Jeffrey Epstein gave several of his victims ‘backstage passes’ to magician David Copperfield’s shows as a treat for their services, prosecutors claimed in the newly released emails.
In bombshell messages seen by the Daily Mail, one unnamed prosecutor described the famous illusionist as Epstein’s ‘favorite cohort’ and said tickets to his performances were used as ‘birthday gifts’ for the girls the pedophile abused.
The explosive claims appear in emails dated October 2007, written shortly after the FBI raided a Las Vegas warehouse owned by Copperfield amid allegations he raped an adult woman – allegations the magician has always denied and for which no charges were filed.
The emails were included in the trove of documents released by the Department of Justice this week related to its investigation into Epstein.
Among the files were three photos showing Copperfield dressed in matching white bathrobes with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years in prison for trafficking minors to Epstein.
The two are pictured playfully hugging each other and fooling around with candy while Copperfield, 69, whose real name is David Kotkin, smiles.
But the newly released emails give fresh insight into the depth of the relationship between Epstein, who hanged himself in 2019, and Copperfield, who has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past but always denied it.
In the October 2007 email, the prosecutor – whose name is redacted – wrote: ‘FYI FBI Seattle and FBI Las Vegas executed a search today on a warehouse owned by Epstein’s favorite cohort, David Copperfield, in connection with allegations that Copperfield raped an adult female.
A trove of files released this week by the DoJ related to the Epstein investigation included photos of Copperfield and Ghislaine Maxwell wearing matching white bath robes together
The files also included emails from prosecutors describing Copperfield as Epstein’s ‘favorite cohort’ and claiming the pedophile often gave backstage passes to the magician’s shows to several of his victims as birthday gifts
‘Copperfield spoke with the girls at Epstein’s home on several occasions and tickets with ‘backstage passes’ were a favorite ‘birthday gift’ for Epstein to give the girls.
‘I asked (redacted) to contact the case agent to just stay in touch’.
The email appears to have been written by one of the prosecutors working on the investigation in Florida into Epstein, who infamously served just 15 months in a state prison after pleading guilty to child prostitution offenses in 2008.
According to a 2024 report in The Guardian, the investigation began based on claims by Lacey Carroll, who alleged that Copperfield raped her in Musha Cay, an island in the Bahamas he reportedly bought for $50 million in 2006.
But after two years the investigation was closed with no charges being brought.
At the time Copperfield’s lawyer David Chesnoff ‘categorically’ denied Caroll’s allegations.
Chesnoff told CNN: ‘Mr Copperfield’s reputation precedes him as an impeccable gentleman.
‘So we’re obviously disturbed that those kinds of allegations are being made, but we believe that that’s a common event now, unfortunately, for celebrated people to be falsely accused’.
The famous illusionist and magician is pictured in front of a ‘tornado of fire’ on stage in New York in 2001
The newly released, undated photos show Copperfield and Maxwell playfully hugging each other and fooling around
Copperfield’s name appears in another document that was released in the files: a front of house manager’s report for a show he did in 2005.
There is no explanation as to why the FBI would be interested in such a show but the email from 2007 indicates a possible reason.
The show at the Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was ‘very good’, according to the audience response recording in the form for one of the two shows on February 1.
The audience thought that the show was ‘great’ but some were ‘very, very disappointed’, according to the report from one of the two shows from the next night, February 2.
The documents include a weekly breakdown of earnings and expenses for the first week of the show and details how there were 580 complimentary tickets in total versus 7,395 sold, a statistic the FBI may have wanted for proof of Epstein’s victims getting free passes.
The files are far from the only time that Copperfield and Epstein have been mentioned in documents related to the case.
Copperfield left messages 16 times according to notes on pads that were found at the pedophile’s house in Palm Beach, Florida, including one which read: ‘Magic David called.’
Epstein victim Johanna Sjoberg claimed in a deposition that in 2004 when she was in her 20s, she went to a dinner at Epstein’s house where Copperfield did some tricks for her and another girl who looked very young.
The newly released emails give fresh insight into the depth of the relationship between Epstein and Copperfield, who has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past but always denied it
Copperfield is pictured in a Las Vegas court after testifying in an unrelated negligence lawsuit in 2018
A lawyer asked Sjoberg: ‘Did Copperfield ever discuss Jeffrey’s involvement with young girls with you?’
She replied: ‘He questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls’.
According to Sjoberg, she was invited backstage on one of his shows and he showed her his tour bus, but nothing untoward happened.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Copperfield’s agent for comment.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in 2012, he claimed to have been ‘exonerated’ by the FBI over its 2007 investigation.
His lawyers have previously said that the idea he was friends with Epstein ‘is totally false and a mischaracterization made by the media’.
