by Dylan Howard
His lawyers became indignant, and then he got up and walked out of a deposition. After that, I went to court and filed a motion for sanctions against him for walking out on me and the judge granted my motion for sanctions and awarded me $800 for the time I spent having to go back and take a second deposition of him.
In the second deposition, I asked even more salacious questions of him which he never agreed to answer. Questions about sex toys that were found in his bedroom, massage oils found in his bedroom, women that he either knew, places he had gone, things he had done, sexual positions. And the goal of all that was to see if I could get him angry, or upset, or throw him off to where he would actually spurt something out that could incriminate him.
Having said that, during the entire time, all he would do is just smirk, smile, sit back in a very creepy way, and just read a prepared statement that his lawyers would give him regarding his Fifth Amendment.
After the whole thing was said and done, from both the first and the second deposition, I guess the best way to describe it is just creepy. This was a guy that when you got in a room with him, after you left the room, you felt like you needed to take a shower.
I met him a third occasion at a mediation where we resolved some of the cases together, and he was there along with his lawyers. And during that process he really took over and wanted to talk about how . . . Well, put it this way, he took over the discussions and not his lawyers. And he, I think, always felt as though he was the smartest man in the room even beyond his own legal team.
But even on that occasion, I can’t recall ever reaching across the table and trying to shake the man’s hand. Even though he was an adversary on the other side of the case, he always seemed to want to try to be friends with everyone. Saying, “How are you? How are you doing?” And, “Nice to meet you.” And it was just as though he could not get out of that routine of trying to make everyone his friend.
Eventually, Kuvin’s civil cases were settled and the victims involved got undisclosed payouts. The cash did not, however, buy their silence; they were free to discuss the case and the allegations at will moving forward. It was just the exact amount of their settlements that were kept quiet.
Kuvin explained, “On behalf of the victims, we wanted to protect the girls, frankly, because we didn’t want friends or people outside of litigation knowing what type of money these young girls may have gotten from Mr. Epstein. Obviously, with money comes hangers-on and other people that may be involved in their life and property. So we kept the amounts confidential to protect the girls as much as anyone else. But the facts of those settlements, they were allowed to talk about to anyone they chose to talk to.”
Bradley Edwards, another high-profile victims’ attorney, later admitted in court documents that his three clients had received a total of $5.5 million in settlements.
Still, it wasn’t entirely a happy ending for anyone involved. During the course of that litigation and the police investigation that had preceded it, Kuvin claims, Epstein’s team had gone all out on the girls, with rough-and-tumble tactics designed to exploit their every weakness and perhaps intimidate them into silence, adding insult on top of the many psychological injuries they had already suffered.
“I was followed,” one Epstein victim, who asked not to be identified, told these authors. “I received death threats on the phone. The life of my daughter was threatened, and at one point, a car tried to run me off the road. I am convinced Epstein was behind it all. He wanted to frighten me into not cooperating.”
Kuvin recalled, “I can tell you that in representing the victims of Mr. Epstein, and going through some of the litigation, and seeing some of the hard-nosed tactics he had against my clients, having them followed by his private investigators, having black trucks drive up to their house and quickly drive away or sit outside their home, having his investigators interview people in their families, looking online at all of their backgrounds and information. As a lawyer on behalf of those clients, there were days where I definitely walked out to my car and I would remote start my car. Call it a hunch, call it a fear, call it just good practice. It was definitely something that concerned me.”
“As far as the victims, I can tell you more so the parents than victims were very angry,” he continued. “And as a parent myself, I can tell you that I would have had my own personal thoughts about what I would want to see happen to Mr. Epstein outside of the court system.”
Indeed, court documents obtained by this investigation show that Epstein’s attorneys trolled the victims’ social media pages for “evidence” of impropriety that they then submitted in the case in order to impeach them as witnesses. For example. attorneys circled and starred innocuous posts by the young girls, posts that would later be used against them.
Victim Michelle Licata, who filed a civil suit against Epstein, told reporter Marjorie Hernandez that the experience was like psychological warfare.
It was really weird. It was me going back and forth from where I lived to Florida and meetings psychologists. It was Jeffrey Epstein’s psychologists and psychiatrists and therapists. They were asking me a lot of questions and then I had to go to my own therapists and my own psychologist.
Then I had depositions on cameras with his lawyers and my lawyers. I felt it was like a cat-and-mouse game. Let’s see how long we can keep her mind going while we figure out some kind of sweetheart deal.
They were asking me questions about things that had happened in my life. They were talking to me about, “So you don’t think that this was very traumatic in your life and that’s probably why you’re so ‘screwed up’?” Pretty much, that’s what they were saying. “These little things that happened in your life, you don’t think that’s the reason for why you are angry at the world?”
That’s when I got on to his lawyer about what he does. I was like, “If you think that what happened to me in my life compares to anywhere near to what has happened with me and your client,” I was like, “you’re crazy.” Making those two comparisons, no. This is why I’m messed up in my life. Stop talking to me about those things. They were trying to do exactly what Jeffrey Epstein did.
They were trying to go into your subconscious, into your mind and try and find your weak spots, and try and see what they could use against you in the court of law. These people were giving me thick books and packets of lawyer talk and I had to fill out these questions about “how many people have you slept with? Name every single person you’ve ever done anything with?”
I called up my lawyer. I was like, “Kissing or sex?” And she said they want to know every single person. I’m like, “And what does this word mean? What’s a deposition?” I was still nineteen years old not knowing what was going on.
They went after just me. They were trying to make me look bad against myself, to try and make me feel like I wasn’t credible. I was like, “No, I wasn’t a hooker, and no I wasn’t a stripper.” I mean, I was in high school. I was friends with this girl that brought me there. I mean, what are you expecting to find? “When did you start sleeping with these guys?” I’m like, I mean do you want dates or what do you want from me? I don’t know.
It was a nightmare. This whole process is a never-ending nightmare. I just wish that somebody would do something and shut it down and get it done and over with and let everybody have their lives back.
But the fight for justice was far from over. Almost immediately after Epstein’s secret sweetheart deal was exposed, two victims filed a lawsuit against the US government itself.
Identified only as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, the plaintiffs were two victims who claimed that the federal government had not notified them of Epstein’s plea deal—a violation of the Crime Victims Rights Act. That law, passed in 2004, grants all victims the right to prior notice of any court proceedings in their case, as well as the right to appear and speak at any hearing, as appropriate. In Epstein’s case, neither right had been granted.
Perversely, the government at first tried to argue th
at the CVRA did not apply, because federal charges against Epstein had never been filed due to the very same plea deal they had covered up. The court firmly rejected that position.
Since the non-prosecution agreement at issue had prevented any future federal charges against Epstein, a judge ruled, the victims did have legal standing to coverage under CVRA. With that established, the judge deferred any judgment as to whether they were entitled to relief or damages until more evidence could be gathered.
At that time, in 2015, two more victims attempted to join the case: Jane Doe #3 and Jane Doe #4. This team broke the story: The new victims claimed that since their circumstances were so similar to the first two plaintiffs, adding them to the case would cause little delay. What’s more, in new court documents, the two victims made even more explosive claims.
Jane Doe #3, later revealed to be Virginia Roberts Giuffre, took aim at Ghislaine Maxwell:
In 1999, Jane Doe #3 was approached by Ghislaine Maxwell, one of the main women whom Epstein used to procure under-aged girls for sexual activities and a primary co-conspirator in his sexual abuse and sex trafficking scheme.
In fact, it became known to the government that Maxwell herself regularly participated in Epstein’s sexual exploitation of minors, including Jane Doe #3.
Maxwell persuaded Jane Doe #3 (who was then fifteen years old) to come to Epstein’s mansion in a fashion very similar to the manner in which Epstein and his other co-conspirators coerced dozens of other children (including Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2).
When Jane Doe #3 began giving Epstein a “massage,” Epstein and Maxwell turned it into a sexual encounter, as they had done with many other victims.
Epstein then became enamored with Jane Doe #3, and with the assistance of Maxwell converted her into what is commonly referred to as a “sex slave.” Epstein kept Jane Doe #3 as his sex slave from about 1999 through 2002, when she managed to escape to a foreign country and hide out from Epstein and his co-conspirators for years.
From 1999 through 2002, Epstein frequently sexually abused Jane Doe #3, not only in West Palm Beach, but also in New York, New Mexico, the US Virgin Islands, in international airspace on his Epstein’s private planes, and elsewhere. Epstein also sexually trafficked the then-minor Jane Doe, making her available for sex to politically-connected and financially-powerful people. Epstein’s purposes in “lending” Jane Doe (along with other young girls) to such powerful people were to ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political, and financial gain, as well as to obtain potential blackmail information.
Filed in the last hours of 2014, the documents were incredibly explosive—and we rushed to parse them. Roberts clearly, emphatically, and unemotionally accused Epstein, Maxwell, and their coconspirators of doing the kinds of things that only had been whispered about for years.
At the time, police had not released files or videos to us, and we had few documents that described the horrors Epstein had committed in the victims’ own words.
It was a new level of disturbing.
What’s more, for the first time, Roberts unleashed on Prince Andrew:
Jane Doe #3 was forced to have sexual relations with this Prince when she was a minor in three separate geographical locations: in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s apartment), in New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls).
Epstein instructed Jane Doe #3 that she was to give the Prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse.
Maxwell facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a “madame” for Epstein, thereby assisting in internationally trafficking Jane Doe #3 (and numerous other young girls) for sexual purposes.
“Epstein also trafficked Jane Doe #3 for sexual purposes to many other powerful men,” the court filings claimed, “including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders. Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to describe the events that she had with these men so that he could potentially blackmail them.”
Indeed, in the years after Epstein was released from prison, his information-gathering and blackmail system went into overdrive like never before. Despite the fact that he was a convicted sex felon, still facing lawsuits and allegations in Florida, the highest levels of society stood waiting to welcome him back from prison with open arms.
Epstein walked right into them.
CHAPTER 12
THE SMARTEST MEN IN THE WORLD
After Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest and the subsequent flood of lawsuits, he was considered radioactive in the political realm. Bill Clinton and other bold names on D.C.’s Beltway and beyond insisted that they’d had no idea what Epstein was doing with the young girls around him; the implication being, now that they knew, they would never talk to him again.
However, one of the most prominent Lolita Express passengers didn’t seem to mind being linked to and even photographed with a sex felon: Britain’s Prince Andrew.
In what now seems like a catastrophic misstep that launched the most sensational scandal in Buckingham Palace history, Prince Andrew remained a public ally of the convicted pedophile even after his release from prison. The Prince was a guest of honor at Epstein’s Manhattan “welcome home from prison” bash when he finished his sentence in 2010.
Organized by an old-school publicist, Peggy Siegal, the event had a star-studded guest list of New York’s elite. Did they know exactly who was hosting the party?
Among those who joined Epstein and Andrew that night were news anchor Katie Couric, talk show host Charlie Rose, comedian Chelsea Handler, filmmaker Woody Allen, and President Clinton’s former senior advisor, George Stephanopoulos.
Just a few months before, Siegal had organized another high-society event at the mansion: A Yom Kippur dinner for 120 people—including their children.
Despite Epstein’s sex offender status, he and Prince Andrew seemed chummier than ever in 2010. They were photographed strolling together through Central Park during one visit, and Andrew was even caught on video poking his grinning face out Epstein’s front door to say goodbye to a departing young brunette.
Following the release of that video, Buckingham Palace once again found itself having to issue another statement to “clarify the facts”—this time personally signed by Prince Andrew himself.
It read:
At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction. I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know. I have tremendous sympathy for all those affected by his actions and behaviour. This is a difficult time for everyone involved and I am at a loss to be able to understand or explain Mr. Epstein’s lifestyle. I deplore the exploitation of any human being and would not condone, participate in, or encourage any such behaviour.
For Epstein, it was becoming clear that his time rubbing shoulders with lawmakers and royals was over. Luckily, there was an entirely new class of movers and shakers for him to exploit: brilliant scientists and tech gurus who were building the future—and could make his wildest dreams of ultimate power come true.
Epstein had already shown an interest in cultivating such circles.
In 2006, he hosted a conference at the Ritz-Carlton on St. Thomas, which attracted the likes of Stephen Hawking. During one night of the conference, guests were shuttled over to Little St. James for a barbecue and submarine tour. According to reports, the sub was custom-fitted for Hawking’s wheelchair. A photo of the event shows him being personally attended to by a young blonde with her hair in a ponytail.
Unlike politicians, however, scientists seemed more willing to overlook his status as a heinous sex offend
er. Yet again, Ghislaine would pave the way.
In 2009, Epstein was still in prison when he began planning his grand return to the establishment. Ghislaine’s sister, Isabel, was in a relationship with leading visual theorist Al Seckel, and he worked with Epstein to plan a triumphant 2010 scientific conference on St. Thomas and Little St. James.
Just three months after Epstein’s prison release, Seckel granted him a long, discursive interview that was published on the front page of Epstein’s new—and bizarre—science blog, JeffreyEpsteinScience.org.
On the blog, Epstein clearly defined his new, post-prison identity, carefully leaving out the bad bits.
Jeffrey E. Epstein serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Trust Company. Mr. Epstein started his career at Bear Stearns with an educational background in physics. He has been a Trustee of the Institute Of International Education Inc. since October 2001.
He serves as a Director of Financial Trust Company. Previously, Mr. Epstein was a Member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations as well as the New York Academy of Science. He is also a former Rockefeller University Board Member. Currently, Mr. Epstein is actively involved in the Santa Fe Institute, the Theoretical Biology Initiative at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Quantum Gravity Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and also sits on the Mind, Brain & Behavior Advisory Committee at Harvard.
Jeffrey Epstein’s philanthropic affiliations include The COUQ Foundation. He is a member of the Edge Group, an internationally respected group of thinkers and achievers.
Of course, he forgot to mention the one qualification that would define his life: he was a registered sex offender.
Refreshed and reinvigorated, Epstein entered his new milieu with a splash.
On November 6, 2010, Epstein and Seckel announced the “Mindshift” conference, which would be hosted and funded by Epstein, on St. Thomas and Little St. James.