Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that authorizes the release of grand jury documents from the state’s 2006 criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The Palm Beach Police Department asked the state attorney in the case to charge Epstein with multiple felonies, including unlawful sexual activity with a minor and lewd or lascivious molestation, the governor’s office said in a statement. “Rather than charge Epstein directly, the State Attorney at the time chose to present evidence to a grand jury — ensuring the names of those involved and the details of the accusations were kept sealed.”
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, which included appearances and remarks from some of Epstein’s victims, DeSantis said: “Justice delayed is justice denied, and I think in many respects this whole ordeal has proven that to be true.”
“The legislature and I agreed that there needs to be a mechanism in some of these rare circumstances where people can get the truth, and where we can try to pursue justice,” the governor said. “And so we’re now sitting here decades later, and you’ve had Epstein and then Maxwell is actually in prison in Florida. And yet nothing else has ever happened with any of this. How is that possible given the magnitude of what was going on? And what was going on in Florida was only a fraction of what was happening because you had activities and abuse in New York City, in the Virgin Islands. And this was a massive, massive operation here that was targeting these very, very young girls.”
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DeSantis said that the sweetheart deal that Epstein secured from prosecutors was something that an average person would never have been able to do and that Epstein got it because he was “very rich and well-connected.”
The governor’s office said that HB 117 will allow the disclosure of grand jury material in any case if the following conditions are met:
- The subject of the grand jury inquiry is dead.
- The investigation was about sexual activity with a minor.
- The testimony was previously disclosed by a court order.
- The state attorney is notified.
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