Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Revisiting the FDLE Investigation Into Jeffrey Epstein (Part 1) (10/16/26)

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Revisiting the FDLE Investigation Into Jeffrey Epstein (Part 1) (10/16/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to build on
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: what we were talking about with Ashley Moody and talk
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about the FDLE a little bit more. And that's because
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Epstein was supposed to be serving a jail sentence in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Palm Beach County, but the word jail barely described the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: arrangement Florida authorities ultimately permitted him to enjoy. After pleading
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  Speaker 1: guilty in 2008 to state charges that included procuring a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: person Under 18 for prostitution, Epstein was placed in the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: custody of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Within months,
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  Speaker 1: he was leaving the stockade for as much as 12
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  Speaker 1: hours a day, six days a week, supposedly to work
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  Speaker 1: at an office in West Palm Beach. His designated employer
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  Speaker 1: was the Florida Science Foundation, an organization connected to Epstein
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  Speaker 1: that had been established shortly before his work release application.
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  Speaker 1: He was driven back and forth by his own private driver,
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  Speaker 1: rather than transported like an ordinary inmate. Off-duty Palm Beach
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  Speaker 1: County deputies were stationed at his workplace, with Epstein ultimately
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  Speaker 1: paying the sheriff's office roughly $ 128, 000 for the security detail.
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  Speaker 1: Those deputies were largely there for his security, rather than
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  Speaker 1: to stand over his shoulder and monitor everything he was doing.
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  Speaker 1: Epstein was therefore technically incarcerated, while spending enormous portions of
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  Speaker 1: his sentence inside an office controlled by him and surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by people working for him. Years later, women would describe
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  Speaker 1: sexual encounters with Epstein while that arrangement was operating, including
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  Speaker 1: encounters allegedly occurring inside the office, and even inside a
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  Speaker 1: vehicle outside of the jail. The central question was therefore
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: never simply whether Epstein received unusual treatment, because the documentary
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  Speaker 1: record eventually established that he unquestionably did. The question was
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  Speaker 1: how a convicted sex offender could continue accessing women while
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  Speaker 1: supposedly under government control. The conditions written down on paper
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  Speaker 1: made what happened even harder to explain. Epstein was supposed
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  Speaker 1: to remain at his approved workplace, except for authorized trips,
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  Speaker 1: back to the stockade, or approved medical appointments. His visitors
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  Speaker 1: were supposed to be limited to legitimate business associates, their
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  Speaker 1: identities were supposed to be verified, and their presence was
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be documented. He was specifically prohibited from seeing girlfriends, friends,
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  Speaker 1: family members, children, or minors at the work-release location. He
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  Speaker 1: wore a GPS ankle monitor while under a Palm Beach
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  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office work-release program, and the alternative custody unit
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  Speaker 1: was theoretically supposed to know whether he strayed outside approved
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  Speaker 1: geographical boundaries. Yet the deputies stationed at the office were
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  Speaker 1: not required to monitor what Epstein did inside his private office.
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  Speaker 1: they were not required to examine his computer activity or
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  Speaker 1: monitor his email communication. They remained primarily in the lobby
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: while Epstein conducted his affairs behind closed doors. Florida had
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  Speaker 1: therefore created a supervision system that carefully tracked where Jeffrey
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Epstein was while doing remarkably little to determine what Epstein
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  Speaker 1: was doing once he got there. Look, Epstein didn't need
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  Speaker 1: to escape from custody to continue exploiting women if women
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  Speaker 1: could simply be brought to him He didn't need to
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  Speaker 1: defeat the GPS monitor if the alleged misconduct occurred inside
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  Speaker 1: the very geographical area the GPS system considered authorized. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't need to sneak away from his deputies if the
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  Speaker 1: deputies were stationed outside the room where the conduct occurred.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't need to circumvent the work release program if
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  Speaker 1: the structure of the program itself gave him the privacy
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  Speaker 1: necessary to operate. One woman later alleged that she traveled
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  Speaker 1: to Florida under the guise of employment and with the
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  Speaker 1: Florida Science Foundation before engaging in commercial sexual activity with
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  Speaker 1: Epstein in his office. Another alleged that Epstein organization transported
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  Speaker 1: her to Florida for sexual activity while he remained under
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  Speaker 1: work release restriction. FDLE itself ultimately acknowledged that allegations of
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  Speaker 1: sexual activity during the relevant period were possible. The problem
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  Speaker 1: was that investigators treated the inability to pin every allegation
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  Speaker 1: to a precise date and obtain sworn statements from two complainants,
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  Speaker 1: as a reason to stop rather than a reason to
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  Speaker 1: dig harder. When the underlying question was whether a sophisticated
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  Speaker 1: offender had exploited gaps in government supervision, accepting those gaps
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  Speaker 1: as investigative dead ends guaranteed that many of the most
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  Speaker 1: important questions would remain unanswered. The privileges granted to Epstein
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  Speaker 1: went far beyond the simple fact that he had work release.
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  Speaker 1: FDLE's own record showed that he received what investigators called
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  Speaker 1: differential treatment while he was incarcerated, his cell remained unlocked,
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  Speaker 1: permitting him to move around the special management area where
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  Speaker 1: he was housed. A television was installed where he could
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  Speaker 1: use it, even though other inmates housed there could not
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  Speaker 1: watch it. He was designated the houseman for the area.
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  Speaker 1: When officials decided to change the housing configuration, Epstein continued
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  Speaker 1: receiving individualized consideration concerning where he would be kept. His
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  Speaker 1: work schedule was repeatedly altered based upon needs that Epstein
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  Speaker 1: himself presented to sheriff's personnel. Towards the end of his incarceration,
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  Speaker 1: he was even allowed to spend approximately two hours a
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  Speaker 1: day at his Palm Beach residence while still technically participating
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  Speaker 1: in work release. Deputies accompanying him were not required to
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  Speaker 1: enter the residence and determine who was inside. The state
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  Speaker 1: later looked at this mountain of special accommodation and concluded
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  Speaker 1: that the deferential treatment had been explained. by the very
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  Speaker 1: officials who were responsible for providing it. Public scrutiny exploded
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  Speaker 1: again after Epstein was arrested in New York in July
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  Speaker 1: of 2019, and suddenly Florida officials had to explain how
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  Speaker 1: his arrangement had ever been permitted. Attorney Brad Edwards publicly
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: alleged that Epstein had been receiving young female visitors while
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  Speaker 1: on work release and had continued engaging in conduct similar
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  Speaker 1: to the behavior that put him in jail. The Palm
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  Speaker 1: Beach County Sheriff's Office announced an internal affairs investigation on
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  Speaker 1: July 19th promising transparency and accountability. Several days later, PBSO
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  Speaker 1: opened a criminal investigation that listed bribery as the offense
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  Speaker 1: code after media reports raised questions about Epstein's treatment. Sheriff
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  Speaker 1: Rick Bradshaw eventually asked Governor Ron DeSantis to transfer the
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  Speaker 1: criminal investigation to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Bradshaw
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  Speaker 1: wrote that the public interest would be better served by
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  Speaker 1: an FDLE-led investigation examining the matter from sentencing through incarceration.
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  Speaker 1: DeSantis agreed on August 6, 2019, directing FDLE to assume
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  Speaker 1: the criminal investigation and conduct a broader prelim inquiry into
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  Speaker 1: irregularities surrounding the original state investigation and plea arrangement. He
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  Speaker 1: also reassigned the matter outside Palm Beach County to State
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  Speaker 1: Attorney Bruce Colton and Florida's 19th Judicial Circuit. On paper,
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  Speaker 1: Florida had finally created the opportunity for an outside state
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  Speaker 1: agency to ask the questions Palm Beach authorities had conspicuously
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  Speaker 1: failed to answer themselves. What followed looked less like an
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  Speaker 1: aggressive public corruption investigation Floridians had been promised, and far
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  Speaker 1: more like a review of paperwork generated by the institutions
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  Speaker 1: being scrutinized. Ashley Moody, then Florida's Attorney General, became one
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  Speaker 1: of the most visible state officials discussing the investigation. Moody
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  Speaker 1: said almost immediately that her review had failed to locate
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  Speaker 1: anything in Epstein's judgment, sentencing transcript, or administrative order indicating
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  Speaker 1: that the sentencing judge had authorized his participation in work release.
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  Speaker 1: Florida statewide prosecutor Nick Cox, who worked with Moody's office,
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  Speaker 1: similarly said that his office had not located a court
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  Speaker 1: order authorizing Epstein's participation. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
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  Speaker 1: disputed the premise. maintaining that judicial authorization was not necessary
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  Speaker 1: and that Epstein qualified under the sheriff's work release policy
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  Speaker 1: unless a judge specifically prohibited him from participating. Moody said
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  Speaker 1: determining exactly who authorized the arrangement would absolutely become part
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  Speaker 1: of the state investigation. That sounded like precisely the kind
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  Speaker 1: of basic question a serious investigation should answer. Who approved it?
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  Speaker 1: Who expanded it? Who monitored it? Who knew about the visitors?
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  Speaker 1: who decided this particular sex offender deserved accommodations unavailable to
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  Speaker 1: ordinary prisoners, were obvious investigative avenues. Nearly two years later, however,
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  Speaker 1: Florida emerged with no criminal charges against anyone involved. The
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary arrangement had somehow existed without producing an official whom
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  Speaker 1: investigators could identify as criminally responsible for any part of it.
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  Speaker 1: FDLE assigned the matter to the Public Corruptions Unit within
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  Speaker 1: the Office of Executive Investigations. with Inspector Troy K. Cope
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  Speaker 1: identified as the case agent in the work release summary.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators reviewed material supplied by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office,
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  Speaker 1: Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, State Attorney's Office, Town
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  Speaker 1: of Palm Beach, and Florida Department of Corrections. They also
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  Speaker 1: interviewed Palm Beach Sheriff's personnel involved in Epstein's jail housing,
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  Speaker 1: work release, and privately funded deputy detail. That sounds substantial
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  Speaker 1: until one examines what was conspicuously absent from the investigative toolbox.
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  Speaker 1: There was no grand jury driving the inquiry. There were
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  Speaker 1: no search warrants identified as part of the investigation. There
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  Speaker 1: were no subpoenas forcing reluctant witnesses or institutions to produce information.
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  Speaker 1: The investigation therefore depended heavily upon existing government records and
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  Speaker 1: voluntary cooperation from people whose own actions were being reviewed.
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  Speaker 1: Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan immediately recognized the weakness of
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  Speaker 1: that approach when the findings were released in 2021. Kaplan
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  Speaker 1: said the investigation appeared to have relied on the cooperation
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  Speaker 1: and memories of the people involved and concluded that its
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  Speaker 1: thoroughness was so incomplete that it should not be relied
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  Speaker 1: upon to determine the whether criminal violations had actually occurred.
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  Speaker 1: And that methodological failure goes directly to the heart of
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  Speaker 1: why this investigation deserves to be called a whitewash. A
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  Speaker 1: corruption investigation is not supposed to operate like an employee
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  Speaker 1: satisfaction survey. Investigators do not normally determine whether officials abuse
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  Speaker 1: their authority simply by asking those officials for their explanation
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  Speaker 1: and then checking whether the explanation sounds plausible. Subpoenas exist
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  Speaker 1: because relevant evidence is not always voluntarily produced. Grand juries
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  Speaker 1: exist because witnesses are not always eager to appear and
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  Speaker 1: answer questions under oath. Search warrants exist because investigators sometimes
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  Speaker 1: have probable cause to believe evidence exists somewhere that people
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  Speaker 1: controlling it do not want searched. Financial analysis exists because
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  Speaker 1: corruption rarely arrives accompanied by a signed confession labeled bribe.
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  Speaker 1: Yet the Florida investigation somehow tackled One of the most
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  Speaker 1: notorious examples of favorable treatment ever afforded an American sex
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  Speaker 1: offender without visibly deploying the sort of compulsory investigative machinery
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  Speaker 1: routinely used against defendants with a fraction of Epstein's money
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  Speaker 1: or influence. Then the absence of evidence produced by the
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  Speaker 1: limited process became the justification for announcing that no criminal
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  Speaker 1: wrongdoing had been found. All right, folks, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: wrap up this episode right here. And in the next episode,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to pick up where we left off. All
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  Speaker 1: the information that goes with this episode can be found
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  Speaker 1: in the description box.