New documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case detail how girls were recruited to his home

The records previously released include names of people in the late financier’s orbit and depositions from women who say they were recruited for his alleged sex trafficking network.

Another set of unsealed documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released Thursday, many of them focusing on how teen girls were recruited to go to his Florida home.

Some of the depositions released Thursday center on how girls were convinced to go to the home and then were asked to bring friends for additional payment.

One woman who was 16 or 17 at the time said she had no massage experience and no assumption or expectation that the visit would involve sexual activity.

“Jeffrey took my clothes off without my consent the first time I met him,” according to a transcript of a deposition from the woman, whose name has been redacted.

Former Palm Beach police Det. Joseph Recarey, who is now deceased, said in 2016 that Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving 20 years in prison, was involved in seeking girls to give massages and work at Epstein’s home.

Recarey said he interviewed around 33 women, according to a transcript. Only two, who were older, had any massage experience, he said. Most of the girls were younger than 18.

"Each of the victims that went to the home were asked to bring their friends to the home. Some complied and some didn’t," Recarey said.

The descriptions of how women were recruited contained in the documents is consistent with what was testified to at Maxwell’s criminal trial. Nineteen exhibits totaling 327 pages of previously sealed documents were released Thursday by a federal court in New York.

The disclosure is part of a settled lawsuit first filed in 2015 against British socialite and Epstein confidant Maxwell by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was a victim of sex trafficking and abuse when she was a teenager in the early 2000s.

In total, the hundreds of pages of unsealed documents — which are the latest to attract online conspiracy theorists in the wake of Epstein’s 2019 death — are expected to make public the names of more than 150 people connected to or mentioned in legal proceedings related to Epstein and his network, which prosecutors said involved luring underage girls and young women to engage in sex acts with powerful men.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell while facing charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy.

Most of the contents of the documents of Thursday's release were well-known and do not implicate new third parties.

In December, a federal judge in New York ordered the documents from Giuffre’s lawsuit to be unsealed beginning this month, which is being done on a rolling basis. Those who have objected to their names being unredacted were able to appeal, and their identities remain blocked while under review by the judge.

Dozens of documents were released Wednesday, with much of the information and names already known from prior public records and interviews. Still, the materials laid out the extent of Epstein’s orbit, with details provided in depositions from Giuffre and another woman, Johanna Sjoberg, who said she was recruited by Maxwell as a massage therapist while she was attending Palm Beach Atlantic College in 2001.

Giuffre said in a deposition that at different times she was directed to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew, another prince, the unnamed owner of a large hotel chain and Glenn Dubin, a billionaire hedge fund manager, according to a transcript.

A request for a response from Andrew has not been returned, but he has strenuously denied the claim previously. A spokesperson for Dubin in 2019 and again Wednesday said he “strongly den[ies] these allegations” and described them as unsubstantiated statements.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump also were mentioned in depositions, none of which included allegations of wrongdoing.

In her 2016 deposition, Sjoberg said Epstein once spoke about Clinton.

“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” the deposition reads. There is no mention of wrongdoing in the document, and the questioning moves on. Sjoberg said she had never met Clinton and never saw him on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Clinton referred to a statement from 2019 that said he had not spoken to Epstein in over a decade and was unaware of any criminal activity at that time.

Trump’s name also appears in the deposition by Sjoberg, which includes no allegations of wrongdoing.

She recounted that when Epstein’s plane would have to land in Atlantic City, New Jersey, “Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump’” and go to a casino, she said in her deposition. Sjoberg also said she never gave Trump a massage.

Trump did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. He has previously said he had not been in touch with Epstein for 15 years before his death, and in 2019, Trump said he was “not a fan“ of Epstein’s.

Sjoberg also said she had once met singer Michael Jackson at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, but did not massage him. She also said she met magician David Copperfield at a dinner at Epstein’s. She recounted that there was another woman at dinner who looked very young and that she wondered whether it was possible she was in high school, according to the documents.

Sjoberg said Copperfield did magic tricks at the dinner, and “he questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls,” the deposition reads. Asked whether Copperfield described any specifics, Sjoberg said no.

Copperfield did not respond to a request for comment.

Epstein was facing one federal count each of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors when he hanged himself in a federal jail in Manhattan in 2019, as a trove of incriminating material had just been unsealed in court. He had pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution-related charges in Florida and was required to register as a sex offender.

Giuffre alleged that Epstein sexually abused her and that Maxwell and Epstein directed her to have sex with other men from 2000 to 2002. The case, which Giuffre brought after Maxwell accused her of lying when she said Maxwell and Epstein had exploited and abused her, was eventually settled out of court in 2017.

An email in the documents released Wednesday appeared to show Epstein telling Maxwell in January 2015 to offer “a reward” to any of Giuffre’s friends or acquaintances who could help disprove Giuffre’s allegations.

A year after Epstein’s death, Maxwell was arrested on charges in connection with the recruitment and grooming of teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She was convicted of five federal sex trafficking charges and sentenced in 2022 to 20 years behind bars.

Maxwell, 62, is in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, and appealing the verdict.

Giuffre’s attorney, Sigrid McCawley, said Wednesday that her client is fully supportive of the documents in her lawsuit being unsealed.

“Her position has always been that if the information is going to come out, all of it should come out,” McCawley said. “Everybody should know everything — that’s in fairness to all of those who have been involved.”

Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Sarah Fitzpatrick is a senior investigative producer and story editor for NBC News. She previously worked for CBS News and "60 Minutes."