Virginia Roberts-Giuffre claimed that Bill Clinton marched into the offices of Vanity Fair and demanded the magazine halt planned publication of a story about Jeffrey Epstein, newly-released court documents show.
Roberts-Giuffre’s claim was made in a May 2011 email discussing an interview to promote her planned book.
She said Clinton ‘walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend JE’.
There is no evidence for her wild claim, and it seems highly unlikely that the former president would intervene in such a public way.
Epstein himself did, however, allegedly prevent Vanity Fair from publishing reporting by journalist Vicky Ward – who had interviewed sisters Maria and Annie Farmer about their abuse by the pedophile financier.
Ward said in her 2022 podcast that Epstein threatened her, telling her: ‘I have reports here about you, your husband – I have everything under the sun that was sent to me by people who want to be helpful.’ Vanity Fair said the claims of sexual abuse were not included in her 2003 published article because they were added late and did not meet legal standards.
Roberts-Giuffre’s correspondence was published on Thursday as part of a tranche of documents from her 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s right-hand woman. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence: Epstein died by suicide in jail awaiting trial, in August 2019.
Thursday’s release of documents is the second tranche of files to be unsealed by the Manhattan court.
Bill Clinton is pictured with Jeffrey Epstein in an undated photograph
Roberts-Giuffre in her email claimed that Bill Clinton ‘walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend JE’
In her May 2011 email, Roberts-Giuffre discussed whether to speak to Vanity Fair to promote her book.
‘I am looking at both sides to the picture,’ Roberts-Giuffre writes.
‘On the upside it will give exposure to build up publicity for the case and the story, but like you said it must be carefully written and not give any notions about the upcoming book and or any new info.
‘When I was doing some research into VF yesterday, it does concern me what they could want to write about me considering that B. Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend J.E.’
Ward insists that the then-editor of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, removed her damning allegations about Epstein in 2003. Carter said that the reporting did not meet their legal standards, and his editors alone made the decision.
The first batch, dumped on Wednesday, was 900-pages long. It included Bill Clinton, Stephen Hawking, Michael Jackson and others.
Most of the individuals named were peripheral to Epstein’s crimes and did not have knowledge of them, according to the papers.
The ‘list’ does not suggest that those included had any role in his crimes or sex trafficking ring, but serve as a more detailed map of Epstein’s impressive social connections.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an evidence photo from her trial
Bill Clinton is seen with Jeffrey Epstein inside the White House in 1993, at an event for donors to the White House Historical Association. Epstein attended the event after donating $10,000 to the fund. Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured beside Epstein
One bombshell that was included in Wednesday’s documents, however, is a claim that Prince Andrew participated in an ‘orgy’ on Epstein’s Caribbean island.
The allegation is made by Jane Doe #3, who says she was forced to have sex with Andrew in London, at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house, in New York and in the Caribbean with other girls.
Andrew has long denied the allegations.
To date, the only person prosecuted in addition to Epstein is Maxwell, who remains behind bars in New York.
She is still protesting her innocence, claiming she has been the scapegoat of Epstein’s crimes in a sexist justice system.
Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.
While medical examiners and the Attorney General insist he died by suicide, some close to him have long claimed he was either murdered or assisted in taking his own life.