Epstein files place renewed attention on US authorities’ failure to stop him

The Department of Justice’s release of millions of Jeffrey Epstein files has not only prompted questions about his crimes – but renewed attention on authorities’ failure to stop him after an accuser reported him in 1996.This new cache of Epstein files has provided more insight into authorities’ familiarity with allegations against him in the years that followed, including time between his sweetheart plea deal in 2008 and federal arrest nearly six years ago.While it’s known that accuser Virginia Giuffre’s attorneys met with federal prosecutors in 2016 about Epstein to no avail, recently disclosed files indicate that detailed information was provided to federal authorities years before that sit-down. This included allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; documents indicate that he appeared on the FBI’s radar about 15 years ago.A woman, whose name is redacted from these documents, gave an interview to FBI agents about Epstein and Maxwell in 2011, with a federal prosecutor in attendance by phone; her account echoes Giuffre’s public and legal allegations against the sex traffickers.The US embassy in Australia told the country’s national police: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office (FBI Miami) is assisting the Palm Beach Police Department in Florida with an ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a US citizen.”The accuser, who was told in late 2008 about Epstein’s plea deal as she was found to be one of his victims, contacted federal authorities in south Florida three years later. Federal agents questioned her at the US consulate in Sydney on 17 March 2011.This woman provided an extensive account of Epstein’s abuse and alleged participation of co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other men as a teenage girl during the late 1990s. The woman, who described suffering at the hands of several predatory men after leaving a rehab facility, told agents that her father, a maintenance man at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, secured a job for her as a locker room attendant there.The woman, then an aspiring massage therapist, was reading a book on this subject. Maxwell came up to her and claimed she was looking for a traveling masseuse.Not long after, the woman traveled to Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he abused her. She told agents she ultimately traveled and that the sexual abuse continued and that he trafficked her to other men.Giuffre, who died by suicide last spring, had long alleged that Epstein and Maxwell made her engage in sexual activity with the former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The former prince, who was removed from royal life over his relationship with Epstein, was arrested on Thursday in England; he has staunchly denied wrongdoing.Maxwell, who was found guilty of luring teenage girls into Epstein’s predatory orbit, has insisted on her innocence. Epstein died in jail while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial in 2019.FBI documents chronicling this interview also detail menacing actions against this woman. She told federal agents about receiving phone calls from men purporting to be FBI agents seeking information about her knowledge of Epstein.She said that an attorney and Epstein called her by phone a few weeks after these men contacted her, and that he said “if she did not say anything to investigators he would take care of her”.The release of information regarding this 2011 interview comes as victims and advocates’ continue to show that law enforcement officials repeatedly had opportunities to meaningfully hold Epstein and Maxwell accountable before his 2019 arrest. The chronology makes clear that had Epstein been interdicted, others would not have suffered abuse.Maria Farmer, a painter who worked for Epstein in 1996, filed a report with the FBI stating that he “stole” nude images of her siblings. This FBI report states that Farmer took artistic photos of her younger sisters for her personal work.“Epstein Stole the photos and Negatives and is believed to have sold the pictures to potential buyers,” the report said.The document also said that Epstein asked for “pictures of young girls at swimming pools” and threatened Farmer, stating “that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down”.Epstein did serve a brief period of time in a Palm Beach jail on Florida state-level prostitution charges, including procuring someone under 18, under his sweetheart plea deal. He was granted work release.Officials said that Epstein abused others between this plea deal, which allowed him to avoid federal prosecution, and his arrest years later. One adult victim alleged she was abused at Epstein’s office during this daytime furlough.The Virgin Islands sued Epstein’s estate in January 2020 stating that flight logs from 2011 to 2019 show that he brought underage girls and young women to his private island “where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labor”.“As recent as 2018, air traffic controllers and other airport personnel reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with young girls some of whom appeared to be between the age of 11 and 18 years,” the lawsuit states. The Virgin Islands that “Epstein trafficked and abused these girls, and others, in the Virgin Islands through 2018.”Spencer Kuvin, who did not represent Giuffre but is an attorney for multiple Epstein victims, questioned why federal agents did not take action following the 2011 interview.“If that information was credible – and there is every reason to believe it was – then the obvious question is why meaningful action did not follow,”said Kuvin, of Goldlaw. “Survivors did their part. They spoke. When institutions fail to act on those disclosures, the system – not the victims – must answer for that.“It is deeply troubling. Survivors like Virginia showed extraordinary courage in coming forward,” he also said. “The lack of urgency is institutional. Accountability must include examining why those opportunities were missed.”Asked what transpired following the 2011 interview, the FBI said it “declines to comment”. The justice department did not immediately respond to a question about what happened after that interview.