FINALLY

Report: Federal Prosecutors Want to Talk to Jeffrey Epstein’s Victims—a Decade After His Secret Plea Deal

Prosecutors are asking for a two-month period to consult with an unspecified number of victims.

Federal prosecutors have reportedly asked a judge hearing a lawsuit over Jeffrey Epstein’s secret plea deal to grant them two months to consult with an unspecified number of his victims. The multimillionaire sexually assaulted underage girls in his Palm Beach home in the 2000s but was allowed to serve only 13 months as part of a plea deal victims only learned about later. According to The Miami Herald, U.S. Attorney Byung “B.J.” Pak filed a court motion seeking a “60-day period to consult with Epstein’s victims,” as well as a briefing schedule that would likely delay the case for months. The Herald has previously identified 80 women claiming they were victims of Epstien who are now spread out across the country and the world.

If the judge grants the delay in the case, the newspaper reports prosecutors would have time to request the deposition of stakeholders in the Epstein case—including current Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, an ex-Miami federal prosecutor who negotiated Epstein's controversial prosecution agreement in 2008. Instead of being charged with sex trafficking charges at the time, Epstein was given the chance to plead guilty in state court to “minor prostitution charges.”