Justice Department Opens Probe Into Jeffrey Epstein Sexual Assault Plea Deal
Jeffrey Epstein Image by wikicommons
By Aiden Pink February 7, 2019
The Department of Justice is opening an internal inquiry into its 2008 settlement with Jeffrey Epstein, a multimillionaire who was accused of molesting more than 100 girls but was only sentenced to 18 months in prison, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors had compiled a 53-page document on Epstein, a prominent Miami financier and party host, accusing him of bringing dozens of girls to his mansion or airplane and forcing them to perform sex acts. “This was not a ‘he said, she said’ situation. This was 50-something ‘shes’ and one ‘he’ — and the ‘shes’ all basically told the same story,’’ retired Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the Herald last year.
But Epstein, represented by powerful lawyers like Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, reached a non-prosecution agreement with local U.S. District Attorney Alexander Acosta – now President Trump’s Secretary of Labor. Epstein only served 13 months in prison and had to register as a sex offender. Most of his victims were not informed about the plea bargain until they saw it on TV, a likely breach of federal law. Epstein’s deal also granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators.”
The Justice Department confirmed in a letter to Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska that an inquiry had been opened, citing the Herald’s November report exposing new details of the plea deal.
“Jeffrey Epstein is a child rapist and there’s not a single mom or dad in America who shouldn’t be horrified by the fact that he received a pathetically soft sentence,” Sasse said. “The victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation — and so do the American people and the members of law enforcement who work to put these kinds of monsters behind bars.”
Epstein was close friends with Trump, Bill Clinton, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Britain’s Prince Andrew, all of whom were known to have attended his parties.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
