Trump DOJ's "cowardly abdication" of the Epstein probe scorched by survivors
Outraged letters poured into court from Jeffrey Epstein victims' feeling "sidelined," including one expressing "disdain, disgust and fear."
Today, an attorney for hundreds of Jeffrey Epstein survivors denounced what she described as the Justice Department’s “cowardly abdication of its duties to protect and serve” those harmed in the sex trafficking conspiracy.
Lawyer Sigrid McCawley, whose client Annie Farmer delivered testimony that helped convict Ghislaine Maxwell, expressed disbelief at the Justice Department and FBI’s assertion in a July memo that there was nothing more to investigate in the Epstein scandal.
“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” the government’s unsigned memo said.
McCawley called that conclusion incomprehensible.
“It is obviously impossible for two people to conduct a decades-long sex-trafficking enterprise involving thousands of victims without other individuals who participated in and facilitated these unspeakable atrocities,” she wrote in a letter released on Tuesday.
McCawley sent her letter to a federal judge who will decide whether to release grand jury transcripts related to Epstein’s case, but she went out of her way to criticize the Justice Department’s overtures toward Maxwell.
“Of those two, Epstein escaped justice through his apparent suicide, and Maxwell is now, to the victims’ horror, herself attempting to escape justice by negotiating for herself a potential pardon, or commutation of her sentence,” McCawley wrote in a footnote.
“The victims of her crimes unequivocally object to any potential leniency that the Government may be considering offering Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker,” she added.
After meeting for two days with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, Maxwell received a transfer to a minimum-security federal prison in Texas.
“At best, an afterthought to the current administration”
Other Epstein and Maxwell survivors expressed outrage.
Attorney Brad Edwards, who also represents hundreds of victims, wrote that the Trump Justice Department’s actions revive his clients’ memories of Epstein’s sweetheart deal from 2008.
Edwards litigated extensively in court for judicial recognition that the government shirked their obligations under the Crime Victims Rights Act, depriving the survivors of an opportunity to be heard before striking the plea deal.
“That case, litigated pro bono by undersigned counsel for more than a decade, arose precisely because the government previously violated the rights of many of these very same victims,” Edwards wrote in his letter. “It is especially troubling that, despite the outcome of that litigation, the government has once again proceeded in a manner that disregards the victims’ rights—suggesting that the hard-learned lessons of the past have not taken hold. This omission reinforces the perception that the victims are, at best, an afterthought to the current administration.”
Since the Trump administration did not notify the victims, Edwards said that some of his clients expressed “deep anxiety” about being identified in grand jury records.
“The survivors support transparency when it can be achieved without sacrificing their safety, privacy, or dignity,” Edwards wrote. “But transparency cannot come at the expense of the very people whom the justice system is sworn to protect—particularly amid contemporaneous events that magnify risk and trauma. Several victims have already died by suicide, drug overdose, or under tragic circumstances tied directly to the trauma caused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Since Maxwell’s conviction, two victims directly connected to the case died by suicide: Virginia Giuffre and Carolyn Adriano.
“These survivors have already endured profound violations of their rights and dignity, both during the years of Epstein’s abuse and in the years following,” Edwards wrote. “To now compound their trauma by sidelining them from critical decisions— especially in this climate of heightened concern—is inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the CVRA.
“Disdain, disgust and fear”
U.S. District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer gave Epstein and Maxwell’s victims an opportunity to be heard after the Justice Department moved to unseal grand jury records.
Even before today’s deadline, the letters started trickling in from anonymous people identifying themselves as Epstein’s survivors.
“I come forward to you today in disdain, disgust and fear of how the United States of America’s DOJ has handled the promise to release the ‘Epstein Files,’” one of those letters began.
Addressing the government directly, this person wrote: “Dear United States, I wish you would have handled and would handle the whole ‘Epstein Files’ with more respect towards and for the victims.”
“I am not some pawn in your political warfare,” the letter continues. “What you have done and continue to do is eating at me day after day as you help to perpetuate this story indefinitely. Why not be completely transparent? Show us all the files with only the necessary redactions! Be done with it and allow me/us to heal.”
Another letter expressed deep distrust of the Justice Department’s motives amid reports that agents were asked to flag and redact all appearances of Trump’s name.
“I feel like the DOJ’s and FBI’s priority is protecting the ‘third-party,’ the wealthy men by focusing on scrubbing their names off the files of which the victims, ‘know who they are,’” the letter says. “To learn that our own president has utilized thousands of agents to protect his identity and these high-profile individuals is monumentally mind-blowing. That is their focus? Wow!”
Read the rest of the letter here.
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What an ineffective DOJ & FBI. Just a couple of empty suits running these departments. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel are just empty vessels carrying the water for Mr. Trump. Not a whit of care for the battered , bruised children who have been repeatedly raped by the rich , high and mighty pedophiles. Just an after thought. To take a child or a young woman and murder their soul is right up there with murder. Their respective live are changed forever causing a few to opt out via suicide yet the DOJ is just concerned with getting the perpetrator Maxwell a softer space to spend a few years of her pathetic sick life. Jeffery's good buddy Donald contemplating some sort of a deal to have his name redacted from the Epstein file. Well Donald just so you know the victims know who the violent pedophiles are. Oh Donald how did Jeffery die, was it suicide?? I wonder. I'm sure the high and mighty pedos were happy when they heard of Jeffery's demise , knowing there would be no evidence exposed at the trial. For the victims that want to , give them a safe place to speak out and listen to their pain. Please consider the victims and let them rage their disgust with this sick society.
This is such a horrible never ending battle for the victims of Maxwell and Epstein. But don’t worry- Ms Maxwell is taken care of. Republicans appear to be sympathetic to the abusers but not the victims.