the FBI had investigated

your complaints in 1996?

Yeah.

They... Yeah.

I think about it all the time. I do.

And it hurts a lot.

And I never had children

because of it... (CRIES)

because I didn't feel like

they would be safe.

It would be another six years

before the Farmer sisters would again

contemplate speaking openly

about their experiences

with Jeffrey Epstein.

When they met with journalist

Vicky Ward in 2002,

Maria and Annie were nervous.

Did it take a lot for you to

convince them to open up to you,

to talk on public record?

VICKY WARD: It did.

There's no question

they were very afraid

of these very powerful people

and I felt that at least

'Vanity Fair' magazine

was also powerful

by us publishing their allegations

that would afford them protection.

And so, I think

that we all proceeded...

under that premise

and unfortunately, that premise got

exploded in the worst possible way.

What blew it up? What happened?

Well, what happened,

as this piece was going forward

and I had to finally

put all the allegations

both of the business staff

and the Farmers' allegations

to Jeffrey and Ghislaine,

they, in their different ways,

went completely berserk.

Epstein was instantly menacing,

a man prepared to bully

and intimidate to save himself.

He treated the entire thing

as a game,

a really dark, twisted game.

He even said to me at the beginning,

"OK, let's play chess.

"I'll be black, you be white.

You get the first move."

And from there,

it descended into a sort of

horrific game of cat-and-mouse.

He would phone me every day

and then he told me that if he

didn't like what I was gonna write,

he was gonna have his witchdoctor

place a curse

on my unborn children

and that that was off the record.

Then he told me he was going to

sue me and ruin me personally

and I was just really frightened

of what this man could do.

So, even though the threats

he was making against you

were quite preposterous,

you took him seriously?

Like, you were generally frightened?

Yeah, because at the end

of all of this,

at the end of months of digging,

meeting the Farmer sisters,

there was still this question mark -

who is this guy?

But it only got worse

when Epstein made a personal visit

to Vicky's boss at the time,

the editor in chief of 'Vanity Fair'.

Epstein got the result he demanded -

Maria and Annie Farmer's allegations

were cut from the story

that went to print in late 2002.

So, as the journalist who had

uncovered these allegations

and convinced these sisters

to go public,

what was your reaction

to see that your work

was not in your article?

Well, I remember bursting into tears

and saying to the person

who was directly my editor,

"We've exposed these poor women.

I mean, this is unconscionable."

But was it a reflection

also of an abuse of power?

I mean, if Jeffrey Epstein's...

Yes.

..walked into

the editor in chief's office...

Yeah, I mean, of course.

..he wasn't there to say hello,

was he?

Of course.

2002 was an era in which

Jeffrey Epstein and other predators,

you know, Harvey Weinstein,

were running the world

and women everywhere

weren't speaking up

and the idea that two men

would have a meeting

after which these allegations

would get pulled,

I mean, you know,

in the world we live in now,

you know, it's monstrous.

Vicky's boss, Graydon Carter,

denies being influenced

or intimidated by Epstein

but either way,

the 'Vanity Fair' story

didn't go anywhere near exposing

the depths of Epstein's depravity.

I only got the very, very, very tip

of that iceberg.

I didn't get to the den of iniquity

that we now know was really going on

behind Jeffrey Epstein's

closed walls

in the mansion in New York

and on his island and in Palm Beach.

OSBORNE-CROWLEY:

Around that mansion,

that's where this part

of the sex trafficking ring

really kind of came to life.

TARA BROWN: Palm Beach Florida is

home to some of the wealthiest people

in America,

an exclusive enclave

for the rich and powerful,

including former president

Donald Trump.

Jeffrey Epstein's luxurious home here

graced the foreshore,

its white walls and inscrutable

exterior hiding a dark truth,

a place where it's estimated

more than 100 girls were tricked

and abused,

their lives changed in an instant.

WOMAN: At 14,

I was still in middle school.

I was straight-A student.

Never even got a B.

I played the first chair trumpet,

I was the captain

of the cheerleading squad

and then after I met Jeffrey,

I just completely quit.

This is where you were living

for a while?

Yes, this is where I was living

when I met Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein was 48

when a teenaged Courtney Wild

entered his orbit in 2001.

At the time, she was living

in this trailer park,

one of West Palm Beach's

poorest communities.

Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein

targeted areas like this?

Yeah, definitely targeted, you know,

children like myself

that were vulnerable to him

and his money

and we felt like we were being

helped and saved by him

but ultimately

he was just preying on us.

As Courtney told me in 2019,

her experience started when she was

brought to the millionaire

by another 14-year-old

to make much-needed cash.

The trap had been set.

What were you expecting to happen?

Why did you think

you were coming here?

Well, I knew that I was coming here

to give a guy a massage

and to make $200.

I did know that.

It was never told to me

that I would be molested by this man

or anything like that.

Inside, Courtney very soon discovered

the massage was cover

for a terrible, well-rehearsed crime.

We were taken upstairs.

There was, like, a circular

stairwell that led to a hallway

that led to his bedroom,

which the massage table

was in his bedroom/bathroom.

You know, he asked us

to get comfortable,

to just, you know, take our clothes

off, to be in our bra and panties.

Were you abused during that session?

And so, we would massage him

for about 30 minutes

and then, whenever he was ready,

you know, rolled over

and asked the person that brought me

to go downstairs and wait

and once that happened, then that's

when the sexual abuse happened, yes.

You're 14

and in a completely alien situation,

an incomprehensible position.

How did you react?

I just remember afterwards

how I felt walking down the stairs

and I just felt so dirty

and so, like...just like a piece

of me had been taken.

Dirty. I felt...

It was like my dirty little secret.

Virginia Giuffre's experience

was eerily similar,

except her recruiter

was not a fellow teen

but the sophisticated and seemingly

trustworthy Ghislaine Maxwell.

Virginia was 16 and working

at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort

when Maxwell spied her

reading a textbook on massage.

VIRGINIA GIUFFRE: She just seemed

very nice and she said,

"I've got a person that I know

"who's actually looking for

a travelling masseuse

"and if you want,

I can get you an interview with him.

"If he likes you,

we can get you educated.

"You'll be a real masseuse

"and you'll get to travel

and see the world."

And, you know, like, she made it

sound like it was a dream come true.

And it wasn't.

Within hours, Virginia was

at Epstein's Florida mansion,

lured there by Maxwell's promise.

It ended

in a devastating sexual attack.

So, put it this way, we did the back

of him, we did the back of Epstein

and then, when he turned over,

that's when I was instructed to...

to...

That's when I was instructed

to get undressed and...

and have sex with Jeffrey Epstein

while Ghislaine Maxwell

was participating as well.

Do you want to take a moment?

No, I'm OK.

I'm OK.

So, you were abused by both of them

in your very first encounter?

Yeah. Both of them. I was abused

by Ghislaine and Epstein.

I don't mean to sound sexist

in any way, shape or form

but I expected it from a man

but I didn't expect it from a woman.

And...

Yeah, I think

that's what hurts the most.

(CRIES)

Maxwell's role

as Epstein's co-conspirator,

for which she is now serving

a 20-year jail term, is well known.

But in truth,

it went well beyond Maxwell.

The pair devised a scheme to feed

Epstein's voracious appetite.

They lured poverty-stricken girls in

with cash,

fanning their dreams

of a better life.

According to journalist

Lucia Osborne-Crowley,

by the time the sexual abuse began,

many were too invested

in their promises to get out.

LUCIA OSBORNE-CROWLEY:

This was a well-oiled machine

of finding vulnerable young girls

who really needed

someone to look after them

and then also using those girls

to try and entrap

younger and younger girls.

And a lot of that, it seems,

was developed in Florida.

How many girls do you think

you brought to Jeffrey Epstein?

At the minimum, 50.

But anywhere from 50 to 70 girls.

What were their ages?

The same ages as me. 14, 15, 16.

I just hold a lot of guilt and shame

for doing those things

and just to know that I had

any influence on that happening

to somebody else

just, you know, it really is just

devastating and breaks my heart.

Epstein's vile pyramid scheme

might have continued unchecked

if not for the stepmother

of one of his teenage victims,

who called the Palm Beach

Police Department in 2005.

WOMAN: (ON PHONE)

That initial call was so alarming

that police launched an investigation

and it didn't take them long

to uncover

the revolting scale

of Epstein's network.

Police interviewed

a staggering 40 victims,

whose ages range from 13 to 16.

Their accounts were shocking enough.

But what they found in Epstein's home

was a creepy insight

into his depraved life -

dozens of nude photos, a steam room,

and a massage room with sex toys.

Among the damning evidence

were phone message pads

clearly showing a trade

in young girls,

scheduling them

for massage appointments

and flight logs

listing girls being transported

aboard Jeffrey's private plane

dubbed 'The Lolita Express'.

I think it's really important

to know

that it is actually much, much worse

than we think.

In 2006,

much to the relief of police,

this predator was finally caught,

a wealth of evidence

amassed against him.

But his own vast wealth

and his immense influence

saw him escape charges that should've

landed him in jail for life.

Instead, he served a mere 13 months

when prosecutors

accepted his guilty plea

to the minor charge of soliciting

a child for prostitution.

But while he was technically

an inmate

at the Palm Beach County Stockade,

he really just slept there.

It was essentially

a slap on the wrist.

He got 12-hour work release

from prison every single day.

Other journalists have described it

as he just basically had to sleep

in a crappy motel

for, you know, a bit over a year.

For many, the most outrageous part

of Epstein's plea bargain

was a seedy deal he struck

with the attorney-general

for the Southern District of Florida.

It gave Epstein and any alleged

co-conspirators, known or unknown,

immunity from further prosecution,

supposedly forever.

Worse still, none of his victims

were told about the deal.

How do you feel about that?

To be sexually abused by a man

and to have the government know

and them actually, you know,

co-conspire with the perpetrator

to make sure nothing happens to him,

it's just so...

It just sounds unreal.

Why do you think

the government did that?

My personal opinion about that is,

you know, money, power

and I think that there was

a lot of people involved in this,

this underage minor sex ring

that they were running

and I think everybody wanted it

to go away.

So you believe that there was

a conspiracy at play here?

Oh, absolutely.

It really is a sordid story,

everything that happened in Florida

and the fact that authorities did

know, did arrest him, did charge him

and he still was able to continue.

And according to Virginia Giuffre,

the abuse didn't stop with Jeffrey

Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

She was not just

their sexual plaything.

She was now part of their

international sex-trafficking ring,

lent out to whomever they liked.

I was trafficked

to other billionaires,

I was trafficked to politicians,

professors, even royalty.

It was the elite of the world.

It was the people who run the world.

It was the most powerful people

in the world.

VICKY WARD: Ghislaine was this sort

of very exotic, glamorous figure

who would drop in

and, to be honest, namedrop

a lot of famous names

that she'd been hanging out with.

We heard about Bill Clinton and

sort of all sorts of other people

and we also knew that she was

very good friends with Prince Andrew

and that Jeffrey Epstein

would sometimes have Prince Andrew

to stay.

TARA BROWN: As a British expat

in New York,

journalist Vicky Ward

moved in similar circles

to socialite Ghislaine Maxwell,

the daughter of disgraced megarich

media tycoon Robert Maxwell.

Following her father's suspicious

death aboard his boat in 1991,

Ghislaine moved to New York,

where she started her relationship

with the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

In 2002, Vicky was assigned to write

a profile of the mysterious financier

for 'Vanity Fair' magazine.

When I began reporting this piece,

I actually ran into

Ghislaine Maxwell

and I sort of said, breezily,

"Oh, Ghislaine, yes,

I'm writing this story

"about Jeffrey and the money"

and I was really taken aback

when she started to cry.

I'm, like,

"Why is this woman crying?

"This doesn't seem to make

any sense."

Obviously, I didn't know that I was,

from her perspective,

probably in danger

of pulling back the curtain

on what was an absolutely horrific

criminal sexual enterprise

involving both of them.

Epstein and Maxwell

complemented each other perfectly.

He had the money she was used to,

she had the contacts he wanted,

the most high-profile, of course,

being Prince Andrew,

who was famously accused of abusing

the then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre

at Epstein and Maxwell's invitation.

We went to Club Tramp

and he danced with me

and he sweats a lot

and he smells funny and then...

and then we get in the car

and Ghislaine tells me in the car

that I have to do what I do

for Jeffrey for Prince Andrew

and that's when I learned

what was going to happen.

There's a slight problem

with...with...with...with...

with the sweating, um, because, uh,

I...I have

a peculiar medical condition,

which is that I don't sweat, um...

Or I didn't sweat at the time.

And that was...

Oh, actually, yes, I didn't sweat

at the time

because I, um, had...had suffered

what I would describe

as an overdose of adrenaline

in the Falklands w*r

when I was shot at,

uh, and I simply...

It was... It was... It was almost

impossible for me to...to sweat.

It was a claim and counterclaim that

turned this royal's life upside down.

His ill-advised decision

to appear on the BBC in 2019

left him if not sweating,

then red-faced.

His attempt to convince us he knew

nothing of the teenage Virginia

fell flat

when this photo, taken in 2001

in Maxwell's London apartment,

resurfaced.

She provided a photo...

Yes.

..of the two of you together.

Yes.

How do you explain that?

I can't.

Because I don't... I have no...

Again, I have absolutely no memory

of that photograph ever being taken.

Your friend suggested

that the photo is fake.

I think it's...

From the investigations

that we've done,

you can't prove whether or not

that photograph is, uh, faked or not

because it is a photograph

of a photograph of a photograph,

so it's very difficult to be able

to...to, um, to...to prove it.

But I...I don't remember

that photograph ever being taken.

So, as you know, Prince Andrew denies

the allegations against him

and he says that this photo's a fake,

that he was never there

and that it's not his arm

and they're not his fingers.

Those are his fingers.

That is Andrew.

This photo has been verified

as an original

and it's been since given to the FBI

and they've never contested

that it's a fake

and I know it's real

and he needs to stop

with all of these lame excuses.

We're sick of hearing it.

This is a real photo.

And that was the first time

you met him?

And that's the very first time

I met him.

And that's right before

I was abused by him.

How many times were you trafficked

to him?

Three times.

Her allegations against Prince Andrew

are laid bare in the newly unsealed

court documents.

The disgraced royal is mentioned

69 times and not just by Virginia.

Johanna Sjoberg,

who was 21 of the time,

claims to have had her own traumatic

experience with Prince Andrew

and she says she saw

the Prince and Virginia together

at the Epstein mansion in New York.

According to British-based Australian

author Lucia Osborne-Crowley,

her account, given under oath,

is damning of the Prince.

We also have an allegation

from a separate victim, Johanna,

who has said that she was groped

by Prince Andrew,

so that's incredibly significant

because we have sworn testimony

from a second person

corroborating that he did engage

in illegal acts relating to minors.

Do you expect Prince Andrew to be

under further legal scrutiny?

I think that certainly Prince Andrew

will be facing

many, many, many more questions

given what we've learned

in these new documents

and it's really important, I think,

for the authorities

to look at the fact

that there is a second person

who's alleging that he broke the law

and whether they need to speak

to those victims

and other potential victims

to see if there is anything

that they can or should be

charging him with.

REPORTER: I wonder if you have

any sense now

of guilt, regret or shame

about any of your behaviour

in your friendship with Epstein.

As far as, uh, my, um, association

with him was concerned,

it had, um, uh, some seriously

beneficial, um, outcomes

in areas that have nothing...

that have nothing to do

with...with...

with what I would describe

as what we're talking about today.

Prince Andrew has since found regret

but continues to deny

all the allegations levelled at him.

He settled with Virginia Giuffre on

the eve of their civil trial in 2022,

reportedly for more than $15 million.

In settling with her, the Prince

likely thought the saga was over

but the release

of these latest documents

once again raises questions for him

and many other Epstein associates.

Those are very, very wealthy,

powerful people

and so far they've escaped without

many questions being asked of them.

Billionaire financier

Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested,

charged with sex trafficking

involving underage girls...

He could face up to 45 years

behind bars...

TARA BROWN: It was a prized catch.

In 2019, the roar around Jeffrey

Epstein's sex-trafficking ring

was so loud,

police were forced to act.

Neatly befitting the lifestyle

of a jet-setting millionaire,

Epstein was nabbed

on his private plane

as he landed back in the US

from Paris.

For his most outspoken victim,

Virginia Giuffre,

his arrest was a gift

more than 20 years in the making.

I never thought it was gonna happen.

I honestly thought he was just gonna

continue to get away with it

over and over and over again,

just like he proved so many times.

So, yeah, it was like Christmas

in July. Big-time.

But the expectation that Epstein

would finally face his crimes

was dashed when he was found dead

by su1c1de in his jail cell

a month later.

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein

has taken his own life...

The bombshell development

raising many new questions...

With Epstein dead, the charges

against him were dismissed,

denying justice to his many victims

and his co-conspirator,

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell,

became the most wanted woman

in the world as she went on the run.

VICKY WARD:

So, the idea that this woman

could be involved in something

as depraved and horrific as this,

that was mind-boggling.

As journalist Vicky Ward

and the rest of the world

watched on in fascination,

Ghislaine was tracked down

to a luxurious New Hampshire hideaway

after eluding police for a year.

Today, we announce the arrest

of one of the villains

in this investigation.

This day, to me, has been, like,

one of the best days of my life.

I have not stopped smiling

and crying happy tears

and I'm just...yeah, I'm elated to

know that she's where she belongs.

Immediately upon Maxwell's arrest,

Virginia spoke for all the victims

of the sex-trafficking ring.

She ruined so many lives.

She belongs in jail.

You want to hurt kids,

that's where you go.

In 2022, Maxwell was convicted

on five sex-trafficking counts,

the then 60-year-old

sentenced to 20 years in jail.

She has lodged an appeal

which will be reviewed in March

and continues to claim her innocence

from jail,

as she told her brother,

Kevin Maxwell.

Everyone is always asking,

"Who is the real G?

"Who's the real Ghislaine?"

It's definitely

not the person portrayed.

I feel completely divorced

from the person that people

reference and talk about.

And so, the biggest misconception

of you?

That I'm the cruellest, meanest,

'horriblest' person who's done...

committed crimes.

Yeah.

And, I mean, it...

I... I literally haven't seen...

any details that are accurate.

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

was one of the few journalists

granted access to the court

to report on Maxwell's trial.

It was surprising that even at her

own federal sex-trafficking trial,

she didn't appear to have

a lot of humility

she didn't appear to have

and still was incredibly confident

and I certainly got the sense that

she did not expect to be convicted.

And certainly no remorse.

Certainly no remorse.

She basically said that she was

sorry for the damage

that Jeffrey Epstein had caused them

and that's all she said.

With Maxwell behind bars

and Epstein dead,

this case appeared to be resolved.

But the recent release

of these court documents

shows how little we still know.

There are so many names that we are

left with question marks about.

What was his appeal?

Why did some of the most powerful

men in the world flock to him?

What was Bill Gates doing

around Jeffrey Epstein?

I'd love to hear from Bill Clinton

what he saw in Jeffrey Epstein.

That would be great to know.

In all, more than 150 names have been

linked to the disgraced millionaire

but apart from some denials

of any wrongdoing,

the silence from those identified

has been deafening.

We've got evidence

of sworn testimony

where people are naming

very, very powerful people

who would've been

in a position potentially

to do something

about what was going on here

and instead, we have

a sex-trafficking ring that went on

for at least two decades,

possibly three,

with almost complete impunity.

And so, that's the point

that I think we really all need to

hold onto about scale here,

is that...

not the splashiness of these names

but just how many there are,

just how many people there are

that victims pointed to, to say,

"This person can corroborate

my story.

"This person can be a witness.

This person met me on the island.

"This person saw me."

And those are very, very wealthy,

powerful people

and so far they've escaped without

many questions being asked of them.

We'd have to assume

that they're just running from this

as far and as fast as they can.

Yes.

Well, I mean, I've been

quite surprised at the silence

over the last couple of weeks,

if I'm completely honest.

I would've thought

that at least some of these people

would've felt an obligation

to do some explaining.

VICKY WARD: At the very least,

association with Jeffrey Epstein

raises questions of judgement,

right?

Nobody looks good for having

hung out with Jeffrey Epstein,

now knowing everything that we know.

Whether or not they should be

held accountable

is to whether or not

there was any criminal activity.

And obviously we just don't know.

One has to hope that

because we now know so much more,

that there is so much

public scrutiny on this,

that the wheels of justice

will turn in a way

that they definitely didn't

for a very long time.

The legacy of Jeffrey Epstein

and Ghislaine Maxwell

is to expose a darkness

too awful to imagine.

But as difficult as it is

to comprehend,

it would seem

there's even more to be revealed.

Certainly, from what I know,

there are more people

who aren't even on this list

that either knew

or potentially participated in

what was going on

around Jeffrey Epstein.

Do you expect that others

will be charged,

that others will face prosecution?

I very much hope so.

I think it's really important to

know it is actually much, much worse

than we think

and that we're comfortable

accepting.