David Copperfield announces last Vegas show, weeks after Epstein ties revealed | US news
David Copperfield has announced that he will perform his final show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas next month; It’s an announcement that comes weeks after documents released in the Epstein files revealed new details about how the FBI viewed the illusionist’s relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The announcement that the 69-year-old illusionist’s last show will be held on April 30 seems to have been made suddenly. In a statement praising and thanking Copperfield for his 25-year tenure at MGM, the company said tickets for shows booked after that date will be automatically refunded.
Copperfield said in a statement on social media that he would soon announce “what’s next” and that it would be the biggest project he has ever undertaken.
Copperfield has faced controversy before; these included a criminal investigation from 2007 to 2009, in which he was accused of raping a woman he met in the audience of a show and invited to his private Bahamian island. Copperfield was never charged and said he was innocent of any wrongdoing. on a nationally syndicated cable show with Oprah Winfrey in question In this case, he was the victim.
It’s unclear whether the suspension of Copperfield’s Las Vegas show was related to the Justice Department’s release of millions of documents, the so-called Epstein files. But the documents included emails from FBI agents and prosecutors involved in the Copperfield investigation in 2007, showing they were in contact with their counterparts in Miami while investigating Epstein.
An FBI memo sent by agents in Seattle in 2007 said further investigation of this “connection” was necessary to “determine whether they are connected.” [Copperfield and Epstein] “both preferred minors” and were “busy referring potential victims to each other.”
Copperfield attorneys did not respond to previous questions about the files, which were released in January. In 2024, Copperfield’s lawyers told the Guardian that he was “not a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.” They said any suggestion that Copperfield was friends with Epstein was “completely false and a mischaracterization by the media” and that he and Epstein were “acquaintances at best”, having only met on “a handful” of occasions. Copperfield has repeatedly denied engaging in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.
In the FBI memo dated December 12, 2007, Seattle agents expressed concerns to their counterparts in Miami about Epstein-related evidence that might be relevant to the Copperfield investigations. Agents said the investigation identified “a number of potential witnesses” who they believed lived in Miami and were associated with or may have worked for Copperfield. They noted that two of these potential witnesses were women who “were or may have been witnesses” in the Epstein investigation in Miami; including one who said Epstein “groomed” her.
The FBI was interested in interviewing the two women because they were both on Copperfield’s “job list,” which agents said “appeared to be a compilation of women he had targeted for sexual conquest.”
Entries on Copperfield’s job listing stated the two women were “guests of Jeff Epstein,” representatives said.[sic]”and “he” — presumably referring to Epstein — said one of the women “wasn’t faithful, wasn’t playing games.” The memo says evidence seized from Copperfield’s home, warehouse and the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater where he performed also showed “several incidents” in which Copperfield provided free tickets to Epstein and his guests.
In a 2019 email that appeared to be sent from one FBI official to another after Epstein’s death in prison, the FBI official said: The FBI investigation into Copperfield “showed that Copperfield trained his employees to identify young women (teens to early twenties) who watched his shows.” The person said the women were “separated from their boyfriends, families and husbands and brought backstage.”
“Copperfield employees were given access to a notebook detailing how to procure women for Copperfield. He kept a notebook containing women he had been with, including “contact information, whether he had sex with them, and a photo,” the FBI official said.
The FBI official added: “I don’t know if any of his victims were underage. There were allegations that he drugged some women. I recall that Epstein’s name came up several times in our investigation, and it turned out that Copperfield had a very close relationship with Epstein.”
Copperfield’s name appeared on a “list” that investigators included of other men, the person said, adding that “some of them had reputations like Copperfield and Epstein.”
“Our case was finally closed because our USAO [US attorney’s office] “He was weak and fearful of Copperfield’s financial resources,” the FBI official said, adding that there were other compelling issues regarding the victim and jurisdiction.
MGM did not respond to a question about whether the outcome of its relationship with Copperfield was in any way connected to the Epstein files.
“We thank David and his extraordinary team for the incredible energy they consistently brought to this extraordinary production,” Mike Neubecker, president and chief operating officer of MGM Grand, said in an emailed press release. “David has captivated audiences at the MGM Grand for more than 25 years, and we wish him success as he enters the next chapter of his journey.”
Copperfield attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
Jules Metge contributed additional reporting
