Government failures allowed Jeffrey Epstein to commit sex crimes after 2005 Florida arrest, House report finds

WASHINGTON — Late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein had “friends in high places” who helped him score a sweetheart plea deal in 2008 that paved the way for him to later abuse more victims, according to a damning House Oversight Committee report released Tuesday.“The Committee finds that the crimes committed by Epstein after 2005 [when he was first arrested] could have been prevented and justice served had it not been for the failures of investigators and federal prosecutors in South Florida and Washington, D.C,” the report concluded.“While some of these failures involved an exercise in poor judgement by the [Miami] USAO [US Attorney’s Office], others appeared to be the result of Epstein’s pervasive and wide-reaching influence.”The financier had been allowed to plead guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for the same following protracted negotiations, which earned Epstein an 18-month prison sentence — of which he served 13 months, much of that time on work release.The powerful House Oversight panel concluded that then-assistant US attorney for the Southern District of Florida Matthew Menchel “had a connection to Epstein” while he was a top decision-maker on the case.Menchel allegedly went on a ski trip in Aspen with Epstein in the early 2000s, a claim he has denied despite the apparent existence of photographs of the pair.Alex Acosta, the US attorney at the time, blamed the kid gloves treatment of Epstein on state and local officials.“Acosta testified that his office received multiple assurances that Epstein would not receive work release at all and expressed extreme regret over his decision to entrust Epstein’s imprisonment to the state who proved to be an ’unreliable partner,’” the report said.“Acosta stated that had federal prosecutors known the outcomes of their state-based plea deal, they would never have resolved the case in the manner they did.”The committee also faulted Acos...