Epstein Employee Testifies About What He Saw

The house manager of Jeffery Epstein's Palm Beach estate testified Thursday that he saw "many, many, many females" pass through during his tenure from 1991 to 2002, including at least two who looked to be 14 or 15: the accuser known as Jane and Virginia Giuffre, who claims Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell coerced her into sexual acts with Prince Andrew. Giuffre previously said Maxwell approached her at Mar-a-Lago, where the then-15-year-old was working as a locker room attendant. Juan Alessi seemed to back that up, testifying that he was driving Maxwell around Mar-a-Lago when she got out to speak to a blonde girl in a white uniform he later learned was Giuffre; she turned up at Epstein’s estate to meet with Maxwell later that afternoon.

Speaking on the fourth day of Maxwell's child trafficking trial in Manhattan, 71-year-old Alessi said the accused "took over" as "lady of the house"—her term—on the first day of her arrival at the estate in 1991 and was the first point of contact for minor visitors. Accusers including Jane say they were tasked with massaging Epstein but were in fact sexually abused by himself and Maxwell. "I had a Rolodex with all the massage therapists and whoever they told me to call, I would call," Alessi testified, per CNN. He noted Jane's name was included, per Reuters. He also said he was tasked with cleaning up after massages and found a large sex toy, a "black vinyl or leather costume," and pornographic tapes, per the Guardian. He said he also found female massagers in Epstein's room.

He recalled other occasions when he saw Jane and Giuffre board a private plane with Epstein and Maxwell. Alessi said Maxwell directed him to never disclose the activities he witnessed, not to speak to Epstein unless spoken to, and to never look the billionaire in the eyes. "Remember that you see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing except to answer a question directed at you," he read from a manual Maxwell allegedly gave him around 2001 or 2002. Alessi—who said Maxwell was with Epstein 95% of the time that he was at the estate—testified that he took it as "a kind of warning that I was … to say nothing of their lives." (More Ghislaine Maxwell stories.)