A federal judge on Thursday sanctioned a lawyer who represented a woman who alleges she was raped by Wall Street titan Leon Black after she said she was trafficked to him by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The finding is a victory for Black, a billionaire who has faced years of scrutiny for his extensive ties to Epstein. He has denied any wrongdoing.
U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke wrote in her 76-page opinion that she “strongly” considered terminating the case, as Black wanted. But she “ultimately conclude[d] that lesser sanctions” against attorney Jeanne Christensen and her firm, Wigdor LLP, — as well as the former client herself — “can address the misconduct.”
A lawyer who was helping a woman sue a Leo Black is being sanctioned for misconduct? Unfuckingbelievable…
Seems the lawyer wasn’t playing nice.
Clarke, a Biden appointee, found that Christensen “repeatedly lied to the Court and to opposing counsel in this litigation” about what was happening in a related case, a class-action lawsuit by Epstein victims against JPMorgan Chase. Clarke also found that Christensen directed the plaintiff, who remains anonymous, to destroy a social-media account that she used to post public messages about her experiences.
And the judge found that the plaintiff “falsified sonogram images in her personal journals,” which she relied on to allege that Epstein and other men who allegedly abused her carried out what she called an “impregnation game” in which she was forced to either bear their children or undergo abortions.
