Unsealed Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts reveal how pedophile financier groomed juvenile victims for sex trafficking in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Jeffrey Epstein, the sex-trafficking financier who died in federal custody while awaiting trial, had a network of groomed girls in Palm Beach, Florida, recruiting victims for him as far back as 2005, according to newly unsealed grand jury transcripts from a child trafficking case that he largely escaped with a slap on the wrist nearly 20 years ago.
The 176-page document contains new details about Epstein’s crimes, including specifics about cash payouts to teens who recruited one another for Epstein’s misdeeds, firsthand accounts from child sex-assault victims, and allegations of rape.
Palm Beach police initially opened the case after a fight between girls at a local high school, according to the transcript. One, just 16, had been accused of prostitution by a classmate, and a school official later found $300 in her purse, which originally came from Epstein, according to the documents.
She testified that she had been instructed to concoct a fake life story and pretend to be 18 to get $200 to give Epstein a massage before the first time she met him. Then she revealed she was asked to strip down to her underwear and had a graphic sexual encounter with him.
In a court order authorizing the release of the documents, Circuit Judge Luis Delgado warned that the contents were disturbing.
« It is widely accepted that Epstein is a notorious and serial pedophile », the order reads. « The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape – all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal. The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people. »
Joseph Abruzzo, who serves as Palm Beach County’s court clerk and comptroller, announced the release of the documents shortly before 3 p.m. on Monday, hours after a new Florida law took effect legalizing the release of grand jury materials in certain cases.
