Miami U.S. Attorney's Office Recuses Itself from Jeffrey Epstein Victims' Rights Case

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 Miami U.S. attorney's office recuses itself from the Jeffrey Epstein case By JULIE K. BROWN Miami Herald MIAMI — Just days before a Friday deadline, the Justice Department has reassigned the Jeffrey Epstein victims’ rights case to the US. attomey’s office in Adanta, the attorneys representing Epstein’ victims said Tuesday. Miami federal prosecutors, in a let- ter to attorneys for the victims Monday, said they had recused themselves from the case, according to Brad Edwards and Jack Scarola, representing Ep- stein’s victims. The reassignment means that the US. attomey for the Northern District of Georgia, Byung J. “BJay” Pak, will oversee the case for the government. Pak, a former Georgia lawmaker, was appointed Atlanta's chief federal pros- ecutor by President Donald Trump in October 2017. The Justice Department is still under a Friday deadline for prosecutors to confer with the victims’ attorneys in an effort to settle the case. On Feb, 22, U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra in Palm Beach County ruled that federal prosecutors, under former Miami U.S. Attomey Alexander Acosta, broke the law when they concealed a plea agree- ment from more than 30 underage girls in Palm Beach who had been sexually abused by Epstein, a multimillionaire New York hedge fund manager. Marra stopped short of voiding the agreement, which granted Epstein and an untold number of accomplices im- munity from federal prosecution for sex trafficking crimes, provided Ep- stein plead guilty to minor charges in state court. At the time of the plea deal, federal prosecutors had gathered enough evidence against Epstein to write a 53-page federal indictment, court records show. An investigation by the Miami Her- ald, “Perversion of Justice,” found that after Acosta met privately with one of Epstein’s lawyers, the govemment agreed to seal the plea agreement so that no one — not the victims, not even the state court judge who sen- tenced Epstein — would know the full extent of his crimes. Epstein, now 66, was allowed to plead guilty to prosti- tution charges and served 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail, where he was given liberal work release, and Gactesa0 VIP Awards & Engraving allowed to travel to New York and his private island in the Virgin Islands dur- ing his subsequent house arrest. He was released in 2009, and now divides his time between New York, Palm Beach and the U.S, Virgin Islands. The Herald interviewed four of Ep- stein’s victims, who were as young as 13 at the time they were abused by Epstein. They said they felt betrayed by state and federal prosecutors, who treated them like prostitutes instead of victims. Two of them sued the federal government in 2008 under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, which grants crime victims the right to be informed about plea deals and to confer with prosecutors. Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said prosecutors not only intentionally vio- lated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, but they misled the girls into believing that the FBI's sex trafficking case against Ep- stein was ongoing — when, in fact, pros- ecutors had secretly closed it after sealing the plea bargain from the public record. Marra, noting that he reviewed affi- davits, depositions and interrogatories, said “Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others.” The victims’ attorneys — Edwards, Scarola and Paul Cassell — have asked the Justice Department to throw out Epstein’ plea agreement and reopen the criminal investigation. Edwards, who brought the victims’ rights case against the government, said transferring the case to another ju- risdiction is a prudent decision, “I think it's good that we're going to get fresh eyes and a fresh opinion on the way the case was handled,” Ed- wards said Tuesday. Miami’ new U.S. attorney, Ariana Fajardo Orshan — who was appointed by Trump in September — did not re- spond to a request for comment. Acosta, who was appointed by Trump as the U.S. secretary of labor in 2017, is the focus of a separate Justice Depart- ment investigation into whether there was any prosecutorial misconduct in the Epstein case. That probe, by the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, was initiated in response to demands from a bipartisan group in Congress, led by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Democratic Rep. 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