Jeffrey Epstein frantically asks judge to seal his finances as NYT probes his shady dealings

On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported that wealth manager Jeffrey Epstein is asking the federal judge presiding over his child sex trafficking case to keep his financial disclosure to the court under seal, arguing that "the exceptional amount of publicity that has been generated by this case" merits discretion.

The request comes a day after The New York Times published a deep dive into Epstein's financial history, suggesting that he may not actually be a billionaire as always claimed, and that he has extensive connections to Deutsche Bank, the same entity that gave President Donald Trump's real estate empire vast loans and faces accusations of money laundering.

Epstein, who is accused of recruiting underage girls into sex parties and raping several of them, has for years escaped accountability under a veil of secrecy.

The controversial and potentially unlawful plea bargain that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta cut him sealed many details of the offenses. He has paid out millions in settlements to keep his alleged victims quiet over the years. And even now, Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School professor emeritus and one of Epstein's longtime legal advisers, is arguing that the press should be barred from the criminal proceedings.