VOLUME OF EVIDENCE

How the FBI Worked Out Epstein’s Sinister Web

Newly released documents show just how much evidence prosecutors had in Florida before Epstein was handed a sweetheart deal.

The Department of Justice gave a peek into how it compiled information on a web of accomplices related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in a new release of more than 3 million pages of files related to the late sex offender.

From Friday’s dump of files, it appears that the DOJ spoke with dozens of victims in the mid-2000s to establish a network of individuals associated with Epstein. The victims detailed who paid them, what they wore, what Epstein said to them, and if Epstein gave them any gifts.

Some of the gifts detailed by the victims include Epstein paying the rent on their apartment, underwear from Victoria’s Secret, a Louis Vuitton purse, and the book Massage for Dummies. Multiple girls said they received tickets to see David Copperfield.

Many of the victims in this list had spoken with the Palm Beach Police Department about their experience with Epstein. The PBPD was the agency that investigated Epstein’s sex crimes in 2005, before the investigation was largely turned over to the federal government.

In 2008, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alexander Acosta, who later became President Trump’s Secretary of Labor in his first term, awarded Epstein what has become known as a “sweetheart deal.” Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser state-level solicitation charges to avoid federal sex trafficking charges.

Despite the mountain of evidence collected in Florida, Epstein served just 13 months of an 18-month sentence in the Palm Beach County Jail and was granted work-release privileges six days per week.

In 2019, Epstein was arrested and then indicted in the Southern District of New York on federal charges related to sex trafficking minors.

The DOJ appears to have used all of that information from victims in Palm Beach, Florida, to untangle a web of Epstein’s accomplices before the federal indictment.

The Department of Justice appeared to accidentally release an unredacted web of Epstein’s co-conspirators, with summaries of what the DOJ knew about each.

The DOJ described Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and accomplice, as the “overall property manager to all of Epstein’s properties.”

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on federal sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison the following year.

In the unredacted document, the DOJ said that “multiple victims” cited Lesley Groff, who worked as an executive assistant for Epstein for 20 years, as “the main point of phone contact for NYC-based massage appointments.”

On Groff, the DOJ said, “On at least 2 occasions, victims believed that Groff was the one to pay them at [Epstein’s] Madison Avenue office building.”

The DOJ also released unredacted information on Nadia Marcinko, a known pilot for Epstein and alleged co-conspirator to his crimes. The DOJ said Marcinko was “rumored to be Epstein’s ‘sex slave’” and that victims described her as being “involved in the sexual abuse during these massages.”

Marcinko has reportedly been missing since January 2024, when a New York court unsealed details about Epstein’s case.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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