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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 142 Filed 02/04/21 Page 7 of 38 plead guilty to a single-count Florida state indictment.' Epstein did so in 2008 and went to prison for 13 months. At that time, the government did not charge Ms. Maxwell. In 2016, attorneys representing plaintiffs in civil litigation against Ms. Maxwell met with a section chief in the United States Attorney’s Office (““USAO”) for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) and pitched the idea of bringing a criminal case against Ms. Maxwell for conduct similar, if not identical, to that alleged in the current indictment. The section chief appropriately declined. Then, in 2018, more than a decade after the NPA was executed, an explosive front-page article in the Miami Herald reported detailed allegations, including from attorneys representing plaintiffs in civil litigation, about Epstein’s conduct, Acosta’s handling of the 2006 investigation, the process by which the NPA had been negotiated, and its substantive terms. In the wake of the article, the government indicted Epstein in this District for conduct allegedly committed between 2002 and 2005. Again, the government did not charge Ms. Maxwell. Thus, at three separate junctures over more than a decade, the government had occasion to consider whether to charge Ms. Maxwell for the now 25-year-old conduct alleged in the current indictment. Every time, the government—appropriately—did not do so. Indeed, such charges would have been baseless. But in August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell. His death while in federal custody was not only disturbing, but publicly embarrassing for the government, characterized by the then-Attorney General as the result of “‘a perfect storm of screw-ups.” Worse still, almost to the day after Epstein died, the barrage of media attention shifted from Epstein to Ms. Maxwell, including in mainstream publications. She was portrayed as ' The government had drafted a 60-count federal indictment against Epstein, which did not refer to Ms. Maxwell. DOJ-OGR-00002579