Jan 24, 2015

• Flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein's private plane dubbed the 'Lolita Express' were published for the first time on Thursday
• They show that former President Bill Clinton boarded the plane with women believed to have been involved in creating underage sex slave ring 
• Alleged victim Virginia Roberts says she was recruited as a slave when she was 15, and that she was forced to have sex with both Prince Andrew and Harvard law profession Alan Dershowitz
• The latter, she says, molested her mid-flight on the private jet 
• Both the Duke of York and Dershowitz have fiercely denied their involvement in the ring  

 

Just released flight records show Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has been flying with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on the financier's private jet dubbed the 'Lolita Express' since as early as 1997, despite public statements that they were only acquaintances.

The high-profile lawyer has been distancing himself from Epstein ever since a young woman named Virginia Roberts filed a lawsuit claiming she was recruited to work as a 'sex slave' for Epstein when she was just 15, naming both Dershowitz and Prince Andrew as two of her molesters.

The flight records, obtained by Gawker, also show former President Bill Clinton rode on Epstein's jet at least 11 times, and often with two of Epstein's female associates believed to have provided the dozens of underage girls to their boss and his well-connected friends. 

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According to court documents, Epstein's former assistant Sarah Kellen and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly found and groomed the underage girls to pimp out to Epstein and his friends. Kellen received immunity for her part in the ring during Epstein's court case in the mid-2000s, while Maxwell was never charged and has furiously denied involvement.

In court filings, Roberts maintains that she never had sexual relations with Clinton - or knew of him taking an interest in any of Epstein's other 'massage' girls - though he was sometimes present on the banker's private Caribbean island during her years of work.

On Thursday, Dershowitz appeared on the Today show to emphatically deny claims he had sex with then-underage Roberts, saying she was 'making the whole thing up'.

 'I was never in the presence of a single underage woman,' he said. 'I never saw [Epstein] doing anything improper. I was not a witness. I was not a participant. And I will prove it.'

On Wednesday, Roberts lodged fresh documents in Florida detailing the alleged abuse she suffered at the Duke of York's hands, including how she had an orgy with him and eight other young girls.

But on Thursday, Dershowitz said that, while Roberts claims she had sex with him at Epstein's Caribbean Island and his New Mexico ranch, he had only ever been there briefly with his wife and daughter.

He claims that the third accusation - that he had sex with Roberts on a private plane - is false and that flight manifests will prove he was never aboard the plane with her. 

'I've ever seen her and I've never met her,' he insisted. 'She is categorically lying and making the whole thing up... This is Pinocchio's nose growing longer and longer.'  

He insisted that his relationship with Epstein had been entirely 'academic' and that he had only ever met with him in the presence of dignitaries and professors. He told the American Lawyer that reports that the two were 'chummy' were 'a total bum rap'. 

While Epstein did donate to Dershowitz's university in 2003, flight records show that their familiarity goes all the way back to December 1997 when the lawyer first rode on his jet from Palm Beach, Florida to New Jersey's Teterboro Airport with Epstein's gal-pal Maxwell and a slew of woman identified without their last names on the flight log.

Their names were simply jotted down as 'Hazel', 'Claire' and one other anonymous 'female'.

When confronted with the flight information by Gawker, Dershowitz admitted that he had known Epstein since 1997 and rode on the banker's jet to attend Limited Brands CEO Les Wexner's 60th birthday. 

And the ride up to Wexner's birthday wasn't just a one off thing. The logs show Dershowitz continued to fly on Epstein's plane including a October 1998 flight from Massachusetts to New Jersey and a 1999 trip from New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard.

A 2005 jaunt from Massachusetts to Montreal shows Dershowitz traveled with Epstein, a woman named 'Tatianna' and others.

Despite telling Gawker that he has a 'very clear, unequivocal recollection' of never being on a plane with 'young women' he has a hard time explaining who the single-named females are who scatter the flight logs.

He said he doesn't know who 'Hazel' or 'Claire' were, and that 'Tatianna' may have been a twenty-something woman who was friends with Epstein's girlfriend, but that he never flew with her.

And he also finds it hard to explain why his wife doesn't appear to join him on the flights, who he publicly said accompanies him nearly everywhere in statements issued in the wake of the lawsuit.

'She travels with me all over. On occasion, she's working or travels separately. I travel with her almost all the time, not all the time,' he told Gawker. 'I have a very clear, unequivocal recollection that I was never on a plane with any young women, period.' 

It should be noted though that flight records are kept by pilots mostly to keep time, and could contain inaccuracies as to passengers. 

Further discrediting Dershowitz's claim not to be close with Epstein is a Vanity Fair story from 2003 in which he says that he would stand by Epstein, even if he filed for bankruptcy.

'Absolutely. I would be as interested in him as a friend if we had hamburgers on the boardwalk in Coney Island and talked about his ideas,' he told the magazine.

He responded to the Vanity Fair quote, telling Gawker: 'He was a friend with whom I talked about ideas. We never discussed women or his social life.'  

Also revealed in the flight logs was the fact that former President Clinton road on Epstein's jet at least 11 times between 2002 to 2004, and was sometimes accompanied by Maxwell and Kellen.

No allegations have been leveled at Clinton. His name has been mentioned in the recent scandal, because he vacationed on Epstein's private island during the years when the sex crimes where thought to have occurred. Roberts maintains that she never saw Clinton do anything wrong or even appear to know about the underage girls. 

He appears to have flown on Epstein's flight with several curious women including an young actress who used to work in soft-core porn.

Clinton booked Epstein's jet for a 2002 anti-poverty and anti-AIDS tour of Africa with friends Chris Tucker, billion Ron Burkle, friend Gayle Smith and actor Kevin Spacey.

Joining them for five days of the week-long tour were Maxwell, Kellen and a woman identified as Chauntae Davies. 

Davies is also one of some 160 women whose contact information he kept in a handful of cities across the world, all listed as massuers. Though prosecutors believe some of the women on the list may have been underage prostitutes, Davies was 23 at the time and has not been accused of any crime. Her LinkedIn page shows an expertise in Swedish massage.

Davies has since achieved some success as an actress with a role on HBO's Enlightened, but previously worked as a 'lingerie model' in a film produced by a soft-core porn company.

She refused to comment when asked by Gawker what she did on the Africa trip. 

'I really am not interested in being slandered in the media for having known this person a time ago. Some of the things being said are not things I have information on,' Davies said.

At Davos on Thursday, Prince Andrew made his first public appearance and refused to discuss the claims.

The palace previously issued a vehement denial on Prince Andrew's behalf.

'It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts,' a spokesperson said. 'The allegations made are false and without any foundation.'

Roberts called the denial 'false and hurtful to me'. 

Following her most recent filing, a Buckingham Palace spokesman added this week: 'We have nothing to say in addition to our earlier comments on the issue.'

Roberts claims she had sex with the Prince, a former friend of Epstein, in New York, London and the U.S.Virgin Islands while she was a 'sex slave'. Buckingham Palace has denied all allegations.

In the documents, she said her lawyers had served a letter on the Duke last week requesting he answer questions – but he 'refused' to accept it.

She also described the alleged abuse in new and startling detail.

She claimed Prince Andrew correctly guessed she was just 17 when he met her, and how she was instructed to give him anything he wanted.

His police bodyguards left her alone with him the first time they had sex, she said.

'Epstein made me have sex with Prince Andrew several times,' she said. 'I had sex with him three times, including one orgy. I knew he was a member of the British Royal Family, but I just called him 'Andy.'

After they had sex, she was paid $15,000, she said. 

Prince Andrew's decision to pursue legal action - he has the right to sue his accuser - will depend on whether the Palace is willing to subject him to depositions about his private life.

Dershowitz has also filed a motion in federal court to enter in a lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by his accuser and other women who say Epstein sexually abused them.

The court has yet to decide whether to grant his motion.

The two lawyers representing Jane Doe #3, former federal judge Paul Cassell and Florida plaintiffs attorney Bradley Edwards, have now filed counter-defamation charges against Dershowitz.

In an earlier article, he explained that this will subject them and their client to sworn depositions. If they repeat the charges under oath, and if they are untrue, they will be subject to prosecution for perjury. 

In a previous statement to DailyMail.com, Mr Cassell said that he and Mr Edwards would not be responding to 'specific claims of indignation by anyone'.

'We have been informed of Mr Dershowitz's threats based on the factual allegations we have made in our recent filing,' he said in a statement.

'We carefully investigate all of the allegations in our pleadings before presenting them... We would be pleased to consider any sworn testimony and documentary evidence Mr Dershowitz would like to provide which he contends would refute any of our allegations.'

Finally, Dershowitz has also challenged his accuser to file formal rape charges against him. If she were to file a false rape charge, she would be committing a crime. She has not done so.

It comes a week after Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson slammed reports that he had sex with an underage girl as 'salacious lies' and defended him as a 'humongously good man'.

In a passionate rebuttal on the Today show last Tuesday, the Duchess of York said that she was standing by 'my best friend and my best ex-husband ever' amid the allegations.