Jeffrey Epstein charged with trafficking children for sex
Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force. He is accused of scores of sex crimes against young girls. The BBC says that “according to the charges, the girls, some as young as 14, were given hundreds of dollars for sex acts. He faces one count of sex trafficking and one of sex trafficking conspiracy.”
Epstein has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He denies any wrongdoing.
After years of secrecy and secret deals, the well-connected multimillionaire is in the judiciary’s crosshairs. Justice ought to be done and seen to be done, at every stage.
The Times says the action “came 11 years after federal prosecutors in Florida granted him a deal that meant that he served 13 months in prison despite sex abuse allegations from 36 females, some as young as 14.”
Epstein, once a friend of Prince Andrew, former US President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump, was previously accused of abusing dozens of teenage girls between 1999 and 2007. But he reached a plea deal to avoid federal sex trafficking charges in the case.
He instead pleaded guilty in 2008 to lesser Florida state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.
He spent 13 months in jail and registered as a sex offender, avoiding a possible life sentence.Earlier this year, a Florida judge ruled that federal prosecutors broke the law by not informing Epstein’s victims of the plea deal at the time.
The Daily Beast tells us about the former pal of Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew:
The alleged victims, who sued the government for violating the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, asked the court to rescind Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement and called for the feds to hold him criminally liable. The NPA also granted immunity to Epstein’s co-conspirators, identified in the document as “including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”
But in June, prosecutors for the government advised the judge to uphold the plea deal, saying that voiding it would “cause unintended harm to many of” the victims and jeopardize monetary settlements that more than a dozen of them received.
“If today’s report is true, it only proves that Epstein should have been charged by federal prosecutors 12 years ago in Florida. With his money, Epstein was able to buy more than a decade of delay in facing justice—but fortunately he wasn’t able to postpone justice forever,” said attorney Paul Cassell, who represents multiple victims of Epstein in their lawsuit against the federal government.
“While New York prosecutors are apparently seeking to hold Epstein accountable, the fight will continue to force federal prosecutors in Florida to do the same thing,” Cassell added in a statement. “While Epstein was at the head of the international sex trafficking organization, that conspiracy could not have functioned without many others playing their part. Jane Doe 1 and 2 will continue to fight for all of Epstein’s co-conspirators to be held accountable in New York, Florida, and anywhere else they committed crimes.”
Much to follow…
Posted: 8th, July 2019 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
