Today's installment of the Epstein Unraveling--my last, for my sanity's sake as well as my editor's--is how we got from the piddly jail time Epstein served in 2008, but through maneuvers by his lawyers and those supposed to be prosecuting him, he got out and continued abusing children for 10 more years with seemingly no repercussions, to 2019, when he was arrested and put in prison where he died.

Back in 2008, when Brad Edwards, one of the attorneys who has represented Epstein's victims on a pro bono basis for the past 18 years, learned about the surprise plea deal that got Epstein off easy, he immediately filed an emergency motion to block it. His petitions asked the court for two things. One, to invalidate the plea based on the Federal Crime Victim's Rights Act, which mandates certain rights for crime victims, including the right to be informed about plea agreements and the right to appear at sentencing. And two, to have Epstein's plea agreement unsealed. Federal prosecutors fought against the first claim for over a decade and argued against the second claim. By the time the agreement was unsealed a year later, and the survivors, attorneys, and public saw the non-prosecution agreement for the first time, Epstein had already been released from jail. The claim under the Crime Victims' Rights Act dragged on for more than a decade. When the court finally ruled that the prosecution had acted illegally, finding all the misconduct noted earlier, and finally released hundreds of emails between the Epstein legal team and the prosecution showing their illegal collusion, it was February 21, 2019.

No prosecutor then, nor ever, has faced consequences for what was found by the court to be illegal dealings. It's crazy. I googled these people and most of them are still in practice. Perhaps craziest of all, by the time of the ruling, the head of the Southern District of Florida, who had negotiated and signed off on the NPA, Alexander Acosta, had been appointed by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate as the United States Secretary of Labor, one of the biggest agencies in the federal government.

But throughout that decade, when the case was pending, dozens of civil lawsuits were filed, resulting in vital information on the case. Epstein sued Brad Edwards for malfeasance in representing the survivors against him. Edwards sued back for malicious prosecution. This case was the first time Epstein survivors had the opportunity to testify to Epstein's crimes in state court. Many other civil cases against Epstein settled out of court. The cases were sealed, again, sheltering him from public awareness of his crimes. These cases are all detailed in Edwards' book "Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein."

In 2015, Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed court papers claiming that as a minor, she was forced by Epstein to have sex with........

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