This is an FBI investigation document from the Epstein Files collection (FBI VOL00009). Text has been machine-extracted from the original PDF file. Search more documents →
FBI VOL00009
EFTA00804571
125 pages
Page 41 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 So the public, the point of these exhibits in category two go right to this allegation and right to this Court's ruling on November 29th, that Mr. Edwards can get on the stand and talk about his three clients and why their cases for alleged sexual molestation were so strong. So that's category two. And, Your Honor, I know we only have until noon. I will be glad to go through every exhibit, or Your Honor can take the book and go through every exhibit. And you're right, I'm trying to get as much information before the Court as I can. The third, the third category of documents -- and, Your Honor, you'll see there are dozens, by the way, of the incident, police reports, going all the way back to when they were juveniles. The third category of documents relate to Mr. Edwards' claim for damages. Mr. Edwards has made a claim that as a result of his being named in the lawsuit, Epstein versus Rothstein, Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804611
Page 42 / 125
/12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 that he has suffered emotional distress, anxiety, every single day of his life since the day it happened. I took his deposition, he said every day, every day I have this incredible anxiety and stress and emotional distraught... THE COURT: Because Epstein brought -- MR. LINK: Because Epstein brought this claim in 2009. '8. '9. MS. ROCKENBACH: '9. MR. LINK: '9, thank you. 2009. So I took his deposition, as this Court allowed, at the end of 2017, eight years later. And he testified every single day since 2009 when he was named in the suit, he has been suffering this traumatic anxiety, emotional distress, et cetera. So, we have exhibits in here that show how successful Mr. Edwards has been as a result of the Epstein cases. His jury verdicts, he admitted that he made substantially more in income after being sued by Epstein than before. He publicizes, teaches, holds seminars based on the Epstein case. THE COURT: Are any of these yellowed in Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804612
Page 43 / 125
43 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 your list? MR. LINK: Yes, sir, they are. THE COURT: Tell me what pages you're speaking about? MR. LINK: Yes, sir. They are at the beginning, and they are the page one second; 367 and 368, it's on page 22. THE COURT: Okay. MR. SCAROLA: May I raise a procedural question, Your Honor? THE COURT: Sure. MR. SCAROLA: I understand that we have until noon today, is that correct? THE COURT: Right. MR. SCAROLA: And we started at approximately 10:15. Mr. Link has been going for an hour, that would mean I have 45 minutes. THE COURT: All right. I'll give you an hour, whatever time he takes. I can adjust my lunch hour. MR. SCAROLA: Thank you, sir. I just thought it would be helpful to set some parameters. THE COURT: There's never been a time, that I am aware, that I have ever given less Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804613
Page 44 / 125
44 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 time to one side than I did the other. MR. SCAROLA: I certainly understand, and that's in conformity with my recollection. Thank you. MR. LINK: Thank you, Your Honor. THE COURT: 367 and 368. I did -- and those are just identified as Edwards -- MR. LINK: These are from -- they're from their website, you know, where lawyers are touting their success and what they do. THE COURT: Right. Edwards Pottinger website printout Brad Edwards, Edwards Pottinger website printout reaching jury verdict. MR. LINK: Yes, sir. So, when you look at Binger, I've explained the relevance to the case. When you look at Binger, it's hard to imagine there could be a prejudice using material that they published on their website. So it's the last group that I would like to point out to the Court, and then I will wrap it up. THE COURT: What we haven't covered is 332 to 337, 315, 292 and 293. 282, 275, 254, 230 and 231. 205, 210, 211. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804614
Page 45 / 125
4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. LINK: Right. THE COURT: 177 and 178. 129 and 132. 103, and several others before that. MR. LINK: Yes, sir. If you look, Your Honor, at page 18 -- THE COURT: I am there. MR. LINK: -- 332 through 337, these are exhibits. If you turn, for example, to 335 in the big book, these are exhibits of security guards that Mr. Epstein hired during the pendency of the litigation because of a concern he had that he was being followed or watched. And as it turns out, you'll see at 335, that the Rothstein firm -- I'm sorry, this is in March of 2010, that the Farmer, Jaffe, Edwards firm hired investigators to go to his house and they were able to identify Richard Fandrey and Michael Fisten. Michael Fisten was an investigator at the Rothstein firm that went with Mr. Edwards to the Farmer Jaffe firm. It says Mr. Fandrey's related to the Gambino family, former bodyguard of Scott Rothstein. There are multiple incident reports and complaints to the Palm Beach police about the Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804615
Page 46 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 investigative tactics that were going on. And one of, obviously, the issues in the case is going to be about how Mr. Edwards was prosecuting the case and what he was doing. Again, this isn't going to be anything that could be prejudicial to Mr. Edwards because they're the ones who used their investigators to do the work. In summary, Your Honor, and I know I haven't covered every exhibit, because it would take too long. And I don't want to use the entire time. But I do want to share this with the Court, so that you're aware as you consider this issue. Beginning in February, in February of 2018, as we were discovering this information and these documents, we began a rolling production. We did not wait. So one of the things in Binger that's important is gamesmanship. There was no gamesmanship. We weren't gathering documents and waiting until the week before trial to say, Here are the exhibits, and holding them back. You will see that we made a rolling production on February 2nd. February 2nd we Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804616
Page 47 / 125
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 produced 360 items with the production. February 16th, Your Honor, we made a second rolling production, and we produced ten items with that production. On March 2nd, we made another rolling production. So we were producing information and documents to Mr. Edwards' lawyers during the process and during the time that we were finding them. We did not sit on them, we did not hold them back, we did not engage in gamesmanship. We did not take exhibits and documents we intended to use and had it in our files, sit back and wait. This Court knows that's not the way Ms. Rockenbach and I practice, it's not the way we did it here. And we made sure that we produced, on a rolling basis, the documents, so as not to have them hit their desk two days before trial. I believe, Your Honor, that we are in compliance with the Court's order pursuant to the pretrial stipulation that allowed both counsel, and both counsel took advantage of it, to amend their exhibit list. Mr. Scarola did Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804617
Page 48 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 it twice, we did it, as well. Secondly, if the -- this Court finds that we were not in compliance with the July 2017 order, then all of these exhibits should be permitted to be added to the exhibit list because there can be no Binger prejudice. And if there's any Binger prejudice and they need additional time, there's -- they've had these exhibits and this motion since May of 2018 and we believe Your Honor should let the exhibits in. Thank you. THE COURT: Thank you. Ms. Court Reporter, do you have the time we started the hearing? THE COURT REPORTER: Yes, Judge. 10:25. THE COURT: Thank you. So that's right about at an hour when we started the hearing. I had some introductory comments that I made, so you can go ahead and proceed, Mr. Scarola, and let's see how we do. MR. SCAROLA: Thank you very much, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right. And, again, just so that the record's clear, today we're only Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804618
Page 49 / 125
49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 dealing with the issue vel non of the late introduction of the exhibits as alleged by Edwards' counsel. We're not dealing with anything having to do with the admissibility whatsoever. I want to make that clear today. Mr. Scarola? MR. SCAROLA: Thank you very much, Your Honor. Your Honor, the first argument made by opposing counsel was that we have somehow stipulated to an unlimited, unrestrained amendment to exhibit lists as a consequence of the pretrial stipulation that was ordered in this case. That pretrial stipulation says that the parties reserve their right to amend. The only right to amend is the right that is defined by Your Honor's pretrial order. And that right is that a party desiring to use an exhibit or a witness discovered after counsel have conferred pursuant to paragraph D shall immediately furnish the Court and other counsel with a description of the exhibit or the witness's name and address, and the expected subject matter of the witness's testimony together with the reason for the late discovery Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804619
Page 50 / 125
50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of the exhibit or witness list. Use of the exhibit or witness may be allowed by the Court for good cause shown or to prevent manifest injustice. We did not hear one word about when these exhibits were discovered, when they were discoverable, or why they were not listed sooner. And while opposing counsel repeatedly refers to what he and his law firm did, he has, in this hearing, as in other hearings, attempted to separate himself out from the conduct of prior counsel in this litigation, which has gone on now for close to a decade. While Mr. Link says "we" started looking at the background with respect to Mr. Edwards' clients after the Court made a specific ruling that Brad Edwards was going to be allowed to talk about these clients, and I have two things to say about this, the documents that Mr. Link is attempting to add are documents that were developed in the course of the discovery by Mr. Epstein while those individuals' claims were pending against Mr. Epstein. Before the malicious prosecution case was Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804620
Page 51 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ever filed, this billionaire conducted an extraordinary investigation into the backgrounds of these young women/children to try to uncover any and every dirt that he possibly could in order to attack their credibility, in order to attack the damages that they alleged -- they were alleged to have sustained, and in order to attack the claims that were being made against him in any way possible. THE COURT: Well, let me tell you what my concern is, and I'll let Mr. Link speak to this later as one of the issues that has apparently come up with this. Is while relevance obviously is something to deal with when the exhibit is being proffered in or outside the presence of the jury, when it comes to these or some of these exhibits, especially as they deal with these young women, and when I use that term, it's not to be confused with their age, it's only as a matter of trying to put a label on them now. And so for that reason, it's more of a convenience issue than it is a description. But, when we're talking about things that Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804621
Page 52 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 transpired years later, and what I mean by that is Mr. Rothstein -- strike that. Mr. Epstein's claim is brought in 2009, and the, there are arrests, whatever there may have been, photographs that were taken years after that. My initial concern is what does this have to do with Mr. Epstein's bringing of the case in 2009? And what does that have to do with then his voluntary dismissal of his claim shortly thereafter, and Mr. Edwards' claim that we're trying here pertaining to malicious prosecution. That's where I'm a bit confused. MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, there are -- there are a lot of arguments that can be made about the relevance and materiality of a lot of these documents. But as Your Honor indicated at the beginning of this hearing, we're not there yet. We're not talking about whether they are relevant and material, whether they are hearsay, whether they're secondhand knowledge, whether you can attempt to impeach a witness with anything other than the questions, have you ever been convicted of a crime? If so, how many times? There are a lot of Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804622
Page 53 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 these -- THE COURT: A felony or a crime. MR. SCAROLA: Involving moral turpitude. THE COURT: Right. That involves moral turpitude. MR. SCAROLA: Yes, sir. So there are a lot of substantive objections that we would have to a great deal of this material if it were properly listed and could even be considered as a potential exhibit. But right now we're talking about whether we even get into those things. And, one of the reasons why these exhibits should not be considered is because getting into those things alone with regard to the volume of exhibits that are attempted to be listed will inevitably preclude us from going to trial on December 4, no doubt about that at all. There are motions in limine that would need to be filed, there are witnesses that would need to be deposed, there are all sorts of objections that are substantive that would need to be dealt with in advance of trial. There are authenticity questions. There are a Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804623
Page 54 / 125
54 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 lot of issues. But right now I'm attempting to do what I think the Court has asked us to do, and that is to focus on whether we ever reach those issues. So, that's why I deal first with the argument that we've stipulated that all of these are properly listed. That's absolutely not correct. And the second argument that is made is that if there was any compliance with the Court's order, then under Binger you must admit these documents because there is no prejudice. I handed Your Honor an analysis of Binger, and it is a case which I know Your Honor is very familiar with, you have commented on it not only in this case, but in others on many occasions. And while Binger is attempted to be categorized as a case that held that in the absence of prejudice, late-disclosed witnesses and exhibits must be admitted, that is not the holding in Binger. That is absolutely not what Binger teaches. Binger teaches that prejudice is one of multiple considerations. And I'll get back to talking about that. But before I do, I want to Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804624
Page 55 / 125
5 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 talk briefly about the three categories of documents which, as acknowledged by Mr. Link, have already been, in earlier rulings, excluded by Your Honor. The first of those categories is a vast number of emails that were culled from production that consisted of 27,500 and -- THE COURT: 42. MR. VITALE: 42. MR. SCAROLA: Thank you both. --27,542 documents. Now, those documents, to the extent that they were discoverable, and it has been represented that these are all discoverable documents out of those 27,000-plus documents. To the extent they were discoverable, those documents were turned over in late 2010 or early 2011. The defense, not Mr. Link, but Mr. Epstein's privately retained counsel, all of them, and there have been many, they have had access to those documents, they've been in their possession for seven years. There is no way that they can satisfy that portion of the Court's order that talks about a party desiring to use an exhibit or witness discovered after Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804625
Page 56 / 125
76 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 counsel have conferred pursuant to paragraph D, which requires the preparation of exhibit lists. These aren't documents that were discovered after the exhibit lists were prepared. These are documents that the defense has had for seven years. Now, what they have done is out of those 27,000 documents, they've cherry-picked whatever number it is that are included here. And what that means -- MR. LINK: Your Honor, I'm sorry for interrupting. I just want the record to be clear. Those emails did not come from that disk. Those are not emails, Mr. Scarola, from the -- you keep saying the 27,500. Those were not from that disk, Your Honor. MR. SCAROLA: I'm not saying MR. LINK: Just so the Court is clear. MR. SCAROLA: I'm not saying they were from the disk. These are documents that were produced that originated on the disk. The only way these emails -- the only way these emails are discovered is because a subpoena is issued to the bankruptcy trustee, who was the Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804626
Page 57 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 custodian of RRA's email servers. THE COURT: By the way, where are these 47 emails listed in your exhibit list? MR. LINK: Your Honor, because you sealed them, we did not want to reference them in the exhibit list. We did a notation that we would add those once Your Honor did what you said you were going to do, which was the in camera inspection. Because you sealed them and haven't ruled whether they're privileged or not, we did not want to list them. THE COURT: I don't remember agreeing to an in camera inspection at this point. MR. LINK: No, I apologize. We've asked for one, the Court hasn't conducted one. But you had us seal those exhibits, so I didn't want, since you ordered us to seal them, to then list them. THE COURT: Okay. Well, it's really important to be careful with your speech, because, again, and I don't mean to continue to rehash this, but it's important that at each stage of the proceeding anyone who reviews this record understands that we're working with somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,600 files Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804627
Page 58 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 per division, and it's very, very difficult for me, where I'm dealing with many, many complex cases, including this one, from the standpoint of complexity, more so due to age and length and number of exhibits and number of issues that have had to be addressed, that I can't remember everything. And I don't think it would be fair for anybody to think that anyone could remember anything under these circumstances, where I'm working alone. So, and when I say "alone," I don't have, as I've mentioned many times, nor do any of us in this division have a dedicated law clerk or staff attorney. We have a pool who work very hard, but it is insufficient to accomplish what we need to do on a daily basis. But irrespective of that, I'm here wading through literally thousands of pieces of paper on my desk, at the bench at the current time, and trying to look through these. So, again, I just would remind both sides to always be very, very circumspect when making representations, because it makes me then have to refocus my attention on something that takes me off of what I've been thinking about; i.e., Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804628
Page 59 / 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 did I or did I not agree to do an in camera inspection of emails that I have no recollection of agreeing to. But, again, I'm not being critical in any disrespectful way, so just to remind you of the burden on this Court, as well as the others here in the 15th Judicial Circuit Civil division. And, again, there's nothing we can do about it, we just have to plow through it and do the best we can. So, if 47 exhibits aren't listed here, I don't think really we should focus on those today. I'll be more than happy to do it at another time. MR. SCAROLA: I wasn't intending to focus on those, Your Honor, and I'm sorry if my language is imprecise, but what I am trying to point out is that these emails are part of the emails that originated on the Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler servers. They were, that electronic data, was transferred to compact disks. The compact disks were used to print out emails, including those that Mr. Link is now listing and attempting to use. When those emails were printed out in hard Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804629
Page 60 / 125
60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 copy, they were delivered to -- they were delivered to Brad Edwards to prepare a privilege log. Some of the documents were handed over at that point. They were divided into three categories, actually: Irrelevant documents, documents produced for attorneys' eyes only, and then privileged documents that were not produced. But documents were delivered to Mr. Epstein's counsel, Fowler White, during that period of time. And -- THE COURT: You're talking about irrespective of what was on the disk? MR. SCAROLA: Well, when you say "irrespective"... THE COURT: Irrespective, meaning they were separately sent without consideration of what may or may not have been on that particular disk. MR. SCAROLA: Well, they originated on the disk. That's where all the emails were. THE COURT: I understand what you're saying. But what I think I -- what I think I'm trying to say is that the production by Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00804630