Jeffrey Epstein is a notorious pedophile whose actions weave a disturbing trail for investigators to follow. However, according to a recent argument from his attorneys, they have said that Epstein needed a second passport to hide the fact that he is Jewish:
The attorneys for US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sex trafficking, said Thursday that he had a fake passport in order to hide his Jewish identity and avoid being kidnapped when traveling internationally, while stressing that he had not used it to leave the country.
Earlier Thursday, a federal judge in New York denied Epstein bail, rejecting his request to await trial under guard in his Upper East Side mansion.
Assistant US Attorney Alex Rossmiller of the prosecution said the government learned earlier this week that a raid of Epstein’s mansion following his July 6 arrest turned up “piles of cash, dozens of diamonds” and a passport with a picture of the defendant but a name other than his in a locked safe.
Prior to Thursday’s bail hearing, defense lawyers told the judge that Epstein was given the passport by a friend after some Jewish-Americans were informally advised to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name while traveling internationally during a period when hijackings were more common.
Defense lawyers told the judge in another court filing earlier this week that Epstein obtained the document out of fear that “as an affluent member of the Jewish faith” he might be kidnapped in the Middle East.
In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors disputed a claim by defense lawyers that there was no evidence he’d ever used it, saying the Austrian passport contained stamps reflecting it was used to enter France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.
But the defense team said he never used it and the passport stamps predated his receipt of the document.
“He is a life-long American citizen. He has no other citizenship or legal permanent residency,” the lawyers wrote.
Ahead of the bail hearing, federal prosecutors argued Epstein should remain jailed while he fights charges that he exploited dozens of girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. They say he has the means to flee and is a flight risk.
The defense says he should be allowed to await trial under house arrest with electronic monitoring at his $77 million Manhattan mansion. They say he won’t run and would be willing to pledge a fortune of at least $559 million as collateral.
At a hearing Monday, Rossmiller said the government’s case against Epstein is “getting stronger every single day” as more women contact authorities to say he sexually abused them when they were minors.
One of his accusers who said she was sexually abused by Epstein when she was 14 in Palm Beach, Florida, pleaded with the judge to keep him jailed.
“He’s a scary person to have walking the streets,” Courtney Wild said during the Monday hearing.
Prosecutors have also argued Epstein was a risk of trying to influence witnesses after it was discovered he had paid a total of $350,000 to two people, including a former employee, in the last year. That came after the Miami Herald reported the circumstances of his state court conviction in 2008, which led to a 13-month jail term and a plea deal that allowed him to avoid a federal prosecution .
US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned last week after coming under renewed criticism for overseeing the decade-old arrangement as US attorney in Miami.
Lawyers for Epstein said their client has stayed clean since pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and that the federal government is reneging on the plea deal. (source, source)
The question that people should ask is, why would such an argument need to be made? Indeed, pedophiles come in all races, ethnicities, and religious groups. The argument that disclosing such might provoke “anti-semitism” is a joke- there will always be somebody who hates (x) person because he belongs to (y) group. This is unavoidable and a part of life. Indeed, one would not argue that, for example, and priest found guilty of the same crimes should have his religion or profession sealed from public view, and it should not in the interest of full disclosure. Anybody could get “kidnapped” if they have a lot of money or power and especially if they did something evil- it does not matter what the religious or nation affiliation of such a person is.
Why would Epstein be different?
Unless it is possible, that is, there is something in admitting such that could have political or social repercussions for the Israeli government or more than a few powerful individuals of Jewish background or association in finance, industry, and politics…
Truly, it is food for thought.