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On Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed by twelve victims of Jeffrey Epstein against the US government, accusing the FBI of failing to act on Epstein’s sex trafficking operations for over two decades.
The plaintiffs, remaining anonymous, claim the FBI had early warnings about Epstein as far back as 1996 but chose not to investigate. The lawsuit states, “The FBI had received credible tips about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation as early as 1996, but did not investigate them.”
It wasn’t until 2006 that the FBI initiated a probe, which concluded prematurely after Epstein’s guilty plea to a lesser charge in Florida. Despite this, the lawsuit argues, “The FBI continued to ignore tips until Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019.” The victims claim that due to the FBI’s negligence, they continued to suffer exploitation: “As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit accuses the FBI of complicity in allowing Epstein’s crimes to continue, even with substantial evidence at their disposal. “The FBI had photographs, videos and interviews and hard evidence of child prostitution and failed to timely investigate and arrest Epstein in deviation from the FBI protocols,” the victims allege. They argue that the FBI had a mandatory duty to investigate such crimes thoroughly but failed to do so, resulting in ongoing harm.
Through this lawsuit, the plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages.
