New documents released in the Epstein Files have revealed how Ghislaine Maxwell and paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein actually met – as pictures in the files also show the former Prince Andrew hosted the pair at Sandringham during their budding relationship.
Epstein wrote in a formal memo that he pulled the young British socialite out of a ‘dark depression‘ following the death of her media mogul father, Robert Maxwell.
Maxwell had moved to New York in the early 1990s, months before her media mogul father would disappear off his yacht in an alleged suicide after stealing funds from his Mirror Group newspaper employees’ pensions funds.
Epstein was working as a wealth manager in New York at the time and wrote that he met a young Ghislaine Maxwell through ‘mutual friends’ and that she found their friendship ‘immediately rewarding’.
He added that the he comforted her ‘during that period’ by giving her ‘books to read – good novels, scientific studies – containing issues to challenge her mind’, as well as taking her to comedy clubs to ‘relieve her depression’.
The recollections of their early years written by the paedophile was typed out in a formal memo at an unknown date. But, the Times reported, Epstein was apparently compiling character references for his defence after he was charged in Florida in 2006 with the solicitation of a minor.
Maxwell had moved to Manhattan aged 29 to launch a magazine for her father’s media empire, which had acquired the New York Daily News in May 1991.
But in November her father died, leaving them to discover soon after that over £400million was missing from the pension funds he managed. Maxwell and her seven siblings were left with ‘no money, no trusts, no funds anywhere’ Ghislaine’s mother, Elisabeth Maxwell, later claimed.
A photograph in the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice yesterday depicting paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his ‘pimp’, Ghislaine Maxwell
A picture of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lying across a row of women in a photo during a black-tie event with Ghislaine Maxwell has been released as part of the Epstein files
The photograph above was taken in this room at Sandringham – with the same clock and ornaments above and, on the left, the faint outline of the hidden door to room where King George V recorded first Christmas broadcast
The new files released by the US Department of Justice on Friday include a new detail that Maxwell emailed Epstein to tell him she was discussing with a ‘CIA agent’ how to recover the assets from her father’s lost fortune.
Epstein wrote in the files that ‘over time the relationship became intimate’ and continued into the mid-to-late 1990s.
The disgraced New York financier also claimed he helped her secure a loan ‘to help her get her footing in the business world’ as a way for her to ‘maintain her dignity’ and ‘self-respect’, adding that she apparently paid him back.
In the documents, Maxwell is alleged to have received payments from Epstein totalling over $30million – a figure believed to be an underestimation – with Maxwell even boasting to one of Epstein’s victims that he had bought her a New York City townhouse.
Several of the new documents also show Ghislaine Maxwell, now 63 and serving 20 years for her role in recruiting and trafficking minors for sex on behalf of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, in humiliating positions, rubbing Epstein’s feet with exposed cleavage.
Maxwell had asked a federal court to throw out her sex trafficking conviction on Wednesday ahead of the Epstein file release, claiming that ‘substantial new evidence had emerged’. But the files were released as promised on Friday night.
The pictures also showed that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor had hosted Epstein at Sandringham House, the Norfolk estate beloved by the Royal family at Christmas.
As well as inviting the paedophile to Sandringham, Epstein and Maxwell also accompanied Andrew to Royal Ascot in 2000 and Balmoral in 1999, newly released photographs have confirmed.
A group including Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Tom Pritzker and Prince Andrew gather for a photograph in front of the Queen’s hunting lodge on her Sandringham Estate in 2000
Epstein and Maxwell were pictured in the countryside near Balmoral in one of the latest photographs released from the Epstein files
A photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell pictured outside Number 10 Downing Street – the offices of the UK Prime Minister – has been released as part of the Epstein files tonight
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Royal Ascot, Ladies Day, on June 22, 2000 – when the DOJ picture was believed to have been taken
One bombshell photograph showed Andrew lying across five women’s laps in one of the Royal Family’s most treasured rooms at the Sandringham Estate where the likes of the King, William and Kate will often watch TV, play games or enjoy afternoon tea there over Christmas.
The former prince is captured wearing a black suit and bow tie, as he lies across five women, smiling with his face near the bare legs of one.
Behind him stands Epstein’s grinning pimp Ghislaine Maxwell, alongside another unidentified woman who has had a black box put over her face by the US Department of Justice.
Despite there being no context to the newly-released picture, it raises fresh questions over what the disgraced royal knew about Epstein and the billionaire paedophile’s sex-trafficking girlfriend as he brought them into the Royal Family’s inner sanctum.
The US government released the picture as part of the Epstein files, a trove of 300,000 documents that revealed the depraved scenes at the financier’s mansions and included countless images of naked young women – plus Andrew partying it up at Sandringham.
It is not clear when the photo of Andrew in front of the fireplace in Sandringham’s saloon room was taken.
But it is known that Andrew hosted a surprise birthday for the now-jailed socialite at the King’s private country Norfolk retreat in December 2000.
Among the party was Tom Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt Hotels, is linked to the former duke in a most embarrassing way.
Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwell at a box at Royal Ascot in a picture released by the US Department of Justice
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on a pheasant shoot on the Sandringham estate in 2000
Sarah Ferguson sits on a sofa in an undated photograph released by the US Department of Justice
Now 75, the Chicago-based businessman was accused – like Andrew – of having sex with Virginia Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre claimed she was the victim of trafficking and abuse by Epstein and his powerful associates when she was a teenager. Like the former duke, Mr Pritzker has strongly denied the claims.
Less than three months after the hunting lodge snap, Andrew posed with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia’s waist for a photograph that would ultimately lead to his downfall.
Epstein’s account of his and Ghislaine Maxwell’s twisted relationship, in which Maxwell obtained young girls for Epstein, states that their relationship came to an ‘amicable’ end in 2000 as the ‘demand of his work, long hours and frequent travel, precluded a good married life with children’.
Although Maxwell reportedly wanted to start a family with Epstein, she wrote gushingly of Epstein: ‘My experience of Jeffrey is of a thoughtful, kind, generous loving man, with a keen sense of humour and a ready smile — a man of principles and values and a man of his word.
‘If he made a promise, he would always follow through. In fact, I never saw him break a promise. He is disciplined in business and conscientious.’
The documents revealed that the pair’s relationship was far more intimate than Maxwell previously publicly admitted, with photographs depicting the pair together on luxury holidays, Maxwell rubbing Epstein’s feet, and lounging in hot tubs with former presidents.
The documents also depict the pair infiltrating high-profile estates and institutions in the UK, from Maxwell standing outside Number 10 Downing Street to hunting on the Balmoral estate and enjoying a seat in the Royal Box at Ascot.
The context of many of the photographs remains unknown.
