ROCKED BY SCANDAL

UNSEALED DOCUMENTS FROM LEGAL PROCEEDINGS RELATED TO THE SEX OFFENDER REVEAL SURPRISING A-LIST NAMES 

- Jennie Noonan

In the first week of the year, true crime enthusiasts, celebrity watchers and conspiracy theorists were abuzz as they anticipated the release of hundreds of pages of court documents revealing previously redacted bold-faced names associated with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Social media users speculated that the documents would unmask a ‘list’ of potential Epstein clients.

Epstein, known for socialising with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and royalty, served time in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex. He died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges. The case against him argued that his victims, many of whom were teenagers, were paid to give sexual favors and to recruit other young girls for him and his elite friends.

Epstein’s girlfriend and accomplice, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her part in the sex-trafficking ring.

The new documents reveal that Epstein often bragged about his relationships with Hollywood A-listers, although no new names were implicated in any wrongdoing.

The unsealed documents include a 2016 deposition from Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg that mentions famous figureheads.

A lawyer asked Sjoberg: “I saw one press report that said you had met Cate Blanchett or Leonardo DiCaprio?”

“I did not meet them, no,” she replied. “When I spoke about them, it was when I was massaging him [Epstein], and he would get off – he would be on the phone a lot at that time, and one time he said: ‘Oh, that was Leonardo,’ or, ‘That was Cate Blanchett, or Bruce Willis.’ That kind of thing.”