WORST DEAL IN HISTORY OF DEALS
Epstein had sex den — while serving jail time!
We knew he got a sweetheart deal — but this is ridiculous. While serving a scant 13 months in jail for sex offenses, Jeffrey Epstein was allowed out on work release during the day. But he really used his “off ice” to have liaisons, a lawyer claims.
Jeffrey Epstein’s cushy Florida plea deal allowed him to leave jail nearly every day to go to a private office on “work release,” but his office time was spent on an entirely different form of release — sex with young women, a lawyer alleges.
“It was, if you were in jail, improper sexual contact,’’ said Brad Edwards, a lawyer repping a string of Epstein’s accusers.
“He was not just sitting there conducting some scientific research for the betterment of the community,’’ Edwards said at a Manhattan press conference.
“He was having office visitors . . . female visitors . . . some of whom were flown to him from New York, and continuing to engage in . . . [sexual] conduct literally while he was in ‘jail.’ ”
Under the highly questionable plea deal that Epstein cut with Florida prosecutors in 2008, he was allowed to plead guilty to just two counts of sex solicitation, including one involving a minor — despite having been accused of sexual abuse by scores more underage girls.
The politically connected pedophile ended up serving just 13 months behind bars in the private wing of the Palm Beach County jail.
As part of the agreement, Epstein was allowed out for 12 hours a day, six days a week, during which time he set up the private office next to one of his lawyers, Edwards said.
“There were some arguments in court yesterday by Mr. Epstein’s lawyers that he was a model citizen while he was in jail,” the lawyer said.
“First of all, he just wasn’t in jail. He only slept there.
“He was in his office most of the day, and what I can tell you is, he had visitors, female visitors. I don’t know that any of them were underage,’’ but they were all under 21, Edwards said.
“And the female visitors were there not for business, and engaged in very similar conduct to that which was described in the Palm Beach police report,’’ in which Epstein was accused of coercing dozens of girls and young women to perform “massages’’ on him and turning the sessions into sex.
Epstein is now facing federal sex-trafficking raps in Manhattan for allegedly setting up a nationwide network of victims, including underage girls, whom he sexually abused.
As part of their probe, authorities uncovered a stash of porn in a safe in Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion along with diamonds, piles of cash and a fake passport with his photo but a different name — and an address in Saudi Arabia.
His lawyers revealed in new
court papers Tuesday that the passport was issued by Austria — and claimed that Epstein got it 32 years ago because he is Jewish and feared he needed it to protect himself if he were caught up in a Muslim terrorist hijacking. He never used it, they said. “The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur,” Epstein’s lawyers said in the documents.
They did not address the fact that Epstein has a private jet.
Edwards asserted that everything Epstein did seemed to be geared toward one goal: sex.
“Sex was his full-time job,’’ the lawyer said.
“One of the questions I’ve received many, many times is what Jeffrey Epstein actually did on a daily basis. What I’m telling you is, what he did on a daily basis is engage in these types of sex acts with young adults and children.
“What he did to make his money, I don’t know. What he did legitimately outside of engaging in these sexual misdeeds, I don’t know, nor do any of the witnesses that we have ever deposed.”
As part of their push for bail for Epstein, his lawyers have submitted a one-page financial form that lists $559,120,954 in assets.
A Manhattan federal judge dismissed the document as “cursory’’ and ordered a more thorough examination of Epstein’s finances.
Epstein’s camp has offered to let him be fitted with an electronic monitor, have his plane grounded, install surveillance equipment at his townhouse and employ security guards to make sure he doesn’t flee.
But prosecutors argue that his immense wealth and connections could enable him to jump bail.