ABC host George Stephanopoulos said he regrets dining with Jeffrey Epstein about a year after the accused sex trafficker finished his first stint in jail for pleading guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute.
“That dinner was the first and last time I’ve seen him,” Stephanopoulos said in an email to The New York Times. “I should have done more due diligence. It was a mistake to go.”
Epstein hosted Stephanopoulos and a slew of other media insiders — including news anchors Katie Couric and Charlie Rose, comedian Chelsea Handler and director Woody Allen — at his Manhattan townhome in December 2010 for a chance to meet Prince Andrew, who at the time was fourth in line to the British throne, The Daily Beast reported in 2011.
Epstein concluded a 13-month prison sentence in July 2009 after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was a registered sex offender in Florida at the time of the dinner event. (RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein Had A Ton Of Rich, Powerful Friends)
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, filed a lawsuit in 2015 accusing the financier of forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ordered on July 3 the release of some of the 2,000 sealed documents from the lawsuit.
Two other guests at the dinner event — Rose and Allen — have also received their own allegations of sexual harassment.
U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via REUTERS.
Federal prosecutors are moving to seize the New York townhome, saying Epstein lured underage girls to the property to engage in paid sex acts between 2002 and 2005.
Stephanopolous served as former President Bill Clinton’s communication director and senior adviser in the 1990s prior to kicking off his career in journalism.
Clinton also has ties to Epstein. The former president took dozens of flights on Epstein’s private airplane, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” between 2001 and 2003, according to flight logs unearthed in 2015.
Clinton said he “knew nothing” of Epstein’s alleged crimes in a July 8 statement.
Statement on Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/98ha9YYd1l
— Angel Ureña (@angelurena) July 8, 2019
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