For years now, there have been rumors that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell kept extensive blackmail/protection material involving powerful men abusing trafficked girls and women. I’ve always believed that there are tapes somewhere. I’ve always believed that Maxwell and Epstein held enough evidence to bring down many powerful figures in politics, business and law enforcement. Nothing has ever come to light, although there are plenty of rumors that when Epstein was first investigated and charged in 2005, law enforcement gathered a lot of the blackmail material from Epstein’s Florida mansion, and no one knows where that stuff is now. My point is that it’s not like one person – a trafficking victim – said “he has tapes” out of nowhere. There have been stories and rumors about all of this for a long time. Still, the newly unsealed Epstein Files show that one victim did claim that tapes exist of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Richard Branson, but she later said she just made that up.

Sex tapes are alleged to have been taken of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Sir Richard Branson by Jeffrey Epstein, court documents have revealed.

Sarah Ransome, who says she was a victim of Epstein, wrote in emails to a reporter in 2016 outlining claims the Duke of York, the ex-US president and the billionaire businessman were filmed having sex with her unnamed friend on separate occasions by the paedophile US financier.

A firm representing Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, highlighted the allegations to demonstrate Ms Ransome “manifestly lacks credibility”. The claims were included in hundreds of documents that a US judge has ordered to be unsealed as part of a civil claim by Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, which was filed in 2015 and settled in 2017.

Despite the defamation case being concluded seven years ago, the Miami Herald successfully fought to make the names and documents associated with it public.

Ms Ransome gave a victim impact statement ahead of Epstein’s former girlfriend and long-time associate Maxwell being sentenced for sex trafficking in 2022. A New Yorker article, released in 2019, reported Ms Ransome admitted “she had invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behaviour, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he harmed me’”.

On behalf of Sir Richard Branson, a Virgin Group spokeswoman said: “In a New Yorker report published in 2019, Ransome admitted that she had ‘invented’ the tapes. We can confirm that Sarah Ransome’s claims are baseless and unfounded.”

Mr Clinton’s representatives have not commented after being approached by Sky News.

[From Sky News]

As I said, the root of this rumor is not Sarah Ransome just making up some wild story in 2016. Ransome, like Virginia Giuffre, was trying to be heard and trying to get justice. They were all trying to get people to pay attention to their situation, all while Maxwell and Epstein carried on like nothing happened (circa 2016, remember). I believe that tapes exist, or did exist at some point. There’s a reason why Trump’s AG Bill Barr ran to Ghislaine’s jail cell as soon as she was finally picked up and arrested. There’s a reason why Epstein’s 2019 arrest sent a cold chill down a lot of spines – people still believe that blackmail material is out there, somewhere. I absolutely believe that Andrew was dumb and degenerate enough to be caught on tape. But Bill Clinton? Richard Branson? I genuinely hope that neither man was involved in anything like this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.