Magician David Copperfield on Epstein’s List, ‘Did Magic Tricks’

Posted on: January 4, 2024, 12:37h. 

Last updated on: January 4, 2024, 11:16h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

Not even David Copperfield can make this vanish. When highly anticipated court files were unsealed on Wednesday evening, they revealed the Las Vegas magician on a list of names connected to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

David Copperfield
News of Copperfield’s appearance on a list of names associated with Jeffrey Epstein hit the internet just as the illusionist hit the stage for his 7 p.m. Wednesday show at the MGM Grand. (Image: MGM Resorts)

In a May 2016 deposition, according to the new documents, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said she met Copperfield at the sex trafficker’s Palm Beach, Fla. mansion. One of his employees had called and asked if she wanted to join Copperfield for dinner, according to her testimony.

And what happened at that dinner, if anything?” Guiffre’s attorney, Sigrid McCawley, asked Sjoberg, who answered: “He did some magic tricks.”

Sjoberg also said that Copperfield asked if she was aware that “girls were getting paid to find other girls,” but that the magician never specified whether the girls in question were underage.

It’s No Illusion

The new documents, which also revealed the names of former president Bill Clinton and late singer Michael Jackson, were part of a lawsuit that Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre brought against his former lover and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison after being convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.

The late billionaire financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein appears in a 2017 photo taken by the New York state sex offender registry. (Image: Associated Press)

Giuffre’s lawsuit was settled in 2017. However, the court either sealed or blacked out certain documents because of concerns about the privacy rights of Epstein’s victims and others who may have innocently interacted with him.

In 2019, the Miami Herald successfully sued to make all the documents public. Since then, they have been released on a rolling basis, with more expected to follow on Thursday. Prior record dumps have mentioned Britain’s Prince Andrew, the late former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and the late model scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

All of the people who were still alive when named have denied any knowledge of Epstein’s illegal activities at the time. And not every person named in the documents is accused of wrongdoing. The list also included the names of sex abuse victims, Epstein’s employees, and people with only a passing connection to the scandal.

According to prosecutors, Epstein assaulted multiple girls as young as 14 years old. On Aug. 10, 2019, he was found dead at age 66 in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, though skeptics are easily found.

David Copperfield is shown in 2018. (Image: CBS News)

Copperfield Previously Linked

Copperfield, born David Seth Kotkin, had already been named as a regular visitor to Epstein’s Florida mansion in Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein, a 2020 book written by attorney Bradley J. Edwards, who represented multiple Epstein victims. Edwards’ book also claimed that Copperfield and Epstein visited each other on their respective private Caribbean islands.

In 2009, Copperfield was subpoenaed by Edwards in connection with Epstein’s crimes, but was never deposed.

In 2018, Copperfield was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old model named Brittney Lewis in 1988. Copperfield denied the allegations and no charges were ever brought.

In 2007, Copperfield was accused of rape by another woman, Lacey Carroll. But a federal jury in Seattle closed the investigation in January 2010, also without any charges being brought. Carroll was later charged in Washington state with prostitution and falsely claiming to have been sexually assaulted in another case.

Jeffrey Epstein with Donald Trump
Jeffrey Epstein poses with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1997. (Image: Getty)

Trump Casino Visit Detailed

The new documents also include a description of a visit to an Atlantic City casino owned by former president Donald Trump, though those details are even fuzzier and less incriminating than the Copperfield details.

In the same 2016 deposition mentioned earlier, Sjoberg recalled flying on Epstein’s private jet from Palm Beach to Atlantic City. During a stop there to wait out bad weather, Sjoberg said that Epstein suggested they visit one of Trump’s casinos. She couldn’t recall whether it was Trump Taj Mahal, Harrah’s at Trump Plaza, Trump World’s Fair, or Trump Castle.

“Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go,” she recalled Epstein telling her.

Giuffre, who was flying with them, was too young to get in “because of an ID issue,” Sjoberg testified. “So she and I did not gamble.”