General Discussion

In 2019, it was revealed that Richardson was among those named in court documents from a civil suit between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents were unsealed on August 9, 2019, a day before Epstein's death. Giuffre alleges that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to several high-profile individuals, including Richardson, while she was underage in the early 2000s. Court documents from 2015 that were unsealed in 2019 alleged Richardson's possible involvement with the Jeffrey Epstein child-trafficking ring, which allegations he denied. A spokesperson for Richardson also denied the claims, stating that Richardson did not know Giuffre and had never seen Epstein in the presence of young or underage girls. Richardson released a statement in August 2019, saying that he had offered his assistance in the investigation of Epstein to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Richardson's attorney, Jeff Brown of Dechert LLP, later said that he was informed by the assistant U.S. attorney that Richardson was neither a target, subject, nor witness in the case and that there was no allegation against Richardson that the government was actively investigating.