Twelve victims of Jeffrey Epstein are suing the FBI for covering up its failed investigation into the allegations of sex trafficking for over two decades against Epstein, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The victims, filed under “Jane Does,” said the FBI did not interview victims or collaborate with other law enforcement agencies, despite receiving tips about the financier’s activities as early as 1996. Epstein first faced criminal charges in 2006, when a grand jury charged him with one count of soliciting prostitution. However, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges two years later, and he was not prosecuted federally.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened,” the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York reads.
The victims say the FBI ignored credible tips until 2019, when federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex crimes involving minors. A month later, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail in New York City, which was ruled a suicide.
The complaint lists the U.S. government as the only defendant the plaintiffs are seeking damages from.
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Maria Farmer and Sarah Ransome, two victims of Epstein, said they would sue the FBI for failing to investigate Epstein back in the 1990s. They filed a notice of claim last year, which is required before suing the FBI in federal court. Farmer told the Daily Beast in May that federal officials and the New York police ignored her complaint against Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in 1996.
The number of allegedly abused girls and women by Epstein varies, but many believe it’s more than 100. In June, JPMorgan Chase agreed to settle another lawsuit brought by victims of Epstein, agreeing to pay $290 million.
