Epstein grand jury records show prosecutors knew he had raped minors 2 years before giving him a sweetheart deal in 2008

A judge in Palm Beach County released transcripts on Monday of grand jury proceedings in the 2006 Jeffrey Epstein case in Florida. The records show that prosecutors knew he raped teenage girls before he got a sweetheart deal. Florida Judge Luis Delgado released the documents the day that Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law making the records to the 2006 case public, per the Daily Mail.

The documents from the grant jury reveal that one girl was 14 when Epstein abused her. The girl testified that the pedophile would pleasure himself in his mansion and that he used a sex toy on her in Palm Beach Florida. The 14-year-old was one of two victims who testified in the grand jury case in 2006. A second girl said Epstein had sex with her the day before she turned 18 and never made contact with her again.

In one instance, Epstein raped a minor and then offered her $1,000 as an apology. She had “screamed no” when the rape occurred. After hearing the testimony, the jury returned an indictment on one count of solicitation of prostitution. The charge did not reflect that the girl was a minor.

Two years later in 2008, Epstein’s team cut a sweetheart plea deal and was able to get out of a 53-page indictment that had been drawn up by federal prosecutors. Epstein pled guilty in state court to one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.

He was also able to get an easy work-release deal for his 18-month sentence, where he was able to go to his West Palm Beach office every day with a chauffeur while he was still in official custody. Epstein had to register as a sex offender but had little punishment for years in the case, per the Washington Post.

He was later investigated in 2018 and taken into custody in New York and then brought up on charges of sex trafficking as well as sex trafficking conspiracy. He was accused of abusing teenage girls at his Manhattan and Palm Beach homes as well as luring others in to do the same. He was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019 in New York, and those who investigated the death said he allegedly committed suicide.

The grand jury transcripts revealed that much of the evidence that was used against Epstein in his later case in 2018 and 2019 was already present in the 2006 case. Some evidence from the 2006 case was also connected to the 2022 case of Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking in December 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

One 14-year-old victim, who was then 16 when she testified in court in the 2006 documents, said she was told to lie about her age by a friend when she went to Epstein’s residence and to say she was 18. When she and her friend arrived at his Palm Beach mansion, she testified that Epstein asked her, “Who’s going first?” Epstein then pointed at the girl and said, “How about you?”

Epstein and the 14-year-old went up to the massage room where Epstein got a massage from the victim, he then asked her if she would want to make $200 more. The girl said yes and then straddled him naked. Epstein then pulled out a vibrator to use on her vagina, she had testified.

She added, “He put his hand on his penis and started going up and down kind of fast” until he ejaculated after 40 seconds. She had then tried to recruit other girls from her high school to come to Epstein’s mansion as well.

The victim who had sex with Epstein the day before she turned 18 testified that she went 10 times and was paid $200 by Epstein for each visit. Epstein would masturbate in front of her if she refused to let him touch her. She recalled the day before she turned 18 when he had sex with her in testimony, “He told me to lay down because he was going to crack my back, which he had done before. And he just sort of did it.” He then paid her $300 for the sex.

One juror asked, “'Perhaps you were too young to be up against a man of that age who had more control over you and that you knew?"

The victim replied: “Yes.” Former Palm Beach police detective Joseph Recary also testified and detailed the investigation showed that Epstein was criminally involved with multiple minor girls at the time. They would pull trash from the mansion and discovered notebooks with messages from young girls.

According to Recary, when he spoke to victims, one girl agreed to recruit others and Epstein had told her, “The younger the better.” The girl had told others she was recruiting, “The more you did, the more money you made.”

Recary also said that in one search of Epstein’s home, police found a sex toy that then made its way into evidence in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 2006 records also show that police interviewed a girl when she graduated who said that she had recruited six other girls to go to his home.

Leading up to their recent release, Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Joseph Abruzzo attempted to get the records released for three years to bring them to light. He said that the victims and the public have a right to know what was contained in the documents dealing with the Epstein case.

“We felt this was such an extraordinary case, and of such public interest, that we changed the law for this case,” Abruzzo stated. “The public, and the victims specifically, want to know how he was able to get a slap on the wrist and go on for decades, continuing these heinous acts to hundreds, or more, underage girls or women.”

Several high-profile celebrities and politicians have been revealed as being associated with Epstein over the last several years through documents in the Maxwell case such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Prince Andrew.

Epstein Grand Jury Clerks by The Post Millennial on Scribd