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Non-prosecution agreement (NPA) (2007–08)
The FBI investigation resulted in a 53-page federal grand jury indictment. Alexander Acosta, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, agreed to a plea deal to grant immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein, along with four named co-conspirators and any unnamed "potential co-conspirators". According to the Miami Herald, the non-prosecution agreement "essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes." At the time, this halted the investigation and sealed the indictment. The Miami Herald states: "Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims."
[3] Acosta later said he had been told that Epstein "belonged to intelligence", was "above his pay grade" and to "leave it alone".[44] Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state prostitution charges, register as a sex offender, and pay restitution to three dozen victims identified by the FBI.[3] The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported, "Despite this, the US government eventually agreed to allow Epstein to plead guilty to just one count of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl under Florida state law. ... Epstein agreed not to contest civil claims brought by the 40 women identified by the FBI, but escaped a prosecution that could have seen him jailed for the rest of his life."[35] But he was allowed to choose (and agreed to pay) the victims’ lawyers in the civil suits (but not any other lawyers they chose). This arrangement resulted in Epstein being able to pressure the victims using private investigators, and in effect to contest and settle many of the civil suits.
More precisely, for his NPA plea Epstein was allowed to select his victim and plead guilty to procuring for prostitution an older 17-year old minor girl (whose age when molested was not precisely stated), rather than the original 14-year old complainant. Florida age of consent is 18. But it is lower in many states (for example, 17 in N.Y.) thereby reducing the degree of the crime in classification for registration as a sex offender and in the eyes of the public.
The NPA deal was declared illegal in February 2019 due to its victims not being notified.[45]
On February 21, 2019, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Kenneth Marra said federal prosecutors violated the law by failing to notify victims before they allowed him to plead guilty to only the Florida offense. The judge left open what the possible remedy could be.[82] On March 11, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit gave parties one week to provide good cause as to why the summary judgement and case documents should remain under seal, without which they would be unsealed on March 19, 2019.[83][84]
In 2019, Trump said he broke up with Epstein about 15 years prior.[116][117] Epstein was allegedly banned[118][119] from Trump's club in 1999, according to court documents filed by attorney Bradley Edwards[120], although Edwards later acknowledged this was a rumor he was unable to confirm.[121][122][123][124] Bill Clinton lauded Epstein as "a committed philanthropist" with "insights and generosity." At the time Epstein was on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation, a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a major donor to Harvard University.[125]
originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: FieldMarshalMatt
Trump is an inept idiot. The only reason he hasn't screwed up royally are the people he has around him just ignore his more insane requests. There's a reason he has so many empty cabinet positions.
originally posted by: FieldMarshalMatt
a reply to: hombero
What he does with what Acosta has said about why , when a judge , he let a man like Epstein go free who should have gone to jail for life , that will define Trump and presidency yes .
In a way the answer to what Trump intends to do with this matter in his own capacity as president is in Acosta's statement when he resigned as Trump's labour secretary :
...
It's make or break time for Trump
originally posted by: conspiracy nut
a reply to: mikell
Well the very first response is a deflection. Typical. What ever happened to denying ignorance?