Will Jeffrey Epstein Be Released on Bail?

(Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey Epstein’s fate may rest partly on whether his lawyers convince a judge he should be freed while he faces federal sex-trafficking charges.

Epstein was taken into custody on Saturday in a surprise arrest after years of accusations of child molestation. Prosecutors are expected to unseal the case on Monday when Epstein appears in federal court in Manhattan.

The first issue for the judge is likely to be whether to release the 66-year-old fund manager on bail. While the defense and the government may agree he can go free after posting a sizable bond, prosecutors are likelier to try to keep him behind bars, warning he could tap his fortune and flee, according to New York defense lawyer Marvyn Kornberg.

Leaving Epstein locked up would give the government added leverage in any plea negotiations in coming months, said Kornberg, who isn’t involved in the case.

“Keeping someone in custody is a tactic. It’s a psychological tool to get a defendant to plead out,” he said, adding that prosecutors may have a sound argument nonetheless. “With the money he’s got, he could go anywhere in the world.”

Read more on the Epstein case:

Fund Manager Jeffrey Epstein Is Charged With Sex Trafficking

Epstein Accusers, Justice Department Split on Next Steps

Opening of Epstein Sex Case Files May Fuel Acosta Criticism

Epstein has been under scrutiny for more than a decade, with local teenage girls saying he used his employees to bring them to his Florida mansion for sex and paid them to recruit new victims. The girls were allegedly as young as 13.

In a 2008 plea deal that has been subject to intense criticism, Epstein pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting a prostitute and served 13 months in a Florida state prison, while avoiding prosecution for federal sex-trafficking offenses and the decades of prison time he could have faced if convicted.

The Miami Herald last year published a series of stories reporting that the top federal prosecutor in southern Florida at the time, Alex Acosta, worked with Epstein’s lawyers to fashion the deal on the state charges. Acosta, now U.S. Secretary of Labor, allegedly failed to clear the federal nonprosecution agreement with many of Epstein’s alleged victims, who said they would have opposed it, according to the paper. The Herald said it found about 60 victims.

In February, a federal judge in Florida said Acosta broke the law when he failed to disclose the terms of the deal to Epstein’s alleged victims, and the Justice Department opened a probe into how the case was handled. Acosta has defended his performance, saying the deal guaranteed that Epstein would be sent to jail and have to register as a sex offender.

Double Jeopardy?

In the new case, which is being handled partly by the Justice Department’s public corruption unit in New York, additional alleged victims have come forward, according to a person familiar with the matter. As a result, the case is less likely to falter on grounds of double jeopardy, which bars the government from prosecuting a person a second time on the same charges, the person said. Epstein is alleged to have committed these crimes while in Manhattan, where he has a home.

Epstein’s lawyer Martin Weinberg didn’t return a phone call seeking comment on the arrest. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan declined to comment.

Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey after he returned from France, said the person, who asked not to be named because the charges were not yet public. In court on Monday, prosecutors may emphasize his access to a private plane and a home overseas, along with the steep penalty for sex trafficking, as part of an argument to deny him bail.

“With his resources and with the potential jail time he faces,” that argument is bolstered, said Bruce Maffeo, a former federal prosecutor in New York who is now an attorney at Cozen O’Connor.

Epstein’s lawyers may claim that the allegations by the newer victims were included as part of the 2008 agreement -- and that the case is flawed because of it, Kornberg said.

Victims’ Advocates

“The defense argument could be that they fought this case to a plea years ago and it’s only with rekindled interest that’s prompted these latest charges,” added Maffeo, who isn’t involved in the case. “They could say that he wouldn’t flee the country.”

Alleged victims and their advocates hailed Saturday’s arrest.

“The prosecutors in these cases have not taken these crimes as seriously as they should,” David Boies, a lawyer for several of the victims, said of the Florida authorities. Of the 2008 deal, he added, “Our clients were kept in the dark.”

Epstein is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, the same high-security facility where Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, is being held while he faces state fraud charges.

The unsealing of charges on Monday will shed new light on the allegations that have long dogged Epstein, and more details are likely to follow. Last week, a federal appeals court in New York said some sealed documents will be opened as part of a lawsuit against Epstein.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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