In a 2-1 decision, a federal appeals court has ruled against victims of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who were seeking to overturn the late multimillionaire’s secret 2008 federal plea deal in an effort to go after co-conspirators who received immunity under the agreement.
Despite calling the case “a national disgrace,’’ two judges with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said victim Courtney Wild was not entitled to confer with the government about the case, appear at Epstein’s sentencing or to even have been informed that he had received a non-prosecution agreement.
The lawsuit arose in 2008 after federal prosecutors and Epstein’s lawyers reached a deal to allow Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court, rather than face a 53-page federal indictment on sex trafficking charges. As part of the agreement, Epstein and an untold number of alleged co-conspirators were also given immunity, despite allegations that they had sexually abused some three dozen girls at his mansion in Palm Beach.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
