A few months after Ghislaine Maxwell’s arraignment, new claims and details about the life of the socialite and alleged Jeffrey Epstein accomplice continue to emerge. As the New York Post pointed out on Wednesday, Juan Alessi, who for about 10 years worked as a house manager and driver for Epstein in Palm Beach, said on the reporter Tara Palmeri’s podcast Broken: Seeking Justice that Maxwell said she hated Epstein.
According to Alessi, Maxwell, who’s being held without bail after pleading not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and perjury, would say, “I hate him, but…I can’t leave,” when Alessi asked why she remained by his side. For the podcast, Palmeri, accompanied by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an Epstein survivor, spoke with Alessi. As the Post notes, Alessi seemed to suggest that he didn’t get further explanation from Maxwell.
Since her arrest, Maxwell’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to distance her from Epstein, although documents unsealed in July showed that she and Epstein were emailing as recently as 2015, contradicting her claim that they hadn’t been in contact in over a decade.
The continuing investigations into Epstein and Maxwell have often extended to the high-profile circles they maintained. On Sunday, Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George subpoenaed additional Epstein pilots, prompting speculation about who else might appear in previously unseen flight logs. Bill Clinton is already known to have flown on Epstein’s private jet, a site for his abuse now often referred to as the “Lolita Express,” and the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that Maxwell attended an intimate dinner with Clinton in Los Angeles in 2014—three years after the Daily Mail reported on Maxwell’s involvement in Epstein’s abuse and Andrew’s alleged abuse. (Andrew has denied wrongdoing.)
According to the outlet, Clinton aides argued over Maxwell’s invitation and continue to designate blame for the decision to this day. But Maxwell ended up attending, along with her rumored husband, the tech CEO Scott Borgerson.
“This is an intimate dinner with Clinton in L.A.,” one anonymous source told the Daily Beast. “Think of all the people he knows in L.A., and Ghislaine gets to attend.”
Angel Ureña, a spokesman for Clinton, declined to comment to the outlet and referred it to a 2019 statement that said Clinton knows nothing about Epstein’s crimes. An anonymous friend of the Clintons said Maxwell was close with Bill and Chelsea.
At the time of the Clinton dinner, Maxwell was in the midst of a sort of image rehabilitation campaign. She attended the Vanity Fair Oscar party three days afterwards, the Daily Beast notes, and was widely photographed at society events as she promoted the TerraMar Project, the oceanic-conservancy nonprofit that she launched.
The outlet also pointed out that Maxwell’s relationship with the Clintons spans decades. Maxwell and Epstein attended a White House reception for donors in 1993 that provided the money for redecorating the Oval Office with gold draperies and a new rug.
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