ghislaine maxwell courtroom sketch
Ghislaine Maxwell sits during jury selection in the trial of Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's associate accused of sex trafficking, in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021.REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
  • Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell name-dropped Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, an accuser testified.
  • The accuser recalled them mentioning the former presidents when speaking of their social circle.
  • Maxwell is accused of trafficking underage girls to have sex with Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell name-dropped former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump to give the impression that they were connected to powerful people, an accuser testified at Maxwell's child-sex-trafficking trial

The accuser, testifying under the pseudonym "Jane" in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, recalled Epstein and Maxwell mentioning Clinton, Trump and journalist Mike Wallace when speaking about their social circle.

"They would sort of name-drop or sometimes put people on speakerphone whose voices I didn't know and then say, 'Oh, well, this was so-and-so and so-and-so,' and would say that they were very well-connected and affluent," the accuser said. "It made me feel slightly intimidated. It was overwhelming."

"I didn't know how I was supposed to feel about it," she added.

The accuser said she remembered Epstein and Maxwell doing the name-dropping around 1994 while Clinton was president.

During her testimony, Jane alleged that convicted sex offender Epstein — who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 — and Maxwell preyed on her from when she was 14 years old and groomed her for sex in Epstein's mansions in New York City, New Mexico, and Palm Beach, Florida.

Meanwhile, Epstein's former pilot, Larry Visoski, testified earlier Tuesday that both Clinton and Trump, as well as Prince Andrew flew aboard Epstein's private planes.

Visoski told the jury that Clinton flew on Epstein's private planes several times in the 2000s and that he was given advance notice whether someone like Clinton would be flying. 

Trump, Visoski said, flew on Epstein's plane "more than once" before he was president. 

Visoski also testified that he remembered astronaut and senator John Glenn, actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, and violinist Itzhak Perlman aboard Epstein's flights.

Read the original article on Insider