The Palm Beach Investigation (2001 – 2006)
As early as 2001: Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier with a social circle that included some of the world’s most powerful people, began sexually abusing underage girls.
This abuse occurred at his opulent waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, as well as at his other homes in Manhattan, New York, and the Caribbean. His friends and associates included former President Bill Clinton, future President Donald Trump, and Britain’s Prince Andrew. These associations would later fuel speculation and investigations into whether other powerful men were involved in or knew about his crimes.
The Scheme’s Operation: Epstein assembled a large, cult-like network of underage girls with the help of young female recruiters. The scheme worked like a sexual pyramid scheme.
Recruiters, who were often victims themselves, would scour malls, house parties, and other places where girls congregated. They would tell recruits they could earn $200 to $300 to give Epstein a massage.
As one victim, Courtney Wild, explained, “He told me he wanted them as young as I could find him… If I had a girl to bring him at breakfast, lunch and dinner, then that’s how many times I would go a day. He wanted as many girls as I could get him. It was never enough.” Epstein preferred girls who were white, appeared prepubescent, and were easy to manipulate.
The Mansion Ritual: The girls’ accounts to police were remarkably consistent. They would enter the mansion through a side door, often greeted by a female staff assistant named Sarah Kellen. A chef might offer them a meal. They would then ascend a staircase to a large master bedroom where Epstein, clad only in a towel, would be waiting.
He would select a lotion from an array on a table, lie facedown on a massage table, and instruct the girl to strip partially or fully. He would direct them to massage his feet and backside before turning over.
He would then have them massage his chest, often instructing them to pinch his nipples while he masturbated. He would escalate to penetration with his fingers, the use of a vibrator, and, in many cases, intercourse, paying premiums for each act.
He was sometimes joined by his associate, Nadia Marcinkova, whom he described as his “Yugoslavian sex slave.” One girl told police that during these encounters, Marcinkova would use strap-on dildos and other toys, sometimes leaving her so sore she could barely walk.
This same girl alleged that on one occasion, Epstein held her down on a massage table and penetrated her, afterward apologizing and paying her $1,000. Epstein often took photographs of the girls during these sessions.
The Victims: The victims, now mothers, wives, nurses, bartenders, Realtors, hairdressers, and teachers, largely came from disadvantaged families, single-parent homes, or foster care. Many had experienced profound trauma prior to meeting Epstein. One girl had watched her stepfather strangle her 8-year-old stepbrother.
As one victim, who was 14 at the time, stated, “We were stupid, poor children… We just wanted money for school clothes, for shoes e.t.c. I remember wearing shoes too tight for three years in a row. We had no family and no guidance.”
Epstein acted as a generous benefactor to some, buying gifts, renting them cars, and promising to help with college or modeling careers, which police corroborated with receipts and records found in his trash.
March 2005: The criminal investigation began when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported to Palm Beach police that Epstein had molested their daughter. The girl reluctantly confessed she had been brought to his mansion by two other girls.
The Expanding Probe: This initial lead quickly expanded. Led by Detective Joseph Recarey, detectives found that tracking down one victim invariably led to two or three more.
Retired Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, who supervised the probe, stated, “We didn’t know where the victims would ever end.” He also noted, “This was not a ‘he said, she said’ situation. This was 50-something ‘shes’ and one ‘he’ and the ‘shes’ all basically told the same story.”
The evidence gathered was overwhelming, including phone records, written phone messages from girls found in Epstein’s trash, flight logs for his private plane showing his travel correlated with the girls’ appointments, and receipts for gifts and rental cars.
The flight logs, in particular, contained the names of famous and powerful people who had been passengers, including Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, which led investigators to suspect Epstein’s exploits were not confined to Palm Beach.
The Federal Investigation and The Secret Plea Agreement (2007 – 2008)
May 2007: An assistant U.S. attorney, working with two FBI agents, submitted a 53-page draft federal indictment outlining 60 criminal counts against Epstein. The FBI probe was expanding, interviewing witnesses and victims “from across the United States,” from Florida to New York and New Mexico.
The FBI was investigating suspicions that Epstein was trafficking minor girls, often from overseas, for sex parties. A separate, pending lawsuit in New York would later allege Epstein used an international modeling agency to recruit girls as young as 13 from Europe, Ecuador, and Brazil.
July 2007: Epstein’s powerhouse legal team—which included Jay Lefkowitz, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Jack Goldberger, Roy Black, former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, Gerald Lefcourt, and Kenneth Starr, met with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, to negotiate a deal.
October 12, 2007: On a muggy October morning, Acosta met with Epstein’s attorney, Jay Lefkowitz, for a breakfast appointment at the Marriott in West Palm Beach, about 70 miles from the prosecutor’s Miami headquarters. For the then-38-year-old Acosta, a rising Republican star, it was an unusual meeting location. At this meeting, the final terms of an extraordinary plea agreement were struck.
The Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA): The deal, finalized that morning, included these provisions:
It granted Epstein and four named accomplices (including Sarah Kellen and Nadia Marcinkova) immunity from all federal criminal charges.
⇔ It contained wording that granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators” who were involved in Epstein’s crimes, leaving it open to interpretation whether this referred to other influential people, such as the high-profile friends like Prince Andrew or others who were alleged to have been involved.
⇔ It required Epstein to plead guilty to only two state prostitution charges in Florida court (one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18).
⇔ It resulted in a sentence of just 18 months in a county jail.
⇔ It essentially shut down the ongoing FBI probe into a possible international sex trafficking operation.
⇔ Crucially, and in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, Acosta agreed that the deal would be kept from the victims. The agreement was sealed until after it was approved by a judge, averting any chance the victims might show up in court to derail it.
Prosecutorial Collaboration: Emails reveal an unusual level of collaboration between federal prosecutors and Epstein’s team, often focused on limiting scandal and press coverage. After the breakfast meeting, Lefkowitz wrote to Acosta, thanking him for his “commitment” and noting he was hopeful Acosta would abide by his promise to keep the deal confidential and not contact victims.
In a September 2007 email, lead federal prosecutor A. Marie Villafaña wrote to Lefkowitz: “On an ‘avoid the press’ note … I can file the charge in district court in Miami which will hopefully cut the press coverage significantly. Do you want to check that out?”
A Possible Quid Pro Quo: As part of the plea deal, Epstein provided what the government called “valuable consideration” for unspecified information he supplied to federal investigators. The documents do not detail what this was, but the timing coincided with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Records show Epstein was a key federal witness in the criminal prosecution of two prominent executives with Bear Stearns, who were later acquitted. It is not known what role, if any, this played in the plea negotiations.
June 30, 2008: Epstein pleaded guilty in state court. He admitted to committing only one offense against one underage girl, who was labeled a prostitute despite being 14, well under Florida’s age of consent (18). None of the 36 underage victims identified by the FBI were notified or appeared at the sentencing. Most heard about it on the news.
July 7, 2008: A victim identified as “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, alleging she and other victims were not informed that the case was being resolved with a plea deal.
Lenient Incarceration, Civil Settlements, and Mounting Scrutiny (2008 – 2018)
Epstein’s Incarceration: Epstein served his sentence not in state prison, but in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Jail. Despite explicit sheriff’s department rules stating sex offenders do not qualify, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s office granted Epstein work release privileges.
He was allowed to leave the jail six days a week for 12 hours a day to work in a comfortable office he had set up in West Palm Beach.
July 22, 2009: Epstein was released after serving less than 13 months.
September 2009: A Florida judge ordered the non-prosecution agreement to be made public, over two years after it was signed. Bradley Edwards, an attorney for the victims, filed an emergency motion to block the NPA, but by the time it was unsealed, Epstein had already served his sentence and been released.
2010: Epstein settled multiple civil lawsuits brought by his victims. In many cases, the confidential financial settlements came only after Epstein’s attorneys engaged in scorched-earth tactics, exposing every dark corner of the victims’ lives to portray them as gold diggers and unreliable witnesses prone to drug use.
2011: Alex Acosta, then a law school dean, explained his actions by stating he was “unduly pressured” by Epstein’s heavy-hitting legal team.
That same year, Epstein petitioned to have his sex offender status reduced in New York, where he was classified as a Level 3 offender (the highest risk). A prosecutor from New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office argued on Epstein’s behalf, but New York Supreme Court Judge Ruth Pickholtz denied the petition, stating, “I have to tell you, I’m a little overwhelmed because I have never seen a prosecutor’s office do anything like this.”
Allegations Against Other Powerful Figures: During this period, allegations began to surface publicly against Epstein’s associates. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, alleged in a 2015 lawsuit that she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with several powerful men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.
She also alleged she was directed to have sex with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and others.
While Donald Trump was not directly accused of participating in the abuse by victims in the initial Florida case, his past friendship with Epstein and comments he made in a 2002 interview for New York Magazine (“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy… It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”) were re-examined in this new light.
The Victims’ Trauma: The women, now in their late 20s and early 30s, were still fighting for an elusive justice. Several grappled with trauma, depression, and addiction. Some served time in prison.
One young woman overdosed on heroin in a rundown motel in West Palm Beach in 2017, leaving behind a young son. Victim Michelle Licata, now 30, said, “I don’t think anyone has been told the truth about what Jeffrey Epstein did… He ruined my life and a lot of girls’ lives.” Jena-Lisa Jones, 30, stated, “You beat yourself up mentally and physically… You can’t ever stop your thoughts. A word can trigger something. For me, it is the word ‘pure’ because he called me ‘pure’ in that room and then I remember what he did to me in that room.”
September 21, 2015: Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre sues longtime Epstein confidante and associate Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation, after Maxwell called her a liar for claiming to be a victim of a sexual conspiracy run by Maxwell and Epstein. (In 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of helping Epstein operate a sex-trafficking ring that preyed on teens and young women and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.)
Ongoing Legal Battles: A federal lawsuit, “Jane Doe No. 1 and Jane Doe No. 2 vs. the United States of America,” remained pending after a decade of legal jousting. It sought to invalidate the non-prosecution agreement. Jane Doe No. 1 was Courtney Wild, who stated: “As soon as that deal was signed, they silenced my voice and the voices of all of Jeffrey Epstein’s other victims…
This case is about justice, not just for us, but for other victims who aren’t Olympic stars or Hollywood stars.” Federal prosecutors argued they did not violate the law because no federal charges were ever filed, an argument a judge later dismissed.
New Scrutiny, Federal Charges, and Epstein’s Death (2017 – 2019)
2017: Upon his nomination by President Trump as Secretary of Labor, Acosta was questioned about the Epstein case during a Senate confirmation hearing. He defended his actions, stating,
“At the end of the day, based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutor’s office decided that a plea that guarantees someone goes to jail, that guarantees he register [as a sex offender] generally and guarantees other outcomes, is a good thing.” He now oversaw a federal agency that provides oversight of labor laws, including human trafficking.
May 2017: Maxwell settles Giuffre’s lawsuit, in a case in which Epstein had repeatedly sought to avoid testifying. Later, journalist Julie K. Brown and the Miami Herald file motions to unseal records from the case, citing the public’s right of access and the importance of coverage concerning the abuse of “dozens of underage minors.”
November 28, 2018: The Miami Herald published its investigative series, “Perversion of Justice,” based on thousands of emails, court documents, FBI records, and interviews with key players. The report identified about 80 women who said they were molested or otherwise sexually abused by Epstein and detailed the unprecedented plea deal, sparking intense national interest and renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s powerful network.
December 4, 2018: A lawsuit was set for trial in Palm Beach County state court involving Epstein and attorney Bradley Edwards, whom Epstein had accused of legal misdeeds.
The case was noteworthy because it would mark the first time Epstein’s victims were scheduled to testify publicly. However, a week after the Miami Herald’s investigative series was published, Epstein reached a last-minute settlement with Edwards, preventing the testimony.
July 6, 2019: Federal agents arrested Epstein. He was charged in the Southern District Court of New York with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
July 12, 2019: Amid mounting pressure following Epstein’s arrest, Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary, saying the Epstein matter was a distraction from his agency’s work.
August 10, 2019: Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The New York City Chief Medical Examiner later concluded that Epstein died by suicide.
August 27, 2019: U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman held a hearing on a motion to dismiss the indictment against Epstein. In a remarkable move, he invited victim impact statements.
Courtney Wild was among those who spoke under her own name, stating, “Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused me for years, robbing me of my innocence and mental health… Jeffrey Epstein has done nothing but manipulate our justice system, where he has never been held accountable for his actions, even to this day.”
Epilogue: The Pursuit of Co-Conspirators and The Unresolved Case
The legal focus then shifted to Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. In December 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom, and abuse underage girls and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The allegations against other high-profile individuals also continued. In 2022, Prince Andrew settled a civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, in which she accused him of sexual abuse.
The settlement, which included a substantial donation to a charity supporting victims’ rights, avoided a trial but did not include an admission of guilt from the Prince.
The case remains a stark example of the manipulation of the criminal justice system and the lingering questions about the extent of the conspiracy.
As Bradley Edwards, the victims’ attorney, stated, “The damage that happened in this case is unconscionable… How in the world, do you, the U.S. attorney, engage in a negotiation with a criminal defendant, basically allowing that criminal defendant to write up the agreement?”
Public calls for the full release of all documents related to the investigations into Epstein and his associates, often referred to as “the Epstein files,” persist, as the quest for full accountability for all involved, including the ‘potential co-conspirators’ granted immunity, continues.
