A second pilot of Jeffrey Epstein’s has admitted flying Prince Andrew on board the paedophile’s private jet, during evidence in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case. The evidence was heard during the trial of the Duke of York’s pal in New York where she stands accused of grooming and abusing four minors. Epstein’s long time airman Lawrence Visoski said he was “familiar” with Prince Andrew when quizzed about flying the royal by defence lawyers for the British socialite. When asked by Maxwell’s legal team: “Are you familiar with Prince Andrew?” Visoski replied “Yes”. Lawyer Christian Everdell then said: “And he flew on Mr Epstein’s plane, right?” Visoski responded, “He did”. The airman became the second pilot to admit flying the Duke, 61, on Epstein’s jets. Captain Dave Rodgers has previously provided his flight logs in a civil case involving a victim of the late Wall Street financier that showed Andrew had taken several flights with the convicted sex offender.
The evidence pours more pressure on the Duke to tell all he knows about Epstein as prosecutors and the FBI continue to probe the paedophile’s sexual offending. As well as Andrew, Visoski recalled Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Chris Tucker, astronaut John Glenn and actor Kevin Spacey all as passengers. While giving evidence yesterday the pilot testified Maxwell was “number two” in Epstein’s world. Visoski, who is was called by prosecutors as their first witness, recalled how the British socialite would often contact him to schedule flights for the Wall Street financier. Maxwell, who was once Epstein’s girlfriend, has been charged with recruiting and grooming four underage girls to give him erotic massages, describing them as a “ruse” for sex abuse. “Ms Maxwell was number two. Mr Epstein was a big number one,” Visoski told jurors.
“She was the one that pretty much handled most of the finance, my expenses, spending in the office.” When cross-examined by Mr Everdell, Visoski said that during his near 30-year employment he never witnessed any sex abuse or underage girls without their parents aboard. “I never saw any sexual activity, no,” the airmen, who was gifted land by Epstein at his New Mexico Ranch, told Mr Everdell. Visoski said he did not notice any underage girls without their parents on the planes including Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre and a victim identified as “Jane” at the trial. At one point Mr Everdell asked: “If Mr Epstein were engaging in sex acts with underage girls he probably would have told you not to leave the cockpit, correct?” Prosecutors raised an objection which Judge Alison Nathan overruled. Visoski replied: “Correct.” The pilot said he flew Giuffre in the mid to late 90s, but believed her to be a “shorter woman with dirty blonde hair.”
He added he believed a passenger named ‘Jane’ – one of four women accusing Maxwell of sexual abuse – was a “mature woman with some piercing powder blue eyes.” Prosecutors entered a birth certificate for Jane, whose identity is protected, into evidence under seal. Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of sex trafficking and other crimes, including two perjury charges that will be tried at a later date. She faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Lawyers for Maxwell have said the British socialite was being scapegoated for crimes Epstein committed. The financier died in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-abuse charges. Earlier yesterday, Judge Nathan said she had excused one juror from the case because his spouse had surprised him with a planned trip around the Christmas holiday. As a result, 12 jurors and five alternates, instead of six, will continue hearing testimony in the expected six-week trial, which began on Monday.
Visoski’s testimony provided jurors with a sense of the lifestyle she lived between 1994 and 2004, the period in which prosecutors say the Brit – the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell – lured four underage girls for Epstein to abuse. The pilot said he frequently shuttled Epstein and guests between the billionaire’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, Paris and Caribbean islands. In her opening statement on Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said prosecutors would present flight logs that included the names of Maxwell and some of the alleged victims. Maxwell’s defence attorney, Bobbi Sternheim, responded saying there was nothing inherently wrong with having private jets. The jet-setting lifestyle contrasts with Maxwell’s confinement since her July 2020 arrest at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, including her complaints about raw sewage permeating her cell and being served mouldy food.
