Third batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed
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.
Fridayâs release 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, Epsteinâs former girlfriend, aided in the abuse. The unsealing this week stems from a Dec. 18 court order from the judge overseeing the lawsuit, a response to mediaâs 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 Epsteinâs 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 Epsteinâs 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 Epsteinâs Palm Beach home and met former president Bill Clinton on Epsteinâs 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 Clintonâs name in an earlier batch of unsealed documents, a Clinton spokesman reiterated a 2019 statement that Clinton had flown on Epsteinâs private plane but said Clinton knew nothing of the financierâs âterrible crimes.â
The spokesman said that it has now âbeen nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.â 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.
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 Epsteinâs home.
In terms of payment, âeverybody got $100 an hour,â Alessi said.
Famed magician and illusionist David Copperfield is also among the high-profile men identified as a friend of Epstein.
Copperfieldâs name is mentioned during deposition testimony released Friday of one of Epsteinâs then-employees, Sarah Kellen. A lawyer for the plaintiffs asked about Epsteinâs relationship with the illusionist and whether they recruited 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 Epsteinâs 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 Epsteinâs methods for procuring girls to work for him.
âHe questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls,â Sjoberg said.
Copperfield didnât elaborate at the time, Sjoberg said.
She also said there was another girl at the house that âseemed youngâ 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. âShe had on the phone Mr. Harvey Weinstein,â the message reads. It was included among nearly 200 written phone messages.
Brad Edwards, Giuffreâs lawyer at one point, wrote a book titled âRelentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein,â released in 2020, in which he discusses Weinsteinâs involvement in Epsteinâs 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 âfavorite girls.â
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 accuser Nadia Marcinkova, attorney David Yarema asks Marcinkova, âWere you with Jeffrey Epstein on his birthday when one of his friends sent to him 12 â sorry, three 12-year-olds for the purposes of Jeffrey Epstein sexually abusing them?â
He then asks if âthese three 12-year-olds were from France. Were they sent to him on his birthday by Jean Luc Brunel or by somebody else?â
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 Epsteinâs 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.
Previous document releases included information about Epsteinâs 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 â 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 in jail while awaiting trial. Prosecutors in New York indicted Maxwell on sex trafficking charges involving multiple victims. .
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.