An attorney for Jeffrey Epstein's victims questioned the Department of Justice's "slow-drip" rollout of files related to the late sex offender's alleged criminal network.
Florida attorney Jack Scarola has represented nearly 20 Epstein survivors and spent 18 years litigating cases against the disgraced financier, and he told "CNN News Central" that President Donald Trump's administration was putting his clients and other victims through unnecessary pain.
"Unfortunately, the slow driprelease of these files is verymuch like Chinese water torturefor the Jeffrey Epstein victims, the survivors of this abuse suffered terribly at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein," Scarola said. "However,what they have been sufferingover the course of the last, formany of them, more than 18 yearsis absolutely inexcusable. Thisis either terribly grossnegligence on the part of the Department of Justice, or it isan intentional effort to try andhope that the attention span ofthe American public does notoutlast this release process."
"Ithink it's highly unlikely thatthat's going to happen," he added. "I thinkthere is a very strongcommitment to require a full andcomplete release, but why thathas not happened already isabsolutely 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 formalstatements taken of some of myclients in which specific nameswere referenced," Scarola said. "I have not seenthose specific names included inany release so far, and what Ithink is particularlysignificant is the fact that in2007, 2007 – nearly 20 years agonow – the Southern District of Florida's federal prosecutorsprepared a 60-count indictmentdetailing the sexual abuse ofminors in which Jeffrey Epsteinwas engaged. That 60-countindictment was supported by an82-page prosecution memorandumdetailing the evidencesupporting those allegations.Had that federal indictment beenfiled and prosecuted, there isno doubt that Jeffrey Epsteinwould have been convicted backin 2007 and would have served alengthy jail sentence that wouldhave ended, presumably, theabuse that continued long afterthat."
"The real questions thatneed to be answered inconnection with thisinvestigation is why thatfederal prosecution neveroccurred, and instead, Jeffrey Epstein was permitted to plead guilty to a relatively minoroffense in state court in Florida," Scarola added. "He served a 13-monthsentence that was spent largelyon work release, working in anoffice for a charity that hecreated specifically for thepurpose of having a job to goto, and it is alleged thatduring the period of time thathe was on work release, hisabusive 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 thatindictment," Scarola said. "We need to see the82-page prosecution memorandumand, most significantly, we needto see the internalcommunications within the Justice Department about whythat case was not prosecuted. [Then-U.S. attorney] Alex Acosta had directcommunications with multiplemembers of Jeffrey Epstein'shigh-profile defense team. Thosecommunications, which took placeunder very unusualcircumstances, have to bedetailed in internal memorandaand communications that have notbeen released, and there is nobasis for failing to releasethose kinds of documents."