Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend Batman Forever/R. McDonald Event on June 13, 1995 in New York City. .Photo by Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.
Jeffery Epstein believed federal agents had knowledge of at least 20 girls between the ages of 16 and 18 that could implicate him in a potential federal sex trafficking investigation, emails obtained by the non-profit whistleblower organization Distributed Denial of Secrets and provided to Drop Site News show.
Epstein noted in an email to himself titled “priveledged and confidentail” that “as I see it the following is the summary of the situation. Though I required girls over eighteen, the results don’t reflect it. . … The feds have spoken to , or know of ,girls between the ages of 16-18.IF we extrapolate…. we should assume that there are 20 girls in that age range,” adding “they will all claim topless massage ,plus.,that’s the bad news.”
Epstein’s email, which is dated to April 25, 2007, corroborates FBI emails sent later that year and unsealed in 2015 that state that the agency found at least 34 minors were potential victims of Epstein.
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Epstein often sent long, digressive emails from his Yahoo account, jeeproject@yahoo.com, to another of his own accounts, littlestjeff@yahoo.com. In the remainder of this email, Epstein grapples with various legal theories that federal agents could use to mount a prosecution against him and concluded with a sentence for his counsel saying “Our argument has to be more than, I targeted over eighteen , but my aim was off, .WE need to craft a solution.”
Epstein’s emails between 2006 and 2007 show harried efforts by his legal team to craft arguments for why he was not guilty of underage sex trafficking. These emails have been previously reported by Bloomberg News. In one legal memo titled “Jeffrey Epstein: Possible Federal Violations – Worst Case Scenario,” Mitch Webber, who was working for Harvard professor and Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz, wrote that “it is likely that in some way or another Epstein’s communications with his masseuses in Palm Beach triggered jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. 1591.”
The memo highlighted federal law at the time:
18 U.S.C. § 1591: Prostituting Minors in Interstate Commerce
The relevant passages from Section 1591 are reproduced below.
Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion (a) Whoever knowingly-- (1) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means a person; or (2) benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in a venture which has engaged in an act described in violation of paragraph (1), knowing that force, fraud, or coercion described in subsection ©(2) will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, or that the person has not attained the age of 18 years and will be caused to engage in a commercial sex act, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
“This was a lawyer/ client confidential communication from a research assistant. My more experienced judgment was that it would be difficult,” Dershowitz told Drop Site News. “The prosecutors apparently agreed with me. So in order to minimize the risks to them they agreed to a state deal. That’s how plea bargains are reached: both sides seek to minimize risks. Nothing unusual here.” Webber did not respond to a request for comment.
Epstein at one point poised a question to counsel on the phone with his lawyer noting: “I see what you were asking now. The question is: what would happen if one were to transport a minor for sex – or transport oneself with the intent to have sex with a minor – into a state in which the age of consent is below eighteen (assuming the minor is above the age of consent in the given state)? And your intuition was right. The answer is that there is no violation of law.”
Epstein then replied, “let’s also look at sex tourism laws… going someplace with specific intent ot have underage sex.”
Ultimately Epstein’s legal team settled on the argument that the federal government had no “substantial federal interest in the prosecution of this case.” A letter sent to U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta, attached to an email in the Yahoo inbox and dated August 6, 2007, reads, “This case is at heart a local matter that is being fully addressed by the state criminal justice system. There is every reason to believe that the state process will result in an appropriate resolution of this matter and vindicate any conceivable federal interest. Thus, there is no federal interest that could justify a federal prosecution, and consequently under the Petite Policy, any federal involvement in this case must be discontinued.”
Epstein’s arguments were ultimately persuasive to Acosta, who later agreed not to prosecute Epstein in exchange for pleading guilty to two minor state charges and being required to register as a sex offender. The agreement barred Epstein from any future prosecution including potential co-conspirators and was later found to violate victims’ rights. A 2020 Department of Justice review of the matter found that Acosta exercised “poor judgement” in his handling of the matter.
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