US legislators weigh Nadia Marcinko questions despite 2008 immunity
Nadia Marcinko, Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and assistant pilot, is facing renewed scrutiny as US legislators move toward questioning people named in Epstein's 2008 plea deal. That deal named Marcinko as a potential co-conspirator and granted immunity from prosecution, even though she has never been charged with a crime.
Epstein plea deal names Marcinko
Marcinko was named alongside Adriana Ross, Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff in the 2008 agreement, which shielded them from prosecution. Congresswoman wants all four women investigated despite that deal, and two of the other women, Kellen and Groff, are about to be questioned by US legislators.
Prison records show Marcinko visited Epstein at least 67 times during his first jail term. She was Epstein's main girlfriend for seven years and later became an assistant pilot on his private plane, placing her close to him in the years before and after his 2008 conviction.
Accounts from Palm Beach and federal investigators
Girls in Palm Beach, Florida told police that Marcinko participated in the abuse that led to Epstein's 2008 conviction. After Epstein died in prison in 2019, Marcinko told federal investigators that she first met him in New York in 2003, when she was 18, and that she met him at a birthday party for Jean-Luc Brunel.
Marcinko also said she had been working for Karin Models in Paris before Brunel brought her to the United States on a visa he had arranged. Email chains traced by the show that Marcinko and Epstein celebrated 17 September as their anniversary for many years afterwards, while the also found evidence suggesting Epstein asked Marcinko over many years to recruit other women to satisfy his sexual desires and that she complied.
Questions for Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff
The push to revisit Marcinko's role now comes as legislators prepare to question Kellen and Groff, two women also named in the plea deal. Marcinko's lawyers say she is one of Epstein's victims, while the broader effort seeks to examine whether the immunity agreement should still limit scrutiny of women named in the case years later.
Born Nadia Marcinkova into a comfortably-off, respected family in Slovakia, Marcinko began modelling as a teenager and later had assignments in Japan and Taiwan. Her first public contact with Epstein, her long relationship with him, and the question of whether a plea deal can still block later questioning now sit at the center of the congressional effort.
The next step in the case is the questioning of Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff, with Congress also pressing to include Marcinko and Adriana Ross in any further inquiry.
