Dozens of high-profile associates of Jeffrey Epstein are in for a New Year's surprise as they will be named in court documents set to be released in the early days of 2024.
The pedophile's powerful friends will be exposed as part of a major unveiling that a judge said will take place in a fortnight on Monday.
That will take release day to January 1, but since that's a holiday, it's likely the files will be made public the next day.
About 177 people will be identified in hundreds of files that will shed new light on the late financier's sex trafficking ring and his influence network.
A judge has decided to unseale documents in the coming weeks that would name 177 people who are friends, recruiters and victims of Epstein
Judge Loretta Preska wrote “completely unsealed” next to the names of 177 Does who are friends, recruiters, victims and others of Epstein whose names will be revealed when the material is released in the coming weeks.
The material relates to a defamation case brought by Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Roberts in New York against Epstein's madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
The hundreds of files will shed new light on the late financier's sex trafficking operation and his influence network
Roberts sued Maxwell for defamation in 2016 and while the case was being settled, the media sued to make the documents public.
Some of the Does are identified in the ruling through links to interviews they gave to the media, which the judge cited as a reason why they should not remain private.
Among them are the housekeepers on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean, where some of the worst abuse he committed was committed.
In her ruling, Judge Preska gave 14 days for all Does who objected to the release of their documents to object, after which they would be unsealed.
There will be documents about one of Prince Andrew's accusers, who claims he fondled her breasts at Epstein's New York mansion.
There will also be material on Haley Robson, who was named as a recruiter in police files from Epstein's original 2006 investigation in Palm Beach – although she has recently claimed she was also a victim.
The filing suggests that some of the documents will relate to Jean-Luc Brunel, a French model scout who was close to Epstein and allegedly abused many young women. Brunel hanged himself in a prison cell in Paris in 2022 while awaiting trial on a slew of sex charges.
The documents in the case have been continuously released since 2019, when the first batch was made public days before Epstein also hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Revelations in previous sets of documents included emails between Andrew and Epstein in 2015 in which Roberts made accusations about him.
The group of 177 Does is the last group and includes many who have been notified by the court but do not object to documents with their names on them being made public.
The material is likely to include statements, emails, legal documents and other material not previously made public.
Turns out three and four are Miles and Cathy Alexander, a South African couple who for years managed Little St James, Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.
Judge Preska cited a 2011 interview the couple gave to the Daily Mail as one of the reasons their names should be made public
In the interview, the couple claimed that it was not their job to “judge” other people, even though they suspected that some of the girls on the island were young.
The material relates to a defamation case brought by Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Roberts in New York against Epstein's madam Ghislaine Maxwell
Maxwell, 61, is serving 20 years after being found guilty of sex trafficking and recruiting underage girls for the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
Cathy described how the Duke of York arrived with a blonde brain surgeon in his thirties and he urinated on her foot when she stepped on a sea urchin.
The series of documents will also include documents referring to Annie Farmer, one of the women who gave evidence at Maxwell's trial. She is identified as Doe 63 as Judge Preska cites an interview she gave and notes she testified under her own name.
Judge Loretta Preska wrote “fully disclosed” next to the names of 177 Does who are Epstein's friends, recruiters, victims and others whose names will be revealed when the material is released in the coming weeks
Doe 64 appears to refer to Farmer's sister Maria, as it quotes the same interview as her sister, in which they both spoke.
Doe 67 is one of the recruiters named during Maxwell's trial for luring a 14-year-old girl into Epstein's web.
Carolyn Adriano, who testified at Maxwell's trial that she was recruited and repeatedly raped by Epstein at age 14, is identified as Doe 5 because of an interview cited in the ruling
Tragically, she died of an overdose in a Florida hotel room earlier this year.
Doe 23 appears to be Brunel, as it refers to an individual who was “subject to a widely publicized criminal prosecution abroad for sex trafficking.”
Brunel was arrested in France for the crime, but committed suicide before he could appear in court.
Doe 24 is the only one mentioned by name: Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has publicly called for all material relating to him to be made public.
Judge Preska quoted one NBC News interview she gave the reason for disclosing material relating to Doe 44.
Among those who spoke out in that interview were Roberts and Epstein victim Anouska De Georgiou, who testified against Maxwell at her trial, along with Chauntae Davies, another woman who says she was repeatedly raped by the pedophile.
Also featured in the interview are Epstein victims Jennifer Aroaz and Rachel Benavidez – it is unclear which person the statement refers to.
Doe 154 is Haley Robson, who spoke out about Epstein's crimes in the Netflix series Filthy Rich and described how she was already a victim of rape at the age of 16 when she became entangled in his web.
In the interview Robson, quoted by Judge Preska, said her image as depicted in police reports – she bragged that she looked like Heidi Fleiss, the infamous Hollywood Madam – was not mature enough for her to understand what was happening to her at the time.
Perhaps most alarming for Prince Andrew is the inclusion of Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein's underage girls, in the Does list.
Judge Preska essentially calls Sjoberg Jane Doe 162, quoting a 2021 Daily Mail article about her.
Only small snippets of her statements have been made public so far, and they are damning for the duke.
Doe 24 is the only one mentioned by name: Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has publicly called for all material relating to him to be made public
It was in 2007 that she first talked about the alleged encounter with Andrew at Espstein's mansion on East 71st Street in New York.
In statements she recalled returning to the big house after some “sightseeing” and “Prince Andrew was there and a few other girls my age.”
Andrew was very charming,” she said. 'She (Maxwell) came with a present for him: a latex doll of him from Spitting Image', a satirical British TV programme.
Sjoberg added that Andrew found the doll “funny because it was him.”
She said in a statement: 'I remember someone suggested a photo and told us to sit on the sofa. And so Virginia (Roberts) and Andrew sat down on the couch and placed the doll on her lap.
“And so I sat down on Andrew's lap, I believe of my own volition, and they took the doll's hands and put them on Virginia's chest, and so Andrew put his on mine.”
It all happened in “joke” and “everyone laughed,” Sjoberg said. “Ghislaine… had a very dirty sense of humor.”
There are ten Does whose names will not be made public, Judge Preska ruled, because they are minor victims whose names have not previously been made public.
In those cases, their privacy outweighs the public's right to know, the ruling said.
In previously released documents in the case, Roberts named for the first time other powerful men she claims she had sex with, including former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who died in September.
Other names include wealthy financier Glenn Dubin and the late MIT scientist Marvin Minsky, along with “another prince,” a “foreign president,” a “well-known prime minister” and the owner of a “major hotel chain” in France .
Emails Andrew sent to Maxwell showed the panic that gripped him in early 2015 when Roberts made her accusations against him.
In an email to Maxwell at 5.50am on January 3, 2015, the Duke wrote: 'Let me know when we can talk. I have some specific questions about Virginia Roberts.”
Maxwell replied, “Got some information. Call me when you have some time.”
Roberts sued Andrew in 2021 in a New York court for battery and infliction of emotional distress.
They settled the case in February 2022 for a reported $12 million.
Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing and told the BBC in an interview that he could never remember meeting Roberts, who now lives in Australia and goes by her married name Giuffre.