Jeffrey Epstein was formally charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy on Monday after being arrested over the weekend, according to newly unsealed court records.
The 14-page indictment alleges that Epstein “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations” between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond.
Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York claim that Epstein “enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls … to engage in sex acts with him” and that he would then “give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.” Some of the victims were as young as 14 at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
Epstein, 66, is set to appear in court in New York on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors say that an unnamed “New York-based employee” and two unnamed assistants in Palm Beach would help with scheduling some of these encounters, and that Epstein would also contact some of the victims directly. Investigators allege Epstein conspired with others to traffic minors for sex.
No victims are named in the indictment, but “Minor Victim-1” is alleged to have been sexually abused while underage in Manhattan in 2002, “Minor Victim-2” was allegedly sexually abused in Palm Beach in 2004, and “Minor Victim-3” was allegedly sexually abused numerous times in Palm Beach in 2005.
The indictment, unsealed Monday, states Epstein would hire the victims to perform “massages” and then would escalate the illicit sexual contact from there, knowing they were underage, oftentimes because they told him.
Prosecutors also say that Epstein paid some of his victims to recruit other underage girls to be abused, alleging that Epstein “created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach” and that he “maintained a steady supply of new victims to exploit.”
The indictment says that Epstein would offer to pay these “victim-recruiters” hundreds of dollars for every new girl that they brought to him.
The wealthy financier, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force on Saturday at the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, after returning from an overseas trip to Paris. Epstein’s home in New York City was raided by law enforcement as well.
Epstein is a politically well-connected hedge fund manager who has long faced allegations of luring underage girls, hiring them to provide massages and then sexually abusing them, with some of the alleged crimes dating back to 1999. His accusers, some who were as young as 14 at the time of the alleged crimes, have said Epstein used his private jet to take them to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, a residence in Manhattan, and his private 72-acre home in the Virgin Islands, sometimes referred to as “Orgy Island.”
Epstein and his attorneys, former independent counsel Ken Starr and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, reached an agreement in 2008 with federal prosecutors, including then-U.S. Attorney for Southern Florida and now-Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, where Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution solicitation charges related to a 17-year-old girl. Epstein served 13 months in a Palm Beach County prison, paid restitution to certain victims, and registered as a sex offender. The agreement was reportedly struck before investigators had even finished interviewing all the alleged victims.
The deal was kept quiet for more than a year, and not even Epstein’s victims learned of it until he was out of prison.
A federal judge found in February the deal struck by Acosta infringed upon the rights of the victims in the Epstein case and ordered that the records be unsealed. “Particularly problematic was the Government’s decision to conceal the existence of the [plea agreement] and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility,’’ U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra of Palm Beach wrote at the time. “When the government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading.”
Acosta has been criticized for his handling of the prosecution of Epstein. Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska pushed the Justice Department to look into Epstein’s sweetheart deal earlier this year, and DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility announced in February it had launched an inquiry into whether Acosta had committed professional misconduct.
Acosta said the DOJ had backed his actions. “At the end of the day, Mr. Epstein went to jail,” Acosta said at a House hearing in April. “Mr. Epstein was incarcerated, he registered as a sex offender, the world was put on notice that he was a sex offender, and the victims received restitution.“
Epstein’s arrest comes after a New York federal appeals court ordered the release of 2,000 pages of documents last week related to Epstein and his long-time partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
Two of Epstein’s accusers have accused Dershowitz of participating in or being present for Epstein’s alleged sex ring, which Dershowitz denies, claiming that evidence still under seal will prove his innocence.
Dershowitz, along with blogger Mike Cernovich and others, were part of the effort to unseal the court records.
Epstein was closely connected to Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Prince Andrew attended numerous parties with Epstein, and at least one alleged underage victim claims that Prince Andrew had sexual encounters with her at Epstein’s behest.
Epstein is also closely associated with former President Bill Clinton, who flew on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed “the Lolita Express,” dozens of times.
Epstein was also President Trump’s neighbor in Palm Beach and Trump’s legal team denies they were friends, though Trump said in 2002 he has known Epstein for more than a decade and described him then as a “terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
When asked in 2015 by Fox News host Sean Hannity what he thought of Bill Clinton, Trump replied, “Nice guy, uh, got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island, with Jeffrey Epstein. A lot of problems.”
