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Miami U.S. Attorney's Office recuses itself from Jeffrey Epstein case
AG nominee Barr
into handling. of Epstein case
Sen. Ben Sasse questioned attorney general nominee
William Barr about the Jeffrey Epstein case on
January 15, 2019, getting the nominee to commit to having
the Department of Justice look into the handling of that
case if confirmed. C-SPAN Meta Viers
Just days before a Friday deadline, the Justice Department
has reassigned the Jeffrey Epstein victims' rights case to the
U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, the attorneys representing
Epstein's victims' attorneys said Tuesday.
Miami federal prosecutors, in letter to attorneys for the
victims's lawyers on Monday, said they had recused
themselves from the case, according to Brad Edwards and
Jack Scarola, representing Epstein's victims.
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yung Jin `BJay' Pak. the U.S. attorney for the Northern
District of Georgia, will inherit the existing Epstein case
from Miami's U.S. Attorney's Office.
The reassignment means that the U.S. attorney for the
Northern District of Georgia, Byung J. "BJay" Pak, will
oversee the case for the government. Pak, a former Georgia
lawmaker, was appointed Atlanta's chief federal prosecutor
by President Trump in October 2017.
The Justice Department is still under a Friday deadline for
prosecutors to confer with the victims' attorneys in an effort
to settle the case. On Feb. 22, U.S. District Judge Kenneth
A. Marra in Palm Beach ruled that federal prosecutors,
under former Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta,
broke the law when they concealed a plea agreement from
more than 30 underage girls in Palm Beach who had been
sexually abused by Epstein, a multimillionaire New York
hedge fund manager.
Marra stopped short of voiding the agreement, which
granted Epstein and an untold number of accomplices
immunity from federal prosecution for sex trafficking
crimes, provided Epstein plead guilty to minor charges in
state court. At the time of the plea deal, federal prosecutors
had gathered enough evidence against Epstein to write a
53-page federal indictment, court records show.
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I—Tresrbyehmd a Palm Beach
sex offender's remarkable deal
The story behind a Palm Beach sex offender's
remarkable deal
Emily Michot
An investigation by the Miami Herald, "Perversion of
Justice," found that after Acosta met privately with one of
Epstein's lawyers, the government agreed to seal the plea
agreement so that no one — not the victims, not even the
state court judge who sentenced Epstein — would know the
full extent of his crimes. Epstein, now 66, was allowed to
plead guilty to prostitution charges and served 13 months in
the Palm Beach County jail, where he was given liberal
work release, and allowed to travel to New York and his
private island in the Caribbean during his subsequent house
arrest. He was released in 2009, and now divides his time
between New York, Palm Beach and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
The Herald interviewed four of Epstein's victims, who
were as young as 13 at the time they were abused by
Epstein. They said they felt betrayed by state and federal
prosecutors, who treated them like prostitutes instead of
victims. Two of them sued the federal government in 2008
under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, which grants crime
victims the right to be informed about plea deals and to
confer with prosecutors.
Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said prosecutors not only
intentionally violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act, but
they misled the girls into believing that the FBI's sex
trafficking case against Epstein was ongoing — when, in
fact, prosecutors had secretly closed it after sealing the plea
bargain from the public record.
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Marra, noting that he reviewed affidavits, depositions and
interrogatories, said "Epstein worked in concert with others
to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification,
but also for the sexual gratification of others."
The victims' attorneys — Edwards, Scarola and Paul
Cassell — have asked the Justice Department to throw out
Epstein's plea agreement and reopen the criminal
investigation.
Edwards, who brought the victims' rights case against the
government, said transferring the case to another
jurisdiction is a prudent decision.
"I think it's good that we're going to get fresh eyes and a
fresh opinion on the way the case was handled," Edwards
said Tuesday. "We were obviously in an adversarial posture
with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami because they
handled the case to begin with."
Miami's new U.S. Attorney, Ariana Fajardo Orshan — who
was appointed by President Trump in September — did not
respond to a request for comment.
etrrey Epstein apologizes, but
not to his victims
Jeffrey Epstein apologizes, but not to his victims
Emily Michot
Edwards predicted that it would take some time for Pak's
office to review the case, which includes more than 500
docket entries and thousands of documents. He said If the
sides can't agree on a resolution, then Marra would likely
have to come up with one. The case is being closely
watched by crime victims' rights advocates, as it will likely
set a precedent.
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Acosta, who was appointed by Trump as the U.S. secretary
of labor in 2017, is the focus of a separate Justice
Department investigation into whether there was any
prosecutorial misconduct in the Epstein case. That probe,
by the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, was
initiated in response to demands from a bipartisan group in
Congress, led by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska
and Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of
Florida.
In the meantime, a court hearing will be held at 4 p.m.
Wednesday in New York in another Epstein-related case. A
federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in a motion
by the Miami Herald, supported by 32 other news
organizations, asking the court to unseal documents that
could reveal details about the extent of Epstein's crimes
and any other people who may have been involved.
Three of Epstein's former attorneys — who helped
negotiate his plea deal in 2008 — wrote a letter published
in the New York Times on Monday, defending the plea
bargain cut with Acosta as a fair deal. The letter was in
response to a Times editorial that called on Congress and
the Trump administration to hold Acosta and others
involved in the case accountable.
Epstein's lawyers said the editorial's conclusions were "in
profound conflict with the reality," noting that there was no
evidence that Epstein committed federal sex trafficking
offenses. The letter was signed by former Epstein lawyers
Kenneth Starr, Jack Goldberger and Lilly Ann Sanchez, as
well as Epstein's current attorney, Martin G. Weinberg.
Lilly Ann Sanchez
The LS Law Firm
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