The latest allegations against billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstien will be "very damning" when presented to a judge, NBC News' investigative reporter Tom Winter explained on MSNBC on Friday.
"Tonight, in a new court filing, federal prosecutors are now accusing Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested for allegedly trafficking underaged girls -- they are accusing him now of witness tampering," anchor Steve Kornacki reported. "Prosecutors say that Epstein wired $350,000 to two of his possible co-conspirators just days after the Miami Herald began publishing a series of articles about Epstein’s conduct and the circumstances surrounding that lenient nonprosecution agreement he cut with federal prosecutors."
For analysis, the host interviewed Winter.
"What’s interesting to me, within the filing tonight, prosecutors specifically talking about how these were one-off payments that did not occur at another time, so they say neither of these payments appears to be recurring or repeating during the approximately five years of bank records presently available to the government, that being the federal prosecutors. It tells me that they likely have suspicious activity reports from Treasury identifying these payments -- or at the very least the bank flagged these pay -- and it’s just indicative of an overall trend they say goes back to when this case was first investigated by the Palm Beach Police Department that noticed several attempts to perhaps intimidate or coerce victims," Winter explained. "They talk about payments back then. And then you have more recent activity."
"And here’s why it’s most important. This is in response to Epstein’s efforts or his attorney’s efforts to get him a bail package. Now prosecutors are saying whoa. The bad activity we’ve highlighted, the things we’ve charged, the things we are investigating back in ‘05, ‘06, ‘07 and ‘08, that activity has not stopped," he continued.
"We have suspicious activity happening with his alleged co-conspirators within the last seven months. This is going to be damning when it’s ... talked about at the bail hearing on Monday," Winter concluded.
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