Jeffrey Epstein reportedly hired private investigators to hunt down his victims

"It was incredibly intimidating," Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer for three accusers, told CNN. "You have to remember that these girls were 14 and 15 when that happened."

Prosecutors have laid charges of intimidating witnesses

The tactics of aggression were not limited to witnesses or accusers, according to documents filed with the courts, police reports and lawyers, but also extended to prosecutors.

"I use the word assault intentionally because the defense in this case was more aggressive than anything that I, or the prosecutors in my office, had ever met," he wrote.

Epstein has appointed his legal team with some of the biggest names in the defense bar. He hired Alan Dershowitz and Roy Black, the lawyer who helped exonerate William Kennedy Smith from a rape trial, before moving on to a team of stars including Jack Goldberger, Jay Lefkowitz and Ken Starr, the Special Prosecutor who investigated the relationship of President Bill Clinton. with Monica Lewinsky.

Epstein's response to the investigation was multi-faceted, including prosecuting Bradley Edwards, a lawyer representing the accusers, in 2009, alleging that his portrayal of accusers was linked to a Ponzi scheme. . According to the Miami Herald, this action resulted in a monetary settlement and Epstein acknowledged that he had brought the lawsuit as part of an "unreasonable attempt to harm [Edwards’] reputation of the company. He also filed a complaint with the Florida Bar, which investigated and found no wrongdoing.

Kuvin, the lawyer of three accusers, said about the office of Acosta: "They bent under pressure."

Kuvin said one of her teenage clients had suffered "a rigorous deposition in which she had been heavily questioned by Epstein's lawyers" and that she was ready to testify at her trial.

Epstein's lawyers at the time alleged that the prosecutor acted abusively and abusively and used their means to appeal to the highest levels of the Department of Justice in Washington, even after Epstein's signature of the non-suit agreement.

"There was this team of six to eight lawyers who all lobbied not only the state's attorney but also the federal government for it to omit all that, saying that They were going to make the lives of these girls unhappy, "Kuvin said.

Private investigators

The investigation in Florida began in 2005 when the father of one of the 14-year-old girl's accusers, later represented by Kuvin, reported Epstein to the local police.

A few months later, private police investigators thought they were working with Epstein. A private investigator contacted one of the former officials of Epstein's house for the purpose of "meeting him to find out what he was going to tell the police," according to a police report. According to the police report, local Epstein lawyer told the authorities that "they" were "under the direction of Black, the other lawyer.

"Our law firm, like most attorneys, appeals to private investigators who typically work in law enforcement for many years, if any, to assist with the collection of support information for individuals. interests of our customers, "said Black, Srebnick, Kornspan & Stumpf. "We are not aware of inappropriate behavior of private investigators who assisted us."

The private investigator often made phone contact with the accusers just before or after a police investigator spoke to them, according to the police report.

A few months later, in February 2006, while the state's grand jury was underway, Dershowitz provided the prosecutor with information that was apparently intended to discredit the accusers. According to the police report and court documents, he published articles on MySpace, the social media website, showing that some of the accusers had been using drugs and alcohol.

"I had absolutely no role in the investigation or the organization of an investigation," wrote Dershowitz in an email to CNN. "I am an attorney who has only done research and legal negotiations, I do not have a computer and I do not even know how to access (MySpace)."

The father of an accuser later told the authorities that a private investigator "was photographing his family and pursuing visitors who came to the house," according to a police report. The police identified this investigator as the second involved in the case and said the investigator had probably been hired by a new lawyer, Epstein. Black was no longer about the case at the time.

A week later, according to the police report, the accuser was allegedly approached by the person alleged to have been in contact with Epstein and warned him to cooperate in seeking redress or dealing with the consequences.

Kuvin, the lawyer, said that Epstein's team had also been trying to get the medical records of his accusers.

In June 2006, the same month, the state had announced the indictment of Epstein for soliciting prostitution. One parent called the police several times, saying that he was being followed by someone. The police subsequently identified the vehicle as belonging to a third private investigator. We do not know which lawyer hired this investigator.

The father "said that when he was going to work and was running errands across the county, the same vehicle was behind him, causing other vehicles off the road so as not to lose sight of the car (of the father) ", according to the police. report.

The same car, which was linked to a private investigator, according to the report, then took the mother of the same accuser off the road.

No fees for Epstein

In 2006, the FBI and the US District Attorney's Office in South Florida investigated Epstein and identified 36 potential accusers. In September 2007, Epstein's legal team negotiated and signed a non-suit agreement.

But his lawyers, then led by Leftkowitz and Starr, were not satisfied and appealed to Acosta to challenge the terms of the agreement. They alleged that prosecutors were too ambitious in trying to pass a federal record of a state crime. They also said that two of the prosecutors had done wrong by recommending lawyers whom they knew represented the accusers, and a third had spoken to a reporter, according to more than half a dozen letters filed in front of them. the tribunal.

"There were discussions between prosecutors and the accused's attorney at the time about the possibility that the accused plead guilty to charges of" obstruction "and" harassment " "" According to the letter filed Monday by federal prosecutors in New York.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in the New York case, Epstein's team of lawyers, now reinforced at that of Weingarten, said about the allegation that an investigator would have chased away the father of an accuser of the road ", the defense ignores the basis of this allegation and the behavior, if it occurred, is not attributable to, nor authorized by Mr. Epstein."

Acosta's attorneys filed lawsuits against Epstein for obstructing or tampering with witnesses, nor for any federal charges. Epstein pleaded guilty to two charges of soliciting prostitution in 2008 and spent 13 months in prison. During this time, he was allowed to leave 12 hours a day, six days a week, to run his business.