Browse by Document Type
Legal (11,650 documents)
The next day, Villafafia asked Goldberger to change the plea agreement by inserting the
word “imprisoned” after ““6 months,” and Goldberger agreed to do so. Villafafia, however, did not
ask that the a
On Monday, June 23, 2008, Roth sent a brief letter to Starr and Lefkowitz informing them
that the office had “completed a thorough review” of the USAO’s handling of the Epstein matter
and did not beli
federal prosecution is not appropriate in this case.”'®8 Lefkowitz alluded to the possibility of
seeking further review of the matter by the Deputy Attorney General or Attorney General, should
the def
4. Acosta Attempts to Revise the NPA § 2255 Language concerning
Monetary Damages, but the Defense Does Not Accept It
Acosta undertook to respond to defense counsel’s continuing concern about the § 22
the defense “[f]irst and foremost” reaffirmed the NPA and that Epstein “has no intention of
unwinding the agreement.”
On December 7, 2007—the deadline set by Acosta in his December 4, 2007 letter to
provision, recounted the history of NPA negotiations, and described the post-signing efforts by
Epstein’s counsel to challenge portions of the NPA. Acosta’s letter concluded:
Although it happens rare
D. Epstein Further Delays His Guilty Plea
The addendum did not bring the case to conclusion. Instead, the matter entered a new,
protracted phase, which involved the upper echelons of the Department o
[S]ince the signing of the September 24th agreement, more than two
months[] ago, it has become clear that several attorneys on your
legal team are dissatisfied with that result.
[You], Professor Ders
Lefkowitz’s description of their breakfast meeting discussion, Acosta told OPR that there were
“several instances” in which Lefkowitz and other defense counsel mischaracterized something he
or an AUSA
On October 22, 2007, Sloman responded to the issues Lefkowitz had raised, rejecting some
defense proposals but agreeing to modify certain language in the proposed addendum to “satisfy
your concern.”!
However, as with Villafafia’s publicly released emails to Lefkowitz, this meeting between
Acosta and Lefkowitz drew criticism when the media learned of it during the CVRA litigation. It
was seen eithe
this matter.” Lourie responded with an assurance that the Reiter notification was only “so he does
not find out about it in the paper,” and he concluded: “I enjoyed it as well. Mr. Epstein was
fortuna
it had identified as victims.'?! The USAO, with the good faith approval of
Epstein’s counsel, would select an attorney representative for the victims,
whom Epstein would pay.
Timing: Epstein would ma
The parties anticipate that this agreement will not be made part of
any public record. If the United States receives a Freedom of
Information Act request or any compulsory process commanding
the discl
federal court. Sloman similarly said that he had the impression that the non-prosecution provision
was meant to protect named co-conspirators who were also victims, “in a sense,” of Epstein’s
conduct.
precluding the government from requesting, initiating, or recommending immigration proceedings
against the two assistants who were foreign nationals.
At this point, Lefkowitz again sought to speak to
I think Jay [Lefkowitz] will try to talk you out of a registrable
offense. Regardless of the merits of his argument, in order to get us
down in time they made us an offer that included pleading to an
1. The Defense Rejects the Federal Plea Agreement, Returns to the NPA
“State-Only” Resolution, and Begins Opposing the Sexual Offender
Registration Requirement
After having spent days negotiating the
everything, but I really do not think that Mr. Epstein is going to engage in serious negotiations
until he sees the Indictment and shows up in mag [federal magistrate judge] court.” She suggested
char
message, “That is fine. [The West Palm Beach manager] and I will nail everything down, we just
want to get a final blessing.”
Negotiations continued throughout the day on Wednesday, September 19, 200
G. Villafafia and Lourie Recommend Ending Negotiations, but Acosta Urges
That They “Try to Work It Out”
In the late afternoon of Wednesday, September 19, 2007, Villafafia expressed her
increasing fru
and had added language waiving the preparation of a presentence investigation (PSI) “so he can
keep all of his information confidential. I have already told Jay that the PSI language . . . was
unaccep
twelve months, with six served in home confinement, to run
consecutively.
I just received an e-mail asking if Mr. Epstein could just do 12
months imprisonment instead.
As you can see, Mr. Epstein is
we go that route, would you intend to make the deferred [sic] prosecution agreement public?”
Villafafia replied that while a federal plea agreement would be part of the court file and publicly
accessi
for them to be deported.”!!* As to whether the foreign nationals would be removable by virtue of
having committed crimes, Villafafia told OPR she did not consider her role as seeking removal
apart fro
evidence of a violation of the agreement. Epstein and his counsel
agree that the computers that are currently under [legal process] will
be safeguarded in their current condition by Epstein’s counsel
to the assault charge” and suggesting a different factual scenario to support a federal charge.!!? At
this point, Sloman left on vacation, and he informed Acosta and Villafafia that in his absence
Lou
D. The Parties Continue to Negotiate but Primarily Focus on a Potential Plea to
Federal Charges
During the remainder of September, Villafafia conducted plea negotiations and drafted the
final NPA, ma
having directly with Alex Acosta, and Alex Acosta agreed to 18
months.
Villafafia further explained to OPR:
Regarding going from 24 months to 20 months, I recall a discussion
that 24 months of feder
Villafafia added that the PBPD Chief had alerted the FBI that an upcoming news article would
report that Epstein was “going to plead to a state charge” and the PBPD Chief “wanted to know if
the victim
charges in addition to state charges. On behalf of the defense team, Sanchez followed up on the
July 31, 2007 meeting with an August 2, 2007 letter to Menchel:
We welcomed your recognition that a sta
CONFIDENTIAL PLEA NEGOTIATIONS
TERMS OF EPSTEIN NON-PROSECUTION AGREEMENT
w Epstein pleads guilty (not nolo contendere) to an Information filed by the
Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office char
as a “non-prosecution agreement” came from Acosta, although Menchel may have communicated
that terminology to her. According to Villafafia, she asked that it include a mechanism for the
victims to be
Sloman also told OPR that he did not know how the decision to offer a two-year plea offer
was reached, but he believed that Acosta made the decision based on recommendations from
Menchel, Lourie, and
understood that the PBPD would not have asked the FBI to investigate Epstein if the state had
pursued the appropriate charges. In other words, in Acosta’s view, “[T]his was, rightly or wrongly,
an ana
proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Epstein’s criminal culpability.
Lastly, I was not trying to “dictate” a meeting with the U.S. Attorney
or anyone else. I stated that I “would like” to schedule a mee
on the defense team believes that the federal investigation in this
matter has been for show.
Nor are your arguments that I have violated the Ashcroft memo, the
USAM or any other policy well taken. A
I do think it’s important to look back on this, and try to be in the
shoes of the thought process in 2006 and ’07 when trafficking
prosecutions were fairly new, when . . . more so than today, some
jur
[The prosecution] was going forward on the part of the state, and so
here is the big bad federal government stepping on a sovereign .. .
state, saying you’re not doing enough, [when] to my mind. . . t
damages.°> During a two-month period, the subject attorneys were involved to varying degrees in
converting the broad outline into specific terms, resulting in the NPA signed by Epstein on
September 24
On that same day, Villafafia emailed Lourie, Menchel, Sloman, and her immediate supervisor
complaining that she had received no reply to her query about making changes to the proposed
indictment and a
the FBI squad supervisor on May 9, 2007, to explain that charges against Epstein would not be
quickly approved, he reported to Menchel that the FBI was “not happy” about the delay, adding,
“T did not
recalled generally having conversations with Sloman and Menchel about the Epstein case, but he
could not recall with specificity when those conversations took place or the details of the
discussions.
forward with charges in this case. Lourie forwarded a copy of the prosecution memorandum to
Menchel. Lourie’s transmittal message read:
Marie did a 50 [sic] page pros memo in the Epstein case. I am g
‘anything’ she wanted” without the necessity of legal process. Lewis asked to meet with Villafafia
and Sloman to discuss the Epstein investigation, but Villafafia declined.
Shortly thereafter, Lilly
4. Late July 2006: The State Indicts Epstein, and the USAO Moves
Forward with a Federal Investigation
Several days after Villafafia spoke with Acosta and Sloman, on July 19, 2006, Assistant
State Att
told OPR that Epstein’s local counsel brought attorney Alan Dershowitz to see Krischer and the
Assistant State Attorney, but Dershowitz was “overly aggressive” and threatened, “We’re going
to destroy
and some of the victims as well, regularly recruited local high-school-age girls to give him
massages in his home that, in some cases, led to sexual activity.
Through their interviews with victims, t
CHAPTER TWO
THE NON-PROSECUTION AGREEMENT
PART ONE: FACTUAL BACKGROUND
1. OVERVIEW
In the following sections in this chapter, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)
details the significant
for the Department’s Criminal Division, a position in which he served as Chief of Staff to Assistant
Attorney General Alice Fisher. Lourie left the Department in February 2008 to enter private
practic