Epstein: Undeserved freedom: Even his front group has been disbanded...
Jeffrey Epstein's yearlong probation ends today. Epstein's punishment didn't fit his crimes, but that hasn't stopped the billionaire money manager who paid teenage girls for sex and massages at his Palm Beach mansion from complaining.
As The Post's Jane Musgrave reported, Epstein whined to probation officers about the restrictions of his sentence. Yeah, he had it tough. During the first four months of this year, Epstein traveled nearly every week to his home in New York City or his private Caribbean island - with the approval of his probation officers. During the 13 months he served of his 18-month sentence - in the Palm Beach County Jail instead of state prison, where inmates with such sentences usually go - Epstein was let out on weekdays and some weekends as part of a work-release program.
Epstein supposedly spent that time at the Florida Science Foundation, which he created before he was sentenced. State records, however, show that the business, which was supposed to finance grants, hasn't been active since September. The phone has been disconnected. Yet the West Palm Beach not-for-profit is listed as Epstein's place of business on his probation documents and on his sex offender registration.
Epstein's soft time flowed from his soft treatment by state and federal law-enforcement officials after Palm Beach police first turned his case over to then-State Attorney Barry Krischer in 2006. Mr. Krischer gave the case to a grand jury instead of charging Epstein. The grand jury indicted him on two felony counts, solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. Those charges accounted for one of as many as 35 girls, one as young as 14, who say that Epstein sexually abused them.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI investigated after allegations that Mr. Krischer's office wasn't doing enough. Instead of filing charges that would have led to more prison time, federal officials struck an unusual, secret non-prosecution agreement in which Epstein would plead guilty to the state charges, register as a sex offender and serve the 18 months.
Spencer Kuvin, the attorney for the woman who was 14 when she first gave Epstein a sexually charged massage, said of his client, now 20, "Both the criminal process and the civil process just really disgusted her. She felt that he didn't receive anywhere near the punishment he should have received." His client, along with about two dozen others, reached a confidential settlement with Epstein.
Mr. Kuvin said the system failed: "It's unusual that the U.S. Attorney's Office allowed the state to essentially plead out a single victim on a single charge and then essentially ignore the other 34 girls that were in the federal indictment. Where's the investigation for those girls? Where's the justice for those girls?" The system is done with Epstein. Bad as he looks, the system looks just as bad.
