Sen. Ben Sasse sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding that he make sure the plea deal for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is invalidated so that the Justice Department can go after any co-conspirators.
“In order to bring Epstein’s co-conspirators to justice, the Department of Justice should rip up the non-prosecution, non-investigation agreement entered into by Epstein and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in 2008,” the Nebraska Republican said in the letter sent to Barr on Tuesday. “This agreement should shock the conscience of anyone familiar with its details.”
Sasse, 47, asked Barr to confirm that the Justice Department “no longer considers” the deal to be valid.
Sasse has long pressed the attorney general to dig into the Epstein case. During Barr’s confirmation process in January, Sasse called upon the attorney general to open up a “full and thorough” investigation into Epstein’s plea deal, which allowed him to sidestep federal sex trafficking charges.
After the news of the billionaire’s death last weekend, the senator sent another letter to the attorney general demanding that “heads roll” after the billionaire was found dead in his New York jail cell.
“The Department of Justice failed, and today Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators think they might have just gotten one last sweetheart deal. Every single person in the Justice Department from your Main Justice headquarters staff all the way to the night-shift jailer knew that this man was a suicide risk, and that his dark secrets couldn’t be allowed to die with him. Given Epstein’s previous attempted suicide, he should have been locked in a padded room under unbroken, 24/7, constant surveillance. Obviously, heads must roll.”
Epstein, 66, was found dead, hanging in his New York jail cell Saturday. Federal law enforcement have since raided his private island Monday, but have not released any details about the operation.
