The Art of the Sweetheart Deal
Trigger Warning: discussion of sexual abuse of a minor and suicide
By now we're all versed in Jeffrey Epstein's perverse sexual-trafficking business, inextricably linked to his billion-dollar bank accounts that seem to have no paper trail. We know about his relationships, his business partners, his friends in high places, his houses, his airplanes, his arrest, and his mysterious last night on Earth in a cold Manhattan jail cell.
But if we back up a little we'd realize that all of this could have either happened a different way, or at least many years earlier, saving hundreds of little girls the grief and trauma that grips them as they've grown into women and mothers themselves. Many of them have children of their own, 12-, 13-, 14-year-old girls whom they protect with white knuckles and locked doors. Still traumatized. Still in therapy. Some gone because it was just too much.
Yes, this could have ended 13 years earlier with Epstein's arrest for procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of a prostitute in Palm Beach, Florida. He was booked into jail and later released on a $3000 bond. State prosecutor Barry Krischer convened a grand jury, which was unusual and generally assigned to capital cases (homicide), but presented evidence from only two victims--one who was 16 when she was asked to "massage" Epstein for the first time in his home, and the other only 14. After hearing from Epstein's defense team, including Roy Black, Gerald Lefcourt, Alan Dershowitz, and former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr, the grand jury returned with one charge of felony solicitation of prostitution, to which Epstein pled not guilty.
Prior to Epstein's plea, the FBI had begun its own investigation nicknamed "Operation Leap Year," resulting in a 53-page indictment nearly a year later. However, under the direction of then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, and Alan Dershowitz, a plea deal was granted that gave Epstein immunity from all federal criminal charges, along with four co-conspirators--Sarah Kellen, Lesley Groff, Adriana Ross, and Nadia Marcinkova--which shut down any further investigation into Epstein's past illegal activities and search for other victims.
Acosta later said he "offered a lenient plea deal because he was told that Epstein 'belonged to intelligence', was 'above his pay grade' and to 'leave it alone'." [Wikipedia] As a result, Epstein pled guilty to two counts of felony prostitution, would serve 18 months behind bars, register as a sex offender and pay restitution to then three-dozen victims identified by the FBI.
Not two victims. Three-dozen victims. It was known as a "sweetheart deal."
"A sweetheart deal or ‘sweetheart contract’ is a contractual agreement, usually worked out in secret, that greatly benefits some of the parties while inappropriately disadvantaging other parties or the public at large." -- Wikipedia
As part of his deal, Epstein wasn't sent to federal prison like most convicted sex offenders, but instead was housed in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade, and allowed to leave jail on "work release" for up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He could come and go as he pleased during the allotted hours, his cell door unlocked, and he had access to the attorney room where they had installed a TV for him. Epstein’s personal driver chauffeured him to and from his non-profit, the “Florida Science Foundation,” and he paid the Sheriff's Office $128,136 for the cost of "extra services" and "permit deputies," who were required to wear suits and ties while monitoring the comings and goings of his office. They kept a "welcomed guest" book at the time, but the Sheriff's Office said later these logs were destroyed "per the department's records retention rules."
After his release in July of 2009, Epstein was placed on "house arrest" for a year, yet this still allowed him to fly on his private jet to residences in Manhattan and his private island, and he was allowed lavish shopping trips in Palm Beach for "exercise." Epstein would remain a level-three (highest risk to reoffend) sex offender, which meant he had to check in with the New York Police Department every 90 days. Between 2010 and 2019 he never checked in once.
In 2017 Alexander Acosta was appointed United States Secretary of Labor under the first Trump Administration. At that time, a reporter from the Miami Herald had been doing a little digging, and hoped the injustice of the first Epstein trial would come to light in the vetting after Acosta's nomination. It did not.
"I thought at the time that at Acosta’s Senate confirmation hearing, they were going to ask him a lot of questions about this case. And to my surprise, it seemed like everybody had almost forgotten about it. They asked him maybe one or two questions, and I don’t really think he gave very good answers, but they satisfied the senators because he was ultimately confirmed." - Julie Brown, The Miami Herald
Acosta was now in charge of "one of the largest agencies in the country, with oversight of human trafficking." [NY Times] And yet he had given one of the biggest traffickers of young women and girls a very lenient deal, and washed his hands of the whole thing. So Julie Brown began the painstaking process of digging through pages and pages of redacted documents to find the entire list of Jeffrey Epstein's victims.
And she did, over 60 of them. (There were 20 others she could not find.)
They had a lot in common, many of them minors, many from low-income homes that lacked family structure--some abused, some homeless, some in foster care--most naïve and optimistic when lured in by the chance to earn money for doing something as simple as giving a massage. They could have a career. They could become fashion models. They could leave their simple lives and be something great. Brown discovered that nearly every rule, every law had been broken in the criminal case of Jeffrey Epstein, including sealing his plea deal until after he'd served his "sentence."
"He was allowed to leave the jail and go back to Palm Beach, to his office or his home or The Home Depot. He had a chauffeur picking him up at the Palm Beach jail every morning, and they didn’t return him to the jail until 10 o’clock at night. So he essentially only slept there." - Julie Brown, the Miami Herald
On July 6, 2019 Jeffrey Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, after arriving from Paris on his private plane. He had flown in and out of Teterboro 730 times, the airport later dubbed the "travel hub of Epstein's sex traffic ring." He would be charged with sex trafficking minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, much in thanks to Julie Brown's tireless reporting, which was eventually recognized by law enforcement.
"We were assisted by some excellent investigative journalism." - Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman
But the 2006 case of Jeffrey Epstein could have, and should have gone a lot differently, had money and politics not been involved. He should have served up to 15 years in a state prison. He should not have been able to pay for "services" while in jail, or go home, or go to work. There should have been more witness testimony at his trial, and at least the 36 victims listed should have been reason enough for the maximum sentence, let alone the 80 young women and children he abused.
So what do we do with this information now that Epstein is gone, and there are many, many more prominent figures, including the President of the United States, in his records, in his photographs, and on his ledgers?
"Let me be clear: Epstein did not do this all by himself. He barely tied his shoes by himself. He had butlers and assistants doing everything for him, including the compiling of his contact lists, his musical playlists. He had people doing that for him. His computers — he had lots of people helping him. So he did not do this alone. There were other people helping him. And there were other men who he sent some of these women to." Julie Brown, The Miami Herald
Julie Brown is a reporter for the Miami Herald. You can read or listen to her entire interview at the New York Times, recorded prior to Donald Trump's ordered release of grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case. This order was denied.
You can also watch a short video of Julie Brown's entire investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his 80 victims, titled "Perversion of Justice: Jeffrey Epstein."
151-page Records Request for 2006 Epstein case
Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.
Every person that touched these girls should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That means everyone including Clinton and Bill Gates.
Why don’t they (congress) subpoena those that worked for him such as butlers, guards, chefs, pilots and etc.? That would be of interest.