Attorney General William Barr revealed Monday he recused himself from the Justice Department’s prosecution of alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested over the weekend and formally charged that morning.
“I’m recused from that matter because one of the law firms that represented Epstein long ago was a firm that I subsequently joined for a period of time,” Barr told reporters in Southern Carolina.
Today’s 14-page indictment, handed down by the Southern District of New York, 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. Epstein pleaded not guilty in federal court this afternoon.
During Barr’s confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska voiced his frustration with the 2008 “sweetheart deal” that registered sex offender Epstein received from the DOJ .
“On this particular case, will you commit to making sure that there is a full and thorough investigation into the way that DOJ handled the Epstein case?” Sasse said.
Barr said at the time that he might need to recuse himself from any Epstein-related issues.
“Senator, I have to recuse myself from Kirkland & Ellis matters, I am told,” said Barr. “And I think Kirkland & Ellis was maybe involved in that case, so I need to sort out exactly what my role can be. I will say that if I’m confirmed I’ll make sure your questions are answered on this case.”
Sasse replied he worried that, with then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein departing and with the soon-to-be attorney general recusing himself, “it’s not clear who is actually going to deconflict this, so I’m grateful for your pledge that the department will be responsive even if not you personally.”
The new deputy attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, also previously worked at Kirkland & Ellis, and it’s unclear whether he will have to recuse himself from the case as well. Normally, when the attorney general recuses himself, the deputy attorney general would take over the specific matter. The Washington Examiner reached out to the DOJ to see if Rosen would also be recusing himself and, if so, who at the Justice Department would ultimately be overseeing the Epstein case.
Another Kirkland & Ellis veteran is current Labor Secretary and former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who reached an agreement in 2008 with Epstein’s attorneys where Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution solicitation charges related to a 17-year-old girl. Epstein served just 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail, 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 Epstein’s alleged victims didn’t learn of it until he was out of jail.
In 2008, Epstein was represented by a legal team that included Kirkland & Ellis’s Jay Lefkowitz, as well as former independent counsel Ken Starr, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, as well as Roy Black, Gerald Lefcourt, and former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis.
