Lawyer demands probe of FBI's 'seriously bungled examination' of Epstein

An attorney representing some of the women who say they are survivors of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein sent a letter to Justice Department officials demanding an investigation into what she says is the FBI's "seriously bungled examination" of the late financier. 

Lawyer Jennifer Freeman, an attorney with Marsh Law Firm who says she is "counsel to many survivors of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking conspiracy," wrote a letter last week to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

"The FBI utterly failed to investigate serious allegations involving Epstein’s, and perhaps others', child sex abuse materials (CSAM), significant additional criminality which, until recently, has been disregarded, disrespected, and essentially denied," she wrote. "[T]he FBI appears, for years, to have done little to investigate and prosecute Epstein’s sex trafficking, and, to date, done nothing regarding reports of possible CSAM."

One of her firm's clients, Maria Farmer, reported to the FBI in 1996 that Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell threatened and sexually abused her and were committing other serious sexual crimes against minors and young women. She also said that Epstein appeared to possess, produce and distribute sexual images of children.

The FBI did not follow up with Farmer until a decade later. Epstein subsequently pleaded guilty in 2008 to state crimes, became a registered sex offender and served 13 months in a work-release program.

"After the slap-on-the-wrist sentence, Epstein and others continued their criminal enterprise, while the FBI did little more for another decade," Freeman also said. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges, and he died a month later in a Manhattan jail cell.

Maxwell was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.

The letter comes after some of Epstein's records were published last week showing that high-profile officials, including current Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, had meetings with Epstein.

"For many years, the public has been asking for a reckoning by the FBI and the United States government for its clear dereliction of duty to serve and protect the American people against the Epstein sex trafficking conspiracy," Freeman also said in the letter. "We hereby request that a full and fair investigation be promptly launched into the FBI’s seriously bungled examination and mismanagement of the crimes committed by Epstein and others."

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.