Manhattan DA’s office must turn over documents related to former JPMorgan exec in bank lawsuit over Jeffrey Epstein connections
By Lauren del Valle, CNN
New York (CNN) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office must turn over documents related to former JPMorgan Chase (JPM) executive James “Jes” Staley in response to a subpoena from the bank in ongoing federal lawsuits that allege JPMorgan enabled and benefited from longtime banking-client Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes.
An anonymous victim of Epstein has alleged in a lawsuit that “at least one of Epstein’s friends used aggressive force in his sexual assault of her and informed [her] that he had Epstein’s permission to do what he wanted to her.” JPMorgan, in a crossclaim against Jes Staley, has asserted that the “powerful financial executive” not named in her lawsuit is actually Staley. Staley has denied all wrongdoing alleged in the lawsuits.
The prosecutor’s office now must turn over any records and statements provided by the anonymous woman to the DA’s office on August 10, 2022, as well as any statements or records “provided by any individual identifying James ‘Jes’ Staley as an alleged witness or an alleged perpetrator of any sexual assault, sexual abuse, or other sex-related crime.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had argued that his office should not have to produce the documents to JPMorgan, asserting law enforcement privilege, the informant’s privilege, the New York state public interest privilege, and New York grand jury secrecy statutes, according to the order.
It is unclear if there is an active investigation into Staley.
A representative for Bragg declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Staley’s attorney for comment.
Judge Jed Rakoff overruled Bragg’s assertion of privilege over certain documents requested in the bank’s subpoena determining that after a full review he found that the privileges and statutes invoked by the Manhattan prosecutor do not apply to the requested documents.
The documents will be sealed under a protective order, the ruling said.
