Topline

The case against Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious financier connected to wealthy and powerful figures in politics and business, is back in the spotlight again as the Trump administration faces immense pressure to release the Justice Department’s remaining files from his prosecutions.

Police in Palm Beach signed a probable cause affidavit charging Epstein with unlawful sex acts with a minor in March 2006, but State’s Attorney Barry Krischer instead referred the case to a grand jury—sparking backlash, including from the then-chief of the Palm Beach Police Department, who then turned over evidence against Epstein to the FBI. The grand jury charged Epstein with only a single count of solicitation of prostitution, while the FBI began a formal investigation into the Palm Beach financier.

Epstein’s attorneys quickly began negotiating a plea deal with Acosta’s office, which he finally signed in 2008. Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state charges for solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution from a minor in exchange for a 13-month prison sentence and registering as a sex offender. He was released from prison months early in July 2009, being given work release to return to his West Palm Beach office during the day and only report back to the prison to sleep. Dozens of his alleged victims began filing lawsuits after his release after details of the non-prosecution agreement he signed with the U.S. attorney’s office finally became public.

Epstein’s lawyers began negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors at least by 2007, but continually pressed for more and more concessions, the Miami Herald reported. Federal prosecutors had already written a 53-page indictment against the financier before they finally agreed to the deal, the Herald’s investigation revealed. Epstein agreed to plead guilty to the two charges of prostitution in exchange for 13 months in prison. As part of the deal, Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, which remained sealed. The deal also included a clause that extended immunity to “any potential co-conspirators” in the case.

Maxwell was Epstein’s longtime girlfriend who was convicted for helping the financier find underage girls to abuse. She’s the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a British media mogul and former member of parliament with alleged connections to multiple intelligence agencies. Robert Maxwell died after apparently falling from his yacht in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1991. Maxwell was arrested in 2020 for her role in helping Epstein recruit girls, after evading lawsuits from alleged victims for years. Much of the information we know about Epstein was released during Maxwell’s prosecution, including the flight logs from Epstein’s private jet, which showed the financier traveling multiple times with Clinton and Trump. After a closely watched trial in Manhattan, Maxwell was convicted on five federal charges, including one count of sex trafficking of a minor, one count of transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, and three counts of conspiracy related to sex trafficking. Maxwell has long maintained her innocence, and has appealed her case all the way to the Supreme Court to throw out her conviction for violating the non-prosecution agreement Epstein signed. The Justice Department has disputed this claim, arguing Epstein’s original agreement only applied to the Southern District of Florida.

Acosta was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida under former President George W. Bush, and was responsible for approving Epstein’s controversial plea deal. Trump nominated Acosta to serve as secretary of labor in 2017. At his confirmation hearing, Acosta initially defended his handling of the original case. “At the end of the day, Mr. Epstein went to jail. Epstein was incarcerated. He registered as a sex offender. The world was put on notice that he was a sex offender, and the victims received restitution,” Acosta said. When Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., pressed him on Epstein being allowed out on work release, Acosta said “I am on record condemning that, and I think that was awful,” deflecting criticism back to how the state administered his sentence. In November 2018, the Miami Herald began publishing its “Perversion of Justice” investigative reports, reexamining the case and Acosta’s role in approving the plea deal and non-prosecution agreement for the disgraced financier—thrusting Epstein back into the national spotlight due to Acosta’s new position in the Trump administration. Acosta resigned from his position in the Trump administration shortly after Epstein’s second arrest in 2019. The Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigated Acosta’s handling of the case. In a November 2020 report, the OPR found that Acosta "exercised poor judgement,” specifically condemning his office’s decision not to notify Epstein’s victims of the non-prosecution agreement he signed as part of his plea deal. “His decision left victims uninformed about an important proceeding that resolved the federal investigation, an investigation about which the USAO had communicated with victims for months,” the report reads. “It also ultimately created the misimpression that the Department intentionally sought to silence the victims.”

Some commentators, most notably Tucker Carlson, have tried to link Epstein to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. It is unclear if Epstein ever had links to the agency, and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett rejected the claims outright. “As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty: the accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett wrote in a statement on X.