For Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, justice continues to come drop by drop, and often with no certainty.
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan sentenced Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in prison. A federal jury convicted Maxwell — Epstein’s longtime companion — on five counts of recruiting teenage girls for Epstein to abuse at his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion and other properties.
The 60-year-old Maxwell deserved a life sentence. But that might not be the only problem.
After Maxwell’s conviction, a juror revealed that he had been a victim of sexual abuse. Maxwell’s attorneys asked for a new trial. In April, Nathan refused, saying that the revelation had been “highly unfortunate but deliberate” and posed “no bias” against Maxwell.
Legal experts, however, stated that an appeals court could rule otherwise. Given the evidence, a new jury likely would render a second conviction. Still, the possibility symbolizes the frustration of the victims and the public with the system’s treatment of Epstein and those who enabled him.
To recap:
In 2007, former Palm Beach County State Attoney Barry Krischer and former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal under which Epstein would plead guilty to a single state charge of soliciting prostitution. Prosecutors in Acosta’s office believed that there was evidence to charge Epstein as a sex trafficker and send him to prison for life.
U.S District Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that Acosta had violated federal law by not informing the victims about the deal. Yet Marra also ruled that Epstein’s death in 2019 meant that victims could not sue for damages as a result of the illegal deal.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals further twisted the knife into the victims by overturning Marra. Because prosecutors never filed charges against Epstein, the majority ruled, there were no charges for the government to withhold from the victims.
The Miami Herald’s 2018 series “Perversion of Justice” forced Acosta to resign as U.S. Labor secretary. Krischer retired in 2008. And now Maxwell might get a new trial, despite Nathan finding that her “criminal activity was extensive.”
At this point, the only thing final about the Epstein case is that Palm Beach mansion. It was demolished in March 2021 by the man who bought it for $18.5 million and hoped to build an art deco showplace.
Palm Beach officials didn’t like that idea. So the man sold the 0.8-acre lot for $25.8 million to David and Mally Skok. As the Palm Beach Daily News reported, David Skok said, “When we purchased (the site), one of our goals was to take something that, I think, had a very bad reputation and was a blight on the community, and do everything we could to bring that to a state of beauty and grace that really added to the town.”
At last report, town officials thought that the Skoks’ proposed house was too big. But talks are continuing.
Which leaves the victims. As one put it, “We are all in this sorority that none of us asked to join.” Maxwell preyed on underage girls from troubled families for a man whose friends included Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew. They have received money from lawsuits, but the failure to bring public accountability worsens the psychological damage.
With the federal courts having failed, one option remains in state court.
In 2006, Palm Beach police investigators had concluded that Epstein could face multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor. Krischer, though, took the case to a grand jury, which returned just that single count of solicitation.
Why? What happened?
A look at the grand jury transcript could answer those questions. Among the exceptions for releasing such transcripts is “furthering justice,” which certainly applies here.
Last December, however, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Donald Hafele refused to release the transcript. Hafele said state law gave him no choice.
The Palm Beach Post has appealed. In their motion, attorneys for the paper compared the case to that of Breonna Taylor, whom Louisville police murdered during a botched raid.
The Epstein transcripts, the attorneys said, “likely would reveal what charges were presented, how they were presented, how questions from grand jurors were handled by the state attorney, the testimony of the witness, and whether … explanations provided by the State Attorney’s Office align with what actually transpired.”
Because of that grand jury, Epstein got to serve light time in the Palm Beach County Jail. Only because of the Herald series — which focused on what happened in Palm Beach — and prosecutors in New York did Epstein face the justice he deserved and then managed to thwart by taking his own life.
All that began in Palm Beach. Release the transcript in hopes of giving the victims and the public some certainty about who caused so much to go so wrong.
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