"Unfortunately, the slow drip release of these files is very much like Chinese water torture for the Jeffrey Epstein victims, the survivors of this abuse suffered terribly at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein," Scarola said. "However, what they have been suffering over the course of the last, for many of them, more than 18 years is absolutely inexcusable. This is either terribly gross negligence on the part of the Department of Justice, or it is an intentional effort to try and hope that the attention span of the American public does not outlast this release process."
"I think it's highly unlikely that that's going to happen," he added. "I think there is a very strong commitment to require a full and complete release, but why that has not happened already is absolutely inexcusable."
An attorney for the late Virginia Giuffre, who is probably Epstein's most well-known victim, says she provided names of other prominent men who raped her to the FBI, and Scarola said his clients also named their abusers to investigators, but none of the documents produced so far have included their names.
"There have been formal statements taken of some of my clients in which specific names were referenced," Scarola said. "I have not seen those specific names included in any release so far, and what I think is particularly significant is the fact that in 2007, 2007 – nearly 20 years ago now – the Southern District of Florida's federal prosecutors prepared a 60-count indictment detailing the sexual abuse of minors in which Jeffrey Epstein was engaged. That 60-count indictment was supported by an 82-page prosecution memorandum detailing the evidence supporting those allegations. Had that federal indictment been filed and prosecuted, there is no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein would have been convicted back in 2007 and would have served a lengthy jail sentence that would have ended, presumably, the abuse that continued long after that."
"The real questions that need to be answered in connection with this investigation is why that federal prosecution never occurred, and instead, Jeffrey Epstein was permitted to plead guilty to a relatively minor offense in state court in Florida," Scarola added. "He served a 13-month sentence that was spent largely on work release, working in an office for a charity that he created specifically for the purpose of having a job to go to, and it is alleged that during the period of time that he was on work release, his abusive pattern continued."
There's one key document that has not yet been released that holds the key to the case against Epstein, according to the attorney.
"We need to see that indictment," Scarola said. "We need to see the 82-page prosecution memorandum and, most significantly, we need to see the internal communications within the Justice Department about why that case was not prosecuted. [Then-U.S. attorney] Alex Acosta had direct communications with multiple members of Jeffrey Epstein's high-profile defense team. Those communications, which took place under very unusual circumstances, have to be detailed in internal memoranda and communications that have not been released, and there is no basis for failing to release those kinds of documents."
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