US Politics
Naomi Campbell had way more contact with Epstein than previously believed, files reveal
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British supermodel Naomi Campbell had more contacts with sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein than were previously known, according to documents released by the Trump administration.
Campbell has acknowledged her past associations with Epstein, whom she encountered in elite fashion circles. The British model has worked for Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie brand once owned by billionaire Les Wexner, whose finances Epstein once managed. An ex-boyfriend introduced Campbell to Epstein at her 31st birthday party in 2001, she has said.
Campbell has long maintained she had no awareness of the late financier’s misconduct at the time they knew each other.
In a 2019 video statement, she called his crimes sickening and “indefensible.”
Before this disavowal, however, Campbell appeared to be in regular touch with Epstein, even after his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor, according to documents analyzed by The New York Times.
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Campbell’s name appears nearly 300 times in documents released by the Justice Department, though some files are duplicates, according to the Times.
The Independent has contacted representatives of Campbell for comment.
“Prior to Epstein’s 2019 arrest in New York, my client knew nothing about his appalling criminal conduct,” her attorney, Martin Singer, told theTimes. “If my client had ever encountered any young woman whom she thought was being victimized by Epstein, she would have personally taken immediate action to help her.”
The files include Campbell’s name on a document called “List of People Who Need JE’s Address!” which detailed information for how to correspond with Epstein in prison.
Campbell’s lawyer told the Times that during the late 2000s and early 2010s, when Campbell was living in Russia, she was unaware Epstein was a sex offender and had no idea who made the list or why the model’s name was on it.
In 2010, a document captured Epstein directing his assistant to invite apparel executive Linda Wachner to his house for a meeting with Campbell.
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Campbell’s lawyer told the paper the meeting was because the model was “trying to do a lingerie and swimwear line” and Epstein “led her to believe that he could assist with that.” Wachner attended the meeting virtually, according to her lawyer, and no business partnership emerged.
Overall, Campbell’s lawyer said, the model went to Epstein’s home office for “3 or 4 business meetings,” but never for any “social event or gathering.”
Elsewhere that year, Epstein was invited to Campbell’s birthday party in France and a Paris event celebrating the model’s work with fashion house Dolce & Gabbana.
Campbell’s lawyer said she did not make the guest list for the former event, which Epstein did not attend, and that Epstein briefly attended the latter.
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Multiple Epstein victims alleged during conversations with investigators that they saw Campbell at gatherings tied to Epstein, including a dinner party at his New York mansion and Campbell being present on Epstein’s island.
Campbell’s lawyer told the Times that the model, alongside “a group of people going to an F1 race,” stopped over on Epstein’s island “on a transfer from a commercial flight.”
A 2016 email exchange, meanwhile, captures a discussion referencing Campbell seeking to use Epstein’s plane.
Campbell’s lawyer said the model had been on Epstein’s plane “on a few occasions but she never observed any inappropriate conduct of any kind.”
The files also captured Epstein allegedly using his proximity to Campbell to burnish his own reputation.
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In 2020, an unnamed victim told investigators that she met Epstein when she was 15, and that he promised to get her jobs at Victoria’s Secret and touted his relationship with Campbell and Wexner.
Campbell’s reps say she was unaware Epstein used her name in such conversations and that it was done so “entirely without her knowledge or authorization.”
Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced British socialite and Epstein lieutenant serving a federal prison sentence in the U.S., has said the Department of Justice interviewed her last year about Epstein’s ties to a variety of high-profile public figures, including Campbell.
Epstein courted influential friends across politics, media, business, and academia, though his ties to the fashion world may be among the most central ones to his decades of abuse.
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The financier used his connections in the fashion world to lure victims into his ring, based on promises that he could connect them with high-profile figures and brands and assist in their careers.
Beyond Epstein’s ties to Wexner and Campbell, Epstein was also friends with Donald Trump during the time he owned the Miss Universe pageant and the Trump Models agency.
Another high-profile Epstein associate was French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who died by suicide in prison while being investigated for the alleged rape and trafficking of minors.
Brunel was accused of trafficking scores of women and girls to Epstein.
