‘Epstein flub’ twist
More on how feds let perv Jeff slide
New details emerged Friday about the feds’ decision not to pursue charges against Jeffrey Epstein in 2016 — when several lawyers warned he might still be abusing girls.
Documents just released in the sex-trafficking case against the late millionaire pedophile’s pal, Ghislaine Maxwell (inset), show that lawyers for one of his accusers, Virginia Giuffre, told prosecutors at the time the British socialite took sexually explicit photos of the younger woman regularly and even gave one to Epstein for his birthday — when Virginia was 16.
The discussion came during a February 2016 meeting between a New York assistant US attorney and a trio of lawyers representing Giuffre.
Epstein had already pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida in 2007 but escaped related federal sextrafficking charges through a controversial nonprosecution agreement.
In the 2016 meeting, Giuffre’s lawyers detailed a range of accusations against Epstein and Maxwell, including the alleged underage nude birthday photo, according to notes taken by the prosecutor that were included in the documents.
After the meeting — which was held in a lower Manhattan federal building — the prosecutor, only identified as “AK,” spoke to the head of the criminal division for the Southern District of New York about the possibility of pursuing charges against Epstein.
The prosecutor then decided to call a higher-up in the FBI to ask him to ask the Florida agents if they felt “justice had not been served.” The FBI honcho did not respond — and the prosecutor “took the radio silence to mean that the FBI agents in Florida did not express dissatisfaction,” according to the documents.
No investigation was launched in 2016 — and Epstein remained free until a series of damning articles alleging sex abuse in The Miami Herald again placed him on the feds’ radar.
He was charged with sex trafficking in 2019 but later died by suicide in a lower Manhattan jail cell.
Maxwell is accused of procuring underage girls to be abused by the wealthy pedophile in the 1990s and early 2000s.
She is now scheduled to face two criminal trials in Manhattan federal court, after the judge ruled Friday to separate the perjury charges against her from her sexual-misconduct case.
Judge Alison Nathan said in an order that if the perjury raps against Maxwell were tried alongside her sexual-abuse allegations, it “would risk an unfair trial on each set of counts.”
In the indictment against Maxwell, federal prosecutors also charged her with lying under oath in a civilsuit deposition unrelated to the sexual-abuse charges.