A former assistant U.S. attorney refers to it as “a shockingly lenient deal for a crime of such magnitude.” Multimillionaire hedge fund mogul Jeffrey Epstein mostly got away with one of the most despicable crimes imaginable.

Epstein escaped the consequences of collecting underage girls for sex. He sexually abused and trafficked over 80 girls. The crony of Bill Clinton, know for palling around with Hollywood celebrities, should be spending the rest of his life in prison. Instead, he served merely 13 months in the county jail.

It gets worse. The deal he agreed to also shut down the FBI from looking for other victims or prosecuting other powerful men involved. The court hid the deal from his victims until after the judge approved it. 

He Preyed on Girls

Epstein molested the girls at his mansion in Palm Beach. He engaged them in sex acts sometimes as often as three times a day, the Palm Beach police found. He lured them with offers of money to give him massages, but then coerced them into having sex. Epstein even photographed some. That’s child pornography.

Epstein used some of the girls to recruit other girls. FBI records show that Epstein recruited underage girls from overseas to his parties.

Courtney Wild was 14 when she was abused by Epstein. She said, “Jeffrey preyed on girls who were in a bad way, girls who were basically homeless. He went after girls who he thought no one would listen to and he was right.’’ Naturally, Epstein’s attorneys tried to blame the victims. They tried to portray them as gold diggers.

Epstein will have to register as a sex offender and provide restitution to three dozen victims identified by the FBI. That’s all he will suffer.

Alexander Acosta Largely Responsible

How could this pedophile have escaped life in prison? Former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who is now Secretary of the Department of Labor, assisted in orchestrating the deal in 2007. He ran the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida.

The Miami Herald discovered that Epstein provided what the government called “valuable consideration” for unspecified information he supplied to federal investigators. Epstein was a key government witness in the prosecution of securities fraud. This may have played a role in his plea deal.

Rocah observes, “As a federal prosecutor for over 16 years, I can tell you that, aside from cases involving murder and violence, there are two categories of crimes that make a career prosecutor’s blood boil: schemes that target elderly victims for money and allegations that involve using children for sex.”

She says that Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to state crimes instead of federal crimes. That let him avoid the strict mandatory federal minimums of 10 to 15 years in prison per crime. But nothing that she can see called for leniency in Epstein’s situation.

Remedies

A petition has been set up to impeach Acosta. A lawsuit called the federal Crime Victim’s Rights suit was filed in South Florida and would invalidate the unfair deal that was given to Epstein in order to try and send him to federal prison. It argues that the deal was illegal because dozens of Epstein’s victims were never told about it.

The prosecution claims since Epstein was prosecuted under state law, the federal Crime Victim’s Rights don’t apply. The suit has been pending since 2008.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) sent letters to the DOJ demanding a probe of the plea deal. Rocah says the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General needs to look into it.

Strangely, there has been little response from the #MeToo movement. Shouldn’t they be concerned about a man who appears far worse than Harvey Weinstein? Weinstein is likely going to prison for years. Could the discrepancy be because Epstein’s victims were relative nobodies, not Hollywood actresses, so they have less of a voice?

The double standard is appalling.

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Send tips to rachel.alexander@stream.flywheelstaging.com.