Newly released Epstein transcripts: Florida prosecutors knew years before the deal that the billionaire had raped teenagers

Jeffrey Epstein in 2004. Photo by Rick Friedman/ Rick Friedman Photography/ Corbis via Getty Images

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors in Florida have heard graphic testimony about how the late millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused teenage girls two years before agreeing to a settlement, according to transcripts from a 2006 grand jury investigation released Monday.

The transcripts were at the center of a legal battle for about a decade after media investigations into Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful appeared to allow him to continue raping and having sex with teenagers without ever being sent to prison or serving a serious prison sentence.

The judge’s release of the roughly 150 pages came as a surprise, as he had scheduled a hearing for next week to clarify when and how the pages would be released. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law in February allowing the release on Monday or at any later date if District Judge Luis Delgado ordered it.

READ MORE: Grand jury investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s underage girls is released under Florida state law

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

“The details in the file will outrage decent people,” Delgado wrote in his order. “The grand jury’s testimony concerns activities ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — the entire conduct involved is sexually deviant, repulsive and criminal.”

In 2008, following the grand jury investigation, Epstein made a deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida that allowed him to avoid more serious federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring and soliciting a person under 18 for prostitution. This deal was long criticized as being too lenient. He was sentenced to a year and a half in a Palm Beach County jail, followed by a year of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.

This deal was widely criticized as being too lenient.

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According to the transcripts, Palm Beach Police Detective Joe Recarey testified in July 2006 that the investigation was launched when a woman reported in March 2005 that her stepdaughter, who was then in high school, said she had received $300 for “sexual acts with a man in Palm Beach,” Recarey testified.

Another teen, whose name was redacted in the transcript, told investigators that she was 17 when a friend approached her and told her she could earn $200 by giving a massage at Epstein’s home.

At the house, the teenager was led into a room by an Epstein assistant, and a short time later, Epstein came in and demanded that she remove her clothes. She complied and began the massage. When Epstein tried to touch her, she told him she was uncomfortable. Epstein then told her that he would pay her if she brought other “girls” to his home. According to the October 2005 interview with investigators recounted by Recarey, she agreed.

“And he told her, ‘The younger the better,'” Recarey said.

When she brought a 23-year-old friend, Epstein told her the friend was too old. Over time, the teenager brought six friends from her high school to Epstein’s home, including a 14-year-old girl, the detective said.

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The teenager, who compared herself to Hollywood’s detective madam Heidi Fleiss, explained that the girls knew what they were getting into. She was given $200 each time she brought a friend and a rental car paid for by Epstein.

“The more you did, the more money you made,” the teen told the detective. “She explained that there would be a massage or possibly touching and that you would have to do the massage either topless or naked.”

Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in 2018 in New York – where he also owned a mansion that was the scene of abuse – after the Miami Herald published a series of articles that renewed public attention to the case, including interviews with some of the victims who had filed civil suits against him. Epstein was 66 when he took his own life in a New York jail cell in August 2019, federal officials say.

In his verdict, Delgado described Epstein as “the most notorious pedophile in American history.”

“For nearly twenty years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of great anger and, at times, tainted public perceptions of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

“Epstein is indeed notorious and notorious, and it is widely reported that he has boasted about his wealth while socializing with politicians, billionaires and even the British royal family,” he continued. “It is understandable that, given these reports, the public is very curious about what has been widely described by news outlets as ‘special treatment’ in connection with his prosecution.”

Associated Press reporters Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, Florida, Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.