Epstein invoked 5th Amendment right to silence 600 times - court filings
NEW YORK,
(Reuters) - The late financier Jeffrey
Epstein invoked his constitutional right against incriminating himself about 600 times in testimony for a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual abuse.
Epstein's refusal to answer questions in
Giuffre's lawsuit against his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was disclosed in a filing on Friday in Manhattan federal court, as part of a trove of documents being unsealed this month from the civil defamation case, which settled in 2017.
The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives people the right not to incriminate themselves.
In the September 2016 filing, Giuffre's lawyers said Epstein routinely answered "Fifth" in a deposition that month to about 500 substantive questions they posed, and 100 substantive questions that Maxwell's lawyers posed.
Giuffre's lawyers said Epstein's refusal to answer extended to questions that posed no real risk of incriminating him, including whether he knew Maxwell, had in 2008 pleaded guilty in open court to a prostitution charge and was healthy enough to testify.
The questions also included at least three about Epstein's relationship with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Lawyers for Epstein said in a subsequent filing, also released on Friday, that their client would have invoked the Fifth Amendment if called upon to testify at trial.
They cited among other reasons the "burdens" he would face, and the expected "media circus generated by Mr. Epstein's personal appearance."
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 at age 66 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Several other people accused of aiding in his sexual abuses also invoked their rights against self-incrimination in various litigation related to him, Friday's unsealed filings show.
More than 180 documents including depositions, legal briefs and email chains from Giuffre's lawsuit have been released since Wednesday, under an order last month from U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan, who oversaw the case.
The documents name many of Epstein's victims, who were paid to give him and others massages in exchange for money.
Others named included people who worked with the financier, and a handful of celebrities and politicians linked to him.