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WASHINGTON — Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley told a House panel Thursday that he was “unsure” he met a woman who wore a Snow White costume through convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with his closed-door interview.
The ex-Barclays chief maintained that he cut off contact with Epstein after assuming control of the bank in 2015 — but revealed in other portions of his interview that he had a sexual relationship with one of his finance pal’s assistants while denying he had an encounter with a woman dressed as Snow White.
But the Department of Justice released emails earlier this year showing the two discussing the character among the 1,200 communications from Staley’s email account as the head of JP Morgan’s Private Bank to his client Epstein’s private email address between 2008 and 2012.
“Maybe they’re tracking u?? That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Staley wrote to Epstein on July 9, 2010.
“[W]hat character would you like next?” asked Epstein in response the following day
“Beauty and the Beast,” Staley said.
Epstein replied, “well one side is available.”
Another unidentified person emailed Epstein on July 10, 2010: “the snow white was f..ed twice as soon as she put her costume.”
Other emails in the DOJ’s Epstein Library disclosed that the money manager told an unidentified woman on June 20, 2010: “I would love to take photos of you in a Snow White costume. You can get it from the costume store.”
“Will get it!” the woman responded to him.
Staley also received from Epstein an unsolicited photo of a woman on Dec. 20, 2009, which has been redacted in court papers.
A source familiar with his Oversight Committee interview said he shared “further details” about a consensual sexual encounter with an Epstein assistant at the disgraced financier’s apartment in New York City.
Staley, who resigned from Barclays in 2021 amid a UK investigation into his financial ties to Epstein, had also previously denied knowledge of his discussions with the now-deceased pedophile about women dressed as Disney princesses during past court proceedings.
The emails were first cited in a lawsuit brought by the US Virgin Islands against JP Morgan for allegedly facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking. JP Morgan paid out $75 million to settle that case with the Virgin Islands and reached a confidential settlement with Staley.
In 2023, JP Morgan also paid out $290 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Epstein victims. Staley was later asked by the bank “to remove all his accounts with the bank due to his ties to Epstein,” the source said.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters before the interview with Staley that there were “internal discussions … that J.P. Morgan was concerned about Epstein as a client — that he was a high-risk client — but Jes Staley was the one person who continued to defend Epstein.”
“We know that he was very close friends to Mr. Epstein,” Comer also said.
While the banker has denied a close relationship with Epstein in court, Staley did acknowledge to the Oversight panel that he visited his onetime client during his 13 months in a state prison in Florida starting in 2008 — after pleading guilty to soliciting sex from a minor, the source added.
The source also indicated that Staley observed Epstein frequently withdraw large amounts of cash from his JP Morgan account.
Comer’s committee has conducted 19 interviews as part of its investigation into the Justice Department’s prosecution of Epstein and release of files about its probe into the deceased sex trafficker and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ex-Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black, one of those people previously interviewed by the House Oversight Committee, is expected to turn over non-disclosure agreements that he signed with women connected to Epstein.
Staley’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
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