On Friday, new materials related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public in the U.S., mentioning a number of well-known figures — including former U.S. President Donald Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, British billionaire Richard Branson, and former British Prince Andrew, reports LETA citing AFP.
None of them are accused of any wrongdoing in this case.
The materials contain a list of allegations of sexual assaults compiled by the FBI, related to Trump. Many of the allegations came from anonymous callers and contain unverified information.
A number of allegations, some of which are paraphrases of others' words, were sent to the FBI's National Threat Operations Center, which accepts information via phone and email. According to the documents, investigators took further action on several reports, but some were deemed unreliable.
Trump has denied any involvement in the Epstein case for many years.
Among the documents is an email in which Epstein claims that Gates had extramarital affairs. The Gates Foundation denied this claim in a comment to the New York Times.
New documents also indicate a friendly relationship between Epstein and Branson. In a letter dated September 11, 2013, Branson writes to Epstein: "Any time you are nearby, I would love to see you. Unless you bring your harem!"
The materials also include email correspondence between Epstein and billionaire Elon Musk. In November 2012, Epstein asks Musk: "How many of you will be flying to the island by helicopter?" Musk replied: "Probably just Talulah and me. What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"
Later, Musk stated on platform X that he "realizes that individual emails from the correspondence with [Epstein] may be misinterpreted and used to tarnish my name." He added: "I don’t care about that, but it’s important to me that we at least try to hold accountable those who committed serious crimes alongside Epstein, especially regarding the exploitation of underage girls."
Former British Prince Andrew invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace in September 2010 when the financier was in London. In the correspondence, Epstein asks Andrew: "When do you want me to... we will also need... a little personal time." Andrew replied: "We can have dinner at Buckingham Palace, and we will have enough privacy."
According to the documents, Andrew made this offer a month after Epstein suggested introducing him to a 26-year-old Russian woman. The prince expressed a desire to see her, but the materials do not confirm that the meeting actually took place.
It was previously reported that the U.S. Department of Justice released at least three million pages of materials related to the Epstein case on Friday.
More than 2,000 video recordings and 180,000 images were also made public.
Epstein was accused of sexually exploiting dozens of underage girls and trafficking for sexual abuse. Without waiting for trial, he took his own life in August 2019 in a federal detention center in New York, the day after documents were published shedding light on his sex trafficking network from 2002 to 2005.
Under pressure from Republicans, Trump signed a law last November requiring the Department of Justice to release most of the materials related to the Epstein case within 30 days.
The Department of Justice, missing the December 19 deadline, reported that it had tasked hundreds of lawyers with reviewing the documents to determine what needed to be redacted to protect the identities of sexual abuse victims and to avoid risks to the ongoing investigation.
The volume of documents to be reviewed increased to approximately six million pages, including copies, the department indicated.
Before Christmas, the DOJ had already released thousands of documents, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, and other materials. Many of them were already available or had undergone significant redaction.
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