Bill seeking to reveal confidential Epstein grand jury records heads to DeSantis
MIAMI — Legislation that aims to reveal the evidence and testimony presented almost two decades ago to the South Florida grand jury that charged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein with just one felony count of soliciting a prostitute is making its way to the governor’s desk.
On Wednesday, the Florida Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 234, making it ready to be either signed into law or vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
If signed, SB 234 and its companion that already passed in the House, HB 117, would change the state law that keeps most grand jury proceedings a secret. Lawmakers are hoping that it will persuade a Palm Beach County judge to publicly release evidence and testimony presented to the grand jury that in 2006 weighed evidence that Epstein had lured teenage girls to his Palm Beach mansion and sexually abused them.
The effort comes as Judge Luis Delgado — overseeing a lawsuit brought against the Palm Beach County Clerk’s Office by the Palm Beach Post — sorts through records to determine which of them, if any, can be made public.
“The public and the victims deserve to know if prosecutors steered the jury away from indicting Epstein on more severe charges,” Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat and sponsor of SB 234, said during the Senate session Wednesday. “There is also a compelling public need to know if this system worked or failed.”
The grand jury proceedings represent the start of how the politically connected Epstein sex-trafficked young girls while using money and connections to shield himself from meaningful criminal liability for years.
Critics of the early prosecution of Epstein question whether the state attorney at the time in Palm Beach County, Barry Krischer, soft-pedaled the case when he chose to present evidence to a grand jury rather than charge Epstein himself. The outcome so dissatisfied the Palm Beach police chief that he brought the case to the FBI.
The legislation seeks to encourage the release of the 2006 grand jury evidence and testimony by expanding the circumstances under which such records can be made public. The proposed changes — narrowly tailored to apply only to Epstein’s case — would ease confidentiality in cases where the subject of the grand jury inquiry is deceased, the inquiry is related to criminal or sexual activity with a person who was a minor at the time, and the testimony was previously disclosed by a court order.