Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that prosecutors did not break the law in negotiating a plea agreement with Jeffrey Epstein while keeping his victims in the dark more than a decade ago. A three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that federal prosecutors, led at the time by former Trump administration Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, did not violate victims' rights laws in negotiating a lenient and secretive plea agreement for the late financier. But the ruling tore into the prosecutors for their handling of Epstein's case, which the judges called a "national disgrace. "Despite...

Bill Gates in an interview published Tuesday defended his association with registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, describing his relationship with the disgraced financier as business-oriented. Gates told The Wall Street Journal that he met with Epstein solely for his connections to other businessmen, adding that he did not attend the rumored parties at which Epstein was accused of preying on young girls. "I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him. I didn’t go to New Mexico or Florida or Palm Beach or any of that," Gates told the Journal. "There were people around him who...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday disclosed that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was removed from suicide watch in July after being cleared by a psychologist, the latest detail on the handling of Epstein before his death in a federal jail. The DOJ disclosed the detail in a letter to lawmakers after the leaders of the House Judiciary Committee demanded answers to a series of questions about Epstein's death in federal custody as he awaited trial on sex trafficking and abuse charges. Epstein was jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan when New York City’s chief medical examiner later...

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on Tuesday urged Attorney General William Barr to "rip up" a 2008 nonprosecution deal for disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, arguing that the Justice Department must bring his co-conspirators to justice in wake of his death. "The victims of Epstein’s international sex trafficking ring deserve justice," Sasse, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary oversight subcommittee, wrote in a letter to Barr on Tuesday. "In order to bring Epstein’s co-conspirators to justice, the Department of Justice should rip up the non-prosecution, non-investigation agreement entered into by Epstein and the U.S. Attorney’s Office...