NEW YORK—Downplaying their connections to the man, powerful associates of the late Jeffrey Epstein have begun to distance themselves from the serial abuser, claiming it has been years since they spent time with him or made use of his secret child sex-trafficking ring, sources confirmed Monday. “I certainly wouldn’t describe myself as being close to Jeffrey, considering the last time we got erotic massages together from a pair of underage girls was way back in the ’90s,” said a self-described former friend of Epstein who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirming that by 2005 he had stopped using the billionaire’s sex slaves entirely. “Do I miss having sex with teenagers on his private island in the Caribbean? Sure, but friendship is a two-way street: If he wasn’t going to make the effort to send one of his planes to pick me up, I wasn’t going to fly commercial all the way down there just to have another orgy with 16-year-olds.” Numerous wealthy elites echoed this sentiment, saying they eventually stopped attending Epstein’s parties because they found it far more convenient to make use of sex-trafficking rings closer to home.