Feds decided not to charge Jeffrey Epstein in 2016 after ‘an FBI agent failed to answer concerns’, new documents show
FEDS decided not to charge Jeffrey Epstein in 2016 after an FBI agent allegedly failed to answer concerns, new documents show.
The late millionaire pedophile pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida in 2007, but escaped federal sex trafficking charges.
Now, new details have emerged about the Feds’ decision not to pursue charges against Epstein in 2016 – at a time when some lawyers warned he might still be abusing girls.
Documents released in Ghislaine Maxwell‘s sex trafficking case outline a discussion – which happened in February 2016 – between a New York assistant US attorney and three lawyers representing Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers.
Lawyers told prosecutors the British socialite took sexually explicit photos of the woman and allegedly gave one to Epstein for his birthday when Giuffre was 16, the documents show.
According to notes by the prosecutor, during the meeting lawyers detailed accusations against Epstein, including the alleged birthday photo.
The prosecutor, identified as AK, then spoke to the head of the criminal division for the Southern District of New York about the possibility of pursuing charges against Epstein, the New York Post reports.
According to the documents, the prosecutor recalled: “One thing that leaned in favor of taking action was that one of the lawyers … said that FBI agents in the Florida case were not happy with the result and how the case was resolved.”
The documents say the situation “concerned AK because experienced FBI agents in this area usually, in AK’s experience, make collaborative decisions with the US [Attorney’s Office].”
The prosecutor then called an FBI chief to ask the Florida agents if they felt “justice had not been served” – but did not get a response.
The prosecutor then assumed that, by not responding, the “FBI agents in Florida did not express dissatisfaction”, according to the documents.
Feds did not launch an investigation in 2016 and Epstein remained free until articles in the Miami Herald alleged sex abuse.
He was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, but died by suicide in jail.
Previously, Epstein had been convicted by a Florida state court to charges of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution and was sentenced to 13 months in jail in 2008.
Epstein’s pal Maxwell was arrested last year for allegedly grooming and sex-trafficking underage girls for Epstein to abuse.
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The 59-year-old denies any wrongdoing and already faces a maximum prison sentence of up to 35 years if convicted of six existing charges of sex abuse and perjury which mainly date back to the mid-1990s.
Maxwell could face up to 80 years behind bars after US prosecutors accused her of new sex trafficking charges involving a 14-year-old girl.
The British socialite will die in prison if a jury in New York finds her guilty when she goes on trial in the summer.