EFTA00229761

Memorandum 
Subject 
Date 
Re: Jeffrey Epstein Investigation 
July 26, 2011 
To 
First Assistant U.S. Attorney 
From 
I. 
Introduction 
This memorandum summarizes the conflict of interest related to the investigation by 
the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") of additional crimes committed by Jeffrey 
Epstein ("Epstein"). The memo begins with a brief overview of the original investigation 
of Epstein, dubbed "Operation Leap Year"; summarizes the resolution of Operation Leap 
Year by the Southern District of Florida; and addresses the events following the resolution 
of Operation Leap Year, including the basis for the conflict. Lastly, the memo briefly 
addresses the additional crimes that the FBI wants to investigate. 
IL 
"Operation Leap Year" 
The investigation of Jeffrey Epstein initially was undertaken by the City of Palm 
Beach Police Department in response to a complaint received from the parents of a 14-year-
old girl, 
from Royal Palm Beach. When 
and another girl began fighting at 
school because the other girl accused 
of being a prostitute, one of the school principals 
intervened. The principal searched 
urse and found $300 cash. The principal asked 
where the money came from. 
initiall claimed that she earned the money 
working at "Chik-Fil-A," which no one believed. 
then claimed that she made the 
money selling drugs; no one believed that either. 
finalyslmitted that she had been 
paid $300 to give a massage to a man on Palm Beach island. 
parents approached the 
Palm Beach Police Department ("PBPD") about pressing charges. 
PBPD be an investigating the
 
recipient of the massage, Jeffrey Epstein, and two of 
his assistants, 
and 
. PBPD identified 27 girls who went to 
Epstein's house to perform "massage services" (not including one licensed massage 
therapist). The girls' ages ranged from 14 years' old to 23 years' old. Some girls saw 
Epstein only once and some saw him dozens of times. The "massage services" performed 
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also varied. Some girls were fully clothed while they massaged Epstein; some wore only 
their underwear; and some were fully nude. During all of these massages, Epstein 
masturbated himself and he would touch the girl performing the massage, usually fondling 
their breasts and touching their vaginas — either over their clothing or on their bare skin. 
Epstein often used a vibrator to masturbate the girls and digitally penetrated a number of 
them. For the girls who saw him more often, Epsteingraduated to oral sex and vaginal sex. 
Epstein sometimes brought his assistant/ irlfriend, 
into the sexual 
activity. One of the girls described 
as Epstein's "sex slave". 
On October 18, 2005, PBPD obtained a search warrant with the assistance of the Palm 
Beach County State Attorney's Office ("PBSAO"). By this time, PBSAO had already been 
contacted by Epstein's cadre of lawyers. When PBPD arrived at Epstein's home two days 
later (10/20/05) to execute the search warrant, they found several items conspicuously 
missing. For example, computer monitors and keyboards were found, but the CPUs were 
gone.' Similarly, surveillance cameras were found, but they were disconnected and the 
videotapes were gone. Nonetheless, the search did recover some evidence of value, 
including message pads showing messages from many girls over a two year span. The 
messages show girls returning phone calls to confirm appointments to "work." Messages 
were taken by three of Epstein's "personal assistants." 
Photographs taken inside the home showed that the girls' descriptions of the layout 
of the home and master bedroom/bathroom area were accurate. PBPD also found massage 
tables and oils, the high school transcript of one of the girls, and sex toys. 
In sum, the PBPD investigation showed that girls from Royal Palm Beach High 
School would be contacted by one of Epstein's assistants to make an appointment to "work." 
Up to three appointments each day would be made. The girls would travel to Epstein's home 
in Palm Beach where they would meet Epstein's chef and Epstein's assistant—usually 
M
in the kitchen. 
The assistant would escort the girls upstairs to the master 
bedroom/bathroom area and set up the massage table and massage oils. The girl sometimes 
was instructed to remove her clothing. The assistant would leave and Epstein would enter 
the room wearing a robe. He would remove the robe and lie face down and nude on the 
massage table. Epstein would then instruct the girl on what to do and would ask her to 
remove her clothing. After some time, Epstein would turn over, so that he was lying face up. 
'During a meeting, two of Epstein's attorneys, Gerald Lefcourt and Lilly Ann Sanchez, 
admitted that attorney Roy Black instructed Epstein to have the CPUs removed although they 
insisted that those instruction were given well in advance of the execution of the search warrant —
not in response to a "leak." 
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Epstein would masturbate himself and fondle the girl performing the massage. When Epstein 
climaxed, the massage was over, and the girl was instructed to get dressed and to go 
downstairs to the kitchen while Epstein showered. Epstein's assistant would be in the 
kitchen and the girl would be paid—usually $200-and if it was a "new" girl, the assistant 
would ask for the girl's phone number to contact her in the future.2 Girls were encouraged 
to find other girls to bring with them. If a girl brought another girl to perform a "massage," 
each girl would receive $200. Each time a girl returned to the house, Epstein would pressure 
the girl to go further sexually, advancing to oral sex and sexual intercourse. Epstein would 
pay more for these acts — in the words of one girl, "the more you do, the more you make." 
The PBPD investigation consisted primarily of sworn taped statements from the girls. 
When PBPD began having problems with PBSAO, they approached the FBI. The 
investigation was formally presented to the FBI and to the U.S. Attorney's Office after 
PBSAO "presented" the case to a state grand jury and the state grand jury returned an 
indictment charging Epstein only with one felony count of solicitation of [adult] prostitution. 
After the matter was presented to the U.S. Attorney's Office and there was a 
determination that federal statutes had been violated, FBI, ICE, and the U.S. Attorney's 
Office opened files. The federal investigation focused on the interstate nexus required for 
all of the federal violations, so a number of grand jury subpoenas were issued for telephone 
records, flight manifests, and credit card records. The federal agents also re-interviewed 
some of the girls. The agents delved into Epstein's history and interviewed other girls and 
obtained records to corroborate the girls' stories. FBI also interviewed girls who came 
forward after the PBSAO indictment was reported in the papers and the additional girls 
identified through those interviews. 
The attempt to handle secretly the federal case was doomed from the start when the 
Chief of the Palm Beach Police Department gave a letter to each of the victims identified 
through his investigation telling them that, because of his disappointment in the way that the 
PBSAO had handled the case, the matter had been referred to the FBI. Almost immediately, 
Epstein's attorneys began calling to request a meeting with the U.S. Attorney's Office. 
When one attorney was unable to schedule a meeting, Epstein hired another attorney who 
called up the chain of command until someone agreed to a meeting. 
Between January and May 2007, an indictment package was prepared, charging 
Epstein and three of his personal assistants with a number of child exploitation offenses. The 
'Sometimes Epstein made the payment and asked for the phone number, sometimes it was 
the assistant. 
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case agent made several appearances before the grand jury. Attorneys for Epstein made 
several presentations to the U.S. Attorney's Office to convince the Office not to prosecute, 
and made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against the line Assistant and the First 
Assistant U.S. Attorney. Epstein also challenged the legal analysis behind the prosecution, 
both within the U.S. Attorney's Office (up to the U.S. Attorney) and to the Child 
Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the Justice Department. All of Epstein's challenges 
were considered and rejected. 
III. 
The Resolution of "Operation Leap Year" 
On September 24, 2007, Epstein signed a Non-Prosecution Agreement wherein the 
U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida promised not to prosecute Epstein 
for the crimes that were the subject of the grand jury investigation if: (1) he pled guilty to two 
crimes in state court — the state felony prostitution charge and a state charge of procuring 
minors into prostitution, which would require Epstein to register as a sex offender; (2) he 
were sentenced to at least 18 months' imprisonment, and (3) he agreed to pay damages to the 
victims of his offenses. After signing this Agreement, Epstein and his counsel decided that 
they were dissatisfied with its terms, and again complained to the Justice Department, 
seeking review to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. 
After those attempts also failed, on June 30, 2008, Epstein entered his guilty plea in 
state court and began serving his sentence. 
IV. 
Post-Resolution Events 
A few days before the plea and sentencing (in state court those occur on the same 
day), the Assistant U.S. Attorney handling the matter contacted counsel for three of Epstein's 
identified victims and informed him of the upcoming court date, encouraging his clients to 
attend and be heard. They did not appear. On July 7, 2008, two of those victims filed suit 
against the United States in federal court claiming that their rights had been violated under 
the Crime Victims' Rights Act because they had not been consulted before the Office entered 
into the Non-Prosecution Agreement. (This will be referred to as the "CVRA Action.") 
After an initial flurry of activity, the Petitioners obtained a copy of the confidential 
Non-Prosecution Agreement, and the Court ordered that it be shared with all of the identified 
victims. After it was provided, the Petitioners and most of Epstein's victims focused on their 
civil suits against him. 
In 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Lauderdale initiated an investigation into 
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a Ponzi scheme operated by Scott Rothstein through his law firm. As part of his Ponzi 
scheme, Rothstein told investors that his law firm represented several of Epstein's victims 
and that Epstein was willing to pay huge sums of money to avoid exposing his criminal 
activities. The attorney representing the victims in the CVRA Action, Brad Edwards 
("Edwards"), worked at the Rothstein firm. Epstein sued Edwards, alleging that Edwards 
was part of the Ponzi scheme, and alleging that Edwards' attempts to subpoena some of 
Epstein's high-powered friends were done to increase the value of the Ponzi scheme, rather 
than for legitimate discovery purposes. 
In the summer of 2010, most of the civil suits against Epstein were settled, including 
the suits filed by the two victims in the CVRA Action. All of the settlements were 
confidential, so it is unknown how much each of the victims received. 
In September 2010, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, who handled most of the civil 
cases and the CVRA Action, issued an Order closing the CVRA Action. 
Almost 
immediately thereafter, the Petitioners filed a Motion to Reopen, stating that they had 
obtained discovery through their civil suits against Epstein that showed that the U.S. 
Attorney's Office had violated their rights as victims. 
For several months, attempts were made to resolve the matter. In short, the victims 
have asked that the U.S. Attorney's Office disavow the Non-Prosecution Agreement, on the 
basis that the CVRA was violated, and bring charges against Epstein. Edwards has said that 
one of his clients repeatedly calls and asks him when Epstein is going to jail. One of the 
other attorneys on the case has suggested that emails he considers to be embarrassing to the 
Office will not be disclosed if we re-open our investigation of Epstein and prosecute him. 
Herein lies the conflict. If the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of 
Florida re-initiates a grand jury investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, it will be perceived —
correctly or incorrectly — as having been done at the insistence of the victims in the CVRA 
Action. And Epstein will allege that any prosecution arising therefrom will have been 
undertaken in an effort to resolve the CVRA Action, not based upon the merits of the 
investigation itself. 
V. 
The FBI's Current Investigation 
The main focus of the FBI's current investigation is a victim, 
, who refused 
to speak with agents during the "Operation Leap Year" investigation. Based upon her 
debriefing, Epstein engaged in several additional crimes in the Southern District of Florida 
and, more importantly, in several other Districts, with 
and other minor females. 
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Epstein transported 
in his private airplanes to engage in sexual activity with him. 
Epstein also "pimped" 
to several of his other important friends, and transported her 
to those sexual encounters. This activity was not part of the initial investigation. 
also reported that, during the "Operation Leap Year" investigation, she was 
contacted by Epstein's investigators, lawyers, and Epstein himself, and offered payment to 
remain silent when contacted by the police. 
FBI agents are seeking grand jury subpoenas at this time to corroborate 
statement. They also are asking for permission to approach one of Epstein's "personal 
assistants," who was served with a target letter during the "Operation Leap Year" 
investigation, to give her a "de-target" letter and interview her. 
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