TERSON that side of the political aisle. He nnton’s nemesis, Ken Starr, workke sure they’d covered the bases, Roy Black-the lawyer who’d of rape and kept Rush Limbaugh ul drug use-and Jay Lefkowitz, with US attorney R. Alexander S attorney’s office reached a forteam: the United States would or of prosecution by the state of ent (NPA) was drafted; among that he would not be prosecuted ida for felony offenses involving rls. (By that point, thirty known Instead it allowed him to plead or solicitation of prostitution and rostitution. The NPA established ein’s victims to sue him in civil ary step of ensuring that “any epstein’s would be immune from n’s agreement to plead guilty and the manner described above, if l of the terms and conditions of ates also agrees that it will not against any potential co-conspira- t stated, mentioning Sarah Kellen ie. 188 FILTHY RICH “The parties anticipate that this agreement will not be made part of any public record,” the document concludes. “If the United States receives a Freedom of Information Act request or any compulsory process commanding the disclosure of the agreement, it will provide notice to Epstein before making that disclosure.” Remarkably, despite assurances they’d received from the feds, none of the victims was consulted prior to the drafting of this NPA. If Epstein did not sign the agreement, he faced a fifty-sevencount indictment and a decade or more in prison. But Epstein’s team of lawyers had gotten him a deal so sweet it could have rotted all the teeth in South Florida. For all his protestations of innocence, there was every reason in the world to agree to an NPA. On September 24, 2007, Epstein did sign it. Once again, none of the victims had been consulted or notified. 189 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_009018¶
1 moment that Epstein had finally did June 30, 2008. In the interim, accordi were only told, “This case i A lawsuit that Bradley Fort Lauderdale, filed in J Rights Act, or CVRA (titl which states that “victims ing the right to be heard ir be precluded from court pr fairly.” According to him, prose of the victims. Edwards, v knew that this suit against monetary recovery of any also knew that if the govern entered into a contract tha rights of Epstein’s victims, have been improper in anc remedy would have been to while it is difficult to know contract is overturned, one could prosecute Epstein fo statute of limitations on tho At the time of this wr: through the courts. It has Bleak House-the Charles I is so massive and so comple everyone involved into the n CHAPTER 50 Jane Doe: February 2008 A s a result of the non-prosecution agreement, a fifty-threecount indictment that federal prosecutors had prepared against Jeffrey Epstein-one that claimed he’d abused dozens of underage women-never was filed. But as far as lawyers representing Epstein’s victims were concerned, the fact that those victims were not consulted about the non-prosecution agreement was inexcusable. The “government deliberately kept crime victims ‘in the dark’ so that it could enter into a plea arrangement designed to prevent the victims from raising any objections,” they would argue, in documents filed on February 10, 2016. For nine months, the lawyers claimed, from the time that the NPA was signed, on September 24, 2007, Krischer’s office, “doing Epstein’s bidding, [had] concealed the NPA’s existence from victim[s]” and continued to do so until the 190¶