Another Epstein frequent flier denies accusations

FPI / August 18, 2019

A French model scout and close pal of Jeffrey Epstein who flight logs show took more than 15 trips on the pedophile’s “Lolita Express” has been accused of preying on underage girls and pimping them out to Epstein and others, a report said.

Jean-Luc Brunel, who has been accused by former models of drugging and date-raping them, visited Epstein nearly 70 times in jail, according to visitor logs. Brunel paid several more visits to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida while Epstein was under house arrest, The Daily Beast’s Emily Shugerman noted in an Aug. 17 report.

“Epstein’s closest pal appears not to have been a prominent politician or top academic, but a sleazy, scandal-prone modeling agent with virtually limitless connections to underage women around the world,” Shugerman wrote.

“According to one of Epstein’s housemen, Brunel was comfortable enough to whip up his own meals in the financier’s kitchen, and was one of Epstein’s most frequent callers.”

Brunel, 72, and his attorney did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment, but he had denied all accusations in a previous statement.

“I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work as a scouter or model agencies manager,” Brunel said in a 2015 statement, adding: “I have exercised with the utmost ethical standard for almost 40 years."

Documents unsealed earlier this month revealed several messages Brunel left for Epstein over the years. In one message, the notetaker reported that Brunel “just did a good one — 18 years,” who reportedly told him, “‘I love Jeffrey.”

A note dated September 2005 reads: “He has a teacher for you to teach you how to speak Russian. She is 2 X 8 [16] years old not blonde. Lessons are free and you can have 1st today if you call.”

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of the first alleged victims to speak out against Epstein, claimed in legal filings that Brunel was one of many powerful men she was forced to sleep with in her years as Epstein’s “sex slave.” She also accused Brunel of using his agency to find foreign girls, obtain visas for them, and “farm them out to his friends, including Epstein.”

“A lot of the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money,” Giuffre said in a 2015 affidavit. “Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls, and everything that I have seen confirms this claim.”

Giuffre added: "My assumption was that Jean-Luc Brunel got the girls from Eastern Europe (as he procured many young foreign girls for Epstein). They were young and European looking and sounding."

The Daily Beast’s Shugerman noted that “Over the years, several outlets reported that the FBI was investigating Brunel, but no charges ever emerged. In fact, the modelizer managed to avoid being deposed in a single civil suit against Epstein — of which there were more than a dozen. In a lawsuit filed by Brad Edwards, an attorney for several Epstein accusers, the lawyer claimed Brunel skirted depositions by saying he was living in France, when he was in fact staying at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.”

In Ian Halperin’s book Bad and Beautiful, one former Karin model accused Brunel and his friends of inviting more than a dozen models to a private party at one of their apartments, then forcing some of the young women to have sex with them. “Most of the women felt they had been raped,” the former model said. “But they were afraid to report it to the police because Brunel would ruin their careers.”

Thysia Huisman, a Dutch model, claimed that, after initially resisting Brunel’s advances, the agent gave her a drink that made her feel dizzy, then brought her into his bedroom and assaulted her.

“I remember he was on me, I tried to push him away and the noise when he ripped my clothes,” Huisman told Liberation. “Then it's the black hole. I woke up in bed. I was totally disoriented. I went to collect my belongings in the room where I slept and I went directly to the station to leave Paris.”

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