Sarah Ransome, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, claimed Tuesday that tapes of former President Bill Clinton, British royal Prince Andrew and billionaire Richard Branson having sex at the pedophile financier’s mansion do exist — after previously saying she invented the existence of the tapes.
Speculation over the alleged tapes was renewed Monday after a trove of newly unsealed court documents included an undated email from Ransome in which she allegedly claimed a friend’s trysts with the three men were caught on camera.
Ransome later recanted her claims to a journalist in October 2016, and then told the New Yorker she made up the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior.
On Tuesday, however, Ransome again reversed course telling “Good Morning Britain,” that the videos are real and explaining how she previously walked back her claims out of fear for her safety.
“There are videos that exist,” she said. “The people that know they exist I’m sure are very frightened of them being released.”
Asked how she knows that Epstein had cameras that picked up on the alleged sexual encounters, Ransome replied that “it’s no secret that everything was recorded.”
“Multiple victims have come forward confirming my account, along with others,” she added. “I’ve also seen recordings in his office.”
Clinton, Andrew and Branson have all denied wrongdoing, and Branson called the claims “invented” and “baseless.”
Asked why she previously backtracked her allegations about the videos, Ransome said Tuesday that Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and others “regularly enforced that if I ever did come forward, myself and my family would be harmed.”
Epstein died in a lower Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in U.S. District Court. His death was later ruled a suicide.
Maxwell was convicted on five counts related to the sex trafficking operation and sentenced to years in prison in 2022.
Among the files released on Monday was a transcript of a deposition Ransome gave in 2016, alleging how she and others were sexually abused and exploited by Epstein and Maxwell as young women.
The documents were part of a filing by attorneys for Alan Dershowitz, who said they portray Ransome as a liar who contradicted herself and made outlandish claims.
The filings also included an email in which Ransome allegedly wrote that her friend had sex with former President Donald Trump on “regular occasions” at Epstein’s mansion – an account she has also since recanted.
A spokesperson for Trump said in a statement that the claims were meritless.
Ransome detailed her alleged experiences with Epstein in a 2021 memoir, “Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back.”
She told NPR that year about how Epstein allegedly threatened to kill her and her family if she ever went to law enforcement, leaving her trapped on the private island.
By: Big Sky Headlines staff