Prince Andrew has been named in the first batch of court documents relating to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after a judge ordered the release of secret case files.

The trove includes 40 documents of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed the Duke of York touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Read the full story here:

The first batch of unsealed court documents revealed a number of high-profile individuals whose names appeared multiple times in various materials, including footnotes.

Among them were two former US presidents – Donald Trump and Bill Clinton – and Prince Andrew, all three of whom have been pictured with the disgraced financier in the past.

Mr Clinton’s name appears 73 times. Prince Andrew is named 67 times with his Royal title, though he also appears to be mentioned in an email sent by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.

Unsurprisingly Maxwell – who is currently serving 20 years behind bars for sex trafficking – appears the most, being named over 200 times. Mr Trump is only named four times, less than US magician David Copperfield, who is named six times.

Jeffrey Epstein “called up” former president Donald Trump and visited one of his casinos after his private plane was diverted to Atlantic City in New Jersey, newly unsealed documents have claimed.

Johanna Sjoberg testified that while travelling on the plane with the disgraced financier the pilots had said that they were unable to land in New York as planned.

“Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to -- I don’t recall the name of the 19 casino, but -- we’ll go to the casino’,” the testimony read.

US magician David Copperfield reportedly had dinner with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, newly-unsealed documents have claimed.

Part of one exhibit read: “David Copperfield was at a dinner at Epstein’s and there was another girl present who looked young and Johanna [Sjoberg] asked what school she went to and Johanna did not recognize the school name as being a college and she said it was possible it was a high school aged girl.

“Johanna said Copperfield ‘questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls’.”

Copperfield’s relationship with Epstein has previously been noted, including in a 2019 article from The New York Times, which described the role of Ghislaine Maxwell in acquiring young girls for the disgraced financier.

As speculation swirls over the identities of associates of Jeffrey Epstein due to be revealed to the public, Marjorie Taylor Greene ignored Donald Trump’s ties to the late paedophile while lashing out at Bill Clinton for his.

Up to 200 Epstein associates are due to be unmasked in a process ordered by a judge in December, due to begin on Wednesday.

Many of the documents, to be unsealed after 1 January, have previously been publicly released – though hundreds of names were redacted in the filings.

A woman who was victimised by Jeffrey Epstein claimed the disgraced financier told her that former US president Bill Clinton “likes them young” – referring to girls – according to newly-unsealed documents.

Part of the material, released on Wednesday as Exhibit 10, reported that Johanna Sojberg “testified Jeffrey told her ‘Clinton likes them young, referring to girls’.”

A woman who has said she was victimised by deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein said Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday.

The incident, which has been previously reported and Andrew has denied, was among the details revealed in the trove of previously redacted documents.

In a 2016 deposition, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said the prince put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo with Epstein, Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend.

Ms Sjoberg said the photo also included a puppet that said “Prince Andrew” on it.

One of the court documents unsealed on Wednesday is an email which appears to gave been sent by Ghislaine Maxwell, and includes an apparent reference to Prince Andrew and former US president Bill Clinton.

Both men are known to have associated with Epstein previously.

The email – published as Exhibit 4 – was sent from the address, gmax1@ellmax.com to Philip Barden and Ross Glow in January 2015.

“I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few days that I can’t even see what life after press he’ll even looks like - statements that don’t address all just lead to more questions .. what is my relationship to clinton ? Andrew on and on. Let’s rest till monday. I need head space,” the email read.

Maxwell also asked Mr Barton and Mr Glow to contact Epstein’s lawyer, addeding: “See what you can understand from him and pehaps craft something in conjunction with him?”

The Epstein documents will identify individuals whose names had been previously redacted. Those listed include “alleged victims, people not accused of wrongdoing…and absent third parties.”

The parties had until midnight on 1 January to object to the ruling, with only 10 people identified in the papers successfully arguing that their right to privacy as victims outweighs the public’s right to know their names.

New York Judge Loretta Preska, said that the unsealing of the documents would begin on Wednesday.

Being identified through the court documents does not necessarily mean that the individual was involved in or aware of any wrongdoing by the disgraced and deceased financier.

The first batch of documents naming associates of Jeffrey Epstein have been released.

Andrea Blanco has the story: