This story has been percolating in the background for a while, and I think that it might be ready for some major developments.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Epstein is a serial child rapist who got off with a slap on the wrist because everyone, including it appears, the US Attorney’s office, felt that he was too powerful to prosecute<\/a>.<\/p>\n That prosecutor is now Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor:<\/p>\n A judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors \u2014 among them, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta \u2014 broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with a wealthy, politically connected sex trafficker and concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims.<\/span> Instead of prosecuting Epstein under federal sex trafficking laws, Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami, helped negotiate a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution. Epstein, who lived in a Palm Beach mansion, was allowed to quietly plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges<\/a> and served just 13 months in the county jail. His accomplices, some of whom have never been identified, were never charged.<\/span><\/p>\n A judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors \u2014 among them, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta \u2014 broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with a wealthy, politically connected sex trafficker and concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said that the evidence he reviewed showed that <\/a>Jeffrey Epstein had been operating an international sex operation<\/a> in which he and others recruited underage girls \u2014 not only in Florida \u2014 but from overseas, in violation of federal law.<\/p>\n Acosta agreed to seal the deal, which meant that none of Epstein\u2019s victims, who were mostly 13 to 16 years old at the time of the abuse, were told about it until it was too late for them to appear at his sentencing and possibly reject the deal. Upon learning that Epstein had pleaded guilty without their knowledge, two of his victims filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida in 2008, claiming that prosecutors violated the Crime Victims\u2019 Rights Act, which grants victims of federal crimes a series of rights, including the ability to confer with prosecutors about a possible plea deal.<\/p>\n Marra agreed, saying that while prosecutors had the right to resolve the case in any way they saw fit, they violated the law by hiding the agreement from Epstein\u2019s victims. Marra\u2019s decision capped 11 years of litigation \u2014 which included the release of a trove of emails showing how Acosta and other prosecutors worked with Epstein\u2019s high profile lawyers to conceal the deal \u2014 and the scope of Epstein\u2019s crimes \u2014 from both his victims and the public.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n (Emphasis mine<\/i>)<\/p>\n
<\/span> U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said that the evidence he reviewed showed that Jeffrey Epstein had been operating an international sex operation in which he and others recruited underage girls \u2014 not only in Florida \u2014 but from overseas, in violation of federal law.<\/span>
<\/span> \u201cEpstein used paid employees to find and bring minor girls to him.,\u2019\u2019 wrote Marra, who is based in Palm Beach County. \u201cEpstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n