Prosecutors knew Epstein assaulted teenagers years before plea deal
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Jeffrey Epstein raped teenage girls as young as 14 at his Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s, and prosecutors knew about this, according to newly released transcripts.
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Photo of Jeffrey Epstein provided by the New York State Offender Registry (AP)
The Florida grand jury transcripts pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein's rape and sex trafficking case were released by Circuit Judge Luis Delgado on Monday, containing approximately 150 pages, and showing that prosecutors that offered Epstein the lenient plea deal in 2008 knew he had raped teenagers.
The transcripts are composed of the grand jury testimonies of Epstein's teenage victims, revealing the late sex offender raped girls as young as 14 in his Palm Beach mansion when he was in his 40s.
The testimonies included accounts of Epstein paying the girls so he could commit statutory rape and assault, as well as providing additional payment or renting them cars in exchange for them finding him more victims.
“The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order, following the signing of a bill by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, enabling the release of the sealed documents.
“The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal," said Delgado.
$200 for victims
The transcripts reveal that the initial investigation began in March 2005 when a woman reported that her teenage stepdaughter received $300 in exchange for “sexual activity with a man in Palm Beach,” according to Palm Beach Police Detective Joe Recarey's testimony from July 2006.
One of the teenage victims, whose name was redacted, testified she was 17 years old when a friend told her she could make $200 by giving a massage at Epstein’s residence.
She told Epstein she was uncomfortable when he tried touching her at the house, and he said he would pay her an additional $200 if she would bring him “girls."
"The younger, the better," Epstein told the teenager, according to Recarey.
Another teenager testified that starting at the age of 16, Epstein paid her $1000 and rented her a car upon raping her.
The teenager's testimony was supported by a 2005 police search of the mansion, obtaining a statement from Epstein's houseman who told detectives the teenage girls were "too young. Too young to be a masseuse."
“It is so sad, the number of victims Epstein was able to abuse because the State carried water for him when they had a chance to put him away," Brad Edwards, the attorney of many of Epstein's victims said, criticizing the prosecution's misleading presentation of the case.
Epstein's infamy
In 2018, Epstein was indicted with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York following the public's renewed attention to the case from the Miami Herald's series of publications. A year later, at the age of 66, he hanged himself in a New York City jail cell.
The billionaire sex trafficker, with his death, left behind a bombshell that has exposed the affiliation of many notable politicians, businessmen, and royalty with the pedophile ringmaster. These include Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Jes Staley, and others.
