In third batch of Epstein documents, a call from Harvey Weinstein, more famous men and disquieting details
By Samantha Delouya, Jeff Winter and Lauren del Valle, CNN
(CNN) — The third round of documents from a lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died in jail before he could face trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, was publicly released Friday.
Friday’s release included over thirteen hundred pages as of mid-afternoon, and it follows hundreds of pages of documents already unsealed on Wednesday and Thursday, with more expected.
The unsealed documents are part of a 2015 civil defamation suit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an American woman who claimed Epstein sexually abused her as a minor and that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, aided in the abuse. The unsealing this week stems from a December 18 court order from the judge overseeing the lawsuit, a response to media’s legal efforts to publicly release the documents.
The documents in total, including material yet to be unsealed, are expected to include nearly 200 names, including some of Epstein’s accusers, prominent businesspeople, politicians and potentially more.
CNN is reviewing the documents.
Famous friends and acquaintances
A former Jeffrey Epstein employee recounted a litany of famous and influential people, including two former presidents, in Epstein’s orbit during a 2009 deposition unsealed on Friday.
Juan Alessi told attorneys that he had dinner with former president Donald Trump in the kitchen of Epstein’s Palm Beach home and met former president Bill Clinton on Epstein’s plane. He also said he met Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, at the Palm Beach home, according to the deposition.
Alessi also said he met foreign beauty queens and an unnamed winner of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, according to the document.
When asked on Wednesday about the appearance of Clinton’s name in an earlier batch of unsealed documents, a Clinton spokesman reiterated a 2019 statement that Clinton had flown on Epstein’s private plane but said Clinton knew nothing of the financier’s “terrible crimes.”
The spokesman said that it has now “been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.” Clinton has not been accused of any crimes or wrongdoing related to Epstein.
Trump has also not been accused of any crimes or wrongdoing with regard to Epstein. When asked earlier this week about Trump’s name appearing in the newly unsealed documents, a Trump spokesman reacted by attacking the media.
Alessi also spoke about the young women who came to the house to give Epstein massages.
Alessi answered questions about one female whom he understood to be under the age of 18. Her name was still redacted from the unsealed documents. Alessi said her mother would occasionally accompany her to Epstein’s home.
In terms of payment, “everybody got $100 an hour,” Alessi said.
Famed magician and illusionist David Copperfield is also among the high-profile men identified as a friend to Epstein.
Copperfield’s name is mentioned during deposition testimony released Friday of one of Epstein’s then-employees, Sarah Kellen. A lawyer for the plaintiffs asked about Epstein’s relationship with the illusionist and whether they recruit girls for each other. The lawyer questioned if Copperfield gives tickets to Epstein for young women when he is performing shows and if the girls are invited backstage after the shows.
To all questions, Kellen asserts her Fifth Amendment right and refuses to answer the question.
Copperfield is also named in a 2016 deposition released Wednesday by a woman who massaged Epstein for years in the early 2000s. She said she met the illusionist at a dinner at Epstein’s Palm Beach residence and testified it was her observation the two were friends.
Johanna Sjoberg testified in the deposition that Copperfield performed magic tricks while he was at the Palm Beach House and asked her what she knew about Epstein’s methods for procuring girls to work for him.
“He questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls,” Sjoberg said.
Copperfield didn’t elaborate at the time, Sjoberg said.
She also said there was another girl at the house that “seemed young” at a dinner that included Copperfield. She recalled thinking at the time that the girl could have been in high school.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Copperfield for comment.
The name of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein appears in a 2005 handwritten note left for Epstein as well.
The handwritten note, dated March 1, 2005, appears to be a telephone message left for Epstein that Weinstein attempted to call Epstein that morning. “She had on the phone Mr. Harvey Weinstein,” the message reads. It was included among nearly 200 written phone messages.
Brad Edwards, Giuffre’s lawyer at one point, wrote a book titled “Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” released in 2020, in which he discusses Weinstein’s involvement in Epstein’s world. Edwards wrote that Epstein told a victim he would introduce her to Weinstein. In another excerpt, Edwards wrote Epstein ended his relationship with Weinstein after he acted too aggressively with one of his “favorite girls.”
There is no implication of wrongdoing by Weinstein in connection to Epstein in the documents.
CNN has reached out to an attorney for Weinstein.
Weinstein, 71, remains in prison after being convicted on sex crimes charges in New York and California linked to allegations that he used his influence to lure women into private meetings, assault them and then silence any accusations.
Disquieting documents
Some of the documents are unsettling.
In a newly unsealed excerpt from a deposition of Nadia Marcinkova, an Epstein assistant who was accused in civil lawsuits of having perpetrated abuse alongside Epstein, an attorney asked her: “Were you with Jeffrey Epstein on his birthday when one of his friends sent to him 12 – sorry, three 12-year-olds for the purposes of Jeffrey Epstein sexually abusing them?”
He then asks if “these three 12-year-olds were from France. Were they sent to him on his birthday by Jean Luc Brunel or by somebody else?”
Marcinkova invoked the Fifth Amendment to that question and throughout her deposition, which includes multiple still-redacted names.
Brunel, a French modeling scout, died in a jail cell in 2022 while under investigation by French authorities for his ties to Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre has also recounted the story of 12-year-olds being sent to Epstein in her own court depositions.
Previous document releases included information about Epstein’s associates and accusers, though much of the information had previously been reported on by various media outlets or released through other court proceedings.
Giuffre and Maxwell settled their civil suit in 2017, but some court documents remained sealed until now.
Most of the documents from the suit were unsealed in 2019 – one day before Epstein died by suicide in jail.
Epstein was indicted in 2019 on federal charges of operating a sex trafficking ring in which he allegedly sexually abused dozens of underage girls.
Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial. Prosecutors in New York indicted Maxwell on sex trafficking charges involving multiple victims. She was convicted in 2021.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Contributing: CNN’s Riley Gutiérrez McDermid, Kara Scannell and Curt Devine.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the lawyer questioning Nadia Marcinkova, as well as Marcinkova’s relationship to Epstein. She was an Epstein assistant.
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