Transcripts of Jeffrey Epstein’s Grand Jury Investigation Released

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge Monday afternoon released the transcripts of a 2006 grand jury investigation that looked into sex trafficking and rape allegations against the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The judge’s release of the roughly 150 pages came as a surprise, as he had scheduled a hearing next week on when and how to release them. Governor Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February that allowed for the release on Monday or anytime thereafter, under an order from Circuit Judge Luis Delgado.

“The details in the file will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The grand jury testimony covers activities ranging from completely unacceptable to rape – all of the conduct in question is sexually deviant, disgusting and criminal.”

After the grand jury investigation, Epstein struck a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008, allowing him to escape more serious federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of soliciting a person under 18 years for prostitution and inviting prostitution. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in Palm Beach County Prison, followed by a year of house arrest. He had to register as a sex offender.

That deal has been widely criticized as too lenient. Epstein was charged with federal sex trafficking in 2018 crimes in New York — where he also had a mansion that was a scene of abuse — after the Miami Herald published a series of articles that renewed public attention to the case, including interviews with some of the victims who filed civil lawsuits against him. Epstein was 66 at the time he committed suicide in a New York City jail cell in August 2019, federal officials say.

Delgado called Epstein “the most notorious pedophile in American history.”

“For nearly two decades, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of the most vulnerable in Palm Beach County has been the subject of much ire and has at times diminished the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

“Epstein is indeed infamous and infamous and is widely said to have flaunted his wealth while dealing with politicians, billionaires and even the British Royal Family,” he continued. “Understandably, given these reports, the public has great curiosity about what was widely reported by news agencies as ‘special treatment’ regarding his prosecution.”

The Associated Press is currently reviewing the transcripts.