Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been named as a witness in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and sex offender who was accused of trafficking and abusing dozens of underage girls.
According to court documents unsealed on Friday, Clinton is among more than 150 people who are expected to be deposed or provide evidence in the civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged victims.
Giuffre has claimed that Epstein and his former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021, directed her to have sex with several prominent men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton.
Giuffre has also alleged that she met Hillary Clinton on Epstein’s private Caribbean island, known as Little St. James, in 2001. Maxwell has denied this claim and challenged Giuffre’s credibility. Hillary Clinton has not commented on the allegation, but a spokesperson for Bill Clinton has said that he “knew nothing about the terrible crimes” that Epstein was accused of, and that he had not spoken to him "in well over a decade".
The unsealing of the court documents comes after a long legal battle between Giuffre and Maxwell, who had sought to keep them secret. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled earlier this month that there was no legal justification for continuing to conceal the names of the “John and Jane Does” mentioned in the records.
The documents are expected to reveal more details about Epstein’s network of associates, who allegedly helped him recruit and groom young girls for his sexual exploitation. Epstein, who had pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy, died in his jail cell in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. His death sparked conspiracy theories and speculation about his connections to powerful figures in politics, business, and entertainment.
