Lawmaker says no threat will stop her demand for investigation into Epstein
State senator pushes to get to the bottom of the billionaire’s work-release agreement
A Broward County lawmaker says threats of political retribution won’t deter her from seeking an outside investigation to get to the bottom of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s generous work release program granted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, said Thursday she has received more than a dozen frightening phone calls and text messages from supporters of Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw urging her to back off her request for an outside probe of the Epstein case.
Book, 34, said one of the messages warned her “little girl you better stop.”
Book said she reported the messages to Capitol Police, along with an anonymous comment made on an Internet message board that investigators were using an “imminent danger” clause to access her text messages and Facebook messages.
Jessica Cary, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the messages were reviewed and determined to contain no threats. There is no open investigation into the matter, she said.
Claire VanSusteren, a spokeswoman for Book, said the senator did not receive threats of bodily harm, but she was threatened with political retaliation. She also received messages suggesting she could be put under surveillance, VanSusteren said.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office released a statement that it has no knowledge of communications with Book. The agency has not tried to access Book’s phone or messages, the statement read.
Book, who was sexually abused by her nanny as a child, has made sexual abuse and human trafficking top issues since she was elected to the Florida Senate in 2016. Her father, Ron Book, is a powerful lobbyist in Tallahassee.
She said she was told, “Do you know what you are doing? Little girl you better stop.” She said someone else told her, “Be careful. I am really worried about what is going to happen to you. Not even your dad is going to be able to protect you.”
“I am concerned,” Book told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I am not deterred. I am not going to stop what I am doing. It makes me double down. … People can shoot at me all day. I don’t care. I will always stand for victims and fight until I have no breath left in my body.”
Book sent a letter Monday to Gov. Ron DeSantis requesting he order state police to investigate Epstein’s work release.
Bradshaw, who was first elected in 2004, was sheriff when Epstein spent 13 months in the county stockade during 2008-09. About 3½ months into Epstein’s sentence, he was allowed to spend up to 12 hours a day, six days a week working out of a downtown office while on work release.
Bradshaw has ordered an internal review into Epstein’s work release, but his agency has not embraced an outside review.
Lawyer Bradley Edwards, who represents about a dozen Epstein Sen. Lauren Book
accusers, said Epstein was able to have “improper sexual contact” with young women when he was on work release. Epstein’s lawyers have not responded to a request for comment on the allegations.
Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges as part of a once-secret deal with prosecutors that ended a federal sex abuse investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls.
He is now facing new federal charges in New York.
Speaking to reporters in Tallahassee, DeSantis said he is looking at the matter and trying to determine what FDLE’s proper role is in the case. The governor’s response showed he wasn’t fully versed on the case. He said he didn’t know if it was the “same people in place” at the Sheriff’s Office. Bradshaw was leading the agency when Epstein was at the jail.
“If even like 10 percent of the things about him [Epstein] are true, then that whole agreement was obviously suspect and woefully below what he should have face,” DeSantis said. “I’ll look at it and see if the state can exercise some good oversight there.”