In 2005 the Palm Beach Police Department began investigating Jeffrey Epstein after a parent reported that her 14-year-old daughter had been paid to give Epstein a massage at his Palm Beach mansion. Detectives identified 36 girls and young women who had gone to Epstein’s home for what were described as massage appointments. Most were teenagers. Some were as young as 13. Detectives presented their findings to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office, which referred the case to federal prosecutors. The FBI opened an investigation in 2006. By 2007 federal investigators in the Southern District of Florida had assembled evidence they believed supported a 60-count federal indictment that could have sent Epstein to prison for life. The lead federal prosecutor was Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
The Deal
Rather than proceed with the federal indictment, Acosta’s office negotiated a nonprosecution agreement with Epstein’s attorneys — a team that included Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law professor. The agreement, signed in September 2008, allowed Epstein to plead guilty to two state charges — solicitation of prostitution and procurement of a minor for prostitution — rather than face the federal indictment. He was sentenced to 18 months in a Palm Beach County jail.
The agreement granted immunity from federal prosecution not only to Epstein but to any potential co-conspirators — a provision that shielded four named women including Sarah Kellen from federal charges. It was negotiated and finalized without notifying Epstein’s victims — a direct violation of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act, which requires prosecutors to inform victims of significant developments in cases affecting them.
The Work Release
Epstein served 13 months of his 18-month sentence. During that time he was granted work release privileges that allowed him to leave the county jail six days a week, up to 12 hours per day, to work at his Palm Beach office. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s office approved the arrangement.
The Miami Herald Investigation
In 2018 Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown published a three-part series titled Perversion of Justice that brought the nonprosecution agreement back to national attention. Brown’s reporting identified more than 80 women who said they had been victimized by Epstein. Her investigation documented how the deal had been negotiated in secret, how victims had been kept in the dark, and how the co-conspirator immunity provision had shielded Epstein’s associates from prosecution. The series sparked congressional attention and a Department of Justice investigation into whether prosecutors had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
The Legal Challenges
Two survivors — Virginia Giuffre and Courtney Wild — challenged the nonprosecution agreement in federal court. In February 2019 U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that federal prosecutors had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by failing to notify victims. Alexander Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary in July 2019 — days after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in New York — following public scrutiny of his role in negotiating the deal.
What the Agreement Actually Did
The nonprosecution agreement resolved federal charges in the Southern District of Florida only. In July 2019 federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York arrested Epstein on new sex trafficking charges. Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner. The co-conspirator immunity provision that protected Sarah Kellen and three other women named in the agreement has been a persistent source of legal controversy. The congressional investigation now underway is examining in part how the agreement was negotiated and what role political connections played in its terms.