Not long after a 14-year-old girl reported Jeffery Epstein to authorities in 2005, she says she received a warning from someone who claimed to be in contact with the well-connected financier.
The girl would be paid cash if she agreed not to cooperate with law enforcement, the person told the accuser, adding that “those who help him will be compensated and those who hurt him will be dealt with,” according to a Palm Beach, Florida, police report reflecting the accuser’s statement.
The threat was one of many intimidation and bare-knuckle tactics that accusers and witnesses told police they faced after Florida authorities opened their first investigation into Epstein.
Epstein was charged Monday by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York with sex trafficking of minors. He pleaded not guilty and faces as much as 45 years in prison if convicted. But the first investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against him began over a decade ago.
During that probe, at least three private investigators who police believed were working on Epstein’s behalf tracked down accusers and possible witnesses to the alleged attacks, according to the police reports. They sat in black SUVs outside the homes of accusers, questioned their current and former boyfriends, and chased one parent’s car off the road, according to police reports and a lawyer for three accusers. Epstein’s current attorney Reid Weingarten denied in a court filing Thursday any knowledge of the alleged car chase and said if it happened, it was not authorized by Epstein.
“It was incredibly intimidating,” Spencer Kuvin, an attorney for three accusers, told CNN. “You have to remember these girls were 14 and 15 (years old) when this was happening.”