A New York judge has begun to unseal the identities of people linked in court documents to Jeffrey Epstein, the US financier who killed himself in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes.
Notably included in the unsealed documents, which include almost 1,000 pages of depositions and statements, were former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, who have not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
The list of around 150 people include a host of Epstein associates previously identified as John or Jane Does in a lawsuit brought against Epstein's former mistress, Ghislaine Maxwell. It carries no allegation of complicity in Epstein's crimes.
A woman who has said she was victimised by Epstein said Britain's Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2001, according to the documents.
The incident, which has been previously reported by other media outlets and Andrew has denied, was among the details described in an initial trove of previously redacted documents that otherwise revealed few new details about the extent of Epstein's alleged sex trafficking activities.
More documents are expected to be unsealed or unredacted in the coming days.
Prince Andrew could not immediately be reached for comment.
The disclosure is part of a defamation proceeding between Maxwell, sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison, and a plaintiff against the duo, Virginia Giuffre.
Last month a judge listed in a 50-page document some 180 cases under pseudonyms ordering that their identities be made public within 14 days of the order.
Some individuals have objected to the disclosure of their identities in the case.
Lawyers for one individual, "Doe 107", wrote to the judge in the case arguing they could face victimization in their home country, and requested time to submit grounds for their name to remain sealed.
Accomplices in sex crimes
According to British media, Ms Giuffre's defamation claim against Maxwell dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year. However the Miami Herald then took legal action to access the file and investigate the Epstein network.
A number of documents in the case were made public in 2019, days before Epstein killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes for almost three decades.
Epstein, a financier with a powerful network in the United States and abroad, was himself accused of raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in a New York prison in August 2019 halted his prosecution.
Fabricated lists and doctored photos of Epstein have circulated in conspiratorial internet circles for years, fueling speculation about the financier's potential associates.
