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Jeffrey Epstein expected to make court appearance on sex trafficking charges
Jeffrey Epstein charged with federal sex trafficking crimes
(about 2 hours later)
Eleven years after letting Jeffrey Epstein off lightly with a once-secret plea deal, the US government is taking another run at putting the billionaire sex offender behind bars with new sex trafficking charges law enforcement officials say involve allegations dating to the early 2000s.
The billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking in a newly unsealed 13-page Manhattan federal court indictment. Some victims of Epstein’s abuse were just 14 years old, prosecutors alleged in the shocking document.
The politically-connected financier, who was arrested on Saturday night in New Jersey, allegedly “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” from 2002 to 2005. The abuse is alleged to have taken place at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, the indictment states.
Jeffrey Epstein: inside the decade of scandal entangling Prince Andrew
Jeffrey Epstein: inside the decade of scandal entangling Prince Andrew
Epstein was arrested on Saturday and is expected to appear in court on Monday in New York City. Prosecutors will probably argue he is a flight risk and should remain in jail. Before 9am, a throng of reporters and photographers had gathered outside the southern district of New York courthouse in downtown Manhattan.
Epstein was due to appear in court on Monday afternoon.
One law enforcement official told the Associated Press the case deals with allegations that Epstein, a 66-year-old hedge fund manager who once hobnobbed with some of the world’s most powerful people, paid underage girls for massages and molested them at his homes in Florida and New York.
The indictment alleges that he “enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls” to visit his New York home and Palm Beach estate, “to engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash”.
Epstein, was who arrested after his private jet touched down from France, counted Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew among high-profile friends.
“In order to maintain and increase his supply of victims,” prosecutors allege, Epstein also paid some victims to lure additional girls.
The counts against him will allege that he drew dozens of underage girls to his home on the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. Prosecutors will allege some of the girls were just 14 years old. If convicted, Epstein could face up to 45 years in federal prison, according to the New York Times.
“This way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit,” prosecutors claim.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity. Court documents related to the case have been kept under seal and no official announcement has been made. A law enforcement source confirmed to the Guardian that Epstein had been arrested. At the courthouse, Epstein’s lawyers did not comment.
Epstein knowingly looked for minors and was well aware that many of his victims were younger than 18 “because, in some instances, minor victims expressly told him their age”, prosecutors said.
A taskforce of federal agents and police officers met the plane at Teterboro airport near New York, law enforcement officials said. He is being held at the Metropolitan correctional center, a federal jail near the courthouse.
Epstein, who reportedly counted Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton among his friends, is alleged to have conspired with others to form a “network”. Employees and associates contacted victims and scheduled sexual encounters with Epstein, prosecutors say.
Under federal court rules, prosecutors can keep a defendant locked up for three extra days while preparing for a bail hearing. That would mean a bail hearing on Thursday.
Epstein’s accusers were recruited to give him massages, “which would be performed nude or partially nude”, the indictment said, adding that the massages would turn “increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts”.
“The government is clearly seeking to have him detained,” former federal prosecutor David Weinstein told the AP. “The guy is a millionaire or a billionaire. He has unrestrained assets. If they let him out on a bond, he may take off, go to a jurisdiction where they don’t have extradition and they may never get him back.”
In addition to paying victims hundreds of dollars, Epstein is alleged to have paid some victims hundreds of dollars for each new victim they procured.
Epstein’s arrest, first reported by the Daily Beast, came amid increased scrutiny of the 2008 deal that allowed him to plead guilty to lesser state charges while maintaining a jet-set lifestyle.
Federal authorities want a forfeiture order to obtain Epstein’s New York mansion.
Under the deal, overseen by former Miami US attorney and Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, Epstein avoided a life sentence and served 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to Florida charges of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution. It also required he reach financial settlements with dozens of his victims and register as a sex offender.
The Manhattan US attorney’s case against Epstein comes more than a decade after allegations that he sexually abused minors spurred local and federal criminal investigations as well as civil suits filed by accusers.
Acosta has defended the plea deal, though the White House said in February that it was “looking into” his handling of it. The US Department of Justice opened an inquiry into federal prosecutors’ handling of Espstein’s plea agreement.
In 2008, Epstein and the Miami US attorney’s office, which was led by Alexander Acosta, now US labor secretary, reached a non-prosecution deal that ended a federal sexual abuse investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls.
Acosta defended his role in abandoning a more-than-50 page federal indictment against Epstein, saying in May that his office was “too aggressive”.
Under the agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges instead, served 13 months in jail and registered as a sex offender.
“This matter was appealed all the way up to the deputy attorney general’s office. And not because we weren’t doing enough, but because the contention was that we were too aggressive,” Acosta said in a House education and labor committee hearing.
Acosta has maintained that the deal was appropriate. Nonetheless, the Department of Justice in February opened an inquiry into the handling of Epstein’s plea agreement.
The deal is being challenged in Florida federal court. US district judge Kenneth Marra ruled earlier this year that Epstein’s victims should have been consulted under federal law about the deal, and he is weighing whether to invalidate it.
Acosta defended his role in abandoning a more than 50-page federal indictment, saying in May his office was “too aggressive”.
Federal prosecutors recently filed court papers contending Epstein’s deal must stand. They acknowledged, however, that the failure to consult victims “fell short of the government’s dedication to serve victims to the best of its ability” and that prosecutors “should have communicated with the victims in a straightforward and transparent way”.
“This matter was appealed all the way up to the deputy attorney general’s office,” Acosta said at a House education and labor committee hearing. “And not because we weren’t doing enough, but because the contention was that we were too aggressive.”
The victims in the Florida case have until Monday to respond.
In January 2015, the Guardian and Politico were first to report on a court filing alleging that Epstein forced a teenage victim into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew. Buckingham Palace maintained that the claim was “categorically untrue”.
It was not immediately clear whether that case and the new case involved the same victims. Even so, Weinstein said, the deal only applies to federal prosecutors in the southern district of Florida. The current case is being pursued by the southern district of New York. There are no double jeopardy implications because Epstein’s guilty plea involved only state crimes while the current case involves federal law.
“The allegations made are false and without any foundation,” the palace told the Guardian.
Prince Andrew named in US lawsuit over underage sex claims
Epstein’s arrest came days after a federal appeals court in New York ordered the unsealing of nearly 2,000 pages of records in a settled defamation case involving Epstein.
In January 2015, the Guardian and Politico reported on a court filing alleging Epstein forced a teenage victim into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. Buckingham Palace maintained the claim was “categorically untrue” and “false and without any foundation”.
Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, reportedly introduced Andrew to Epstein the 1990s, when she was Epstein’s girlfriend.
Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, reportedly introduced Andrew to Epstein the 1990s, when she was Epstein’s girlfriend.
Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts has claimed Maxwell invited her to work as a masseuse for the financier when she was just 15. She later sued Maxwell for defamation, over her denial of the sex abuse claims. They settled in May 2017.
Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, née Roberts, has claimed Maxwell invited her to work as a masseuse for the financier when she was just 15. At the time, Giuffre was working as a changing room assistant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beach club, in Florida.
Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation, over her denial of the sex abuse claims. They settled in May 2017.
