A victim of Jeffrey Epstein once claimed that former President Bill Clinton tried to dissuade Vanity Fair from writing “sex-trafficking” articles about the perverted financier, according to an email contained in a cache of newly released court documents.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal court released another trove of secret files related to a 2015 lawsuit that Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre filed against the trafficker’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Clinton claim is found in a series of emails between Giuffre and Daily Mail scribe Sharon Churcher, who was helping Giuffre land a book deal, speak to the feds, and contact a lawyer for survivors of Epstein’s sex ring.
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But former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter told British newspaper The Telegraph: “This categorically did not happen.”
Vicky Ward, the Vanity Fair journalist behind a 2003 profile of Epstein, wrote on her Substack: “If that happened, I did not know about it.”
In May 2011, Churcher emailed Virginia and CC’d attorney Brad Edwards advising her to let “VF” buy her picture. “The big gamble would be to let him also give them a statement saying your interviews with us were accurately reported and you have no more to say at this time about how you were ‘sex trafficked to PA and other men including two of the world’s most respected politicians,” Churcher wrote, referring to two pols whose names were redacted. The PA apparently refers to Britain’s Prince Andrew, whom Giuffre accused of sexual abuse. (He has denied the claims.)
Churcher said such statements could pose an issue “because you are writing a book” and “Jeffrey knows some of the most powerful people in publishing and, once alerted, will inevitably try to scare off potential buyers.”
Giuffre, who went by the name Jenna, replied, “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,” Giuffre added, “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.”
The Daily Beast reached out to a spokesperson for Clinton, who was also mentioned among the hundreds of pages of court records released Wednesday.
In a deposition, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said the trafficker once told her “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.”
On Friday, Ward went on CNN This Morning and addressed the Clinton claim, which didn’t indicate a date on which the former president allegedly tried to intervene on Epstein’s behalf.
“What I wonder is if Virginia Roberts is hearing, um, gossip, and getting it slightly wrong,” Ward said, before referring to sex abuse accusations from sisters Maria and Annie Farmer that were axed from her piece.
“When Jeffrey Epstein realized that I was in possession of their allegations, he appeared in the offices of Vanity Fair,” she added. “I knew about this because the fact checker, who was fact checking my piece at the time, sent me an email saying, ‘Oh my God, he’s standing here in the office.’”
Ward has long claimed Epstein pressured Carter to cut sex abuse accusations against the financier from her article, but Carter told the New Yorker last year that Ward had a reputation for inaccuracy and her reporting didn’t stand up.
In 2011, Ward would go on to write a flattering piece about Epstein and Maxwell on Vanity Fair’s website, sharing of the heiress, “Full disclosure: I like her. Most people in New York do. It’s almost impossible not to.”
She alluded to her old profile of Epstein: “This is not to say I didn’t hear stories about the girls. I did. But, not knowing quite whom to believe, I concentrated on the intriguing financial mystery instead.”
