EFTA00028785.pdf

Case 1:19-cr-00490-RMB Document 11 Filed 07/12/19 Page 1 of 14 U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney Southern District of New York The Silvio J. Mollo Building One Saint Andrew's Plaza New York. New York 10007 July 12, 2019 VIA ECF The Honorable Richard M. Berman United States District Court Southern District of New York United States Courthouse 500 Pearl Street New York, New York 10007 Re: United States v. Jeffrey Epstein, 19 Cr. 490 (RMB) Dear Judge Berman: The Government respectfully submits this letter in response to the defendant's Motion for Pretrial Release (the "Release Motion"), dated July 11, 2019 (Dkt. 6), and in further support of its Memorandum in Support of Detention (the "Detention Memo"), submitted to Magistrate Judge Pitman on July 8, 2019, which is attached hereto and incorporated herein (Ex. A). PRELIMINARY STATEMENT The defendant is a serial sexual predator who is charged with abusing underage girls for years. A grand jury has returned an indictment alleging that he sexually exploited dozens of minors, including girls as young as 14 years old, in New York and Florida. To this day, he is a registered sex offender designated by New York State in the highest category of risk to reoffend, despite unsuccessfully attempting to have that classification lowered. And any doubt that the defendant is unrepentant and unreformed was eliminated when law enforcement agents discovered hundreds or thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young females in his Manhattan mansion on the night of his arrest, more than a decade after he was first convicted of a sex crime involving a juvenile. The defendant also faces substantial evidence of his guilt, founded on the corroborated testimony of numerous victims, and this case presents the very real possibility that he will go to prison for the rest of his life. The defendant has at his disposal a vast fortune, the details of which remain largely concealed from the Court. He also has a history of obstruction and manipulation of witnesses, including, as detailed herein, as recently as within the past year, when media reports about his conduct reemerged. And he continues to show a shocking lack of understanding of the gravity of the harm he has perpetrated, including through the minimization of his conduct and casual disparagement of victims in his arguments. Against this backdrop of significant—and rapidly-expanding—evidence, serious charges, and the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, the defendant proposes to be released on conditions that are woefully inadequate. The Release Motion misconstrues and misunderstands the relevant EFTA00028785 Case 1:19-cr-00490-RMB Document 11 Filed 07/12/19 Page 2 of 14 Honorable Richard M. Berman United States District Judge July 12, 2019 Page 2 law, seeks to diminish and demean the harm caused to the many victims of the defendant's appalling sexual abuse, and utterly fails to meet its burden of rebutting the presumption that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant as required and the safety of the community. Rather than even attempting to address the grave risks of releasing a defendant with extraordinary financial resources and a history of abusing minors, the defendant instead proposes a bail package that amounts to little more than a barely-secured bond masquerading as a 14-point plan. The Court should reject the defendant's application and order him detained pending trial. Among other things, the proposed bail package contemplates the defendant pledging as the principal security a property that has already been identified by the Government as subject to forfeiture upon the defendant's conviction, and which therefore is of no value as collateral. His proposed global waiver of extradition is unenforceable, and even if enforceable would be little comfort to victims forced to wait additional years while the defendant is located and returned to this country. The promise to "deregister or otherwise ground" his private jet is meaningless given his wealth and ability to easily secure other means of travel. The two co-signers he proposes only further highlight his minimal community ties, including his lack of any family in or near the District. Electronic monitoring would merely give the defendant less of a head start in fleeing— and does not guard against the risk of him endangering victims in the very home where he has continued to hoard nude images of young women and girls. And the private security force he proposes to guard his gilded cage, a proposal already rejected by this Court in similar circumstances, simply reinforces the obvious fact that the defendant should be housed where he can be secured at all times: a federal correctional center. The defendant faces a presumption of detention, Pretrial Services has recommended detention, and victims of the defendant seek his detention. Because there are no set of conditions short of incarceration that can reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant or reasonably protect the community from the dangers he poses if released, the Court should order him detained. BACKGROUND As previously set forth, a federal grand jury in this District returned an indictment (the "Indictment") charging the defendant with violating Title 18, United States Code Section 1519, and conspiracy to commit the same. As charged by the grand jury, the facts giving rise to those counts involve a years-long scheme to sexually abuse underage girls. Specifically, the defendant enticed and recruited dozens of minor girls to engage in sex acts with him, for which he paid the victims hundreds of dollars in cash, in at least two different states. Victims were initially recruited to provide "massages" to the defendant, which would be performed nude or partially nude, would become increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts, including groping and direct or indirect contact with victims' genitals. To perpetuate this exploitation of underage girls, the defendant actively encouraged certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly sexually abused. He paid these victim-recruiters hundreds of dollars for each additional girl they brought to him, creating a network of underage victims for him to exploit in New York and Palm Beach. EFTA00028786 Case 1:19-cr-00490-RMB Document 11 Filed 07/12/19 Page 3 of 14 Honorable Richard M. Berman United States District Judge July 12, 2019 Page 3 The defendant, through counsel, continues to evidence a complete lack of appreciation for the gravity of the offenses with which he is charged.' As an initial matter, there can be no plausible suggestion that the allegations against the defendant involve isolated or aberrational conduct; they involve repeated, regular acts of sexual abuse committed over a period of many years. And following the defendant's prior conviction, as described previously by the Government, the defendant continued to maintain at least hundreds and possibly thousands of nude photos of young subjects. The defendant's victims in this case, often particularly vulnerable girls, were as young as 14 years old when he abused them. The defendant knew he was abusing minors, including because victims told him directly they were underage. And he preyed on his victims habitually and repeatedly—day after day, month after month, year after year. The defense calls these disturbing alleged acts "simple prostitution!' Mag. Tr. 12:12; see also D. Tr. at 6:15-19 ("This is basically the Feds today . . . redoing the same conduct that was investigated 10 years ago and calling it, instead of prostitution, calling it sex trafficking"). That characterization is not only offensive but also utterly irrelevant given that federal law does not recognize the concept of a child prostitute—there are only traf