A group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government over allegations the FBI enabled his crimes.
According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the FBI allowed and enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking operation for two decades.
The FBI had received credible tips about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation as early as 1996, the anonymous victims allege.
However, they say the Bureau refused to investigate Epstein.
A probe finally began in 2006, the suit says.
This investigation ended once Epstein pleaded guilty to a soliciting prostitution charge in Florida and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, The Hill reports.
The suit claims the FBI continued to ignore mounting evidence until Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured, and threatened,” the complaint states.
“Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom — once and for all — of the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims the FBI had evidence that Epstein was continuing to traffic underage girls to his powerful associates but refused to investigate further.
“During the FBI investigation, the FBI was complicit in permitting Epstein and co-conspirators to continue to victimize Jane Does 1-12 and other young women,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The FBI had photographs, videos and interviews and hard evidence of child prostitution and failed to timely investigate and arrest Epstein in deviation from the FBI protocols.”
“The FBI had a non-discretionary obligation, governed by established policies, procedures, rules, and protocols, to handle and investigate tips concerning potential and ongoing underage child erotica, rape, sex with minors, and sex trafficking in a reasonable manner and to act against Epstein and to prevent him from committing repeated crimes,” the complaint continued.
“Yet, contrary to its own established rules, the FBI failed to take appropriate action and botched and covered up investigations for years.”
The lawsuit is seeking damages for the victims from the federal government.
Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019.
Though his death was ruled a suicide by hanging, many have questioned that determination.
Many have noted the influential figures that he could have potentially implicated.
Among his alleged friends and guests at his infamous “Pedophile Island” were Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton.
