Did Jeffrey Epstein Kill Himself? , Harvey Weinstein charged with sex crimes – 80 women have accused him

January 7, 2020 § Leave a comment

Jeffrey Epstein
– “There were fractures of the left, the right thyroid cartilage and the left hyoid bone,” Baden said. “I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging.”

– “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way”

– Dr. Michael Baden: What I see here is that this noose doesn’t match the ligature furrow mark. It’s wider than this.
Sharyn Alfonsi: To the naked eye, it looks like there’s some blood here. And it doesn’t look like there’s any blood on this noose.

Dr. Michael Baden: That’s right. This looks like a clean noose that was never used to compress anybody’s neck.
Sharyn Alfonsi: There’s also something that’s striking about the photos. It— the wound is down here. You’d think if somebody hung themselves the wound would be maybe up here.
Dr. Michael Baden: Yes. Most hangings— especially free hangings the ligature slides up to beneath the— the jawbone, the mandible. Here it’s in the middle of the neck.

Harvey Weinstein
– Several women who have said they were harassed or assaulted by Weinstein insisted he was undeserving of sympathy, recounting his pattern of alleged serial sexual abuse and decrying the culture they said enabled him for far too long.... In all, more than 80 women have accused him of sexual misconduct going back decades

60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender and a wealthy financier with powerful friends. 60 Minutes examines the circumstances surrounding his death in a Manhattan federal jail cell. Warning: This report contains graphic images.
2020 Jan 05

In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. On August 10, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).

The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging, but a forensic pathologist who observed the four-hour autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother, Mark, tells 60 Minutes the evidence released so far points more to murder than suicide in his view. Dr. Michael Baden’s key reason: the unusual fractures he saw in Epstein’s neck.

“There were fractures of the left, the right thyroid cartilage and the left hyoid bone,” Baden said. “I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging.”

“Going over a thousand jail hangings, suicides in the New York City state prisons over the past 40-50 years, no one had three fractures,” Baden said….

Epstein was directing money to be deposited in other inmates’ commissary accounts in exchange for protection, sources say, because he feared for his life. But the government says Epstein was suicidal and made his first, failed suicide attempt weeks after he arrived at MCC….

Epstein was moved back to his old unit and assigned a new cellmate, but the night before his death, Epstein’s cellmate was released. According to court documents, “no new cellmate was assigned” before he died, even though he was required to have one.

That night, federal prosecutors say, “Epstein was escorted into his cell by Tova Noel at approximately 7:49 p.m.” Noel and Michael Thomas, the two guards who were working the overnight shift in Epstein’s unit, allegedly didn’t check on him again until “shortly after 6:30 a.m.” the next morning….

As 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told Lindsay in their interview, the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death seem almost unbelievable.

“So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..

Dr. Baden, the forensic pathologist hired by Epstein’s family, says the noose that was sketched and included in the autopsy report doesn’t appear to match the wounds on Epstein’s neck. And Baden says, the ligature mark was in the middle of Epstein’s neck, not beneath the jawbone, as one would expect in a hanging. Also puzzling to Baden is that Epstein would make a noose out of a bedsheet when wires and cords were present in his cell, as photographs show.

There are not any photos of Epstein’s body in his cell, Baden says – he was rushed to an emergency room after guard Michael Thomas found him. But Baden believes, based on the autopsy, Epstein had been dead for two hours by then and he says the scene should have been treated as a crime scene, leaving the body alone. Federal Bureau of Prisons protocol mandates a suicide scene should be treated with the “same level of protection as any crime scene in which a death has occurred.”….

And Baden said, at this point, he doesn’t have all the information needed to make a final conclusion. The Justice Department told the family, they say, that it won’t release the video pertaining to the case and additional forensic testing because of the ongoing criminal case against the two guards on duty the night of Epstein’s death….

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-jeffrey-epstein-kill-himself-60-minutes-investigates-2020-01-05/

Graphic Epstein autopsy photos on ’60 Minutes’ show bloodied neck and noose
[Yahoo Entertainment]
Stephen Proctor
January 6, 2020

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes took a deep dive into Jeffrey Epstein’s death, which included pictures from inside his cell after his hanging, and graphic photos from the autopsy.

Epstein’s death last August was ruled a suicide, but his autopsy photos tell a different story according to former New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden, who observed the autopsy at the behest of Epstein’s family. The photos from inside Epstein’s cell show bed sheets fashioned into two nooses. Photos from the autopsy show a thin, bloodied line across the middle of Epstein’s throat. It’s these images that don’t add up to suicide in Baden’s mind.

60 Minutes reviewed hundreds of graphic photographs from the autopsy of Jeffrey Epstein and inside his cell. Here are the known facts. **This video contains graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing.**https://t.co/oVeiCRd8A6 pic.twitter.com/QOwq8Eqiah

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 6, 2020

“This noose doesn’t match the ligature furrow mark. It’s wider than this,” Baden said, later adding, “Most hangings, especially free hangings, the ligature slides up to beneath the jawbone, the mandible. Here it’s in the middle of the neck.”

It was also pointed out the noose in the cell appeared to not have any blood on it, and there were electrical wires in the cell that would have worked much better for anyone wanting to commit suicide.

60 Minutes also showed a picture of Epstein’s broken hyoid bone, a small bone in the neck. According to Baden, this is another indicator that Epstein did not kill himself.

“I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging,” Baden said, adding, “Going over over a thousand jail hangings, suicides, in the New York state prisons over the past 40, 50 years, no one had three fractures.”

Baden’s conclusion will only fuel the conspiracy theory that Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was associated with some of the world’s most powerful people like President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, was murdered. But the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office stands by its ruling, and despite what some may glean from the autopsy photos, others wholeheartedly disagree with Baden…..

But Dr. Baden says that noose, and the wounds on Jeffrey Epstein’s neck, don’t appear to match.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What do you see when you see these two things together?

Dr. Michael Baden: What I see here is that this noose doesn’t match the ligature furrow mark. It’s wider than this.

Sharyn Alfonsi: To the naked eye, it looks like there’s some blood here. And it doesn’t look like there’s any blood on this noose.

Dr. Michael Baden: That’s right. This looks like a clean noose that was never used to compress anybody’s neck.

Sharyn Alfonsi: There’s also something that’s striking about the photos. It— the wound is down here. You’d think if somebody hung themselves the wound would be maybe up here.

Dr. Michael Baden: Yes. Most hangings— especially free hangings the ligature slides up to beneath the— the jawbone, the mandible. Here it’s in the middle of the neck.

Dr. Baden says a wound straight across the neck is more common when a victim is strangled by a wire or cord.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/graphic-epstein-autopsy-photos-on-60-minutes-show-bloodied-neck-and-noose-084433655.html

Harvey Weinstein charged with sex crimes in Los Angeles
The charges come on the eve of jury selection in a criminal trial against Weinstein in New York, where he has been charged with felony sexual assault.
New charges against Harvey Weinstein as trial gets underway
January 6, 2020

By Andrew Blankstein, Diana Dasrath and Daniel Arkin

LOS ANGELES — Harvey Weinstein, the former film mogul whose alleged pattern of sexual abuse fueled the #MeToo movement, was charged in Los Angeles on Monday with sexually assaulting two women, according to the Los Angeles district attorney.

The charges come on the eve of jury selection in a criminal trial against Weinstein in New York, where he has been charged with felony sexual assault.

Weinstein is being charged in Los Angeles with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents on two consecutive days in February 2013, the district attorney’s office said. An attorney for one of the women, only identified as Jane Doe 1, told NBC News in a statement that she has been working with the authorities for two years.

“She is thankful for their collective work that has resulted in these criminal charges against Weinstein,” attorney Dave Ring said. “She values her privacy, but will do what is necessary to obtain justice for what Weinstein did to her in 2013.”

The woman alleges that she attended a film festival on February 17, 2013, in which Weinstein was also in attendance. She claims that Weinstein knocked at her door after she returned to her hotel and spoke to her briefly inside the room.

Weinstein then allegedly forced himself on her and raped her, according to her lawyer’s statement.

“We believe the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit violent crimes against them,” District Attorney Jackie Lacey said, adding that prosecutors were recommending bail be set at $5 million.

If convicted as charged, Weinstein faces up to 28 years in state prison. He has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sexual activity.

Weinstein accusers gather outside courthouse: ‘He put #MeToo on the map’

Lacey’s office has been reviewing as many as nine alleged sexual assault cases against him, as NBC News has previously reported. The cases are being reviewed by the office’s entertainment sex crimes task force…..

The news of the charges came just hours after Rose McGowan, Rosanna Arquette and other women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct rallied near a New York City courthouse as he arrived for the first day of his criminal trial.

Later, Arquette, McGowan and 23 other women who reported Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct to authorities released a statement praising prosecutors….

But across the street, several women who have said they were harassed or assaulted by Weinstein insisted he was undeserving of sympathy, recounting his pattern of alleged serial sexual abuse and decrying the culture they said enabled him for far too long….

Weinstein faces charges that he raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on another woman in 2006. The activity in the courtroom Monday was largely procedural before proceedings were adjourned for the day, with jury selection expected to begin Tuesday.

In all, more than 80 women have accused him of sexual misconduct going back decades, but the New York criminal trial centers on allegations from just two women. The allegations first came to light more than two years ago in investigative reports published by The New York Times and The New Yorker….

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvey-weinstein-accusers-rally-outside-courthouse-criminal-trial-begins-n1111246

Jeffrey Epstein     ‘She was so dangerous’: where in the world is the notorious Ghislaine Maxwell?     

December 12, 2019 § Leave a comment

Jeffrey Epstein    
‘She was so dangerous’: where in the world is the notorious Ghislaine Maxwell?          

In the months since Jeffrey Epstein died in prison, his former partner has disappeared. Will she ever return to face her accusers?

Emine Saner Thu 12 Dec 2019

….It was the mid-90s and this was the second time the two had met. Farmer had encountered Maxwell and her friend Jeffrey Epstein at her New York Academy of Art graduate show. She would go on to work for the pair for a year, at the front desk of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion. She was perfectly placed to see who came to the house – and says she witnessed young teenagers being brought through the doors by Maxwell. Following an alleged sexual assault by Maxwell and Epstein, Farmer went to the police. She was ignored.

More than 20 years on, her account – along with the testimonies of several other women, including an allegation of abuse from her younger sister, Annie, who was 16 at the time – has helped to create a picture of Epstein as a prolific sex offender, who abused countless underage girls. It is a scandal that has drawn in other powerful men, most notably Prince Andrew. One woman, Virginia Giuffre, says she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with Andrew on three occasions. He has repeatedly denied the allegations, most recently in his disastrous TV interview.

In July, Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, and in August he killed himself in his prison cell while awaiting trial. Since then, attention has turned to Maxwell, 57, his right-hand woman. Yet Maxwell has seemingly vanished. “From what we know, Ghislaine Maxwell was a principal enabler to Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive,” says the lawyer Dan Kaiser. Kaiser is representing Jennifer Araoz, one of the women who says she was raped by Epstein, and who is suing his estate, Maxwell and three other “enablers”.

“She was integral in maintaining the sex trafficking ring,” says Kaiser. “She provided important administrative services in terms of the hiring of recruiters, and management of those employees, the making of appointments and dates for interactions between Mr Epstein and the underage girls that were providing sexual services to him. She also maintained the ring by intimidating girls, by ensuring their silence.”

Kaiser continues: “Jeffrey Epstein couldn’t have done what he did for as long as he did it without the services of somebody like Ghislaine Maxwell. She is as culpable, in my judgment, as Jeffrey Epstein himself.” Maxwell has always denied the allegations and has never faced criminal charges. Her lawyer has not responded to a request for comment….

Her social standing was such that it would probably be easier to list the influential people to whom Maxwell was not connected. She was close to Bill Clinton and attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding; she donated to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. There are photographs of Maxwell with Arianna Huffington, Elon Musk and Michael Bloomberg. She knew Donald Trump and members of the Kennedy family. She was connected to the British royal family through Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Maxwell and Epstein – who loaned Ferguson money to pay off debts – were guests of Andrew at events, including some at Windsor castle, Balmoral and Sandringham.

Prince Andrew, in his recent Newsnight interview, said guests at the parties and dinners in Epstein’s New York mansion included “academics, politicians, people from the United Nations”. But we know now that it was not just influential friends Maxwell cultivated. One of her friends, Euan Rellie, told Tatler: “Every single interesting, pretty, new girl to arrive in New York would end up going for tea with Ghislaine, then being introduced to Jeffrey. She was the acceptable face of a rather mysterious billionaire.”

….She was charming initially, says Farmer. “Everyone [was] like: ‘This woman is so intelligent and interesting.’ She had a really great personality when you first met her.” But it didn’t take long for her to become verbally abusive towards the staff, she says. “I was one of the staff. I would have to go to Jeffrey and say: ‘Ghislaine’s verbally abusing me again.’ Then he would scream at her. It was all like ‘good cop, bad cop’, and they loved playing that game with everybody.”

Once, she says, Ivana Trump visited. “Quite often, with people like Ivana – powerful [people] – Ghislaine would say ‘Hop in the car, you can go on a ride with us’ and it was supposed to be my special little treat.” Then, as soon as they were back at the mansion, Maxwell would switch and shout at her, she says. She also says she could be threatening. “They had video cameras everywhere [in the house], and Ghislaine liked to intimidate by talking about the cameras. She’d say: ‘They’re watching you.’”

Farmer alleges that Maxwell would bring in a steady stream of young girls to the mansion, often saying she was casting for Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie company owned by Leslie Wexner, a close friend of Epstein. “It was really weird to me. I’m like [the] ‘models are so young’, and she said: ‘Yeah, but they need these models for Victoria’s Secret. They go as young as 13 now in modelling.’” Farmer alleges Maxwell would recruit teenagers from schools on the Upper East Side and in Central Park.

….It is alleged that Maxwell was not only an enabler for Epstein’s abuse, but took part in it. In her Panorama interview, Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, recounted how Maxwell and Epstein abused her at his Palm Beach house after Maxwell had recruited her from her job working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. In 1996, Farmer says Maxwell and Epstein sexually assaulted her. She went to the police as well as more than one FBI agent, none of whom took action. She also spoke to Ward in 2002 for a Vanity Fair profile – Ward has since said that the then-editor Graydon Carter cut out the entire part about Farmer and her sister after being pressured by Epstein. A spokeswoman for the magazine has said: “Epstein denied the charges at the time and since the claims were unsubstantiated and no criminal investigation had been initiated, we decided not to include them in what was a financial story.”

….Ransome, who says she was kept for six months on Epstein’s private island and claims she was raped several times a day, said: “They were never like a couple. Jeffrey and Ghislaine were best friends, or like brother and sister. Never holding hands or kissing. And she wasn’t his employee.”

When Maxwell found that Farmer had spoken out, she made threatening calls – Farmer says she has been in hiding “for many years”. “Ghislaine kept threatening my life. She found out where I was living, and she would send messages to me or I would get a call and I would have to move again. Most of her threats were veiled, like: ‘You better look over your shoulder because there’s someone coming for you.’ She told me she was going to burn all my paintings, my career was burned.”

In 2015, Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation, after Maxwell said she was lying about the allegations she had made. The case was settled out of court and Maxwell began retreating from public view.

She was no longer seen in public with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution. For this, he was given an 18-month prison sentence, in a sweetheart plea deal that saw an investigation into his abuse of more than 30 underage girls (for which he could have been given a life sentence) shut down. He served just 13 months, much of it on day release.

Maxwell with (from left) Donald Trump, Melania and Epstein, in 2001, at Mar-a-Lago. Photograph: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/be35b31f3123ebb80a25a25bbfa3f5d0aeb22998/226_418_3236_3010/master/3236.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7243c9db471588f8c8710aeff8d3342f

Maxwell (in green dress) at Royal Ascot in 2000, with Prince Andrew (second from left) and Jeffrey Epstein (far right). Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c12e27f07fd73c4525ed5e5cd0665638e0686fa1/0_67_1339_1029/master/1339.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7ddba2f84f2a610e8f6b50691ea51e0f

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/12/she-was-so-dangerous-where-in-the-world-is-the-notorious-ghislaine-maxwell

How Exactly Is Alleged Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein Connected to President Trump?   

August 30, 2019 § Leave a comment

How Exactly Is Alleged Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein Connected to President Trump?                                     
By Madison Feller Aug 13, 2019

….In the early 2000s, Epstein was suspected of similar crimes in Florida. While federal prosecutors prepared a 53-page federal indictment against him, he ended up striking a plea deal in 2008 and only pled guilty to two prostitution charges. Then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta was instrumental in the deal, and in February 2017, Trump nominated Acosta to be the U.S. Secretary of Labor. He was ultimately confirmed to the position, though Acosta’s deal with Epstein was brought up during his confirmation hearings.

The deal was kept secret from victims, and it gave immunity to any of Epstein’s potential co-conspirators. Epstein served 13 months in a county jail, and he was also allowed to leave for work release six days a week.

The Miami Herald described the deal, which was then sealed, to be “considered one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in history.”

In February, a federal judge in Palm Beach ruled that federal prosecutors, including Acosta, broke the law when they signed the plea deal with Epstein since the deal was kept from his alleged victims, thus violating the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. However, in June, the Department of Justice declined to invalidate the deal, according to Vox.

Epstein and Trump’s Friendship

Besides the Acosta connection, Epstein had other ties to President Donald Trump, namely the fact that the two were friends. In 2002, in a profile about Epstein in New York Magazine, Trump was quoted as saying, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. 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. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

According to the Miami Herald, in June 2016, a woman filed a lawsuit in Manhattan, claiming that she was raped by Trump at a party at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 1994. (She would have been 13 years old at the time.) Trump and Epstein had both denied her account, and she ended up dropping the suit.

The Herald also reported that one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts, worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club when she was introduced to, and began to be sexually abused by, Epstein. In November 2018, Roberts was one of the dozens of alleged victims identified by the Herald in a shocking expose into the allegations against Epstein.

Now, a new report from the New York Times provides a bit more insight into Epstein and Trump’s friendship, and the later fallout. The Times called their relationship a “years long friendship” that is rumored to have ended after both attempted to buy the same oceanfront mansion in Florida.

The piece also described a 1992 “calendar girl” competition hosted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. What was billed by Trump as an exclusive party was actually just a gathering of Trump, Epstein, and about two dozen girls flown in for the event.

NBC archival footage also shows the two partying together at Mar-a-Lago in November 1992, where the two seem to be discussing the women there. Trump appears to tell Epstein that one of the women is “hot” before saying something in his ear that makes Epstein double over with laughter.

Roger Stone, Trump’s former advisor, wrote in his book titled “The Clintons’ War on Women,” that once when Trump visited Epstein’s home in Florida, he later joked about the girls he saw, saying, “The swimming pool was filled with beautiful young girls. ‘How nice,’ I thought, ‘He let the neighborhood kids use his pool.’”….

(Trump) said, “I had a falling out with him. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”

And before his presidential campaign, the Times reports that Trump told his former campaign aide that he barred Epstein from his clubs after Epstein tried to recruit a woman who worked at Mar-a-Lago….

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a28320376/jeffrey-epstein-president-trump-connection/

Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers highly ‘skeptical’ of suicide ruling, say he wasn’t ‘despairing, despondent’ before death, SMART Child and Ritual Abuse Newsletter – Issue 148 – September 2019 – Jeffrey Epstein Information

August 28, 2019 Comments Off on Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers highly ‘skeptical’ of suicide ruling, say he wasn’t ‘despairing, despondent’ before death, SMART Child and Ritual Abuse Newsletter – Issue 148 – September 2019 – Jeffrey Epstein Information

Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers highly ‘skeptical’ of suicide ruling, say he wasn’t ‘despairing, despondent’ before death
Tue, Aug 27 2019 Dan Mangan Kevin Breuninger

….Epstein, 66, was a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other celebrities, whom he entertained at his luxurious residences in Manhattan, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

….A defense lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday expressed deep skepticism that the wealthy financier died by hanging himself in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges, as a medical examiner has ruled.

The injuries suffered by Epstein are “far more consistent with assault” than suicide, the lawyer, Reid Weingarten, told Judge Richard Berman in U.S. District Court in Manhattan during a hearing.

Weingarten cited the defense’s own medical sources. Broken bones were found in Epstein’s neck during an autopsy after he died Aug. 10.

Such fractures are somewhat more common in cases of strangulation than in hanging.

Weingarten told the judge that when he and other defense attorneys spoke to Epstein shortly before his death “we did not see a despairing, despondent, suicidal person.”

Weingarten’s comments came during a proceeding where prosecutors were seeking the dismissal of child sex trafficking charges against the Epstein as a result of his death.

More than 20 alleged victims of Epstein spoke or had statements read during the hearing.

Another Epstein lawyer, Martin Weinberg, told Berman that the defense team had prepared a “significant” motion to dismiss the case, and that the lawyers were not approaching the case with a “futile, defeatist attitude.”

Weingarten said Berman had a “pivotal role to find out what happened.”

“We want the court to help us find out what happened,” Weingarten said.

“We’re skeptical of the certitude” of the finding of suicide by hanging by the New York City medical examiner, the lawyer said.

There are “significant doubts” regarding “the conclusion of suicide,” Weingarten said.

But Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor, told Berman that Epstein’s death was already the subject of “an ongoing and active grand jury investigation.”….Epstein, 66, was a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other celebrities, whom he entertained at his luxurious residences on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Palm Beach, Florida, and on a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

….Weeks before his death, Epstein was found semiconscious in his cell in the Manhattan Correctional Center with marks on his neck. That incident led to him being placed on suicide watch, but he was taken off of that status about a week later.

Epstein’s connections, vast wealth and the prior incident in the jail led to a rash of speculation about whether he was killed in his jail cell, and did not commit suicide.

….Weingarten also pointed out that “we’ve heard that” the surveillance video at the jail around Epstein’s cell “were either corrupted or not functioning.”….

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/27/jeffrey-epsteins-lawyers-skeptical-of-suicide-ruling.html

SMART Child and Ritual Abuse Newsletter – Issue 148 – September 2019

Information in this issue includes: R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson, George Mitchell, E. Jean Carroll, Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, Dr. Michael Holick, Elon Musk, brain microchip, Boy Scouts of America, Catholic Church, New York Child Victims Act, Eric Lin
https://ritualabuse.us/2019/08/issue-148-september-2019/

Jeffrey Epstein arrested for sex trafficking – friends with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Border Patrol Child Warehouse, Ritual Abuse Conference – August 2019

July 9, 2019 § Leave a comment

 Jeffrey Epstein arrested for sex trafficking – friends with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Border Patrol Child Warehouse, Ritual Abuse Conference – August 2019

– More than a decade after receiving one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in U.S history, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested outside of New York

– From the penthouse to the jailhouse: Jeffrey Epstein pleads not guilty to sex trafficking

– With Jeffrey Epstein locked up, these are nervous times for his friends, enablers

– What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse
Dolly Lucio Sevier evaluated dozens of sick children at a facility in South Texas. She found evidence of infection, malnutrition, and psychological trauma.

” One of the victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said that she was forced by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with a number of wealthy and powerful politicians, academics and government leaders, including Dershowitz and Prince Andrew.”

“Alexander Acosta, worked in conjunction with Epstein’s lawyers to engineer the non-prosecution agreement — and keep it secret from Epstein’s victims, so they could not object. Acosta is now President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor.” ” Although federal prosecutors had gathered enough evidence to fill a 53-page federal indictment on sex trafficking charges, Acosta elected to sign off on a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators (some of whom have never been identified) immunity from federal charges.”

“His plane records show that during the time he was abusing young girls, he was flying former President Bill Clinton, Harvard professors and administrators, Nobel-prize winning scientists, actresses, actors, philanthropists and a who’s who of wealthy and powerful people to his island….

His plane, nicknamed “the Lolita Express,’’ was also allegedly used to traffic women and girls from overseas, Giuffre told the Herald.”

 “The Jeffrey Epstein case also has gained notoriety in part because of Epstein’s wide circle of rich and influential friends, including Donald Trump, former President Clinton and Prince Andrew.”

“Another woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, alleges she was recruited by Maxwell in 2000 when she was 16 years old. Giuffre was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s winter home and resort in Palm Beach at the time, court records show. Trump, who lived less than a mile from Epstein’s waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, had also been friends with Epstein. Records show that he flew on Epstein’s private jet on occasion and attended parties and social events where he was photographed with Epstein.”

More than a decade after receiving one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in U.S history, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested outside of New York, sources confirmed to the Miami Herald Saturday night.
By Julie K. Brown July 08, 2019

The girls who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and the cops who championed their cause remain angry over what they regard as a gross injustice, while Epstein’s employees and those who engineered his non-prosecution agreement have prospered. By Marta Oliver Craviotto | Emily Michot | Julie K. Brown

More than a decade after receiving one of the most lenient sentences for a serial sex offender in U.S history, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested outside of New York, sources confirmed to the Miami Herald Saturday night.

Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, according to one of the sources
Epstein, 66, is expected to be arraigned in federal court in New York on Monday on charges that he molested dozens of underage girls in New York and in Florida, the sources said. His arrest, first reported by the Daily Beast, comes nearly two weeks after the Justice Department announced that it would not throw out his 2008 non-prosecution agreement, even though a federal judge ruled it was illegal.

Rumors had been circulating for months that Epstein was under investigation on sex charges in the Southern District of New York. It’s not clear what instances those investigations involved, and the Herald had not been able to confirm the status of the New York probe….

Last November, the Miami Herald published a series of stories, titled Perversion of Justice, that described the ways in which the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, worked in conjunction with Epstein’s lawyers to engineer the non-prosecution agreement — and keep it secret from Epstein’s victims, so they could not object. Acosta is now President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor.

Sources told the Herald that the indictment includes new victims and witnesses who spoke to authorities in New York over the past several months.Epstein, who has homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, New Mexico, Paris and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, sexually abused nearly three dozen girls, mostly 13-16 years old, at his Palm Beach mansion from 1999 to 2006, according to investigators. He used the girls to help recruit other young girls as part of an operation that ran similar to a pyramid scheme. He also had recruiters who helped with his appointments, scheduling as many as three or four girls a day, the FBI probe found.

Acosta met one-on-one with Epstein’s lawyer, Jay Lefkowitz, in October 2007, at a West Palm Beach Marriott. Records reviewed by the Herald showed that it was at that meeting that Acosta agreed to a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and others involved in his operation federal immunity.

As part of the deal, Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges involving a 17-year-old girl, and he served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail. The deal was sealed, however, so that no one — not even his victims — knew the details about the agreement until nearly a year later. By that time, Epstein had already been released from jail and had returned to his jet-setting life.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in New York ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of documents that are expected to show evidence relating to whether Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were recruiting underage girls and young women as part of an international sex trafficking operation. Maxwell, 57, has never been charged….

As part of its investigation, the Herald was able to identify nearly 80 girls who were molested by Epstein. Four of the victims, now in their late 20s and early 30s, spoke on video about how they were traumatized first by Epstein, then by his lawyers and private investigators, and finally by the prosecutors themselves, who disposed of the case without telling them.

One of the victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said that she was forced by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with a number of wealthy and powerful politicians, academics and government leaders, including Dershowitz and Prince Andrew. She has never named the other men, largely because she has been afraid, her lawyers said….

This widely published photo of Virginia Roberts Giuffre with Prince Andrew bolstered her claim that she was loaned out for sexual purposes to famous men by Jeffrey Epstein….

His plane records show that during the time he was abusing young girls, he was flying former President Bill Clinton, Harvard professors and administrators, Nobel-prize winning scientists, actresses, actors, philanthropists and a who’s who of wealthy and powerful people to his island….

His plane, nicknamed “the Lolita Express,’’ was also allegedly used to traffic women and girls from overseas, Giuffre told the Herald.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232374872.html

From the penthouse to the jailhouse: Jeffrey Epstein pleads not guilty to sex trafficking
By Julie K. Brown July 08, 2019

….The 66-year-old multimillionaire — who once rubbed elbows with former presidents, royalty and Nobel-Prize-winning scientists — was worlds away from the luxurious protection of his island enclave in the Caribbean, his vast mansion on the Upper East Side, his ranch in New Mexico or his penthouse in Paris.

His appearance marked the first time that two of Epstein’s alleged victims — who were 14 at the time they were sexually abused — were able to face him in a courtroom after a decades-long quest for justice.

Courtney Wild and Michelle Licata, seated in the rear of the courtroom with their attorneys, were stoic as federal magistrate Henry Pitman read Epstein’s indictment and asked him how he intended to plead to the charges.

“Not guilty, your honor,’’ Epstein replied.

Eleven years after receiving federal immunity as part of a strikingly lenient plea agreement, Epstein stands charged with one count of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. If convicted, he could face up to 45 years in prison….

Monday’s New York indictment mirrors the case that Palm Beach police put together against Epstein in 2006 and 2007. According to the police, Epstein employed recruiters to lure middle school and high school girls as young as 13 to his Palm Beach mansion to give him massages that turned into sex acts. The girls were paid $200-$300 and could earn additional money if they recruited other girls, which they did, from malls and teenage parties around West Palm Beach.

Then-Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer wanted to charge Epstein only with a misdemeanor, but Palm Beach police referred the case to the FBI, believing that Epstein’s crimes were more serious.

Although federal prosecutors had gathered enough evidence to fill a 53-page federal indictment on sex trafficking charges, Acosta elected to sign off on a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators (some of whom have never been identified) immunity from federal charges.

Epstein’s arrest on Saturday came eight months after the Miami Herald published a re-examination of the 2008 deal, revealing that Acosta, now President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor, met secretly with one of Epstein’s lawyers, Jay Lefkowitz, in October of 2007, at a West Palm Beach Marriott, 70 miles from Acosta’s Miami office.

As part of the deal at that time, Epstein pleaded guilty to minor state prostitution charges involving a 17-year-old girl. He served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail but was allowed to leave the facility nearly every day to spend 10 or more hours in his office in downtown West Palm Beach….

The Jeffrey Epstein case also has gained notoriety in part because of Epstein’s wide circle of rich and influential friends, including Donald Trump, former President Clinton and Prince Andrew.

The Miami Herald’s coverage of Epstein has brought a rising chorus of calls for Acosta to resign or be fired from the president’s Cabinet.

Three days before Epstein’s arrest, a federal appeals court in New York ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of documents that are expected to show evidence relating to whether Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were recruiting underage girls and young women as part of an international sex trafficking operation. Maxwell, 57, has never been charged….
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232398247.html

With Jeffrey Epstein locked up, these are nervous times for his friends, enablers
By Julie K. Brown July 07, 2019

His Saturday arrest capped months of investigating, led by federal agents and prosecutors with the Southern District of New York’s Public Corruption Unit, assisted by investigators with the sex trafficking division. Although details of the case remain undisclosed, there are indications that others involved in his crimes could be charged or named as cooperating witnesses.

Among those potentially on the list: Ghislaine Maxwell, a 57-year-old British socialite and publishing heir who has been accused of working as Epstein’s madam; and Jean-Luc Brunel, who, according to court records, was partners with Epstein in an international modeling company…..

For her part, Maxwell, whose social circle included such friends as Bill and Hillary Clinton and members of the British Royal family, has been described as using recruiters positioned throughout the world to lure women by promising them modeling assignments, educational opportunities and fashion careers. The pitch was really a ruse to groom them into sex trafficking, it is alleged in court records.

At least one woman, Sarah Ransome, claimed in a lawsuit that Maxwell and Epstein threatened to physically harm her or destroy any chance she would have of a fashion career if she didn’t have sex with them and others.

Maxwell has denied the claim and has never been charged.

Another woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, alleges she was recruited by Maxwell in 2000 when she was 16 years old. Giuffre was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s winter home and resort in Palm Beach at the time, court records show.

Trump, who lived less than a mile from Epstein’s waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, had also been friends with Epstein. Records show that he flew on Epstein’s private jet on occasion and attended parties and social events where he was photographed with Epstein.

Giuffre brought a civil defamation suit against Maxwell in 2015, after the Epstein associate called her a liar. It was settled two years later. But 2,000 pages of the previously sealed case file are expected to be made public in a few weeks, the result of litigation by the Miami Herald, and those records could prove damaging to Maxwell and others involved in Epstein’s alleged scheme….

Giuffre claims that Epstein used the modeling agency, Mc2, to lure underage girls and in court papers said Epstein “deliberately engaged in a pattern of racketeering that involved luring minor children through Mc2, mostly girls under the age of 17, to engage in sexual play for money.”

Brunel has denied these claims, and says that Epstein was not a business partner or investor in his modeling company.

But Epstein’s arrest could open a window to expose other influential people who knew about or participated in his crimes. The question is what evidence or information does Epstein have against them and how might he use it?…. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232385422.html

What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse
Dolly Lucio Sevier evaluated dozens of sick children at a facility in South Texas. She found evidence of infection, malnutrition, and psychological trauma.

MCALLEN, Texas—Inside the Border Patrol warehouse on Ursula Avenue, Dolly Lucio Sevier saw a baby who’d been fed from the same unwashed bottle for days; children showing signs of malnutrition and dehydration; and several kids who, in her medical opinion, were exhibiting clear evidence of psychological trauma. More than 1,000 migrant children sat in the detention facility here, and Sevier, a local pediatrician, had been examining as many as she could, one at a time. But she wasn’t permitted to enter the area where they were being held, many of them in cages, and find the sickest kids to examine. Instead, in a nearby room, she manually reviewed a 50-page printout of that day’s detainees, and highlighted the names of children with a 2019 birth date—the babies—before moving on to the toddlers…..

As agents brought in the children she requested, Sevier said, the smell of sweat and soiled clothing filled the room. They had not been allowed to bathe or change since crossing the Rio Grande and turning themselves over to officials. Sevier found that about two-thirds of the kids she examined had symptoms of respiratory infection. The guards wore surgical masks, but the detainees breathed the air unfiltered. As the children filed in, Sevier said she found evidence of sleep deprivation, dehydration, and malnutrition too….

And the children’s physical ailments, Sevier also began to worry about their mental health. She asked to see a 2-year-old from Honduras along with his teenage brother, who she hoped could provide the baby’s medical history. The older boy was excited because officials had kept them separate for more than two weeks. But when the guards brought the toddler over from the “day care” where the littlest detainees are held, he stared with wide eyes, Sevier recalled, and began panting heavily, hoarsely, and persistently for the rest of the encounter.

During the exam, she noticed that the toddler behaved differently from the kids his age she sees every day. In an exam room at her clinic decorated with a Lion King mural, I watched her do a routine checkup on a slightly younger boy. This toddler pulled back when Sevier touched him, but was easily soothed by his mother. The reaction was normal—“a small oscillation between worried and okay,” Sevier explained. A little shyness is typical, she said, but toddlers “shouldn’t be fearful of a stranger.” When they are afraid—when the memory of their last shots is fresh in their mind, for instance—they resist Sevier by crying, clinging to their caregiver, or squirming beneath her stethoscope.

At Ursula, however, the children Sevier examined—like the panting 2-year-old—were “totally fearful, but then entirely subdued,” she told me. She could read the fear in their faces, but they were perfectly submissive to her authority. “I can only explain it by trauma, because that is such an unusual behavior,” she said. Sevier had brought along Mickey Mouse toys to break the ice, and the kids seem to enjoy playing with them. Yet none resisted, she said, when she took them away at the end of the exam. “At some point,” Sevier mused, “you’re broken and you stop fighting.”

Sevier made her way down the list of names. A 15-month-old baby with a fever had been in detention for three weeks. His uncle had fed him from the same dirty formula bottle for days on end, until a guard replaced it with a new one. Because “all parents want the best health for their infant,” Sevier later wrote in the medical declaration, denying them “the ability to wash their infant’s bottles is unconscionable and could be considered intentional mental and emotional abuse.” Before her visit, the uncle had asked for medical attention because the baby was wheezing. In response, a guard had touched the baby’s head with his hand and concluded, “He’s not hot,” the uncle told Sevier…..
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/border-patrols-oversight-sick-migrant-children/593224/

SMART East Coast Conference, Prices Low as $50, Ask Alison Miller questions about trauma

Excellent opportunity for therapists to ask Alison Miller author of Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control (for therapists) questions about severe trauma. Low prices at a conference right here in New England.

East Coast conference organized by S.M.A.R.T. (Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse)

The 2019 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference is August 17 – 18, 2019 at the DoubleTree near Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT

Internet conference information: https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Speakers include Alison Miller Ph.D, Neil Brick and movie maker Daniel Roemer.

SMART will have special conference prices until July 15th and prices as low as $50 and low income prices for those that need them.

Deception by Organized Abuser Groups: Helping Your Front People and Your Insiders Recognize the Lies and Tricks Which Keep You Enslaved by Alison Miller

If you are a survivor of abuse by a mind-controlling abuser group, you have parts who have been trained to obey abusers because they believe lies your abusers told you. The abusers deceived you in childhood, using drugs, acted-out scenarios, stage magic, stories and films to control your child parts and prevent you from speaking out about the abuse. Their power over you depends on your young parts believing the abusers’ lies. If you learn to recognize when your emotions and behavior are influenced by these deceptions, and to discover the ways in which you were deceived, you can increase your freedom from the abuser group. (Skype presentation)

Alison Miller, Ph.D. is a retired clinical psychologist who practised in Victoria, B.C., Canada and worked with survivors of organized abuse, including ritual abuse and mind control from 1990 to 2017. She has twice chaired the RAMCOA (ritual abuse/mind control/organized abuse) special interest group of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. She is the author of Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control (for therapists), Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse (for survivors), and co-author with survivor Wendy Hoffman of From the Trenches: A Victim and Therapist Talk about Mind Control and Ritual Abuse. She has published several other book chapters and articles, as well as being the originator of the LIFE Seminars parent education programs.

A Survivor’s View of Recovery from Ritual Abuse by Neil Brick

Recovery from ritual abuse can take many years. Recovery may include working through memories, building functionality and developing more effective ways of interacting and integrating emotions. Every individual has different experiences that lead them through the recovery path. Neil Brick will discuss his long journey healing from severe abuse. This will include ways he has learned more about himself, ways he has learned to develop healthier interactions with others and ways he has helped others along the recovery path.

Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 24 years. http://neilbrick.com

Part One: Daniel Roemer will share his own story using PowerPoint, visuals and clips from his docudrama “Gray”, which digs deep into uncovering his abuse history, actual news articles from the time of the abuse, and includes interviews with prominent locals and family members, and his personal search for what went on.

Part Two: Daniel Roemer will conduct a film-making 101 class (designed for self-taping and interviewing others) – to share the story, both technical and directorial how-to’s. Clinicians would also benefit in having these skills to share their methods of work.

Everyone has a unique story, whether you are a clinician, a survivor or both. Stories, since the beginning of time, united tribes and cultures and passed along their ideals by framing LIFE as a narrative. Stories helped the listener to feel less alone in the world, feel inspired, and helped them to become all the wiser on their own journey.

Daniel Roemer’s unique and powerful style of directing has lead him to receive such attention as USA Film’s Top 10 Emerging Director’s list at the age of 20, two-time Project Greenlight Best Director Finalist (Ben Affleck/Matt Damon), and student Academy Award State finalist by age 22.

He’s screened in festivals including Sundance, AFI Fest, LA Shorts Fest, and a special senator screening in Washington DC (for selected congressmen). Daniel was also among the few who finalized for the LA Shorts Fest “DNA Award,” the festival’s top honor of a million dollar feature deal with Universal Pictures (500 contestants).

Recently Daniel was a top 50 Director Finalist (of 10,000 entrants) for Fox’s reality show “On the Lot”, produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, showcasing filmmakers “bound for stardom”. His shooting and editing have aired on Good Morning America, Dr. Phil and Arsenio Hall’s TV series “The World’s Funniest Moments”. His behind the scenes work includes Sony Picture’s exclusive (I Love Your Work) starring Giovanni Ribisi, Jason Lee, Vince Vaughn, Christina Ricci and Elvis Costello.

His nonprofit work includes interviews and promos with John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Meryl Streep, Olivia Newton-John, John Ritter, Pierce Brosnan and Selma Blair, as well as an extensive interview with Ben Stiller for The Huckleberry Fund (nonprofit for Homeless Children). Editing credits include 15-week TV series “Beyond the Felt,” showcasing world’s top poker players, A&E reality TV show “Dumpster Diving,” feature-length documentary on Breast Cancer, starring Christina Applegate, Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow (distrib. Lionsgate).

He’s filmed and edited for A&E E!, ET, Access Hollywood, TV News, and screened at national conventions for 20th Century Fox Producer, Ralph Winter (X-Men 1&2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Fantastic 4). Most recently Daniel directed a TV pilot for CW Network (Atlanta) and is in post production, as well as finishing his feature-length documentary “Red White and Blowhard” shot across the US 2012-2013. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1281008/

Justice Department opens probe into Jeffrey Epstein plea deal, How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime

February 7, 2019 § Leave a comment

Justice Department opens probe into Jeffrey Epstein plea deal
By Julie K. Brown February 06, 2019

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta’s role in negotiating a controversial plea deal with a wealthy New York investor accused of molesting more than 100 underage girls in Palm Beach.

The probe is in response to a request by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was critical of the case following a series of stories in the Miami Herald. The Herald articles detailed how Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, and other DOJ attorneys worked hand-in-hand with defense lawyers to cut a lenient plea deal with multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2008.

The Herald’s three-part series, Perversion of Justice, was cited by Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd in his letter to Sasse. DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility will head the investigation, he said.

“OPR has now opened an investigation into allegations that department attorneys may have committed professional misconduct in the manner in which the Epstein criminal matter was resolved,’’ wrote Boyd in the letter dated Wednesday.

“Jeffrey Epstein is a child rapist and there’s not a single mom or dad in America who shouldn’t be horrified by the fact that he received a pathetically soft sentence,’’ Sasse said on Wednesday. “The victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation — and so do the American people and the members of law enforcement who work to put these kinds of monsters behind bars.’’

Former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter — who pressured Acosta and former Palm Beach state prosecutor Barry Krischer to more aggressively prosecute Epstein — said he would like to see Epstein’s victims finally receive some form of justice.

“I hope that the Department of Justice investigation answers the questions of why this case was handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in the way that it was, and may it somehow result in justice and an apology by the government for the victims and their families,’’ Reiter said.

The case has raised fundamental questions about whether well-connected, wealthy people wield influence over prosecutors and others in the justice system. Epstein had a wide circle of powerful friends, including Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, lawyer Alan Dershowitz and a former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak….

Epstein, 66, could have faced a possible life sentence for sex trafficking, but instead was secretly granted federal immunity, along with others who were part of the conspiracy, some of whom were named, others not.

Epstein was suspected by the FBI of running an international sex trafficking operation involving minors, and federal prosecutors had drafted a 53-page indictment that was shelved after Acosta signed off on a non-prosecution agreement in September 2007.

For months after the deal was executed, federal prosecutors kept Epstein’s victims in the dark, and the FBI led some of them to believe the investigation was ongoing. Most of the girls, ages 13 to 16 at the time, found out about the plea bargain only after learning about it on television when Epstein was sentenced in June 2008.

Acosta agreed to seal the agreement and keep it from Epstein’s victims so that the girls couldn’t try to derail it before he was sentenced, the Herald found.

Epstein’s agreement called for him to serve 18 months in the Palm Beach County jail and to register as a sex offender. But even in jail, Epstein received liberal work release privileges that required him to spend little time in a cell. Six days a week, he was picked up at the jail by his private driver and driven to an office in downtown West Palm Beach, where he spent up to 12 hours a day greeting friends, lawyers and several young women who were named by federal prosecutors as participants in his sex trafficking scheme….

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article225624945.html

How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime
BY Julie K. Brown Nov. 28, 2018

….His client, Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, 54, was accused of assembling a large, cult-like network of underage girls — with the help of young female recruiters — to coerce into having sex acts behind the walls of his opulent waterfront mansion as often as three times a day, the Town of Palm Beach police found.

The eccentric hedge fund manager, whose friends included former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, was also suspected of trafficking minor girls, often from overseas, for sex parties at his other homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Caribbean, FBI and court records show.

Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life.

But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck — an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and the number of people involved.

Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal — called a non-prosecution agreement — essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes, according to a Miami Herald examination of thousands of emails, court documents and FBI records.

The pact required Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Epstein and four of his accomplices named in the agreement received immunity from all federal criminal charges. But even more unusual, the deal included wording that granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators’’ who were also involved in Epstein’s crimes. These accomplices or participants were not identified in the agreement, leaving it open to interpretation whether it possibly referred to other influential people who were having sex with underage girls at Epstein’s various homes or on his plane.

As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls — or anyone else — might show up in court and try to derail it….
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html

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