Jeffrey Epstein arrest and prosecution - is anyone following the case?

Parent Cafe
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I have been reading about the sweetheart deal the financier Jeffrey Epstein got from federal prosecutors in FL in 2008, when he pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges as part of a secret, lenient deal he negotiated with the United States attorney in Miami that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. The deal also immunized his unnamed co-conspirators (the female fixers he paid to find a stream of young women to abuse). The sexual abuse victims were underage girls and the prison let him out to go to work 6 days a week. A Miami Herald reporter has been on this story for many years and has not given up. In this age of #MeToo, I think there’s a lot less willingness to look away from sexual abuse cases/give powerful men a pass than there used to be.

I am glad that he has been re-investigated and was arrested a couple of weeks ago. I feared that he would be let out on bail and flee the country because he is reportedly worth $500 million and has passports under different aliases from Austria and Saudi Arabia.

Thankfully, Epstein was denied bail today. Perhaps justice will be served in this case. Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-bail-hearing.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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aka former United States Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who resigned from that position last week.

In the interest of accuracy, it’s been reported as one passport with an alias - Austrian with a Saudi address.

While I think there’s enough to lock him up forever, I hope more of his victims are willing to come forward.

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I’d like to know more about how he was able to get the sweetheart deal in Miami. Federal prosecutors had prepared a 53-page-indictment, yet somehow Acosta agreed not to do any federal prosecution at all, and instead let Epstein off without pleading to any crimes involving underage girls, and ending up “going to jail” for only a year. The scare quotes around “going to jail” are because, unbelievably, he had to spend nights in a local jail, but he could leave jail during the day. Some prison sentence.

Also Acosta was required to notify the victims about the sweetheart deal, but did not. The deal was in state court, not federal court, so the victims who were cooperating with federal prosecutors knew nothing about it until it was way too late to try to intervene. A judge recently ruled that this was illegal.

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The story is so gross.

I’ve been reading articles re: guessing how Epstein made/makes his money. Let’s see what the SDNY unearths and what dots are connected.

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It stuns me how many lives this scum has ruined and how he’s been able to continue for so very long.

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Unfortunately, just more proof that the very wealthy live in their own world with special and unfair treatment. It’s gross how we as a society let $$$ rule so many things. Meanwhile so many disadvantaged people are incarcerated for minor things and/or don’t get fair trials.

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Just finished “Filthy Rich,” from 2016. It’s an excellent exposition of what went on in Florida, and includes interviews and deposition transcripts. Made my head want to explode.

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I will stand up for the US attorney (Acosta) a little. He was a US attorney but not a background as a prosecutor. Epstein had millions to spend on attorneys and the US Attorney actually has a budget he has to follow (and other cases to handle). Acosta said he wanted the victims to win their civil suits and that did happen. He should have asked them what they wanted, but no matter how many times you explain to a witness what the cross examination will be like, it is 100x worse. Epstein was already using his money to pressure these 14-15 year olds, investigating them, their parents, their lives. I think they would have been destroyed on the stand.

An 53 page indictment (I thought it was 87?)doesn’t mean much, just that there were a lot of separate counts he was charged with. It doesn’t mean there were 53 victims or 53 different events. If a single incident resulted in 10 different counts, often the 2-3 pages of facts are repeated for every count. I think if this had gone to trial in a federal court Epstein could have walked in the end. OJ did, because the LA district attorney didn’t have unlimited funds to fight all those lawyers on the defense, the truckload of motions filed every day, the discovery requests. Look at Michael Jackson’s court history.

It was a good deal for Epstein, but I don’t think it was as awful as some are saying for the state or for ‘justice.’ It is common to have work release while serving time in a county jail and that’s why people agree to county jail time and not state prison or federal prison time. He then registered as a sex offender at his other homes, like in NM, NYC, and USVI, and the prosecutors and US attorneys in those states did nothing, so all that evidence must not have been out there for all to see.

This new case has so much publicity that it will be harder for his attorneys to harass the victims, but in 2008 he was threatening them, stalking them, vowing to destroy them. Black SUVs followed the girls to school, interviewed their friends, and now appears there were actual bribes made (hopefully not known to the US attorney at the time). Now most of the victims are older and may be better able to handle the cross examinations, but it will still be rough. He’s hired the best defense attorneys in the world and money will not be spared in defending him. How much do you think they spent just this week to try and get bail for him? Millions. Yes, rich people really do get to buy more justice.

After his jail time in 2008-2010, he was fully embraced by NYC society again. He is friends and partners with the CEO of Victoria’s Secret/Bed and Body works. He was invited to all the premiers and society parties, gave money to politicians from both parties and they all took it willingly, he gave money to several Harvard funds, to a lot of other charities. No one seemed to have any trouble with his history or reputation when accepting his money, use of his airplanes, having diner with him, investing with him, inviting him to their parties. Acosta took the fall, but there is a lot of blame to go around for how Epstein was handled both before and after the 2008 charges.

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One thing I’ve been wondering about is whether Alex Acosta will have a hard time finding another job. I’d like for more to be known about how exactly the deal came to be approved, both by Acosta personally and the DOJ in DC.

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Acosta broke the law. ZERO sympathy for him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alexander-acosta-trumps-labor-secretary-broke-the-law-in-jeffrey-epstein-case-judge

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Epstein is a detestable character who should have been imprisoned and impoverished long ago, but the current faux outrage over the deal Acosta brokered is political posturing.

Acosta made sure Epstein got a felony conviction and jail time, which is more than the Palm Beach County prosecutor wanted. There was enough evidence to put him away for years on state charges, gathered by county police. Most sex crimes are and should be prosecuted at the state level (County prosecutors). Because this prosecutor wouldn’t do his job, Acosta brokered a deal. I haven’t seen anything to indicate that he had a slam-dunk case with victims willing to testify on the federal charges, the leg work had all been done by the county police on the state charges. Acosta’s leverage was to threaten a federal prosecution if more was not done on the state charges, but it could have been an empty threat, practically and politically.

It’s right to be mad that he got away with things for this long, might as well blame the right people.

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“faux outrage”
There’s plenty of room here for REAL outrage.

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I’m outraged about of things happening these days. Especially that so many people are not outraged

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That’s kind of offensive. There is plenty of sincere, completely justified outrage over this.
It’s sickening.

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Oh, there is plenty of real outrage to be felt about this case. The “faux” part is the attack on Acosta. Anyone selling you that story is covering up the real story, where the real outrage should be. Acosta is not the reason Epstein got by with so much for so long. Now his good friend and frequent companion Bill Clinton might be, but never mind that, or the other people who kept him safe this long.

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You conveniently forgot to mention Esptein’s other friend who happens to be the current POTUS (google Trump/Epstein tape).

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Let’s keep any political commentary out of the thread, please.

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I’d like all of Epstein’s friends who took him back in knowing what he was to squirm. And if they were in anyway complicit I’d be happy to see them prosecuted too. I don’t care which party they belong to.

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My local papers and tv news follow this story closely. Just like the principal at local HS who questions if the Holocaust is a truth. And the people in PB who lose business every time the streets are closed Let alone the airport. We have also had the worst seaweed on beaches, so can’t even go there to relax. It’s been tough summer.

I do hope I haven’t crossed a line , but certainly understand if my post is deleted. Just venting

Did I mention the massage parlor?

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I don’t have a lot of confidence in the DOJ these days, but they see enough to investigate the Acosta plea deal:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/06/alexander-acosta-plea-deal-1152371

The US Attorney felt intimdated by Epstein’s high-priced lawyers? The US Attorney? I got a bridge to sell ya! Acosta broke the law and should follow Epstein to jail.