Epstein Plea Deal Negotiations Involving High‑Profile Defense Team

JAMES PATTERSON Kennedy Smith. The prosecutors presented Epstein a choice: plead to more serious state felony charges (that would result in 2 years’ imprisonment, registration as a sexual offender, and restitution for the victims) or else prepare for a federal felony trial. What followed was a year-long assault on the prose- cution and the prosecutors. I use the word assault inten- tionally, as the defense in this case was more aggressive than any which I, or the prosecutors in my office, had previously encountered. Mr. Epstein hired an army of legal superstars: Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, for- mer Judge and then Pepperdine Law Dean Kenneth Starr, former Deputy Assistant to the President and then Kirk- land & Ellis Partner Jay Lefkowitz, and several others, including prosecutors who had formerly worked in the US. Attorney’s Office and in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department. Defense attorneys next requested a meeting with me to challenge the prosecution and the terms previously presented by the prosecutors in their meeting with Mr. Black. The prosecution team and I met with defense counsel in Fall 2007, and I reaffirmed the office's position: two years, registration and restitution, or trial. Over the next several months, the defense team pre- sented argument after argument claiming that felony criminal proceedings against Epstein were unsupported by the evidence and lacked a basis in law, and that the office’s insistence on jail-time was motivated by a zeal to overcharge a man merely because he is wealthy. They bolstered their arguments with legal opinions from 208 Fy well-known legal expert team warned me that the good man to serve time book if we continued tc office systematically cons ment, and when we di appealed to Washington. . The defense strategy » Defense counsel investiga their families, looking for provide a basis for disqual ecutor is an effective (th eliminating the individua and thus most qualified to lihood for success. Defens: least two prosecutors. | rejected, these arguments. Despite the army of att the terms first presented meeting. On June 30, 2008 appeal to Washington D.¢ guilty in state court. He w: onment, register as a sexua restitution to the victims. Some may feel that the | tougher, Evidence that has encourage that view. Manx out, filing detailed statemen ages. Physical evidence has these additional statements 2 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022016