The Justice Department on Friday released proof the feds had been warned about Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory behavior toward teenage girls decades ago, at the same time saying law enforcement needed more time to be fully transparent about investigations into the financier’s abuse.
Amidst thousands of documents released by the DOJ in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act Friday was an FBI complaint accusing the deceased financier of seeking out and possessing child pornography in 1996.
The complaint was filed by Maria Farmer, one of the first women to speak out about Epstein, who has long claimed the feds could have stopped him in his tracks. Until Friday, she had no way to prove she warned them.
“This is a moment for which I have waited three decades, over half of my life. When I was ignored and hung up on by the FBI in 1996, my world turned upside down, and I felt frozen in time,” Farmer said in a statement to the Daily News.
“I’m crying for two reasons. I want everyone to know that I am shedding tears of joy for myself, but also tears of sorrow for all the other victims that the FBI failed.”
Farmer, 57, whose name was redacted in the document, told the feds that Epstein had stolen photos of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters, asked her to photograph young girls in a swimming pool, and threatened to “burn her house down” if she told anyone, the complaint shows.
Farmer has for years alleged Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein groomed and sexually assaulted her upon her graduation from the New York Academy of Art in the mid-1990s and ultimately lured her teen sister into their orbit to abuse.
Her sister, Annie Farmer, was one of four women who testified about being abused by Epstein and Maxwell at Maxwell’s trial in December 2021, leading to the longtime Epstein associate’s conviction on sex trafficking charges and subsequent 20-year sentence.
jeffrey epstein
Alec Tabak/for New York Daily News Annie Farmer testifyed at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial. (Alec Tabak/for New York Daily News)
Countless women have alleged Epstein abused and exploited them in the decades that followed Farmer’s complaint to the FBI.
Federal authorities and Palm Beach police would investigate allegations Epstein had sexually exploited teenage girls a decade later — unrelated to Farmer’s call — but he escaped meaningful accountability with a sweetheart deal and a 13-month stint in a county jail.
In July 2019, some 23 years after Farmer’s complaint, he was arrested on sweeping sex trafficking charges brought by New York prosecutors and found dead in his lower Manhattan jail cell about a month later. His death was ruled a suicide.
“Had the FBI done their job, nearly 1000 victims could have been spared, and 30 years of trauma avoided,” Farmer’s lawyer, Jennifer Freeman, said in a statement Friday, describing the fumble as one of “the largest law enforcement failures in U.S. history.”
The complaint was included among more than 3,000 photographs and documents released by the DOJ under the legislation on Friday, which largely pertained to at least three criminal investigations into Epstein’s predation of teenage girls and young women and provided yet more illustration of the high-flying lifestyle the deceased financier led.
Former President Bill Clinton featured heavily in the photographs, which Trump administration officials sought to draw attention to in a series of acerbic social media posts.
Clinton has not been accused of participating in Epstein’s abuse, though Trump last month directed the DOJ to open an investigation into Epstein’s ties to him and other prominent Democrats. That probe may limit the number of files released to the public, as the legislation prohibits the release of records that could affect ongoing investigations.
The materials, released Friday, while vast in volume, nevertheless appeared to fall far short of what the government has said it possesses on Epstein. The DOJ and FBI in July cited more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence.
The bipartisan legislation required the feds to produce unclassified Epstein files to the public in full within 30 days of President Trump signing the bill into law. It was clear that it wouldn’t happen early Friday when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal lawyer, told Fox News the feds would release the trove on a rolling basis over the coming weeks.
The partial release provoked outrage from lawmakers in both parties, with Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, who have been leading the charge to release the files, saying they were exploring legal options for the “violation of federal law.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) accused DOJ leadership of grossly failing to comply “with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”
“A future DOJ could convict the current AG and others because the Epstein Files Transparency Act is not like a Congressional Subpoena which expires at the end of each Congress,” the GOP lawmaker wrote on X late Friday.
Victims of Epstein likewise expressed dissatisfaction.
“We feel that it is a lot of files that don’t have much information in them,” Marina Lacerda, who has alleged she was 14 when Epstein first abused her, said in a televised interview with BBC News, hours after the DOJ dumped what it described as its first batch of materials.
“We’re trying to figure out what is going on here — what kind of redactions were made? We can see some of these redactions were made, obviously, to protect, again, the wealthy and the rich and the powerful men.”
The unrelenting Epstein scandal, which has dogged Trump in his second term, was partly fueled by him. He vowed to share information with the public about Epstein when he was running for reelection, but changed his position this summer after a series of exposés in the Wall Street Journal cast an unflattering light on his decades-long friendship with the late financier.
The president has arduously denied engaging in or knowing about Epstein’s abuse, and Trump has not faced any accusations from Epstein victims in active lawsuits or related legal matters.
Regardless, extensive reporting by The New York Times this week indicated the president was far closer to the financier than previously believed.
In a story published Thursday, The Times reported that Epstein and Trump were long considered best friends to many who knew them.
Epstein and his convicted paramour Maxwell introduced six victims to Trump, the outlet reported. One woman who has never spoken out, whose name The Times did not report, said she saw Trump at four of Epstein’s parties, including two at which Epstein had directed her to sleep with men in attendance. None of the women interviewed by the Times accused Trump of any inappropriate behavior.
