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A billionaire has been arrested by the police after being accused of paying 14 year-old girls to sleep with him.
Jeffrey Epstein
Wealthy financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was
arrested Saturday in New York on new sex-trafficking charges involving
allegations that date to the early 2000s, according to law enforcement
officials.
Epstein, a wealthy hedge fund manager who once counted as friends
former President Bill Clinton, Great Britain's Prince Andrew, and
President Donald Trump, was taken into federal custody and is expected
to appear Monday in Manhattan federal court, three law enforcement
officials told The Associated Press.
One of the officials said Epstein is accused of paying underage
girls for massages and molesting them at his homes in Florida and New
York.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the pending case.
A message was sent to Epstein's defense attorney seeking comment.
Epstein is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in
Manhattan, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Epstein's arrest, first reported by The Daily Beast, comes amid
renewed scrutiny of a once-secret plea deal that ended a federal
investigation against him.
That deal, which is being challenged in Florida federal court,
allowed Epstein, who is now 66, to plead guilty to lesser state charges
of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.
Averting a possible life sentence, Epstein was instead sentenced to
13 months in jail. The deal also required he reach financial
settlements with dozens of his once-teenage victims and register as a
sex offender.
Epstein's deal was overseen by former Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander
Acosta, who is now Trump's labor secretary. Acosta has defended the
plea deal as appropriate under the circumstances, though the White House
said in February that it was "looking into" his handling of the deal.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra of Florida ruled earlier this
year that Epstein's victims should have been consulted under federal law
about the deal, and he is now weighing whether to invalidate the
non-prosecution agreement, or NPA, that protected Epstein from federal
charges.
It was not immediately clear whether the cases involved the same victims since nearly all have remained anonymous.
Federal prosecutors recently filed court papers in Florida case contending Epstein's deal must stand.
"The past cannot be undone; the government committed itself to the
NPA, and the parties have not disputed that Epstein complied with its
provisions," prosecutors wrote in the filing.
They acknowledged, however, that the failure to consult victims
"fell short of the government's dedication to serve victims to the best
of its ability" and that prosecutors "should have communicated with the
victims in a straightforward and transparent way."
The victims in the Florida case have until Monday to respond to the Justice Department's filing.
According to court records in Florida, authorities say at least 40
underage girls were brought into Epstein's Palm Beach mansion for what
turned into sexual encounters after female fixers looked for suitable
girls locally and in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world.
Some girls were also allegedly brought to Epstein's homes in New
York City, New Mexico and a private Caribbean island, according to court
documents.
Saturday's arrest also came just days after a federal appeals court
in New York ordered the unsealing of nearly 2,000 pages of records in a
since-settled defamation case involving Epstein.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse released a statement Saturday calling for Epstein to be held without bail pending trial.
"This monster received a pathetically soft sentence last time and his victims deserve nothing less than justice," Sasse, R-Nebraska, said in the statement. "Justice doesn't depend on the size of your bank account."
___
Sisak reported from Port St. Lucie, Florida. Associated Press
writers Colleen Long, Curt Anderson and Tom Hays contributed to this
report.
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