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Judge unseals more details in Jeffrey Epstein underage sex lawsuit

A federal judge in Florida has released new details about how high-powered lawyers for billionaire investment manager Jeffrey Epstein managed to delay and water down victim notifications that federal prosecutors sent to more than 30 underage girls with whom Epstein allegedly had sex.

Attorneys for Epstein fought for years to keep the substance of the negotiations leading to the unusual plea deal secret from lawyers for the alleged victims and from the public. However, a federal appeals court ruled last year that the discussions were not legally privileged.

Newly disclosed excerpts of emails and letters exchanged by prosecutors and Epstein's defense (and posted here) appear to indicate that federal authorities and Epstein's lawyers worked to limit information judges might receive about aspects of the deal, which involved Epstein pleading guilty to a state charge in exchange for a guarantee not to prosecute him in federal court.

"Andy [who wasn't further identified in the filing] recommended that some of the time issues be addressed only in the state agreement, so that it isn't obvious to the judge that we are trying to create federal jurisdiction for prison purposes," Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Villafana wrote to Epstein lawyer Jay Lefkowitz in a Sept. 19, 2007, email. "I will include our standard language regarding resolving all criminal liability and I will mention 'co-conspirators,' but I would prefer not to highlight for the judge all of the other crimes and all of the other persons that we could charge ... maybe we can set a time to meet, if you want to meet 'off campus' somewhere, that is fine. I will make sure that I have all the necessary decision makers present or 'on call' as well."

Another email a few days later discusses the large number of individuals the FBI considered victims and continuing uncertainty about whether some of the young women were under the age of consent.

"I wanted to tell you that I have compiled a list of 34 confirmed minors," Villafana wrote to Lefkowitz. "There are six others, whose name [sic] we already have, who need to be interviewed by the FBI to confirm whether they were 17 or 18 at the time of their activity with Mr. Epstein."

In a December 2007 letter, the prosecutor acknowledges some notifications of alleged victims but says they were sent after the U.S. Attorney's Office signed the plea deal and halted for most of the women at the request of Epstein's lawyers.

"Three victims were notified shortly after the signing of the Non-Prosecution Agreement of the general terms of that Agreement," Villafana wrote, again to Lefkowitz. "You raised objections to any victim notification, and no further notifications were done."

After Epstein pleaded guilty in June 2008 to two state felony charges relating to prostitution, two women who claimed to have been victims of the money mogul filed suit against the federal government claiming that prosecutors violated the Crime Victims Rights Act by failing to consult with them about the plea deal, failing to disclose its terms and failing to keep victims informed about important developments in the case. The suit asks that the nonprosecution deal be rescinded.

In the court filing unsealed Monday, the alleged victims' lawyers — Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell — contend that the correspondence backs up their view that the prosecution and Epstein's defense worked together to frustrate the legal rights the alleged victims should have been accorded.

The exchanges "demonstrate that the victims' allegations of a conspiracy between the Government and Epstein's attorneys to conceal the existence of a broad non-prosecution agreement are not mere speculation, but appear to be well supported," Edwards and Cassell wrote. They added that one email "shows the parties negotiating to keep the judge in the dark about the full nature of the plea arrangement, as well as keeping the victims (i.e. 'the girls') in the dark about the plea agreement until after Epstein's plea. It also shows the prosecutors setting up a meeting with the defense attorneys that would be 'off campus' — i.e., outside the ordinary course of business."

Epstein's lawyers — who included at various times such heavyweights as former independent counsel Kenneth Starr and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz — argued that the law did not require federal prosecutors to make any notifications because the women were not victims of any crime being charged in a federal court.

Epstein was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in jail on the state charges. He served 13 before being released.

While Judge Kenneth Marra made more information about the episode public Monday, he also dealt a setback to the women and attorneys pursuing the victims rights' suit. Marra turned down the bulk of their request for the U.S. Attorney's Office's internal files and memos about the case. In his new ruling (posted here), the judge said most of that material, including draft federal indictments, should remain confidential as attorney work product or secret grand jury material. However, Marra said the alleged victims were entitled to a few documents that appeared to have been shared with Epstein's defense team or were largely factual in nature.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in southern Florida declined to comment on the ruling and the newly unsealed plea details. Federal prosecutors have previously said they agreed to the deal to spare victims the need to testify and to ease their ability to get financial compensation from Epstein.

A lawyer for Epstein, Roy Black, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Epstein's prosecution and the legal morass in which he is still enmeshed have attracted unusual notoriety because of his wealth as well as his ties to well-known politicians, professors and celebrities. Earlier this year, a woman seeking to join the victims rights suit and identified as Jane Doe #3 alleged in court papers that she was kept as a "sex slave" by Epstein and forced to have sex with prominent men, including Dershowitz and Britain's Prince Andrew. Both men flatly denied the allegations.

In April, Marra struck the "lurid" claims from the court record and denied Jane Doe #3's request to join the lawsuit.

Republicans and conservatives have also taken a keen interest in President Bill Clinton's connections to Epstein, hoping to make trouble for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. Press reports have noted that Bill Clinton, as well as actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, used Epstein's private 727 to travel to Africa in 2002 for a Clinton Foundation tour of AIDS-fighting and development work. Flight logs filed in connection with another lawsuit show at least 10 journeys by Clinton on Epstein's planes.

"I'd like to know what he was doing with Jeffrey Epstein, how many trips did he take, where was he going, what did he do when he was with this guy?' Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus told Bloomberg in March. "When you hang out with a guy who has a reputation like Jeffrey Epstein, multiple times, on private jets, on weekends, on trips, on places at least where it's been reported not very good things happen, it would be good to know what our former president was doing, especially because it appears he's going to be part of a campaign ticket on the other side of the aisle."

Last month, conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding all Secret Service records pertaining to the costs of any trips Bill Clinton made to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.

Spokespeople for Hillary Clinton's campaign, the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton did not respond to requests for comment.

At least one presidential hopeful who has since jumped in the ring on the Republican side was friendly with Epstein: Donald Trump.

"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,'' Trump told New York Magazine back in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

A Trump associate said Tuesday that Trump wasn't aware of any wrongdoing and that he and Epstein were not particularly close. "He was a member of one of Trump's clubs where he would visit with women and business associates, but there was no formal relationship," the source close to Trump said.

UPDATE (Tuesday, 5:49 P.M.): This post has been updated with comment from a Trump associate.