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What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to dive right
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back in to the letter back and forth between the
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DOJ and Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers. And this time we have
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the response by Alex Acosta to Jay Lefkowitz. Dear Jay,
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I'm writing not to respond to your asserted policy concerns
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regarding Mr. Epstein's non-prosecution agreement, which will be addressed by
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the U.S. Attorney. but the time has come for me
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to respond to the ever-increasing attacks on my role in
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the investigation and negotiations. It's an understatement to say that
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I'm surprised by your allegation regarding my role because I
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thought we had worked very well together in resolving this dispute.
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I'm also surprised because I feel that I bent over
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backwards to keep in mind the effect that the agreement
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would have on Mr. Epstein and to make sure that
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you and he understood the repercussions of the agreement. For example,
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I brought to your attention the that one potential plea
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could result in no gain time for your client, I
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corrected one of your calculations of the sentencing guidelines that
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would have resulted in Mr. Epstein spending far more time
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in prison than you projected. I contacted the Bureau of
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Prisons to see whether Mr. Epstein would be eligible for
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a prison camp that you desired, and I told you
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my suspicions about the source of the press leak and
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suggested ways to avoid the press. Importantly, I continued to
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work with you in a professional manner even after I
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learned that you had been proceeding in bad faith for
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several weeks, thinking that I had incorrectly concluded that solicitation
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of minors to engage in prostitution was a registerable offense,
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and that you would fool our office into letting Mr.
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Epstein plead to a non-registerable offense, even now, when it's
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clear that neither you nor your client ever intended to
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abide by the terms of the agreement that he signed,
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I have never alleged misconduct on your part. The first
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allegation that you raise is that I assiduously hid from
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you the fact that Bert Okeriz is a friend of
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my boyfriend and that I have a long-standing relationship with Mr. Okeriz.
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I informed you that I selected Mr. Okeriz because he
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was a friend and classmate of two people whom I respected,
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and I have never met or spoken with Mr. Okeriz
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prior to contacting him about the case. All of those
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facts are true. I still have never met Mr. Okeriz,
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and at the time that he and I spoke about
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the case... he did not know about my relationship with
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his friend. You suggest that I should have explicitly informed
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you that one of the referrals came from my boyfriend
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rather than simply a friend. So this isn't from Acosta himself,
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it's from Acosta's office, and it looks like it's from
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Marie Villafana. The name is redacted at the top though,
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so that's where we're at. Which is the term I used,
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but it's not my nature to discuss my personal relationships
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with opposing counsel. Your attacks on me and the victims
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establish why I wanted to find someone whom I could
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trust with safeguarding the victim's best interests in the face
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of intense pressure from an unlimited number of highly skilled
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and well-paid attorneys. Mr. Okerez was that person. One of
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your letters suggests a business relationship between Mr. Okerez and
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my boyfriend. This is patently untrue, and neither my boyfriend
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or I would have received any financial benefit from Mr.
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Okerez's appointments. Furthermore, after Mr. Okeriz learned more about Mr.
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Epstein's actions as described below, he expressed a willingness to
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handle the case pro bono, with no financial benefit, even
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to himself. Furthermore, you were given several other options to
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choose from, including the Potters firm, which was later selected
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by Judge Davis. You rejected those other options. You also
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allege that I
Load full transcript
improperly disclosed information about the case to Mr.
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Okeriz and I provided Mr. Okeriz with a bare-bones summary
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of the agreement terms related to his appointment to help
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him decide whether the case was something he and his
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firm would be willing to undertake. I did not provide Mr.
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Okeriz with facts related to the investigation because they were
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confidential and instead recommended that he Google Mr. Epstein's name
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for background information. When Mr. Okeriz asked for additional information
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to assist his firm in addressing conflicts issues, I forwarded
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those questions to you. and you raised objections for the
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first time. I did not share any further information about Mr.
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Epstein or the case. Since Mr. Okeriz had been told
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that you concurred in his selection out of professional courtesy,
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I informed Mr. Okeriz of the office's decision to use
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a special master to make the selection, and told him
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the office had made contact with Judge Davis. We had
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no further contact since then, and I have never had
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contact with Judge Davis. I understand from you that Mr.
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Okeriz contacted Judge Davis. You criticize the decision to do so,
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yet you feel that you and your co-counsel were entitled
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to contact Judge Davis to try to lobby him to
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select someone to your liking, despite the fact that non-prosecution
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agreement vested the office with the exclusive rights to select
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the attorney representative. Another reason for my surprise about your
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allegations regarding misconduct related to the Section 2255 litigation is
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your earlier desire to have me perform the role of facilitator.
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to convince the victims that the lawyer's representative was selected
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by the office to represent their interests alone, and that
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the out-of-court settlement of their claims was in their best interest.
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You now state that doing the same things that you
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had asked me to do earlier is improper meddling in
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civil litigation. Much of your letter reiterates the challenges Detective
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Redacted's investigation that have already been submitted to the office
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on several occasions, and you suggest that I have kept
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that information from those who reviewed the proposed indictment package.
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Contrary to your suggestion, those submissions were attached to and
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incorporated in the proposed indictment package, so your suggestion that
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I tried to hide something from the reviewers is false.
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I also take issue with the duplicity of stating that
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we must accept as true those parts of the Ricari
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report and witness statements that you like and we must
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accept as false those parts that you don't like. You
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and your co-counsel also impressed upon me from the beginning
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that the need to undertake an independent investigation. It seems
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inappropriate now to complain because our independent investigation uncovered facts
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that are unfavorable to your client. You complain that I
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forced your client and state attorney's office to proceed on
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charges they don't believe in. Yet, you want our office
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to inform the state attorney's office of facts that support
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the additional charge, nor do you want any of the
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victims of that charge to contact Ms. Belahovlik or the court. Ms.
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Belahovlich's opinion may change if she knows the full scope
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of your client's actions. You and I spent several weeks
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trying to identify and put together a plea to federal
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charges that your client was willing to accept. Yet your
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letter now accuses me of manufacturing charges of obstruction of justice,
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making obscene phone calls, and violating child privacy laws? When Mr.
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Lurie told you that those charges would embarrass the office,
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he meant that the office was unwilling to bend the facts.
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to satisfy Mr. Epstein's desired prison sentence, a statement with
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which I agree. I hope you understand how your accusations
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that I imposed ultimatums and forced you and your client
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to agree to unconscionable contract terms cannot square with the
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true facts of the case.
As explained in letters from
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messengers redacted and redacted, the indictment was postponed for more
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than five months to allow you and Mr. Epstein's other
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attorneys to make presentations to the office to convince the
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office not to prosecute. Those presentations were unsuccessful. As you
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mention in your letter, a simple line USA handled the
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primary negotiations for the office and conducted those negotiations with you, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Lewis,
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and a host of other highly skilled and experienced practitioners.
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As you put it, your group has a combined 250
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years experience to my 14. The agreement itself was signed
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by Mr. Epstein, Ms. Sanchez, and Mr. Lefcourt, whose experience
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speaks for itself. you and I spent hours negotiating the terms,
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including when to use a versus, the, and other minutia.
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When you and I could not reach an agreement, you
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repeatedly went over my head, involving redacted, redacted, and redacted
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in the negotiations at various times. In any and all
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plea negotiations, the defendant understands that his options are to
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plead or continue with the investigation and proceed to trial.
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Those were the same options that were proposed to Mr. Epstein.
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and they are not persecution or intimidation tactics, Mr. Epstein
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chose to sign the agreement with the advice of a
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multitude of extremely noteworthy counsel. You also make much of
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the fact that the names of the victims were not
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released to Mr. Epstein prior to signing the agreement. You
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never asked for such a term. During an earlier meeting,
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where Mr. Black was present, he raised the concern that
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you now voice. Mr. Black and I did not have
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a chance to discuss the issue, but I had already
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conceived of a way to resolve that issue if it
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were raised during negotiations. As I stated, it was not,
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leading me to believe that it was not a matter
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of concern to the defense. Since the signing of the
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non-prosecution agreement, the agents and I have vetted the list
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of victims more than once. In one instance, we decided
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to remove a name because although the minor victim was
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touched inappropriately by Mr. Epstein, we decided that the link
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to payment was insufficient to call it prostitution. I've always
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remained open to a challenge to the list. So your
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suggestion that Mr. Epstein was forced to write a blank
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check is simply unfounded. Your last set of allegations relates
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to the investigation of the matter. For instance, your claim
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that some of the victims were informed of their right
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to collect damages prior to a thorough investigation of the
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allegations against Mr. Epstein. This is also false. None of
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the victims was informed of the right to sue under
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Section 2025 prior to the investigation of the claims. Three
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victims were notified shortly after the signing of the non-prosecution
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agreement of the general terms of the agreement. You raised
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objections to any victim's notification and no further notifications were done.
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Throughout this process, you have seen that I have prepared
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this case as though it would proceed to trial. Notifying
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the witnesses of the possibility of damages claimed prior to
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concluding the matter by plea or trial would only undermine
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my case. If my reassurances are insufficient, the fact that
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not a single victim is threatened to sue Mr. Epstein
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should assure you of the integrity of the investigation. With
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regard to your allegation of my filing the Palm Beach
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Police Department's probable cause affidavit with the court knowing that
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the public could access it, I do not know to
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what you are referring. All documents related to the grand
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jury investigation have been filed under seal and the Palm
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Beach Police Department's probable cause affidavit has never been filed
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with the court. If in fact you are referring to
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the ex parte declaration of Joseph Rakari that was filed
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in response to the motion to quash the
grand jury subpoena,
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it was filed both under seal and ex parte, so
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no one should have access to it except the court
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and myself. Those documents are still in the court file
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only because you have violated one of the terms of
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the agreement by failing to withdraw Epstein's pending motion to
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intervene and to quash certain grand jury subpoenas. With respect
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to Redacted, I contacted her attorney, who was paid for
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by Mr. Epstein and was directed by counsel for Mr.
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Epstein to demand immunity, and asked only whether he still
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represented Redacted if he wanted me to send the victim
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notification letter to him. He asked what the letter would say,
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and I told him that the letter would be forthcoming
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in about a week and that I could not provide
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him with the terms. With respect to redacted status as
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a victim, you again want us to accept as true
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only facts that are beneficial to your client and to
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reject as false anything detrimental to him. Redacted made a
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number of statements that are contradicted by documentary evidence and
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a review of her record. A recorded statement shows her
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lack of credibility with respect to a number of statements.
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Based upon all the evidence collected, redacted is classified as
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a victim as defined by statute. Of course, that does
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not mean that redacted considered herself a victim or that
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she would seek damages for Mr. Epstein. I believe that
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a number of identified victims will not seek damages, but
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that does not negate their legal status as victims. I
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hope that you now understand that your accusations against myself
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and the agents are unfounded. In the future, I recommend
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that you address your accusations to me so that I
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can correct any misunderstanding before you make false allegations to
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others in the department. I hope that we can move
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forward with a professional resolution of this matter, whether that
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be by your client's adherence to the contract that he
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signed or by the virtue of a trial. Sincerely signed,
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redacted by redacted. And again, I'm thinking that this is
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Marie Villafana because that's who the argument was with. So
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that's going to conclude this portion. In the next episode,
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we're going to pick up with another response from by
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Jay Lefkowitz, and once again, he's going over the head
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of Ilifana and contacting Acosta directly. All the information that
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goes with this episode can be found in the description box.