Epstein

by Dylan Howard

  In principle, it was shocking. In practice, it was illegal. Florida law prohibits anyone who has committed three violations in five years from being granted work-release. Epstein pleaded guilty to charges involving one victim. But in 2018, the Southern Florida Assistant US Attorney, Maria Villafaña, announced that she’d found “inaccuracies and omissions” in Epstein’s work-release file, claiming that he had actually made three violations and therefore should not have ever been given release.

  What’s more, of more than twenty inmates on work release at that time in the same prison, Epstein was the only sex offender.

  Disturbingly, he could have used that time to commit even more crimes. South Florida’s Sun Sentinel newspaper reported that they found more than one instance in which Epstein was not under the direct supervision of guards. What’s more, there is no record of who visited him when he was “working” at a nondescript West Palm Beach office building, because those logs have been destroyed.

  There are records, however, of who visited him in prison. Although a department memo had barred Epstein from seeing “family members, girlfriends, children, friends or minors,” there are recorded visits by Sarah Kellen and Nadia Marcinkova. Both women have been identified in federal court as two of his potential “co-conspirators.”

  Kellen, who sometimes goes by Sarah Kensington or Sarah Vickers, was described as the “lieutenant” in one lawsuit, just below Ghislaine in the chain of command. In multiple lawsuits, she has been accused of scheduling girls for sex sessions with Epstein in his Palm Beach mansion. The involvement of Marcinkova, who later used the last name Marcinko, is somewhat curious. Police records show that investigators had indications that Marcinkova might have been underage herself when she became involved with Epstein and declined to answer questions about the sex scheme when she was deposed in a lawsuit, invoking the Fifth Amendment. Her lawyers later said she was one of his victims.

  Miami Herald reporters Sarah Blaskey and Nicholas Nehamas found that Epstein even made a prison commissary purchase that seemed like a likely gift for a guest: two pairs of small women’s panties, size 5. Too small to fit an average adult woman, however, they certainly weren’t for Kellen or Marcinkova. . . .

  As for all crooks, Epstein found, there was a workaround that could make life in prison tolerable: Corruption. Epstein paid a pretty penny for his privileges.

  According to records obtained by these authors, one of his nonprofit organizations paid $128,000 to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department to cover the cost of his personal detail. They were even known to refer to him as “the client” instead of as “the perp.”

  Ultimately, Epstein—one of the sickest sex fiends to ever walk the planet—only served thirteen months before he was released on “good behavior.”

  Overall, it was outrageous. At the time of this writing, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an investigation into how his case was handled. Florida State Senator Lauren Brook was one of the forces behind the inquest.

  “Epstein enjoyed an unprecedented and deeply troubling level of leniency and luxury while incarcerated,” she said. “We need answers if we want accountability.”

  So, who was responsible for Epstein’s incredible, once-in-a-lifetime sweetheart deal?

  Then–US Attorney Alex Acosta has insisted it wasn’t him. Acosta was asked about his role in the debacle while being vetted by Trump’s transition team, before taking up his position as Secretary of Labor. He insisted he’d only had one meeting about the deal, according to reporter Vicky Ward—a claim that matches the Miami Herald’s reporting on the West Palm Beach Marriott breakfast rendezvous.

  Acosta had “been told to back off,” because Epstein was “above his paygrade,” Ward wrote, that “Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ . . . and to leave it alone.”

  But exactly who was the “intelligence” agency pulling the strings? Epstein’s plea deal mysteriously hinted at the “valuable consideration” he’d been given for information he’d provided to federal prosecutors behind the scenes. The nature of that information has never been made public, and many assume that it is connected to his work as a federal witness in the prosecution of individuals connected to the 2008 collapse of his former employer, Bear Stearns.

  However, also in 2008, several of Epstein’s famous associates were involved in even more pressing international crises.

  George W. Bush was entering the final months of his oversight of the bungled Iraq War, and Britain was one of the country’s last remaining allies as part of the much-fêted Coalition of the Willing, referring to the US-led Multi-National Force in Iraq. Surely, he had reason to keep Epstein quiet, and to prevent Prince Andrew’s name from being dragged through the mud in a highly publicized and scandalous trial.

  In addition, former pal Bill Clinton’s wife Hillary was in the midst of her first presidential campaign. Epstein’s Palm Beach pal Donald Trump had even come out to support her, calling her a “wonderful woman” who would make a great president. As for Trump, he had just launched Celebrity Apprentice, and was riding high in his new career as a reality television star.

  Also in 2008, Mohammed bin Salman had finished college and was launching his political career in Saudi Arabia by joining the Saudi Cabinet.

  Notorious Saudi arms trader Adnan Khashoggi was in the midst of a reputation overhaul. “Selling an image,” the New York Times reported at the time, “he prefers these days to be remembered as ‘Mr. Fix-It’ rather than the arms dealer involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.”

  All of these people would have had an incentive and motivation to keep the peace when it came to Epstein—and what he knew.

  “Epstein was sort of flying very important people around the world, providing young girls for some of them,” said author Martin Dillon, after conversations with sources in the Mossad. “Building files. It’s how the intelligence services work.”

  “They call it the honey trap,” Dillon said, referring to the time-honored intelligence practice of spies using the lure of sex to entrap targets. “But it’s much more sophisticated than that.”

  The honey trap—or “love trap,” as it is sometimes known—has a long and salacious history in American espionage. According to a 1975 Washington Post report, “For years, the Central Intelligence Agency operated love traps in New York and San Francisco, where foreign diplomats were lured by prostitutes in the pay of the CIA.”

  “Through hidden one-way mirrors, CIA agents filmed the sexual adventures and later tried to blackmail the victims into becoming informants.”

  The article noted, “The CIA possibly got the idea from the Russians, who have long used sex blackmail to entrap Westerners into spying for them.”

  CIA reps told the Washington Post reporters that they “had never heard of this.” But for Epstein, the playbook was already written.

  Dillon explained:

  If you’re an intelligence community, and you have someone like Epstein, who’s kind of a celebrity, who can attract celebrities, who can be in part of conversations about world events about the most secret things. If you could put people like Clinton on his planes and you can put Ehud Barak, a former Prime Minister of Israel and a former general, then he is a guy who really matters to you.

  If he is going to be your friend, he is going to work for you. He is going to be an asset for you. Look what he can do. He can give you information on all those politicians; on their private behavior, their peccadilloes, all these things are important to intelligence communities.

  Former CIA counterterrorism specialist Philip Giraldi said he also has “little doubt” that Epstein was running an intelligence operation, and that his knowledge helped him escape justice.

  “There is no other viable explanation for his filming of prominent politicians and celebrities having sex with young girls,” Giraldi wrote in the American Herald Tribune in August 2019. “Epstein clearly had contact with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak and [Epstein’s client Leslie
] Wexner also had close ties to Israel and its government.”

  In addition to flying on the Lolita Express, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak also visited Epstein at his Manhattan home. In January 2016, he was photographed entering the property, followed by four young women soon after.

  “I was there, for lunch or chat, nothing else. So what?” said Barak in a statement when the visit was reported. “I never attended a party with him. I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls.” He also admitted to having visited Little St. James, but said he did not attend any parties or see any young girls there either.

  According to Giraldi, former Palm Beach County state attorney Barry Krischer also may have been responsible for swaying Acosta in 2008, behind-the-scenes. Krischer had won the prestigious Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Award ten years before. (The ADL is a US-based Jewish organization with a long history of domestic spying allegations.)

  “The Jewish state regularly tops the list for ostensibly friendly countries that aggressively conduct espionage against the US,” Giraldi claimed. “Mossad would have exploited Epstein’s contacts. . . . Those blackmailed would undoubtedly in most cases cooperate with the foreign government involved to avoid a major scandal.”

  Fallen into the hands of the American justice system in Florida, he could have provided information far more explosive than whatever was happening at Bear Stearns.

  Indeed, Epstein’s attorney Kenneth Starr at one point went over Acosta’s head to Republican appointees at the Department of Justice, demanding that they drop the case. The attorney general in 2008, who likely would have received the request, was Michael Mukasey—an Orthodox Jew with such deep ties to Israel, that he has been accused of having dual citizenship.

  In retrospect, it’s clear that Epstein’s blackmail files were at the heart of his epic sweetheart deal. It wasn’t just the contents of those files that his friends and enemies wanted kept quiet, however. It was the fact that the deal itself seemed most dangerous.

  As part of the plea deal, Acosta and his team agreed to try to keep the details of their arrangement out of the press. The New York Times covered Epstein’s sentencing in a fluffy report set on his “palm-fringed Xanadu in the Caribbean.”

  “To prosecutors, Mr. Epstein is just another sex offender,” reporter Landon Thomas Jr. insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary. Epstein “admits” that “his behavior was inappropriate,” Thomas wrote—perhaps in the understatement of the century. The article even featured tough talk from a member of Acosta’s team insisting that Epstein would get no house arrest, a claim that Thomas apparently did not question.

  It was later revealed that Thomas had asked Epstein for a $30,000 donation to his favored charity. After the donation was uncovered, Thomas left the New York Times under a cloud of controversy.

  Even worse than the media secrecy that surrounded the deal was the fact that it was deliberately hidden from the victims. A letter from one of Epstein’s attorneys to Acosta makes the plot clear: As part of the plea deal, Acosta would be barred from informing “any of the identified individuals, potential witnesses or potential civil claimants” about the details or even the existence of the agreement.

  Spencer Kuvin was an attorney representing several Epstein victims at the time. He described how he and his clients were kept in the dark to veteran crime reporter Doug Montero.

  “I’m in the courtroom and Mr. Epstein pleads guilty,” Kuvin recalled.” At this point, we still don’t know on behalf the victims what he’s pleading guilty to. We don’t know how long he’s going to stay in jail, we don’t know what the non-prosecution agreement that he entered into says, what it says for the victims, what it says about him, what charges he’s admitting to or what is the standard of all of the allegations that he’s admitting to at the time. He’s just whisked off and that’s it.”

  He continued:

  We go back to our offices and I call the US Attorney’s Office and they still don’t give us any information. They don’t tell us what he pleaded guilty to, they don’t even tell us that there’s a non-prosecution agreement. I learned about it later, on behalf of my client through, again, a source that tells me, ‘Hey, did you know that there’s a document out there that’s a non-prosecution agreement that you should get ahold of because it effectively talks about your clients and certain victims that he’s pleading guilty to.

  As attorneys, there were about four or five of us at the time representing various different victims to get ahold of this non-prosecution agreement. Mr. Epstein’s lawyers fought us and wouldn’t produce it, refused to produce the agreement. We had to go to court and over a period of a year, this is one year after the federal government enters into an agreement with Mr. Epstein to not prosecute him, essentially having him plead guilty to the same exact charges that these girls have accused him of.

  We, on behalf of the victims still don’t have the agreement and the judge finally orders that it be produced to the victims. They then, on behalf of Mr. Epstein, appeal that decision from the judge. So we still don’t get a copy of it until it goes through the appellate court system, which lasts another six to seven months before we finally, ultimately get ahold of this deal.

  We see when we open the deal and take a look at it, that it gives immunity to not only Mr. Epstein but also his coconspirators, some which are specifically named. Then in the language of the document, it includes any and all potential other coconspirators in this non-prosecution agreement.

  So the federal government enters into a deal, which essentially gives not only Mr. Epstein immunity but all of the other people that potentially could have been coconspirators bringing women or girls to his home. It was an unbelievable deal.

  We had never seen something so broad before, we had no idea why they would enter into such a deal. What was the motivation? Why would you give this man such a deal like this?

  You know, if this had been Joe Plumber working in Palm Beach and had abused one minor, two minors, he could be sitting behind bars for sixty to seventy years. This is a man that had abused probably over forty young girls, and now you’re giving them this deal and giving immunity to all those coconspirators? It just never made any sense.

  None of it made sense. The speed with which they entered into the deal, the breadth or the scope of the investigation, which, by the way, didn’t even go outside of Palm Beach at the time. For some unknown reason, the US Attorney’s Office, Mr. Acosta, decided to keep it within Palm Beach. It just never made any sense.

  The only thing that we could think on behalf of the young girls was that maybe Mr. Epstein had traded information and given the federal government information that nobody knew about, that they weren’t telling us. . . . But we never knew because they wouldn’t tell us, and they wouldn’t tell the victims.

  In this case, it seemed, silence was golden. But who would benefit from Epstein keeping his mouth shut?

  CHAPTER 11

  THE HUNT FOR JUSTICE

  Months and even years after the sexual assaults that changed their lives, Epstein’s victims stood in the shadows, trying to move on with their lives while also awaiting the justice that would allow them to do so—justice that would never come

  Attorneys like Spencer Kuvin who had stood by them through the investigation began to help them file civil suits in an attempt to find some kind of closure.

  “After the FBI conducted all of their investigations, and talked to all of these young women, by then, some of these women had actually come forward and decided to go ahead and file civil lawsuits against Mr. Epstein,” Kuvin said “I was retained by not only that first victim, but also two other girls who were courageous enough to step forward and file a suit against Mr. Epstein.”

  “When the first cases were resolved, the young girls were extremely upset at the way that the US Attorney’s Office handled that case,” Kuvin explained.” Really, they kind of felt revictimized by the system itself, by the US Attorney’s office, because nobody seemed to care a
bout them.”

  “I think that’s why they really focused as much as they did, because they knew as attorneys on their behalf, we were fighting vigorously to get Mr. Epstein and to get admissions out of him and to conduct investigations. We were deposing under oath his house manager and the police chief and the lead investigator and his cook and his pilot and him. You know, the US Attorney’s Office wasn’t doing that. We were, on behalf of the victims.”

  Indeed, Epstein had been able to evade a trial, but it was in the civil cases that he had to answer tough questions for the very first time, leaving prison to sit for uncomfortable depositions that were recorded on tape.

  “I took Mr. Epstein’s deposition twice,” Kuvin said. “On the first occasion that I took his deposition, as I walked in the room, he really attempted as best he could to maintain eye contact. He had a big grin on his face, always looked smug.”

  He continued:

  You got the feeling that he always felt as though he was the smartest man in the room but yet he always wanted to try to ingratiate himself and be friendly with everyone that was around.

  He had two lawyers protecting him during the deposition that I took. The first one, his criminal lawyer and his civil lawyer, they sat there objecting to questions constantly, while Mr. Epstein would just sit back and smirk. He’d look over to them during questioning if he was concerned whether he should assert his fifth amendment right or just go ahead and answer questions.

  He would periodically answer questions that he knew were insignificant, that he could talk about, like where he may have gone to school or where he grew up. While at the same time objecting to other questions that were basic such as “what’s your address in Palm Beach” that he thought may be able to incriminate him.

  I asked him, in his first deposition, the most significant question right at the beginning: whether or not in fact his private parts were the shape of an egg? He smirked almost to the point of a laugh.