In 2008 Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to two Florida charges and served less than 13 months of an 18-month term. Under a federal agreement, the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in southern Florida had agreed to end its own investigation, in which a prosecutor had listed 34 minors as victims. In 2019 prosecutors in New York charged him with sex trafficking of minors. He died in custody five weeks after his arrest, before any trial.
The sources read here show no court setting the 2008 agreement aside. A court later held, in Ghislaine Maxwell’s case, that it covered only the Southern District of Florida.
The women who were girls at the time come first, in their own words. Nothing here describes what was done to them. Nearly every line comes from court opinions, the Justice Department’s own reports, and the words of those who lived it. Where sources differ, the story says who said what. Read to 2 November 2026.
10 Jul 2019
Courtney Wild
She is one of more than 30 women who, the Eleventh Circuit said in 2021, were abused as girls by Epstein, on allegations it had “no reason to doubt” and accepted as true. In 2008, ABC reported, she sued the Justice Department over how it had treated her. In July 2019 she told ABC News what the silence had been like.
They could have called me they could have done many things it was like the roles were reversed I was calling them saying 'Hey my name's Courtney Wild. I'm a victim of Jeffrey Epstein is there anything happening with this case what's going on?' I would get no response
Courtney Wild, to ABC News, July 2019. Scholarship & press. Open the source
19 Jul 2006
The complaint
In 2005 the parents of a 14-year-old girl complained to the Palm Beach police. By the court’s later account, officers identified about 20 girls aged 14 to 17. A state grand jury indicted Epstein on 19 July 2006 on one felony count of soliciting prostitution. The police chief and lead detective were dissatisfied with the state attorney’s handling of the case and believed the charge did not address the totality of Epstein’s conduct, so they referred it to the FBI. The Justice Department did not investigate state officials or reach conclusions about their conduct. The state attorney’s reply comes later.
About 20Girls aged 14 to 17 the Palm Beach police identified, as the federal court later recorded it
The PBPD ultimately identified approximately 20 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who were sexually abused by Epstein.
Opinion and Order, Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States, No. 08-80736-CIV-MARRA (S.D. Fla. 21 Feb 2019), U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (copy held by the House Oversight Committee Democrats), 21 Feb 2019. Primary record. Open the source
May 2007
To the FBI
The FBI brought the case to a federal prosecutor in southern Florida. With two agents she found more girls. By May 2007 the office, under U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, had an 82-page prosecution memo and a draft indictment of 60 counts. On 24 September a prosecutor emailed Epstein’s lawyer that she had a list of 34 minors. His lawyers had argued in writing that he broke no federal law.
34Girls the federal prosecutor listed as confirmed minors in an email of 24 September 2007, the day the agreement was signed
I have compiled a list of 34 confirmed minors.
Opinion and Order, Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 v. United States, No. 08-80736-CIV-MARRA (S.D. Fla. 21 Feb 2019), U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (copy held by the House Oversight Committee Democrats), 21 Feb 2019. Primary record. Open the source
24 Sep 2007
The agreement
On 24 September 2007 Epstein and the U.S. Attorney’s Office signed a non-prosecution agreement, negotiated by his lawyers and the office’s prosecutors. Acosta did not sign it but, the Justice Department found, took part in drafting it and approved it. Epstein would plead guilty in state court, serve 18 months and register as a sex offender. The office would forgo federal prosecution in southern Florida of him, four people it named, and “any potential co-conspirators.” Whether that reach stopped at southern Florida was settled only in 2024.
the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein
The 2007 non-prosecution agreement, as quoted by Judge Marra in 2019. The Second Circuit held in 2024 that it bound only the Southern District of Florida.. Primary record. Open the source
Jan 2008
Kept from them
In January 2008, four months after signing, the government wrote to Courtney Wild that her case was “currently under investigation.” The Eleventh Circuit later said the government’s efforts went from passive nondisclosure toward “active misrepresentation,” and that prosecutors appear to have “worked hand-in-hand with Epstein’s lawyers—or at the very least acceded to their requests.” The Justice Department’s own review differed: it found no evidence the lack of consultation was meant to silence the girls, said an FBI employee, not the prosecutors, sent the letters, and called the statement “not false” but said the letters “risked misleading the victims.” It called collusion a “misimpression.” The government has said the letters were technically accurate.
excluding me from the resolution of what his outcome should've been
Courtney Wild, to ABC News, July 2019. Scholarship & press. Open the source
Nov 2020
What the Justice Department found
Its Office of Professional Responsibility, reviewing its own lawyers and with no power over state officials, worked from February 2019 to November 2020 on the prosecutors’ conduct, not Epstein’s crimes. It found Acosta’s decision “constitutes poor judgment” and the agreement “a flawed mechanism,” and that he showed poor judgment in not making sure the state would tell victims of the plea hearing. It found no professional misconduct by him or four others: no clear rule then required consulting victims before charges. And it found no evidence he acted from corruption or because of Epstein’s wealth, status or associations. No survivor’s response to the report was read for this story.
Nevertheless, OPR concludes that Acosta's decision to resolve the federal investigation through the NPA constitutes poor judgment.
Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility, November 2020. It found no professional misconduct.. Primary record. Open the source
10 Jul 2019
Their answers
In 2019 Acosta said the aim was to “put Epstein behind bars,” and that the state attorney’s office “was ready to let Epstein walk free.” Barry Krischer, the state attorney, replied that after the grand jury returned one count, Acosta’s office drafted an indictment that was dropped after talks between Epstein’s lawyers and Acosta in which his office had no part. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office always had the ability to file its own federal charges,” he said; Acosta “should not be allowed to rewrite history.” In 2025 Acosta told a House committee, as reported, why he favoured the deal.
the trial was a crapshoot, and we just wanted the guy to go to jail,
Alexander Acosta, to the House Oversight Committee, September 2025, as reported. Scholarship & press. Open the source
30 Jun 2008
Thirteen months
For nine months after signing, Epstein’s “extensive team of prominent attorneys” pressed senior Justice Department officials to undo the deal; on 23 June 2008 the Deputy Attorney General’s office said it would not step in. On 30 June he pleaded guilty to felony solicitation of prostitution and to “procurement of minors to engage in prostitution,” and was sentenced to 18 months in all. From October he spent 12 hours a day on work release at a foundation he had just incorporated, in his lawyer’s office. He served under 13 months and registered as a sex offender.
Under 13 monthsTime Epstein actually served of an 18-month sentence, by the Justice Department’s count
he actually served less than 13 months of incarceration
Executive Summary of Report: Investigation into the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida's Resolution of Its 2006-2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, Nov 2020. Primary record. Open the source
7 Jul 2008
The first suit
On 7 July 2008, a week into his sentence, a woman filed in federal court as “Jane Doe”: the government had broken the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. Only then did it disclose the agreement, and a state judge ordered it public in September 2009. The suit lay dormant for almost two years while the petitioners pursued civil cases against Epstein; by mid-2010 he had reportedly settled several, including theirs.
The reasonable right to confer with the attorney for the Government in the case.
Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771. Primary record. Open the source
28 Nov 2018
Perversion of Justice
In 2017 Herald reporter Julie K. Brown went back to the case. The series of 28 November 2018 drew on interviews with eight victims, the Justice Department later noted; NPR reports she identified 80 survivors in all. “None of the women’s voices were in any of the stories that I read,” she told NPR. This story has not read the series itself, which is behind a paywall.
There is nothing that was more powerful than the words of the women talking about this themselves.
Julie K. Brown, to NPR, 2021. Scholarship & press. Open the source
21 Feb 2019
The finding
On 21 February 2019 Judge Kenneth Marra held that prosecutors broke the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not telling the girls before the agreement was signed. He added what he was not deciding: that not prosecuting “was improper.” The victims asked for remedies including voiding the agreement and federal prosecution of Epstein.
once the Government failed to advise the victims about its intention to enter into the NPA, a violation of the CVRA occurred.
Judge Kenneth Marra, 21 February 2019. Primary record. Open the source
8 Jul 2019
Charged in New York
Epstein was arrested on 6 July 2019. The indictment, unsealed two days later, charged sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy, from 2002 to 2005, in New York and Palm Beach. These were accusations; he pleaded not guilty, and no court decided them. Why New York acted is told two ways: Acosta wrote it rested on “new evidence”; NPR’s account says the Herald’s series spurred it. The sources here do not choose. Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary on 12 July.
the victims – then children and now young women – are no less entitled to their day in court.
Epstein died on 10 August. On 27 August Judge Richard Berman, no relation to the U.S. Attorney, let his accusers speak, then dismissed the indictment on 29 August. Wild said his death “robbed” them of the chance to confront him. Virginia Giuffre said she became “a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and the horrible acts they committed against me.” Her 2015 defamation suit against Maxwell survived Maxwell’s motion to end it in March 2017 and settled that May; a settlement is not a finding. Giuffre died in April 2025. Her family called her “a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”
We all know he did not act alone
Sarah Ransome, to the court, 27 August 2019. Scholarship & press. Open the source
15 Apr 2021
Every remedy denied
After Epstein died, Judge Marra held his death mooted the question of the agreement’s validity and denied every remedy; the victims had won a finding and lost on remedy. In April 2020 a divided Eleventh Circuit panel said the Act did not apply before charges; that opinion was vacated. At the full court’s hearing in December 2020 a Justice Department lawyer told it: “Although we are sympathetic to Ms. Wild and apologize to her for what happened, her legal arguments are incorrect.” In April 2021 the full court ruled the Act gives no freestanding suit, with four judges dissenting. It left open whether rights attach before charges.
We have the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein's hands, only to be left in the dark—and, so it seems, affirmatively misled—by government attorneys.
Eleventh Circuit, In re Courtney Wild, 15 April 2021. Primary record. Open the source
Jun 2023
The cell
On 23 July 2019 Epstein was found with marks on his neck. His cellmate told officers he had tried to hang himself; Epstein first said the cellmate tried to kill him, then that he did not know what happened. He left suicide watch on 24 July and observation on 30 July, with a written order that he have a cellmate at all times. On 8 August staff were told the cellmate was leaving; “no action was taken.” No counts were done after 4 p.m. on 9 August and no rounds after about 10:40 p.m. Two officers were charged, admitted falsely certifying the checks, and had the charges dismissed. The medical examiner ruled suicide.
While the OIG determined MCC New York staff engaged in significant misconduct, we did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI's determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died.
Justice Department Inspector General, June 2023. Primary record. Open the source
Oct 2026
The doubt
The medical examiner ruled the cause hanging and the manner suicide. In October 2019 Michael Baden, a pathologist hired by Epstein’s brother, said neck fractures were more indicative of homicide; the examiner stood by her finding, and NPR noted such fractures are linked to both hanging and strangulation. The examiner told the Inspector General there were no defensive wounds of the kind a homicide would leave. The Inspector General found no evidence contradicting the FBI’s finding of no criminality. Michael Freeman, a professor of forensic medicine, was given the autopsy files by the brother, who says it was not done on his behalf. Freeman will present in London on 16 November and has not stated his conclusions.
Additionally, none of the 15 inmates who agreed to be interviewed in connection with this investigation, 10 of whom were housed in the SHU on August 9 and 10, had any credible information suggesting that Epstein's cause of death was something other than suicide.
Justice Department Inspector General, June 2023. Freeman has stated no conclusion.. Primary record. Open the source
7 Jul 2025
The July 2025 memo
In a two-page memo the Justice Department and FBI said that Epstein died by suicide and that video showed “nobody entered any of the tiers” that night. The Inspector General found the recorded video covered only the unit’s common area and showed no one approaching the tiers; no recording shows the tier itself. The released video lacks one minute, 11:59 p.m. to midnight. Then Attorney General Pam Bondi said “every night should have the same minute missing”; that is her explanation. In May 2026 a judge ordered the release of an apparent suicide note from the July incident; CBS has not verified it.
One minuteMissing from the released video, 11:59 p.m. to midnight. Attorney General Bondi said the same minute is missing every night; that explanation is hers.
a full minute is missing from basically 11:59 p.m. to 12 a.m.
DOJ memo says no evidence of Jeffrey Epstein 'client list' or blackmail, NPR (via WHQR), 8 Jul 2025. Scholarship & press. Open the source
6 Oct 2025
Ghislaine Maxwell
A jury found her guilty on 29 December 2021, after a one-month trial, on five of six counts, among them sex trafficking of a minor; she was acquitted on one. Women testified at the trial. On 28 June 2022 Judge Alison Nathan sentenced her to 240 months. After the Supreme Court declined her appeal, her lawyer said: “this fight isn’t over.” Counts of his victims differ by who counted and when: 34 minors on the 2007 list, “more than 30” in the courts, 80 found by Brown, 136 to 150 paid by the compensation fund, and over one thousand in the 2025 memo.
Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today’s result, possible.
Maxwell argued the 2007 agreement, which shielded “any potential co-conspirators,” barred her New York case. On 17 September 2024 the Second Circuit disagreed: where the agreement is not silent, its scope is “expressly limited to the Southern District of Florida.” The Supreme Court declined to hear her on 6 October 2025. The ruling concerned Maxwell. Epstein died before trial, and the sources read here show no ruling on whether the agreement barred his own case.
There is nothing in the NPA that affirmatively shows that the NPA was intended to bind multiple districts.
Second Circuit, United States v. Maxwell, 17 September 2024. Primary record. Open the source
25 Aug 2026
Where it stands
Read on 2 November 2026. On 25 August a federal judge denied Maxwell’s petition, which called her case a “complete miscarriage of justice” and herself a scapegoat. He wrote that among the released documents “she does not cite any” that reveals an uncharged confederate. That speaks to what she cited, not to what the files hold. As of that date, AP said, the Epstein Files Transparency Act had produced 18 categories of records; The Address Book counts them in pages. AP said it sent a request for comment to her past lawyers. Not read: the Herald series, and the full Justice Department report except in an unofficial copy.
Nearly all its claims are procedurally barred; the overwhelming testimonial and documentary evidence adduced at trial conclusively established her guilt; and her petition's claims are demonstrably meritless
Judge Paul Engelmayer, 25 August 2026, as reported by the Associated Press. Scholarship & press. Open the source