Prosecutors knew Jeffrey Epstein raped teenage girls two years before deal, transcript shows

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida prosecutors knew that the late millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted teenage girls two years before they reached a plea deal that has long been criticized as too lenient and a missed opportunity to imprison him a decade early, according to transcripts released Monday.

The 2006 grand jury investigation was the first in a long line of investigations by law enforcement over the past two decades into Epstein's rape and sex trafficking of teenage girls — and how his connections to the rich and powerful appear to have allowed him to avoid prison or serious jail time for more than a decade.

Investigations have revealed Epstein's close ties to former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew of England, as well as his once-friendly relationships with former President Donald Trump and numerous other wealthy and influential people who have denied doing anything criminal or improper and have not been charged.

Circuit Judge Luis Delgado’s release Monday of about 150 pages came as a surprise, as a hearing was scheduled for next week to unveil the graphic testimony. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February authorizing the release Monday or any time later at Delgado’s direction. Florida grand jury transcripts are typically kept secret forever, but the bill created an exemption for cases like Epstein’s.

Transcripts show that the grand jury heard testimony that Epstein, who was in his 40s at the time, raped girls as young as 14 at his Palm Beach home, often paying them so he could commit a rape or assault. The teens testified and told detectives they were also paid in cash or rental cars if they found him other girls.

“The details of the case will be shocking to honest people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The testimony gathered by the grand jury involves activities ranging from the unacceptable to the rape – all of the behaviors involved are sexually deviant, disgusting and criminal.”

In 2008, Epstein struck a deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida that allowed him to escape more serious federal charges and plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and soliciting prostitution. He was sentenced to a year and a half in the Palm Beach County jail system, during which he was allowed to report to his office almost daily under a parole program, followed by a year of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.

Criticism of the deal led to the 2019 resignation of Trump’s Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was the federal prosecutor for South Florida in 2008 and had signed the deal. A 2020 Justice Department investigation concluded that Acosta had exercised “poor judgment” in his handling of Epstein’s prosecution, but it did not constitute professional misconduct.

The lead prosecutor in the Epstein case, former Palm Beach County prosecutor Barry Krischer, did not immediately respond Monday to an email and voicemail seeking comment on the release of the transcripts.

Current Palm Beach County District Attorney Dave Aronberg, who was not involved in the investigation, said in a statement that he was pleased the documents had been made public. He said he had not yet read the transcripts and therefore could not comment on whether Krischer should have pursued harsher charges against Epstein.

Brad Edwards, an attorney for many of the victims, said in a statement that the transcripts show Krischer's office “brought the case to the grand jury with the goal of returning minimal, if any, criminal charges against Jeffrey Epstein.”

“A fraction of the evidence was misrepresented and the Bureau portrayed the victims as criminals,” he said. “It’s so sad to see how many victims Epstein was able to abuse because the state took matters into its own hands when it had the opportunity to put him in prison.”

Epstein's estate pays $155 million in restitution to more than 125 victims.

According to transcripts, Palm Beach police Detective Joe Recarey testified in July 2006 that the initial investigation began when a woman reported in March 2005 that her stepdaughter, who was in high school at the time, said she had received $300 in exchange for “sexual activity with a man in Palm Beach,” Recarey testified.

Another teenage girl, whose name was redacted in the transcript, told detectives she was 17 when she was approached by a friend who told her she could earn $200 by providing a massage at Epstein's home.

At home, when Epstein tried to touch her, she told him she felt uncomfortable. He then told her he would give her $200 if she brought “girls” to the house. “And he told her, ‘The younger the better,’” Recarey said.

Over time, she brought six friends to Epstein's home, including a 14-year-old boy, and compared herself to Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss in interviews from October 2005, Recarey said.

When she brought a 23-year-old friend, Epstein told her the friend was too old.

“The more you did, the more money you made,” the teen told the detective. “She explained to him that there would be a massage or maybe some touching, and that you would have to do the massage topless or naked.”

Another teenage girl testified that she visited Epstein’s home hundreds of times in the early 2000s, starting when she was 16. She testified that Epstein paid her $200 each time she gave him a nude massage, rented her a car and gave her $1,000 each time he raped her.

In 2005, a search of Epstein's home uncovered evidence corroborating the girls' testimony. Epstein's houseboy also told investigators that the teenage girls who showed up at the house were “very young. Too young to be masseuses.”

In 2018, Epstein was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York — where he also owned a mansion that was the scene of abuse — after The Miami Herald Epstein published a series of articles that renewed public attention on the case, including interviews with some of the victims who had filed civil lawsuits against him. Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, according to federal officials.

In his order, Delgado wrote that the transcripts show why Epstein was “the most infamous pedophile in American history.”

“For nearly 20 years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of the most vulnerable people in Palm Beach County has sparked much anger and at times diminished public perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press

Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, Fla., Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Ala., and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.