mobanmarketNEW YORK — Federal prosecutors on Monday accused the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Upper East Side mansion and other places in a yearslong sex-trafficking conspiracy.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan Federal Court revived a criminal case against a convicted sex offender with ties to President Donald Trump and Bill Clinton that was reportedly shut a decade ago with a secret plea deal that a current Trump administration official helped broker.
“It means a great deal to the alleged victims here that they have their day in court, and we want to make sure they have their day in court by bringing these charges,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said at a news conference.
Epstein, 66, lured girls as young as 14 to his homes on East 71st Street and in Palm Beach, Florida, for sexual encounters from at least 2002 to 2005, according to the indictment charging him with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy. Epstein sought out girls who were minors and knew some of them were underage because they told him how old they were, the indictment says.
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The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office unveiled the charges against Epstein following his arrest on Saturday aboard his private plane at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. He faces 45 years behind bars if he is convicted of the crimes, Berman said.
Authorities also found hundreds of photographs of what appeared to be nude and partially nude underage girls in his Manhattan mansion on the night he was arrested, according to a court filing. That’s just one of many reasons prosecutors say they want Epstein jailed while he awaits trial; they also say he has the means to flee the area as he faces serious criminal charges.
“The defendant, a registered sex offender, is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant; rather, he is a continuing danger to the community and an individual who faces devastating evidence supporting deeply serious charges,” prosecutors wrote in a memo requesting Epstein’s detention without bail.
The incidents of abuse started with the girls giving Epstein massages that he would escalate into sex acts, the indictment says. He typically paid the girls hundreds of dollars in cash after each encounter and had some of his victims “recruit” other girls for him to abuse, according to the indictment.
Epstein similarly abused girls at his other residence in Palm Beach and had an assistant in New York schedule such encounters there ahead of his arrival, prosecutors allege. Other employees and associates of Epstein’s helped facilitate the abuse or paid off the girls, according to the charges.
Epstein reportedly faced similar accusations involving girls who told the police they were brought to his mansion in South Florida and assaulted. But The Daily Beast says he was shielded from federal charges in a secret plea deal partly negotiated by Alexander Acosta, the former United States attorney in the Southern District of Florida who now serves as Trump’s labor secretary. The Miami Herald first reported the details of that arrangement last year.
The deal was a non-prosecution agreement that forced Epstein to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges but shut down a federal investigation into whether others participated in his sex crimes and whether more victims were involved, according to the Herald.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office is not bound by the agreement because it was made only between Epstein and prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, Berman said.
Epstein’s wealth reportedly afforded him connections to powerful figures around the world. Clinton praised him as “a committed philanthropist” in a 2002 New York Magazine profile, while Trump called him a “(t)errific guy” in the same story.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump told the magazine then. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Federal prosecutors want to seize the Upper East Side townhouse where Epstein allegedly abused the girls, the indictment says. The opulent home just off Fifth Avenue spans at least 21,000 square feet and was previously owned by Leslie H. Wexner, the retail magnate to whom Epstein served as a financial adviser, according to news reports on the house.
Berman appeared to credit the Herald’s reporting on Epstein, saying prosecutors were “assisted from some excellent investigative journalism.” He urged anyone whom Epstein abused to come forward to help federal authorities prosecute him.
“If you believe you are a victim of this man, Jeffrey Epstein, or you have evidence or information relating to the conduct alleged in the indictment unsealed today, we want to hear from you,” Berman said, pointing at a photo of Epstein’s face.
Patch editor Tom Davis contributed reporting.