Investigations into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were more expansive than previously known, according to a cache of documents released Wednesday by the US Marshals Service to CNN.
Since early this year, the documents show, authorities reviewed allegations of Epstein’s contact with minors as recently as late last year and whether he improperly failed to report his international travel to authorities.
While the most significant inquiry into the now-deceased multimillionaire came from federal prosecutors in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, which charged Epstein in July, a separate investigation by the Marshals Service had led to a request for information from the countries of France, Monaco, Austria and Morocco about his travels there.
And according to the documents, inquiries during that probe resulted in allegations by an air traffic controller at an airport Epstein frequented that she had seen Epstein disembark his plane on two occasions with what appeared to be underage girls as recently as November 2018.
At the time of his death, Epstein stood accused of having operated an extensive sex-trafficking ring in which he both paid underage girls to have sex with him and paid some of them to recruit other victims. He had pleaded not guilty and, through lawyers, had denied the allegations.
The documents disclosed Wednesday reveal new details about the swiftly unfolding inquiries into Epstein’s behavior, ones that could have added to the trouble he already faced but that, like the central investigation in New York, were curtailed by his suicide. The documents were first published by MuckRock, a nonprofit group dedicated to requesting and publishing public records. – READ MORE