The Miami Herald reports that a new Jeffrey Epstein accuser has come forward by filing an affidavit in a federal court in New York.

Maria Farmer, then 26, claims she was employed by Epstein, a multimillionaire financier who lived in a vast mansion on New York’s Upper East Side, and that she frequently saw “school-age girls’’ wearing uniforms come into the mansion and go upstairs. She was told that the girls were auditioning for modeling work, according to her affidavit.

Then an art student in New York, Farmer said she reported her assault to New York police and the FBI in 1996. FBI documents released April 1 make a reference to Farmer having been interviewed in 2006 or 2007. However, Farmer, now 49, said the FBI did not take any action against Epstein and Maxwell.

“To my knowledge, I was the first person to report Maxwell and Epstein to the FBI. It took a significant amount of bravery for me to make that call because I knew how incredibly powerful and influential both Epstein and Maxwell were, particularly in the art community,’’ she wrote.

We’ve heard lots of stories about teen girls visiting his mansion in Florida but this suggests much the same thing was happening in New York. Farmer also claims she became a victim in 1996.

In her affidavit, Farmer claims that during the time she worked for Epstein, the financier arranged for her to work on an art project at Wexner’s Ohio mansion in the summer of 1996. She stayed at the Wexner $47 million 30-room mansion for a time, working on the project, while babysitting her two younger brothers, who were also staying with her at Wexner’s mansion, she said.

One day, Epstein and Maxwell visited, and escorted her into a bedroom, and then proceeded to sexually assault her, she wrote. She said she fled the room and called the local sheriff’s office, but did not get a response. When she tried to leave the property, she said Wexner’s security staff refused to let her leave.

As for why she’s finally coming forward now, Farmer says she hopes Epstein will face some kind of justice:

“I have struggled throughout my entire life as a direct result of Epstein and Maxwell’s actions against me and my hope is that they will be held accountable for their crimes. While I am still afraid, I am coming forward because I think it is so important to do so,’’ she said.

Farmer’s affidavit is part of a lawsuit by Virginia Roberts Giuffre aimed at attorney Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre is one of two women who claim they were “lent out” by Epstein to various men, including Dershowitz. Dershowitz has strenuously denied those claims and even invited the two women to sue him. The current lawsuit by Giuffre takes issue with various statements Dershowitz has made to clear himself. The other woman who has accused Dershowitz, Sarah Ransome, also submitted an affidavit in support of Giuffre’s lawsuit.

Ransome says that she was introduced to Epstein when she was 22 years old and living in New York. She claims that she spent time at Epstein’s mansion and was “lent out’’ by him to his friends for sex. Among those friends was Dershowitz, she said in the affidavit. She alleges she had a three-way sexual encounter with Dershowitz and Nadia Marcinkova, who also worked for Epstein.

“I recall specific, key details of his person and the sex acts and can describe them in the event it becomes necessary to do so,’’ Ransome said in the affidavit.

That’s quite a threat. I don’t want to weigh in on the accusations against Dershowitz, but I will say that Giuffre’s claims about Epstein seem to be true based on what we know about him.