Prince Andrew is named in "sex slave" ring

[Magda Hassan]

Duke of Rutland? How appropriate....

[David Guyatt]

::laughingdog::

[David Guyatt]

Yes, my first thought was Blair too. First Murdoch's wife, now (possibly) Jane Doe 3....

Plus his early days cottaging apparently. Under the name Charles Lynton possibly.

Cottaging seems to be an indulgence that affects British prime ministers?

Ted Heath 'stopped cottaging for gay sex to protect his career', says Tory MP

By IAN DRURY
Last updated at 18:53 24 April 2007

He led the Tories to a surprise General Election victory over Labour, took Britain into Europe and lost power after failing to beat the unions over the three-day week.
But Sir Edward Heath might never have had a stint in 10 Downing Street had he not heeded advice to stop 'cottaging' for gay sex.
For he was warned in the 1950s that cruising for homosexual encounters could destroy his political career.
Sir Edward, a lifelong bachelor who died in 2005, always refused to comment on his sexuality.
But Brian Coleman, a senior Tory member of the London Assembly, has claimed the ex-Prime Minister had actively sought gay sex in public places.
He said it was 'common knowledge' among Conservatives that Sir Edward had been given a stern warning by police when he underwent background checks for the for the post of Privy Councillor.
In an internet article for the New Stateman magazine, Mr Coleman claimed that gay men had run the Conservative Party in the capital for years, whether as officials, councillors or volunteers.
He wrote that Britain 'had managed for decades with gay men holding a significant number of public offices'.
Mr Coleman, who is gay himself, added: 'The late Ted Heath managed to obtain the highest office of state after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the Fifties when he became a Privy Councillor.'
Sir Edward, a world-class yachtsman, endured a torrid time as Prime Minister after winning power in 1970. He took office promising to be 'tough on pay and tough on unions'.
But following endless powercuts, a three-day working week and a pay freeze against the background of the 1970s oil crisis, he was humiliated after being defeated in the snap General Election of 1974.
Derek Conway, Sir Edward's successor as Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, denied there had been any hint of impropriety in his private life.
He said: 'Ted was absolutely wedded to politics. He didn't have a great deal of personal companionship in his life but there are people who are capable of getting on with their lives without companionship.'
Mr Coleman made his claim in an article that complained about gay men in public life often being 'outed' by others against their will.
Senior police chiefs, cathedral deans and Tory MPs now regularly feature in the gay press, he said.
He wrote: 'I once asked the late Baroness Blatch as she tried to position herself to inherit the anti-gay crusade of Baroness Young exactly who she thought ran the Conservative Party in London?
'When she looked at me blankly I replied 'the gay men of course' and certainly a huge percentage of Conservative councillors, professional staff and association officers are gay.'
He said the practice of 'outing' public figures was carried out by tabloid newspapers to 'discourage thousands of men' from standing for office.
He cited disgraced Liberal Democrat Mark Oaten, a former party leadership candidate, who last year announced he would resign as an MP after his sordid six-month affair with a male prostitute was exposed.
Fellow Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Simon Hughes was also forced to admit he was gay after repeatedly denying the fact.
But Mr Coleman said: "In my experience the only people fascinated as to who does what and to whom are other gay men.
"The average voter could not care less if their Member of Parliament visits Hampstead Heath at Midnight as long as they get the holes in the road mended."

Mail Online

[David Guyatt]

"Madam" Ghislaine at work, according to a 2009 federal Florida law suit that was settled for an undisclosed sum.

Alleged madam massaged Jeffrey Epstein to teach teen victim to be his masseuse: lawsuit

Ghislaine Maxwell is accused of stripping down to her underwear in 1999 to massage Epstein to teach 15-year-old Virginia Roberts to become his full-time masseuse. Roberts claims she was told she had lots of potential.' Maxwell has also been accused of arranging for Roberts to have sex with Prince Andrew.

BY KERRY BURKE , DAREH GREGORIAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, January 8, 2015, 9:34 PM

ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSGhislaine Maxwell has been accused of teaching a teen to become Jeffrey Epstein's full-time masseuse.
Jeffrey Epstein's "madam" was hands on, court papers say.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of procuring young girls for the billionaire pervert, allegedly joined in on his debauched activities, one of his victims claims.
In a 2009 lawsuit she filed against Epstein using the name "Jane Doe," Virginia Roberts says she was a 15-year-old working a $9 an hour job at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach when she was "recruited" by Maxwell in 1999.
Maxwell, now 53, "lived, travelled, socialized and worked" with Epstein, the suit says.
"Ms. Maxwell asked if she was interested in learning massage therapy and earning a great deal of money while learning the profession," the suit says.
Maxwell took her to Epstein's home and into a massage room, where he was lying naked on a table, the suit says.
"Ms. Maxwell then took off her own shirt and left on her underwear and started rubbing her breasts against (Epstein's) body, impliedly showing plaintiff what she was expected to do," the suit says.
Maxwell then told her to take off her clothes and "straddle" Epstein, the suit says.
Jeffrey Epstein, 61, is a registered sex offender.

AP

"The encounter escalated, with defendant and Ms. Maxwell sexually assaulting, battering and abusing plaintiff in various ways and in various locations," the suit says.
Afterward, Maxwell and Epstein "giddily" told her to come back the next day because she "had lots of potential," the suit says.
They had her quit her job to become a full-time "masseuse," the suit says, giving Epstein multiple "massages" per day at his various estates around the world.
"Often, plaintiff was joined by Ms. Maxwell, Ms. Maxwell's assistant, and or/a countless array of young women who would be brought to one of defendant's homes," the suit says.
Court papers filed in federal court in Florida last month say Maxwell was the one who arranged for Roberts to have sexual trysts with Prince Andrew, who's fifth in line for the British throne.
One of the three trysts took place in Maxwell's London's apartment, that filing says. The prince has denied the charges.
The 2009 Florida federal courtsuit, which did not name Maxwell as a defendant, was settled for an undisclosed sum.

DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

Court papers filed in federal court in December accuse Ghislaine Maxwell of arranging for Virginia Roberts to have sexual trysts with Prince Andrew (pictured).
Maxwell, who was among the notables at Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010, appeared teary when asked about the allegations Thursday outside of her East Side apartment.
"Thanks for sharing," she said.
She referred a reporter to an earlier statement she made about the "madam" allegations being "abhorrent and entirely untrue."
Epstein, 61, is alleged to have preyed on dozens of underage girls in the late 90s and early 2000s, but pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in just one case in state court in 2008. He served 13 months in lockup, and is a registered sex offender.
Roberts is now one of four women challenging the feds' decision not to prosecute Epstein, 61.
Maxwell is the daughter of late media baron Robert Maxwell, who owned the Daily News for a brief period of time before his death in 1991. He died in the Atlantic Ocean after falling off his yacht, Lady Ghislaine.

[David Guyatt]

Hilary is furious.

Hillary furious' over Bill's part' in latest Epstein sex scandal

By Ian Mohr

January 8, 2015 | 9:10pm

Modal Trigger

Hillary and Bill ClintonPhoto: AP / Getty Images

MORE ON:

JEFFREY EPSTEIN

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Prince Andrew's 'pimp' had 21 numbers for Bill Clinton

Hillary Clinton is "furious" at husband Bill Clinton, according to Washington insiders, after his name came up in the latest sex scandal involving his disgraced former pal *Jeffrey Epstein.
Sources at the funeral of Mario Cuomo also said they saw a peevish-looking Hillary angrily "storm" past the former president after he dutifully waited for her by the door of St. Ignatius Loyola Church.
"Talk in Washington is that Hillary is furious with Bill about all this new information on Jeffrey Epstein," said a DC insider familiar with both Epstein and the Clintons.
Bill's name has popped up in 2011 court documents relating to Epstein after a woman said to be Virginia Roberts filed a bombshell suit alleging she was Epstein's teen "sex slave" and paid $15,000 to bed Epstein's pal, Britain's Prince Andrew.
The 2011 court docs reveal that 21 e-mail *addresses and phone numbers for Bill and an aide were found in Epstein's electronic black book, and that Bill "frequently flew" with Epstein on his private plane from 2002 to 2005. But the papers say he then "suddenly stopped, raising the suspicion that the friendship abruptly ended, perhaps because of events related to Epstein's sexual abuse of children."
Witnesses at Cuomo's funeral on Tuesday told Page Six that Bill was "waiting by the front door for a long time" before the ceremony. "People assumed he was waiting for Matilda Cuomo. But then Hillary came storming in right past him." Bill, the spy said, had been waiting for his wife, who didn't look too happy with him.
The 2011 court records also revealed that lawyers for two of Epstein's alleged victims were considering subpoenaing Bill in a civil case against Epstein. But he was not deposed.
Asked for comment, Hill's rep snapped, "Utter nonsense." Bill's rep made a customarily snide comment. Buckingham Palace has strongly denied allegations against the prince.

[Magda Hassan]

Hilary is furious.

Hillary furious' over Bill's part' in latest Epstein sex scandal

Oooooh I bet she is. His fucking dick is screwing her chances for the election.

[David Guyatt]

Hehehe... ::

Naughty's Bill's Pork Sword is mightier than the pen!

Wayne Madsen reporting:

January 11-13, 2015 -- As previously reported by WMR, Hillary sees White House chances go down the drain

publication date: Jan 9, 2015

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January 11-13, 2015 -- As previously reported by WMR, Hillary sees White House chances go down the drain

As previously reported by WMR, not only has GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush seen his White House chances damaged by the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex slave scandal, but Democratic frontrunner for her party's presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, is reportedly "furious" with her husband Bill Clinton for his involvement in the scandal.

Mrs. Clinton's early political life was dominated by her commitment to the rights of children. It will all but destroy Mrs. Clinton's presidential hopes if her husband's involvement in the Epstein sex slave ring are proven in court. Bill Clinton has been named as a materiel witness in a lawsuit brought by two of the women who were trafficked by Epstein when they were underage. The women claim that Epstein, a billionaire Wall Street financier, trafficked them domestically and internationally for sexual trysts. Clinton and Harvard celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz, a vocal defender of Israel, have been named in the lawsuit as Epstein accomplices.

A number of email addresses for Mr. Clinton and 21 private phone numbers for the ex-president, his personal assistant Doug Band, and his schedulers were discovered in Epstein's personal phone directory. Mr. Clinton made a number of trips with Epstein on his private plane from 2002 to 2005. After Epstein, who is currently a registered sex offender, was charged in 2005 with soliciting a 14-year old girl for prostitution, Clinton's air jaunts with Epstein abruptly ceased.

Mrs. Clinton's frosty relationship with her husband since the revelations about the Epstein scandal first hit the headlines was on full display at the New York City funeral for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Mrs. Clinton quite visibly stormed past her husband who was already waiting for her at St. Ignatius Loyola Church before the service began. For Hillary Clinton, her husband's alleged involvement in an underage sex ring could not have come at a worst time. She is already facing the real possibility of challenges from the left and center. Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination while Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is under pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to make a run for the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, Jeb Bush, who recently resigned from a number of corporate boards in preparation for a run for the presidency, has also been tainted by the Epstein scandal. Bush was Governor of Florida in 2005 when Epstein was first charged with having sex with a 14-year old girl. And it was Bush's administration and his Attorney General and successor, Charlie Crist, that first entered into negotiations with Epstein's lawyers, who included Dershowitz, Miami celebrity lawyer Roy Black, and Bill Clinton special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, to guarantee Epstein a 13-month house arrest sentence. Governor Bush and his brother's Justice Department also helped craft a "Non Prosecution Agreement" (NPA) with Epstein's legal team. The NPA ensured that there would be no future federal charges brought against Epstein or any of his "co-conspirators." It is now known, as a result of the lawsuit filed in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida that those co-conspirators include Bill Clinton; Dershowitz; and the Duke of York and fifth-in-line for the British throne, Prince Andrew.

Accounts of the Monica Lewinsky scandal suggest that President Clinton promised his wife that there would be no repeat of his actions in order that they did not upset Mrs. Clinton's political ambitions. The recent revelations about Bill Clinton and Epstein have reportedly been the last straw for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton can only distance herself from her husband through a divorce, something that her close political advisers are reportedly urging her to do, but such an eventuality would do little to help her presidential chances at this point in time.

The multiple deadly terrorist sieges in Paris only temporarily drove the Epstein sex scandal story off the front pages. However, the Epstein story, which involves a British royal, a former American president, and two presumptive presidential candidates, is not going to disappear anytime soon.

It looks like Jeb Bush is going to be caught up in this scandal too.

Oh! happy days.

[David Guyatt]

It seems I owe you a pint, Pete. Reporting of this affair of the ahem, heart, has now continued it seems:

Jeffrey Epstein: inside the decade of scandal entangling Prince Andrew

How a telephone call set off a cascade of FBI investigations, secret plea deals and lawsuits from Palm Beach, Florida, to Buckingham Palace as questions resurface over whether the disgraced financier used his wealth and power to elude justice

• Paul Lewis in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York
  
• theguardian.com, Saturday 10 January 2015 13.14 GMT
  

Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein go for a stroll through New York's Central Park.Photograph: Jae Donnelly/News of the World

The desperate woman who telephoned Detective Michele Pagan of the Palm Beach police declined to give her name and would not leave a call-back number. But she had some information that she had to tell someone.

Her stepdaughter, a 14-year-old pupil at Royal Palm Beach high school, had told a friend that she'd had sex with a middle-aged man who gave her money.
The man was said to have long face and bushy eyebrows and he lived in a big house at the end of a dead-end street. His name was Jeff. A teacher found $300 in the 14-year-old's purse.
That call to police made 10 years ago this March soon led Florida detectives to 358 El Brillo Way, a mansion owned by Jeffrey Epstein, one of America's wealthiest hedge fund tycoons.
A decade later, the cascade of FBI investigations, secret plea deals and lawsuits which followed that telephone call would be felt 4,000 miles away, behind the gates of Buckingham Palace.
The connecting thread was Epstein, now 61, a convicted sex offender and one-time friend of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. The allegation: that Epstein forced another of his teenage victims into sexual encounters with Andrew on three separate occasions.
The accusation, contained in a court filing first reported by the Guardian and Politico, has become headline news across the world this week, even as it was forcefully and repeatedly denied by the Palace.
It has thrown a spotlight on Andrew's relationship with Epstein and resurfaced questions over whether the disgraced financier used his extraordinary wealth and power to elude justice.
There is no suggestion Andrew ever encountered the 14-year-old referred to in police incident reports as SG' whose stepmother's call to police triggered the initial investigation into Epstein in 2005.
SG told detectives that Epstein had made her remove her clothes and give him a massage while he masturbated, according to a police report.
Within weeks the FBI was listening to Epstein's calls, rifling through his trash and searching for other potential victims. They eventually identified around 40.
Assistant US attorney Ann Marie Villafaña relayed a summary of the investigation to Epstein's counsel in an letter in 2007.
Jeffrey Epstein in custody in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2008. Photograph: Uma Sanghvi/AP"Mr Epstein, through his assistants, would recruit underage females to travel to his home in Palm Beach to engage in lewd conduct in exchange for money," it said. She added that some of the girls were expected to strip naked and give massages to Epstein while he masturbated, while others had full intercourse with the financier.
"Some of those victims went to Mr Epstein's home only once," Villafaña's letter added. "Some went there as many as 100 times or more."
One of those girls, referred to by police as AH, told detectives she was recruited by an associate of Epstein who overheard her tell a friend in a clothing store that she could not afford a holiday.
She claimed the erotic massages also led to Epstein asking her to engage sexually with an eastern European woman, Nada Marcinkova a female member of his entourage allegedly bought from her parents in eastern Europe as a teenager while he watched.
AH told detectives of her reluctance to go further than erotic massages with Epstein, who she said gave her $1,000 and a car. However, she recounted one incident during which Epstein "bent me over the table and put himself in me" without her permission. AH said Epstein stopped after she screamed no', but she was so sore after the incident that she had difficulty walking to her car.
When police eventually raided Epstein's mansion, they discovered one of AH's high school transcripts along with a container of peach flavoured "Joy Jelly" lubricant and Amazon receipts for explicit books such as Slave Craft: Roadmap For Erotic Servitude Principles.
There were dozens of stories from potential victims like AH and SG. An attorney who advised Epstein at the time said prosecutors did not believe AH to be credible.
But the accounts from around 40 Florida girls who said they were molested by Epstein were numerous and overlapping.
Despite this, the US government eventually agreed to allow Epstein to plead guilty to just one count of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl under Florida state law. In the end, he served just 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence.
The circumstances that led up to that secret plea agreement have proved an enduring controversy. Epstein agreed not to contest civil claims brought by the 40 women identified by the FBI, but escaped a prosecution that could have seen him jailed for the rest of his life.
Prosecutors agreed not to bring far more serious federal charges against Epstein, and not to charge "potential co-conspirators", including Marcinova and three other named individuals.
Clearly, prosecutors had questions about the credibility of some of the teenage witnesses doubts that were exacerbated when Epstein's lawyers and private investigators dug up dirt on their Myspace and Facebook pages.
Yet Michael Reiter, the former Palm Beach police chief, believed Epstein had received "very unusual" treatment in the deal, negotiated between officials in the US Department of Justice and a fleet of the best lawyers money could buy.
However in a six-year legal battle, which is still ongoing, lawyers for some of those victims are challenging the plea agreement, which they say was negotiated without their knowledge and therefore violated their rights as victims.
At the very least, documents released through litigation suggest prosecutors cooperated with Epstein's lawyers to keep the deal under wraps.
Using her personal Gmail account, for example, Villafaña proposed to one of Epstein's lawyers that they could file associated legal papers in a different jurisdiction, a move she said "will hopefully cut the press coverage significantly". Villafaña declined to comment on that email this week.
Epstein's adversaries have long suspected that the hedge fund manager somehow used his influence to lobby for a "sweetheart" deal with prosecutors that protected him and his associates from serving significant jail time.
No evidence has been publicly unearthed to substantiate that theory, although Epstein's private contacts book, seized by police, leaves no doubt he was once supremely well-connected.
There is no suggestion any of the individuals named in the book participated in or knew of Epstein's abuse of minors, or were involved in any effort to pressure prosecutors.
But Epstein's contacts book seen by the Guardian reads like a directory of the world's global elite.
Under the letter B alone are listed Tony Blair, Michael Bloomberg, and Richard Branson. Elsewhere there are multiple contacts typically at offices, homes, and via aides' mobile phones for Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump, Dustin Hoffman, Naomi Campbell, and dozens of other A-listers.
The name that appears on page 31, opposite an entry for Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, looks innocuous alongside the directory of world-renowned figures. Epstein had 16 separate telephone numbers listed for this particular friend: Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
The Prince Andrew connection

Prince Andrew. Photograph: Hugh Routledge/RexOf all Epstein's glamorous and influential friends, none has had their reputation as tarnished by their association with the disgraced financier as badly as the Queen's second son.
The prince's relationship with the playboy hedge fund manager had for years been cited as evidence of his poor judgment and it contributed, three years ago, to the termination of Andrew's cherished role as an official UK trade envoy.
Andrew and Epstein made curious acquaintances. While Andrew benefited from the privilege bestowed by a British royal title, Epstein's ascent is a classic American success story.
He was born in a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood, and never obtained a college degree. In 1976, he was plucked from a seemingly ordinary life as a mathematics teacher at a Manhattan private school in 1976 and given a job at the investment bank Bear Stearns.
Within six years he was working on his own, managing the portfolios of an exclusive and secret club of plutocrats said to only include billionaires. The scale of Epstein's own net worth has long been a mystery, although the financier made little effort to conceal how he was spending his fortune.
Epstein became a major philanthropist, spending millions on science projects at Harvard University, and was famous for his extravagant parties. He was a modern-day Great Gatsby, enjoying bringing together film stars, property magnates and political leaders.
Andrew reportedly met Epstein in the 1990s after being introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the the media mogul Robert Maxwell who, at the time, was the financier's girlfriend.
The friendship returned to haunt Andrew this week courtesy of one the dozens of women the FBI identified as one Epstein's potential victims: Virginia Roberts. Like dozens of the other teenagers, Roberts sued Epstein; the civil claim she lodged in a Florida court six years ago told a familiar story of exploitation.
Roberts was working for $9 an hour as a changing room assistant at Trump's Mar-A-Lago beach club, where her father was a maintenance manager, when she claims she was recruited to work as a masseuse for Epstein. She claims the invitation came courtesy of Maxwell. It was 1998, and Roberts was 15 years old.
Her civil suit, in which Roberts is referred to as Jane Doe 102, alleged that Ghislaine Maxwell, now 53, and Epstein quickly began grooming her for sex. Despite being told by Epstein, on the cusp of her 16th birthday, that "he would soon have to trade her in because she was getting too old", Roberts alleged she was thrust into a life of sexual servitude that lasted until 2002, when she fled to Thailand aged 19.
But in one important way Roberts' allegations differ from those of many of the other Florida teenage girls who say they were victims of Epstein. Her lawsuit states that she was co-opted into Epstein's inner-circle, flown by private jet to his ranch in New Mexico, his Caribbean island, and his 51,000-square-foot mansion in New York, reputedly the largest residence in Manhattan.
During the four years she claimed to have been a fixture in Epstein's hedonistic world, she claimed she saw Epstein and his close associates abuse women from across the world, including three French 12-year-olds who she alleged were sent to him as a birthday present. That lawsuit did not identify any alleged perpetrators other than Maxwell and Epstein.
But Roberts' lawsuit did imply there was more to her story. One elliptical reference alleged that Epstein "required" her to be sexually exploited by "politicians, academicians, businessmen". These men were described in the document as Epstein's "adult male peers, including royalty". Epstein and Roberts settled the lawsuit out of court, with Epstein paying Roberts just as he paid a series of other girls who were suing him an undisclosed sum in compensation.
Her cryptic allegation about "royalty" may never have been clarified were it not for the 13-page document submitted to Florida's southern district last week.
That court filing related to the long-running lawsuit in which lawyers for some of the victims are challenging Epstein's controversial plea deal. It was being brought by two women, Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. Roberts's lawyers wanted her and another woman listed as Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4 to be added as new plaintiffs.
The document briefly argued the case and summarised the two women's allegations. That summary elaborated on the claims that Roberts had made, in her 2009 lawsuit, about being loaned out by Epstein to rich and powerful men.
The court filing alleged that Epstein forced Roberts "to have sexual relations" on three separate occasions with "a member of the British Royal Family, Prince Andrew (a/k/a Duke of York)". The encounters are alleged to have happened in New York, at Maxwell's London home and in the US Virgin Islands as part of an "orgy with numerous other under-aged girls".
Referred to as a "minor" in the document, Roberts is understood to have been aged 17 at the time she alleges the encounters took place. Epstein allegedly instructed Roberts "to give the prince whatever he required" and report back on the details of "the sexual abuse".
"Epstein's purposes in lending' Jane Doe (along with other young girls) to such powerful people were to ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political, and financial gain," the document alleged, "as well as to obtain potential blackmail information".
Strenuous denials

The Guardian contacted Buckingham Palace on Thursday last week, a day before it intended to publish its first article about the allegations about Andrew. That evening a Palace spokesperson emailed a reporter, declining the opportunity to respond. "The Royal Household would never comment on an ongoing legal matter," she said.
Buckingham Palace has been employing staff on zero-hours contracts. Photograph: David Noton Photography/AlamyAfter the Guardian published the article, however, there was a dramatic reversal from the Palace, which issued the first in what turned out to be a flurry of statements forcefully denying the allegations as "categorically untrue".
The Palace later again denied "any form of sexual contact or relationship" between Andrew and Roberts, adding: "The allegations made are false and without any foundation."
Maxwell also dismissed the allegations, which she said were "not new and have been fully responded to and shown to be untrue". The statement released on her behalf added: "Ghislaine Maxwell's original response to the lies and defamatory claims remains the same."
Yet by then British newspapers were delving back into the story, republishing interviews Roberts had given in 2011 in which she detailed her encounters with Andrew but stopped short of alleging sexual contact.
Virginia Roberts, in Colorado on Saturday 3 January. Photograph: Karl Larsen/Karl Larsen/Coleman-RaynerThe stories were accompanied by a photograph, said to have been taken in 2001 at Maxwell's London home, where Roberts alleged her first sexual encounter with the prince occurred. The image showed Andrew grinning with his arm around the 17-year-old's midriff; Maxwell, also smiling, is in the background.
That image raises obvious questions for Andrew. Yet the strength of the denials issued by the Palace this week has not been matched by a willingness to address the details of the allegations made by Roberts. The Palace has declined to say, for example, why Andrew was in the company of a 17-year-old masseuse working for Epstein at Maxwell's home.
The Palace also refuses to answer questions about Andrew's friendship with Epstein, or confirm the several occasions the two men appear to have partied together.
Those reported encounters between Epstein and Andrew, some of which appear to be corroborated by flight logs for Epstein's private planes, which have been reviewed by the Guardian, stretch back more than a decade. They include parties at Windsor Castle and Sandringham, the Queen's Norfolk estate, an exclusive dinner in St Tropez and a holiday in Thailand when Andrew was pictured on a yacht surrounded by topless women.
Indeed, the Palace has never offered a public explanation for Andrew's most controversial meeting with Epstein, which occurred in New York in 2011. That was two years after Epstein had been released from prison. He was, by then, a registered sex offender, and though some celebrities were still willing to be seen with him, he'd been abandoned by many of the more influential figures he previously called his friends.
Andrew's face-to-face meeting with Epstein might have remained secret had the pair not decided to go for a stroll in Central Park, where they were photographed by a tabloid newspaper.
Court cases

In the seven days since Roberts's allegations were made public, pressure has mounted on Andrew to provide a more detailed explanation of the extent and nature of his friendship with Epstein.
That is partly because of the strategy adopted by another prominent figure, Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who faced similar accusations from Roberts in the same court filing.
Dershowitz's denials were just as emphatic as those emanating from the Palace. But they were also considerably more detailed. Dershowitz also submitted himself to questioning from journalists including five telephone conversations with the Guardian and vowed to fight the allegations in court.
By Tuesday he had launched a legal bid to formally strike the "outrageous and impertinent" claims about him containing in court filing, promised imminent defamation proceedings against Roberts and her lawyers, in both US and English courts, and submitted a sworn affidavit denying the accusations.
Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz discusses allegations of sex with an underage girl levelled against him, during an interview at his home in Miami Beach.Photograph: Andrew Innerarity/Reuters"If they're innocent, they should do what I'm doing," Dershowitz told the Guardian when asked if others accused by Roberts should follow suit. "You can't do what I'm doing unless you're 100% certain of your innocence."
Dershowitz quickly added that someone in Andrew's position may be innocent and decide it "would be undignified to respond" in the same way.
Yet the aggressive legal strategy adopted by Dershowitz, a renowned criminal attorney who once served on the legal team advising OJ Simpson who has occasionally written opinion pieces for the Guardian raises the stakes for all involved.
Roberts' lawyers appear willing to meet Dershowitz head on, filing their own, counter-defamation suit against the Harvard lawyer. Both sides are on a collision course, apparently determined to see the dispute resolved in court.
That opens the possibility that Roberts and, perhaps, Andrew could be called as witnesses.
It is just one of several civil proceedings that could results in Roberts taking the stand. Her lawyers are believed to be considering whether to submit a criminal complaint in the US Virgin Islands or London, a move that could trigger a fresh criminal investigation.
French model scout

There was one name in Roberts' court filing that escaped the public attention heaped on others: Jean Luc Brunel.
Brunel, who is French and in his 60s, is the co-founder of of MC2 Model Management, a Miami-based modelling agency with offices in New York and Tel Aviv. A well-known model scout since the 1970s, Brunel is credited with launching the careers of Milla Jovovich, Christy Turlington and Sharon Stone.
But his career has sometimes been marred by controversy. A CBS 60 Minutes documentary once accused Brunel of sexually exploiting young women, an allegation he denied.
But Brunel's close friendship with Epstein has never been in doubt. The model scout's name appears frequently in the flight logs kept for Epstein's private jets and prison records show he visited Epstein 67 times when he was in jail.
The 30 December court filing relaying Roberts' allegations, however, went further than the innuendo previously that has occasionally surrounded Brunel's friendship with Epstein. It explicitly alleged that Epstein was effectively exploiting Brunel's access to young women for the purposes of sex trafficking.
"He would bring young girls (ranging to ages as young as twelve) to the United States for sexual purposes and farm them out to his friends, especially Epstein," the filing states. "Brunel would offer the girls modeling' jobs. Many of the girls came from poor countries or impoverished backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money."
Roberts alleged she was forced to have sex with Brunel, too, and was made to "observe" the French model scout engaging in "sexual acts with dozens of underage girls".
The Guardian made repeated attempts to contact Brunel to afford him them the opportunity to respond to the allegations of impropriety, including those contained in the 30 December court filing. He did not respond.
Unimaginable luxury

Whatever the truth of the allegations, Epstein's friendship with Brunel certainly gave him access to the glamorous world of international modelling.

It chimed with Epstein's reputation, cultivated through the early 2000s, as an international playboy with an intercontinental property portfolio, his own personal Gulfstream II and Boeing 727, a profile in Vanity Fair, and an apparently loyal coterie of beautiful young women that skirted the line.
"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Donald Trump told New York magazine in October 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."
However, when it came to female associates, the evidence now suggests Epstein cultivated two separate spheres that rarely overlapped.
One restricted to a small group of women co-opted as permanent fixtures in Epstein's entourage was rooted in that world of almost unimaginable luxury.
The other comprised working-class Palm Beach teenagers who told police they were enticed into giving massages and sometimes more at Epstein's mansion with the promise of cash.
Lawyers for SG, the 14-year-old whose stepmother initially triggered the investigation into Epstein, for example, accused Epstein in a lawsuit of cynically seeking out "economically disadvantaged underage girls" who would be "less likely to complain to authorities or have credibility if allegations of improper conduct were made".
Conflicting accounts

The story SG told police back in 2005 became grimly familiar. A rebellious type hailing from Palm Beach's grittier west side, she told detectives she was recruited by Haley Robson, an 18-year-old working for Epstein.
Robson, one of the four named "potential co-conspirators" who were shielded from prosecution under Epstein's plea agreement, told police she was "like a Heidi Fleiss", the notorious Hollywood "madam" who claimed to procure women for rich and influential men in the movie industry.
Teenagers told police that after being transported to the mansion by Robson, they were met by another aide, Sarah Kellen, another named "potential co-conspirator" in the plea deal. A chef would often make them something to eat. Then, after being led by Kellen past walls adorned by pictures of naked women, they would arrive at an upstairs room where paid-for massages would allegedly descend into sexual abuse.
Jeffrey Epstein amassed a fortune while managing the portfolios of some of America's richest. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex FeaturesReached on the telephone this week, Robson declined to discuss what she called "all the Epstein stuff". "I've moved past all that," she said. "I have a child now. I'm not interested in speaking about it."
Guy Fronstin, an attorney for Epstein, told police during the 2005 investigation that there had been a horrible misunderstanding. His client was simply "passionate about massages", Fronstin said, pointing to a $100,000 donation to the Florida state ballet to pay for massage therapy. "The massages are therapeutic and spiritually sound for him," Fronstin said. "That is why he has had many massages."
That explanation stood in contrast to the account of Alfredo Rodriguez, a former housekeeper at the Palm Beach mansion, who told police that "he felt there was a lot more going on than just massages" given the cleanup operation that typically awaited him afterwards.
Rodriguez's credibility as a witness was undermined after he was convicted for trying to sell a stolen copy of Epstein's contact book to lawyers for some of the young girls.
Prior to that, he had described Epstein's guests as "very young" and explained how he was ordered to keep at least $2,000 in cash on him at all times to pay for Epstein's twice-daily massages. He felt like a "human ATM", he told police. Rodriguez said he once had to deliver a dozen red roses to AG at school.
Epstein showed a different level of reward to the few who were permitted access to his inner circle.
If Roberts' allegations are to believed, she was one of them. Another was Johanna Sjoberg, who alleges she was also recruited by Maxwell, when she was a student in Palm Beach, and became captivated by the luxurious lifestyle.
"I made a pact with the devil in exchange for excitement and glamour," Sjoberg told an interviewer in 2007.
Like Roberts, Sjoberg spoke of being persuaded to progress from a routine massage to more intimate activity. She said Epstein flew her to the Caribbean retreat, advising there would be "sex stuff" going on.
Sjoberg, who was already in her early 20s and has said she was surprised at allegations involving Epstein and underage girls, later visited his New York mansion. "I didn't grow up poor," she said, "but I realised there was more money there than I could ever have imagined."
Epstein's flight logs show that he took frequent trips to the island with named girls such as Roberts and Sjoberg. According to one account provided by Roberts, Sjoberg was present during her second encounter with Andrew, in New York.
Roberts and Sjoberg are both crucial witnesses in the whole saga. The pair are among the very few one of the few alleged Palm Beach victims to cross over into Epstein's other world, a place where his chosen women were ferried around the world in the company of presidents and princes.
Sjoberg, now 35 and running a beauty salon, declined this week to talk further about her experiences.
Roberts is now 30, a mother of three, and married. Since the contents of her lawyers' court filing was made public last week, she is believed to have gone into hiding in Colorado.
Her only public statement about the affair was the one she issued to the Guardian after Maxwell, Dershowitz and the Andrew issued their fervent denials.
"I am looking forward to vindicating my rights as an innocent victim and pursuing all available recourse," she said. "I'm not going to be bullied back into silence."

[David Guyatt]

What The Butler Saw.

Clue: it wasn't the contents of a 1920's naughty penny arcade machine.

Prince Andrew sex allegations: Jeffrey Epstein's butler Alfredo Rodriguez, who stole tell-all 'black book', dies age 60

Rodriguez served prison time after refusing to hand over Epstein's (pictured) book in 2011 and attempting to sell it for over £30,000

LOULLA-MAE ELEFTHERIOU-SMITH


Wednesday 07 January 2015



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Alfredo Rodriguez, the butler of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has died, and with him the location of a black book', which allegedly details "the full scope and the extent of Epstein's involvement with underage girls", and contact details of the businessman's celebrity friends.

Rodriguez died at the age of 60 after suffering from mesothelioma last week, his widow Patricia Dunn told DailyMail.com.
Dunn alleges that her late husband "knew all about Prince Andrew," who has been named in the current sex scandal centring on Epstein. Allegations levelled at the Prince are that he was supplied with a teenage girl who was used by Epstein as a "sex slave". Buckingham Palace has denied the allegation.
The black book' that Rodriguez had in his possession is journal in which Epstein is understood to have detailed the girls which attended his properties for "massages" for him and his friends, and details of his celebrity friends and associates who had no connection with alleged offences, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
Jeffrey Epstein: Controversies surrounding paedophile billionaire
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Rodriguez, who stole the book, claimed he needed it as insurance against the businessman to protect his own life.
The butler failed to tell prosecutors he possessed the book and later refused to hand it over. He was jailed for 18 months for attempting to sell it for $50,000 (£31,000).
In 2011 it emerged that the journal "detailed the full scope and the extent of Epstein's involvement with underage girls," according to prosecuting lawyers, who referred to it as "The Holy Grail".
Rodriguez died on 28 December. The current location of the document has not been disclosed and the Mirror claims Epstein's lawyers are "petrified" about where it will go, according to a source.

[David Guyatt]

From the Examiner.com:

Jeffrey Epstein underage models supplied by Jean Luc Brunel, says court document

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Buckingham Palace has stepped up its denials that Prince Andrew has sex with an underage girl. It's gone as far as to name the alleged victim, who had wanted anonymity, according to Briton's Sunday papers. The palace had already denied the...

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Jean Luc Brunel, who is the boss of a well-known modeling agency in New York, allegedly supplied Jeffrey Epstein with underage girls for an orgy that occurred with Prince Andrew, according to court documents. Brunel has reportedly been accused of recruiting underage models to have sex with some of his powerful friends, says Page Six on Friday night. A lawsuit claims that Epstein took some teenage girls to his private island in the Caribbean. He then ordered the girls to have sex with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.


Wikipedia
According to a lawsuit which was reported upon byThe Times of London on Friday, Epstein - who allegedly provided a 17-year-old sex slave named Virginia Roberts from 1999 to 2002 - is now accused of involvement with other teen girls within his escapades. Brunel, described as a honcho in the fashion industry, had a topless photo shoot with underage models from Russia, according to accusations by Roberts. Some of the underage girls were as young as 12 years old, and they were reportedly provided to Brunel's friends, persons such as Epstein. This information is available in court documents regarding the case.
Ms. Roberts also claims that she had to have sexual relations with Brunel. She said that Epstein forced her to have the relations with Brunel - who is the co-founder of MC2 Model Management - at his West Palm Beach, Florida home. Additionally, she claims she was forced to have relations with him in New York, California and other select locations. Beyond that, she says that Epstein made her watch while he, Brunel and a socialite named Ghislaine Maxwell had relations with dozens of other girls who were underage. One report suggests that Epstein had young models stay in apartments near his Upper East Side mansion which is reportedly one of the places Roberts was told to engage in relations with Prince Andrew.
It was reported that Brunel visited Epstein some 67 times when he was put in jail. He was said to have been in jail for soliciting sex from a minor. Brunel has asserted in the past that he discovered such famed women in the modeling world as Sharon Stone and Jerry Hall. For the record, models claimed that they were drugged and raped approximately 25 years ago and through the years Prince Andrew has denied the stories about his involvement with the underage girls.
Previously, this week, it was reported that Hillary Clinton is livid with her husband, former-President Bill Clinton, after his name was linked to the most recent sex scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein is now being described as Bill Clinton's disgraced former friend. Insiders say that Mrs. Clinton was none too happy with her husband when the two attended Mario Cuomo's funeral at St. Ignatius Loyola Church this past week. Of course, given the infamous Monica Lewinsky story of Bill Clinton in the White House, Hillary Clinton has had more than one wife's share of embarrassment and frustration over a husband's alleged sexually-disgraced past.