Legal fight is far from dead: pros
Criminal raps over, but vics’ suits proceed Trump touts bizarre link to Clintons
With sex fiend financier Jeffrey Epstein dead, what happens to the criminal and civil cases against him?
The answer, according to experts, is two-fold.
First things first: The Epstein criminal prosecution is officially over.
“Criminal charges generally abate when the accused dies. I can tell you that much,” Marc Fernich, one of Epstein’s lawyers, told the Daily News.
But the U.S. attorney can still pursue the list of prominent people suspected of enabling the accused sex trafficker. Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, for example, is accused of playing a key role in giving him access to the young girls he abused. (Maxwell has not formally been charged with any crime.)
“Under criminal law, you can charge conspirators,” said Brad Simon, a white collar criminal defense attorney and former assistant U.S. attorney for Brooklyn. “The U.S. attorney will have to reassess now, and decide whether he wants to proceed with co-conspirators or simply not proceed with the case.”
Epstein’s death also means the civil case against him holds more promise — and perhaps more money — for his victims.
Even though Epstein is dead, “victims can still pursue a claim against the estate, while the estate is open,” said attorney Jeffrey Dion, CEO of the nonprofit Zero Abuse Project.
Civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents some of Epstein’s victims, confirmed that the civil case can proceed against his estate in a tweet Saturday.
“I am calling today for the administrators of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to freeze all his assets and hold them for his victims who are filing civil cases,” Bloom wrote. “Their lives have been shattered by his sexual assaults, their careers derailed. They deserve full and fair compensation NOW.”
“We’re just started,” she added. getting President Trump on Saturday fanned the Twitter flames of a baseless conspiracy theory linking Bill and Hillary Clinton to the suicide of sex fiend financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The president, on his first day of a 10-day vacation at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., retweeted a video rant by comedian and Trump supporter Terrence K. Williams.
“Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right!” Williams tweeted, reporting incorrectly that Epstein was on suicide watch. Epstein’s suicide watch was discontinued in late July.
“How does that happen #JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead,” Williams wrote.
He then said he was not surprised and pointed to the hash tags #EpsteinSuicide, #ClintonBodyCount and #ClintonCrimeFamily.
Former President Clinton’s press secretary responded to Trump’s retweet: “Ridiculous, and of course not true — and Donald Trump knows it. Has he triggered the 25th Amendment yet?”
The 25th Amendment provides a way to remove Trump from office if the vice president and other top Washington officials deem him “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
Williams bragged earlier on Saturday of having predicted Epstein’s death.
“On my Tweet from 7/ 25/19 I PREDICTED Jeffery Epstein would die! I said it’s crazy how people end up dead & die of Suicide when they have information on The Clintons,” he tweeted.