EFTA00804084.pdf

I am Jeffrey Epstein. For twelve years I have been the subject of greater and lesser media attention. In that time, I have never before spoken publicly. This was in part because I did not recognize the person portrayed in the media: I know who I was, the media did not. I believed that I could at least reclaim my privacy, if not my good name, by being private. That, obviously, is not the case. So, now, reluctantly, let me try to overcome the media's version of me and tell you a little about myself and my circumstance. I am a successful investor and have devoted a significant amount of the money I've made to scientific and medical research. I am also an unmarried man and have openly devoted a significant part of my life to sexual adventure. I am a pleasure seeker, a hedonist. I chose not to lead a convention, monogamous, domestic life. I have also frequently paid for sex. In 2006, the police in Palm Beach, Florida, where I have lived, began a systematic surveillance of my house. For over six months they observed, on sometimes a daily basis, many different women entering and leaving. These women, most of whom worked in local massage parlors and strip clubs, came to my house to give massages, often with a happy ending, sometimes more. They were paid approximately $TK. Most of these women, more than 100 in all, returned on one or more occasions. Many introduced their friends to me. [No, this is not conventional behavior. Yes, this is a demi-monde that exists on the fringe of respectable society where men who have money and women who need money meet] Paying for sex, as often as it was available, became on my part a compulsive behavior. The Palm Beach police interviewed some TK of the women who came to my house, most were unwilling witnesses pressured by the police, each described that they had accepted payment for sexual services. I have no defense here. I paid for sex and broke the law. The Palm Beach police further identified TK of these women who were under the legal age of consent, one was 14, the others 17. I had no knowledge of anyone's actual age and each of the woman represented that they were 18 or older. I certainly do not have a sexual interest in pre-pubescent girls. There is no instance or accusations of such behavior. Other than in the smallest number of cases, the women who came to my home were [18-to-28] years old. Indeed, if the police, in their six months of surveillance, saw a clearly underage girl enter the premises with what the police suspected was the intent to EFTA00804084 engage in a sexual act, the law would have compelled them to intervene. They did not. In 20TK, I was charged by the state of Florida with TK counts of solicitation. [NAME TK, TITLE AND POSITION TKE], believed that I should be charged with a more serious crime than existed under Florida law. He wrote a letter to U.S. Department of justice asking it to interfere in the case, even though prostitution is, everywhere, a state offense. In order to claim jurisdiction, the Department of justice needed to make a case that there was interstate travel involved in what I had done. I would have had to arrange to transport a woman from one state to another. That had not occurred, and they could not make that case. Hence, the only fall back they had was to argue that I had spoken on the telephone from one state to a woman in another state. Given the weakness of its case, the Department of justice offered a settlement—a plea bargain. That agreement is now being challenged as too lenient. But whereas, a state prostitution charge would have resulted in a likely misdemeanor charge with no jail time, I spent 12 months in a Florida jail. I agreed to register as a sex offender. I also agree to a financial settlement with [WHO?] and to pay their legal bills. One aspect of the settlement that has been widely commented upon and attacked is that it offered immunity to my co- conspirators. This has been interpreted by the media as, somehow, a way to protect unnamed powerful figures who I might have known. This is preposterous, to say the least. The co-conspirators referenced here were in fact the girls who brought their friends to my house. One result of the significant settlements that I have paid, and of the legal fees that I committed to covering, is almost nonstop litigation against me. Various of the current litigants have accepted in some cases 7-figure payouts and then continued further civil suits against me—including suing the government to break a deal, under which they have been paid, in order to seek even more compensation. Two weeks ago, a Federal judge agreed to do just that. In effect, what the judge has said is that, if, at any time in the future, parties in a case are unhappy with its outcome, they can sue to have a legal settlement undone. In the years that this case has been litigated, a massive shift in social consciousness has occurred. Quite a short time ago, most state laws treated solicitation as a minor offense. Like many of us, I have come to understand EFTA00804085 that prostitution is more than a victimless crime. But the efforts to now retry me in this new climate for a crime that I have already been punished for is neither just nor fair. I have spent a year in prison paying for my mistakes. I have paid compensation to the victims. I have not beat the system. I have been judged by it. I am 66 years old. In the years since my guilty plea to prostitution charges and agreement to register as a sex offender, I have lived a chastened and scrupulous life. No further accusations have been against me. I have endeavored to life my life privately and quietly and continue to make contributions on scientific research and development efforts that I believed will have a significant impact on future well-being. A man is not one thing. I try to live a life that is right, to make amends for what I have done that is wrong, and to hopefully apply my resources and talents to have a positive effect on the world. EFTA00804086