Business magnate Richard Branson, Prince Andrew, Hillary Clinton and former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were named in the latest Jeffrey Epstein documents released Monday.
Sarah Ransome, one of Epstein’s victims, claimed sex tapes were taken of the Duke of York, Bill Clinton and Branson, according to the newly unsealed court files. She has since retracted all of her claims, allegedly out of fear for her family.
The documents stem from a settled 2015 lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. After the case was settled in 2017, Giuffre and many others called for the names to be made public.
A US judge ordered hundreds of documents—with nearly 200 people linked to Jeffrey Epstein—to be unsealed, and the process began last week.
“When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filed on each separate occasion by Jeffery,” wrote Ransome to then-New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan in 2016. Callahan is now a DailyMail.com columnist.
“Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her,” she continued. “Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!”
Ransome alleged the footage was “backed up” on “several USB sticks” sent to Europe.
“When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andre,” she said.
A law firm representing Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s then-lawyer, flagged the communications to demonstrate that Ransome “manifestly lacks credibility.”
Prince Andrew stepped down from public life after his friendship with Epstein was exposed in a civil sexual assault case with Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met. The duke, who denies any wrongdoing, paid millions to settle the lawsuit.
Ransome made a number of other wild allegations in the emails, including an accusation that her friend was approached “by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hillary Clinton herself.”
She also claimed that Trump had sex with “many girls,” including an unnamed friend of hers.
She told Callahan that Trump “liked flicking and sucking” her friend’s nipples “until they were raw.” She wrote: “They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them.” She added: “I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery’s NY mansion on regular occasions.”
Ransome also took aim at Hilary Clinton in her emails, saying: “I will make sure that neither that evil bitch Hillary or that paedophile Trump gets elected.”
“I will also make sure that everyone on the God damn planet see’s [sic] that footage and photo’s [sic] and will release them to Wiki leaks by Sunday,” she wrote.
In the letter to the court, the law firm representing Dershowitz, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, said Ransome’s allegations against Dershowitz were categorically false.
The firm said: “Her testimony was fabricated from whole cloth. Ms Ransome’s testimony also contains a slew of other incendiary claims concerning the sexual proclivities of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and other prominent individuals.
“The emails are a necessary antidote to Ms Ransome’s deposition misstatements because they demonstrate she manifestly lacks credibility.”
Ransome did later retract her claims, telling Callahan she wanted to “walk away from this,” citing fears for her family.
In 2019, The New Yorker reported that Ransome admitted to “inventing” the tapes story “to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he harmed me.’”
Ransome was introduced to Epstein in September, 2006, when she was twenty-two. She had gone through a painful breakup, and had dropped out of college in Edinburgh, because she couldn’t afford the tuition. She decided to spend most of her remaining money on a flight to New York. “At twenty-two, you’re so naïve,” she said. “But I was in New York to make friends, to get over heartbreak, to try to get an education. You know, it’s the land of dreams.” Soon after she arrived, a new friend introduced her to Epstein, describing him as a philanthropist who used his wealth and his connections to help poor young women—if they gave him massages.
As the massages turned sexual, Ransome said, she was given the use of a huge apartment in Epstein’s building on the Upper East Side, along with a cell phone, a car-service account, and money for living expenses. Ransome said that she dreamed of studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and that Epstein and Maxwell promised to arrange her admission. For Ransome, as for the other women, these benefits depended on her having sex with Epstein and with his friends. In her affidavit, she named Dershowitz as one of those friends.
Ransome was another imperfect witness. In the fall of 2016, she had suggested to the New York Post that she had sex tapes of half a dozen prominent people, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump—but couldn’t provide the tapes when asked. (Ransome told me that she had invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior, and to make him believe that she had “evidence that would come out if he harmed me.”)
Maxwell has been in jail since July 2020 despite attempts by her defense team to have her released on bail.
Ransome gave a victim impact statement in June 2022, ahead of Maxwell’s sentencing for sex-trafficking. The disgraced British socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“Soon after lulling me and others into a false sense of comfort and security, they pounced, ensnaring us in their upside-down, twisted world of rape, rape and more rape,” Ransome stated in a New York federal court.
“Like Hotel California, you could check into the Epstein-Maxwell dungeon of sexual hell, but you could never leave.”
Ransome described Maxwell “as the same woman” she was when they met almost 20 years ago.
“After all of this, how can the five star general of this enormous sex trafficking conspiracy involving so many co-conspirators that snared 100’s if not 1,000s of vulnerable girls and young women over three decades continue to maintain her innocence?” Ransom told the court.
“Because of her wealth, social status, and connections, she believes herself beyond reproach and above the law. Sentencing her to the rest of her life in prison will not change her, but it will give other survivors and I a slight sense of justice and help us as we continue to work to recover from the sex-trafficking hell she perpetrated.”
Ransome broke down in tears as she said Maxwell and Epstein told her she was “exceptionally intelligent” and had the potential to be someone in life.
“I frequently experience flashbacks and wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares reliving the awful experience,” Ransome stated.
“I am hypervigilant, experience dramatic mood changes, and avoid certain places, situations and people. I will sometimes start crying uncontrollably and without apparent reason. I have worked hard with several mental health professionals who have diagnosed me with extreme symptoms of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, PTSD, and tendencies to self-harm,” she added.
Ransome told the court that she twice attempted to kill herself and it is “only by the grace of God” that she continues to live.
After the sentencing, Ransome said she was disappointed that Maxwell “still maintains her innocence.” She said she wanted Maxwell to spend the rest of her life in jail “because she’s dangerous.”
“I was raped three times a day sometimes, and I was not the only girl on that island,” Ransome told reporters outside of court. “There was a constant stream of girls being raped over and over and over and over again,” she added. “Yes, they must die in prison.”
Epstein was indicted in 2019 for sexually abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14, at his homes in New York and Palm Beach, Florida. He was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, and faced a potential four-decade prison sentence. He died in his jail cell while awaiting trial and NYC’s chief medical examiner concluded that Epstein’s cause of death was suicide by hanging.
Due to multiple irregularities associated with his death however, many people believe that he was murdered.