Kamal Ghorui
In the millions of documents released by the US justice department related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, one of the fashion world’s most recognisable names emerges again and again: Naomi Campbell. Email exchanges reflect that Campbell, 55, asked to fly on his private plane and said she would meet Epstein at his New York mansion. He was invited on her behalf to lavish events around the world. These plans were mostly coordinated through Epstein’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff. And in interviews with federal investigators, unnamed victims said that Epstein introduced them to the British supermodel at social events, and that they saw the model in his mansion. The documents show that Campbell stayed in Epstein’s orbit long after he was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting prostitution. Their interactions provide another example of how Epstein leveraged and influenced a vast, powerful social network as he lured girls and young women into his life. Campbell’s association with Epstein had become public through legal proceedings involving him, his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a federal prison sentence on sex-trafficking charges, and others. A lawyer for Campbell, Martin Singer, said in a lengthy emailed statement that his client had no knowledge of Epstein’s “heinous criminal conduct until after his 2019 arrest” and had no contact with him after that. “If my client had ever encountered any young woman whom she thought was being victimised by Epstein, she would have personally taken immediate action to help her.” Campbell has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The FBI interviews with victims did not contain any corroborating evidence of their statements related to Campbell. When recruiting young women, Epstein seemed to dangle his association with Campbell to convince them that a modelling career was within reach, according to FBI interview transcripts. In 2020, an unnamed victim who met Epstein when she was 15 said that Epstein had promised to get her jobs at Victoria’s Secret and told her that he knew Campbell. After Epstein was released from prison in 2009 and was a registered sex offender, he stayed in contact with Campbell, seemingly providing her with access to his network. In 2010, Epstein was invited to Campbell’sbirthday party in Cannes, which was described in the email as “a private event.” According to her lawyer, Campbell did not make the guest list, and Epstein did not attend the party.
