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In third batch of Epstein documents, a call from Harvey Weinstein, more famous men and disquieting details

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. #Epstein  #EpsteinList #Epsteinadasi #EpsteinClientList EpsteinIsland EpsteinFiles EpsteinDocs

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.

An unsealed legal document in a civil case related to Jeffrey Epstein shows a handwritten phone message saying Harvey Weinstein called. A close-up of that message is seen here. An unsealed legal document in a civil case related to Jeffrey Epstein shows a handwritten phone message saying Harvey Weinstein called. A close-up of that message is seen here. From Exhibit in Epstein-related litigation 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.

Third batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed | CNN Business

The third round of documents from a lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died in jail before he could face tria

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The Biggest Names from Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Court Documents

The names of acquaintances and associates of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein—including that of former U.S. presidents and British royalty—were released on Wednesday evening in a set of court documents that were part of a suit against Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.#Epstein  #EpsteinList #Epsteinadasi #EpsteinClientList EpsteinIsland EpsteinFiles EpsteinDocs

The documents, the first in more than 200 that are expected to be unsealed over the next few days, are part of the defamation lawsuit filed by victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Maxwell has previously called Giuffre a liar after she alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had abused her. (That case was eventually settled in 2017, but Maxwell was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually exploit in a criminal investigation of Epstein’s acts after his death.)

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Names of figures that were previously associated with Epstein, such as Prince Andrew and former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, were mentioned in the court documents, but there was little new information outside of what was already known to the public. Some documents had previously been released in other court cases, while Epstein’s high-profile contacts have been covered extensively in the media.

In December, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents to be released, though she gave people until Jan. 1 to appeal the order in case they did not want their name to be revealed. The names of victims who were minors when they suffered abuse were not released, though some have previously spoken out about Epstein’s actions in media interviews.

Here’s what to know.

What the documents reveal For the most part, the documents say little about the actions taken by individuals outside of Epstein, though there is a 2016 deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s victims, that mentions politicians and figureheads in the U.S. and abroad.

While celebrities like Bruce Willis, Cameron Diaz, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Spacey, Naomi Campbell, and Leonardo DiCaprio are also mentioned in the records, they have not been accused of helping Epstein in any capacity. Sjoberg was only asked if she had met the aforementioned people, which she denied.

Connections to Epstein previously led high-level executives to resign from their positions, including Barclays chief executive Jes Staley. Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent suspected of scouting girls for Epstein, killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022 while awaiting trial for rape accusations.

The documents on Wednesday confirmed the scale of both Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring and his powerful social network. Prince Andrew—the younger brother of King Charles III—was one of the names referenced in the documents, mentioned by a witness for touching her breast.

Andrew was also previously accused of raping Giuffre when she was a teenager. After a lawsuit filed by Giuffre in 2021 and amid growing public pressure, Andrew was forced to relinquish his military titles and public duties—even as he repeatedly denied the allegations. The two settled the lawsuit in 2022 after Andrew paid Giuffre an undisclosed sum of money.

The case against Epstein Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender who would lure young girls under the impression that they would be giving him massages that would then “become increasingly sexual in nature,” according to the 2019 indictment against him. Jennifer Araoz, one of the victims, said that Epstein would invite her to his house and pay her hundreds of dollars after her visit. While they initially spoke about her life and goals, he later became abusive, Araoz said.

Epstein had long avoided facing any consequences for his actions. He was first investigated for sexual misconduct in 2005 after a woman claimed that he had molested her teenage stepdaughter. Palm Beach police eventually charged Epstein with counts of unlawful sex with a minor in May 2006, but then State Attorney Barry Krischer sent the case to a grand jury, which indicted him with one count of soliciting prostitution. The charge was minor, leading to much criticism and causing the FBI to open a federal investigation against Epstein. But Epstein ended up serving a short 18-month sentence in 2008 for recruiting an underage girl for prostitution after he struck a plea deal with U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta to avoid being charged with any federal crimes.

Epstein later came back under scrutiny in 2018, after the Miami Herald looked at Acosta’s role in negotiating a short sentence for Epstein. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested after federal prosecutors looked at his behavior between 2002 and 2005.

The case against him revealed that the victims, some as young as 14, were paid to provide sexual services to him and his friends, and to recruit other young girls to his circle of victims. Epstein’s employees would also sexually abuse the young girls.

He was facing charges for sex trafficking and conspiracy in July 2019 when one month later, he died by suicide in a New York federal jail. The investigation continued after his passing, leading prosecutors to convict Maxwell for sex crimes in connection to her dealing with Epstein.

Here are other names high-profile mentioned in the documents:

Bill Clinton The former president was mentioned in the documents released on Wednesday, in Sjoberg’s testimony that Epstein had told her “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.” She also said that she knew Epstein had “dealings” with Clinton but did not know they were friends until later media reports.

The former president’s ties with Epstein has long been the subject of media scrutiny—intensified in the wake of the financier’s indictment. The two had connected while Clinton was working on his nonprofit group the Clinton Foundation, and in 2002, they took a trip to Africa on Epstein’s private jet.

In 2019, Clinton’s office said that the former president did not know about Epstein’s “terrible crimes,” and that he had not spoken to Epstein in “well over a decade.” A spokesperson for Clinton told CNN on Wednesday that it has “been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.”

Records show that Giuffre’s attorneys wanted to get a deposition from Clinton. Giuffre, the plaintiff in the defamation lawsuit against Maxwell, did not accuse the former president of doing anything with her, but attorneys saw Clinton as a “key person who can provide information about his close relationship with Defendant and Mr. Epstein and disapprove Ms. Maxwell’s claims.”

Donald Trump The former president—whose relationship with Epstein was also widely reported—was also mentioned in Sjoberg’s 2016 deposition. Sjoberg testified that she and Epstein once made an impromptu stop in Atlantic City due to poor flying weather. Asked if she had given Trump a massage, Sjoberg said no. Trump once called Epstein a “terrific guy,” but later said he had a falling out with him. “I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I was not a fan of his,” Trump said in 2019.

Michael Jackson Sjoberg recalled meeting late musician Michael Jackson at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, but said no when asked if she had massaged him.

Sarah Kellen Kellen, Epstein’s former assistant, was named in testimonies of victims detailing their encounters with Epstein. She was said to have helped schedule his “massages,” which his victims said was a euphemism for sexual services.

A judge had described Kellen as “a criminally responsible participant” in Epstein’s scheme.

But Kellen was never charged and has remained out of the public eye. Kellen said through a spokesperson in 2020 that she herself had been sexually and psychologically abused by Epstein for years.

Jean-Luc Brunel Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent suspected of scouting girls for Epstein, killed himself in a Paris jail in 2022 while awaiting trial for rape accusations.

Giuffre said in her deposition that she was sent by Maxwell to have sex with Brunel “at many places.” The documents also say that Brunel would bring girls as young as twelve "to the United States for sexual purposes and farm them out to his friends, especially Epstein."

Bill Richardson Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico who died in September, was also mentioned. Giuffre said in her deposition that Maxwell had instructed her to give Richardson a massage. In 2019, a spokesperson for Richardson denied he ever met Giuffre, according to Las Cruces Sun News.

Leslie Wexner Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands (which owns Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works), was also mentioned in Maxwell’s deposition. When asked if she had ever provided Giuffre with “an outfit of a sexual nature to wear for Les Wexner,” Maxwell said “categorically no.”

Epstein was Wexner's money manager and a trustee of the Wexner Foundation During an L Brands investor conference in Sept. 2019, Wexner called Epstein's action "abhorrent." Wexner says he cut ties with Epstein in 2007.

Glenn Dubin Hedge fund manager and billionaire Glenn Dubin was mentioned in the documents, with Giuffre testifying that “Ghislaine told me to go to Glenn Dubin and give him a massage, which means sex,” Giuffre said in her deposition..

Dubin has previously denied Giuffre’s allegations.

Dubin’s wife, Eva Andersson-Dubin, was also referenced in the unsealed documents. Maxwell said in her deposition that she was friends with Andersson-Dubin.

Alan Dershowitz Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s lawyer, was also mentioned in the newly-released records. The documents say that Epstein forced a minor to have sex with the former Harvard law professor multiple times. The documents also say that Dershowitz “was an eye-witness to the sexual abuse of many other minors by Epstein and several of Epstein’s co-conspirators.

Dershowitz would later play a significant role in negotiating the NPA on Epstein’s behalf.” NPA stands for non-prosecution agreement, which allowed Epstein to avoid serving a severe sentence when he was first charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution.

“Of course I’m on that list, I was his lawyer. I flew on his plane,” said Dershowitz in a Youtube livestream after the list came out.

Marvin Minsky Computer scientist and former MIT professor Marvin Minsky was also mentioned in the documents. Giuffre said she was asked to have sex with Minsky when he went to Epstein’s island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Biggest Names from Jeffrey Epstein’s Unsealed Documents

In December, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents to be released.