Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Epstein Files Unsealed: Ken Starr Pleads His Case To DOJ Brass About Epstein's NPA
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Epstein Chronicles. As I continue to make my way through
- 0:07some of these unsealed files, it's very very interesting how
- 0:10much we find about the NPA. And in this episode,
- 0:15we're going to take a look at a letter that
- 0:16was sent by Ken Starr to Mark Phillip. And for
- 0:20whatever reason, Mark Phillips's name is redacted. Now you all
- 0:24know who that is, considering he was the one who
- 0:26signed off on the Epstein NPA. So in this episode,
- 0:31we're going to dive right back into the conversation that's
- 0:34taking place between Ken Starr and Jeffrey Epstein's legal team
- 0:39and the Deputy Attorney General at the time, Mark Phillip.
- 0:43Dear mister redacted, we know what that means. I again
- 0:47want to thank you for this opportunity to explain why
- 0:49we believe that a federal prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein is unwarranted.
- 0:54I appreciate your having informed us that you already have
- 0:58our May nineteenth and May twinwenty seventh communication to the
- 1:01Deputy Attorney General, as well as our prior written submissions
- 1:05to CEOs and the Southern District of Florida in light
- 1:09of the significant volume of our prior submissions, and to
- 1:12facilitate your review, we have drafted for supplemental submissions that
- 1:16will provide a roadmap for your investigation of this matter.
- 1:19Given the bulk of these documents and their appended supporting attachments,
- 1:23you will receive this packet by messenger tomorrow. A brief
- 1:26description of each of the four submissions follows. First, I
- 1:30have included assisting summary of the facts, law, and policy
- 1:34issues at hand. This document sets forth basic overview of
- 1:38the issues and summarizes our principal contentions as to why
- 1:42federal prosecution of this matter is neither appropriate nor warranted.
- 1:47The three other submissions include a summary of the irregularities
- 1:51and misconduct that occurred during the federal investigation, a letter
- 1:54from former CEO's attorney redacted that responds to CEO's assessment
- 2:00of its limited review of mister Epstein's case, and a
- 2:03point by point rebuttal to the first Assistant United States
- 2:06Attorney Redacted's recent letter, which we believe contains factual inaccuracies
- 2:11typical of our correspondence from the United States Attorney's Office
- 2:15in Miami. So what they're doing here is complaining about
- 2:18alex Acosta. Keep that in mind when everybody tells you
- 2:21that alex Acosta is the one responsible here, I've told
- 2:25you from the jump bro is a fall guy. Also,
- 2:31for your reference, the package you receive tomorrow will contain
- 2:34a binder including all documentation to which we refer in
- 2:38our submissions. Finally, we'll be providing a detailed checklist of
- 2:42each submission or a substantative communication to the USAO. Our
- 2:46intention is that you have copies of each such document
- 2:50to enhance your review. If there are any that you
- 2:53have not received from the USAO or CEOs, please advise
- 2:58and we will fed XM to U without delay. As
- 3:01you are likely aware of, the department's prior review of
- 3:04this matter was incomplete and by its own admission not
- 3:08Denovo May fifteenth, two thousand and eight letter from a
- 3:12Osterbon without considering the non prosecution agreement that left this
- 3:17matter to be resolved in the state, or any of
- 3:20the misconduct. CEO's reviewers, tasked with reviewing some of their
- 3:24own previously expressed opinions, assessed only whether the US attorney
- 3:28would abuse his discretion if you pursued the case. While
- 3:32we appreciate CEO's willingness to examine these limited issues. Its
- 3:36conclusion that a prosecution would not be an abuse of
- 3:39discretion rings particularly hollow in light of CEOs admirably candid
- 3:45concessions that we have raised compelling objections, and that a
- 3:49prosecution on these facts would require novel applications of federal law. Indeed,
- 3:54even a brief review of CEO's own mission statement reveals
- 3:58how in opposite of federal prosit secution is to the
- 4:01facts in this case. Importantly, we note that CEO's review
- 4:05was conducted prior to the Supreme Court's very recent decision
- 4:09in Santos and Cuelar, which we believe illuminating as they do.
- 4:13The Court's interpretive methodology when it comes to federal criminal law,
- 4:18powerfully demonstrates the substantative vulnerability of the usao's unprecedented employment
- 4:24of three federal laws. The office's interpretation would never pass
- 4:28muster under the Supreme Court's recent pronouncements and should not
- 4:32be countenanced. That is all the more true under the
- 4:36circumstances where the duly appointed US Attorney O pine that
- 4:40in effect, the unitary executive branch was driving this prosecution.
- 4:45We now know that is not. So. What I respectfully request,
- 4:49and what I hope you will provide, is a truly
- 4:51de novo review that is an independent assessment of whether
- 4:55federal prosecution of mister Epstein is both necessary and warranted
- 5:00view of the legal and evidentiary hurdles that have been identified,
- 5:04the existence of a state felony plea and sentence that
- 5:07have been advocated by the state Attorney for Palm Beach County,
- 5:11and many issues of prosecutorial misconduct and over zealousness that
- 5:15had permeated the investigation. I also request that you provide
- 5:19us with the opportunity during your review to meet with
- 5:22you in person, to answer any questions you may have,
- 5:25and to elucidate some of the issues in our submission.
- 5:30We believe that an independent review will confirm our strong
- 5:34belief that federal prosecutors would be required to stretch the
- 5:37plain meaning of each element of the enumerated statutes, and
- 5:41then to combine these distorted elements in a tenuous chain
- 5:44in order to convict mister Epstein. Indeed, just this week,
- 5:49and after two years of federal involvement in this matter,
- 5:52assist in United States Attorney redacted reinitiated the Federal grand
- 5:56jury investigation indirect contravention of the party's non prosecution agreement,
- 6:02and issued yet another subpoena seeking evidence in the case.
- 6:06In the subpoena, Ausa Redacted directs redacted to appear on
- 6:12July one, two thousand and eight, to give testimony and
- 6:14produce documents to FJJ zero seven DASH one zero three,
- 6:20West Palm Beach. The attachment to the subpoena seeks documents
- 6:23such as photographs, emails, telephone billing information, and contact information
- 6:28that relate to mister Epstein, as well as specific other
- 6:32people who received protection from federal prosecution as a result
- 6:36of mister Epstein having entered into the September twenty fourth,
- 6:39two thousand and seven non prosecution agreement with the USAO. Notably,
- 6:45the non prosecution agreement contains the following agreed conditions. Further,
- 6:49upon execution of this agreement and a plea agreement with
- 6:52the State Attorney's Office, the federal grand jury investigation will
- 6:56be suspended and all pending federal grand jury subpoenas will
- 7:00be held in abeyance unless and until the defendant violates
- 7:03any terms of the agreement. The defendant likewise agrees to
- 7:08withdraw his pending motion to intervene and to quash certain
- 7:11grand jury subpoenas. It also guarantees that the person identified
- 7:17in the grand jury subpoenas such as redacted and Redacted
- 7:20and Redacted and others, will not be prosecuted. The new
- 7:23grand jury subpoena clearly violates the non prosecution agreement. Although
- 7:27mister Epstein has exercised his rights to appeal to the
- 7:31Department of Justice with the full consent and knowledge of
- 7:34the USAO, he has not breached the agreement. The recommencing
- 7:38of the grand jury is in violation of the agreement.
- 7:42But further, the new investigation, which features wide ranging fishing
- 7:46expedition type to search in New York, does not satisfy
- 7:50the very essential elements of federal statutes that are lacking.
- 7:54Despite the intensity of an over two year investigation in
- 7:58the Palm Beach area and evidence of Internet learning inducement
- 8:03while using the phone travel for the purpose fraud or coercion,
- 8:07the subject of the New York investigation is as lacking
- 8:10in the essential basis for a converting a state case
- 8:13into a federal case, as is the remainder of the
- 8:16Florida investigation. The reaching out to New York to fill
- 8:19the void emanating from the failures of the Florida investigation
- 8:23compellingly demonstrates the misuse of federal resources in an overzealous,
- 8:28over personalized, selective, and an extraordinary attempt to expand federal
- 8:32law to where it is never gone. This last ditch
- 8:36attempt by misredacted reinforces our belief that the USAO does
- 8:40not have facts that, without distortion, would justify a prosecution
- 8:45of mister Epstein. In view of the prosecutions often verbalized
- 8:49desire to punish mister Epstein, we believe that the prosecution
- 8:52summary suffers from critical inaccuracies and aggregates the expected testimonial
- 8:58witnesses so as to reach the conclusion of guilt. Our
- 9:02contention is reinforced by the fact that key prosecution witness
- 9:06have provided evidence and testimony that directly undermines the prosecutions
- 9:10misleading and inaccurate summary of the case. Indeed, we now
- 9:14have received statements from three of the principal accusers redacted
- 9:18through a state criminal deposition, redacted through a federal FBI
- 9:22USAO sworn and transcribed interview, and redacted through a defense
- 9:26generated sworn transcribed interview each of these witnesses categorically denies
- 9:31each essential element that the prosecution will have to prove
- 9:35in order to convert this quintessential state law case into
- 9:39a federal matter. It thus is especially troubling that the
- 9:43USAO has not provided US with the transcript of misredacted
- 9:47federal interview, nor the substance of the interviews with misredacted
- 9:51or a misredacted, nor any information generated by interviews with
- 9:55any of the approximately forty alleged witnesses that the prosecution
- 9:59claims it has identified. Because the information provided by these
- 10:04women goes directly to the question of mister Epstein's guilt
- 10:07or innocence, it is classic Brady information. We understand that
- 10:11the US Attorney might not want to disclose impeachment information
- 10:15about their witnesses prior to a charge or during plea negotiations,
- 10:19but we firmly believe that when the government possesses information
- 10:23that goes directly to the target's factual guilt or innocence,
- 10:26the target should be informed about such heartland exculpatory evidence.
- 10:32Most importantly, aside from whether the Department believes Brady obligates
- 10:36disclosure to a target of a federal investigation prior to
- 10:39the target's formal accusation. No such limit should apply to
- 10:43a department review. Accordingly, we request that you go beneath
- 10:47the face of any summary provided to you by the
- 10:50USAO and instead review the actual witness transcripts and FBI
- 10:54three zero two s, which are essential for you to
- 10:56be able to make a truly independent assessment of the
- 11:00strength and wisdom of any federal prosecution. After careful consideration
- 11:06of the record, and as much as it pains me
- 11:08to say this, I simply do not believe federal prosecutors
- 11:11would have been involved at all in this matter if
- 11:14not for mister Epstein's personal wealth and publicity reported ties
- 11:18to former President Bill Clinton. A simple Internet search on
- 11:22mister Epstein reveals articles and news stories about the former
- 11:26President's personal relationship with mister Epstein, explaining and including multi
- 11:32page stories in New York Magazine and Vanity Fair. Mister Epstein,
- 11:36in fact, only came to public's attention a few years
- 11:39ago when he and former President traveled for a week
- 11:42to Africa using mister Epstein's airplane, a trip that received
- 11:46a great deal of press coverage. I cannot imagine that
- 11:49the USAO ever would have contemplated a prosecution in this
- 11:53case if mister Epstein lacked this type of notoriety. So
- 11:57you see what's happening here right First it was Built
- 12:00Clinton who was the enabler, the protector. Then it moved
- 12:03on to other people. Donald Trump's one of them. But
- 12:06for anybody out there that thinks that Bill Clinton never
- 12:09played a huge part, you're crazy, man. He sure did,
- 12:13and it was at the time when all of this
- 12:14was live. So that's something that definitely deserves more discussion.
- 12:20That belief has been reinforced by the significant prosecutorial impropriety
- 12:25and the misconduct throughout the course of this matter. While
- 12:27we describe the majority of these irregularities in another submission,
- 12:31two instances are particularly troubling. First, the USAO authorized the
- 12:36public disclosure of specific details of the open investigation to
- 12:40the New York Times, including descriptions of the prosecution's theory
- 12:44of the case and specific terms of a plea negotiation
- 12:48between the parties. Second, Ausa attempted to enrich friends and
- 12:52close acquaintances by bringing them business in connection with the matter. Specifically,
- 12:58she attempted to appoint a close per personal friend of
- 13:01her living boyfriend to serve as an attorney representative for
- 13:04the women involved in the case. It also bears mentioning
- 13:08that actions taken by Fausa Redacted present an appearance of
- 13:13impropriety that gives us cause for concern. Mister Adacted's former
- 13:17law partner is currently pursuing a handful of fifty million
- 13:21dollar lawsuits against mister Epstein by some of the mess
- 13:25messuses imagine. Finally, as you know, mister Epstein and the
- 13:29USAO entered into an agreement that deferred prosecution to the state.
- 13:33In this regard, I simply note that the manner in
- 13:36which this agreement was negotiated contrasts sharply with mister Redacted's
- 13:40current representation that the SDFL indicated a willingness to defer
- 13:45to the state the length of incarceration. This statement is
- 13:49simply not true. Contrary to mister Adacted's assertion, federal prosecutors
- 13:54refused to accept what the state believed to be appropriate
- 13:57as to mister Epstein's sentence, and instead insisted that mister
- 14:01Epstein be required to serve a two year term of imprisonment,
- 14:05which they later decreased two eighteen months plus one year
- 14:09of house arrested. Federal prosecutors have not only involved themselves
- 14:13in what is quintessentially a state matter, but their actions
- 14:16have caused a critical appearance of impropriety that raises doubt
- 14:20as to their motivation for investigating and prosecuting mister Epstein
- 14:24in the first place. At bottom, we appreciate your willingness
- 14:27to review the matter with a fresh and independence out
- 14:30of eyes. To facilitate your review, I once again request
- 14:34the opportunity to make an oral presentation to supplement our
- 14:38written submissions, and we will promptly respond to inquiries you
- 14:42may have. Yours sincerely, Kenneth W. Starr CC, Deputy Attorney
- 14:49General redacted. But we all know what that means, Mark Philippe,
- 14:54all right, folks, well there it is just another example
- 14:57of how Jeffrey Epstein's team went a of the head
- 15:00of alex Acosta and went to Main Justice. And if
- 15:03we want to get to the bottom of all of this,
- 15:06that's the part of the story that needs to be exposed.
- 15:10All of the information that goes with this episode can
- 15:13be found in the description box