Witness alleges Jeffrey Epstein concealed and destroyed surveillance tapes that could have provided blackmail evidence in sex‑trafficking case

02:58:26 02:58:30 02:58:34 02:58:38 02:58:42 02:58:43 02:58:43 ON DOA & & NH 02:58:47 ozsesa 9 02:58:52 10 o2sess 11 02:58:55 412 02:58:57 13 02:58:58 414 o2so02 15 028002 16 orsooa 17 o2s907 18 02:59:14 19 o25013 20 ozsota 21 o2zsote 22 02:59:19 23 02:59:23 24 o2se.23 25 02:59:31 02:59:34 02:59:38 02:59:40 02:59:42 02:59:45 02:59:48 On Om akh WH = 02:59:51 orsos2 9 o2zsesa 10 ozsos7 11 os0001 12 030004 13 03:00:07 14 aso011 15 as:oo12 16 03:00:14 17 oxoaa 18 osoaa 19 03:04:20 20 0304-24 21 03:04:27 22 03:04:28 23 o30a2s 24 ox0a20 25 10/20/2015 01:08:15 PM Q. Okay. You felt that it furthered her legal interests to specify American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders; that was your -- you -- you believe that furthered her legal interest? A. Yes. Q. Did you also anticipate that that would titilate the Press, so to speak, that there would be a lot of speculation on who these people are? A. That wasn't the -- that wasn't the focus of the -~ those comments, no. Q. You said it wasn't the focus. Did you realize it would happen? A. Sure. I mean, this was a case that had been already ~~ this litigation had been going on at that point for seven years and lots of people were following it. This is -~ this case is one of the most egregious examples of a violation of Crime Victims' Rights in the history of this country. And so against that context, yes, there were going to be people interested in every word that was going into this pleading. Whether we had gone more broadly or more narrowly than what we did, people were going to be interested in this. Q. And as of December 30th of 2014, Miss Roberts ESQUIRE DEPOSITION SOLUTIONS (954) 331-4400 293 had the same ability to disclose who these individuals were publicly, as did Jeffrey Epstein, correct, because she had personal knowledge of who they were? A. She had the ability to speak the words, but, again, I think it's preposterous to say that a victim of sex trafficking has the same power as the sex trafficker to disclose information. For example, [REDACTED] could be attacked, and I think as we were talking about yesterday, we have seen evidence of the kind of attack that powerful people can mount against the victims of sex trafficking. So to say that the young women in sex trafficking schemes have the same power as their traffickers to do this ~~ I'm sorry. I'm going to have to take a break. THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We are going off the video record, 11:32 a.m. (Thereupon, a recess was taken.) THE VIDEOGRAPHER: We are back on the video record, 11:36 a.m. BY MR. SIMPSON: Had you finished your answer, Mr. Cassell? I think I had, Okay. Thank you. Thank you for letting me take a ESQUIRE DEPOSITION SOLUTIONS (954) 331-4400 POP DO 03:04:34 1 030432 2 03:04:32 3 03:0434 4 o3s0s37 | 5 03:04:37 6 a30s33 7 as0533 8 ososas Q 0305.34 10 03.0836 14 03.0533 12 03:05:39 413 030542 14 03.0504 15 a305a7 16 ososse 17 a30ss2 18 azosss 19 03:05:58 20 o30600 24 03.0602 22 030605 23 0306.05 24 o306-08 25 03:06:11 03:06:14 03:06:15 03:06:18 03:06:18 03:06:20 03:06:22 ON OD OA & G&G NH 03:06:27 030628 9 03.0630 10 030632 11 030635 12 03.0637 13 ox0eat 14 030644 15 asoe4s 16 o306s0 17 o30eso 18 03.0652 19 os0ess 20 o30701 24 o3o703 22 o307-06 23 0307.09 24 osori2 25 Page 292 to 295 of 335 break. I appreciate that. Q. Okay. MR. SCAROLA: Could you just read back the last question for me? I just want to orient myself as to where we are. Thank you. (Thereupon, a portion of the record was read by the reporter.) MR. SCAROLA: Yeah, I didn't I think the answer was -~ THE WITNESS: I guess | was mid-sentence, so think I will just stick with the same word, preposterous. And one -- one thing that occurred to me during the break, in the context of this case, is that there had been allegations that Epstein was part of the -- the sex trafficking organization, had video cameras mounted throughout many of his -- his mansions. And so, whereas a young woman could say, or a young girl could say, look, I was a victim of sex abuse, people would attack her; people wouldn't believe her, that unless she had, you know, corroborating evidence, people would say, well, look, it didn't happen. And so Epstein had managed to collect apparently a lot of videotapes and other kinds of ESQUIRE DEPOSITION SOLUTIONS (954) 331-4400 295 information that would have been -- given him the ability to make the blackmail kinds of charges that the girls that he was trafficking would -- would not have had the ability to do. BY MR. SIMPSON: Q. Mr. Cassell, didn't you testify yesterday that any videotapes from Mr. Epstein’s house had been destroyed? A. I-- when I used the word “destroyed,” I probably should have been more precise. They had been concealed from law enforcement, is what I meant. That when Palm Beach Police Department went up to the Epstein mansion, they found surveillance cameras and other cameras. I can't remember exactly where the cameras were, but they found surveillance cameras, and when they looked for the tapes associated with those cameras, I used the word "destroyed"; and as I say, I probably should have said they were missing. And so they were never able to locate those -~- those missing videotapes. Q. Soas of December 30th of 2014, to your knowledge, there were no videotapes available? A. There were no videotapes available to law enforcement or to Brad and his pro bono crime victim attorneys to help document our case. We were trying to get those and we are continuing to try to get those, ESQUIRE DEPOSITION SOLUTIONS (954) 331-4400 36 of 46 sheets HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_010876