The 18-year-old grand jury records from the 2006 investigation against Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by a Palm Beach County judge. The documents and audio recordings were made public after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an order to release the files by July 1, following a 2019 lawsuit by the Palm Beach Post.
Epstein, a wealthy individual with ties to high-profile figures, became the subject of a police investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2005 after allegations surfaced that he had paid a 14-year-old girl for sex. Multiple underage girls, including high school students, subsequently came forward to accuse Epstein of hiring them to provide sexual massages.
Despite being arrested, Epstein was charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor in 2006. However, the state attorney at the time, Barry Krischer, decided to send the case to a grand jury. The grand jury heard testimony from only one accuser and indicted Epstein on a single count of solicitation of prostitution. Testimony from other victims, many of whom were minors, was not included in the indictment.
Krischer’s office did not communicate with any of the victims, and once Epstein’s high-profile defense attorneys became involved, the office stopped regularly communicating with police, according to state attorney documents.
Questions have persisted for nearly two decades about why Epstein was charged with relatively minor offenses and why the case went to a grand jury. The released records include the testimony of an underage girl who described being allegedly assaulted by Epstein.
In 2019, Epstein was re-arrested on sex trafficking charges in New York but was found dead in his cell by suicide a month after his arrest.
