The one weird court case linking Trump, Clinton, and a billionaire pedophile
NEW YORK CITY, NY - MARCH 15: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
A woman's lawsuit claims she was recruited nearly two decades ago into sexual slavery by socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, then the girlfriend of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who ran the sex-trafficking ring. Epstein and Maxwell are pictured above in 2005.
A woman suing in connection with Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex ring claims she was first approached while working as a towel girl at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
NEW YORK—A woman who claims in a lawsuit that she was lured into a sex-trafficking ring run by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein contends that the depravity began at a Florida resort now known as the winter White House: Mar-a-Lago.
Virginia Giuffre’s civil suit, scheduled to go to trial here later this month, threatens to expose new details of a long-running saga tying together President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, and other prominent figures, including Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.
Epstein, a well-connected Manhattan money manager and philanthropist, was once a regular at Mar-a-Lago and an active supporter of the Clinton Foundation—repeatedly lending his 727 jet to Clinton for trips overseas. Dershowitz defended Epstein amid an investigation into his involvement with underage girls more than a decade ago, and it was Acosta—then the U.S. attorney overseeing south Florida—who allowed Epstein’s case to be resolved in state court in 2008.
The scandal has spawned a series of drawn-out civil suits, including Giuffre’s.
Giuffre, formerly Roberts, claims she was 15 and working as a towel girl at Trump’s posh Palm Beach club when she was recruited nearly two decades ago into sexual slavery by socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, then Epstein’s girlfriend.
A lawyer for Trump says the president was unaware of any wrongdoing by Epstein.
The case is scheduled for a May 15 trial, but a final pretrial conference was abruptly canceled Thursday. The development raised suspicions that some type of settlement could be in the works.
In recent months, the suit attracted the attention of pro-Trump blogger Mike Cernovich, who intervened in the case in an unsuccessful push to release a large volume of blacked-out court filings.
“I want to know what’s really going on and we can’t get it,” Cernovich told POLITICO. “This is a big story. My people care.”
Epstein pleaded guilty to two charges: solicitation of prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution. He served 13 months in a county jail and paid financial settlements to many of the roughly 40 women the FBI deemed to be his victims, including Giuffre.
Giuffre asserts in her complaint that Maxwell, the sole defendant in the suit and the daughter of late publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, routinely recruited underaged girls for Epstein and was doing so when she approached the $9-an-hour locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 1999 about giving massages to the wealthy investment banker.
Giuffre alleges that Maxwell ultimately trained her in how to give “massages” to Epstein that involved sex acts and, essentially, prostitution. When Maxwell publicly denied the allegations and called Giuffre a liar in 2015, that gave her the opening to head to federal court and file the defamation suit now headed for trial.
An attorney for Giuffre, Brad Edwards, indicated her lawyers plan to keep the focus on the central allegation in the case.
“We are trying to vindicate Virginia. What she said all along is she was recruited by Maxwell and abused by Epstein,” Edwards said. “That’s what this trial is going to be about and that’s what is going to be proven beyond any doubt. We’re looking forward to proving that.”
An attorney for Maxwell did not respond to requests for comment. In court papers, Maxwell has denied knowledge of or involvement in any illegality. A lawyer for Epstein did not return messages seeking comment; he’s repeatedly invoked his 5th Amendment rights in depositions in the Giuffre suit and other cases.
Epstein, 64, was a regular for several years at Mar-a-Lago. Testimony in a prior court case indicated that Trump flew at least once on one of the planes Epstein owned and Trump’s phone numbers were in Epstein’s personal phone directory.
Trump has also indicated publicly he knew of Epstein’s interest in “younger” women, although he never suggested the financier crossed any legal lines. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,’’ Trump told New York Magazine back in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
On Monday, lawyers for Maxwell informed the judge that they wanted to ask potential jurors about their knowledge of rape and sexual harassment allegations leveled at Trump during the presidential contest.
Maxwell’s legal team wants to ask the jury pool if they know about suits filed—then dropped or dismissed—alleging that Trump and Epstein raped a teen at Epstein’s Manhattan residence.
Trump denied the charges. The suits were withdrawn amid media scrutiny, although one attorney for an unnamed accuser said she backed out due to threats.
When the pretrial hearing was scuttled, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet—a 94-year-old Carter appointee--overseeing Maxwell’s suit—appeared to be on the verge of making a decision on what both sides would be allowed to ask jurors about Trump, Clinton, Dershowitz and others.
Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten said Trump had no relationship with Epstein. “As I have previously explained, he had no relationship with Mr. Epstein and had no knowledge whatsoever of his conduct,” Garten said Tuesday. “This has all been reported countless times in the press.”
Maxwell’s lawyers appear likely to try to discredit Giuffre by painting her as a fabulist and serial liar—and have signaled they may drag other prominent figures into the proceedings.
Over the years, Giuffre has claimed that while traveling with Epstein she saw Clinton on Epstein’s private island and once ate with Vice President Al Gore and his then-wife Tipper. Maxwell’s attorneys have signaled plans to explore both claims at the trial.
A Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service records of visits Clinton may have made to Epstein’s Little St. James Island produced no such evidence. However, Epstein’s own lawyers once sought to capitalize on his ties to the former president, claiming during plea negotiations a decade ago that the financier “was part of the original group that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative”—a
In addition, Clinton and Hollywood guests including Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker toured AIDS projects in Africa in 2002 aboard a 727 jet Epstein owned.
A spokeswoman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
Clinton’s ties to Epstein became an issue during the recent presidential race. Reince Priebus, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, was among Republicans who demanded a full accounting of the former president’s dealings with Epstein. “When you hang out with a guy who has a reputation like Jeffrey Epstein, multiple times, on private jets, on weekends, on trips, on places at least where it’s been reported not very good things happen, it would be good to know what our former president was doing, especially because it appears he’s going to be part of a campaign ticket on the other side of the aisle,” Priebus told Bloomberg in 2015.
Priebus is now Trump’s White House chief of staff. Trump has never offered a similar chronicle of his contacts with Epstein. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s ties to Epstein have triggered speculation that Cernovich might be gathering information on those who’ve leveled sex-related accusations at Trump or trying to collect information damaging to Trump for his own purposes. The blogger warned last month that he might release a “motherlode” of dirt on top White House officials if Trump adviser Steve Bannon was fired.
Cernovich insists his interest in the Epstein saga has nothing to do with the president. “The only Trump hook, in theory is that a lot of Trump supporters, including me, do believe there is some shady s--- going on as far as child trafficking,” the blogger said. He was among those who fanned conspiracy theories online about high-profile Democrats operating a child-sex ring out of a Washington pizzeria, which resulted in an armed North Carolina man who claimed he was trying to investigate the claims firing shots inside the restaurant.
Many of the court filings in the Giuffre case have been almost completely blacked out in public court files. First Amendment advocates say the degree of secrecy is both uncommon and disturbing. “This is pretty unusual to see this level of redaction,” said Katie Townsend of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
On Wednesday, Judge Sweet turned down Cernovich’s motion to unseal the court records. “Because of the sensitive nature of the materials designated as confidential, involving allegations of sexual abuse and trafficking of minors, and because we are mere weeks from assembling a jury for trial , the importance of leaving these materials protected…outweighs any public interest in their publication at this time,” the judge wrote.
Critics say the wholesale sealing goes far beyond what’s necessary to address that concern.
“When these things are eventually opened, I hope we see the nuclear launch codes in there because I’ve never seen anything like this,” Cernovich attorney Marc Randazza said. A lawyer for the New York Post and Daily News tabloids also sent a letter to the judge Thursday complaining about the secrecy.
Dershowitz, a former Epstein attorney, is among those who welcomed Cernovich’s efforts. POLITICO reported in 2014 that Giuffre had filed court papers accusing several prominent Epstein acquaintances of taking part in her sexual abuse, including Dershowitz and British royal Prince Andrew.
Dershowitz and the prince flatly denied the allegations. The Harvard professor and renowned attorney accused Epstein’s lawyers—including a former federal judge—of unethical conduct, prompting them to sue Dershowitz for defamation. The case was settled last year after Giuffre’s attorneys admitted it was a “mistake” to level the charge in a court filing, although they said their client stood by the allegation.
Dershowitz said Tuesday he wants evidence in the Maxwell suit made public because it supports his claims that Giuffre made up the story about him. “I would like [the] discovery unsealed. My deposition is already unsealed. I have nothing to hide. The other side is trying to hide the truth,” he said in response to a query from POLITICO.
The same 2014 court filing also accused Maxwell of a being “a co-conspirator in Epstein’s sexual abuse” and of taking “numerous sexually explicit pictures of underage girls involved in sexual activities, including” Giuffre.
That filing prompted Maxwell to issue a press statement dismissing Giuffre’s accusations as “obvious lies.”
While the accusations against Maxwell are key to the pending suit, it is framed as a defamation case, alleging that Maxwell’s denials were false and that they wrongfully damaged Giuffre’s reputation.
The looming trial has all the hallmarks of an epic courtroom battle. Giuffre is being represented by a legal team including Sigrid McCawley of Boies Schiller, the hard-charging law firm whose founder David Boies argued for Vice President Al Gore in the litigation over the 2000 presidential election.
“This case is part of a broader effort of our Firm to provide legal assistance to victims of sex trafficking and other abuse, and to try to fight future sex trafficking by drawing attention to the problem and making traffickers pay for their crimes,” Boies told POLITICO via email.
Maxwell also has an aggressive set of litigators seeking to protect both her reputation and what appear to be at least tens of millions of dollars in assets that could be in jeopardy if she loses the case. Her lead counsel, Laura Menninger, is an experienced trial attorney from Denver firm Haddon, Morgan and Foreman.
“We fundamentally disagree with plaintiff’s attempts to litigate this public-figure defamation action as a sex-abuse and sex-trafficking case, and we object to the Court’s rulings that have permitted plaintiff to litigate the case in that way,” Menninger wrote in a court filing last week. “We have raised numerous legal issues with the Court, and the Court has erred in denying those issues.”
The Giuffre suit isn’t the only one still pending in the aftermath of Epstein’s conviction. Another lawsuit accusing Acosta’s former office of illegally keeping victims in the dark about the plea deal is still proceeding in a Florida federal court.
Critics have suggested Acosta blessed called a “sweetheart” deal in which Epstein escaped prosecution on federal charges in exchange for his plea to the two state solicitation offenses.
Acosta’s handling of the Epstein case came up at his confirmation hearings in March, where Acosta defended the deal, saying it was a “broadly held” view in his office that ending the federal probe without charges was appropriate if Epstein pled guilty in state court and registered as a sex offender.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) listed the ex-prosecutor’s actions in the matter as the first of several reasons she voted against him. “His handling of a case involving sex trafficking of underage girls when he was a U.S. attorney suggests he won’t put the interests of workers and everyday people ahead of the powerful and well-connected,” Feinstein wrote. “Acosta cut Epstein a favorable deal without consulting or even informing the victims. As a longtime advocate for the rights of crime victims, I find this deeply disturbing.”
Ben Schreckinger contributed to this report.
