Florida Senate passes law to release Epstein case transcripts

The Florida Senate approved this Wednesday a bill to make public the transcripts of the state charges of trafficking and sexual abuse of minors filed in 2006 against the financier Jeffrey Epsteinfound dead in a prison NY in 2019.

The measure, approved unanimously, will allow the secret transcripts of a Palm Beach County grand jury, north of Miami, to come to light, which considered the state charges against Epstein in 2006, The Palm Beach Post reported.

Now all that is missing is the signature of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantisfor its promulgation.

However, an appeals court ordered nine months ago to review, draft and publish the material and documentation related to this accusation, so the legislative provision, which will come into force on June 1, will not be necessary, the newspaper added. .

On February 14, twelve Epstein victims reported the FBI for an alleged cover-up and argued that the US police agency did not adequately investigate the allegations against him.

The victims filed the lawsuit under pseudonyms in a court in the Southern District of New York “to get to the bottom of the matter, once and for all, about the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring”indicates the document, collected by local media.

The lawsuit alleges that the FBI allowed Epstein to sexually exploit and abuse girls and young women for two decades, a “flagrant negligence” which resulted in the complainants themselves suffering sexual abuse at the hands of the financier.

Epstein was accused in 2006 of sexually abusing minors under the age of 14 and pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution under Florida law.

That year, through a secret agreement with the Florida Prosecutor’s Office that has been criticized years later by the Department of Justice, Epstein pleaded guilty to the charges, served 13 months in prison and registered as a sex offender.

After The Miami Herald reported that there were many more minors and women who had been abused by Epstein, he was arrested in 2019 in New York on federal sex trafficking charges.

Finally, he committed suicide that same year in a New York prison, where he remained after being formally accused of abusing and exploiting dozens of teenagers both in his mansion in Manhattan (New York) and in his residence in Palm Beach (Florida). and his ownership of the Virgin Islands.