{"id":454553,"date":"2026-02-02T23:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454553\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T23:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:39:08","slug":"epstein-and-magician-david-copperfield-appeared-to-have-very-close-relationship-newly-released-files-say-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454553\/","title":{"rendered":"Epstein and magician David Copperfield appeared to have \u2018very close relationship\u2019, newly released files say | Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

FBI<\/a> agents investigating David Copperfield in 2007 said that \u201ca clear connection\u201d existed between the famous illusionist and Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, according to documents released by the Department of Justice last week in the latest tranche of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

A 2007 FBI<\/a> memo by agents in Seattle said further investigation of this \u201cconnection\u201d was needed to \u201cto determine if they [Copperfield and Epstein] both shared a predilection for minors\u201d and \u201cif they engaged in referring possible victims to each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s two-year investigation into Copperfield started in 2007 after a Seattle woman named Lacey Carroll, who had met Copperfield after attending one of his shows, alleged he had raped and sexually assaulted her on his private Bahamian island, called Musha Cay, after luring her there on the promise of modeling and promotional work. The investigation was dropped around January 2010 and Copperfield was never charged in relation to Carroll\u2019s rape allegation or any other sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Oprah filmed on Musha Cay in 2012, Copperfield claimed he had not only been exonerated but was a victim in the case.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawyers for Copperfield did not reply to questions about the newly released files. In 2024, Copperfield\u2019s lawyers told the Guardian that he \u201cwas not a friend of Jeffrey Epstein\u201d. They said any suggestion Copperfield was friends with Epstein \u201cis totally false and a mischaracterization made by the media\u201d and that he and Epstein were \u201cat most, acquaintances\u201d who only met on a \u201chandful\u201d of occasions.<\/p>\n

Copperfield has repeatedly denied ever engaging in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.<\/p>\n

The new tranche of documents released last week reveal new details about the FBI\u2019s investigation of Copperfield, and discussions that were held between law enforcement officials who were investigating Copperfield and officials investigating Epstein.<\/p>\n

In the FBI\u2019s 12 December 2007 memo, Seattle agents expressed concerns to counterparts in Miami about Epstein-related evidence that could be relevant to their investigation of Copperfield. The investigation, the agents said, had identified \u201ca number of potential witnesses\u201d who they believed lived in Miami and may have had a relationship with or worked for Copperfield. Two of these potential witnesses, they noted, were women who \u201care or may be witnesses\u201d in the Epstein investigation in Miami, including one who had said Epstein \u201cgroomed\u201d her.<\/p>\n

The FBI was interested in interviewing the two women because both were named in Copperfield\u2019s \u201cbusiness list\u201d, which the agents said \u201cappears to be a compilation of females that he targeted for sexual conquest\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agents said that the entries in Copperfield\u2019s business list noted that the two women were \u201cJeff Epstein guestf[sic]\u201d and that \u201che\u201d \u2013 a likely reference to Epstein \u2013 said that one of the women was \u201cnot loyal, doesn\u2019t play the game\u201d. The memo said evidence seized from Copperfield\u2019s residence and warehouse and at the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater, where he performs, also showed a \u201cnumber of occasions\u201d when Copperfield provided complimentary tickets to Epstein and his guests.<\/p>\n

The memo said that, following raids on Copperfield\u2019s properties, there appeared to be a \u201c13-year gap\u201d in Copperfield\u2019s records, which were seized by federal agents. The memo said investigators had not located \u201chard copy files\u201d for the period from 1993 to 2005, which, agents noted, was the timespan when Epstein would have \u201clikely become aware of the investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

The FBI wanted to conduct the interviews in Miami, agents said, to glean more about whether the relationship between Epstein and Copperfield \u201cincluded illegal activities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf such a relationship existed there is a significant and legitimate concern regarding the preservation of evidence currently being held by the Miami division and Epstein\u2019s defense counsel in regards to the investigation of Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate 5 September 2008 email, the then assistant US attorney in Seattle, Susan \u201cSusie\u201d Roe \u2013 the most senior prosecutor on the Copperfield investigation \u2013 asked Ann Marie Villafa\u00f1a, the assistant US attorney in Florida who worked on the Epstein case, for a copy of Epstein\u2019s controversial plea deal, in which he pled guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor. He served 13 months out of an 18 month sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think he would ever talk about Copperfield?\u201d Roe asked. She also wanted to know if Villafa\u00f1a knew the name of anyone in the Department of Justice \u201cwho really knows the sexual and\/or violent crimes stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

She ended the email by saying: \u201cWe\u2019re still working on Copperfield \u2013 lots of acts but concerns about applicable law!\u201d Earlier reporting by the Guardian revealed<\/a> that prosecutors were challenged by the fact that the alleged rape had taken place in the Bahamas, not on US soil, and that the US attorney\u2019s office believed it might lack jurisdiction to charge Copperfield.<\/p>\n

Villafa\u00f1a responded to the email, the records show, saying: \u201cI can definitely say that Epstein will not talk to anyone \u2026 he would just never turn in one of his friends unless it meant a big benefit for him.\u201d She also queried whether Carroll, Copperfield\u2019s alleged victim, had flown to the magician\u2019s Bahamian island via South Florida, because if so, she could \u201cpitch in\u201d and \u201cthink creatively about charging decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Close relationship\u2019<\/p>\n

A separate partially redacted memo, which appears to have been written by an FBI agent and is dated 26 November 2019 \u2013 months after Epstein\u2019s suicide \u2013 included additional details and claims about the criminal investigation into Copperfield and investigators\u2019 findings.<\/p>\n

The name of the sender is redacted, but the person said the FBI investigation into Copperfield \u201cshowed that Copperfield trained his employees to identify young females (teens to early twenties) in the audience of his shows\u201d. The females, the person said, were \u201cseparated from their boyfriends, families and husbands and brought backstage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCopperfield\u2019s employees were given access to a notebook that instructed them how to provide Copperfield with females. He kept a notebook with the females he was with\u201d that included \u201ccontact information, whether he had sex with them, and a photograph,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n

The person added: \u201cI don\u2019t know if any of his victims were underage. There were allegations that he drugged some of the females. I recall Epstein\u2019s name coming up in our investigation a number of times and Copperfield appeared to have a very close relationship with Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copperfield\u2019s name was on a \u201clist\u201d investigators found that included other men, the person said, adding, \u201csome of which had reputations like Copperfield and Epstein\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur case was eventually closed because our USAO [US attorney\u2019s office] was weak and intimidated by the financial resources of Copperfield,\u201d the person said, while adding there had been other challenging issues involving the victim and jurisdiction. The person said they tried to get copies of as much as they could before the original evidence was returned and appeared to offer it to another FBI official who was working on a separate investigation.The timing suggests the person could have been offering help in connection to the justice department\u2019s case against Epstein\u2019s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Becky Roe, a lawyer for Carroll, who is not related to prosecutor Susan Roe, said in an email to the Guardian that she recalled the FBI \u201cwanted the DoJ to charge\u201d Copperfield, and were \u201clikely upset\u201d when they decided not to, something she said was not unusual in her experience. She said the FBI had \u201cdone an excellent investigation\u201d but disagreed with the assessment in the 26 November 2019 memo that prosecutors were fearful of taking on Copperfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not share the opinion [that] the US attorney\u2019s office was weak. I [previously] worked with Susie Roe \u2026 and she was definitely NOT weak,\u201d Becky Roe said, adding that she was not well informed about the jurisdictional issue that she believed was the decisive factor in not charging Copperfield.<\/p>\n

The Guardian tried to reach Susan Roe for a comment but she has retired from public office.<\/p>\n

Behind the magic<\/p>\n

The Guardian published an investigation<\/a> into allegations involving Copperfield in May 2024, reporting that Copperfield had been accused by 16 women of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, including claims that he drugged three women before he had sexual relations with them.<\/p>\n

Copperfield denied the allegations of wrongdoing. His lawyers told the Guardian at the time that he had \u201cnever acted inappropriately with anyone\u201d and said a \u201ctruthful\u201d depiction of Copperfield would describe his \u201ckindness, shyness and treatment of men and women with respect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Guardian\u2019s investigation included an examination of records<\/a> that were available at the time about Copperfield\u2019s dealings with Epstein, including message pads that had been confiscated from Epstein\u2019s residence and appeared to show Copperfield leaving messages for Epstein 16 times over several months between 2004 and 2005.<\/p>\n

Lawyers in London who represented Copperfield at that time \u2013 at Harbottle & Lewis and Carter Ruck \u2013 were asked questions about Epstein and Copperfield\u2019s dealings by the Guardian in 2024. The lawyers repeatedly denied that the pair were close.<\/p>\n

They also denied that Copperfield had left \u201cmultiple messages\u201d for Epstein. \u201cAny messages that were left would have been left by our client\u2019s office in response to a request by Epstein for tickets to a show,\u201d the lawyers told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, in a release of another tranche of Epstein files, the Department of Justice released photographs which showed Copperfield and Maxwell wearing white robes and hugging each other at a location that appears \u2013 based on the Guardian\u2019s comparative analysis of other photographs \u2013 to have been taken on Epstein\u2019s private island. The photographs were not dated.<\/p>\n

Copperfield\u2019s lawyers did not respond to questions about the photographs or Copperfield\u2019s apparent stay on Epstein\u2019s island, or how often he may have frequented it.<\/p>\n

The latest batch of Epstein file documents includes a 2015 email between Epstein and a woman named Nadia, who sent a link for Musha Cay \u2013 Copperfield\u2019s own island, where Carroll alleges he raped her \u2013 to Epstein. She asked \u201cwhen did he get this?\u201d. Epstein answered \u201cafter I told him about it\u201d. Copperfield has denied Carroll\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FBI agents investigating David Copperfield in 2007 said that \u201ca clear connection\u201d existed between the famous illusionist and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-454553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}