EXCLUSIVE: Former First Lady of the US Virgin Islands Cecile de Jongh admitted to staying at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2017 for knee replacement surgery

The former First Lady of the US Virgin Islands admitted to staying in an apartment owned by Jeffrey Epstein while visiting New York for surgery, court documents show.

Cecile de Jongh said she had to stay in the pedophile’s building instead of with her daughter – who also lived in New York – because his building had an elevator.

She also claimed that Epstein’s apartment was much more convenient because it was six blocks from the hospital.

In a statement that was unsealed as part of a sex trafficking case brought by the USVI government against JPMorgan, De Jongh defended Epstein’s practice of giving a turkey to anyone at the customs house in St. Thomas, the capital of the area, worked.

The apartment has not been identified, but Epstein and his brother owned a building on the Upper East Side, described in his “Black Book” as the “Apartment for Models.”

Epstein seemed to curry favor with officers who would have seen him arrive with young women, but de Jongh said it was more like giving a “gift to a doorman.”

Her comments came in a statement in the case where the USVI alleges JPMorgan turned a blind eye to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Epstein, who was a client of JPMorgan between 1998 and 2013, owned two private islands in the area and abused multiple underage women there.

The USVI is demanding more than $190 million in restitution from the bank, which denies the allegations and accuses the USVI government of its own blindness when it came to Epstein.

One of the claims already made by JPMorgan is that de Jongh ran Epstein’s business for several years, including when her husband John de John was the governor of the USVI.

The bank has said de Jongh received $200,000 in salary and bonuses in 2007, the year her husband took office.

In the statement, De Jongh said she got a knee replacement in 2017 and spoke to Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff about staying at one of his properties.

Although the apartment has not been identified, Epstein and his brother owned a building on the Upper East Side that housed his friends and some of the victims, described in his infamous “Black Book” of contacts as the “Apartment for Models.”

In 2017, Epstein had been out for nearly a decade after serving 15 months in prison for recruiting minors into prostitution.

The terms of his release required him to become a registered sex offender, including in the USVI.

Facilities on Little St. James Island, one of financier Jeffrey Epstein’s properties, can be seen in an aerial photo, near Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

De Jongh said, “So I asked Mr. Epstein if I could stay there because I had to stay there for my first rehab and my post-operative surgery.

“And I could have stayed with my daughter, but she was on the fifth floor. When I talked to my doctor he said that wouldn’t work. I needed a place with an elevator.

And also, the apartment was about six blocks from the hospital for surgeries. So I flew up. The first time I stayed with my daughter did my pre-op. Then I went to the apartment, had my surgery and stayed there.

“I had had some heart complications. So I was there a little longer than usual’.

In its response, the USVI said de Jongh was no longer First Lady when she stayed with Epstein and that the point was not “material” to the case.

De Jongh claimed she “vaguely” remembered Epstein giving turkeys to all customs officials in the USVI.

Being on the good books of these officers would have been critical to Epstein, as he transported sex slaves to and from the USVI on an almost weekly basis.

When asked if she thought such gifts were OK, de Jongh said: ‘Yes.’

She said, “Well, down here people usually give gifts to people in the Treasury, they give, you know, they give gifts to people they normally interact with on a regular basis.

“You know, it’s similar to, you know, when, you know, my brother-in-law lives in a building where everyone gives a gift to the doorman, you know. So I thought about that, I had no reason to think anything unusual was going on.”

The attorney who asked the questions for JPMorgan replied, “Of course. But you would recognize that customs officers are not like the doorman at your premises. They’re law enforcement, right?’

De Jongh’s answer was not included in the excerpt of the statement.

Cecile de Jongh is pictured with her husband John, who served as governor of the area from 2007-15

In previous filings in the case, JPMorgan alleged that Epstein paid the tuition for De Jongh’s children to curry favor with her and her husband.

The bank claimed it was “explicitly advising Epstein on how to buy control of the (USVI) political class.”

She also allegedly helped him get visas to “bring victims to his island,” court documents said.

De Jongh was a “ready partner” in helping Epstein “freely transport and exploit young women,” it was claimed.

A USVI spokeswoman said these claims “mischaracterized” Epstein’s interactions with the area in order to “detract and shift blame away from his role in facilitating the heinous crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”

JPMorgan has already settled a similar lawsuit filed by an unnamed woman named Jane Doe for $290 million.

Deutsche Bank also settled its own Epstein sex trafficking lawsuit for $90 million.

The USVI case will go to trial in New York in October.