The case of Jeffrey Epstein is notorious because the serious charges against him of sex trafficking of underage girls was settled in a sweetheart plea deal kept secret from his accusers and that also placed many documents under seal. The US Attorney who arranged the deal Alexander Acosta is now Trump’s labor secretary. Many famous people were entertained by the wealthy Epstein. A motion by his victims to unseal the documents was approved by a judge last week. (You can see my past posts on the Epstein case here.)
But today Epstein was arrested again. It is a long article full of sordid details about his activities.
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for allegedly sex traffickingdozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, and will appear in court in New York on Monday, according to three law enforcement sources. The arrest, by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force, comes about 12 years after the 66-year-old financier essentially got a slap on the wrist for allegedly molesting dozens of underage girls in Florida.
For more than a decade, Epstein’s alleged abuse of minors has been the subject of lawsuits brought by victims, investigations by local and federal authorities, and exposés in the press. But despite the attention cast on his alleged sex crimes, the hedge-funder has managed to avoid any meaningful jail time, let alone federal charges.
The new indictment—which, according to two sources, will be unsealed Monday in Manhattan federal court—will reportedly allege that Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage girls in a now-familiar scheme: paying them cash for “massages” and then molesting or sexually abusing them in his Upper East Side mansion or his palatial residence in Palm Beach. Epstein will be charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors—which could put him away for a maximum of 45 years.
…In 2014, Giuffre [one of the victims-MS] tried to contact the FBI again for an update on the Epstein investigation. “I have never been able to figure out who was (and still is) stopping a prosecution,” Giuffre stated in the declaration.
“Because nothing is being done,” Giuffre added, “it makes me think that Epstein was right when he told me he had so many people in his pocket. Maybe those people are still helping him escape being prosecuted for what he did against me.
“The justice system doesn’t seem to respond to the victims in this case. It seems to favor those who have the most money and power and influence.”
Epstein has plenty of friends in high places and it will be interesting to see if he can swat away this prosecution too, even though this time it will be under the glare of media scrutiny.
Isn’t he all buddy-buddy with Trump?
@WMDKitty #1
Yes. https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/trump-biographer-reminds-of-presidents-shocking-2002-quotes-about-partying-with-his-longtime-friend-jeffrey-epstein/
Apparently these are federal charges, and Trump has the power to pardon him.
Epstein was buddy-buddy with a lot of people. While Trump was included, there may be a lot more political fallout besides just Trump if this case gets taken seriously, and Epstein has motive to name some names.
The right-wing rage machine has been running for years on “secret pedophile sex rings”. While it’s not impossible that some of Trump’s supporters will spin on a dime and either claim that Trump was playing some long game, or that Epstein isn’t guilty if Trump says so, I suspect that enough of his followers would abandon Trump if he did make such a pardon as to make Senate co-operation with impeachment & conviction a real possibility.
Owlmirror,
I agree. While Trump has boasted that he could shoot someone and his supporters would not care, pardoning an accused pedophile who was running a sex ring of underage women may be a bridge too far. Some people may consider shooting someone as a ‘manly’ thing to do and be able to find reasons as to why the victim may have deserved it. But sex rings of minors?
But I have been wrong before about the fervor of his supporters so I am not willing to bet on this, assuming that I was a betting person, which I am not.
Eerie. Like pizzagate but with actual evidence. It’s almost as if some of those loons had an idea what sorts of things were going on but just couldn’t admit who was doing it.
Or like somebody knew (or at least suspected) that this might come out, and wanted to engage in a bit of pre-emptive information warfare, or to at least muddy the waters… The argument will now be that it’s a deep-state stitch-up to hide who the real paedophiles are.
The problem with speculating about how this will hurt Trump is it appears the crimes are BIPARTISAN. Note articles pointing out close ties to the Clintons as well as the Trump Crime Family.
“Holding people accountable for abusing girls should be a nonpartisan affair. Sadly, in the Trump era of lowered expectations and even more dismal behavior, we can’t even count on that.” — Jill Filipovic