When the central goal of their investigation took his personal life in jail, federal investigators sought to widen their aperture into who else may need helped Jeffrey Epstein commit his crimes, in accordance with paperwork included within the Division of Justice’s release Friday.
The late intercourse offender and rich financier’s far-reaching internet of affect, and his roster of staff, helped make attainable each his lavish life-style and — allegedly — his intercourse trafficking scheme. Following Epstein’s jail cell suicide in August 2019, prosecutors redoubled their efforts to determine those that had been aware of, and enabling of, his abuse – and who they might doubtlessly cost.
4 months after Epstein’s demise, federal prosecutors laid out the proof and allegations that they had gathered in a confidential “prosecution memorandum” despatched to the then top-prosecutor in New York, U.S. Lawyer Geoffrey Berman – to research “the extent to which sure of Epstein’s associates and staff might or might not be criminally liable for his or her conduct throughout their employment with Epstein.”
“Epstein created an enormous community of underage victims — as younger as 14 — in places together with New York and Palm Seaside,” the December 2019 memo states.
Paperwork that had been included within the U.S. Division of Justice launch of the Jeffrey Epstein information are photographed, Jan. 2, 2026.
Jon Elswick/AP
“In creating and sustaining a community of minor victims whom he abused, Epstein labored with others, together with staff and associates who facilitated his exploitation of minors by, amongst different issues, contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with Epstein, each in New York and in Florida,” the memo mentioned.
Prosecution memos are sometimes ready upfront of charging selections in federal circumstances to permit attorneys to evaluate internally the strengths and vulnerabilities of prison circumstances.
As investigators interviewed dozens of Epstein’s alleged victims in addition to his associates and former staff, a number of names stored popping up, together with Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein’s former govt assistant Lesley Groff, who allegedly helped schedule therapeutic massage appointments for girls and minor women, in accordance with a number of individuals interviewed within the investigation.
Prosecutors had been evaluating whether or not the authorized instruments and proof had been adequate to cost any associates, together with Maxwell and Groff, they wrote within the memo. That authorized evaluation is nearly completely redacted.
Maxwell would in the end be arrested in July 2020 for her function within the sexual exploitation scheme — the one individual to have been charged apart from Epstein. She was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to twenty years. Groff has denied all wrongdoing.
An lawyer for Groff beforehand instructed ABC Information that Groff “by no means knowingly booked journey for anybody below the age of 18, and had no data of the alleged criminal activity by any means. Ms. Groff, a dad or mum herself, is extremely shocked and deeply upset concerning the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein.”
The 86-page memo lays out particulars of interviews with greater than two dozen alleged victims in addition to potential topics of the prison investigation and their attorneys. The names of all these alleging abuse are redacted within the doc.
Legal professionals for Maxwell instructed prosecutors in an October 2019 assembly that Maxwell denied ever hiring minors for massages and denied ever participating in intercourse acts with minors. Her attorneys additionally “defined their views of why the people making these claims [against Maxwell] weren’t credible,” the doc says.
One other Epstein affiliate, modeling agent Jean Luc Brunel, indicated he was unwilling to fulfill with prosecutors and would invoke the Fifth Modification if subpoenaed, in accordance with the memo. Brunel was later charged in France with intercourse crimes in opposition to minors. He died by suicide in his Paris jail cell in February 2022.
Different unredacted names within the prosecution memo belong to some on the highest echelons of finance, trend, and Hollywood energy – with whom Epstein was recognized to rub elbows even after changing into a convicted intercourse offender.
The memo additionally particulars allegations made by an alleged Epstein sufferer of wrongdoing by two distinguished associates of Epstein — Wall Avenue billionaire Leon Black, and Jes Staley, Epstein’s former non-public banker at JP Morgan.
An lawyer for Black mentioned in an announcement to ABC Information the claims had been a pack of lies.
“There’s completely no fact to any of the allegations in opposition to Mr. Black,” the lawyer mentioned.
A lawyer who has beforehand represented Staley in circumstances involving Epstein didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however Staley has beforehand acknowledged that he “deeply regrets” his relationship with Epstein.
DOJ officers have contended that lots of the allegations in opposition to distinguished figures weren’t corroborated or weren’t thought of credible — and none of these males have been charged with crimes related to Epstein.
“Look, we mentioned in July and it stays as true at this time as in July, if we had info — which means the Division of Justice — about males who abused ladies, we might prosecute them,” Blanche instructed reporters Friday.
“There’s this built-in assumption that someway there’s a hidden tranche of data of males that we learn about that we’re masking up or that we’re selecting to not prosecute. That isn’t the case,” Blanche mentioned. “I have no idea whether or not there are males on the market who abused these ladies, and if we study info and proof that permits us to prosecute them, you higher consider we’ll. However I don’t suppose that the general public otherwise you all are going to uncover males inside the Epstein information.”
