One of Jeffrey Epstein’s public accusers claims she had to give a foot massage to The Simpsons creator Matt Groening while on the rich criminal’s private jet, though she was repulsed by the cartoonist’s “crusty toes,” according to newly-released court documents.
Hours prior to Epstein’s August 10th death, more than 2,000 pages of documents were released, related to a since-settled lawsuit against Epstein’s ex-girlfriend by Virginia Giuffre, one of his accusers. The records contain graphic allegations against Epstein, as well as the transcript of a 2016 deposition of the millionaire in which he repeatedly refused to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself. According to the documents, Giuffre alleges she met Groening aboard Epstein’s private plane, dubbed elsewhere as the “Lolita Express,” and that he asked her to give the cartoonist a foot massage during their flight from Carmel, California, to Los Angeles. Giuffre, 35, claims the incident occurred roughly 20 years ago, when she was 16.
“I was enjoying our conversation, when Jeffrey insisted that I give Matt a foot massage throughout the duration of the short flight,” Giuffre alleges in the documents. “I never turned down a client but when I saw the shape of his feet, I nearly threw up at the thought of having to touch them.”
“He had yellow crusty toenails that even someone with a chainsaw would’ve had troubles cutting through and then there was the fluffy balls of leftover pieces of sock wedged between the crevices of his sweaty toes, now that was the real icing on the cake for me, no way could I attempt this I thought,” she added. “Then I had an idea. I went to the back of the plane and rinsed a wash cloth in warm soapy water and returned for his dreaded foot massage but not before attempting to clean them first.”
Groening has not publicly addressed Giuffre’s allegations. The producer’s Simpsons series is the longest-running sitcom in history; the 31st season will premiere this September on Fox. Groening has gone on to create two other animated shows with similar art styles: the sci-fi Futurama ran on Fox and Cartoon Network and, just last year, his fantasy-themed Disenchantment debuted on Netflix.
Epstein, 66, was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10th, setting off outrage that such a high-profile prisoner could have gone unwatched at the Manhattan federal lockup where infamous inmates Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff were held without incident.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson said in a statement that she made the suicide determination “after careful review of all investigative information, including complete autopsy findings.”
Sampson’s announcement came as a Justice Department official told The Associated Press that some prison staffers believed to have relevant information aren’t cooperating with investigators.
Epstein was facing charges of sex trafficking that stemmed from activities over a period of three years in the early 2000s. He served a 13-month prison sentence in Florida in 2008 after he was charged with similar offenses and was forced to register as a sex offender. Federal prosecutors in New York are pursuing a parallel investigation into whether any of his associates will face charges for assisting him in what authorities say was his rampant sexual abuse of girls as young as 14.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.