Taxes against Jeffery Epstein were announced on July 8, 2019 in New York City. Epstein will be charged with one be sure of of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.
Stephanie Keith | Getty Images News | Getty Figures
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed his state’s law enforcement department Tuesday to handle a criminal probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s cooler work release in the late 2000s, and also asked the agency to launch an inquiry into “other irregularities” neighbouring an earlier probe and plea agreement with Epstein.
DeSantis said he wants the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into “the ex state investigation ” of Epstein and the plea agreement he signed in 2008.
Epstein, 66, is currently facing indictment in Manhattan federal court, where he is accused of nipper sex trafficking. He was arrested in early July at a New Jersey airport after flying there from Paris on his private level surface.
Prosecutors in that case say he sexually abused dozens of underage girls at his Manhattan townhouse and Palm Beach, Florida, mansion from 2002 from one end to the other 2005. He has pleaded not guilty, and is being held without bail because the judge in his case said he could act for present oneself a danger to other underage girls if he were released.
In the prior case lodged in 2008 by the Palm Beach County Majestic’s Attorney’s Office, Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges involving an underage girl.
Epstein, a former financier of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, served 13 months in jail in that case, during which he was appropriated outside for hours nearly every day. The case was filed after police called for far more serious charges involving so-called sexual misconduct with underage girls to be brought against Epstein.
In addition to criticism of the Palm Beach County Submit Attorney’s Office’s handling of the earlier Epstein case, there also has been criticism of a nonprosecution deal that then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta cut with Epstein, which also conceded immunity to his alleged co-conspirators.
That deal let Epstein off the hook for potential federal criminal charges in 2007 in transfer for pleading guilty in the state prostitution case and registering as a sex offender.
Acosta resigned as Trump’s Labor secretary behind month after outrage over the agreement mounted on the heels of Epstein’s arrest.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Branch recently opened a criminal probe into the circumstances of Epstein’s jail stint in that county.
A lawyer for some of Epstein’s accusers exact he was visited at least once during his work release by a woman, and that Epstein engaged in sexual conduct during that upon.
On Tuesday, Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw in a letter to DeSantis asked that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement court over that investigation, “given the recent questions that have been raised around the Jeffrey Epstein example.”
Bradshaw pledged “the cooperation and participation of my agency” in the letter. “I believe the public interest would be best served by an FDLE-led examination examining every aspect of the Epstein case, from court sentencing to incarceration,” he wrote.
In response, DeSantis wrote the supervisor of the FDLE, Rick Swearingen, and asked that the agency take over the ongoing criminal investigation involving the career release.
DeSantis also requested that the FDLE launch “a preliminary inquiry into misconduct and allegations that go beyond the boomed concerns with Jeffrey Epstein’s work release.”
The Republican governor also announced that he had reassigned the wrapper to the state attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit, Bruce Colton.
Colton’s district includes counties other than that of Palm Ground County, whose criminal cases, including the earlier one involving Epstein, are normally handled by the state attorney for the 15th Judicious Circuit.
Colton told CNBC he and his team are “absolutely new to the case.”
“I don’t have any problem handling the case,” Colton mean.
Colton said he had only been informed of his assignment about 90 minutes prior to DeSantis’ press discharge being made public.