Authorities declined to pursue charges against Epstein and Maxwell in 2016

Kramer had met with attorneys representing several of Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged victims on February 29 of that year, but had not been receptive to the idea of prosecuting the pair.

According to the NY Daily News, at that time, Kramer had many objections to opening any potential investigation. She cited a controversial and bizarre non-prosecution agreement Epstein had managed to arrange in 2007 with the feds.

It's possible that a second meeting occurred during that following summer, but there is conflicting evidence from sources, according to the Daily News.

"We were saying to anyone who would listen: We've got clients who were abused. Some of them were underage. We have the evidence. There's a whole record that's been developed. We can establish beyond any reasonable doubt there was a massive sex trafficking ring going on," David Boies, one of the attorneys who met with Kramer, said.

In 2016, Manhattan's US Attorney was Preet Bharara, and it appears to be confirmed that he was not aware of the proceedings, as he was never informed of them. It's not certain up to what point the information made it. "We never contacted Preet directly. We thought he would have been briefed on a matter of this importance. And we hoped to make progress with the staff, and didn't want it to be seen as going over their head. But in retrospect, we probably should have gone to him directly," mentioned Boies.

Further questions are also being raised about the 2007 deal, which was reached between Epstein and US Attorney Alex Acosta, and included an agreement not to prosecute him federally if he pleaded guilty to minor charges at the state level.

Evidence exists that Epstein and others were still using his private island for the purposes of trafficking underage victims are recently as the year 2018, according to the US Attorney for the Virgin Islands.