Documents show Palm Beach police detectives were told of the system Jeffrey Epstein set up to lure young girls for sex at his Florida home two years before federal prosecutors cut a lenient deal with him in 2008, new documents released by the Florida state government show.
Per CNN, a Palm Beach detective testified to a grand jury in July 2006 that the initial investigation was opened in March 2005 after a woman reported her stepdaughter was offered $300 to perform a sex act for “a man in Palm Beach.” Investigators identified Epstein as the man, saying Epstein would tell girls already in his circle to bring their friends to his mansion, thereby recruiting more victims for a $200 finder’s fee. When one girl brought a 23-year-old friend to Epstein, he said she was too old, the Palm Beach detectives report, telling his recruiters “the younger the better.”
Although Epstein was technically convicted of a crime with his plea agreement in 2008–when the GOP Bush brothers led the governments in DC and Tallahassee–he received no jail time, weekend detention and a guilty plea to two state solicitation charges, with no significant prison time, just 18 months in a lax work-release program.