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One of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is demanding the government launch an investigation into the FBI's failure to look into allegations that the pair were running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls.
According to The Daily Beast, a lawyer representing Maria Farmer sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, asking them to launch a formal inquiry into why federal officials failed to investigate the billionaire and his associates.
The letter says that Farmer filed a complaint with the FBI and the New York City Police Department in 1996 after she was allegedly assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell in Ohio. Her complaint alleged that "Epstein, and perhaps others, appeared to be engaged in the production, possession, and distribution of sexually suggestive or exploitative images of children that could constitute [child sex abuse materials]."
"[I]n response to Ms. Farmer's clear-eyed, prescient report, and despite subsequent repeated red flags that Epstein trafficked girls and collected sexualized images of children, the FBI appears, for years, to have done little to investigate and prosecute Epstein's sex trafficking, and, to date, done nothing regarding reports of possible CSAM," wrote Jennifer Freeman, senior counsel at the Marsh Law Firm.
The lawsuit also points out that other victims who filed reports with the FBI over the years had their concerns ignored.
"Had law enforcement taken even minimal action to respond to Ms. Farmer's and others' 2006, 2008, 2011, and other reports, more sex trafficking and likely CSAM crimes could have been avoided," Freeman added.
Epstein spent 13 months in Palm Beach County jail after reaching a controversial plea deal with state prosecutors. He agreed to plead guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute and was required to register as a sex offender.
After he was released, he continued to traffic underage girls and was arrested by federal authorities in July 2019. A month later, he died by apparent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial.
Last year, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted on charges of sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three counts of conspiracy.
"Epstein and Maxwell's victims, and the public at large, are owed a full accounting of the FBI's many failures and missed opportunities. The American people, the victims, and the survivors deserve the truth," Freeman wrote.\