Attorneys representing Hollywood actor Jim Carrey have issued a cease and desist letter to a YouTuber who falsely accused the comedian of having ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The YouTuber, a self-described entrepreneur named Vincent Briatore, offered commentary last month over a separate video listing out alleged visitors to Epstein’s private island.
The video, titled “Jeffrey Epstein’s Island Flight Logs Finally Released: What does this Mean?,” has racked up over 2.9 million views to date. But while court documents previously showed the names of individuals who reportedly flew on Epstein’s private jet, such as former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, many celebrities have been falsely accused.
Despite Carrey never appearing on the legitimate flight logs, conspiracy theorists remain convinced that he and other left-leaning celebrities spent time on Epstein’s island based on fabricated data online.
In response to Briatore’s video, as first reported by RadarOnline.com, a team of Carrey’s attorneys gave the YouTuber 48 hours to remove his video.
“Your false statements and false impression cause substantial damage to Mr. Carrey’s personal reputation in that they intentionally mislead the public to believe Mr. Carrey had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his well-documented crimes and exploits… thus exposing Mr. Carrey to public hatred and contempt,” the attorneys’ letter states.
While Briatore did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Dot, the YouTuber admitted to RadarOnline.com that he made no attempt to verify whether the information he was sharing was accurate.
Nevertheless, Briatore has argued that it is “suspicious” that Carrey would be upset about being falsely linked to Epstein.
“This may be an effort to scrub the presence of this video from anywhere on the internet,” he said. “It was surprising also that out of all the people named on that list—there was about 25 of them—Jim Carrey, of all people, is the one to really get upset and follow through with it, you know, it’s strange to me.”
Although Briatore says he won’t be “bullied” into removing the clip, he has since added a disclaimer to the video that states, “FULL DISCLOSURE: Jim Carrey’s attorneys have contacted me to inform me that Jim Carry [sic] has never met Jeffrey Epstein.”
It remains unclear if Carrey’s legal team has moved forward with its threats. The Daily Dot was unable to reach Julianne Heitzer for comment, the lawyer who signed the letter to Briatore.
But recently, fake lists have been floating around the internet tying celebrities to Epstein without any evidence. Just last week, the term “Epstein” became a trending topic on Twitter after years-old court documents regarding Epstein were passed off by conspiracy theorists as new.
Update 9:05am CT, Feb. 21: In comments to the Daily Dot, Briatore stated that he had no intentions of removing the video and would fight any legal actions against him.
“Basically Carrey is sue-happy and sees that as a solution to everything, but he actually just drew more attention to himself,” Briatore said. “This is spiraling way out of control. And people are divided, it has become political and Carrey represents the Hollywood elites whether he likes it or not.”
