Newly released Epstein transcripts: Florida prosecutors knew billionaire raped teen girls years before cutting deal

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida prosecutors heard graphic testimony about how the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted teenage girls two years before they cut a plea deal, according to transcripts released Monday of the 2006 grand jury investigation.

The transcripts were at the center of a court battle for about a decade after media investigations into Epstein’s ties to the rich and the powerful seems to have allowed him to continue to rape and sex traffic teenagers without ever being sent to prison or serving a serious jail term.

The judge’s release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February allowing the release on Monday or any time thereafter that Circuit Judge Luis Delgado ordered.

The transcripts show that the grand jury heard testimony that Epstein, who was then in his 40s, had raped teenage girls as young as 14 at his Palm Beach mansion. The teenagers testified and told detectives they were also paid to find him more girls.

“The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal.”

After the grand jury investigation, Epstein cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. It’s long been criticized as too lenient. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in the Palm Beach County jail system, followed by a year of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.