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Case 22-1426, Document 04 3536038, Page96 of 258 Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 204-3 Filed 04/16/21 Page 94 of 348 D. The Parties Continue to Negotiate but Primarily Focus on a Potential Plea to Federal Charges During the remainder of September, Villafafia conducted plea negotiations and drafted the final NPA, mainly with Epstein attorney Jay Lefkowitz. In a September 13, 2007 email to CEOS Chief Oosterbaan, Villafafia reported that the plea negotiations were “getting fast and furious.” She said that the defense wanted to establish a “victim’s fund” through which Epstein could make payments to the victims, rather than having the victims file individual § 2255 court actions for damages, which she speculated was “to keep this stuff out of the public [c]ourt files.” According to the email documentation, by Friday, September 14, 2007, the parties had moved toward a “hybrid” federal plea agreement, incorporating a plea to state charges, which would allow Epstein to serve his sentence for all the charges concurrently in a federal prison. Villafafia informed Acosta, Sloman, Lourie, and other colleagues that negotiations with Lefkowitz had resulted in a tentative agreement for Epstein to plead to two federal charges: harassment to prevent a witness from reporting a crime (18 U.S.C. § 1512(d)(2), which was then a one-year misdemeanor), and simple assault on an airplane (18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(5), a six-month misdemeanor). Villafafia reported that Lefkowitz “put in a pitch for only 12 months, I put in a pitch that [Epstein] plead to 24 with a 20-month recommendation, and we decided that we would be stuck with the 18 months.” Later that day, Villafafia sent to Lefkowitz a draft “hybrid” plea agreement and information mirroring the agreement in principle she had described to her supervisors, but which she noted had “not yet been blessed” by them. The agreement provided that Epstein would plead guilty to the two federal charges for which the parties would jointly recommend that he be sentenced to the statutory maximum penalty of 18 months’ imprisonment followed by 2 years of supervised release, and that he would also plead guilty to the state registrable offense of procurement of minors to engage in prostitution, for which Epstein and the State Attorney’s Office would make a joint, binding recommendation that he be sentenced to serve at least 20 months in prison followed by 10 months of community control (home confinement). Although not specified in the draft agreement, the negotiations evidently expected the federal and state terms would run concurrently. In addition to payment of restitution, Epstein would not oppose jurisdiction or victim status for any of the victims identified in the federal investigation—at that point specified as numbering 40—who elected to file suit for damages under 18 U.S.C. § 2255. A guardian ad litem would be appointed to communicate with the defense on the victims’ behalf. Lourie, however, quickly made clear that he was not in favor of the proposal. In response to Villafafia’s email about the potential federal charges, but after Villafafia sent the proposal to Lefkowitz, Lourie told her, “The assault [charge] sounds like a stretch and factually [is] sort of silly.”!!! Lourie also told Sloman, Acosta, and another supervisor that he did not “like the assault charge” and believed that it would not “go smooth with every judge.” Acosta responded, “If we need[,] let’s find a different charge.” On Saturday, September 15, 2007, Villafafia emailed Lefkowitz, using her personal email address, reporting that she had “gotten some negative reaction M1 The charge was to be based on “an incident in which Epstein ‘put great pressure’ . . . on [one of his female assistants] to call the girls to set up appointments.” 68 DOJ-OGR- 00021268