SK: Well, and thank you for asking about the victims, which really is the focus or should be the focus of everything that has been going on for the last 20 years.
Unfortunately, I had to make a very difficult call after the documents had been released. One of my clients, actually two of my clients were unfortunately unredacted and disclosed in those documents that included the first victim that came forward to police
— the 14-year-old that I represented back in 2007, who the federal government was well aware of.
And another young victim who was 16 at the time that she was brought to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, they were both disclosed in these documents, unredacted. So I had to make that awful call to let them know that they had been disclosed and that I had notified the Department of Justice of what had happened.
And then thankfully within a day the redactions took place. But it’s just unbelievable the failures of this Department of Justice.
JW: Yeah. Why do you think we saw such sloppy redactions in these files?
SK: I think you saw the sloppiness because of the lack of focus on what was important, and that was the victims.
I think unfortunately, the current Department of Justice has a focus on something different than victims and helping victims and prosecuting bad people that victimize these young girls. Their focus instead appears to be on the important people — powerful people — that are contained within these files and protecting them instead of protecting, who needs the protection, the young victims in this case.
JW: You’re talking about someone who was abused at 14 years old, and I guess my question for you is just what does that re-traumatization look like when you’re publicly outed in this way?
SK: It’s awful. It’s absolutely devastating. This is a young lady, for example, that chose to remain anonymous and wanted to move on with her life. And because of the drip of information over the last 20 years with respect to Epstein, she hasn’t been able to move on with her life. She is now someone who is in her thirties and has a family of her own. And really does not want to have to look back at this dramatic and awful period of her life. And remaining anonymous allowed her to do that. And unfortunately the federal government is re-traumatizing these victims by making them have to go back through this awful period.
JW: Spencer, you’ve been working on this case for roughly 20 years. Can you give us some of the background, particularly on the sweetheart deal that Epstein got originally?
SK: Yeah, so I started working on these cases when victim number one,
the first victim to go to the police in Palm Beach, walked into my office and needed help because she had, along with her parents, reported what had happened to her at Epstein’s home. And that really started the snowball of this entire investigation for all of the future victims that came forward in the FBI investigation.
But what it started as was a local investigation by the town of Palm Beach, and
Joe Recarey was the lead officer that I met with during that initial investigation. It was only after the state attorneys in Palm Beach refused to prosecute this case that it ended up at the FBI and the Southern District of Florida.
Then the FBI took over this case and started the prosecution and had an
indictment that we now see that they’ve revealed unsealed that had almost 50 counts against Epstein and
other potential co-conspirators that they shelved. And they shelved it because they entered into an awful, awful sweetheart deal with Epstein at the time.
That Epstein sweetheart deal was never provided to the victims. As an attorney on behalf of one of the victims, I had to fight in court just to see the crappy deal that they had entered into with Epstein and the immunity that they had given others. And that fight lasted a year in the litigation before I was able to even see it. And then once I saw it, I realized why they didn’t want anyone to see it because it was such an awful deal.
JW: There are some truly horrifying allegations inside of these files, but so far there haven’t been any high-profile arrests or charges brought. I think you’re uniquely qualified to speak on this. What does justice look like here for the victims, and is it going to have to come from outside of the legal system?
SK: That’s a good question and a very difficult one. In handling these types of cases, specifically the Epstein cases over the last 20 years, I get a lot of calls that are just not credible.
And unfortunately there is a mental health crisis in the United States and unfortunately, some of the people that have some issues will call in and make allegations that just factually don’t hold water. Having said that, there are a lot of very valid tips that deal with individuals. So the FBI just seemed to categorize all of the tips that came in as not credible without even investigating them. And that’s a problem.
In addition to that, Epstein entered into the sweetheart deal with the federal government as a result of the initial prosecution here in West Palm Beach in South Florida. And when they did that there were four co-conspirators that were clearly named in that agreement.
Four people that the federal government knew had assisted in the sex trafficking that Epstein was involved in. And by the way, one of those four was not Ghislaine Maxwell. She was not even named in the sweetheart deal at all. Most people don’t realize that there were four other people, four other women, that were part of this conspiracy that have never been prosecuted to the state.
So the victims want them prosecuted. That’s number one. There is enough information to prosecute those people and bring them to justice. Number two, they want this information out in the public so that the public can then see the full extent of this heinous operation that was going on for years. And then judge who they want to be running these important companies, corporations, in politics and whatnot, and have the public judge them for what they did, or what they didn’t do, and then have them be held publicly accountable.
JW: I want to talk about these redactions again and the ways in which powerful people have been shielded as you’ve been just discussing now. Members of Congress were able to view the unredacted files this week. Before we get into some of the shocking revelations, I just wanted to ask you about the use of redactions to protect powerful people within the files and what you make of that, and what the women that you represent make of that.
“How do we hold the Department of Justice accountable for breaking federal law? … [W]ithout a penalty clause in the law, the only way to do that is contempt of Congress.”
SK: It breaks the law. It violates federal law. The Department of Justice broke the law, and they are continuing to break the law. Make no question about this.
The Epstein Transparency Act is very clear. You can read it. It is only about two pages long, and it states that no redactions shall be made for the purpose of merely embarrassment or protecting important or powerful people. In addition, it gives a deadline for the full disclosure of records. Both of those things have been violated by the Department of Justice.
The question really is just accountability at this point. How do we hold the Department of Justice accountable for breaking federal law? That’s a quandary that unfortunately, or fortunately, our country has not had to deal with yet. But right now we have to figure out a way to be able to hold the Department of Justice accountable. And I think legally speaking right now without a penalty clause in the law, the only way to do that is contempt of Congress.
JW: So on Tuesday, representative
Ro Khanna revealed the names of these six, powerful, wealthy men, whose names had previously been redacted in the files. Those names included billionaire, former Victoria’s Secret owner
Les Wexner and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. What did those new names add to our understanding of Epstein and his world?
SK: I can tell you
Les Wexner name was connected with Jeffrey Epstein, even back during the original prosecution of these cases I was involved in 2007. We were well aware of Epstein’s connections with Wexner, and he was on our witness list as somebody, as a person of interest, that needed to be talked to or subpoenaed for a deposition.
Now the case is resolved before we got to that point. But the connection was clear even back then, and I think there were stories that came out in the news dating back into the late 2000s that identifies that connection.
The other wealthy, important and powerful people who were out outed in some of these records that shows the world the breadth —the true worldwide breadth —of Epstein’s conspiracy and sex trafficking. And I think that there was a lot of rumor that had circulated for years, and people would call other individuals who would talk about those rumors as conspiracy theorists and crazy. And, you’re making up crazy stories.