Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein who was among his most loyal confidantes, testified in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial on Friday that she does not recall ever meeting a victim referred to as “Jane.”
The 60-year-old philanthropist and former Miss Sweden took the stand on the second day of the defense’s case and detailed how she dated Epstein on and off from 1983 through about 1990 or 1991, and remained in regular contact with him after their romance fizzled.
Dubin confirmed that after she married her billionaire husband, Glenn, in 1994 and had children, her family regularly flew on Epstein’s private planes and visited his home in Palm Beach. Under questioning from Maxwell’s attorney Jeff Pagliuca, Dubin said her children loved Epstein, whom they called “Uncle F,” and that the financier adored them, too.
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But when asked about specific flight records showing her family’s trips—including one May 1998 flight from Palm Beach to Teterboro that also included “Jane,” Epstein and Maxwell—Dubin couldn’t recall being on Epstein’s plane or the purpose of the trips.
The defense lawyer also asked whether Dubin had ever observed inappropriate conduct between Epstein and teenage girls between 1994 and 2004. Dubin answered, “I did not.”
Pagliuca showed Dubin a photo of “Jane,” who testified at trial that someone named “Eva” joined group sex encounters with her when she was underage. After looking at the picture, Dubin said, “I don’t recall ever meeting this person.”
Asked whether Dubin had ever engaged in a sexual encounter with Jane, Dubin replied firmly, “Absolutely not.”
Indeed, under cross examination by prosecutor Alison Moe, Dubin testified that she’s lately experienced problems with her memory because of medical issues. “Dr. Dubin, are you having some issues with your memory?” Moe asked, to which Dubin replied, “Yes, I do.”
“It’s very hard for me to remember from far back,” Dubin testified. “Sometimes I can’t remember things from last month… my family notices it.”
Ghislaine Maxwell and Eva Andersson-Dubin on Oct. 31, 2005 in New York City.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via GettyThe defense’s decision to call Dubin as a witness raised eyebrows among members of the press and public closely following the case.
After Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor in Palm Beach in 2008 and served 13 months in jail, a stint mostly spent on work release, Dubin and her husband continued to socialize with Epstein and helped to reintroduce him into high society. In 2009, the couple invited Epstein to their home for Thanksgiving, with Eva writing to Epstein’s probation officer: “I am 100% comfortable with Jeffrey Epstein around my children.”
But the Dubins grappled with bad press over their longstanding ties to Epstein in 2019, after a tranche of unsealed court records revealed the couple’s butler had testified about a disturbing conversation he had with a 15-year-old Swedish girl in the Dubins’ home.
The former house manager, Rinaldo Rizzo, said that in 2005, he found the teenager distraught and in tears in the Dubins’ kitchen. The girl, who said she was 15, told him she was Epstein’s personal assistant and had just returned from a trip to his private isle in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she was pressured to have sex.
“She proceeded to tell my wife and I… ‘I was on the island and there was Ghislaine, and there was Sarah,’ and she said, ‘They asked me for sex. I said no,’” Rizzo testified.
The girl claimed that Epstein employee Sarah Kellen took her passport and that Maxwell threatened her not to tell anyone what happened. Rizzo said that he stopped talking to the girl once Eva Dubin walked into the room. “Eva comes in and tells her that she will be working for Eva in the city. As a nanny,” Rizzo added.
Still, on Friday, Eva Dubin wasn’t questioned about this—nor about Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s accusation that Epstein and Maxwell forced her into sex with Glenn Dubin.
Instead, the defense mostly focused on Dubin’s recollection of flights she took in the 1990s and showed her sealed government exhibits including photographs of Dubin’s daughters with Epstein. But when Pagliuca presented one image and said, “I assume you knew Epstein had this picture,” Dubin replied, “I have never seen this picture before.”
The Daily Beast previously reported that the defense wanted to bar photographs showing Epstein with his young goddaughter. One image, according to defense lawyer Chrisitan Everdell, showed Dubin’s daughter “lying across [Epstein’s] lap with her bottom—although with underwear on, but he’s got his head down close to the bottom.” (It’s unclear whether this picture, or a similar one, was shown to Dubin.)
Meanwhile, the prosecution asked about Dubin’s observations of the relationship between Epstein and Maxwell and whether the former couple had an “open relationship.”
“It’s hard to define, I think, relationship,” Dubin testified of Epstein and Maxwell. “But they were living in the same house.”
The defense has repeatedly mentioned a woman named “Eva”—and also the full name Eva Andersson-Dubin—throughout the trial.
When Epstein’s former butler Juan Alessi testified, Maxwell’s team asked whether he remembered Eva Andersson and if she was Epstein’s ex-girlfriend. “And she stayed friends with Mr. Epstein for many years?” attorney Pagliuca asked, to which Alessi replied, “For many years, sir.”
“And she came to the house regularly, correct?”
“Very regular with the husband and the kids.”
When Jane took the stand, lawyer Laura Menninger grilled her about her prior statements indicating who allegedly participated in group sex with her when she was 14 and 15.
“You told the government about a woman named Eva who joined in, correct?” Menninger asked.
“Correct,” Jane answered.
“You said she joined in with Sophie, right?”
Pilot Larry Visoski was also asked about Dubin during the first week of trial. Defense lawyer Christian Everdell asked Visoski whether several adult women flew on Epstein’s plane with him in the 1990s, suggesting Maxwell wasn’t his only romantic partner.
“In fact, I think the only person you really considered to be a girlfriend of Epstein was Eva Dubin, is that right?” Everdell asked. Visoski responded, “That’s the way she was introduced, as one of Mr. Epstein’s original first girlfriends, correct.”
Everdell later added: “She later married Glenn Dubin, is that right?” and “Glenn Dubin is a billionaire hedge fund manager, is that right?”
“From my understanding, yes,” Visoski testified.
“He was one of Epstein’s clients, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know if he was a client,” Visoski said. “I know he was a friend.”
Another pilot, Dave Rodgers, was asked about various trips Eva, Glenn and their children took on Epstein’s private plane. Everdell showed Rodgers a photograph of Eva, outside of the public view, and asked, “And do you notice anything in particular about Eva Dubin in that photograph?”
“Is she pregnant?” Rodgers asked.
“Does she appear pregnant to you?” Everdell responded.
“Looks like it.”
The defense appears to have introduced this exchange to raise doubts about testimony from Carolyn, one of four Epstein victims to testify at trial and who claimed to see a photograph at the financier’s Palm Beach mansion of Maxwell “nude and pregnant.”
After Dubin testified, the defense called a former employee named Michelle Healy.
The 47-year-old said she worked for J. Epstein & Company from 1996 to 1999 as a receptionist. Her coworkers included Cimberly Espinosa, another former employee who testified on behalf of Maxwell on Thursday, and Maxwell’s former assistant Emmy Tayler.
Like Cimberly, Healy shared warm memories of Maxwell, saying, “She was fantastic. She taught me a lot. I respected her. She was tough but she was great.”
Healy confirmed seeing Jane and her mother in Epstein’s office but claimed she didn’t think Jane was underage at the time.
“She looked like a grownup to me,” Healy said. “She had a lot of makeup on.”
