Jeffrey Epstein bail hearing: ‘He is a scary person to have walking the streets’
A trove of damning items found in billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s home safe by the FBI during a raid on his mansion have been revealed.
When the FBI raided billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion prior to his arrest on sex trafficking charges they found more than “a vast trove of lewd photographs” featuring underage girls in his home safe.
The search on his New York residence also turned up a passport with the sex offender’s photo but a fake name and a Saudi Arabia residence along with “piles of cash” and “dozens of diamonds”, a court has heard.
According to prosecutors, the passport was issued by a foreign country in the 1980s, although it was not immediately clear which one they were referring to.
Assistant US Attorney Alex Rossmiller told a packed Manhattan Federal Court that he and his legal team had only “became aware today” of the bogus passport.
Epstein, 66 — whose friends have included President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew — appeared at the bail hearing in blue prison garb after being brought from a nearby jail where he’s been held since his arrest on July 6. He is accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenagers as young as 14 and is facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
Epstein’s lawyers are seeking house arrest for their client in his $77 million Upper East Side Manhattan mansion while he awaits trial, insisting he won’t run. They’ve argued that he should be allowed to remain at his home, fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet and with his building under police video surveillance.
But prosecutors argued the well-connected financier was a significant flight risk and that evidence against him was growing “stronger by the day”.
Judge Berman said a document submitted to the court by Epstein’s defence team assessed his fortune to be more than $500 million.
Mr Rossmiller, who has repeatedly said Epstein’s wealth would make it possible for him to flee, said what was so far known about Epstein’s financials should “alarm” the court. He said authorities had also received information from a “financial establishment” about an account that contained $110 million.
According to Mr Rossmiller, the FBI found a suspected undisclosed cache of assets including “art and diamonds” in Epstein’s home while executing a search warrant.
“How much money does he have? Where is it?” Mr Rossmiller said.
“How much of it is in diamonds or art?”
US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, previously told reporters that authorities had seized evidence “including nude photographs of what appear to be underage girls” while executing the search warrant.
The indictment alleged the raid turned up a “vast trove of lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls”, consisting of hundreds — possibly even thousands — of pictures.
Some of the images were located in a locked safe along with compact discs with handwritten labels which read: “Young (Name) + (Name)”, “Misc nudes 1” and “Girl pics nude”, according to a Department of Justice memorandum.
On Monday, prosecutors told the court that several more women have contacted them since Epstein’s arrest to say he abused them when they were children.
Mr Rossmiller said “many individuals identifying themselves as victims and witnesses” have come forward and that prosecutors have been able to “dramatically expand” the scope of their investigation.
Two new accusers, Alice Farmer and Courtney Wild, were present at the hearing and told Judge Richard Berman they would be afraid if Epstein was released.
Ms Farmer said she was 16 years old when she had the “misfortune” of meeting Epstein.
“He was inappropriate with me, and I would prefer not to go into the details about labelling that at this time,” she said through tears.
Ms Wild also alleged she was also a victim of Epstein’s and said he should remain behind bars “just for the safety of any of the girls out there who are going through what I went through”.
“I was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein starting at the age of 14,” she said.
“He is a scary person to have walking on the streets.”
The judge reserved his decision on Epstein’s bail application to Thursday.
THE ALLEGATIONS
The indictment alleges that from 2002 to 2005 Epstein engaged in a trafficking scheme, bringing underage girls to his Upper East Side mansion — a seven-storey, 1950-square-metre property less than a block from Central Park — and his palatial compound in Palm Beach, Florida, to engage in sex acts with him.
The indictment said Epstein used employees and assistants to arrange sexual rendezvous with multiple underage girls at his residences.
“He intentionally sought out minors and knew that many of his victims were in fact under the age of 18,” it read.
“When a victim arrived at the New York Residence, she typically would be escorted to a room with a massage table, where she would perform a massage on JEFFREY EPSTEIN.”
The victims were allegedly told to undress before or during the “massage,” according to the documents.
“EPSTEIN would escalate the nature and scope of physical contact with his victim to include, among other things, sex acts such as groping and direct and indirect contact with the victim’s genitalia,” the indictment continued.
According to prosecutors, he also paid some of his victims to “recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein”.
“In this way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach,” the indictment read.
Mr Berman said that the non-prosecution agreement that spared Mr Epstein from a heavy prison sentence on similar allegations a decade ago is binding only on federal prosecutors in Florida, where the deal was made, not on authorities in New York.
“This conduct, as alleged, went on for years and involved dozens of young girls, some as young as 14,” Mr Berman said.
“The alleged behaviour shocks the conscience.
“While the charged conduct is from a number of years ago, it is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims — now young women.
“They deserve their day in court. We are proud to be standing up for them by bringing this indictment.”
Epstein’s arrest came amid increased #MeToo-era scrutiny of the 2008 non-prosecution deal that allowed him to plead guilty to lesser state charges while maintaining a jet-set lifestyle that includes homes in Paris and the US Virgin Islands and a Bentley.
Under the once-secret deal — overseen by Alexander Acosta, who was the US lawyer in Miami at the time and later Mr Trump’s labour secretary — Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution. He avoided a possible life sentence and served 13 months in jail.
The deal also required that he reach financial settlements with dozens of his victims and register as a sex offender. Mr Acosta sensationally resigned following backlash over his involvement in the plea deal last week.
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