Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking charges involve dozens of underage victims as young as 14 who claim they were paid to perform rape acts on pedophile, who was hiding out in Paris before his arrest
- Details
- Category: Paedophile Rings
- Created: Sunday, 07 July 2019 20:33
- Written by Chris Spargo - Daily Mail
- Federal prosecutors with the US Attorney's office in Manhattan filed sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein after speaking to dozens of victims
- He was taken into custody after his private jet touched down from a month-long trip to Paris on Saturday at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey
- Epstein will remain in custody until he appears in court on Monday, where he will be indicted on federal charges for the first time
- The plea deal Epstein agreed to back in 2008 saved him from having to register as a sex offender in 31 of 50 states
- The US Attorney's Office and a spokesperson with the New York Police Department both declined to comment on Saturday
- This week, 2,000 pages of records that could reveal how he and his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly trafficked underage girls were unsealed.
Jeffrey Epstein is facing two criminal charges in the sex trafficking case filed by federal prosecutors on Saturday, according to an individual who is familiar with the proceedings.
Those charges were filed by attorneys for the Southern District of New York after they spoke dozens of victims, who had also been interviewed by both the FBI and NYPD.
Almost all of these women claim they were underage when they were asked to give Epstein massages at his Palm Beach or New York City homes, according to a law enforcement official.
Those women - some of whom were just 14 at the time of these alleged incidents - claim that these massages would then lead to Epstein asking that they perform a rape act on him in exchange for money.
That same official said that the incidents for which Epstein is now being charged all occurred between 1999 and 2005.
This is the same time period during which Epstein first made headlines after flying former president Bill Clinton to Africa on his private jet, which was later nicknamed the Lolita Express.
Epstein, 66, will make his first court appearance on Monday in New York, less than 48 hours after he was taken into custody by federal agents at Teterboro Airport.
It all happened just before 5pm on Saturday, when Epstein reentered the country for the first time since June 16, when he took off from the same airport bound for Paris.
Prior to that trip, Epstein had been crisscrossing the US as he moved between his properties in New York City, Palm Beach, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands.
Epstein's arrest was first reported by The Daily Beast, and comes in the wake of a three-part expose in the Miami Herald detailing his settlements with victims and sweetheart plea deal.
Around the same time, agents with the FBI were seen breaking down the door to his Upper East Side mansion to execute a search warrant in the case.
DailyMail.com obtained exclusive photos which show the aftermath of that search, including Epstein's damaged and splintered door.
The episode is likely to cause embarrassment to Prince Andrew, who was an associate of Epstein but has now severed ties.
Groups of unidentified men were seen coming and going at the property as late as 2am.
Most of those were FBI agents, the security guard said. They were accompanied by several officers - both uniformed and plain-clothed - from the New York Police Department.
The guard told DailyMail.com that it took them approximately 10 to 15 minutes before they could pry the door open.
The front entrance appears to be outfitted with fingerprint and voiceprint technology for security purposes.
The guard says that in the hours since the raid, more law enforcement personnel arrived at the home, where they are expected to work well into Sunday morning.
The guard, who identified himself as Tom, said he would see Epstein there once or twice a month.
He said that two weeks ago, he noticed someone on the street taking photographs of Epstein's residence.
The US Attorney's Office and a spokesperson with the New York Police Department both declined to comment on Saturday.
This news comes just days after a judge ordered the unsealing of nearly 2,000 pages of records related to a civil case that could reveal how he and his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly trafficked underage girls
The documents that will be unsealed are from a defamation case that was settled after Epstein entered a guilty plea guilty to a single charge of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.
Records in the defamation case contained descriptions of sexual abuse by Epstein along with new allegations of sexual abuse by 'numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister and other world leaders.'
The appeals court found that the judge in the case did seal a number of documents without a justifiable reason when ordering the release.
Epstein's lawyers will first get a chance to appeal, and after those legal proceedings play out the documents will start being prepared by the court for release.
The plea deal Epstein agreed to back in 2008 saved him from having to register as a sex offender in 31 of 50 states.
That victim's age means that Epstein did not have to register as a sex offender in states like New Mexico, where he owns a 7,600-acre property called Zorro Ranch, and allows him to be classified as a low risk offender in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is currently his primary residence.
A federal judge ruled earlier this year that then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta violated the rights of Epstein's alleged victims when they neglected to notify them that they were no longer pursuing federal charges.
That was another part of the deal, which in addition to allowing Epstein to have work release and live in a low-security facility also agreed to drop a federal probe into the millionaire moneyman.
Now Acosta - who is the current Secretary of Labor and had been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general - and others are again coming under fire for allegedly catering to the man who donated millions to the Clintons and hosted President Trump at his Manhattan townhouse while keeping his victims in the dark.
'They were cutting a plea deal. It wasn’t a prosecution,' said attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represented the 14-year-old girl who alerted police.
'They had a grab bag of 40 girls to choose from.'
He then revealed that he and his client believed they had been the victim referenced in the plea deal.
'It’s unbelievably upsetting,' said Kuvin.
'The rug has been swiped out from under the one girl who was brave enough to come forward and break this thing.'
Questions about Epstein's deal started to surface after a series of lawsuits were filed by two of his alleged victims.
The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and prosecutors back in 2007 that guaranteed federal charges would not be brought against Epstein, 63, which could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the millionaire.
They filed their lawsuit a few months after Epstein received his lenient sentence in 2008, with their lawyers saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not speaking with Epstein's victims about the details of his plea agreement.
The two victims who filed the suit were 13 and 14 at the time of the abuse.
This filing contained more than 140 exhibits including emails between Epstein’s defense team, the U.S. Attorney's office and former State Attorney Barry Krischer, which lawyers believe clearly show that victims were being left in the dark.
Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell, who filed on behalf of the women, previously stated that they hoped U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra would not force the case to go to trial but rather given what they believe is overwhelming evidence rule in the favor of the two victims.
'There is good reason to believe that if the prosecutors had exposed their dealings to scrutiny by Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and other victims, they would not have reached such a sweetheart plea deal,' the motion reads.
'Despite the fact that this case has been in litigation for more than seven years, spanning several hundred pleadings, the government does not write even a single sentence explaining why it entered into an NPA (non-prosecution agreement) with a sex offender who had committed hundreds of federal sex offenses against young girls.'
The motion also says that the deal Epstein received is 'one of the most extraordinarily lenient plea arrangements in American history'.
Epstein settled both of these suits back in December before the victims would be able to testify in court.
Police in Palm Beach turned over the information they had gathered on Epstein's victims to federal authorities in November 2006 after investigating the case for roughly a year following an initial call in March 2005 from a woman who claimed her daughter, 14, had been paid $300 to give Epstein a massage in just her underwear.
Local authorities also filed a probable cause affidavit in May 2006 saying they believed there was enough evidence to charge Epstein with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one count of molestation.
In the end, these charges were taken to a grand jury despite the recommendation of police, who came back with just one charge against Epstein - felony solicitation of prostitution.
On June 30, 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and ultimately served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence.
That time was served not in a prison, but rather the Palm Beach Stockade, which is a local detention center.
Epstein was also allowed to leave six days a week to go work out of his West Palm Beach office during his time behind bars.
After his release he did have to register as a sex offender.
- Abuser Name or Alias:: Jeffery Epstein
- Matter Resolved?: No
