Why was Jeffrey Epstein buying size 5 women’s panties — while in jail?

The Miami Herald has another bombshell report on Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail while waiting to stand trial on federal sex crimes charges.

"A decade ago, during a brief stint in Palm Beach County Jail, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein made an odd purchase at the facility’s store: two pairs of small women’s panties, size 5," the Herald reported Saturday night.

The newspaper noted, "the panties raise questions about why a childless male inmate, accused of sexually abusing girls as young as 14, would be allowed to buy female undergarments so small that they wouldn’t fit an average-sized adult woman."

"The panties were certainly too small for Epstein, who also purchased his briefs in men’s medium and sweatshirts ranging from XL to 3XL, and size-12 shoes. So what, or who, were they for, and why wouldn’t the purchase raise eyebrows under the circumstances?" the newspaper wondered.

The revelation of the panties resulted from a public records investigation by the paper.

"What’s clear from the Palm Beach sheriff’s records is that Epstein’s wealth provided him extraordinary privileges during his 13-month stay in Palm Beach stockade from June 30, 2008 to July 22, 2009 — an unlocked cell door, almost unlimited access to a TV, and a perhaps uniquely generous work release program that meant he spent almost as much time outside the jail as in it," the Herald reported. "The longer he stayed, the cushier things got. Six-day-a-week work release was extended to seven. Hours outside the cell were extended from 12 to 16. He was permitted to pass some of the time at home. Records that once referred to him as an inmate now called him 'client.'"

"The records from Palm Beach suggest the local sheriff’s office never intended to treat the convicted sex offender as a typical inmate — explicitly because of his extraordinary wealth," the paper added. "All this while serving time for soliciting sex with a minor — a charge Epstein agreed to plead guilty to only after [Alex] Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, killed an already drafted sex-trafficking indictment that could have put him away for life."

Read the full report.