A Palm Beach County judge has released the grand jury records in the 2008 Jeffrey Epstein criminal case.
The records contain nearly 200 pages, including the testimony of at least one girl who was molested by Epstein, a New York financier who abused hundreds of underage girls at his Palm Beach mansion for decades. Epstein managed to evade serious charges, in part because the Palm Beach prosecutor at the time, Barry Krischer, elected to charge him with minor prostitution charges rather than bringing a felony sexual assault case.
The records have remained under seal for 16 years. Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order to release the files by July 1.
Epstein’s case came under new scrutiny in 2018 — 10 years later — following a series of articles by the Miami Herald that outlined the secret negotiations that led to a light jail sentence for Epstein. Epstein would serve just 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail, where he was given liberal privileges to work in his outside office and at his mansion.
He was re-arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges in New York. He was found dead in his cell a month after his arrest. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was subsequently charged in the case and was convicted of sex trafficking charges in 2020. Maxwell, a British socialite who had a long relationship with Epstein, is appealing her sentence.
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