Epstein’s Legal Maneuvering Involves High‑Profile Lawyers and Federal Prosecutors

To prosecutors, Mr. Epstein is just another sex offender. He did what he did because he could, and because he never dreamed he would get caught, they say. Mr. Epstein’s defenders counter that he has been unjustly persecuted because of his wealth and lofty connections. Sitting on his patio on “Little St. Jeff’s” in the Virgin Islands several months ago, as his legal troubles deepened, Mr. Epstein gazed at the azure sea and the lush hills of St. Thomas in the distance, poked at a lunch of crab and rare steak prepared by his personal chef, and tried explain how his life had taken such a turn. He likened himself to Gulliver shipwrecked among the diminutive denizens of Lilliput. “Gulliver’s playfulness had unintended consequences,” Mr. Epstein said. ““That is what happens with wealth. There are unexpected burdens as well as benefits.” Those benefits are on full display on his island where, despite his time in jail, Mr. Epstein has commissioned a new estate. The villa will occupy the island’s promontory, which offers views of the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. It will have a separate library to house Mr. Epstein’s 90,000 volumes, a Japanese bathhouse and what he calls a “Ziegfeld” movie theater. For now, however, those visions of a private paradise have been replaced by the cold reality of a jail cell. The legal drama began in 2005, when a young woman who gave Mr. Epstein massages at his Palm Beach mansion told the local police about the encounter. She was 14 at the time, and was paid $200. The police submitted the results of their investigation to the state attorney, asking that Mr. Epstein be charged with sexual relations with minors. His lawyers say Mr. Epstein never knew the young women were under age, and point to depositions in which the masseuses — several of whom have filed civil suits — admitted to lying about their age. In July 2005, a Florida grand jury charged Mr. Epstein with a lesser offense, soliciting prostitution. Mr. Epstein’s legal team, which would eventually include the former prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr and the Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, was elated: Mr. Epstein would avoid prison. But then the United States attorney’s office in Miami became involved. Last summer, Mr. Epstein got an ultimatum: plead guilty to a charge that would require him to register as a sex offender, or the government would charge him with sexual tourism, according to people who were briefed on the discussions. David Weinstein, an attorney in the government’s Miami office, declined to discuss the specifics of the case. But he did address the subject of Mr. Epstein’s means and prominent legal team, and dismissed a proposal by Mr. Epstein’s lawyers — who opposed the application of federal statutes in the case — that he be confined to his house in Palm Beach for a probationary period. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021787