FBI agents investigating David Copperfield in 2007 said that “a clear connection” existed between the famous illusionist and Jeffrey Epstein, according to documents released by the Department of Justice last week in the latest tranche of the Epstein files.

A 2007 FBI memo by agents in Seattle said further investigation of this “connection” was needed to “to determine if they [Copperfield and Epstein] both shared a predilection for minors” and “if they engaged in referring possible victims to each other”.

A separate partially redacted memo, which appears to have been written by an FBI agent and is dated 26 November 2019 – months after Epstein’s suicide – included additional details and claims about the criminal investigation into Copperfield and investigators’ findings.

The name of the sender is redacted, but the person said the FBI investigation into Copperfield “showed that Copperfield trained his employees to identify young females (teens to early twenties) in the audience of his shows”. The females, the person said, were “separated from their boyfriends, families and husbands and brought backstage”.

“Copperfield’s employees were given access to a notebook that instructed them how to provide Copperfield with females. He kept a notebook with the females he was with” that included “contact information, whether he had sex with them, and a photograph,” the person said.