Jeffrey Epstein’s victims will not get cash damages from federal government over controversial non-prosecution deal, judge says

 

 

• A federal judge ruled that victims of the late accused child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein will not get monetary damages from the U.S. government.

• The victims wanted damages because of the failure by federal prosecutors to inform them years ago about a controversial non-prosecution deal with the wealthy financier.

A federal judge in Florida ruled Monday that victims of late accused child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein will not get monetary damages from the U.S. government, despite a failure by federal prosecutors to inform them years ago about a controversial non-prosecution deal with the wealthy financier.


Judge Kenneth Marra also ruled against the victims’ request that their lawyer fees be paid for by the government.

But Marra also suggested that the victims could “take solace” in the fact that their lawsuit against the government had brought national attention to the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, the “shortcomings” of the Justice Department in dealing with Epstein victims and the fact that their civil case played a role in spurring a federal prosecution of Epstein in July.


Marra had ruled last February that federal prosecutors in Florida had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not telling them they were agreeing in 2007 not to bring serious sex crime charges against Epstein, in exchange for his guilty plea to relatively minor state charges the following year.


As part of that ruling in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Marra had allowed two of Epstein’s victims to argue what remedies, “if any, should be imposed by” Marra for the government’s failure to inform the victims of the non-prosecution deal.


But the CVRA “does not authorize an award of restitution against the United States,” Marra said in his decision Monday.


“Despite Petitioners having demonstrated the Government violated their rights under the CVRA, in the end they are not receiving much, if any, of the relief they sought,” Marra wrote.



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