Nearly 10 years after billionaire Jeffrey Epstein signed a plea deal that let him escape federal prosecution on charges of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls at his Palm Beach mansion, the 64-year-old politically-connected money manager faces the possibility that the agreement could be thrown out.
In court papers filed this month, attorneys representing two of the 30 young women prosecutors say Epstein molested lodged their final written pleas aimed at spurring U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to force federal officials to reopen their investigation into the sordid case.
U.S. government lawyers in September will have another chance to defend themselves against allegations that they violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by failing to alert Epstein’s victims of the terms of what some describe as a “sweetheart deal.” Marra could make a decision as early as this fall.
The stakes for all crime victims are high, said attorneys Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell, who filed the rare lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of two Jane Does who were 13 and 14 when they claim Epstein paid them for sex.
If Marra dismisses the lawsuit, “then the government will never have to give any information in any case to any victim,” they wrote, urging him to uphold the provisions of the 13-year-old federal law.
At the same time, the stakes are equally high for Epstein, who has ferried President Bill Clinton on his private jet and counts celebrities, such as Britain’s Prince Andrew, as friends.
Marra has already ruled that if he finds that federal prosecutors violated the act, he will consider throwing out the plea deal that Epstein signed with federal prosecutors in 2007. Miami attorney Roy Black, one of dozens of high-profile lawyers who has represented Epstein, claims that would be manifestly unfair.
As part of the unusual non-prosecution agreement, which wasn’t shared with victims for nearly a year while and after it was being negotiated, federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue charges that could have sent Epstein to prison for life. In exchange, Epstein in 2008 pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to two Florida criminal charges — one count each of soliciting a minor for prostitution and soliciting prostitution. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a vacant wing of the county stockade — a cell he was allowed to leave 16 hours a day, six days a week.
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