EPSTEIN
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the Southern District of Florida of him, four named co-conspirators, and “any potential
co-conspirators.” Victims were not informed of, or consulted about, a potential state resolution or
the NPA prior to its signing.
The signing of the NPA did not immediately lead to Epstein’s guilty plea and incarceration,
however. For the next nine months, Epstein deployed his extensive team of prominent attorneys
to try to change the terms that his team had negotiated and he had approved, while simultaneously
seeking to invalidate the entire NPA by persuading senior Department officials that there was no
federal interest at issue and the matter should be left to the discretion of state law enforcement
officials. Through repeated communications with the USAO and senior Department officials,
defense counsel fought the government’s interpretation of the NPA’s terms. They also sought and
obtained review by the Department’s Criminal Division and then the Office of the Deputy Attorney
General, primarily on the issue of federal jurisdiction over what the defense insisted was “a
quintessentially state matter.” After reviewing submissions by the defense and the USAO, on
June 23, 2008, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General informed defense counsel that the
Deputy Attorney General would not intervene in the matter. Only then did Epstein agree to fulfill
his obligation under the NPA, and on June 30, 2008, he appeared in state court and pled guilty to
the pending state indictment charging felony solicitation of prostitution and, pursuant to the NPA,
to a criminal information charging him with procurement of minors to engage in prostitution.
Upon the joint request of the defendant and the state prosecutor, and consistent with the NPA, the
court immediately sentenced Epstein to consecutive terms of 12 months’ incarceration on the
solicitation charge and 6 months’ incarceration on the procurement charge, followed by 12 months
of community control. Epstein began serving the sentence that day, in a minimum-security Palm
Beach County facility. A copy of the NPA was filed under seal with the state court.
On July 7, 2008, a victim, identified as “Jane Doe,” filed in federal court in the Southern
District of Florida an emergency petition alleging that the government violated the Crime Victims’
Rights Act (CVRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3771, when it resolved the federal investigation of Epstein
without consulting with victims, and seeking enforcement of her CVRA rights.2 In responding to
the petition, the government, represented by the USAO, revealed the existence of the NPA, but did
not produce it to the petitioners until the court directed it to be turned over subject to a protective
order; the NPA itself remained under seal in the federal district court. After the initial filings and
hearings, the CVRA case was dormant for almost two years while the petitioners pursued civil
cases against Epstein.
Emergency Victim’s Petition for Enforcement of Crime Victim’s [sic] Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 3771,
Doe v. United States, Case No. 9:08-cv-80736-KAM (S.D. Fla. July 7, 2008). Another victim subsequently joined
the litigation as “Jane Doe 2.”
iii
Soon after he was incarcerated, Epstein applied for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s work
release program, and the Sheriff approved his application. In October 2008, Epstein began
spending 12 hours a day purportedly working at the “Florida Science Foundation,” an entity
Epstein had recently incorporated that was co-located at the West Palm Beach office of one of
Epstein’s attorneys. Although the NPA specified a term of incarceration of 18 months, Epstein
received “gain time,” that is, time off for good behavior, and he actually served less than 13 months
of incarceration. On July 22, 2009, Epstein was released from custody to a one-year term of home
detention as a condition of community control, and he registered as a sexual offender with the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. After victims and news media filed suit in Florida courts
for release of the copy of the NPA that had been filed under seal in the state court file, a state judge
in September 2009 ordered it to be made public.
By mid-2010, Epstein reportedly settled multiple civil lawsuits brought against him by
victims seeking monetary damages, including the two petitioners in the CVRA litigation. During
the CVRA litigation, the petitioners sought discovery from the USAO, which made substantial
document productions, filed lengthy privilege logs in support of its withholding of documents, and
submitted declarations from the AUSA and the FBI case agents who conducted the federal
investigation. The USAO opposed efforts to unseal various records, as did Epstein, who was
permitted to intervene in the litigation with respect to certain issues. Nevertheless, the court
ultimately ordered that substantial records relating to the USAO’s resolution of the Epstein case