If Epstein Was Convicted of Prostitution How Was He Charged Again Federally
(CNN)The sex trafficking indictment against multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein dates to incidents between 2002 and 2005 and contains allegations that accept been public for more than a decade.
Why, then, did prosecutors in New York move to arrest Epstein on Saturday and unseal a federal indictment against him on Mon? Why did this case happen now?
Usa Attorney Geoffrey Berman declined to spell out the case'due south exact origins but said it remained vital all these years later.
"It's even so a very important case and information technology ways a great bargain to the alleged victims here that they accept their 24-hour interval in court," he said.
Just legal experts said the origins of the case come primarily from The Miami Herald and reporter Julie K. Dark-brown, who wrote an investigative report in November 2018 on what she chosen the "bargain of a lifetime" for Epstein.
"Prosecutors practice read the newspaper every day," former prosecutor Elie Honig said. "Investigative journalists practise actually important work. You lot have a lead wherever you lot tin go information technology as a prosecutor. Obviously, yous practise your own due diligence and make sure information technology's all checked out, but investigative journalism actually does move the needle with prosecutors."
In addition, the verbal time and place of the abort -- on a Saturday, as Epstein arrived on a private jet to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey -- was unusual and suggests there is more to the instance that has not been made public.
"That they got to him straight from the airplane indicates obviously a sense of urgency," former federal prosecutor Jaimie Nawaday explained.
That may exist because prosecutors believe he is a flight risk, or it could mean that there may be some ongoing criminal conduct, she said.
Epstein, 66, pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual activity trafficking of minors and i count of conspiracy to engage in sex activity trafficking of minors. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted of both counts.
The Miami Herald reporting
According to the indictment, Epstein ran a trafficking enterprise between 2002 and 2005 in which he paid hundreds of dollars in cash to girls as young as xiv to have sexual practice with him at his Manhattan home and his estate in Palm Embankment. The indictment also says he worked with employees and associates to lure the girls to his residences and paid some of his victims to recruit other girls for him to corruption.
"In this mode, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit, ofttimes on a daily basis," Berman said in a statement.
Epstein, a well-connected hedge fund manager, had previously evaded similar charges when he secured a non-prosecution bargain with federal prosecutors in Miami. Instead of facing federal charges, Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges in 2008 and served just xiii months in prison. He also registered as a sex activity offender and paid restitution to the victims identified by the FBI.
That arrangement came under intense scrutiny final November in a Miami Herald investigation that examined how it was handled by and so-U.s. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who now serves as labor secretary in President Donald Trump'southward Cabinet.
The Herald investigation said that Acosta agreed not to file federal charges against Epstein despite an investigation identifying 36 underage victims. The agreement, the Herald said, "substantially shut downwards an ongoing FBI probe" and further granted immunity to "any potential co-conspirators" in the instance.
In February, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the Section of Justice broke the law by failing to confer with Epstein'due south victims about the agreement.
Epstein's attorneys said in court Monday that the not-prosecution agreement would found the centerpiece of their defense force.
"To united states, this indictment is essentially a practise-over," an chaser for Epstein, Reid Weingarten, said. "This is the very stuff that was investigated by the feds in Florida."
Authorities on Monday did not specifically mention the Herald'due south work. But Berman praised the "excellent investigative journalism" that assisted their case, and FBI Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. also cited unspecified reporting.
"When the facts presented themselves -- every bit Mr. Berman hinted at -- through investigative journalist piece of work, we moved on it," Sweeney said.
Former child abuse prosecutor Roger Canaff said that the Herald's investigation brought a tremendous amount of public attention on this instance.
"What actually drove it lately was the Herald reporting that (showed) this was a real miscarriage of justice," Canaff said.
Nawaday, who previously worked as an Assistant U.s. Chaser in the Southern District of New York, said that generally prosecutors would concord a coming together afterward seeing a study on par with the Herald's exposé.
"Then I imagine what happened here is one time the Miami Herald started running these reports, people got together inside the The states Chaser'due south role and figured out how they could investigate and charge something very chop-chop. And then there would accept been a lot of time force per unit area, I call back, in this investigation," Nawaday said.
The Teterboro airport arrest
While the broad push behind the arrest came from the Herald's reporting, there are several possible explanations for why prosecutors moved to abort Epstein this weekend at Teterboro Airport in New Bailiwick of jersey.
Canaff, the former kid abuse prosecutor, said the Saturday airport arrest had to practise with how mobile Epstein is and because prosecutors believe he is a flying run a risk. If the indictment had been unsealed while he was overseas, prosecutors would accept to go through an extradition procedure to bring him to the Usa to face charges.
In court Monday, prosecutors argued against granting Epstein bail, maxim he was a significant flying risk because of his boggling wealth and ability to leave the country.
"He is extraordinarily wealthy, mobile and unattached to the southern district of New York," Assistant U.s.a. Chaser Alex Rossmiller said.
Prosecutors argued in a court memo that Epstein has homes in Manhattan, Palm Embankment, New Mexico and Paris and also owns a private island in the US Virgin Islands. He has three U.s.a. passports, owns at to the lowest degree 15 vehicles and has admission to two individual jets, co-ordinate to the memo.
In fact, Epstein was arrested after spending three weeks abroad, prosecutors said in a courtroom filing.
Another answer is that there may be ongoing criminal acquit that did not end in 2005.
Indeed, after Epstein's arrest, federal agents executed a search warrant of his mansion in New York City and seized a "vast trove" of lewd photographs of immature-looking women or girls, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Some of the photos were discovered in a locked safe along with meaty discs with hand-written labels that read, "Young [Name] + [Name]," "Misc nudes 1," and "Girl pics nude," according to a court filing.
Rossmiller said in courtroom that when officials entered his habitation on Saturday, they institute "the massage room was notwithstanding set up in the same way it was 15 years ago, with a massage table and sex paraphernalia."
"Your award," he said, "This is not an individual who has left his past backside."
Nawaday said this search warrant "adds to the sense that something was urgent hither, and there may exist more than coming."
For now, though, the evidence that sparked that search warrant volition remain unknown to the public.
"We know that at that place were photographs and other evidence seized today, and we also don't know what else was institute in his house today," said Elliot Williams, a one-time prosecutor. "Certainly the prosecutors and the FBI knew they had likely crusade to believe there was actionable evidence in his house, and so who knows what comes of that."
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/09/us/jeffrey-epstein-arrest-why-now/index.html
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