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Can Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers keep his case out of court?

On Thursday, Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan denied bail for Mr. Epstein. Now the defense’s focus will shift to keeping Mr. Epstein’s case from going to trial.

In a bail filing last week and a subsequent hearing, Mr. Epstein’s attorney Reid Weingarten outlined the potential arguments the defense could make to get the case dismissed. And they might have enough merit for the defense to succeed.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Mr. Epstein with sex trafficking last week. The indictment was a rebuke of the 2008 deal brokered by Alexander Acosta, a former United States attorney in Miami who resigned last week as President Trump’s labor secretary. Under the terms of that deal, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to two state charges in Florida and the federal government agreed not to prosecute him on similar charges. He ended up serving a 13-month sentence in a local jail and registering as a sex offender.