CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz stormed out of a deposition room on June 1 after being questioned about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ovitz was being questioned by a lawyer for actress Julia Ormond, who sued CAA in December 1995 for allegedly arranging a sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein.
Ormond’s lawyers sought Ovitz’s deposition for more than a year and finally obtained a court order directing him to comply with the subpoena. According to a deposition filed in the case, Ovitz appeared at a lawyer’s office in New York to testify. He spoke out about his relationship with Weinstein, repeatedly calling Weinstein a “bully,” but became furious when asked about Epstein.
“I’m not going to say anything about Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “You can ask all the questions you want, but you won’t get any answers.”
After a few minutes, he said, “That’s it,” removed his microphone, walked out of the room, slammed the door, and left the building.
Ormond’s lawyers are now charging Ovitz with contempt and seeking an arrest warrant to ensure his deposition is completed.
“Ovitz has no valid defense for his disparaging conduct,” Meredith Firetog, Ormond’s attorney, wrote in a motion seeking sanctions.
Ormond sued CAA, Weinstein, Miramax, and Disney under the Adult Survivors Act in New York in 2023. CAA claims it was aware of Mr. Weinstein’s sexual misconduct but failed to warn him before sending him out to dinner with Mr. Weinstein.
She also claims Weinstein took her to an apartment owned by Miramax and sexually assaulted her. Disney and Miramax reached an out-of-court settlement, but CAA denies the agency’s wrongdoing and continues to fight.
Ovitz had left the agency several months before the alleged assault, but Ormond’s lawyers wanted to question him about his knowledge of Weinstein, CAA’s operations and the industry’s culture of harassment, which Ovitz mentioned in his memoir.
He said in a deposition that he and Mr. Weinstein were not on good terms.
“I didn’t like his way of doing business,” he says. “He was a bully, and he and I became bullies many times. I talked to him as little as possible.”
However, she said she was unaware of the sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein until they became public in 2017.
Asked afterwards what she would do if she found out Mr. Weinstein had sexually assaulted someone, she said: “We definitely wouldn’t have done business with that person.”
Ormond’s attorney, Kevin Mintzer, asked Ormond if he was friendly with Epstein.
After initially answering “no,” Ovitz asked, “What is your definition of ‘friendly’?” He admitted that he went to Epstein’s house for 20 minutes “at the recommendation of JPMorgan Bank.”
Ovitz was then asked if they had ever visited St. Barts together.
“What does this have to do with Harvey Weinstein?” Ovitz asked.
Mintzer tried to follow up by asking if Ovitz knew Epstein had been convicted of sex crimes, at which point Ovitz left about 45 minutes into the three-hour deposition.
The emails between Mr. Epstein and Mr. Ovitz were included in a trove of documents about Mr. Epstein released by the Justice Department earlier this year. In one 2012 email, Ovitz wrote: “I would love to meet you.” In another article, Ovitz told Epstein that he looked forward to meeting him in St. Barts. And on the third occasion, he told Epstein that he was in a different party and that “we both rave about you.”
After Mr. Ovitz left, CAA lawyers countered that they had not been informed there would be questions about Mr. Epstein.
Ormond’s lawyers argued that Ovitz displayed a disparaging attitude throughout the proceedings, first answering “no” and then “yes” when asked if the testimony was true.
