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127a authorities to let him out early.” Krischer responded that under the proposal as it then stood, Epstein would serve 15 months. He also told Villafafa that a plea to a registrable offense would not prevent Epstein from serving his time “at the stockade”—the local minimum security detention facility.’ a [139] authority to deviate from the Ashcroft Memo’s “most serious readily provable offense” requirement. Although Acosta could not recall specifically how or by whom the decision was made to allow Epstein to plead to only one of the three charges identified on the original term sheet, or how or by whom the decision was made to reduce the sentencing requirement from two years to 18 months, Acosta was aware of these changes. He reviewed and approved the final NPA before it was signed. Department policy gave him the discretion to approve the agreement, notwithstanding any arguable failure to comply with the “most serious readily provable offense” requirement. Furthermore, the Ashcroft Memo does not appear to preclude a U.S. Attorney from deferring to a state prosecution, so it is not clear that the Memo’s terms apply to a situation involving state charges. Accordingly, OPR concludes that the negotiation of an agreement that allowed Epstein to resolve the federal investigation in return for the imposition of an 18-month state sentence did "7 The State Attorney concluded his email: “Glad we could get this worked out for reasons I won't put in writing. After this is resolved I would love to buy you a cup at Starbucks and have a conversation.” Villafaria responded, “Sounds great.” When asked about this exchange during her OPR interview, Villafaria said: “Everybody DOJ-OGR-00000190