All you need to know about Jeffrey Epstein court documents being unsealed from today

Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew are set to be two of around 200 people named as associates of Jeffrey Epstein in court papers being unsealed from today.

Although the former US president and the Duke of York have already been linked to Epstein, the tranche of hundreds of files could reveal new details.

The documents mainly consist of previously unseen legal arguments from the defamation case Virginia Guiffre, Epstein’s main accuser, made against his former lover Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.

Files were sealed or heavily redacted to protect the identities of “alleged victims, people not accused of wrongdoing…and absent third parties” that could have been implicated in the case.

In December, New York district judge Loretta Preska made a 51-page ruling that they should no longer remain secret, giving those named until midnight on 1 January to appeal.

With the deadline passed, they could now be published at any time. Here we look at what you need to know.

Which case is it?

The documents were all part of a 2015 civil lawsuit lodged by Viginia Guiffre, who says she was one of Epstein’s principal victims of underage sex trafficking.

She sued Ghislaine Maxwell, 62, for defamation after her spokesperson issued a statement describing Ms Guiffre’s allegations against her and Epstein as “obvious lies”.

At the time Maxwell tried to have the case thrown out but district court judge Robert Sweet rejected her motion to dismiss it.

He ruled Ms Guiffre was the victim of “sustained underage sexual abuse between 1999 and 2002”.

The ruling paved the way for Ms Guiffre, now 40 and living in Australia, to pursue various other lawsuits, including the one against Prince Andrew for “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress”, which was settled for a rumoured $12m (£9.45m) in February 2022. The duke has always denied her claims.

It also helped facilitate the criminal case against Maxwell, who was found guilty of five out of six charges of grooming four girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She was sentenced to 20 years in a US prison in December 2021 and has since launched an appeal.

Documents relating to the case were subjected to court orders sealing or redacting them to protect the privacy of some of the people named.

They are likely to be either people accused of wrongdoing – or not, including those who worked for Epstein, flew on his planes, or visited his homes, as well as alleged victims and witnesses.

The Miami Herald first intervened to get them unsealed on public interest grounds in 2018 – and this is the eighth set to be released.

The day after the first round was published in 2019, Epstein was found dead, aged 66, in his Manhattan prison cell where he was awaiting trial for child sex trafficking offences.

In December, judge Preska published her findings that there was no legal justification for keeping the names redacted.

She gave each of the people listed the chance to individually appeal her decision – with a deadline of midnight on 1 January – and publication expected to be imminent thereafter.

How is Bill Clinton involved?

The file contains names of around 170 people, judge Preska’s December ruling states.

They were previously referred to as “John and Jane Does” depending on their gender to conceal their identities.

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ABC News has reported that President Bill Clinton is “Doe 36”, mentioned in more than 50 of the documents.

There is no indication of any wrongdoing by Mr Clinton.

He was photographed with Epstein and admitted being associated with him in a philanthropic capacity, but his representatives have said he cut off all contact with him in 2005 – before he faced criminal allegations.

Ms Guiffre’s 2015 lawsuit is reported to include a claim that she met the former president on Epstein’s private Caribbean island Little St James.

Flight logs kept by one of Epstein’s private pilots have confirmed Mr Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane several times between 2002 and 2003 – as part of humanitarian projects in Africa – as well as to Paris, Bangkok and Brunei.

He previously said in media reports Epstein was a “highly successful financier and committed philanthropist” and that he “appreciated his insights and generosity during… a trip to Africa to work on democratisation, empowering the poor, citizen service and combating HIV/AIDS”.

In 2019, Clinton’s spokesperson said he had “never been to Little St James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico or his residence in Florida”.

But Ms Guiffre’s claim could formally contradict that statement.

Mr Clinton’s legal team has not lodged an appeal against his naming in the case.

What about Prince Andrew?

According to reports by ABC News, the redacted files will also include 40 documents of evidence from “Jane Doe 162”.

The news channel reports that she is Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast on a sofa at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.

She has said in court that when she was 17 she visited Epstein’s New York mansion while he, Maxwell and the Duke of York were there.

The duke denies this and Buckingham Palace has described the claims as “categorically untrue”.

Part of the reason judge Preska has ruled in favour of publishing names like hers is because she has already given interviews to media – including The Times.

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