Jeffrey Epstein abused new victims while out on work release as part of controversial plea deal: lawyer

Jeffrey Epstein took advantage of his controversial lenient plea deal to sexually abuse at least one victim while out on work release, according to a victim's attorney.

Lawyer Brad Edwards said the well-connected financier was permitted to have visitors while he was supposed to be working during his 13-month jail sentence, and he said Epstein manipulated at least one person into sexual activity, reported The Daily Beast.

“He just wasn’t in jail, he only slept there," Edwards said. "He was in his office most of the day and what I can tell you he had visitors, female visitors."

Edwards said the new accusers were under 21 years old at the time, but it's not clear whether they were minors.

“All I can say is more than one person that visited him,” Edwards said. “They believed they were going there for something other than a sexual purpose. Once there, he used his perfect master manipulation to turn the situation into something sexual. Not one of the individuals was a prostitute, these were all people who at the time that wanted something. They came over under false pretenses and he manipulated them, and now his attorneys have labeled them prostitutes.”

Edwards has been unable to determine what work Epstein was supposedly doing while he was allowed to leave jail, but the attorney said he apparently engaged in sex acts on a near-daily basis with minors and vulnerable women.

The 66-year-old Epstein struck a non-prosecution agreement in 2008 brokered by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who resigned last week as President Donald Trump's labor secretary after the financier was arrested on new sex trafficking charges.

A judge ruled last year that the plea agreement violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act because prosecutors did not notify accusers of its existence, and the Miami Herald published a series of investigative reports that exposed the deal -- and eventually led to Epstein's arrest.