MANHATTAN (CN) – More than a decade after his child sex-abuse case shocked the nation, the extraordinarily light sentence given to politically connected Jeffrey Epstein continues to embarrass multiple presidents, a prince and a powerful lawyer.
On Wednesday, the Second Circuit ordered sunlight for nearly 2,000 pages of files related to the wealthy tycoon and the dozens of girls whose assault claims he buried with an expansive plea deal.
The fight was one spurred on by Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown on the heels of her groundbreaking investigative series “Perversion of Justice,” which renewed national attention to the Epstein case by highlighting his ties to the nation’s elite.
In refusing to unseal those documents last year, however, U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet said public access would defeat privacy interests and “promote scandal arising out of unproven potentially libelous statements.”
The Second Circuit vacated that decision today, with U.S. Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes waxing eloquently on behalf of a three-judge panel about how the ruling will empower journalists to inform the public about the U.S. judiciary.
“We have long noted that the press plays a vital role in ensuring the public right of access and in enhancing ‘the quality and safeguards the integrity of the fact-finding process,” the 24-page opinion states. “When faithfully observing its best traditions, the print and electronic media’ contributes to public understanding of the rule of law’ and ‘validates [its] claim of functioning as surrogates for the public.’”
Brown’s Polk Award-winning series for The Herald highlighted how the U.S. judiciary victimized the powerless and protected the powerful through President Trump’s Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, who negotiated a sweetheart plea deal with Epstein in his former capacity as federal prosecutor a decade ago.
The agreement allowed Epstein to serve out a paltry 13-month sentence in a county jail, allowed him to take field trips outside his cell, and shielded his accused accomplices from prosecution.
Backing up The Herald’s exposé in February, a federal judge ruled that Acosta illegally withheld that plea deal from more than 30 of Epstein’s underage victims.
“Epstein used paid employees to find and bring minor girls to him,” U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra wrote in a passionate opinion at the time. “Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others.”
That Florida judge is preparing to decide what, if any, penalty the government should face for violating the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
On top of investigative reporting, the Epstein saga has inspired more than its share of sensationalism. The batch of files soon to be made public come from a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre against Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, accusing the British socialite of turning her into a “sex slave.”