EFTA01250743.pdf

ATTORNEYS AT LAW January 7, 2021 VIA EMAIL Laura Birger Chief of the Criminal Division United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York I St. Andrew's Plaza New York, New York 10007 Re: Dear Laura: In anticipation of our call tomorrow, we thought it would be useful to set out our thoughts about our client, Since 2019, has engaged in plea negotiations with your Office. Throughout this time period, prior counsel and we have stressed that we believe that any osecution of is wrong. The events for which you are considering prosecuting occurred years ago. The sex trafficking was run by and for the benefit of Mr. Epstein. did not sexual) or financial) benefit from Mr. E stein's sexual abuse of women. There is no question that making appointments and phone calls were at Epstein and Maxwell's direction. Your Office has acknowledged that none of the victims ever told their age, but you argue she should have known their age from circumstantial evidence. Thus, you allege that she turned a blind eye to Mr. Epstein's wrongdoing — the same that can be said about every other person in Mr. Epstein's orbit, including the numerous people who worked in his houses, arranged his travel, etc. For these reasons and others, we have told your Office that we believe that it is unjust to single out for prosecution. We understand from you that many of the victims are angry at her because they recall her scheduling some of their appointments and walking some of them to the massage room, whereupon Mr. Epstein molested them. The victims were young at the time that this occurred, and they were traumatized by Mr. Epstein's abusive conduct. We 1 EFTA_00054804 EFTA01250743 understand that this would of course cause to loom large in their memories and that since Mr. Epstein has twice esca serious consequences for his crimes, they would seek vengeance elsewhere and blame for what occurred. Additionally, we understand that two of the women claim that was present during some of the sexual abuse, causing even more anger at her. As we have told ou we firmly believe that these memories are inaccurate and that they are substituting for another person. However, it would be grossly unfair to charge so many years later when it will be difficult for her to prove that these victims' recollections are wrong and therefore defend herself. But even if the victims' memories were 100% accurate, we do n t believe that any of this is sufficient justification for seeking to prosecute and imprison . The abuse that happened to these young women was Jeffrey Epstein's fault, not fault. she did not understand that something wrong was occurring — what she saw was young women who voluntarily returned on multiple occasions to give massages. She believed that they wanted to be there and none of them ever told her that they were being sexuall abused or ever indicated that the did not want to return or give a massage to Mr. Epstein. — it is absurd to think that she had the wherewithal to understand that she Nor was the only person who failed to speak up. Everyone in Mr. Epstein's universe — including all of the household workers, the people who scheduled and arranged travel for the young women, the highly accomplished professionals and the economically and politically powerful neonle who associated with Mr. Epstein — failed to sneak up. To single out for prosecution Prosecuting for sex trafficking now cannot atone for the failure of other state and federal prosecutors to protect victims of Mr. Epstein more than fifteen years ago when his 2 EFTA_00054805 EFTA01250744 conduct was originally investigated. In fact, it only corn unds the unfairness that flowed from their failure to act appropriately at the time by forcing — who was known to prosecutors at the time and whose whereabouts have been known for the past fifteen years — to defend herself now against such serious but stale allegations. We believe charging her so long after the events in question when numerous witnesses, facts, and documents are no longer available, would deprive of a fair trial and thus of her fundamental due process rights. In order to try to end the ongoing threat of prosecution from your Office, we attempted to negotiate a settlement of criminal charges. All along we told your Office that she would not accept a plea to sex trafficking. We offered a plea to misprision of a felony, in that after Epstein's conduct came to light she failed to report his wrongdoing, but your Office rejected this and insisted on a plea to obstruction of justice. It has become apparent, however, that while your Office is willing to accept a plea to conspiracy to obstruct justice, in fact you will try to have ■ sentenced for sex trafficking. This is apparent both from the statement of facts which your Office drafted, as well as the extreme position your Office has taken on calculation of guidelines, in which you seek the maximum penalty possible, a prison term many years longer than what Epstein himself served. We understand that your Office has stated that you intend to indict if she does not plead guilty to obstruction of justice as the AUSAs have outlined in discussions with us. We think that this would be wrong and a misuse of your powers. But we cannot agree to have her plead to what essentially would be a sex trafficking plea even if you are calling it obstruction of justice. If you would like to discuss a different resolution in this case, we are open to such a discussion. If not, if you intend to indict , we ask that she be given the opportunity to surrender. For over a year she has known that you intend to indict her and has never fled, but instead has hired lawyers and negotiated with you. During this time period she has left the country and returned, always keeping your office apprised of her whereabouts. There would be no legitimate reason not to allow her to surrender. In addition, we ask that you take steps to preserve all Brady and Giglio material in your possession and control, which we suspect is substantial and will be immediately at issue should she be charged. 3 EFTA_00054806 EFTA01250745  We look forward to discussing this with you tomorrow. Yours Truly. Is/ cc: 4 EFTA_00054807 EFTA01250746