Correspondence, 2020-02-25

KAPLAN HECKER & FINK LLP¶

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February 25, 2020¶

VIA E-MAIL¶

United States Attorney¶

Southern District of New York¶

Geoffrey S. Berman¶

c/o Assistant United States Attorney¶

Re: Touhy Request for Information Relating to Jeffrey Epstein¶

Dear U.S. Attorney Berman:¶

We write on behalf of a plaintiff, proceeding as Jane Doe, in a lawsuit against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that is pending in the Southern District of New York captioned as Doe v. Indyke et al., No. 19-cv-8673-KPF (S.D.N.Y.). $ ^{1} $ As you instructed in your letter of January 6, 2020, and pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 16.22, we are submitting this written demand to obtain records from the Department of Justice (the “Department”) that were acquired or compiled by Department employees in the performance of their official duties.¶

A. The Nature of the Litigation¶

Our client, Jane Doe, alleges that Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly sexually abused her in his Upper East side mansion beginning around 2002, when Doe was only fourteen years old, until approximately 2005. See Complaint in Doe v. Indyke et al., No. 19-cv-8673-KPF (S.D.N.Y.), Doc. No. 1 (Sept. 18, 2019). Because Doe was a child at the time of her abuse, which took place more than 15 years ago, Doe is largely without documentary evidence of Epstein’s crimes against her. However, we believe that in the course of your Office’s criminal investigation and prosecution of Epstein’s sex trafficking conspiracy, as described in the indictment in United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19-cr-490-RMB (the “Indictment”), your office collected¶

1. Jane Doe’s identity is known by the prosecutors who represented the Government in United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19-cr-490-RMB. We are available to discuss her identity with you.

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documents and/or other materials that are highly relevant to Doe’s litigation and corroborative of her claims.¶

Specifically, we understand that our client has had repeated interactions with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (the “Office”) and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) over the course of the past fifteen years. Doe was first contacted by the FBI around 2008, when FBI agents came to her home in to interview her about her experiences with Mr. Epstein. We understand that, at that time, counsel retained by Jeffrey Epstein, Brendan White and Diarmuid White, contacted prosecutors on Doe’s behalf.¶

More than ten years later, in March of 2019, Doe was contacted by the FBI again. At that time, Doe retained the undersigned as counsel and went on to fully participate in the FBI’s investigation. Beginning in April of 2019, Doe met with FBI agents and prosecutors from the Office on many occasions. She aided in the Government’s investigation by providing the Government with detailed accounts of Epstein’s sexual abuse. In July of 2019, the Office indicted Jeffrey Epstein for conspiring to sex traffic minors and for sex trafficking minors in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. § 1591 (a) and (b). See United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19-cr-490-RMB, Doc. No. 2 (July 2, 2019). Upon information and belief, Jane Doe is the child referred to as “Minor Victim-1” in the indictment. Id.¶

As you are aware, on August 10, 2019, Epstein died while in federal custody in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Government was therefore forced to dismiss the indictment against Epstein due to his death. Just over one month later, on September 18, 2019, Doe filed a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate in an effort to seek a modicum of justice for the abuse she suffered as a child.¶

B. Detailed Statement of the Information Sought.¶

We request the following documents that relate to United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19-cr-490-RMB:¶

1. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, memorandums of interviews and reports, that mention Jane Doe.

2. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, and reports, that reflect any contact at any time between Jeffrey Epstein, or Jeffrey Epstein’s staff and/or co-conspirators, and Jane Doe.

3. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, and reports, that reflect cash payments made by Jeffrey Epstein, or Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators and/or employees, to Jane Doe.

4. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, memorandums of interviews and reports, that indicate that Epstein arranged for furniture to be delivered to Jane Doe’s home in sometime between 2002 and 2005.

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5. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, and reports related to Jeffrey Epstein’s retention of attorneys Diarmuid White and Brendan White to represent Jane Doe in connection with a criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

6. Any documents, including, without limitation, notes, recordings, summaries, and reports related to attorneys Diarmuid White and Brendan White’s communication with the Government concerning their representation of Jane Doe.

7. All information or data extracted, imaged, copied, or otherwise preserved from any cell phones, computers, electronic devices and social media account of Jeffrey Epstein, his co-conspirators and his employees, including, without limitation, emails, videos, audio recordings, text messages, records of phone calls, and other communications that refer to Jane Doe.

8. Any images, videos, recordings or other depictions of Jane Doe recovered by the Government from Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home. See United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19-cr-490-RMB, Doc. No. 11 at 1 (indicating law enforcement recovered “hundreds or thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young females in [Epstein’s] Manhattan mansion”).

C. Relevance and Necessity of the Documents Sought.¶

The requested information could corroborate essential elements of Doe’s civil claims. The documents Doe seeks could, for example, establish that Epstein, as an adult man, maintained contact with Doe when she was a teenager. They could prove that Epstein made regular payments to Doe of $200 in cash, payments that Doe alleges were made each time Epstein sexually abused her. See Complaint ¶ 31, 33, 43, Doe v. Indyke et al., 19-cv-08673 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 18, 2019). The requested materials could demonstrate that Epstein retained counsel for Doe during the FBI’s investigation into Epstein’s conduct to prevent law enforcement from speaking to Doe. And, of course, any images, videos, or recordings of Doe recovered from Epstein’s home would prove that Doe was in Epstein’s home and could, depending on the nature of the images, prove that Epstein abused her.¶

The events that underpin Doe’s civil claims took place more than fifteen years ago. At that time, Doe was a teenager without a stable home. She was transient and struggling to survive. She did not have the foresight or the resources to preserve evidence of his crimes. As a result, Doe does not have a substitute for the material she seeks from the Office—material which is essential to her ability to corroborate her civil claim.¶

D. Additional Considerations¶

All of the factors outlined in 28 C.F.R. §16.26 governing the production and disclosure of information pursuant to a Touhy demand weigh in favor of production and disclosure in this matter. Epstein was a notorious pedophile who was indicted for sexually abusing and trafficking girls, including Doe. When he was indicted by the Office, he was already a registered sex offender for his earlier sexual abuse of minors in Florida. The relief Doe seeks here—monetary compensation—is the only relief available to her because Epstein took his own life to avoid¶

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criminal prosecution. For Doe and for Epstein’s many victims, the Office’s decision to produce or withhold documents that corroborate their civil claims could determine the outcome of their civil cases. In other words, Doe’s ability to get any relief for the heinous crimes Epstein committed against her may hinge on the Office’s willingness to grant this request.¶

The United States has not been named as a party to this matter, nor is it reasonably anticipated that the United States will become a party.¶

Disclosure of the information sought would not violate any statute, rule of procedure, nor regulation. See 28 C.F.R. §16.26. Providing the requested information would not require disclosure of classified or confidential information nor would it improperly reveal trade secrets. Id.¶

Plaintiff agrees to pay any applicable fees charged for searching or copying the requested records up to $1,000, without requesting prior notification of the fees to be charged. If the applicable fees are expected to exceed $1,000, please let us know prior to filling our request.¶

If you have any concerns or wish to discuss the scope of these requests, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your attention to this matter.¶

Respectfully submitted,¶

Roberta A. Kaplan¶

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