Newly unsealed depositions in the civil suit between Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre over her alleged abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell are shedding light on public figures tied to Epstein.
The documents were unsealed today after a lengthy court fight after the case was settled. In that time, Epstein was charged with sex crimes and died in custody and Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors.
One particularly lengthy deposition is catching the internet’s attention. That of Johanna Sjoberg, who accused Prince Andrew of groping her in 2001.
In her deposition, she discusses Epstein, Prince Andrew, and former President Bill Clinton, alongside other infamous people from Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit. Sjoberg who is 42 now, said she was recruited in 2001 by Maxwell, making her one of Epstein’s victims who wasn’t underage at the time.
When asked about Clinton, who is known to have flown on Epstein’s private jet, Sjoberg said she knew Clinton and Epstein had a relationship and that he “likes them young, referring to girls.”
From the deposition about Clinton.
Q. Do you know if Bill Clinton was a friend
A. I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton. I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together.
Q. Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Bill Clinton?
A. He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.
According to Sjoberg, she said she performed massages on Epstein and that they occasionally turned sexual.
Q. Did Epstein try to make the massages sexual?
A. On occasion.
Q. Would Epstein have you rub his nipples?
A. Yes.
Q. Would he masturbate during the massages?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he use sex toys or vibrators on you?
A. Yes.
Q. Would he leave the sex toys or vibrators out after the massage or would he clean up after himself?
A. He did not ever clean up.
Sjoberg also recounted her night with Prince Andrew, where she said he groped her, testimony of which has been previously reported.
Q. And what happened next?
A. At one point, Ghislaine told me to come upstairs, and we went into a closet and pulled out the puppet, the caricature of Prince Andrew, and brought it down. And there was a little tag on the puppet that said “Prince Andrew” on it, and that’s when I knew who he was.
Q. And did — what did the puppet look like?
A. It looked like him. And she brought it down and presented it to him; and that was a great joke, because apparently it was a production from a show on BBC. And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap, and I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo.
Sjoberg was also asked about a spate of public figures who have been accused of having ties to Epstein, and she denied having massaged or even met many of them.
Q. Donald Trump?
A. No.
Q. Did you ever massage Donald Trump?
A. No.
Q. Sorry, I have to ask, but did you ever have sex with Alan Dershowitz in the back of a limousine with Virginia and Jeffrey present?
A: Absolutely not.
While she said she never massaged former President Donald Trump, she said that Epstein had his phone number.
Q. How did it come to be that you were in a casino in Atlantic City?
A. We, as we were flying, Jeffrey said, Why don’t you go sit in the cockpit to check out the landing? So we were sitting there, and the pilots told me to go back and tell him that we can’t land in New York and that we were going to have to land in Atlantic City. Jeffrey said, Great, we’ll call up Trump =and we’ll go to — I don’t recall the name of the casino, but — we’ll go to the casino.
Sjoberg also says that while she never met former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Maxwell dined with him on one occasion.
You can read more coverage here.
