More documents related to late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein were released released Friday, including a handwritten note linked to disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. Photo courtesy of New York State Division of Criminal Justice/EPA-EFE
Jan. 5 (UPI) — A third round of documents from a lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein was made public Friday.
The unsealed documents are from a now settled 2015 civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed Epstein sexually abused her when she was a minor. The lawsuit also named Epstein’s girlfriend and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Among the documents released Friday was a list of witnesses Maxwell’s attorneys said might have information that could dispute some of Giuffre’s accusations.
The latest release also includes excerpts from witness depositions; a list of phone numbers of vendors and service people; several communications between attorneys; and about 50 pages of handwritten phone messages from Epstein’s message book.
Some of the newly released documents were unsettling. In an excerpt rom a deposition of accuser Nadia Marcinkova, an attorney asked her, “Were you with Jeffrey Epstein on his birthday when one of his friends sent to him … three 12-year-olds for the purposes of Jeffrey Epstein sexually abusing them?”
Marcinkova invoked the Fifth Amendment to that question and throughout her deposition.
Giuffre also claimed 12-year-olds were sent to Epstein in her court depositions.
Portions of a transcript of Maxwell’s videotaped deposition were also included. In the 2016 deposition, Maxwell’s attorney urged her not to answer questions regarding sexual activities that involved herself or Epstein. The opposing attorney repeatedly sparred with Maxwell’s attorney over whether she could answer questions related to Epstein using underaged girls for massages.
Giuffre’s attorneys then filed motions to compel Maxwell to answer deposition questions related to adult sexual activities. The motion was granted.
Magician David Copperfield was listed among the high-profile men identified as a friend to Epstein. His name appeared in a 2016 deposition 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 she observed the two were friends.
In a testimony of one of Epstein’s former employees, Sarah Kellen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs asked about Epstein’s relationship with Copperfield, whether they recruit girls for each other and if Copperfield gave Epstein tickets to his shows in exchange for young women. Kellen asserted her Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer the question.
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein‘s name also appeared in a handwritten note as part of Friday’s release. The note, dated to 2005, appeared to be a telephone message left for Epstein that Weinstein attempted to call him. It was included among nearly 200 written phone messages.
None of the documents implied any wrongdoing by Weinstein in connection to Epstein. The former movie mogul remains in prison after being convicted of sex crimes in New York and California linked to allegations that he used his influence to take advantage of women and silence their accusations.
Friday’s reveal follows the unsealing of hundreds of court documents on Wednesday that associated Epstein with Britain’s Prince Andrew, who settled a sexual abuse lawsuit two years ago, and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, who were not accused of any wrongdoing in the filings.
Epstein died in 2019 in a Manhattan federal prison as he awaited trial on trafficking charges. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking and grooming underage girls.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in December that the documents could be unsealed in response to media’s legal efforts to publicly release the documents.