Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Leon Black’s Team Quietly Pressured Federal Judge in Epstein Survivor Case (Part 2) (5/8/26)

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Leon Black’s Team Quietly Pressured Federal Judge in Epstein Survivor Case (Part 2) (5/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up
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where he left off with the article from The Guardian
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that was authored by Johanna Berkman about Leon Black and
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the accusations made against him. Judge Raykoff approved the claims
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administrators proposed allocations on January fifth, twenty twenty four, including
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the allocation for Dough, but he said he intended to
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exercise an oversight role to ensure the allocation of class
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funds was fair and reasonable. The oversight role would be
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ex partey, he said, meaning that each side of any
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conflict could make their case to the judge without the
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other side being aware of it. It was an unusual
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move for Raykoff. The judge, who had been called a
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true judicial Maverick, has spoken publicly about the importance of
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transparency in the justice system. Everything needs to be public,
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the judge told The New York Times in two thousand
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and nine. The legitimacy of our court comes from the
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fact that they reason openly on the record based on
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the facts, unless, of course, that includes Jeffrey Epstein right
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or his friends, then it has to be done behind
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closed Doors right Judge Rakoff. In January twenty twenty four,
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Within days of Dough finding out about the two and
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a half million dollar allocation, her Wigdoor lawyer, who was
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participating in a mediation with Black's council involving another client's case,
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disclosed that Doe had been allocated a major award in
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the JP Morgan settlement. According to a chronology of events
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described in a twenty twenty six court order, what happened
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next would be later characterized by Doe's then lawyer as
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a violation of confidentiality. Black's counsel, Susan Estrich, contacted Judge
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Raykoff on Black's behalf. Must be nice to have those
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kind of lawyers, huh, that can reach out from behind
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the scenes and talk to a judge when he's not
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on the bench. That is so unacceptable to me that
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I don't even know how to describe it. The judge
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needs to be impartial, and there most certainly shouldn't be
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any behind the scenes negotiating or deal making. But unfortunately
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Judge Raykoff, like the rest of them, they say one
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thing and they do another. On February twenty first, twenty
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twenty four, Private and undocketed letter to Raykoff, Estrich claimed
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that Doe was perpetrating serious fraud on the court and
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was not a real Epstein victim, according to a court
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order that subsequently described a Strich letter. According to someone
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familiar with the matter, Estrich, who was not representing a
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party in the JP. Morgan case, acknowledged in the letter
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that reaching out to Judge Raykoff was unorthodox. Yeah, no, shit,
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not something that happens ever, But here we are. When
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it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and his buddies, all the
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rules go out the window. Estrich declined to comment on
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questions by The Guardian about the exchange. In the letter,
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Estrich asked Raykoff to open an inquiry into Doe and
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the allocation, according to a person familiar with the matter,
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and said she had reason to believe that the court
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appointed class Council, Brad Edwards and other lawyers would have
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directly relevant information to bear on the issues. So it
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looks like all these lawyers got together conspired to make
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sure that Jane Doe didn't get any money, and the
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fact that the judge was playing ball with this is
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crazy and it does make me wonder what kind of evidence,
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if any, they had to back that claim up. Estrich
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Letters succeeded, Raycoff and Edwards, representing Class Council, agreed to
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take a closer look at those claims, court record show.
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Legal experts consulted by The Guardian said an intervention such
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as the one made by Estrich on Black's behalf raised
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questions because such outside legal interventions in a proceeding are
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quite limited. She has no interest to be involved in that,
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and the fact that ray Coff let it occur is unacceptable.
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And I think that Ray cool Off should have nothing
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to do with anything that has to do with Epstein
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moving forward. He can't be trusted. Somebody who has an
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interest in a piece of litigation may not intervene in
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some other disputable party against whom he is opposed just
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because he would like to do them damage. In that case,
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That's not how the system works. You litigate your own cases,
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said Sam is a car Off, a professor of constitutional
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law at New York University who's a leading scholar on
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class action lawsuits. Yeah, nothing about that seems right to me,
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and I'm certainly not some leading scholar. But all the
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backroom deal making, all the shenanigans that we've seen time
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and time again when it comes to Epstein and his friends.
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I'm done with it. Everything needs to be fully transparent,
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everything in deary. If a lawyer for a defendant who's
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accused of rape writes to a judge and a class
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action in which that alleged victim has been given a claim,
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it could even be seen as a way of harassing
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them and calling their testimony into disrepute. He added, It's
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not allowed if it's malintentioned, and the line between what's
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allowed and what's malintentioned is a very difficult one. I
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put the blame on Judge Rakoff. He could have stopped it,
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he didn't. I wonder why, what did he have to gain?
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What kind of relationship does he have with Leon Black.
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The Guardian reached out to Judge Rakoff for comment. His
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law clerk said in an emailed statement, it's a matter
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of record that the great majority of Epstein related proceedings
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before Judge Rakoff have been sealed at the express request
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of the various council for Epstein's victims in order to
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protect the victim's identifying information, and that all parties have
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at all times consented to this ceiling. Beyond this, Judge
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Rakoff is prohibited by law from responding to your questions
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as they relayed directly or indirectly to an ongoing proceeding
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before Judge Clark. So he can't respond, but he can
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get involved. His case can be moved by what happened
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in the other case. Sorry, I don't like that, and
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I don't care if that's how the system set up,
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it's wrong and it shouldn't be the case. On August second,
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twenty twenty three, this reporter, preparing to publish an article
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in another publication, reached out to Leon Black, spokesperson with Clay,
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with a list of questions about financial and sexual allegations
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related to Black's ties to Epstein. The email included one
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question about the lawsuit that Dough had filed against Black
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a week earlier. Two days later, Black's team emailed a response,
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including a statement from Mester Rich, Black's lawyer about those case,
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predicting it would be promptly dismissed. Yeah, Well, it's easy
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to be confident if you know the judge is going
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to play ball, right, makes it a lot easier to
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be confident. Later that same morning, this reporter got an
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unexpected call on her mobile phone from a number she
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did not recognize. The caller introduced himself as Brad Edwards,
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class counsel in the Epstein victims lawsuit against JP Morgan,
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which had settled for two hundred and ninety million earlier.
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As class counsel, Edwards said he had been in touch
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with the entire class of victims and had access to
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hundreds of thousands of documents. When a particular case gets
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too much attention, he said, according to a contemporaneous record
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of the call, people would call up with stories about
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being victims of Epstein, and he would have to sift
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through and figure out if they were true. Not one
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piece of Doe's story could ever be corroborated, and a
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lot of what she says just definitely could not have
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ever happened, Edward said. He said he knew Dough was
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alleging she had met Black through Epstein, so in order
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for the Leon part to be true, the trafficking to
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Jeffrey Epstein would have to be true, Edward said. He
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said the timeline of Doe's claims can't make sense for
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many reasons, but when pressed for details, he said he
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could not say any more because it would expose other clients.
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After making these comments, Edwards said he wanted his remarks
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to be off the record, meaning they should not be published. Well,
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that's not very good, is it again? Transparency' Brad, for
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you too. That goes for everybody. If we're going to
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get to the bottom of this, we need honest players
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on both sides. And unfortunately, this case is littered with
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a bunch of people who are not honest, a bunch
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of people that are just trying to benefit and it
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all comes at the expense of the people who were abused.
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But according to principles widely followed by journalists or reporter,
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and the source must agree information is off the record
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before the information is shared, not after. This reporter had
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not agreed that comments Edwards made about Dough were off
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the record and they shouldn't be put your name behind shit,
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Brad Edwards, it would later emerge, appear to have other
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dealings with Black's lawyers months before that phone call. The
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New York Times reported in twenty twenty three that Edwards,
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in his capacity as an attorney for Epstein victims, attended
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a multi day mediation between Black's Council and lawyers representing
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the US Virgin Islands, which concluded with Black agreeing to
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pay sixty two and a half million dollars settlement to
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the US Virgin Islands in January twenty twenty three in
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order for Black to be released from any potential claims
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related to local authorities investigation of Epstein's sex trafficking in
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the territory. So basically, you just show up with a
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big fat bag and you're like, hey, get my name
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out of this and I'll give you seventy million. What
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sort of reality are we living in where that's acceptable?
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None of it's acceptable. None of it. The New York
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Times noted at the time that the settlement, which had
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come to light in response to a public records request
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by the newspaper, showed the extent to which Black, once
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a Wall Street Titan, had gone to limit scrutiny of
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his decades long social and business ties to Epstein. Edwards
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declined to comment at the time, and Black said the
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settlement was meant to resolve any potential claims that had
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arisen out of the unintended concent sequences of payments he
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made to Epstein for legitimate financial Advisory Services. Now, who
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the fuck is buying any of that? Talk about things
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that never happened. Six months after Edward's surprise call to
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The Reporter, a court order in Doe's lawsuit against Black
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would later show Edwards and his colleague Brittany Henderson sent
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a sealed letter to Judge Raykoff as part of an
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inquiry that had been launched into Doe's claims. The February
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twenty six, twenty twenty four, letter described Doe's account as
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inconsistent and said that there were doubts she was a
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veritable victim of Epstein and disassociates. I mean, not for nothing,
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But hou's that up to Brad Edwards and Britney Henderson.
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Shouldn't that be up to the court. The whole thing
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seems weird and contrived, and frankly, I don't like any
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of it. Days later, on March first, twenty twenty four,
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the then lawyer for Doe, Jean Christiansen of Wigdor, sent
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her own letter to Judge Raykoff, criticizing the intervention by
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Black's lawyers in the JP Morgan case and accusing class
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counsel Edwards and Henderson of acting improperly according to a
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later court order describing the chronology of events like is
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it creed? What is it like? I honestly don't understand
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why would somebody do what Brad Edwards and Britney Henderson
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are alleged to do, unless, of course, they wanted to
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get more money for their own payout, and considering that
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the survivors themselves really didn't benefit nowhere near as much
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as the lawyers, I have my doubts about the whole thing.
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Christiansen also disclosed a new potential bombshell. Dough had kept
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journals from ages sixteen to nineteen that the lawyer alleged
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documented her abuse. The journals had been kept in a
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storage unit belonging to those adoptive family. She claimed the
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journals were school notebooks. There was one for each year
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from ages sixteen to nineteen, beginning on her birthday, and
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each a similar format. They had a scrap book like
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fuel in that they contained magazine clippings and sonograms from
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her pregnancies. According to court filings, the text of her
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journals was written in jelpen in a simple two line
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zigzag code, meant the disguise at first the hand account
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of the violence allegedly perpetrated on her by Black, Epstein, Maxwell,
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and others, according to court records. One entry states, mister
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Black is so important for some reason over my health.
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There is going to be hell to pay. I ruined
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their trip and I am dramatic when that fat fuck
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bit me. He threw me on the floor and blood
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all over Jeffrey's carpet and on the issue, like for real.
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And again, look, I don't know what's true and what's not, folks.
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I'm not going to sit here and tell you I
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know for sure, but I think every single allegation made
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against Jeffrey Epstein and his people, especially at this point,
12:54
needs to be looked at and looked at hard. Another
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tree contains a type copy of Sylvia Place poem stop Dead.
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Several lines are underlined, including fatso millionaire. The name Leon
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Black is handwritten next to the title, arranged in a
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coded pattern. Excerpts of the journals are included in those
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amended lawsuit and were released by the Department of Justice
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as part of the Epstein files earlier this year. And
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that was the entry that we read earlier from the
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girl who had the diary. Obviously this was her in
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a statement to the Guardian. Black's lawyers said the Guardian
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was ignoring the outlandish nature of claims in those journals,
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such as that she had been trafficked to Epstein to
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fifty different men, including powerful politicians. On March fifteenth, twenty
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twenty four, less than a month after Raykoff received Strich
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Xparte letter, he convened the first hearing in the Jane
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do inquiry. At the hearing for which Raykoff sealed the courtroom,
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Doe was put on the stand and cross exactly by Edwards. Wow,
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Brad Edwards, what a terrible look, What an absolutely terrible look,
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mister big defender of the Epstein's survivors out here working
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with Leon Black. I can't discuss the substance of what
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she was asked, said Doe's adoptive mother, who was present
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at the fifteen March hearing and was speaking publicly about
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it for the first time. But Edward's questioning, she told
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the Guardian, was surreal. I could not believe that this
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was happening. He questioned my daughter in a way that
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was aggressive and invasive. I was shocked by his tone,
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especially because he was there as class counsel, which meant
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that he shouldn't have been safeguarding her as a claimant
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rather than subjecting her the hostile interrogation like you'd expect
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in a criminal proceeding. She said, that is a terrible
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look for Brad Edwards. There's no doubt about it. There's
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no reason that the Class Council should be acting in
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this way in my opinion. Edwards did not respond to
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the guardians Quad questions about his cross examination of Doe.
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Black's lawyers were barred from attending the hearing despite their objections.
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A court order filed publicly in April of twenty twenty
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six by Judge Clark, who was presiding over Doe's case
15:13
against Black, disclosed some details about the private proceeding. It
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described those fifteen March testimony before Rakeoff as being at
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times far fetched. Among her claims, Dough had described how
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she had been the victim of an impregnation game and
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forced to carry out pregnancies from men who sexually abused her.
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In a court order, Doe is described as having testified
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that Epstein fathered four of her five children, though Doe's
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lawyer later said in a court that Doe was only
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sharing what Epstein told her not a representation of the truth.
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So look, there's no doubt that it's modeled right one
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hundred percent. But we need to have a fair accounting
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and we need to have actors that are fair on
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the stage, and it seems to me that that's not
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the case. A twenty nineteen article by The New York
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Times described how Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his
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ambitions to use New Mexico ranch as a base where
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women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give
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birth to his babies. Judge Racoff, the court order said,
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considered those journals to be central in determining those credibility.
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Rakoff appointed an expert to assess the ink dating on
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those journals. The results were inconclusive. Racoff convened another hearing
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on July eighth, this time by zoom without either Doez
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lawyer or Edward's present. These conditions had been agreed to
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by both parties. The judge presiding overdose lawsuit against Black
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later wrote in a court order. Among the topics Racoff
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asked Dough about was a relationship with Maxwell and the
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frequency with which he was allegedly trafficked to Epstein while
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she was in high school. Just so the claimant understands,
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Raycoff said, according to an excerpt from the hearings transcript,
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which is cited in a separate legal order, all of
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us I feel have a great deal of sympathy for you.
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You've had a very harsh life, and our hearts go
17:09
out to you. But we're just going to screw you anyway.
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We're going to make sure that your claim never makes
17:16
it past where it should make it. The Doe inquiry
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culminated on July nineteenth, twenty twenty four, with an extraordinary
17:24
letter to Judge Rakoff from both Estrich and fellow Black
17:27
attorney Michael Karlinsky, who's managing partner of the law firm
17:31
Quinn Emmanuel. The letter, which was obtained by The Guardian,
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contained within it a personal emotional appeal from Black to Rakeoff.
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Black's lawyers stated in the letter that they were aware
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that Rakeoff intended to issue his ruling on the DO
17:45
matter by July thirty first. Estrich and Karlinsky said they
17:50
had learned from a colleague at the Paul White's law firm,
17:53
which also represented Black, that Rakeoff had raised a question
17:57
about whether Black might reach a settlement with Doe. Well,
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that's what they always want. They want a settlement. They
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don't want to make this go forward, right, especially the court.
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If they can get a settlement, that's what they want.
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It's not clear to which Paul Weis's colleague the lawyers
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were referring. Brad Karp, the one time cher of Paul Weiss,
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was a known associate of Judge Raykoff. The two reportedly
18:19
had dinner on a somewhat regular basis, according to a
18:23
twenty seventeen book, I'm sure there was no impropriety here
18:27
with Judge Raykoff right right right. Karp resigned from the
18:33
chairmanship of Paul Weiss in February in the wake of
18:36
the revelations of his personal dealings with Epstein. Karp did
18:40
not respond to The Guardian's request for comment. Black had
18:44
no interest in settling with Doe, the two lawyers, Estrich
18:47
and Karlinsky wrote. They then shared an impassioned appeal from
18:52
Black that they said the financier had asked them to
18:54
convey to the judge. Both lawyers declined to comment on
18:58
the July nineteenth letter. The idea of settling with Jane Doe,
19:01
Douglas Wigdor and the whig Door Affirm is repellent to
19:04
every core of value I hold. Dear Black stated, from childhood,
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my father, a former rabbi, taught me the importance of
19:11
Shem Tav Hebrew for a good name. Oh, give me
19:15
a break. They always rely on the religion right, Oh,
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my charity, my religion. I don't give a fuck. You're
19:21
a depraved, demented person, buddy, I don't care if you're Jewish,
19:25
you're a Muslim, you're Christian, or you're from the Church
19:28
of the Inflame Toe. I don't care. Those lawyers at
19:33
the Whigdor Firm, Black said, had disregarded the truth and
19:36
behaved in a way I believe to be profoundly on
19:39
ethical ways. Not since my father's death forty nine years
19:42
ago have I felt so much pain and seen such
19:47
heard inflicted on those I love. I can't settle with
19:50
Jane Doe and the Whigdor Affirm, not only because of
19:53
the damage their lives have caused, but more importantly, because
19:56
I don't know how I could look my children and
19:58
grandchildren in the eyes and teach them the importance of
20:02
Chem tav. We'll do the same thing that you did
20:04
when you paid out the sixty two million to the
20:07
US Virgin Islands. You fat fuck. Invoking his father's death
20:12
in a letter to Raykoff was a striking choice. Black's father,
20:16
Eli Black, had been a socially prominent New Yorker and
20:20
as the CEO of global company, the Chiquita banana importer
20:23
United Brands. But on February third, nineteen seventy five, Eli
20:28
Black killed himself by jumping out of the window of
20:32
his forty fourth floor office in the pan Am Building
20:35
on Park Avenue. After his death, it was revealed that
20:38
he had authorized two and a half million dollar bribe
20:41
to the President of Honduras in a bid to get
20:44
lower export taxes on bananas. When United Brands was ultimately
20:49
charged with criminal conspiracy on account of the scheme, Eli Black,
20:53
according to The New York Times, posthumously named as a
20:57
co conspirator. Poor daddy was a criminal. I'm such a
21:02
victim because my dad was a rich guy and he
21:04
bonned a bunch of people and then he took his life.
21:07
Feel sorry for me, No, I don't feel sorry for you,
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not at all. While Black did not share that any
21:14
details of his father's death and it's aftermath, and his
21:16
appeal to ray Coff, he did not need to. The
21:19
rising star federal prosecutor who charged United Brands was not
21:23
another than a young Jed Raykoff. Judge Raykoff declined to
21:27
comment on questions about the personal message. As with other
21:31
documents he received during the Doe inquiry, Raykoff did not
21:35
enter the letter containing Black's personal appeal into the JP
21:38
Morgan class action publicly accessible docket. Lawyers and legal experts
21:44
told The Guardian that they found Raykoff's decision to make
21:47
his oversight role ex parte to be unusual. Well, yeah,
21:51
of course he didn't want it in public. He knows
21:53
and he knows the blowback, so he didn't want it
21:56
to be something that's public. And don't think for a
21:59
minute that these judges are our friends, that they care
22:03
about the people in general. They don't. They care about
22:07
their court room, they care about power, they care about precedent.
22:10
But if you think they care about you or me
22:12
or this young lady, you're crazy. They do not. One
22:19
thing that sets class action cases apart from other cases
22:22
is a level of transparency that's required, said Chris Seger,
22:25
a class action lawyer who is co lead counsel on
22:28
the class action lawsuit against the NFL. Everything you do
22:32
is out in the open. That's the whole idea, no sideals,
22:35
no secrets. Seeger said, so what are we doing here?
22:40
Why are we doing this? Is anybody going to answer
22:45
Rakeoff rule to rescind those two and a half million
22:48
JP Morgan allocation in its entirety. On July thirty first,
22:51
twenty twenty four, less than two weeks after receiving Black's
22:54
personal appeal, he also withdrew Doe from the US Virgin
22:58
Islands Mental Health Fund for Epstein's Survivors, a class of
23:02
which she is now officially no longer a member, all
23:06
because Judge Rakoff got a letter from Leon Black about
23:09
his dad. For Doe, it was a crushing blow, her
23:14
adopted mother told The Guardian, as Doe would account nearly
23:18
one year later in a Steel Court declaration in her
23:20
claim against Black, Black's letter to Raykoff was accepted without
23:24
notice to me and was apparently considered prior to a
23:27
final ruling, despite raising emotionally laden arguments about Black's character
23:32
and suffering. Meanwhile, I was never permitted to submit a
23:36
narrative impact statement or a rebuttal. She also had serious
23:41
concerns about inappropriate influence and access, saying she had no
23:44
equivalent means of communicating with the court that defendants team
23:48
had such access underscores systemic and balance at plagued these proceedings,
23:53
she wrote, and that's true one hundred percent. There's no
23:57
doubt that if you're going up against a guy like Black,
23:59
it's going to be a tilted deck. Judge Rakoff declined
24:03
to comment. The sealed declaration, which was seen by The Guardian,
24:07
also hit back against some of the claims Doe said
24:09
were made by Brad Edwards, though claim, for example, that
24:13
Edwards had asserted that no other victims had recognized Doe,
24:17
even though Doe claimed he had only consulted two individuals.
24:21
Though said Edwards had also dismissed physical evidence that supported
24:25
her connection to Epstein, including photographs from Martha's Vineyard, by
24:29
stating Epstein had not been to Martha's vineyard. In fact,
24:32
Doe said there's evidence Epstein spent time on the island,
24:35
which has subsequently been reported by ITV News and The
24:39
New York Times. Edwards did not respond to the Guardian's
24:43
questions about those claims. Dough pushed back too, against claims
24:48
that have been submitted to the court about her by
24:51
an investigator working for Black's legal team, such as the
24:54
claim that she had a personality disorder, not autism, and
24:58
that our biological family said that Oh had a history
25:01
of making up alternate realities. Those own records, a person
25:05
familiar with the matter, said, show she was legally adopted
25:09
as an adult in the state of Virginia for good cause.
25:13
Medical documentation, which the source said was submitted to the
25:16
court confirmed her autism diagnosis and post traumatic stress disorder
25:21
stemming from long term sexual abuse. The medical record also
25:25
states Dough has no history of personality disorder or psychosis,
25:29
the source said, so it can't be both. Who's telling
25:33
the truth, That's the real question. Dough was urged by
25:37
her attorney to appeal Rakeoff's decision to rescind her two
25:40
and a half million dollar reward, according to a sealed
25:43
declaration that she filed, but on August twenty first, twenty
25:47
twenty four, just three weeks after Rakeoff rescinded Doe's allocation,
25:52
Rakeoff signed off on a stipulation between Doe and the
25:56
JP Morgan Settlement Fund for Epstein's survivors granting Dough a
26:00
two hundred thousand dollars settlement. According to a court filing
26:03
seen by the Guardian, this made her eligible once again
26:06
to participate in the usvii's mental Health Fund. Please make
26:11
it make sense. If you're going to take her out,
26:15
why are you putting her back in but for a
26:17
reduced amount. Judge Rakoff did not respond to the Guardian's
26:20
questions about the August twenty twenty four settlement stipulation. He's
26:24
never going to respond. Last month, on April twenty, third,
26:28
Judge Clark, who was presiding Overdoe's lawsuit against Black, issued
26:32
a seventy six page ruling in response to Black's motion
26:35
for the case against him to be dismissed those former
26:39
lawyer Jean Christiansen of Whigdor and Doe had engaged in
26:43
serious sanctionable misconduct. Clark had found Christiansen had died repeatedly
26:48
to the court and the opposing council about what was
26:51
happening with the JP Morgan Doe inquiry, and had also
26:54
directed Doe to destroy a relevant social media account that
26:59
do you to communicate publicly about her experience as a
27:02
purported Epstein victim. Clark also wrote that Doe had falsified
27:07
three sonogram images out of a total of eleven that
27:11
had been included in those journals. So eight of the
27:15
eleven were real, three of them were falsified. We're gonna
27:20
need more information about that too. Whigdoor withdrew his counsel
27:25
for Doe days after disavowing three of the sonograms. Doe
27:28
is now representing herself in the proceeding. Oh that's not
27:31
gonna end well, I mean, is that really the case.
27:34
There's no lawyer out there that's going to step up
27:36
pro bono and help this lady out. What a world
27:43
Estrich Black's attorney said in a statement to The Guardian.
27:45
The only thing that matters is that a federal judge found,
27:48
as a matter of fact that Jean Christensen, the Whigdoor
27:51
law firm, and Jane Doe lied. They're being punished by
27:54
the federal court. Nothing they say has any credibility. They
27:58
are liars and should be completely ignored. How about we
28:01
leave that up to a jury. How about that. While
28:06
the order was widely seen in press reports as a
28:08
serious rebuke of Doe and her legal team, Judge Clark
28:12
said the misconduct need not doom Doo's case and the
28:15
case will proceed. Christiansen, the attorney at Whigdoor, did not
28:20
respond to the Guardian's questions. Douglas Wigdoor, the law firm's
28:23
founding partner, said in a press statement in response to
28:26
the order, while we are upset about the sanction, where
28:29
it pleased that our former client will get our day
28:31
in court. In a letter submitted to Judge Clark this
28:34
week that reference the sanctions, lawyers for Whigdoor and Christiansen
28:39
as for permission to file under a seal emotion for reconsideration.
28:43
Wigdoor also recently filed a separate lawsuit against Black, claiming
28:48
he's deployed multiple frivolous and malicious lawsuits as retaliation for
28:53
representing accusers. His lawyers rejected the claims, of course they did,
28:58
Leon Black would never do that right. In her statement
29:02
to the Guardian, Doe said that she began her case
29:05
as an effort to seek accountability, but she believes her
29:08
lawsuit has become something much broader. It's become about what
29:12
happens when a system meant to provide justice instead becomes
29:16
another source of harm. I faced retaliation misrepresentation, public scrutiny,
29:21
and repeated efforts to undermine my credibility. I've been left
29:25
to navigate the process alone, with limited time, limited resources,
29:29
and overwhelming personal cost. She wrote, there were moments when
29:34
I did not know if I could continue, but I
29:36
made a promise to myself that I would not stop.
29:40
So look, we don't know all the details right, not
29:43
down to the granular specs, but it seems to me
29:47
that them reaching out to Judge Rakoff was completely and
29:50
wholly unacceptable and inappropriate. So it's going to be interesting
29:55
how this all plays out, because remember Jane Doe is
29:58
still going forward with her suit. The sanctions might have hit,
30:02
but the judge didn't throw it out. So this one
30:06
is just warming up. So we're gonna keep an eye
30:08
on it and we'll see how it progresses. And when
30:10
we have some more information, won't worry or the other.
30:13
We'll get it added to the catalog. All the information
30:17
that goes with this episode can be found in the
30:19
description box.